Vacation and a Contest

Vacation means escape, get away, and hopefully recharge.  One can hope these will all occur over the next few days as I travel north to the New England coast.  As many of the pen friends know, I have been working hard on the house and job this summer, so time off is going to be great!

While I am gone, I am going to leave this up as a challenge and a reminder.

The Challenge

I found a second Post Secret book at the same thrift store where I found a the first one.  I was looking for a good time to give it away, so here it is.  Send me a hand made post card with a "secret".  It does not have to be as somber as the ones in the book or on the Post Secret website, and remember this blog is family friendly.  I would like to have all the entries received before the November 2nd - the weekend of the Central PA letter social.  I will be taking them with me to the letter social to show some examples of mail art to passersby, and the winner will be picked there.
Mail your entries to me at

P.O. Box 613
Nazareth, PA 18064

You may want to include some contact info for me to track you down easier!  Which brings me to the second part of the post.

The Reminder

When: November 3rd,  1-4pm

Where: The Midtown Scholar in downtown Harrisburg, PA

Why:  To support mail and socialize with other like minded individuals!  Come out and enjoy a fun hobby in a great space with creative people!

Until we meet again, keep writing and sharing your love of letters!
-b

More Mail!

It was a moment of conflict when I decided to no longer directly post my address on my web page, but as you can see, I am still extremely blessed with mail.  I am glad there are so many interested in writing and sending and that physical contact with the world will hopefully go on!
Enough psycho-babble, on to the visual stimulation.

 A note from my old co-worker!  Love and miss her!

 A nice letter from KC.  Like the Calgary Belt Buckle stamp!

 A letter from Mary Has Sound.  We met at the DC Letter Writing Social at the National Postal Museum.  See what a little socializing brings?
Mark your calendars for the upcoming letter social in Harrisburg on November 3rd!

A sendsomething friend!  Welcome CA to the incoming basket.

 The Institute of Deltiology (postcards) and its founder.  I hope to communicate with him in the near future and see if he would like postcards donated to him.  His main interests is looking at historical buildings and the changes that postcards document especially in relation to the state of Pennsylvania.

 A letter and some from CB on send something

 Melissa of Craftgasm, with a nice note.  Vintage early 90's I suspect ! )

A great letter from MW on Send Something.  Her handwriting is divine, makes me a bit abashed about my chicken scratches.  Good thing I found a few typewriters to help my legibility. 

 

 A nice letter from Miss Millie, a new send something pal.  That site has been very good to me!

 My postcrossing pen pal; Potato and I continue to exchange notes despite the distance!

 Love the Sugar Plum Penguins - this is actually a 3-D card and very cute.  I could hear
 Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies in my head while I read this!  I am not the biggest classical music person, but this particular score holds a soft spot in my heart!  This letter comes as a reply to a recent random care package I sent to a Send Something participant.  Whenever I unload those boxes of stationery, I repack them with this and that and out goes some mail love!

I liked this raw stationery from my friend JK - whose out exploring life!

My Bests,
-b

P.S. Some outgoing, I rarely post these

A little Dexter anybody?

Remember security envelopes and paint chips are always a good fit!  This was a envelope filled with envelopes and sent out to Annie in reply to her envelope conundrum.

 

Some of the Beautiful Received

Time to see what has been visiting my mailbox!  As you may notice, I am back to traveling the world through postcrossing.

 Above and below are from MH, on his travels!

 Above and below are postcrossings!  Sorry that my frog prince does not want to be seen!

 2 more from postcrossing! 

 Above and below are from LR in our on-going commentary of Project Runway Season 10.  The black season.

 A beautiful and quirky card from my friend at the StampTramps!

 A note from JD.  I believe that is a Suki stationery.

 Above and below are postcrossings.  Below is a black card, not one of my favorites.

A card I tried to mail to a SendSomething person that came back to me.  I guess I sent myself a vintage then.  Does anybody love hotel cards?  I was looking to donate a few!

Happy Mailing,
-b
 

This is a Test of My Seasonal Preparedness!

The longer I hang out with talented card makers, I think, "I can do this!  I can make my own holiday cards for the different holidays!"  The only problem is I usually run out of time before I ever have a real chance to start.  But not this year, this year I decided to start early!

First Step:  Assess what you have!
I started by assorting my holiday themed cards to see what I had at pre-purchased and what I would need to make some of them.  (The seasons I send cards are Halloween, Thanksgiving, the Christmas/ New Year cluster, and Valentine's Day).  Unfortunately they are a bit of a cluster for the creatively challenged like myself.

Christmas, it's safe to say is off the list this year and probably next year as well.

Second Step:  Assess the materials you need!
This is different than the materials you think you need, unfortunately I have a hard time making the call and get a bit carried away at the craft store.

Third Step:  Design patterns you can actually tackle.   When in a rut, I recommend looking at the Project Write Home template design section or going on Pinterest.  There are also several craft magazines on line and tons of creative crafters all over the world that have images of their work on their blogs.  Remember, mimicry can be a form of flattery!

Fourth Step:  Have a glass of wine and let your ambitions slip away, then run out of time and go buy cards anyway!  Hopefully this doesn't happen, but such is life when it does.  Luckily there are plenty of beautiful pre-made cards for the well meaning with time management issues!

Who's with me!?!  Hopefully you get some motivation and avoid the wine!

Happy making!
-b

Never to Busy to Type!

Whew!  What a busy time it has been!  I have been outside enjoying the lovely fall weather.  This is my season to really get my hands dirty in the yard and garden trimming trees and planting bulbs.  The last few days have been chilly and rainy and unmotivated for any kind of work.  Luckily today I got the call that my typewriter was repaired and waiting for me!

So the afternoon I have been tapping away on the newer Royalite.  (to the right)  It's a quick and easy typer, but that also means more typos.  Nevertheless, I am enjoying my time in catching up on letters!
Hope this finds you all well!
-b