Graduation Cards

 a very grammar-y card. :-D

"You did well... now go do good."

annddd...

STAR WARS!!

I graduated with my Master's in French Language and Literature from Boston College, and I am soooo happy that I will never have to go back to school again!

No more papers!!

PENGUIN #21 A Book of Scripts

Adopted by Bonnie, aka STUFFellaneous, in Idaho

Bonnie wrote this really awesome quote on the postcard from the book for me.  What a beautiful way of thinking about writing, don't you think?

She sent me a letter besides the postcard saying, "A Book of Scripts is a history of fonts and writing (handwriting) styles. It is 2/3 full of examples dating all the way back to AD 114! An interesting read, but I mostly enjoyed the pictures of the different samples."

 Also look at the beautifully decorated envelope she sent it all in:

 

Bonnie, thank you so much for being part of my project!!!

 

Marijane is a Graduation Girl

So my boyfriend's mom also just recently graduated with her Masters degree.  In their family the Junie B. Jones books are really big and there's one called Junie B. Jones is a Graduation Girl.  So Clay and his sister, Dana, wrote a Marijane is a Graduation Girl book! They did such an amazing job of mimicking the style and it is so damn hilarious.

I helped out by doing two illustrations for the book.  The  major plot point is that Marijane burns her graduation gown while ironing it. So here's that one:

And then I did one of Marijane:
 

Pencil and then watercolors.

Right now I just have my kids watercolor set, but I really don't mind. I have two easels at my parents house with oil paints and some nicer watercolors, but it always takes time to set up and feels so serious that it's more intimidating.  With these I just do stuff, and if it turns out nice it makes me happy.

Wallace and Gromit from Patty!

I got a wonderful treat in the mail from Patty after I admired a Wallace and Gromit fold-and-send that she had send me...

A bunch of them for my own use!
 Let me take you through my emotions at the time.

A nice big envelope. Yay!

WHAAA???  SQUEEEEE!!!!!!!!

**grinning like an idiot**

Since she had said she was trying to minimize her stash I didn't want to send her some stationery in return, but I got out my typewriter to send her a letter and thank you.

This is the envelope that I decorated for her. I had had this Punishment strip of paper forever and I was having a hard time on how to use it.  This time I kind of imagined a story... like the dog has been bothering those rabbits and his master, Gregory Peck, is frowny and stern. PUNISHMENT COMES ONE WAY OR ANOTHER DOG!!

Ah the flights of fancy...

Easter Mail!

again yes, this is how far behind I am... but give me a break, I just graduated with my Master's degree!!!

okay. Mail time.
 

card to my parents

awesome Peeps card sent to Dana

and finally a joke-Easter card to my friend Anitha.

Paper Bag Mail

 A while ago (yes all my mail posts begin like this, it's never today!) I received this wonderful letter from Rusty on a paper bag... with a myriad of different inks as well. Another special part of getting a letter from Rusty.

Beautiful stamps as well.

And I was inspired to write her back on another paper bag. 

 a Trader Joe's wine bag

Folded it up...

"Life is too short to drink bad Wine!"

And because of the shape I decided to put it in a square envelope, despite those being a little bit more costly to send:

Decorated only with vintage stamps.  I love how these Pueblo Art and Desert Plants stamps look together.

Stencils

I sent this to my grandparents a little while ago.  I traced the shapes from a make-shift stencil.

What was the stencil?

The remainders of a game... You pop the cardboard pieces out for the game and you are left with all these fun shapes!
Clay works at a board game and puzzle store and he gets to check out lots of games from his store for us to play at home!  I love it.
So far my favorite is Pandemic, where all the players work together to find cures for 4 strains of disease that are spreading through the world!  I love the co-operative games like that.

Beautiful Day

Hello everyone!

I woke up this morning thinking of the song "Oh What a Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma. Why?

Because yesterday I finished my very last paper for my Master's degree!!!!

Hallelujah!

So now I finally have a little time to make a post.

Here is some of the wonderful mail I've received in this past month or so:

 an awesome dino postcard from Tara-  I love dinosaurs by the way. 

The parasaurolophus is my favorite.

 a pretty card from my friend Anitha

a lovely Easter postcard

 super awesome letter plus vintage stamps and a map from Rusty!

 I love her flower doodles!

another letter from Rusty in a super cool Chihuly envelope

 I got to see some of his work at the MFA here in Boston. Amazing!

 and a lovely card from my mom

I love when envelopes are decorated inside too!

And the winner is...

Laura!

Please send me your address at jouaient at gmail.com so I can send you the prize!

:-)

Thanks to everyone else for participating!

(and don't forget Mother's Day coming up! Send some postal love!)

Stamp Collection

Some of my stamp collection.

Two years ago I saw on swapbot that someone was giving away baggies of stamps for free. Their husband had decided to get rid of his stamp collection or something. (HUH???)  So yes, I asked to be one of the lucky recipients.  I've used some in collages and mail art, but I still have quite a lot still in my baggie.  I like to sort through them like I used to with my grandmother's tin of buttons, arranging them according to color and such.

Pretty pretty pretty.