Update

I've been out of the blog world for almost a week, and this morning I just got to go to all my favorite mail blogs.  It makes me want to create! I still have some work to do on my gift to my extended family members: a zine!  I still have the hand binding to do for maybe 20 more! I need to channel my creative energy towards that today.  (I'll post some photos after the gift-giving.)


I'm also making gingerbread cookies! I have a recipe handed down from my grandmother. We have doubled the recipe so it makes a ridiculous amount of cookies. And we've doubled again the amounts of cinnamon and ginger in the recipe, so they really pack a punch!


Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all! I hope your festivities continue like mine are!

Fountain Pens!

So about a month ago I finally caved and bought myself a fountain pen.  Or three.
All together I think they were 10 or 11$, and now I have 3 colors! Black, purple, and blue. Purple is my favorite. 

I've even been taking notes with them in classes and it is such a pleasure. They write so smoothly.  Only thing is that my cheap notebooks for school have thin paper, so I don't write on the back of the sheets.

Christmas/New Years Envelopes

I had some fun decorating some Christmas card envelopes.

I was so proud of these fireworks. :o)

Finally done with my semester! Just have to finish grading, but that's not nearly as bad as writing my own papers!

Paper pockets for something I'm working on...

Outgoing mail from... October?...

Right now I'm listening to mix cds and writing a few Christmas cards! Yay!

Hello all,

It's been a long week- but now it's over and no more classes until next semester! I finished a 10 page paper today, with two more 14 pagers to go in the next week. Sigh.

It helps that it's finally feeling like winter here. The past two days have been just right- lovely cold. ;-)

Here are my last two outgoing swaps:
Altered Playing Cards for a bunny enthusiast:

 And a "Creative Correspondence" Christmas swap:

Two wrapped gifts to be opened on Christmas day... with the rule that they have to be mailart/ letter-writing related.
I had two partners and I've already received one of my packages! Exciting!


Also- someone awesome :-D sent me this chocolate "Advent" calendar!
(I put advent in quotations because I was raised catholic so I know that Advent is actually 4 weeks long and does not just start December 1st.  I am not the type of person who puts quotation marks on things willy nilly, thank you very much.)
(But I am the type of person who was too lazy to go take a picture of her own "Advent" calendar fifteen feet away and instead google-imaged it.)
(I am also the type of person who uses google as a verb.)


Signing off now, because I am way too tired...
Have a jolly good night!

Food mail

 A Happy Thanksgiving letter to my parents.

Letter to Abby- notice the return address. From "Chinese Food Lover"

I got it from a menu that came to me in the mail.  Love it. :-)

I also sent her one of my precious Calvin and Hobbes stamps because she loves them immensely.

Only 2 left now.

Elvis

 I found this free ad postcard while I was in New York this summer.

This book looks so funny!

Recent Outgoing Mail

I have had this envelope for ages. I made it a long time ago for my friend Dana and I finally sent it to her! 

I received this awesome card in a giveaway recently and I used it as a birthday card for my dad.

"You say it's your birthday??"

The card went out in one of my Admiral Ackbar stamped envies.

I put the Rocket Dog sticker on the back because it reminds me of our crazy Australian Cattle dog, Mattie.

The letter on the bottom was made just by taping up a brochure.

Letter by candlelight. :-) I lit some candles to help warm up our apartment one evening! It sucks not having control of your heating system.

And finally an outgoing packet to Elle who adopted two of my Penguin Postcards.

I've really been enjoying turning security envelopes inside out... especially ones with windows.  You can make a little collage to tape over the window or just let your letter peek through.  This one has a really interesting pattern. I've never seen another one like this.

And finally, to my American readers, hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!

PENGUIN #15 Lost Moorings

 Adopted by Sandrine in France

Simenon was born in Liège, Belgium in 1903.  He wrote in French.  Sandrine has read some of the 75 existing Commissaire Maigret books.  Maigret is a police inspector in Paris from the 30s to the 60s.

I am currently loaded down with french reading for my classes, but I'm putting a couple of these on my list for after grad school (over in May!!).  I love detective stories...

And here are the lovely french stamps she used. The large one is of Marie Curie for "2011, Année Internationale de la Chimie".  I had no idea chemistry had an international year to celebrate it!

Merci beaucoup Sandrine!

Wrapping paper stationery

I think I sent this letter shortly after my birthday in May. I used the wrapping paper from my gifts to send a letter to my cousin.

I see a use in practically every scrap of paper... I'm cleaning the apartment right now for a visit from Dana and Ryan, and I'm trying to just throw away or recycle lots of stuff. I have too much!
Lord help me. What I really need to do is stop bringing stuff home!

A rare glimpse of other-than-letter-life:
I'm listening to the 6ths, The Mountain Goats and Hefner while I clean. :-)

Abby's Letters

#1

#2

#3

I'm always careful when opening Abby's letters. 

You never know what might come out... 

glitter... pine needles... sand...

Self-Print Stationery

Christmas cards and winter themed stationery are pretty common and easy to find, but I wanted to give a little love to the holiday of Thanksgiving, so I ended up designing my own stationery on Microsoft Publisher (the same program I used when I was 10 to write my own "newspaper", PawPrints).  

Anyway, here are the results:

I don't have access to a color printer so I used some colored paper to spice things up.
The turkey image I believe I got from Pugly Pixel, but I can't remember. In any case it's not mine. :-) The pages are half the size of normal printer paper.

This next set I made from Letterheady.  They show photos of famous people's actual letterhead, which is why there is a Kansas City address on here. I merely copied the photo and printed it out.  These sheets are quite small because when I tried to blow it up larger it got a little fuzzy.
Mini gift for my boyfriend, since he loves Calvin & Hobbes.

Not sure about the legal parts of doing this, but I'm not making money off of it, just pleasing myself, so I don't think it's a problem.

Fortune cookie card

I made this card from fortune cookies that I got.  I think "Ignore previous cookie" is my favorite one I've ever received.

****

I get sick of "inspirational quotes" very quickly.

Whew. Long day.
It's my day with no classes, but I was still working hard. Worked on my presentation of Le Jardin des Plantes for my Paris: Capital of the 19th century class, and read more of La Curée (by Emile Zola).

No letters or postcards today, but Clay and I both got packages. We ordered  Ravens football t-shirts!
My first ever sports themed clothing. :-)
I also ordered a couple things on sale from L.L.Bean, including a very comfy soft green zip up sweatshirt. I haven't had a sweatshirt in forever.

But here are some incoming epistles from the past that I haven't posted yet.

 This one was sent to me by Jan from one of the letter writing socials that I'm so envious of!

So many wonderful stamps she used there!

So now it's back to the grindstone... reading more Zola, but this time in the comfort of my bed with a cup of tea instead of at the library. :-)

Monkeys and Tigers, Oh My!

I really love this combination.

My friend Dana made me several awesome monkey envelopes, and I got into a kick of sending them with the great "Save Vanishing Species" Tiger stamps.
You have to pay extra for these stamps, but the money goes to an important cause!

The Joy of Turning Security Envelopes Inside Out

Oh Snap! It's a Trap!

Admiral Ackbar in all his stamp-y glory.

I'm very proud of myself.