Saturday Special: Blizzard Post Card Party

Saturday, February 9th, 2013, after spending the majority of the day shoveling out my house, I collapsed into bed and felt guilty.  I could do more laundry, I could clean my room, or I could work on some more mail.  I decided to get to the post cards I had been meaning to mail and put everything else off, since the mail didn't require me to be vertical.

This card went to my virtual friend Sara, of Box of Joy fame.  I bought all of the wolf post cards at the Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center during my visit to Auntie Pat in September.

This awesome card is going to my cousin Sam, who lives in Hawaii.  I got this at the Letter Writing Social I went to and I have been saving it specifically for her.  This is from HI: 30 Postcards from Chronicle Books.

This post card is going to Hailey and is one of two Grand Canyon cars that Boyfriend brought back from his trip to California.

Two of these went out, one for Hailey and one for Preston.  I bought this on my trip to Acadia National Park.  Saw those Porcupine Islands myself.

Sent Hailey and Preston each one of these as well.

This one went to Hailey.

Preston got the second Grand Canyon card.

This is another post card I scored at the Letter Writing Social.  I sent this to my Auntie Pat, who lives there.  I thought she would be amused.

This one went to Kathy.

This went to Preston.

Another card from the Social, I sent this to my Aunt Michelle.

I sent this to my friend Nick.

And below are some photos of the postage I used for the cards.

Plates: Outgoing

So you all know that I am a huge fan of the Plate Mail.  I had two plates left and I was saving them for special people, and until I could get my hands on a $2 Waves of Color stamp.  I got my hands on a Wave stamp, but I had to go to Boston to get it.  None of my local Post Offices were carrying it, and I was told flat out that they would not be getting it at all.

I learned this past weekend that unless I remember to go to the Post Office in Boston when I am there on Tuesdays, the North Kingstown Post Office on Post Road seems to have a variety.  I was able to score two $5 stamps {that they were holding for me because I called earlier in the week} on Saturday.  While they were hunting for my reserved two it was clear they had a few sheets of them.

I sent this plate to my friend Ryan.  Ryan is in basic training in North Carolina.  I met Ryan through my night job, where he and his family are some of my VIP's.  They all know that I am a snail mail fanatic, so when he left he made his parents promise that they would give me his address.  I regret that this is the only thing I found the time to send him, but at least it was interesting.  I am hoping that it both got delivered and that he was not humiliated for it.  The goal was fun and humor, not humiliation.

I sent this pink plate to my friend Kathy.  She has a few dogs who would probably enjoy this as a frisbee.  She got this the day after I sent it, which is one of the few awesome things about living in a tiny state.

Wave! Finally!

These things are really great in person.  

This weekend in Post Cards

This weekend I went to the Cape and stayed at Boyfriend's house.  I packed up all of my mail swag so that I could devote the entire weekend to mail.  I even left my babies at home {sniff sniff}.  I'll be spacing the posts out so as not to dump it all on you at once, but everything I did this weekend will go out in the mail tomorrow and will be postmarked from the Cape.

I picked these cards up about two weeks ago from a shop in Mashpee Commons.  I love the texture of them  They are identical to the post card I received from my friend Jackie about Boston, only 4x6 instead of the larger {and preferable} 5x7.  The card above is heading to Melissa of Viva Snail Mail in reply to the post card she sent me below.

This was a reply to a letter I had sent to her in late summer.

I sent this to my friend Kathy, who loves sunsets and photographs and receiving mail.  I thought she would enjoy the oranges and reds.

I sent this to Post Muse, in addition to a letter, because she loves the Cape and I thought she would enjoy it.  Her letter will be shown in a later post.

More Belated Incoming Outgoing

I spent the mid-month of December working on mail, slowly but surely catching up on my replies.  These will be going out in the mail tomorrow.

Got this great envelope and letter from Anne Elizabeth from Letter Love.  This was her first letter to me and my second to her.

I love the washi tape and the labels.

I also love the stationery.

I am also replying to this great note from Erin Fickert-Rowland.  Her mail art can be found here at Elysian Studios.  She's kind of awesome and very adventurous.

I loved this card so much.  The texture of the paint left on the smooth stock was great.

This is a returned correspondant card from Katherine, who I think I found over at Pen Pal of the Week.

She has great handwriting and is my only Canadian Pen Pal.  I like the postmarks on her envelopes.

On the outgoing side, I sent all three replies in these airmail envelopes I had bought from Amazon forever ago.  Not fancy, but better than a plain #10.

This is the international stamp for Katherine's letter.

Also outgoing tomorrow is the awesome Pneumatic Post.  This will be its third trip through the postal system.

The Pneumatic Post comes from the LWA and is awesome.  The best part is finding fun things to fill it with.  The first time I mailed it out, I sent out a bagel dog bone and addressed it to Kathy's dog.  When I got it back, I received some great beauty samples.  I am not going to mention what I am sending out this time in the event she reads this post.

The LWA does a great job of explaining how it all works so I won't re-hash it for you here, but it is a fun mail toy.  I thought I would have a hard time with the postage removal, and it did take some work, but it was not too bad.  I soaked it for a few hours yesterday in hot soapy water and got as much of the sticky stuff off with my nails as I could.  Then I hit it with the Goo-Gone and it was good as new.  Probably should have tried the Goo-Gone first.

My plan tomorrow is to go to the main RI post office to see if I can finally get my hands on some $2 Waves of Color Stamps and hopefully pop one on this thing.  Either way it's getting mailed, but I am having the worst time finding that series.  My local post office said the don't have them and won't be getting them.  They called a second post office in my city who said the same.  The third post office I tried had never even heard of them, I had to show them a photo on my phone.  So we shall see how tomorrow goes.

Catching up on Incoming Mail...

And actually replying!

So because all of my outgoing letters to pen pals were lovingly wrapped in plain white business envelopes, I will be showing what I received and not what I sent.  Although each letter is long and handwritten, the envelopes are totally lame.

This is the stack of outgoing for today.  Two thank you notes to a waitress and a hostess of this amazing restaurant.  A 1970's fold-n-mail I bought from Missive Maven at her Etsy Shop, and boring envelopes to everyone below.

Catie has written me not one, not two, but three letters since I last wrote to her.

One came with a wax seal!

One with a very decorated envelope!

Catie is a new recruit to the LWA!

She's got more than one envelope coming to her!

I replied to a "Congrats on your new job" card from my friend Jackie

And a fun "just because" card from my other friend Katie, who has two Weimaraners herself!  Lots of glitter here!

A long overdue reply to the lovely LR MacArthur, who sent me this very cool fold-n-mail airmail.

And a beautifully written note, my 1st from Mr. Lucas from Lucas Writes.

A returned correspondent card from the lovely Katherine Pitt.

She's international and well traveled!

And a letter from Sam, that I replied to in August but just mailed.  Yup, that's how hectic it's been!

Thanks for sticking with me!