Drum Roll Please

It was a big day for a mail geek like me today.  Not only did I get to meet the Post Muse and attend a super awesome letter writing social at the National Postal Museum.  I am sure many others will also blog on this subject.  Tonight I just wanted to inform you all of the winner of the foil postcard.  My friend attending the conference with me chose #3.
If we assign a number for each comment in the order recieved - that means Hannah gets the card! 
It'll be on the way Monday!
More on the letter social and blog, tonight I must attend to some old friends and catching up!
My Best,
-b

A Very Cherry Visit

Hello All!  
I am currently in Washington D.C. and loving the weather!  Today my friend and I got to trek to the National Mall and one of the Smithsonian's.  This year was the hundred year celebration of the Cherry Blossom Festival and while the blossoms are long gone, there remains an air of celebration.  I happened to find and fall in love with this postcard!  It's a fabulous foil postcard and they are very impressive up close.  I loved them so much, that I wanted to share. 

So here's the deal.   Leave a comment below and I will randomly select a winner by Saturday and then mail it from here.  An FYI though, I am staying at the National Harbor in Maryland (across from D.C.), so the postmark may reflect that if time does not permit me to trek back into the city proper to mail it there.

I hope this is finding you all well and happy!  Sending you all happy thoughts and catching up on mail in the National Harbor!
-b

Lilac Season

Time for a season change.  I thought a lovely lilac shade was perfect for this time of year.  Hope you are all enjoying the bloom of Spring!  Although Mother Nature can keep her golden pollen! 
Get out there and live so you can write long letters about your adventures!
-b

Please Stay Tuned

Well my friends: "the time has come" ,the Walrus said, "to speak of many things"
And the bigest thing on my brain is my new home!  I will be closing on Friday!  With all the excitement and activity to come, I hope you will forgive my mometary absence.
Directly after close, I will be going on a planned business trip to Washington D.C.  While I am happy for the prospect of both of these events, I am sorry that I have been a bad blogger with no hope of correcting that soon.
Hopefully once the dust and paint settle, I will be back!  With a dedicated craft room, I am sure to churn out some new and exciting ideas!  And hopefully I will have some new ideas for mail challenges/ contests.
Until then my friends!

Until then, Keep calm and Eat a cupcake!

-b

How to Draw a Bunny

I know many of you talk of mail art and some know the origin, but how many of you have seen the documentary called How to Draw a Bunny?  This documentary is about Ray Johnson and his life in art.  He was one of the original mail artist.  The movie has great commentary from Ray Johnson and the folks that he mailed, worked with, and who "knew" him.  Apparently "knowing" him was not an easy task as he was a complex character and very private.
Ray Johnson was fascinated with what he could fit in an envelope, and tearing things apart and mailing the pieces one at a time to folks.  He was a terrific collage artist and was into using logos as part of his work.  Apparently Johnson and Warhol were friends for awhile and had big influences on each others works.
Johnson also enjoyed mailing a piece and having people add to it and mail it on.
I really enjoyed the movie and hope you will consider seeking it out on Netflix!

My Best,
-b

More, More, More, How do you like it?

Hello Folks,
 My life is coming down to a crunch.  The lovely weather is encouraging my activity and hopefully I will accomplish many of the check offs on my list today.  One thing I am doing is getting caught up on the mail!

Above is a really nice hand made postcard form postcrossing

A lovely surprise from Giselle!  She sent me a view book of her beautiful city, Barcelona, Spain.  She is one of the first pen pals I made when I started this journey.

A great package from Kendall.  You may have seen her blog at Happy Little Mailboxes.

2 postcards.  One of the Sydney opera house from postcrossing and the other from the Mutter Museum from RB.  That is the Museum of Medical Oddities located in old town Philadelphia.

Another postcrossing

I find it humorous how I can get the same theme on the same day from 2 different postcrossers.  One comes from Taiwan and the other from New Zealand!  While I like these, I just want to point out that nowhere on my postcrossing profile does it say specifically that I like cats.  Which makes this a little extra serendipity!

Some more wonderful postcrossings!

A green package from St Patricks Day.  The Picadilly post makes fabulous little gift packs of paper.  I love the recycling of the Lucky Charms box!

Klimt from KC.  I especially like his golden phase of artwork.

A great letter from CKB!

A letter from RB full of her recent adventures.

A nice postcrossing including a letter and bus ticket from Russia. 

Sometimes pen pals come to you through interesting circumstances.  Annie and I started to correspond after I sent her some Inuit artwork.   Turns out she is getting a degree in Native American Culture in the Netherlands.  I like advertising from other countries, so we struck up a deal to trade.  I send here what I can find on our native cultures and she sends me packaging and ads from  the Netherlands.  True symbiosis? 

Well I hope this finds you all writing lots and enjoying Spring/ Fall in your respective hemisphere!

My Best,
-b

Envelope Inspiration

I love the color blocking technique! 

I mentioned previously that I went to a Van Gogh exhibit in Philly.  While there soaking up the art and history, I took a look in the museum gift shop and what did I find . . .inspiration. 

The idea is simple.  Copy a page from the coloring book, color it and then mail it as either an envelope or fold-over.  I figure that will send my love of art and be very interesting.  Only one thing has prevented me from trying it thus far.

Moving.  I am under contract on the house with the stamp on the light switch. 
To all those who write me, the P.O. Box will be open till June and if all holds well I will move soon!  And I am very sorry for the slow replies, but they say life happens!
My best,
-b

No Fooling, More Mail!

This is the second post I created for April Fool's Day, but I post so rarely that I decided to save this for a day.

Always the recycler, this is from Patricia at Just Letter Rip

From Hannah!

From Troy!  I think he will be awhile in reply since a recent injury has him side lined from writing/ typing.  Heal quickly my friend!

From HS at Addicted to Mail!

Above and below are from LR - a very active SendSomething member!

A letter from JK

A sweet surprise from Lou!  I am a huge fan of Project Runway and she included some postcards from the French version of the show! 

Above and below are from the French Connection Malyss (not the drug ring, apparently the original French Connection).  She sends Valentine flowers and clippings of Carnival from Nice.  Not her favorite season, but a colorful one!

Colorful and fun, I think I'll read another one!  Off to make mail and I hope you will too!
-b

The In Keeps Coming

Here are some more over due to post letters.  Hopefully once the housing is figured out, I'll be back to my old posting and writing habits!  So lets start with some letters in.

Lucas Writes

RB sends a letter on owl wings

An old friend

A new friend from China

I forgot to take individual pics of the 3 postcards in the lower left corner.  They are all from Postcrossing

The above is MP from SendSomenthing and the lower 2 are postcrossing.  My first from Belgium and a great designed one from NJ

Also Postcrossings.  I like the hand drawn bike and the small batch from Fishermen's Wharf in Seattle

One is postcrossing and the other is shear JJ fabulousness

 Impeccable M sends some Irish luck

Misty's great hand designed card and a postcrossing.  Apparently Misty will send you one of her handmade cards when she gets a new stamp from this years release that she has not gotten before.  I was the first to send her the heart health stamp, which has surprisingly been one of my favorites this year.

2 fun cards from blog readers! 

A letter from SJ an old friend!

I love the Erte card from a postcrosser  - remember you can invite people to write you if they want.

Tara's back! 

From the Philadelphia Museum of Art - I got to go to the limited and super fabulous Van Gogh exhibit, but they do not allow pictures at the exhibit.  This photo is from the 18th century and depicts one of my (our?) favorite past times!

I always like to go to museums, I have ideas for mail art and I enjoy the museum stores for their unique items for sale!

Keep Writing my Friends!