Having been a long time admirer of Andrea’s blog Never Bashful with Butter (she’s a professional baker), I decided to take the plunge and make her Apricot Cream Cheese Butter Cookies. Again, I didn’t have vanilla extract on hand so I used almond extract instead and used organic apricot and apple baby food. In her recipe, she suggests using melting white chocolate to drizzle over the cookies to help prevent the cookies from sticking together. First, I tried to melted the white chocolate chips in the microwave until 2 minutes later, I had a burned gooey messy that made the whole house smell like smores. I decided to go with the saucepan method then, once it was successfully melted, I spooned the chocolate into a zip lock bag and snipped off the end to create a decorating bag (per Andrea’s brilliant baking advice).

And hour after mixing, kneading, baking and assembling, I had soft, sweet, scrumptious cookies.

Franki at the trendy life in a venti cup, mentioned me in a thoughtful entry about letter writing and stationary. I sent her a note from a fabulous card set I received as a graduation gift and still have more to give! I’m sending out notes to blog readers and writers alike so send me your snail mail address through my About Me page!

I won a vintage paper giveaway from Elegant Musings and received a great collection of vintage paper from magazines and books. I think some have the potential to turn into handmade envelopes.

I was also going to complain about Kelly Clarkson’s obnoxious new song and video “Never Again” but why ruin a perfectly good day?

It’s been two and a half weeks since I graduated with an English degree from Rollins College. While I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and elation, I also felt like a huge portion of my daily routine suddenly went missing. But now I realize what it is: stress. I’m lacking a huge amount of procrastination-induced, essay writing, brain frying, tears-of-blood boredom stress.

Now that I’m able to reclaim my evening hours, I’m slowly blowing the dust off all the things that I used to work on: the half finished knitted sock, the last 20 pages of Amy Tan’s new novel, the stack of penpal letters and the infuriating last scenes of Grandia III (seriously, how many pseudo-bosses does that game have?).

I have big plans to attend graduate school in the fall but I feel nauseous just thinking about it so I think I’ll do myself a huge favor by waiting until the spring semester. That’ll give me approximately 8 months to enjoy life as God had intended: in bed.

I received an elegant note card set as a graduation gift from a friend who remembered my penchant for stationary. It has inspired me to send out notes to friends and family. Would you like a note from me? Fill out the form at the bottom of the page and leave me your snail mail address for a special message in your mailbox.

The price of stamps was raised another 2 cents recently. Again, I’m stuck with a book of 39 cent comic book stamps. How dare the US Postal Service cheapen the legacies of Hawkman and Plastic Man?

I spent all my time not blogging and eating an unspeakable amount of food. I finished my summer semester successfully and I decided that I should celebrate by getting fat. My boyfriend and I barbequed a couple of steaks and kabobs which turned out pretty amazing. Adding tomatoes, green pepper, onions and bananas really added to the flavor. Barbequing is so much more entertaining than slaving away in front of the stove. Last night, I decided to try handling a couple of balls. That’s right, I made meatballs. I made the recipe from 1000 Best Recipes by Bay Books Publishing, a book that gets zero results on Google which is vaguely suspicious. Peparing the meatballs took some time but they cooked up within minutes and using spaghetti sauce out of the jar saved even more time.

Aside from stuffing my face, I’ve been preparing for the Fall semester and my upcoming Public Relations internship. My goal is to graduate in Spring 2007 with an English Degree and try to do something with it. I’ve spoken with an academic advisor who registered me for the rest of my core courses that I need in order to graduate. It seems impossible to juggle a twelve credit semester with a part-time internship, a part-time job and a semblence of a social life but somehow, I will make it all work. Despite what may be the most stressful part of my acadamic career, I’m really looking forward to the change of pace. I anticipate one of two outcomes: failure or total failure. Either way, if I succeed in becoming an adult it will be a pleasant surprise. I really like to shop for school supplies. I think my only regret about being a grown up is not having an excuse to buy markers, crayon boxes and Lisa Frank folders. Fortunately, CVS has adorable notebooks, notepads and folders in stock for the sophisticated and trendy student. Check out some of their designs at Notebound. I figure if I’m going to do some learning, I might as well be cute about it.

I’ve neglected my letter-writing just as much as I’ve ignored the blog and now that I’ve accumulated a sizeable stack of letters, I’m not sure where to begin or what to write about. I hope something exciting happens to me soon.

The penpal section is gone, not because I don’t write letters anymore but because I simply didn’t update the section. I’m sure you’re heartbroken. I also got rid of the progress indicators in the side bar because I wasn’t making any progress in anything and you pretty much don’t care. I’m still knitting but nothing worth telling you about.

I recently joined Yelp, the website community where members posts reviews to restaurants, bars, stores and other local establishments. I will most likely use it to complain about movies, music and bad food but check out my profile to help plan your next amazing vacation to Orlando, FL.