Blogging By Mail: Little Things That Equal a Huge Pick-Me-Up

I have been remiss of much of late but mostly I have been remiss in writing here. I wish I could tell you that has been because I've been off traveling to some exotic local where I ate wonderful meals and mingled with the most interesting of people but, unfortunately, the truth is rather boring... I'm still working stupid, crazy hours at work (averaging 60+ hours for the past three weeks) and when I'm not working, I've had a few personal things that have kept me from The Sour Dough and the kitchen. But, with a little luck and a few more days of these hours, it looks like I may have weathered the worse of the storm.

There have been a few bright spots the past few weeks however and one of the brightest was in the form a little box that traveled all the way from Down Under and arrived on a day when I most needed a pick me up!



Even the very neglected LB enjoyed receiving the package and helped me rip open the brown paper covered box.



My surprise package was sent on its journey to me by Tara of Should You Eat That, a funny food blogger and fellow Daring Baker. Tara was my partner for this turn of Blogging By Mail, the popular package swap event hosted by Stephanie, who writes at Dispensing Happiness. This pass of BBM carried the theme of "Little Things" and we were suppose to send to our paired blogger a few of our favourite little things (I was paired with a nice girl from Germany, Lena who while not having a blog does have a Flickr page showing all the swaps she participates in, including some snap shots of the package I sent her).

Like last time when I received J's fabulous package, it appears that Tara and I have much in common when it comes to little things. I am amazed at all the little things Tara was able to pack into such a small box! Starting with a lovely red tea towel



and ending with all manner of much appreciated food stuffs, including a tube of Vegemite and one of my all time favourite Aussie treats, Tim Tams!



Tara must have read about my love of little spoons, because she included just the cutest spoon with strawberries on top that now resides in my jam jar; currently filled with the last of my summer strawberry preserves.

She also included an egg separator, sure to come in handy with all the baking I have coming up very soon (and something I had on my kitchen gadget wish list). A few of the many other things in my box of joy were Cadbury chocolate bars, tea and cocoa mix, springy flower magnets for my fridge, tiny post-it notes (Tara, who did you KNOW of my post-it obsession??!), mini tubes of M&M's, Skittles, and Nerds, some spices including something called Bush Spices which I've been sprinkling liberally on salads, in scrambled eggs, and roasted potatoes, teeny tiny muffin papers, a cake tester, and another item that has long been on my kitchen wish list, a honey pot. Tara was also so thoughtful to include a few recipes that she is famous for, M&M Chocolate Chip cookies and some most incredible brownies that are currently baking in my oven, Peanut Butter Chocolate Brownies.

Thanks to Tara for all the lovely gifts. I promise I will enjoy each and every one of them (including the Vegemite!) and thanks to Stephanie for all the hard work she puts in to pairing all of us who sign up for Blogging By Mail.