Cool M A I L

I've got some groovy mail pictures to show you!

Beautiful holiday stamps from my packages from Finland.  Thank you, An-Ca!

A parcel I received from Great Britain was cheerfully illustrated by the sender, Gemma!  xoxoxo

Imagine my excitement when I pulled an envelope out of the mailbox...from THE PALACE!  As my friend Pamela says, "To get a letter, send a letter!" 

I did a swap with a lovely Brit named Laura, whose husband is a sports writer and his favorite American football team is the Arizona Cardinals.  I sent her some fan memorabilia and she sent me Royal Wedding souvenirs and later I received this pencil case packed with London souvenirs!  How cool is it to use the pencil case as the envelope?! She even stitched it to keep it closed.  I love it all -- thanks so much, Laura!

 Just one decorated outgoing envelope to show at the moment; heading to Finland:

 

Happy New Year!

 

Whew! It's been awhile since my last post and I'm happy to report that all is well.  I bought myself a new Apple computer that I definitely have not mastered yet.  I traveled a lot for work the last quarter of 2011, back and forth to North Carolina.  I traveled up until December 22, so it felt like a short holiday season for me, which I didn't like.  I really miss the Christmas lights.  Then we took a short holiday to Las Vegas in between Christmas and New Year's and we went back to Minus 5 Ice Lounge:

Then my birthday comes right after the first of the year, and I always enjoy getting spoiled by my family!

My favorite vintage New Year's greeting:

Some (older) news:  Here is a photo of our last garden harvest.  We discovered termites (!) so we had to lose the garden, as the chemicals/termite killer was very close to the garden.

Mum and I went to a flea market in the parking lot at our favorite antique mall.  Here she is, digging through vintage hankies:

Always beautiful glass and sometimes tools can be found!

I left with some nice vintage ephemera that day.


I won a kitty-naming contest for Julie, the talented artist behind the Penpal of the Week blog.  I named one of her hairless Sphinx cats as Augustin.  She let me pick a stationery set from her store, La Papierre and I chose the "Dear Jeanne" set.  If it looks familiar, it is because the image is also featured on her business cards.  It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of her stationery and postcards!  Thanks, Julie!

On Swap-bot, I tried making my first ATC's (Artist Trading Cards), golden on front and then back images:

And here are some ATC's that I received:

I'm in no big hurry to make more as I was criticized for not making them the correct size.  Apparently I used the wrong size playing card as the base!  Oh well, live and learn!  Hope your new year is off to a *b*a*n*g*

Interesting Mail

Although I'm a little behind on some of my correspondence, I have had some interesting mail come in/out lately:

Mail art surprise from Texas with pin-ups girls.  Isn't this a great handmade illustration?

 

Elvis (in the Army) postage stamp from a postcard from Guyana.  Pretty rare to get a postcard from that country, and what a super awesome stamp!!

Pink/turquoise postcard I made.  The clipping of Barbara Eden (I Dream of Jeannie) is the 
best part.

Outgoing Halloween-themed envelope to San Francisco.  Some of the paper is glittery and the (used) postage stamp has a rather peculiar cancellation mark that is a little creepy.

Anything red postcard swap (front and back).  Had to use red ink and red postage stamps!

Snowglobe within the envelope with glitter (but no water) inside.  This one is traveling south to Tucson, AZ.

Outgoing envelope for an Autumn-themed swap I participated in.  As much as I enjoy doing mail art, the puffier the envelopes are (i.e., padded envelopes), the more challenging the artwork is.  Much easier when the envelope is FLAT.

 

Opening and Mailing

Hello -- still so hot here in Arizona.  I am soooo over it.  We've had heat advisory warnings, which is basically a way to tell you to drink water and stay inside if at all possible!  It will be worth it when we wear shorts and flip-flops on New Year's Day, while much of the U.S. is under snow.  If I can just be patient enough for the weather to cool.  

Here is some of my incoming mail:



Gorgeous summer collaged envelope from Ann-Catrin Finland.  Love those mailboxes!  

Finnish stamps are great:  The Aurora Borealis and Heart Fairy.

I'm exchanging a handmade card with Erika, who lives less than a couple of hours from me, in Tucson (one of my favorite cities, I might add), and I received hers first.  Isn't this handstiched, felt fishy incredible?  I had to cut it open to read the message inside -- white ink on black paper!  Very cool.

Awesomeness from a Postcrosser in Finland!  Wedding theme and retro -- two themes on my wishlist.

I ordered a sticker set from K is for Calligraphy, and when I pulled the envelope out of the mailbox, I did a little dance!  How gorgeous is her writing?

I spend more more than I should on etsy, enjoying the handmade goods from talented folks, and I also like finding cool vintage pieces.  I got this huge vintage sewing book from 1964, printed in Russian.  Did I mention that I don't sew and I'm not exactly a fashionista, and of course I do not speak Russian (nyet).  But I really dig this book!  The illustrations are great.

And mailed out:

Emilie, AKA Winnie's Girl, who was the winner of my blog giveaway, sent me a cute postcard of thanks.  I went with a ROSE theme when mailing her the package:

 

On Swap-Bot, I participated in the "Chunk O Cardboard" swap and here are the three chunks I sent out as a postcard:  Fatboy icecream sandwiches (love the name!), Icee frozen treats and cheese fondue.

Here are other Chunks O Cardboard I sent out to postcrossers.  Skull vodka bottle and Orale beer.  We can't get this beer here in Arizona as it's only sold in Colorado.  "Orale" is slang in Spanish and means something "Right on!" or "Alright" or "OK, man."  This is the ultimate in recycling when you mail out your trash.

Here are some postcards I made:

Sports theme -- used a Playboy playing card (5 of spades) -- but nothing risque' here.

Ca$h theme!

 Asian theme went to North Carolina to visit Elle.

The Dutch postcrosser is an art teacher and she requested a self-portrait sketch and I included my engagement ring.  I am SO not an artist!

Musical themed envelope art.  I sometimes worry that people who have English as a second language won't understand American humor, but I used this comic strip anyway.  

Last but not least, true BLUE mailed to Japan.  The paper in the center is origami.  Starting clockwise at 3:00, the deer is from the butter package (trash pick!).  The sparrow is a design from an "old school" tattoo calendar.  The bride is from a vintage wedding dress pattern.  I think maybe July 01, 2012 would be a good wedding date since it's our five-year anniversary.

Borders is a good source for postcards but hurry!

Shoppers in the U.S. should hurry in to Border's bookstore, which is going out of business.  I was surprised to see so much inventory is left.  Discounts were 30% and 50% on some items.  Best of all, I picked up a lot of postcards...paid .62 apiece for them! 

New Household Items

Many of you know I'm an avid thrifter and recycler.  That means fearlessly going into thrift stores and shopping at garage/yard/tag sales and estate sales.  I am following a couple of blogs that are all about thrifting and garage-saling and they post some of their best finds.  There's a blog from Seattle called Yard Sale Bloodbath, and it not only has an awesome title, but the bloggers take a lot of photos at sales of items they'll never buy (possibly items that NO ONE would ever buy) and unique photos of the "garage sale" signs.  Here in the Phoenix area, signage is pretty pathetic and it's a huge pet peeve to follow signs...from last weekend's sale and they were too lazy to take down the signs!  What I'm always looking for:

Postcards

Stamps

Vintage ephemera

Cooking equipment

Books

Anyhoo, here are some of my recent best finds:

Found this painting at an estate sale.  It's huge and is now hanging in my guest bedroom.  I recently redid the color scheme from lavender/purple to ocean blue.  I think the colors are just dreamy.

My beau trash-picked this at culinary school because he knew I'd like the saffron tin from Spain!

We went out garage saling this morning very early because it starts getting hot at, like, 7AM.  Seriously!  We were hunting for camping gear because Nesto will be going hunting this fall. He did find two new fishing rods for $5 and two ice coolers.  We found a chef's table with a stainless steel work surface to add to the kitchen so he has more work space.  One side can be flipped up and it came with two stools, so he can visit with people while he's cooking!

Here is the rest of our finds:  DVD's for $1 apiece, unopened puzzle, fairy book to cut up for mail art, lots of ephemera from the 1930's and 1940's -- much of it travel-related, vintage car owner's manuals, a bundt cake pan, and four placemats for $1 with loteria on them (Mexican bingo). 
Note:  Yes, that's my refrigerator on the left with a couple of Elvis magnets and a child's drawing and other miscellaneous items.  Someone once told me, "You can tell a lot about a person by the front of their refrigerator."  Mine has a LOT of shizzle on it...

 

We also found this elk antler decorated with a wood-etched scene, signed by the artist.  The back of it indicates it was made by Antler Creations in Flagstaff, Arizona.


I received these lovely small prints from my penfriend Gemma, who is an artist that you can find on etsy.  I framed the Four Fair Maidens with a background of scrapbook paper and they are now proudly hanging in my home.  She has many other sweet illustrations in her shop.