Incoming!

Hello all,
I hope my fellow mailers from the USA had a great holiday!  Thanksgiving was celebrated last Thursday and I know I could be counted among the millions and millions who hit the road and drove home over the holiday weekend.   Amazingly this time, I actually had a chance to respond to a few letters while I was home!
In no particular order, here are the incoming.

A Malaysian postcrossing

Sendsomething

Nancy at the Stamptramps

Earth to Girl is Back!

Rachel from the Letter Writer

a Vera Wang!

2 cards from postcrossing

2 more cards from postcrossing

my pal Kati

From Rin at S2

And that's all for now!  I have a handful more that I have responded to but not taken photos of yet!  So to be continued . . .
Hope this finds you all well and happy,
-b

Through the Mountains and Under the Lakes to Mother's House

There's a well known song that says "Over the mountain and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go"  With a few changes (above) this has been my trek.  I am back to see my family over my favorite holiday Thanksgiving!  Food will abound and we will all bicker and play games.  Then tomorrow, the hunt begins!  Black Friday shopping in ungodly early hours of the morning. 
For my part, I just want to say that I am thankful for all of you and the pen friends I have made!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Becky

Dang, I Forgot my Camera!

Do you ever have those moments when you wish you had remembered to bring your camera?  Well today was one of those days for me. I had planned on going to the public library and then seeing if I could find the Artsquest center at the Bethlehem Steel Stacks.  I had no issues finding either, but I was surprised at the sprawl of the Steel Stacks complex and my huge desire to take photos of the structure!  The rustic brick and industrial steel towers of the iron works building were really interesting. 

Another reason why I headed to the Artquest center this weekend was it was the first weekend of Christkindalmarkt - A German style artisan market.  Bethlehem was named Christmas City USA in the 1940's and has hosted this market for many years. 
While there I saw several goodies!  But I only walked away with some small German papercutting ornaments.  I have discussed it before on this site, but have yet to attempt it myself.  I cannot even image trying something as intricate as they are!  I will resist posting the pictures for now in case my family peeks as I plan to give these as gifts.  (Who am I kidding, they have no interest in my mail hobby - sigh!) 
I know it has nothing to do with mail, but I love all types of papercraft!

On Sunday, I also trekked over to the newly renovated and re-opened Allentown Art Museum.  I am not a huge fan of the Renaissance but I do hope to go back there as they rotate exhibits for more contemporary artist.
I found some great mail related postcards and made a piece of stationery in the kids craft section.

I refuse to grow up! 

I hope this finds you all doing well and finding happiness,
-b

Ebb and Flow of my Mailbox

Hello all,
Well I do declare,  how does time fly so quickly?  Today I spent a majority of the day cleaning and packing for my Thanksgiving holiday trip.  I also had a few weekend adventures, but I hope to post about thise soon enough! 
On to the mail!
Received and in no particular order

A first day of issue art stamp from Elle Mental

 
 A terrific package from Aida at Aida Goes Artsy!

Postcrossing

Wanda's Wonderful Package

L.R. is back!

A note from Val

A few notes from people who usually do not send them

Postcrossing (above and Below)

From Annnabell

From Winnie's Girl

From Troy, celebrating a year of ink!

Ash knows I'm a Black Friday kind of gal

And finally for today, Marian!

Outgoing - just a few pics of some creative moments I had!  I tend not to like to share too much just in case it spoils the surprise for the recipient.

A few things I made.  The last was from today.  The Allentown Art Museum had a creative kid corner, so I set to work crafting this cute piece: )
Hope this finds you all well and happy,
-b

Whew! Has it Been Almost a Week?

Where does time fly, on the wings of migrating hummingbirds?  Or does it drift like a leaf down on a breezeless morning to the ground?  Either way, it is flowing day by day.
The week has brought me many letters and a small burst of creativity.  It has also taken many hours working on projects other than mail.    I have noticed many of the normal blogs I read have been posting less frequently, so fall most be keeping many more than me busy.
But for you mail junkies out there, expect a post on some incoming and outgoing this weekend.
My Best,
-b

Par le vous postcards!

Hello all,
I was just working on my postcrossing as a lot of my cards were registered this week after making long trips to China and Russia.  I decided to get my new victims and low and behold they are all living in France!  (Notice I did not say French)  I had the ability of drawing up to 5 people - what are the odds they would all be from the same country?  I have drawn 3 from Russia in a row and 2 lived in the same house, but not only have I never had any from France as of yet on Postcrossing, I received 5 in one day?  I think the lottery is calling my name to play today. Too bad all my spare money goes to stationery and stamps!

My Best,
-b

P.s.  For those of you who do not know about Postcrossing;  It is a web site that you register for and it matches you with random addresses of people who would like mail - usually tourist postcards but they usually write a paragraph or so to tell you what they want.  You in turn get a postcard for every one you send (give or take depending on whether it gets lost or not).   It is supposed to be a random assignment and a surprise until received, but as you can see, sometimes it's not so random.  The site is free, but the biggest drawback is the international postage can be expensive.  Take sending 5 postcards to France for example.

Veteran's Day

For all of the other countries that visit today, today is our country's Veteran's day.  A day to honor the soldiers who have fought in wars.  One thing you may not know about me is that 2 of my siblings are Veterans.  I support our troops through Operation Write Home partly because a good friend of mine is deployed in Afghanistan.  But what I really, really wish for, pray for, hope for is peace.

The purple heart is a medal of valor awarded to Veterans wounded in battle.  It's one of my favorite stamps for postcrossing because it's small size, but both the medal and the stamp have been around for many years.
I hope you all have a reflective Veteran's Day!  Happy for those who made it home, hopeful for those still serving, and remembering the too many who did not make it home.
-b

More In and Out

With the help of Mickey the mail cat, I have been getting through the piles and am slowly, ever so slowly, catching up!

Here she is hard at work!

First the In- Crowd

From Tara at Hello Life

I heart Paris and Malyss!

A very nice letter

An S2 friend

Taiwan postcrossing - love the shape

A wonderful recycling effort Anna

From Heidi at Adventures of a Mail junkie

Second the out

front

back

Above was a whole food themed ensemble!  I love sending this to people in other countries so the can see some of our food culture and advertising!  Speaking of which, I smell my own supper!
Hope this finds you all hungry for more!
-b

Book Sale = Mail Art Opportunities

Hello all of you out there in mail land!
I first want to say that if you have not read my blog long, you may be surprised (or not) to find that I am a bit cheap.  Not about everything, but I sure like a deal.  So here is a big tip to many of you,  I rarely buy books from bookstores!  I usually try to stock up at library, yard, and charity sales.  Usually the books go for a dollar each, give or take, and are in decent shape.
Why talk about books on a mail blog?  Because they are terrific sources of inspiration!  Just look at the fun ideas!
Here are some of my finds at the final Bethlehem Public Library book sale of this year!

Nonfiction books about people's travels.  I love this genre of literature.

I like travel stories like these because they help me understand other cultures.  Usually they are written by Americans about their perspectives and experiences in other cultures.  Although Holy Cow was written by an Australian, it is one of my favorite of this genre about travels in India!

I love the cover of this book!

Not only is the above book pretty, but I am hoping to use the letters inside to liven up a letter writing slump I seem to have gotten into with one of my pals.  I have ides that should be fun!

The above 2 books are all advertisements from the 1940's - Squeal!!!!  I hate to tear up the books, so I may try to scan them or copy them and see how that works before I take scissors to them.

Pamela from Cappuchino and Art recommended a long time ago that I consider looking at as many artists works as possible to help shape my own tastes and preferences.  Therefore I am always looking for more art books and the design book seems to be some kind of college book but looks cool. 

The above contain all kinds of small projects.  The best thing is they can be adapted to fabric or paper and provide easy cut-out shapes.  My brain goes crazy with ideas on how to adapt these to mail!!!

Self- explanatory!

The above book has a whole section on ready to mail journals and accordion card!  Can't wait to try it!!!
Once I am done with my fiction and non-fiction books, I tend to pass them on.  Either back to one of the charity book sales or on to a fellow friend.  If you are a truly voracious reader, consider joining Bookcrossing.  I know little about it, but hope the Postmuse will stop by to tell us more in the comments as I know she is/was a member of that group.
Much love and MailArt!

-b

Been Awhile- Incoming Mail

Hello all,
I know its been some time since I last posted the incoming mail I've recieved.  As always, if it's listed below, a reply has already been sent.

From our dear D, a college summer intern

From CK - love the recycling

From EF - we are just starting our cooresponding and with such lovely stationery

From Nancy - you may have seen this dog before - she likes to remake the cards depending on the holidays. 

From Matthew, also a newer coorespondence

The above and below are the same postcard from Margaret.  It's a 3D Postcard!  Does anybody have experience with these?  Do they mail okay?

The Postmuse and I have been trading postcards since I started!  The above are all from her in a response to a food series I sent her way.

I am sure many, many of you have seen the Lander, WY card.  Let's just say, one of the town's residents is a very active mailer ! )

Yay!  Utah and Mucha.  Betcha Mucha never went to that beautiful state.

Finally I end with a postcrossing and a sendsomething.  These are both wonderful sites to start your adventures in mailing!

I know there's not a lot here but I had to reply to all the wonderful participants of the recycle challenge.  They should either have their replies by now or know that they are in the mail!
Happy writing my friends,
-Becky