Keeping the U.S. Postal Service in business

I had a lot of free time this weekend to get caught up on some letters and do some Postcrossing.  Outbound:  15 postcards, 4 letters

Here's the pile: 

 

To Ann-Catrin in Finland.  Remember her last envelope had the weather report from the newspaper, so she could show me their frightfully cold winter weather?  Mine is a USA weather map from April, to show her my commute to work in North Carolina every week.  I forgot to tell her that the one-way trip is 2,177 miles. 

This Mother's Day theme went to Patty from Just Letter Rip:

The Route 66/Travel theme is heading to Claudia from NextLola's Zoo in Italy.  I used the brightest, most colorful stamps I had (note the new Latin singer stamps).  I am always running low on "airmail" stickers, so I made some of my own.

These two went to Postcrossers in Germany and Belarus.  One girl knows Spanish, and the other got a pink collage which I went with because of my return address sticker (the pink cupcake):

To a postcrosser in India:

"Ugly Betty" was a popular TV show a few years ago and I still love watching reruns.  Betty has braces, so when I made this postcard for my friend, I made sure I used glitter on the braces so they really stand out.

 
Last weekend I made some postcards.  French theme, blue theme and Italy theme.  The blue one is in the very first picture and is being mailed out already.

The angelic girl above with the blue background came off the label from gnocchi I cooked.  One man's trash is another man's art.
May your mailbox be happy this week.

Symmetry (groovy video)

Thanks, Felicity!

Wedding Royale

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the hoopla and coverage of the Royal Wedding and wanted to share what I thought were some of the highlights:

I got up at 3:30AM (Eastern time), showered, and starting watching the Royal Wedding coverage live at 4AM.

Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice are so grown up.  Weird hats, though.  Beatrice's hat is so unique, there are Facebook pages dedicated to THE HAT.


When Harry and Wills arrived at Westminster Abby, looking so good in their military uniforms, they were very fidgety with their uniforms as they walked into the church. 

Prince Harry looks so ornery.  I imagine he's a practical joker.


When Kate got into the Rolls Royce and the dress was finally revealed.  So lovely!

They are comparing her dress to Princess Grace's dress (1956).

 

When Pippa was holding the hands of the smallest (youngest) attendants.

Seeing the celebs and royalty arriving at the church.

Seeing the crowds in Hyde Park and around London in their Union Jack hats and flags.

Seeing Wills trying to be serious during the ceremony and attempting to stifle a smile.

When the crowds outside cheered during the ceremony and they could hear it in the church (it made Kate smile once).

A lipreader said that William told Michael Middleton & Kate (when they were standing up at the alter), "This was supposed to be a small family affair."

Kate's wedding ring (Welsh gold) did not go on her finger easily!

When Prince Phillip got into the glass coach as he left the ceremony with the Queen, he removed a small pillow that was in his seat and threw it to the seat across from him.

This beauty went to watch the festivities dressed as "Kate's (Diana's) Engagement Ring!"  (Thank you Dlisted)

I did not get to see the wedding kiss on the balcony *live* as I had to get to work.  Young Bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem stole the show, didn't she?

Dislikes:
No state holiday in the USA for the event.
Not taking a day off to celebrate properly with a party.

Cool souvenirs:  (click picture for details)

I follow the blog of an American photographer who lives in London.  To see Christine's brilliant pictures of the event, go here.

My work friend emailed this comment about the Royal Wedding to me:  The news said that the skies were cloudy, but the sun came out when William and Harry got out of the coach and the crowd just stilled...Diana looking down?

God Save the Queen.

Love and Mail

After I saw a blog posting by Kimberley at Tea & Ticket Stubs about the iconic LOVE sculpture at the Scottsdale (Arizona) Public Library, I knew I had to see it for myself.  This sculpture was made by American pop artist Robert Indiana in 1966 and then into a postage stamp by the U.S. Postal  Service in 1973.  This popular and very recognizable design has been featured on cards, t-shirts, paperweights, etc.  Of course, I love it!

Kimberley didn't mention that there is a rose garden on the grounds of the Scottsdale Public Library, so that was quite a visual treat for Mum and I.  

 

 

 

 

 

There is also a huge golden ink quill pen sculpture right at the entrance to the library.  It appears to be suspended in air!  

 

I realized that I sent out my last handmade postcard -- made of stamps -- this week to a postcrosser.  So I made some more.  When creating mail art, usually I like to go with a theme, or color.  In the bottom right of the green postcard (actually it's in the top right in the picture -- 500), there is a really bizarre Japanese stamp; it's an older stamp and looks like a monster.  There are two stamps of a young Queen Elizabeth on there also.  

On the purple/magenta postcard, I think the Egyptian stamp in the middle looks like King Tut.  

Then I made a vintage-themed postcard in tan/brown colors, and a travel/map theme postcard.   

I sent off a letter today to Renee and her three home-schooled daughters, who are hosting the 2011 Letters Project.  Although I didn't capture a copy of the envelope, which was decorated with Arizona stickers and school-themed stickers, I included a few Arizona postcards, and wrote all about the beautiful state I live in.  I used Dr. Seuss stationery to write my letter to the girls.  If you haven't yet participated, please do so! 

Going out en la manana

I've caught up on some of my correspondence this weekend.  I've got 10 postcards on the pile -- some are going to postcrossers and others to friends.  And I've got 5 letters going out.  I made some of the pictures a little bigger than usual so you can see some detail.

Purple going to Japan! Tried to use pretty purple stamps 

and lots of silly stickers from fruit on the back!

 This one with green detail is going to Tatiana in Moscow.

 French themed art heading to Elle in Los Angeles.

Last letter going to Anna-Danute in Moscow and the mail art has no theme, absolutely 

no rhyme or reason.  To quote Bianca, "I like to cut things up and stick things down."

 

How I Spent My Spring Break Holiday

I took a week holiday recently while my niece and sister were on Spring Break from school (sis works at an elementary school) and to spend time with Ernesto before he started culinary school.  My first adventure was a short trip "Up North" to beautiful Northern Arizona.  Since I live in the desert region of our state, it's always a treat to go up to the mountains to enjoy the pine trees, and cooler weather (in the summertime).  I took my niece, Emmi, with me (Mum was in Laughlin, Nevada on a trip and sister had a hurting back), so it was just the two of us.  Our first stop was in Sedona, Arizona for a "Pink Jeep" back roads tour.  So fun!  I've done this several times before but this was Emmi's first jeep trip.  When you see pictures of red rocks in Arizona, most likely the photo is from around Sedona.

Emmi and I stayed one night in Flagstaff, Arizona and drove west to Williams, Arizona to drive on the famous highway, Route 66 and to visit the Deer Farm.  Plenty of deer to pet and feed and lots of other animals to see like reindeer, goats, donkeys and a female elk (which is a cow).

An unexpected surprise was the weather -- there was a great snowstorm in Williams and Flagstaff, which was pretty exciting for my niece, who was born in Phoenix and doesn't spend much time in snow at all.  I've enjoyed quite a bit of snow this winter when I traveled for work and had to scrape snow off my rental car windows more than once!  It's not fun to scrape the windows with a credit card when the rental car company hasn't provided you with an ice scraper!

We visited a new tourist spot near Williams called Bearizona, which is a drive-through animal park.  There were lots of animals and lots of snow.  Thank goodness I was driving Ernesto's truck with 4-wheel drive, or we would have been stuck in the snow.  We saw:  Bison, big-horn sheep, wolves, burros, and lots of bears; even tiny baby bears in the incubator in the gift shop.  

 

This fence reminded us of sharpened pencils!

Next we headed back to Sedona and stayed in a fancy Bed and Breakfast, the Adobe Village Graham Inn B and B.  Our suite was HUGE and the view was lovely.  Low clouds and a sprinkling of snow in Sedona, too.

 

When we headed back to the Valley, we had a viewing party with sis, Mum, and our friend Heidi for the season 2 premiere of The Fabulous Beekman Boys on Planet Green channel.  One of our favorite TV shows about two gentlemen farmers who raise goats in upstate New York.  We picked the color RED for our party theme -- everyone wore red and we had a lot of red food (strawberries, tomatoes, red wine, red velvet whoopie pies, etc.).  On a side note, Mum and I went to Sharon Springs, New York last autumn (during our fall foliage road trip) where their reality show is based and we visited their Beekman 1802 mercantile and we met one of the stars, Josh!

Ernesto and I took a road trip on the motorcycle to beautiful Palm Springs, California.  It was about a five-hour drive and we stayed at a small boutique hotel called The Horizon. Built in 1952, it has a cool, swanky, rat-pack feel to it (think Frank Sinatra!). You can see our blue motorcycle in the parking lot in the background to the left of the patio.  The bathroom was glass-enclosed with a privacy wall outside but you still had that feeling of being "on display."  There were two showers, with one being OUTSIDE right next to the privacy wall.  Naturally, Ernesto used that one!  

 

 

We met up with our friends Martin and Benton for a Mexican food dinner and took the tram up the mountain the next morning to see the view.  There are lots of wind turbines for energy around Palm Springs.  I LOVE this city with the San Jacinto mountains close by, the manicured landscaping and the mid-century architecture.  Excluding the wind, it was a great motorcycle trip.

 

The end of my week was participating in our subdivision's community garage sale.  We got rid of tons of stuff and the leftovers went directly to Goodwill.  We made $441, which is pretty amazing since we sold so much stuff at only .25 to $1.  Some guy at one of my previous garage sales years ago told me that "Yard sales are the way we keep the earth in balance because people just keep moving the junk from house to house."