Friday, January 29, 2010

"if you can't feed your baby...

...then don't have a baby!"

Right now I am loving 'This Is It' on DVD, as you can see by the quote above. Not a lyric very famous but it always makes me chuckle cause it's a part of a song that you wouldn't think it'd be in and is something that I find to be right on point. Seriously, if you can't feed your baby, then don't have a baby...and don't think maybe if you can't feed a baby! Haha, excuse my incredibly annoying love for Michael Jackson songs. I truly love his work and it's hard for people to take you seriously when you say that you actually love his music and don't or didn't care about all the hype he had around him. Cause while I thoroughly loved that you got to see the real MJ in the film, I really just love his music and think that he's one of the most iconic music artists to have ever lived. And just like The Beatles, it's so amazing how many songs of his that you remember and know and just how many hits he had. There's also no denying of wanting to get up out of your seat and dance a little bit and you CAN NOT not sing along to his songs, you can't. I hope you all tune into the Grammys this Sunday for his 3-D tribute, I have a feeling it's going to be just as fantastic as the film.

Anywho, on to the mail-related goodness!

These are the four pieces of mail I've received this week, all from readers. I must say, it's such a thrill to actually know people read what you write, no matter if it's here, about mail or on my art/personal blog. I'm so grateful to all four of you for taking the time to write, thank you Passion, Aaron, Tricia and Bonnie!

A standout was a great International Girl Aerogramme from Miss Postmuse, I love fold-n-mail's! But as you can see, I had a difficult time opening this one and ripped it pretty bad, I was literally saying to myself 'oh no!!', haha.

And this recipe-card turned postcard from Aaron, which is so cool, I'd like to try it sometime soon. Aaron, I haven't tried the recipe yet, but I will soon! I LOVE smoothies, they've become as addicting as iced caramel macchiatos! haha


I've spent the last couple days making and decorating envelopes and still have lots more to continue to work on. Here's some of my favorites:

A big manila envelope was used for this photo I really liked because it wouldn't fit on anything else. :/ Not sure if it will go to my friend Kaylyn or Bianca because they're the two I write the longest letters too and could maybe fit some Mead journal pages inside! Also did some lettering on the flap which took a good half hour to get just right.

I think I'll use this one for my reply to Passion...

No clue as to who this one should go to, I love it so much and it took me awhile to do that little bubble. I'm not too good on drawing message bubbles, but practice makes perfect, right? And the mouth w/ fangs I added at the last minute when I found it as an ad in a magazine and thought 'hey, the girl on the front could be a vampire, right?'.


Now time for the outgoing!

I made these two envelopes for Miss Bee a long time ago and just now writing little notes to put inside and send the fun envelopes to her. The Marc Jacobs one got all messed up when I traced my template, which kind of stinks because I wanted the kitten on the front of the envelope. :/

Sending start-up letters to some photographer friends, that's why I used my (now dwindling supply of) photography 15c stamps! This gem goes to Miss Sara in Minnesooooota, ;P.

This one goes to Sir Graham in North Carolina. He's very into techno and kind of retro-looking things so I found this snapshot of an 80's looking boom-box in an ad and knew it'd be perfect for his envelope. I wrote a little quip about my drawing of a tattoo on the girls' ankle...

And this one has already been sent into the postalsphere, but never blog-posted it. My reply to Miss Kerri which I used my all-time favorite Paris envelope, so sad to see it go! I took some really pretty and soft ribbon and wrote a couple lines on it to tie the contents of the letter together, but it's for her eyes only guys!


Whew! I'm exhausted, aren't you? This might be my biggest post yet. Anyway, sorry for the delay on the post; Lightroom, the program I use to edit my photography and these letter-photos was acting super-weird yesterday and therefore I couldn't post, blehh. And on top of everything, I'm sick again (lady problems + a cold = gross.) and have time to write replies and start up letters a dozen, so I should be able to get another post in by Sunday, :]. Hope everyone's had a good mail-week so far; if not, Saturday is one of the best mail-days, so there's always tomorrow! I didn't get anything today except my beloved Entertainment Weekly, so I'm with ya if there was no Friday mail for you! :/

Yours til the postal service dies,
- L

Monday, January 25, 2010

for the love of post

Writing letters, as you know, is a blast, but when you write 348293989980239277 over a weekend, your wrist starts to threaten your existence, haha.

So, here's a look at just a few of the things that are going out tomorrow(couldn't make it to the post office today):

A reply to Miss Lindsay in one of my favorite Paris envelopes. I always feel like I can't decorate them too much because of how busy they are and I don't want to ruin the photo! As for postage, it will be getting a 75 cent stamp when I go to the post office tomorrow. (sorry the photos aren't that great, when I get a spare moment, I'll try and re-post them tomorrow. :])

Reply to Misthian in one of my favorite see-through envelopes.

Reply to Zoraida...

A fun postcard I made/printed myself from a photo I found in an old film book, I loved the image and believe it was titled 'wrestling with love'. And then a couple big birthday cards that I loved picking out, writing and then decorating all for one of my good friends, Kaylyn.


And a little surprise package that Miss Bee will have to see for herself when she opens it. I love sending packages for no particular reason, haha.


Speaking of her fabulousness, Miss Bianca has an amazing giveaway going on right now, shame on you if you don't check it out! --> goodnightlittlespoon.blogspot.com .

The blog post on mail in films is coming along great and I hope to have it finished by the end of this week or beginning of the next. <3

AND I got two things in the mail from readers today! Such a thrill to find both bright and colorful missives in my mailbox! So thank you to Passion and Aaron, if you're reading! I'll post photos of both tomorrow. :]

May your stamps always be hand-canceled,
- L

Saturday, January 23, 2010

breathe...

Over the past few days I have been very busy, tired and somewhat in a sad state. And today a family issue that came up just made my world crumble and the next month and a half are going to be very hard. The unfortunate part is that we're caught up in it all and there's nothing we can do to change what has to happen. It's such a long story, but to put it this way is that I'll have a new address come March. And no, it's not our house that's getting foreclosed or anything, my parents just rent it, and there's come an issue and a half that's deteremined quite a frustrating outcome. This sounds so stupid, but as well I have not recieved any mail, really for the last three or four days and it hasn't made it much easier to try and cope with not only this issue but a couple others as well. So please, if you're religious, pray for me, if not, wish me lots of luck; because I will be needing both.


This is a reply to Miss Sarina in Germany.


My lovely friend April will be seeing this in her mailbox very soon.



Sent Miss Meg a postcard for fun. I love how easy it is to write and pop a postcard into the mailbox.


I made this postcard of canceled vintage stamps for the Ladies of Pod Pod Post/Good Mail Day. They wrote in their book to send them a postcard to recieve a special piece of mail in return, so...


Any type of fold-n-mailings are super fun, to me. This one goes to a lovely pen pal down under. (I took a shot of the neat design as to the paper has little raised bumps on it, :])


Much Postal Love,
- L

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

a letter stole my money

Well today was a ridiculously crazy day. I literally want to sleep for 24 hours and just be a hermit.
I lost my debit card and didn't find it until about an hour ago. Guess where...
In a stinkin' letter. Yep.

When I was going through my final searches, thinking there'd be no way of it being inside an envelope, I found it inside my friend April's recent letter. I had stuffed some mail into my handbag earlier and when I had gone to the bank, just put my receipt and card into my bag, not really thinking and didn't check for it until I was about ready to leave for work. So somehow my card had slipped into the envelope among my errand-running this morning. Geeeeeez loouuuuuise!
Anyway, thank you to everyone who's commented on posts and have started following the past few days, I'm so excited to see where this blog is going. :]

Here's some recent incomings...

My first letter from a new pen pal, written in quite the creative format, don't you think? I'd really like to try this myself, write a letter on a file folder; how neat is that?!



A reply from Kerri, she has the most adorable stationery; and I LOVE her handwriting, it's so cute, dontcha think?



Finally got a reply from Misthian. She writes really funky letters.


Miss April wrote back, once again, FINALLY, haha. Normally she writes back relatively fast, but not this time. Oh well, I love how she decorated her envelopes with lovely, cute stickers, don't you?



And I'll post some outgoings tomorrow because it's really late and I need my sleep, darnit! But I promise to post them tomorrow, I hate this three days between posts stuff. :/ Anywho, I hope you all got some good mail today! All I got was a silly postcard, but I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow. :] Oh! I also have a little blog coming up soon about movies featuring mail as a story-line, so be on the lookout for that too in the coming weeks. Films are one of my other loves and I'm very passionate about all things film, directing, acting, cinematography and so on and so forth. Tell me, what's your favorite film?

Here's to a good mail day for all of us!
- L