Incoming from Mrs. Duffy

I mentioned recently that there are some correspondents who I recognize immediately from the envelope or mail art. Mrs. Duffy is another one of these because of her incredible handwriting.

I used to write in a sort of hybrid of cursive and print; it was fast and easy. I'd forgotten a lot of the capital letters in cursive, like Q and Z. After getting a letter from Mrs. Duffy where she talked about cursive I looked up some of the letters I'd forgotten and started to write much more frequently in cursive. Sometimes I still use my hybrid. I really love writing certain letters. Lowercase z's are lovely, and I feel really proud of myself when I do a good lowercase r, which I feel might be the hardest letter to do nicely.

Today is a lazy Sunday. Because it rained last night I'm giving myself permission not to mow the grass. It needs to dry out more! I have a bachelorette party to go to later tonight, but until then, I plan on relaxing and writing some letters... maybe putting on the latest LWA virtual social which I still haven't gotten around to watching!

Howdy Folks!

It's been a while, but I'm back!

Work has really been kicking my butt, but the last classes of the semester are planned and next week I have off, mostly.

I've been writing some letters, and I believe I'm caught up to the month of April! Yay!
But instead of writing a lengthy post, I'm going to write some more letters. I'll leave you with a photo of my desk, (always fun, right?)...

and the recipe for my drink:
A caipirinha:

Cut a whole lime into quarters, muddle with one teaspoon of sugar.
Add two ounces of cachaca and stir, then add ice and stir again.

It's delicious and it's the national drink of Brazil!

Cachaca is a lot like rum.

Happy drinking, happy posting, happy SPRING!!!!

Flower Fairy Postcard

I received this lovely postcard from Caddi as a thank you for the giveaway I sent her. This reminds me of my childhood intensely, as I was basically obsessed with fairies. I used to make fairy houses in the woods and swamps near our houses with my best friend.

Thanks for the thank you Caddi! :-)

And a fitting abode for a fairy tale, though quite different from the fairy houses I used to build, here's the stamp it came with:

To and fro with Allison Anne

I received a lovely first letter from Allison Anne of Dear Detective.

Isn't that quilt gorgeous?

For some reason when I link to her blog it won't let me link to the specific blog post where she blogged about this, but it was on March 24th.  I had been wondering if the white labels saying Champaign IL 61821 were done by her or the post office, so it was fun seeing her post and discovering that they were put on by the post office! I guess they didn't like the way she addressed it. But I'm happy as long as I get my mail!

 She sent me some fun things inside as well as a great letter.

I really love these cassette tape labels!

I sent her back a letter in an envelope made from a poster I'd been hoarding since my Indianapolis trip. Such a gorgeous painting. 

I can't wait to see what her next letter will bring!

Lemon Tarts

So I haven't made any pies in a while, but I did make these DELICIOUS lemon tarts for a book themed party my friend threw. They are Lemony Snicket tarts... heh heh heh. I am in love with these tarts. They are really rich.

This was my status update when I came home from shopping for these:

"I love it when it's super obvious from my shopping cart that I'm about to make something delicious: heavy cream, butter, confectioner's sugar, eggs, and 10 lemons."

There was quite a bit of hard work involved. You needed a crazy amount of lemon zest, like half a cup? Maybe more. 

I'm looking forward to making more pies this summer when berries go on sale.

Back and forth to the dactyl in my life

After being penpals for a while it's pretty easy to identify most of my penpals from how they decorate their envelopes, or if they don't their handwriting, even before I look at the return address. Tara is one of these penpals with a distinctive style of collage. The fact that she frequently sends me dinosaurs helps too.     :)

 She's been experimenting with mixed media and I think it's really cool to see her using new mediums and how that changes her mail art.

In return for this lovely letter (chock full of dino bits too!) I sent her a packet made out of one of those things you used to get photos back in from the pharmacy.

Inside I used for the first time in forever, my sealing wax and seal. It's a quill feather... It's upside down in this picture. The LWA is now selling their own wax seal stamp set with a similar image! There's one with two crossed quills and another one with and envelope. They are only being sold in the members only section though.

I don't like using my sealing wax on the outside of envelopes because it's quite old and I'm afraid it will get scraped off or fall off during transit. So mostly I've used it to close sheets of paper and then put it inside the envelope. When I use up this wax I think I will buy some of the new flexible wax that's meant to be used in the modern post office.

And here is the inside, right before I'm going to tape it up!

Rose Stamped Outgoing

A friend of mine gave me two of these rose stamps, which are so so lovely. Lots of other bloggers have mentioned it, but they have a great texture. I used them almost as soon as she gave them to me.

One on this letter to my friend Anna, who had given me a pen. I told her I would write her a whole letter about the pen, and voila! Here it is.

And the second on this monochromatic envelope. This is such a great photograph. Their faces are so expressive.