You Tease!

Hello all,
How's your week been?  I had a really nice mail week.  It wasn't overwhelming and sometimes it really is all about the quality!  Here's the recieved.

Several nice postcards and a few nice letters made it up- which means a reply is imminent.  One mention is the jugglers up in the corner.  Nancy at TrampStamps made that and called me an enabler as my circus post made her curious enough to drive to Micheals (a local arts and craft store) to check out the circus themed supplies.  How can I feel bad when I'm rewarded so handsomely : )
And now a tease
What do you get when you cross free time with clearance priced paper punches?

I'll let you know!  I send a lot of premade, but sometimes creativity happens!  It's almost time for an outgoing mail.
With that, I hope this finds you sending the dream!
-Becky

Budget Makers

Dear friends,
It's been an extremely busy week and I'm glad I was indoors as the weather has been just gray and crummy with rain, rain, and more rain!  I did however find some time to go to Goodwill and was surprised by the goodies I found.
Deep in the back of the store in the bottom of a storage bin was this insane huge bag of stationery.  It was so big!  And only $3.97.  I spend more than that on stamps in a week!  So here is what $3.97 buys.

I wish I would have gotten a picture before I opened the bag!  But I was like a kid in a candy store and I couldn't wait to get this out to my car before I started to sort through it!  Yes I said car, I didn't even make it home before this bag was opened : )
Here's the break down.

Art postcards to the left bottom, had made cards on top, and random mini envelopes in the right corner.

Left upper- a stack of Thank yous, right upper- 2 artist original cards apparently signed (?), and some gray Hallmark paper and envelopes.

Upper Left- a set of scenery cards, Left lower- Caspari art cards, Right upper- more art cards and below them are some greeting cards.

 These are from current- the autumn bird set and my prized Colonial Williamsburg cards

Some miscellaneous incomplete card sets.

And finally a random bunch that fell on the floor while I was taking pictures of other cards.  The blanks to the right are just that- a set of ten blank cards and envelopes to make more stationery!  The insanity continues!
Now for those already jealous of my find- Don't read further because it gets better!
What can you get for $1.97?

How about a whole set of Crane Stationery!  It's not flashy, but it is Crane.
And last but not least, I needed another container to put my stationery in and I like vintage tins.

So for $0.97, I bought this old Whitman Chocolates box to help with the storage!
I love it even if others question my sanity.  (Wait . . . I question my sanity on a daily basis!)

I hope this finds you all getting a bargain!
-Becky

p.s For those of you outside the USA, Goodwill is a chain of second hand stores that resales donations and funds work programs through those sales.  Because the stores work on donations, the daily merchandise is incredibly random and different.

Caught Up!

Hello all!
I finally caught up with all my return letters, postcrossing, and this months birthday list!  I feel soooo triumphant!  That I went a little crazy and started random mailings.  Actually the random acts of mail make me incredibly happy : ) 
So sendsomething folks and old friends- maybe you've been targetted. 



And my postal labels came in!  To quote Speck "Woot!"  What else does a girl need?  (Um . . . besides chocolate, pens, and pretty paper)

Hope this finds you all in good spirits!

-b

End of Week: Mail Call!

Hello all,
The mailing god has been good to me this week.  Or was it just that I was gone and had accumulation  . . . ?  Oh well, I got mail!  Many of the pieces are from postcrossing and http://www.sendsomething.net/ but I would say 4 are from old friends!  Slowly but surely I am drawing them into my underground world- Mua-ha-ha-ha! 

I do want to point out Specks' postcards.  We did a little private exchange, but she has a mail blog too, so feel free to check it out.  But all in all, it was a nice haul and I really appreciated it.  I know summer is coming to the Northern hemisphere, so I expect my mail load to lessen for a bit while everybody is out enjoying the sunshine!
Speaking of which, I should go too and taking a certain patient pooch for a potty break.
Hope this finds you all well and happy!
And remember- to get you must give,
-b

More Adventures On the Road

On the way to DC, I mentioned to my travel companion that there was this weird little roadside place called Roadside America.  The place houses a toy train collection and miniatures and was recommended by several people as place to see.  Now my travel companion and I have been friends for years, and I had no clue she liked miniatures! 
So stop, we did.

The display was made by Paul and Laurence Gieringer.  They and their children worked on it for years.  It was moved to its current location and opened to people in 1941.  The place is like a time capsule! 

It depicts life in the late 1800's to early 1900's and shows the rapid transition from carriage and horse drawn work devices to the days of cars and industry.  The detail is magnificent and there are buttons for kids (or adult kids like me) to push to make things move in the exhibit.

Sorry the pics aren't great.  The place was rather dark and my camera didn't want to work with the lighting.  But I did score some postcards fo the place at the throw back price of 25cents a piece!
Hope this finds your travels surprising and your mailboxes full!
-b
one final pic