Blogtober Fest!

Hi everybody, I just signed up for Blogtober Fest, which means I have set myself the challenge of posting every day in October.

You can see the one who started it all here and if you are a blogger yourself, you can sign up for it too!

Incoming - all from ages ago...

a letter from Felicity... AWESOME stamps!

Felicity if you are reading this, I don't have your new address!

email me : jouaient@gmail.com

 Awesome envelope from swap-bot, stuffed to bursting with goodies!

another awesome swap-bot envelope filled with goodies!

Stamps I'd like to see:

First off, I would love to see some Halloween stamps! That would be so awesome.

I've been thinking over who living I'd like to see on some US stamps now that they've changed the rules. 

So far my short list is just musicians:
1. Jimi Hendrix - who is American even though I'm always thinking he's British
2. The Talking Heads
3. The Pixies
4. Buddy Holly (yes, he and Jimi are dead and not affected by this rule change)

It would be really cool if we copycatted off the Royal Mail and did a series of stamps of famous American records.

As far as I can tell, someone has already been copycatting stamp ideas... look at these:

 

-very similar to the Pioneers of American Industrial Design stamps the US came out with-

Okay, and just to complete my British stamp envy:

AND!!!

completely not fair...

and now to find some British penpals...

PENGUIN #14 The Drowned World

Adopted by Erin in France

 

 

Erin discovered J.G. Ballard through watching movies adapted from his books, Empire of the Sun and Crash.

She very much enjoyed The Drowned World, saying : "The images of a flooded, post-apocalyptic world are well done and I liked the focus on the psychological impact... The book is fine reading and what "Waterworld" should/could have been."

Thanks so much Erin!

I love science fiction and I really love books and movies where people have to make a new beginning. Maybe that is a result of the hundreds of times I saw "Swiss Family Robinson".

This one is going on my reading list!

Halloween Postcards

Here is a letter and a postcard that I made last year around Halloween. I don't think they ever went up on the blog so here they are now!

The images were taken from one of those catalogs that sell lots of plastic crap for kids and parties.

I hope I can find another one this year!

I just joined a swap-bot swap for Halloween postcards.  They can be handmade, so here is my first one!

I drew an owl on the back. :-)

  

And here is my first of three received Halloween postcards!

She has ridiculously large breasts, but I like it anyway.

haha

Lisa Frank

Anybody else still carry a love for Lisa Frank dating back to middle school? 

I got this fun fold & send from Dana.

P.S. When I was younger I made up a Lisa Frank club with one of my friends. 

Activities were mainly looking at Lisa Frank folders and stickers.

PENGUIN #13 Scootering

Adopted by Misty in Ohio

Misty jam-packed this postcard with info about scooters!

The first scooter was produced in 1915 and was named Motoped.  Misty says "Looking at the photos of early scooters they look clumsy and unstable.  Nothing like the popular Vespas of today."

Vespa, the famous Italian scooter was first introduced in 1946.

I think scooters look like so much fun.  At the same time, I'm not a big fan of motorcycles.  My boyfriend, a friend of ours, and I were walking down the street once and we saw a really beautiful scooter parked next to a nice big motorcycle.  Both Clay and I commented on how cool the scooter was, which sent our friend into fits of laughter, since we both ignored the motorcycle.

What about you, motorcycles or scooters?

And how can you mention scooters without mentioning Roman Holiday?

My goodness I love that movie...

Thanks Misty!

Beautiful card sent to a new 11 year old penpal!

I have acquired a new penpal - 11 years old! I'm excited to have a new friend of this age.  We share a love for Harry Potter.

This is the first thing I sent her:

 I LOVE this envelope. I think it is so beautiful! I added my Ernie the Envie stamp at the bottom.

The contents... I sent her some pretty stationery as well as a note.

She wrote me back saying she wants to send more letters to her family in India now.  

Yay! Another convert. 

Writing to Inmates

In the past year I have seen several blog posts written about sending letters to inmates.  There was even an article in the Issue 10 of Sandbook magazine about it written by an inmate.


While in college in Maryland I participated in a program through the Philosophy Department where students would form reading discussion groups with inmates at a nearby medium security prison.  The groups contained 3 students, at least one of which had to be male, and around 10 inmates.  The inmates had to exhibit good behavior for a certain amount of time and pass a test to enter the program.  We, the students, were able to choose a topic for the semester and several books to read.  Once a week we would go to the prison and spend about two hours discussing the books. Normally they had a philosophical bent.  This experience taught me so much...  Just being in a prison and passing through security is such an eye-opening experience.

I remember reading a blog entry during the past year about how someone's address had been given to inmates without her consent or knowledge.  The lady was furious about it, and I commiserate with her.   It was wrong for someone to give her address out.  But the lady spoke about it with what struck me as a lot of hatred. She said that she would not even open the letters that came to her from prisons.  This upset me a lot.  Having talked for hours with inmates, it is so clear and present to me that they are real people and that they should be treated with the same human decency one would offer to anyone else.


I am not naive. I know that the inmates acted very differently around me and the other students than they do when they are not in class, when they are around other inmates.  I understand the dangers of volunteering at a prison. I understand the dangers of communicating with inmates. Presently I do not write letters to inmates because I do not have a P.O. Box.  However, in the future, when I have enough money to rent a P.O. Box, I do plan on writing to inmates.


I just wanted to put this out there, because I think I have a pretty unique experience of prison and I wanted to share my thoughts.   
Thanks for listening, 
Emilie

Awesome Encouraging Postcard

Sent by my good friend Dana, who knows how hard grad school is...

Done and Gone

My computer tells me that this photo was taken on June 20th.  All of these stamps are now gone.

A couple swap-bot swaps

I created a swap for Literary Locations, Imaginary or Real...

You had to find a postcard that portrayed places related to a children's book.  I chose two postcards from Paris, France.

See if you can guess from the postcard message what book I chose...

I am also in a swap for decorating a whole deck of cards! We do one number per month and each month have different partners. I made these for my partner who liked musicals.  Of course the dancing is one of the best parts of musicals, so I chose that as my theme.

sent in an envie decorated with my swap-bot mascot stamp: Ernie the Envie

Mix CDs

Recently I have been sending a lot of mix cds out in the mail.

I have made a Mail Mix cd which I've sent to a few people...
Also I shared with The Missive Maven, A fellow Halloween enthusiast, a Halloween mix cd that Clayton made for me a couple years ago.

Sent to the Missive Maven:

I wrote the song list on pages from a children's handwriting book. I love these precious pages and I love the illustrations that are on them!

The Traveling Mix (originally made for Kijjit the Fox's journey to the west) and the Mail Mix again, sent to Tom in Canada.

 I thought it was funny that he lives on Wall Street.

 This is another reused package! I did not do the wonderful collage seen here. I believe I received this through Swap-bot. Sorry to not give credit to who made it but I've forgotten.  Now it's been sent on to make more people happy!

And finally another mail mix sent to some of my Maryland friends...