I hear sleighbells

So many last minute things to do and the start of a very busy couple of days. I still have a few more presents to wrap. Off to Fresh and Easy Supermarket to shop for the Christmas Dinner meal. Will take a crockpot of meatballs over to Ernesto's parent's house on Christmas Eve. We all open presents at midnight with them. Off to my sister's on Christmas morning to spend part of the day with my family. Christmas Dinner at our house this year. I'm very detailed and I like setting a nice table, so I've been looking online at placecard ideas; I want to incorporate evergreen or rosemary. I'll use the china dishes that my Dad bought in Germany when he was in the Army; my grandmother gave the set to my sister and I.

I have received a lot of lovely Christmas cards and pulled this large envelope out of the mailbox this week. My penfriend from Finland, Ann-Catrin, decorated this with wintery and holiday images. I imagine Finland looks very snowy like this right now.

Here are two holiday postcards I received, from Germany and Finland:
And two I've sent:


Here are some of the gifts I've wrapped:

The picture with the heap of presents shows what I mailed to my friend in Japan. She has three kids and I always send them a big box every year.


I have some gingerbread village-candyland decorations and Christmas Barbie is sitting in the midst of it. Here's my tree, with the outdoors-deer-up North decor:
That picture came out just right: Glowy and festive. And it smells like evergreen. Smells like Christmas!

Christmassy

This cookie recipe from They Draw and Cook looks delish. Right click on the picture to enlarge it for details.

My sister and I would just stare up at the sky, trying to see where the snowflakes were born. We could do it for hours. Well, minutes. "I just caught one!" I'd shout to my sister, who was also trying to eat snowflakes out of the air.

via Starbucks "Stories are gifts" by customers.

Seasonal art by the Canadian artist, LuLu, at My Pink Turtle:




This pink one is hanging in my house!

Picture This Holiday

'Tis the Season!Our family holiday card from years ago...

Some Christmas pinup girls...

Charo, to add a little Spanish spice to your holiday....via Chateau Thombeau

And two postcards I recently sent out to Postcrossers!

Run, Forrest, Run!

Today, I'm simply posting a link to another blog that I follow. Gesine (pronounced Gezina; I love her name) Bullock-Prado is a culinary artist, specializing in pastries and sweets. She has a famous sister that she doesn't talk about (Sandra Bullock). She recently blogged about running a marathon in honor of their mother, who died of cancer. The pictures of the racers are great! There is also a picture of our Vice President Biden's wife, Jill.

My friend Anne Marie's daughter-in-law also did a mini-marathon in Tucson recently, for the same cause. How admirable!

Click here for Gesine's post: Confections of a Closet Master Baker

Still here!

I'm still here, with no excuse for lags between blogs. Perhaps I shall try to blog more frequently but shorter postings, like my new pen friend, Pamela. She posts interesting topics with great pictures, and is also a mail artist:I've been lax about scanning my incoming/outgoing mail art but here is one of the envelopes I made from a comic book:I have most of my Christmas shopping done already since I like to buy gifts all year long and stash them away. One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is wrapping presents; I think I'll post some pictures of those. I have our holiday cards on order but decorating not started yet. Purchased a holiday CD this weekend by Enya called "And Winter Came."One of the blogs I follow, Love Pink, is written by Libby in London and she loves to post pictures of her city:A Christmas Tree made of stuffed panda bears! Our Arizona weather has been mild and mostly sunny (perfect, actually) but I am a little jealous of the snow that is falling in the U.K. My mom, sister, niece and I all go to some holiday event every year and last week we went to the Phoenix Zoo's "Zoo Lights," which is a magical display of millions of holiday lights, and a very popular annual attraction. We've been many times before but it's always fun to put on our jackets and gloves, grab a cup of hot cocoa and wander around the zoo at nighttime to enjoy the lights and holiday music.

Auntie, Mail, and a Pinata

Picture-heavy post today. I love spending time with my niece, especially when she's on break from school. We went to a Japanese anime exhibit at the Arizona Museum for Youth (AMY). Initially we went to the wrong museum (Mesa Art Museum - MAC), so we enjoyed the neat architecture there. The copper squares on the steps were so shiny and practically blinded us in the sunlight.
We love to make cupcakes together and here is our latest - a FISHBOWL CUPCAKE.Here is some of my recent outgoing mail art:

I added the models from vintage sewing patterns to these two envelopes; I think they're groovy and mod! Do you like?I brought a pinata over to Ernesto's parents' house for the nieces/nephews/grandkids. All the candy is just a warm-up for upcoming Halloween. (ha ha)

Autumn has arrived

Hello from sunny but not-as-hot Arizona! Finally, we have the slider and windows open in the evenings and mornings. We even had some much-needed rain. You see many of these sage bushes around the city and when the temperature and humidity hit at just the right point, the purple flowers explode on the bush. I do have one in my yard and it's never bloomed really robust, so I took this photo at the neighbor's yard:I know, not the typical orange/yellow/red fall color you expect to see in October!

My mailing statistics for September were: 44 outgoing postcards, 3 outgoing letters, 29 incoming postcards and 4 incoming letters. I do have a small pile of correspondence to attend to. Here's an outgoing envelope for a Canadian postcrosser. I used a clear plastic bag and a piece of blue cardboard to stabilize the envelope; then taped all the ephemera to the cardboard so it showed through the envelope. I took a chance that she liked blue. She was very happy upon receipt!
Recently I took a couple of short trips to Colorado, first on the Western Slope and then to Denver. Here's a pretty doe we spotted resting in Aurora:Coincidentally, one of my school friends was in Denver at the same time (she lives in Edmonton, Canada). So we met for breakfast. And we we dressed very similar! I've known Gayle for over 30 years, and we call each other "G." Gayle on L, Garci on R.

Postcard with Artistamp

I recently received a traveling postcard from Elle Mental in North Carolina, which originated from Su at Tanglecrafts in England. Once received, you are to put your Artistamp on it and send it on to the next person. I am not revealing who the postcard has been mailed to but surely you will see it posted on her blog!

The term artistamp or artist's stamp refers to a postage stamp-like artform used to depict or commemorate any subject its creator chooses. Artistamps are a form of "Cinderella stamps" in that they are not valid for postage, but they differ from forgeries or bogus stamps in that typically the creator has no intent to fool postal authorities or stamp collectors.

If you are interested in participating in this project, you can read about it here. I was a bit surprised to receive the postcard and although I am having fun creating mail art, I've never done an artistamp before.

August Stats

Quick post this afternoon. I kept track of my incoming/outgoing mail for August 2010:
Outgoing postcards - 34
Outgoing letters - 7
Incoming postcards - 41
Incoming letters - 8
I'm active on postcrossing and I do a lot of direct swaps, so that's why the postcard # is so high.
Can't believe 1/3 of the month of September is already gone...I've been working in Amarillo, TX for three weeks so I lose track of time. In fact, I just got home, so must unpack and settle in. Ciao!

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!).