SURPRISE, SURPRISE!!

Our lovely mail carrier had two surprises with her for me today,
and I wasn't in my jammers for once (Prudence, you know what
I am talking about)!
The first was a sweet card and Valentine from Diane of
Lavender Dreams.  Here is the card:

And here is the little vintage Valentine that you see peeking out of the corner:

Diane and some other bloggers are doing a challenge, I forgot the amount but the goal is to send so many pieces of mail out
this month. I gave Diane my address so that she could send me
something. We are all so computerized now that the mailing of
handwritten notes and cards has fallen by the wayside. I think
this is so nice that these gals are trying to bring it back. Check Diane's blog HERE to read about the post.
The next surprise was from Sheila of SEASONS OF THY HEART 
and COUNTRY IMPRESSIONS.
They are both her blogs but the Country Impressions is where she sells her beautiful florals. You can also, of course, see her beauties on the first link to Seasons...
Here's what she sent me JUST BECAUSE I told her I loved it and asked her to hold it for me until March 3rd, but she went ahead and sent it to me NOW. I was teary eyed when I got the Valentine from Diane but I bawled my eyes out when I opened Sheila's package:

 And a surprise (she always does this!) of these wonderful rag wrapped eggs that filled the whole kitchen with cinnamon:

The eggs are going in my Grandmother's dough trencher with my antique chocolate molds for Easter. 
Thank you Diane, it IS nice to get mail.
Sheila, thank you from the bottom of my prim little heart.
You made this little house a lot cheerier and brighter today!
Got some stitching to do on the giveaway sampler. It's coming along, I had a little setback when I fell the other night, but the hand and wrist are much better. Nothing broken!
Hugs,
Susan

PAFA Spring Forward Giveaway

 

I'm trying to get a few things in on one post. I hope I don't forget anything that I've been thinking of. First of all, tomorrow is the

beginning of the PAFA giveaway. I put a couple of links under

here to visit them tomorrow. The Etsy Shoppe is where you can see all of the artists' work. The Spring Forward link is where we can sign up, there are over 20 items already in the giveaway!

PAFA Etsy Shoppe http://www.etsy.com/search/handmade?search_submit=&q=PAFA&view_type=gallery&ship_to=US


PAFA Spring Forward http://www.primitiveandfolkartists.blogspot.com/

Everyday Life At Leisure Arts Kitchen Collectibles and Valentine Sugar Cookie Recipe
This  link I just loved. I love cookie cutters and if you go to the link at Everyday Life above you'll see the whole collection. Plus there's an awesome Sugar Cookie recipe posted. I have had the same one for years, back when my daughter was in Catholic school a classmate's mother gave it to me and it makes THE BEST cookies ever. You can make the lollipop cookies with this, they come out so great if you want to make them thick and a little bigger and they melt in your mouth, sort of reminds me of a 
shortbread.

Copyright Everyday Life Leisure Art

When I was hopping around the blog posts today I saw this one
from Jacqueline at Purple Chocolat Home. You can see the whole post at the link above but here's the picture of the cake that they made for Jacqueline's friend's 50th birthday:

Is this beautiful or what? Be sure to read the post if you want the tutorial on how to make this cake, even the layers inside are the different pink colors.
I'm working on petit fours tonight. Mr. Glen Oaks and I are
making them for Miss Ashley and Timmy for Valentine's Day.
These are the petit fours from Jacqueline:
Purple Chocolat Home Petit Fours.
These aren't mine, but mine look pretty darn close. I'll post my actual petit fours tomorrow when they are all done.
I'm actually doing some differently from these, I want to try something that I've had in my baking cupboard forever: 

I've got to finish dinner, stuffed pork chops and the timer is going off. Time to put the stuffing on, they weren't the really thick ones that you make a pocket in, so I'm just putting the stuffing on top. Mister likes them like that.
I'll be back, I got two surprises in the mail today from blogging
buddies Diane and Sheila.
Hugs,
Susan