Letter to my Cousin Aaron

 

I got this hilarious stationery in Chinatown in Boston.

I love things that are this weird...

Front and back of the envelope sent to my cuz.

The envelope is made from a sketch from the same drawing pad as the Cotty sketch.

Sending out Adoptees

I've been sending out a LOT of adopted postcards recently, mostly thanks to PostMuse sharing my project on her website (which was also the inspiration for my project).

Here are a few of the adoptees:

Chris was the first one to request a postcard via snail mail! I made his envelope before I even found the postcard among my stack. Imagine my delight when the colors matched so nicely!

More to come...

My beautiful niece, River

Please excuse my absence, I was in New York, visiting my beautiful baby niece, 3 months old!

Old Sketchbook ---> Mailart

Not too long ago I found an old sketchbook of mine and decided to turn it into some mailart and send it to my parents.  The first photo is of an unfinished sketch I did of my cat, Cotty. He passed away about a year and a half ago. You can see his photo in this post. His leg was broken when he was a kitten, and it healed straight.  Despite being unable to bend that leg, he lived outdoors, was quite the hunter and was able to climb trees. He lived to age 19.

The envelope was made from a sketch I did of the field in Wisconsin where my horse and the mules grazed.  After feeding the animals, I would lean against the shed and look out at this field and our neighbor's barn and scratch Cotty.  These sketches have a lot of meaning for me because they are tied to memories of my animals.

Incoming

This one above came from my friend Abby.  She was moving away so she sent me a bunch of scraps and papers that she had around.  You might see some of them being used soon. ;-)

Lots of fun incoming mail!

Cameras

This went out a little while ago to my friend, Michael, who is an amazing nature photographer.  

You can see his flickr here.

I really love his photos of birds, especially the raptors, like this owl.

My Letter Opener

 

My mom has a few letter openers and was kind enough to lend me one, a while ago, but it wasn't exactly my style and I've dreamed of the perfect letter opener for a long time.  Earlier this year I bought my own, and it was not exactly what I had always dreamed of, a metal one with a horse or a fairy engraved on it (haha), but it is very beautiful in its own way, and has endured very well despite its fragile appearance.

It is made from wood- feels like balsa wood, but who knows? 

I bought it from Crossroads Trade, when it was still a physical store in Coolidge Corner.  Now it is an online-only store, that you can visit here.

I don't have very many special "mail" tools, so my letter opener is very special to me.  Do you have any special mail tools?

Outgoing

Some awesome Native American stamps that I sent out.  They go together so well!

One of the Penguin Books postcards being mailed out on request! Exciting! I've mailed out 4 altogether now. LOVE this tortellini from Trader Joe's by the way. :-)

A postcard sent out to Jennie Hinchcliff of Red Letter Day: front & back

 for sooo many reasons...

I got new stamps and this is my first time using the "Celebrate!" one! I just had to draw my own little fireworks around the address, even if it is in a library!

STAMPS GALORE!

I just bought these stamps today after quite a stamp drought.  For a lonnnng time the post office that I go to only had the Hawaiian Rain Forest stamps, and while I love those, I'd probably bought about 8 sheets of them already and I was READY for a change!  To my delight, the post office offered these beauties today.

And, here are some other upcoming stamps to be issued this year that I am especially excited about:

I like these "Love" stamps more than any other love stamps I've seen in the series!

and finally and most importantly.... 

PIXAR!!!!!

PENGUIN # 1 Plays by Oscar Wilde

This first postcard was requested by my mom, always supportive :-)

The only Oscar Wilde play I have read is The Importance of Being Earnest, and this is the one that my mom talks about.  She reminded me of the great term : Bunburying, and shared the wiktionary definition: Avoiding one's duties and responsibilities by claiming to have appointments to see a fictitious person.

I've never seen The Importance of Being Earnest performed in a theater, but there are excerpts of it in one of my favorite movies, Who Am I This Time? starring Christopher Walken and Susan Sarandon.  Near the end of the film they "play" the roles of Ernest/Jack and Gwendolen.

The film is based off of a short story by Kurt Vonnegut.

If you skip to 2:45 you'll see the part with The Importance of Being Earnest.  I suggest that you watch the whole film though, it's a great movie, especially for theater lovers!

Ostrich Time

On the envelope, drawing of one of the ostriches from Disney's Fantasia, 

and on the back a quote from the Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce.
This was very fun to make... I'm glad I could squeeze all of the quote in there!

Riddles

I love riddles and I just found one that my friend Kijjit the Fox made up.  Here it is:

FoX's RiDDLe

There was Music playing over a Cliff.
The wildest, danciest Music ever!
It sounded like pure intensity.
It sounded like UMO by OOIOO, actually.
I heard this Music and started running after it.
I got to the edge of the Cliff and JUMPED!
And immediately, as I began to fall, I realized what I had done.
This Cliff was the famous and feared Cliff
Over the BOTTOMLESS CANYON!
I had jumped from the greatest imaginable height.

Here's the Riddle:
Why didn't I panic?

Kijjit's blog: http://kijjiketchme.blogspot.com/

My friend Chris also made up a riddle for a game:

I can go up a chimney down,

but I can't go down a chimney up.

What am I?

I got Chris's riddle right away when my boyfriend told it to me, and I think I might have gotten Kijjit's riddle.  I'll have to wait and see if he tells me I'm right, but I think I am.

Whatever skill at riddle-ry I have springs from a childhood of reading Redwall books, which are filled with riddles.

Here is an excerpt from "Fermald's Tears" from 

The Pearls of Lutra, one of my old favorites :

I shed my second tear, into the cup of cheer,
But look not into any cup, the answer's written here!
My first is in blood and also in battle,
My second in acorn, oak and apple,
My third and fourth are both the same,
In the centre of sorrow and twice in refrain,
My fifth starts eternity ending here,
My last is the first of the last ... Oh dear!
If I told you the answer then you would know,
'Twas made in winter of deepest snow.

Outgoing Mail! I'm finally responding to some 365ers who sent me mailart from a while ago...

I love having a big pile of mail to send out. It makes me feel so accomplished!












4 mailart cards going out to 365ers...

 The envelopes containing them...

 More letters- I love the way that these stamps look on this dark blue envelope.  I like it when stamps don't have a white border and I think that they come out looking their best on a darker background.

stickers on the back








and my favorite envelope of the set:

& the back