Orangey Book Chick Mail

I received a fun fold-and-send from the Book Chick.

No fish, and even the box is a monster! Lots of fun details.

And I sent her back an orange-y return.  The background envelope is made from an old poster I had by Gauguin: Woman with a Mango. I don't really like Gauguin all that much, but I saw this in real life in a museum a long time ago and just loved it.

I received several rolls of washi tape for my birthday this year and this pink and teal patterned one is one of them. I love it!

Horse Mail from Dear Detective!

I got another delightful piece of mail from Dear Detective and besides the lovely letter, I was so excited and happy to see the horse on the back. I think I'd be happy if I only ever got horse themed mail for the rest of my life. I mean variety is delightful, but if I had to chose one thing it would be horses.

I loved all the little details too, like these triangles cut out and this awesome awesome tomato post-it note.

Mail art is the best.

Lots of outgoing

A very magical envelope for a friend in town. The Luna stamp seemed the best match. I was a little sad that the whole image wasn't visible, but what can you do. After the lady a whole band of insect musicians follow her over the spider web. This was from an Arthur Rackham calendar.  I love love love his work.

Mail for Anna, also in town. I dropped this off in her mailbox myself when we were taking care of her cats while she was out of town, so instead of US stamps I used some that my sister in law gave me from her trip to Iceland!! The envelope is made out of a glassine type paper... It was a stained glass coloring book that I colored with Anna. I told her I'd make it into mail art and send it to her later.

A letter to my grandfather, who loves dogs. My mom gave me these dog stickers and I love them. This one, although it's a Saint Bernard, reminds me of Hubble because of that big ole head. I used a Fort McHenry stamp because it's in Baltimore, and my grandfather grew up in and around Baltimore. I love that we have a Fort McHenry stamp, but the stamp itself leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion. Maybe I've said this before, but the colors are too muddy.

A letter going out to my aunt in Louisiana.  I love drawing these crocodiles.

And another reptile for the back. This is from a reusable sticker book, and I will never buy them again, because what reusable really means is: doesn't stick well.  I put them on the envelopes and before I've mailed it they are coming off around the edges. I've started using them just on the insides of letters.

Another letter to a friend in town. I wasn't super happy with this side, a bit too much going on for my tastes...

 But I love the back, and it was for a friend who adores squish face dogs. I don't know what kind of collar he's got on though!

A letter to my parents made from a Gauguin poster.

 I always wanted to use this sticker "When are you getting married?" to send to someone who was actually going to get married, but it never seemed to happen, so I put it on a Gauguin envelope.

Another crocodile envelope! With a stamp to match!

I outlined the name first and then filled it in with gold glitter glue. Crocodiles only eat glitter, dontcha know.

All this mail was from back in March. I've been mailing pretty steadily.
SEE YOU IN THE POST!

Linzertorte

Clay and I have birthdays just two days apart, and this birthday week was very busy, so it took me a week or so afterwards to make his requested birthday dessert: linzertorte.

I'd never heard of linzertorte before. It's a tart with a crust that is largely made up of ground nuts. The recipe I used called for hazelnuts and a smaller amount of almonds. The filling is raspberry jam mixed with lemon juice.

This is by far one of the hardest things that I've ever baked and it went just fine. I was so proud of myself. I had such a hard time getting the skin off of the hazelnuts. It took forever even though I blanched them. Thank God for the food processor. This would have been an impossibility for me without it. The nuts are ground up super fine. There was also just a lot of cutting strips and freezing and STEPS, STEPS, STEPS! No one step was super complicated, but it was a long recipe.

Once the dough was made it was such a lovely consistency, super easy to roll out. It's not at all like pie crust.

Anyway, it was also super delicious, although so rich that I couldn't finish my slice above! After we enjoyed it we brought the leftovers out to a bar the next night to share with our friends. The recipe says that it's even better after a night in the fridge and I think they were right!

This was super delicious, but it's certainly something I'll only make for very special occasions.

Bird Mail

birds birds birds birds birds birds

more birds...

Outgoing

I sent this to my cousin Aaron. It's one of my favorite recent outgoing envelopes. Pieces cut out of an Aquaman comic over a lily pad pond.

I have several books of comics that I got for super cheap, and I haven't used them much, because it's so hard to choose what to use when there are great images on both sides of a page.