LOVE Mail - Incoming

 

from my librarian friend- such a cute idea!    :-D

and from a anti-Valentine swapbot:

And finally I was one of the lucky 14 to get the "Will You Be Mine" zine from Jennie Hinchcliff. This was the first time I saw the new love stamp as well!

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Super Cool CUZ

Have I mentioned before that I have super cool cousins?

This is a letter I got from one of them: Aaron.

He sent me a zine not too long ago too.  I'll post a couple photos of that soon.
I love his illustrations.

Mattie, the Australian Cattle Dog

First, some mail...

Cattle dogs come in two colors, blue heelers and red heelers.

Here's the blue,

and here's a red.

Both were sent from my parents.  My dad normally gets a cattle dog calendar every year, and that's what these lovely envelopes are made of. I especially love my mom's use of the Owney stamp with the second envie.

And now, here is our ferocious beast of a dog:

Matilda, 

or Mattie for short

Do you think the grass looks suspiciously green for being in the middle of winter?

Well this last photo was actually taken May 7th, 2010.

Crazy Wisconsin weather!

PENGUIN #18 Spines of the Penguin Poetry Series

Adopted by Erin

Erin said "Looking over all these poetry books, I was surprised by how many snippets of verse came to my mind.  If you ignore the "high school I-want-to-be-a-poet" phase, I can't say I ever gravitated to poetry in school or at the library.  I've started making more of an effort to read more than just novels and I haven't been disappointed."


I too have not really gravitated towards poetry (or non-fiction).  I mostly read novels.  My boyfriend is normally reading one of each, plus a philosophy book.  For a while he would keep his current poetry book in the bathroom because of the often shorter nature of poems.  It's a good hint if you're trying to read more poetry!


Okay, well now I would like to share with you a snippet of one of my very favorite works: Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas. I think of it as poetry, although it was written in the form of a play, "a play for voices", that was meant to be on the radio.  It is the only thing I've read by Dylan Thomas, but it was enough to make him one of my very favorite poets.  

And I especially love this part:

        FIRST VOICE
From where you are you can hear in Cockle Row in the spring,
moonless night, Miss Price, dressmaker and sweetshop-keeper,
dream of

        SECOND VOICE
her lover, tall as the town clock tower, Samsonsyrup-gold-maned,
whacking thighed and piping hot, thunderbolt-bass'd and
barnacle-breasted, flailing up the cockles with his eyes
like blowlamps and scooping low over her lonely loving
hotwaterbottled body.

        MR EDWARDS

Myfanwy Price!

        MISS PRICE

Mr Mog Edwards!

        MR EDWARDS

I am a draper mad with love. I love you more than all the
flannelette and calico, candlewick, dimity, crash and merino,
tussore, cretonne, crepon, muslin, poplin, ticking and twill
in the whole Cloth Hall of the world. I have come to take
you away to my Emporium on the hill, where the change hums
on wires. Throw away your little bedsocks and your Welsh
wool knitted jacket, I will warm the sheets like an electric
toaster, I will lie by your side like the Sunday roast.

Thanks again to Erin for adopting this postcard!!

Postcards

two horse postcards from swap-bot, an awesome celery forest from Dana, and an awe-inspiring sequoia from two of the Southern Brothers who recently visited the Redwood National Park.  I'm very envious, I've always dreamed of seeing these trees.

And here is a postcard from the third Southern Brother.

So beautiful.

and here are two awesome handmade postcards from Becky the Snailmailer.  She obviously knows how much I enjoy my booze.

very clever :-)

PENGUIN #17 Our Man in Havana

Adopted by Johanna in Australia

Johanna read this book while on vacation in Zaire. I hope that her edition's cover had a slightly more interesting cover.  

 She writes: "In the early 1980s I worked in Zimbabwe.  We went north to what was then Zaire for our holiday at Christmas time.  We realised that we had too little reading material so we went to the US information office in Lubumbashi to see if we could borrow some.  Officially we were not allowed to but the woman there said that she had just received a shipment of personal books and we could choose from them." 

She chose Our Man in Havana as well as a few others.

How nice of the lady at the info office.  Lending books is always a dangerous arrangement. :-) 

So wonderful that she was ready to trust a stranger to return them.  

And here is the pretty stamp she used:

Thanks so much Johanna for participating in my project!!

And a p.s. to Stuffelaneous, yours will be coming up soon.

I'm really quite sorry to everyone that it's taken me so long. I'm frightfully behind.

For some reason it is harder for me to write these kinds of posts, and I'm the kind of person that easily buries their head in the sand. Now I'm trying to do one of these posts every other day until I catch up! Wish me luck.

Outgoing from back in September

PENGUIN #16 Aircraft Recognition

Adopted by Glenn in Canada


Glenn tells me that he is often able to recognize aircraft by sight and even by sound.  "Over the years aircraft recognizable by their sound include B737s and going way back to 1974, KC-135 stratotankers of the USAF."


This is the kind of skill that I personally find amazing.  In a similar vein, I wish I was better at identifying birds.  I do know a fair number of birds by sight, but am not able to recognize many by their calls.

Thanks again Glenn for participating in the project!

And here are the really nice Art Deco stamps he used:

By the way, my apologies to everyone for not being as diligent as I should be about posting the Penguins that have been sent back to me.

Valentine's Day Mail Art

 These are two V-day themed mail art envies for a V-day Swap-bot swap. I went with a Mail Love/All kinds of love theme.  


Despite my snarky postcard (for sale on etsy! see the side bar to visit the shop! :-D) I really love Valentine's Day.  Yes, I'm in a wonderful relationship, but Clay and I don't really do a lot for Valentine's Day (he can't even remember when it is).  To me Valentines Day is a day to celebrate all kinds of love, which I will do for my faraway friends by sending them cards or postcards. I love the little Valentine's they sell for kids to give out in class. When I was in college I bought a pack of dinosaur themed ones... a pterodactyl with "You're flyin' high Valentine" and ridiculous stuff like that. 

So even if you don't like the commercial (or romantic) aspect of Valentine's Day send your friends some love!!

Make it a day for ALL kinds of love!

POSTCARDS FOR SALE!

So the postcards arrived yesterday!


And today I set up an etsy shop!


You can buy the postcards there for 85 cents plus shipping...
OR if you are already one of my penpals, you could just put a check in your next letter for .75 per postcard plus .45 cents shipping...
If you would like to do that you can email me at jouaient@gmail.com to send in your order so I can make sure to get the postcard to you in time for Valentine's Day.

I had to up the price on etsy because they charge fees for listing and take a percentage etc.


So what do the finished products look like?

I just hope Ghirardelli doesn't mind.