Things That Make Me Happy Right Now

Here are some of the cupcakes I made and took to a poker party. Did you know that Michael's stores have a baking line by Duff of Charm City Cakes (Ace of Cakes on TV)? He has baking pans, cake mix, frosting, fondant, kits, etc. Pretty cool! So I used the white cake mix and decorated with edible silver glitter, blue Pop Rocks candy, mini M&M's candy and small Chiclets gum. I'd have to say the cupcakes were a hit!I am a little obsessed with watching the cake shows (Cake Boss, Ace of Cakes) and the cupcake shows (Cupcake Wars and DC Cupcakes). Do you watch these?Here's a mama dove, roosting on her nest above our garage!A surprise gift from the love of my life! A Dia de los Muertos Catrina figurine in blue with glitter. See the blue roses in her mouth? He gives me the best gifts <3>Incoming package from Gemma in the U.K. She spent her holidays on the Isle of Wight, accessible by ferry. I love these perfect seashells! What a wonderful surprise in yesterday's mail.More incoming mail from overseas with a sideways picture. Gemma's letter (England), pinup girl envelope from Claudia in Italy, Anna-Danute from Russia and fruity envelope from Ann-Catrin in Finland. I just signed up for "Happy Mail," which is an mail/package exchange and I received a lot of cool crafty items from Mandy in Germany (husband is stationed there in the service).Here's the back of the envelope from Italy with more pinups, a London tube map and some of Claudia's original art postcards! These will be mailed out in the near future.Here's what was inside the envelope from Finland. I like how Ann-Catrin writes to me -- she doesn't sit down and write all at one time, but approaches letter writing more in diary form, so each postcard and paper typically has a different date. She sends me such lovely postcards, which are often original photographs she has had made of the area in Northern Finland where she lives. My writing relationship with her is similar to the one with my longtime correspondent in Japan -- all snail mail and no Facebook or email. I received a wonderful first letter from a Postcrosser in Russia! Her English is very good. She sent me three cards with her letter; the beer card is a vintage advertisement. She sent the purple card since it's my favorite color (it's from Ikea!) and another cool vintage-style card. She wrote me back because when I sent her postcard (in an envelope), I included a bunch of used stamps for her stamp collection, which made her very happy.

Now for my outgoing mail for tomorrow: Many postcards for Postcrossers, a letter to Colorado and a New Jersey postcard themed postcard for Miss Natalie from Nutley. The envelope with the colorful cowboy stamps is going to a Postcrosser in Finland; on her profile she asked for copies of autographs for her collection. So I copied a photo of actress Melanie Griffith, a note signed by Bill Clinton and a copy of my letter from Michelle Obama (all with signatures!).