I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

I have great friends.  Super talented friends.  Like incredibly talented friends.  Last week sometime I made the rare trip to the mailbox.  It's always filled with letters addressed to the former resident and Aldi flyers.  That's about it.  Occasionally there is a Shape magazine that doesn't get read or an In Style magazine that almost always does.  But last week was different.  Last week I got a package.  Several packages, actually, but this first one was awesome.  It contained cookies.  Now, let me clarify where I am in life.  After months of working hard to lose about 17 pounds on Weight Watchers, I have recently just sort of resigned myself to a month of weight watchers slacking.  I am getting married, I tell myself.  I am stressed.  I will get right back to it once we are back from the honeymoon.  And I will.  For real.  But basically, I never eat cookies.  Never.  And these cookies were in cutesy little bags.  I love cookies and I love cutesy little bags.

And inside these little bags were these.

The picture is difficult to see, maybe, but let me tell you, these cookies looked delicious.  They were from Honeysuckle Cove Confections, a home based business owned by my sweet friend Jennifer Powers.  I had no idea she had this going on, and I was excited to try the cookies.  Seriously, I love cookies, cakes, and brownies.  So, here's a little review of the cookies she sent.  And of course, I tried them all.  I was forced to, in order to write a fair review.  

• Lime Tea Cookies: These cookies were the perfect balance of sweet and sour.  They were soft and I could have eaten them all at once.  They were also cute little shapes, and after checking out her etsy store, I found that Jennifer makes them in all kinds of shapes.  So cute.  
• Cherry Blossoms: I love cherry flavoring.  These were the same texture as the tea cookies, but they obviously had a distinct cherry flavoring.  Otherwise, they could have been the same recipe as the lime ones, minus the lime, of course. They were fantastic.
• Lemon Thins: These little guys were sprinkled with powdered sugar, which I love, and they were a little chewier than the first two.  They were still very good, and I love lemon flavored things.  
• Lemon Poppy Seed Slices:  I admit that I was skeptical about these.  I think poppy seeds are kind of funny.  In cookies, though, they look fancy.  I do like being fancy, so I tried one.  And they tasted like lemon cookies with poppy seeds.  They were good, but not my favorites. 
• Lavender Vanilla Pillows: Okay, so here's the truth.  The second I read "Lavender" and "Pillows" in the name, I was super iffy about trying these.  Lavender is great in lotions and massage oils, but cookies?  I was unsure.  But oh my goodness.  I have never been so wrong.  These things probably contain huge amounts of lard or something horrible for you because they are amazing.  They are melt-in-your-mouth fabulous, and I don't even like saying those kinds of things.  These were easily my favorites, although I should have waited to eat them with tea or coffee.  But the word "pillows" is indeed the perfect word to describe these.  Nice work, Jennifer.

You should definitely check out her etsy store and her cookies.  And since I have sworn off cookies for the next nine days so that I can fit into my wedding dress, have some lavender vanilla pillows on my behalf.  

Here are some other amazingly talented friends of mine and their websites.

Super creative artistic people:

Plan B Designs by Becky Williams (brilliant mother of two, nanny of one, small business owner, and still manages to change her hairstyle and color every 3 weeks)

Bear River Photo Greetings by Angie Ochoa (supermom of three and one of the sweetest friends that I have no yet met face-to-face)

4 Story Graphics by Sean Lock (friend of my fiance and father of the sweet little Emma that looks just like him, only cuter)

Art with no name by Laura Shackelford (one of my Ethiopia trip friends and an artist that should be promoting her art more than she does... she is brilliant)

Brilliant Photographers:

Unearthed Photography by Jennifer Smith (DFW friends, check out our engagement pictures for her credentials!)

His Fingerprint Photography by Jill Phillips (one of my sweet friends from college, mother of two beautiful girls... she loves photography and it shows! Check her out if you are in the Springfield, Missouri area!)

Epic Moments by Melissa Vaughn (another friend from college... she takes beautiful photographs and she has a beautiful studio and is just plain beautiful)

Accomplished Authors:

April Gardner, author of Wounded Spirits.  You can buy her book here.  (a friend from college that married one of my favorite high school friends, mommy of two, and finds time to be wrapped up in a million different creative projects for writers)

Jen Stephens, author of The Heart's Journey Home and the upcoming book, The Heart's Lullaby.  You can purchase here and here. (a sweet friend, a teacher, mother of two beautiful girls, and she manages to squeeze in time to write novels)

Steve Fuller, author of The Sickness and The Ripple.  On Kindle here and here.  (a blogger that claims to make tutus.  Honestly, though, he tends to just make people mad.  He is opinionated and smart and controversial, and in 2009, he conducted The Church Experiment, 52 Churches in 52 weeks, which is worth reading. One of my favorite people that I don't really know in real life.)

Randomness:

Adoption Fundraising at 117 Project by Amanda Workman, who blogs here. (Fundraiser for adoption for Scott and Rachel Todd which you can read about here.)

Stay at home mommy funding at Scentsy by Anna Daniel.  (She doesn't make the candles, but she makes babies and that's way harder)