From Debs

I haven't blogged recently about incoming mail, but not because there haven't been tons of lovely things coming in.

Recently I got this lovely first letter from my friend Debs back in Maryland. I'd sent her happy birthday mail art and she replied back with this.

 

It is vibrant and fun just like her. She even incorporated something that I sent to her in it. Below you can see the "Celebrate" which she made by using this cut out thing I'd sent her in the card as a stencil.

This is kind of hard to see in a photograph, but these are holographic sort of stickers of saints (I think they're all saints). My favorite is this guy with his hand on his head looking bemused.

I love love love it when friends get excited about mail art. And I just made a couple of new friends right in town who are excited about it too! :)

More Valentines!

I really love these stamps together. In a lot of ways I love the forever stamps, but I do miss putting together old stamps to reach the right amount sometimes.

Also, I am almost out of return address labels, but I'm not sure I'm going to order more because we are moving to a new house in August.

Valentines

More Valentines sent out earlier this month!

This last one I took the sticker from a return shipping label. Fun! Also I really love this stamp in conjunction with Valentines.

Feb. 4th thru 7th

 Letter Mo is going really well for me. I've written at least one letter every day since Feb. 2nd.

The top letter here was for Feb. 4th.
Bottom letter on the 5th, as well as two of the postcards below.




























The 3rd postcard was for Feb. 6th.

Feb. 7th was a pretty great mail making day. Sent three letters and a postcard.

I've broken out my Mod Podge which I never really used after buying it because it seemed so messy and I had to find a paintbrush. However, using doilies really eats up gluesticks, so I brought it out. It's not too bad, just a pain washing the paintbrush every time I think I'm done with it and then, it turns out, I need to use it again.

I love love love Valentine mail though. And doilies are one of the best parts!

January Mail

An outgoing letter to a good friend from college:

 I went to see the ballet, Sleeping Beauty, and I had to send Iryna a post card from it and tell her all about it because she was the one who really got me listening to Tchaikovsky. It was so beautiful.

Here is a letter from my mom with a copy of a letter from Madame de Sevigné, a great letter writer from the 17th century. A collection of her letters is on my "to read" list of postal books, but it was nice to read one letter as a teaser.

 In return I sent my mom the second postcard I got from the ballet and a letter... with a Julia Child stamp! My mom used to get Julia Child's tv show on VHS tapes from the library for us to watch. I really wish that you could get just a sheet of Julia Child stamps, instead of all the other chefs too.

Speaking of stamps, the Year of the Ram Chinese New Year stamps I pre-ordered should be arriving any day now!

Month of Letters, Feb. 2 & 3

Every year I participate in Letter Mo. The objective is to write and send a piece of mail every day of the month of February when the Post Office is open.  So, no Sundays and no holidays.

Every year I fail to a greater or lesser extent. But it's still fun and it still encourages me to get into the habit of writing every day.

Here are the outgoing for the first two days, February 2nd and 3rd. 

 I will post most of them with the recipient blurred out so that there won't be ruined surprises.
Except for friends like Ian, who I'm pretty positive don't read my blog.

 I've made a ton of Valentine's Day envelopes in preparation. I think I have 12 left. I used to have an enormous stack of scrapbook paper and I got rid of most of it, because I just wasn't using it. I had gotten it all for free so I thought I should pass it on to someone who would use it. I did keep a bunch of the Valentinesy looking paper and a lot of the envelopes I've made are done with that. This envelope to Ian however was made using "Pack - O - Fun" the only scrap-craft magazine!

The envelope used the cover of the February 1968 volume. The things inside are mostly ridiculous or slightly creepy like the above "Frilly Snail".

Last Year, Valentines

Some outgoing Valentines from last year... pink and red and hearts galore!

 

This is pretty much my very favorite Valentine's Day envelope I've ever sent:

In case you can't tell, that's a man's chest in the foreground. Hot dang! indeed.