Halloween (mail art) Party!

So I didn't get around to having a summer time mail social, but last weekend...

we had a Halloween/autumn party with mail art!

 

Do you like my tablecloth? We bought it last year after Halloween, when everything was on sale. I packed it away in the Halloween box and it was such a fun surprise when I found it this year!

The party was complete with two kinds of pie!

My first ever pumpkin pie and an apple pie.

Much spooky fun was had making mail for a friend of ours that moved away. Later that night we also watched two scary movies: Pumpkinhead and then V/H/S.

P.S. Don't forget to join the giveaway below!

4 years of blogging

I've been blogging for over four years now! September 18, 2010 was my very first post on the old blog.

I've thought a lot about my history of mail art and my future.

I have sent letters since 2nd grade to my oldest friend, Amanda, who moved to another school.  I wrote letters to friends and sometimes decorated the envelope with drawings when I lived in France for a semester. I had another regular penpal start up during college.

It wasn't until my lonely year living in Wisconsin where I knew no one but my parents that I really started with mail art. I got involved in Swap-bot. It was through Swap-bot that I received my first handmade envelope. That was an eye-opener.

I go through periods of low productivity and creativity in terms of blogging and in terms of mail, but I really really enjoy both things. In four years at Winnie's Girl and Pie Post I have a little over 400 posts, a pretty good rate.

I am right now going through another period of low productivity because my work load has been tripled. I am teaching 3 classes as well as tutoring outside of the university, so I'm busier than ever before. I'm still doing a little, but penpals- that's why you haven't heard from me lately.

I'm not worried about periods like this because I know they will pass.  I love that I've started quite early and that I have a whole life ahead of me of mail art. I think about things I've learned and explored in four years - fountain pens and ink, pie making, artistamps, rubber stamp carving, postage stamp collecting. What will the future hold?

What does the immediate future hold?

A giveaway!

In the past I've been pretty terrible about giveaways, not sending the packages out until a long long time after the giveaway winners were announced, mostly because I hadn't already made the packages. This time I planned ahead!!! I have made several packages before hand, so that all I need to do is address and stamp them!

There are 4 packages for my 4 years of blogging, each one themed around a different color: red, blue, green, and yellow.  Comment on this post and make sure to list from 1 to 4 the order of the color you would prefer. I will allow only one international winner because of postage costs. So if you are international, feel free to enter, you just have some smaller odds of winning.

Giveaway will close on October 23rd!

Get well soon

Do you remember Patty from Just Letter Rip? She's still recovering from her car accident.  All this and her address was posted on her blog with a call from Patty's daughter for get well cards. The address is also below, so think about sending a card!  Here's a letter I sent to Patty not long ago.

 I thought she might enjoy some well wishes from Gregory Peck and a similarly ailing bulldog.

 

And here is the address. Let's send her some lovely mail!

Raspberry Tarts

I branched out recently and made tarts instead of a pie!

 I received these beautiful little scalloped tart pans as a wedding gift from an aunt. I love them! 

Two of our friends came over for brunch one day and they left behind 3 packages of raspberries, so I decided it would be a perfect opportunity to make raspberry tarts! 

I chose a recipe from the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. The recipe for the crust was very worrisome. The book tells you to use a food processor, which we don't have. You are supposed to cut up the butter into pieces and then put it in the processor with the flour etc. I used a method that I learned from the Brown Eyed Baker where you grate the butter and then add it.  Anyway, the dough was extremely crumbly. There was no way on earth that I could roll it out like it says in the book.  So I improvised and just smooshed it into the tart pans.  Thank heavens, it turned out really delicious!

So for these tarts there are 3 components: (1) the crust, which you bake separately at first and then let cool before you add (2) the raspberries which you pack into each tart, and then (3) the filling which you pour over the raspberries and bake.

It looked so beautiful.

 

And presto chango! They are done!

 

When making tartlets as opposed to one large tart, be sure that you are checking them way before the time used for a 9 inch tart. When I baked the empty tart shells I checked them 10 minutes before the recipe said to and they were already quite a bit browner than I would have liked.

 Look at those beautiful scalloped edges. Glorious!

I gave two of the tarts to our friends who left the raspberries. They were pleased with the transformation.

I would definitely make these again. The raspberries were still tart which Clay and I both loved. It makes a very bright flavor. And also, tart is the name of the game!  Clay really wants me to try lemon tarts next.

Air Mail-ish pattern, of sorts

After carving a stamp I had this fun little piece of rubber left, and I thought it would be perfect for making a border. I have this cool double color stamp pad, but I think it would be cute just with one color too.

 

After keeping it a long while, I sent it to Mary. Sometimes simple is just what I'm in the mood for.

My desk

I said a while ago that I was trying to draw and paint more. Well here is a drawing from back in July of part of my desk.  The lamp on the left is actually much larger in person. My scale is all wrong. I have my little cat letter holder, which is always stuffed with things to reply to. A polka dot tin with ink pads inside for rubber stamps, and a jar with washi tape inside. Missing in this artistic rendition is all the crap that accumulates!

DACTYL mail

A June letter to the DACTYL

I love this stationery.  The flowers are so pretty. They remind me of the illustrations that were in a book I had about hosting tea parties. It was a book for young children and I remember there being a horse themed tea party. I was kind of out of my head about that book. One of my amazing aunts gave it to me for my birthday.

The envelope I sent it in was not made for the stationery sheets. I think I found them both seperately at the IDEA store. But I thought they were nice together. I typed the address much higher than I would normally write it. I forget how small the letters are when you type!

And this is what I was responding to:

She knows how I love myself some dinosaurs.