such a foodie wan-nabe

so i recently participated in a fun fall gift exchange with some of the ladies on the nest's cooking board. with the help of elfster, we all put in our names and let the system do the name drawing for us and set a deadline of october 3rd to send out our little care packages. of course, in typical wan style, i procrastinated till the very last minute to get mine out.

my own elf, however, was much more on the ball. about a week before the deadline, i picked up our mail and was excited to find a box waiting for me. i ripped the top open right away and totally grinned when i saw what was inside.

i LOVE how i've been gifted that vosges mo's bacon bar from several people in the last few months. it's awesome. and my elf's timing couldn't be better - just a few days before i received this, the hub and i were discussing how nice it was that the weather was finally getting more fall-like. of course, since food is always on the front burner of my mind, i said "oooh, we can make a lot of soup!" heh. thank you to my elf, jerriesgirl!

and then i realized that i needed to get going on picking up items for my own gift exchange recipient. after asking a couple of anonymous questions, i clicked on the amazon store link that contained a bunch of items that she was eyeing. i was all ready to pull the trigger on the order (which would also make it a lot easier for my lazy ass, because i could just have it shipped straight to my draw) until i realized that each item was coming from different vendors - which resulted in shipping charges that cost more than the items themselves! eff that noise.

i ended up picking up a few things from local shops and packed and shipped the box myself. i made this little card and tossed it in.

hopefully she's received it by now, and is pleased with it. i had to make a couple of substitutions - she'd wanted some rose water for baking, but i couldn't find any. but i did manage to find some rose extract, which i figured she could dilute and make her own rose water. i hope.

i recently signed up to be a foodbuzz featured publisher, and have been enjoying the e-mails and stories and links i've been receiving from them. one e-mail a couple of weeks ago offered up some freebie cards, and while i didn't really know if i'd use them, i placed my order anyway. hey, i rarely pass up free shit. and last week, this appeared in the mailbox:

they're SO cute. i seriously don't know if i'll ever have a need for them, but they're adorable. the little case is plastic and the perfect size for slipping into my bag, and the cards themselves are super cute. the backs are adorned with beautiful photos of food and drink:

haha! is that awesome, or what?