Happy Mailbox and Veg

Wow, my mailbox has been happy lately!  I've received great letters from Postcrossing friends Manuela in Germany, Anna-Danute in Moscow and a new correspondent, Tatiana, also in Moscow.  Tatiana tells me she doesn't like when these dolls are called Babusha, because it means "Grandma."  so now I have to learn to call them "Matryoshka" dolls!

I received this colorful illustrated VW from Felicity Lingle, in a paper sack upcycled into an envelope, with spaceship stamps.  Love it - thanks, Felicity!

I've also received a lovely letter from Gemma in England, who enclosed some of her awesome illustrated prints, which will soon be for sale!  Claudia of NextLola's Zoo sent me some clever vintage stationery with her lovely letter.

I was so excited to find out I was one of the very lucky recipients of the box of paper goodness from Carolee at "Make Every Day a Good Mail Day."  Winners just paid postage for a Priority Mail medium box that was STUFFED full.  Inside was stationery, handmade journals, 50+ postcards, 50+ envelopes, tons of stickers, four rubber stampers, bits and bobs of paper, tags and unused U.S. postage stamps, and a vintage headcount number counter thingy, which you can see in the picture (grey metal box with red buttons).  I have no idea what I will do with it, but it's one of those things that looks cool just sitting on your desk.  Thanks so much, Carolee -- I can't wait to incorporate much of this into my correspondence.


I have been extremely lucky with blog giveaways (I can't seem to hit a winning lottery, though) -- my haul from the past year or so includes a couple of books, a pin, a shirt, an envelope of Bianca's ephemera goodies, an envelope of Sugene's ephemera goodies, a handmade illustrated print, some food containers, and a vintage jar.  Whew!  So, I am putting together a giveaway of my own because that's what us bloggers enjoy doing.  And I'm not going to regift all of the aforementioned stuff ~ I have been choosing some great goodies for the package.  Stay tuned.

Here are some shot of some of my outgoing mail:

The deer envie is reused; my honey got a bumper sticker from the Coues Whitetail Deer society, and I knew the envelope would be perfect for my penpal in Finland.  This is the back of the envelope; I used a large vintage elk sticker to cover our address.

Last but not least, we went to the Chandler's Farmer Market, which is downtown on Thursdays, and here is the gorgeous produce we brought home.  I had never seen orange beets before!  The small oranges are blood oranges.  Isn't this colorful?