Incoming

I was out of town, working in Las Vegas for a week (a bit of a challenge to do in a party town that never sleeps) and I came home to lots of great mail. Several postcards, handmade 45 record with song from Postcard Jim (a very talented art student in England, http://postcardjim.wordpress.com/), fabulous envie crafted from a record cover (vintage Della Reese) from Bianca in Australia, and two packages from my dear friend in Japan (not pictured but goodies included cheesecake mix, pasta, chili spice and cinnamon).
My Postcrossing (now penpal) friend from Finland also sent a photo (in the top center) of her daughter, who is a member of a hunting club and they're packing their deer out. The postcard with the cloud in the shape of a whale was sent to my niece and I from a Postcrosser in Maine.
I also received a stationery order from an etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/wevegotpaper and I am so pleased!
I tried to get a closeup picture of this Finnish stamp, which has Braille on it:
Today I'm sending out postcards, a sympathy card, a protest letter to my Credit Union because they're closing two branches and working on several letters. Heading to Alabama tomorrow for a quick trip.

Weekend finds and fun!

It's finally cooling down here in the Valley of the Sun ~ we've had the windows and doors wide open, letting in the cool air. There are a ton of tag sales this time of year, so I hit some estate sales, garage sales and a church rummage sale with my mum, sister and niece this weekend. My best find was paying $4 for a bag of stamps (mostly used/cancelled), which I can use for art, but there was also about $10 worth of unused miscellaneous postage stamps in there and some old coins and a bank note from Nicaragua (good stocking stuffers).
Our motorcycle club, Star 393 of Chandler, had a picnic at Falcon Field park and it was a "Fiesta" theme, with Mexican food and decorations. Nesto and I were in charge of the pinata for the kids. It's a popular game in Latin America and the Southwest U.S. A colorful cardboard or paper mache' container holds candy and small toys and is suspended by a rope from a tree. We blindfold the kids one at a time and let them swing a bat to try and break open the pinata. I stuffed a witch's head (Halloween theme). Once the pinata has broke open, the kids scurry to pick up the candy ~ fun!

Miniature food art!

Our friends at "Cupcakes Take the Cake" posted about a talented miniature food artist in Paris. You will not believe the level of detail that Stephanie can do with this wearable and/or collectible art! She's posted pictures on Flicker, has a shop on Etsy, and a blog. Enjoy and bon appetit!

Summertime in Northern Arizona

Many people from the Phoenix area gravitate to Northern Arizona throughout the summer, or as we call it, "Up North." We love the towns of Payson, ShowLow, and Flagstaff, and the White Mountains area. The elevation is higher, so the temperature is typically 20F cooler, and there are pine trees and mountains. Arizona is very arid (dry) with low humidity, as are many Western states, like New Mexico, Colorado and Utah. Many people escape the desert region and the heat by going up for day trips or camping. It's anywhere from two to four hours by car.I am surrounded by sunflowers at an area called Mormon Lake, Arizona.
Mormon Lake, Arizona. The yellow is a sea of sunflowers and lots of elk hang out in this area in the summer.

Nesto and I have gone fishing several times this year, even taking one trip on the motorcycle. We purchased the collapsible fishing rods and packed a small tackle box and lunch on the back of the bike! We had one great fishing day, and caught several rainbow trout, as you can see from my "Fish-in-a-bag."
I like taking short hikes and enjoying the wildflowers and wildlife. Here are some Columbine flowers, which is actually the Colorado State flower.We have seen deer, skunk, elk, bald eagles, lizards, red cardinals, blue jays, duck and chipmunks that will eat from your hands! The bald eagle is the national emblem of the United States and it's always exciting to see them in the wild. We saw some swoop and dive down to the lake at Woods Canyon and catch a fish for lunch. They fly so fast I could never get a picture, so I found one photographed by Bob Paty.

If you love letters...

I found a neat website called:

http://www.allthisismine.com/

Sugene has a unique selection of stationery and also a cool "pen pal pack" that has an assortment of cool stickers and envelopes. I have never read a "zine" before (which is an inexpensively produced, self-published, underground publication) but the issue #12, "The Letter Writing Issue" seemed intriguing, so I received it today and read it cover to cover. It's like it was written just for me! Anecdotes, envelope-decorating, fountain pens, letter folding, and some great vintage information from correspondence from years ago. You should check it out.

Mail Call

Keeping the U.S. postal service, particularly in South Chandler, very busy...
Incoming (over the past couple of weeks):Look at the Mail Art! Octo-Queen Mum on the left, a 3-D envelope from England, and an original art postcard with Queen Elizabeth!My postcrossing account says that I would love to receive purple or lavender postcards. Ask and ye shall receive!Here are stamps from Japan (note that some are purple!) and a Hello Kitty!
Beautiful stamps from Russia:
Always awesome stamps from Finland. The middle stamp is a "Moomin," a very popular cartoon art character.
I took a picture of (and then somehow lost) my outgoing mail pile, which was a book, a small parcel to Japan, thank you card for a work colleague, numerous postcrossing postcards, letter to my Great Aunt and letter to my friends in Colorado. It was quite a huge pile of outgoing. Check your mailbox because something may be coming your way!

Monday Cuteday

During my daily blog reading, I stumbled upon a website of a brilliant artist in New Zealand. I looked at all of her illustrations and they made me smile! I think you will enjoy the ones I am posting here, from:

www.nutandbee.com

Candysaurus and Crustaceanpost are my favorites!