Cards during vacation

   I received  a lot of nice cards during the time I was on vacation. I plan to blog about my trip next week but I figured I'd do a quick mail catch-up. It was delightful to arrive home to such beautiful cards and kind words. Thank you all! Many of these came from my Penpalling & Letters postcard swap. The others are from family and from Postcrossing.

 P & L from Zsuzsanna in Costa Rica. I also loved the cute post-it notes. I use them a lot. I will probably bring these to school since they are so cute.

 Matt and I just celebrated out 17th wedding anniversary. This was a card our church sent us, which I thought was pretty cool. The text is a Bible verse that says "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

 P&L from Sanja. She is also a teacher. She used an Israel-Deutschland stamp that I have not seen yet.

 An anniversary card from my parents. They also included a postcard and:

 One of my original wedding invitations. Cute touch.

 Check out this cool first day issue from Australia. Thanks Emma. My son David really liked this one too.

 This is from a Postcrosser in Oregon. She was so kind that she sent this card,

 this card and a small envelope of stickers and stamps for the boys. Thanks so much for your generosity.

 Anniversary card from Nana. I totally blame my Nana for my addiction to postal mail.

 P& L card from Fabienne. I love the little sailboats on this card

 From Irek from Poland. I love that I got 2 castle cards with the reflections. Beautiful.

 P&L- From Marie in Canada. This card is so cute.

From  Sam in England.  I wish I lived in a place like this. lol.

From Oksana in Russia. Anyone know what the text says? Cool card, a lot to look at.

Speaking of cool cards, Timmy wanted to send a postcrossing card and the user mentioned that they like strange cards and homemade cards. Timmy decided to make one for her. This is what he came up with. I love it. It is a bird from something Dr. Seuss would've made.

David also got in on the postcard frenzy during vacation. He's writing a friend a postcard- while getting distracted by the television.

ICAD 2015

    It's that time again! I'm taking part in Daisy Yellow's Index-Card-a-Day challenge. The basic just is to create something on a 3x5 card following a prompt (if you'd like.) It was a great way to foster my creativity and develop some art skills. I totally missed that the first week should be done with ink, pens and markers so mine is done using my gelli plate and acrylics. I had fun. I might go doodle again in a minute and make another card. So, here's ICAD 1/61 You can't see the colors well here but it was basically red, yellow and blue. Where the paint overlapped, the colors blended.

    In terms of mail, I've gotten quite a few fun things this past week.
Postcrossing card from Germany. This was the first card she has sent.

 From England. Another mailbox card. I love them!

 GoodReads win. Looks like a fun read

 Postcrossing from China

 2 letters- One from Chandini in South Africa and the other from Monique in The Netherlands.

A cool little art piece from Gretchen! 

    Are any other friends participating in ICAD2015? 

Back from the Cape

    I'm back for a few refreshing and cold days on Cape Cod. If you're not from the area, Cape Cod is beautiful in the summer but very crowded. In the winter it is... closed? desolate? depressing? All 3 I think. The good thing is that my parents have a time share there and we can stay there for free. So, even though there is not much there to entertain us, unless we try, we have a great time just being with each other. There is a pool and they have kids activities so we are always kept busy. I always bring a puzzle, a book (or 2) and letters so I'm always busy. (I read Rooftops of Tehran on this trip. I really liked it.) 
    This trip we:
-Went swimming
- Went out to eat with Matt's brother Jon and his 2 sons
- Did our normal Christmas Tree Shop runs (and I found some acrylic paint deals at Ocean State Job Lot)
- Were visited by my sister, her boyfriend and my niece
- Went out to a taco buffet. Matt loved it. I think I can still taste everything 2 days later. Too much junky food this trip
- Did almost all of the kids' activities- painted rocks, played bingo, made fleece pillows, did hidden object pages, etc.
- Did a puzzle together
- RESTED

I:
-Wrote 8 letters
-Read 1.5 books
- Slept more than I have in a really long time
- Enjoyed spending time with everybody and really liked noticing more differences/similarities with the boys. Tim is like me when he can just keep going all day if he's having a good time. That boys spent 5 hours straight in the pool on Tuesday. He gets along with all different types of people and can make friends with anyone. Unfortunately, he also shares can be judgmental like me. David is like me when he just wants to sit and cuddle, read or rest. He knows when he is tired and when he should probably go to bed. He is content to just sit with me and do something in the same room. He is silly and lovable.

    I also had some mail when I got home. Yeah!!! I have been expecting a package from Finland for a very long time but I'm starting to wonder if it's lost. After my initial disappointment that that still isn't here, I checked the mailbox. (Side story- We have 4 mailboxes across the street from our house. Mine is one of the 2 in the middle. Apparently, my neighbor's got taken out with a snow plow yesterday. Sad for him but glad it wasn't mine. His is the other one on the inside) Here is what I got:

 4 letters! Yes. Finally. The one in Amharic is from a little girl I sponsor through Compassion International. She is from Ethiopia. Her name is Tseganesh. The one with the beautiful handwriting is from Donna in Canada. The bluebird one is a Lettermo reply from Neil in England. Check out his stationary :) I don't know if you can order from the US but I like it all.  Then the cool envelope on the end is from Jen in CA. She is another person I have connected with through Lettermo.

 The card on the left is from a private Postcrossing exchange. It's from GA. The card on the right is another Lettermo reply! Yeah for Lettermo! I will have to continue to get at least 1 letter a day out to continue to stay ahead. 
     Anyone else taking part in Lettermo- how's it going for you?


The 366 Project: 
Sent: 85
Received: 28

Oh hey... did I mention that it's snowing again? We got another 17" when we were down the Cape Today it is snowing off and on. There is a snowbank on the corner of our driveway that is now quite a bit over my head. I'm 5'10" 

 
 

Create- Paint Night

   At the beginning of the year I told you that I would be focusing on the word "create" this year. I signed up for a local paint night tonight where I painted this picture. Honestly, I'm not super in love with it but, if you've ever heard me complain about how insecure I am with doing anything involving visual art, I don't think it's bad either. My main complaint is that I should've made the lines on the ground thinner. All in all, I'm happy with it and proud that I'm being brave enough to share it here. :) I'm happy with the tree trunks, which have always been a nemesis of mine. (Guess my tree project on Thanksgiving helpes with that!)

      Mail out headed to England, New York, Maryland and Missouri.

Incoming mail today came from my penpal Ashley in Wisconsin. She always writes great letters and sends really fun envelopes.

   Then I received another Goodreads win from the author R.J. Eliason. This is a fantasy book, signed by the author too. Grateful for another win!

   Yay for good mail! Boo for there only being 2 things after having 2 days of no mail delivery at all!

    Ok, I'm off to finish submitting my grades. 

Lettermo2015

   Who else is excited about The Month of Letters 2015? I have been involved for a few years. To be honest, I didn't do a great job. 2013 I did really well getting my mail out to people but then got behind and was in a huge funk because of stuff like the marathon bombing. 2014 I don't even know if I got anything out. So, 2015- new year. I prepared by writing a list of people who I had written to before or who had written to me, checking out their blogs, writing to the international ones so they could receive it at the beginning of Feb, and finding some new friends. I'm hoping for a really successful year. (Things that will make this successful for me: 1) Sending mail every mail day of Feb. This will greatly help with my 366 project. 2) Meeting some new people who I can continue connecting with throughout the year and 3) Hopefully getting some good mail.)  You should challenge yourself with Lettermo too. (You know I'm always looking for mail!)

     Here is my outgoing international mail... if I can get to the post office.

    These postcards are headed to Turkey, Germany, England, and Australia.  

The 366 Project:

Sent: 32

Received: 15

   Oh yeah, and it snowed. I present to you "BLIZZARD 2015"

Oh... shoot, wrong Blizzard.

   It wasn't bad. We have about 22 inches of snowfall but the drifts are huge. This is the front of my house so it is blocked from the wind. I'm 5'10" and the snow there was almost up to my waist.  It snowed for another 8 hours or so after those pictures were taken. I was trying to get into my car to get my school bag to do some work. I still have not completed the work I intended to but I'm relaxed and happy. (for now.. lol)