Fortune telling fish

I got a letter from Shannah in Louisiana this week. She sent a really cute paper doll notecard, and some scratch and sniff stickers. I haven't seen any of those in a long time! Michelle from Hawaii sent me a quote from Marilyn Monroe with her letter: "We should all start to live before we get to old. Fear is stupid. So are regrets." I like that! She asked me to send her a decorated quote back. Do you have a favorite quote? Some I like are:

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” ― Mark Twain

“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” ― Thomas A. Edison

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid." ― Albert Einstein

And some funny ones...

“I like work: it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.” ― Jerome K. Jerome

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” ― Albert Einstein

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." ― Mark Twain

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” ― Douglas Adams

I also received a letter from Rin in Australia.

I love the paper she used!

 Along with her letter she sent a fortune telling fish. I love it, it's so cute!

The last one, the postcard, is from Vicki in Boston Massachusetts. She took the picture of "Appeal to the Great Spirit", a favorite statue of hers, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, then had it made into a postcard. I think that's really neat to get your photographs made into postcards. Another thing I've thought about, but haven't actually tried.

Antique/vintage postcards and prints

Last minute, we spent the weekend in Savannah, GA. My great-aunt lives there, and we hadn't seen her in about 10 years. Before we left, I got this postcard in the mail from Patrick in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

They don't have the "Aqua Follies" anymore, and the structure is long since gone (although there is a smaller version of it as a playground). There is said to be a time capsule from the 1950's at the bottom of the lake that he hopes to dig up one day. How cool is that? He also said that at his wedding (it's his 6-month anniversary) they used old Minneapolis postcards as invitations!

On the same subject of old postcards, while we were in Savannah we found a store, V. & J. Duncan, that sells antique maps, prints, and books. In a back corner they also have a big file cabinet of postcards! To give you an idea of what the store looked like, here is their postcard/business card.

I could have stayed there for hours! My mom and my sister each bought a print...

 I bought a few postcards. I don't think I can part with all of them, though!

I love the first one, it's adorable! The middle two I thought were funny, and the last one I just liked. I think it's a scene from China, the writing on it looks Chinese.

Singapore and some interesting mail!

I got a letter from Rachel in Singapore today! I love her paper! The stamp is really cool too! And the stickers are cute! Asian stickers and cartoons are so cute!

It's my first letter from Asia! She said that Singapore was colonized by the British in the early 20th century, so they have a mixture of western and eastern cultures. They speak English, but also Mandarin, Hokkien, and "Singlish", a mixture of English, Mandarin, Malay, and Hokkien. It would be interesting to visit, because there wouldn't be as much of a language barrier as there would be in a place like Japan.

So today there was a package on our front porch addressed to my dad. When I brought it in, I noticed that it had "Fragile" and "This side up" stickers on it, and although it was somewhat large, it was light. Nobody could remember ordering anything. When we opened it up, this is what we found!

My dad had called the company to tell them that their chips were too salty, so they said he'd get a free bag. Instead of just sending a coupon, they sent a whole bag of chips through the mail! I think this is the most unique package we've ever gotten...

International letters, state farmers market, and Valentine's Day!

How was your Valentine's Day? Did you get chocolate, or do anything special? My  parents gave me chocolate and candy hearts :)

Four new letters! Two of which are from outside the USA!

Melody sent me a letter from Washington D.C. where she is interning at the Smithsonian Postal Museum. She goes to college in Arizona. I would love to intern somewhere like that when I'm in college, it would be so interesting! She also drew some places from there, like the Washington Monument. I visited Washington D.C. a couple years ago with my family, it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the Postal Museum. Melody also sent me some Valentine's themed stamps. Some of them I remember from a little coloring book of love stamps I had when I was little. I didn't color all of them, because they were too pretty!

Anyway, I also got a letter from Susan, from Custer, South Dakota. It was my first letter from the mid-west. I think she's Melody's mom, because they have the same last name, and Susan said that her daughter was interning at the Smithsonian Postal Museum. I wonder if they knew each other wrote?

I got a letter from David from Poland! He has a blog here. He sent me a Polish coin, 20 groszy, and a few phrases in Polish!

The last letter is from Caddie, from Germany. She also has a blog, which is in English! She used really cute bear stationary!

So today we went to the history program at the National Archives in Georgia again, and it was very interesting, but I don't have anything to post from it (like the draft cards from last time). It doesn't have anything to do with mail, (except you could probably get some good postcard pictures there!) but on the way home, we stopped at the state farmers market, since it was on the way, and for once we had time. It was really interesting!

 As well as people like us going just to pick up some produce for home, restaurants and stores will buy their produce there. They also have little places, more like small stores, with other things in them, not always even food. They had a lot of Mexican/Hispanic foods. We tried some candy:

It was pretty sweet, but really good.

I know I diverged (quite a bit!) from the mail theme, but I thought this was interesting :) Hopefully you thought so too!

Postcards :)

I was looking into buying some postcards on Amazon (I just found out they sell postcards!), because most of mine are of Georgia/Atlanta, with some random postcards from my mom and Connie. I mentioned it to my mom, and she pulled out a stack of art postcard books! She said that she had gotten them for my sister and I when we were little, to play a matching game with, so she had two of each book! She gave me half, and kept the rest for herself.

Degas is one of my favorite artists! So I am really excited about all these new postcards! 36 of them! Well, 34, because my sister took a couple.

I also got a postcard the other day from Christy in Port Neches, Texas. She said it is an early effort at a handmade postcard. I think it came out great!

I would like to make some postcards, but I'm never sure what kind of paper to use. Cardstock seems to flimsy, especially to go out of the country, but the only thing thicker that we have is cardboard. Any suggestions?

Letter Projects

Three letters!

The first is from Jenny in Winston, Georgia. She has a wonderful blog, The Modest Peacock. She also sent me some Earl Grey Tea! The second one is from Ontario, Canada. It doesn't have a name, it is from the Cue Happiness Project, an anonymous project to send out (and leave around) little cards to make people smile! I was sent three cards, so I think I will leave a couple of them around for other people to find!

Another similar project I found (I don't remember where!) is The World Needs More Love Letters. Both of these projects sound fun! I love the idea of leaving a note for a random person to find, knowing that it could really brighten up dark days.

Oh, I almost forgot! The last letter is from Gina in Ireland! I had seen her penpal ad on Julie's blog, and wrote her a letter.

Since Valentine's Day is coming up (I had almost forgotten about it!), maybe contributing to one of these anonymous letter projects would be just the thing! It would be fun to invite a few friends over, make some tea, and all write love letters! The only thing that would make it better would be if we had snow, instead of this 60°-70° weather we've been having here in GA lately!

Puerto Rico

So today (I guess actually yesterday, but I picked it up today) I got a letter from Willmari in Puerto Rico!

She sent me some cute temporary tattoos with her letter!

My dad's family is from Puerto Rico, so that makes it especially interesting for me. I went there once when I was a baby, so I don't remember it. Anyway, I've never quite gotten the relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States, besides that it was a territory. But what exactly does that mean? According to Wikipedia (and correct me if I'm wrong), Puerto Rico elects their own governor, and has their own constitution (which was approved by the US in 1952). They also have a nonvoting delegate in the US congress. People residing in Puerto Rico can vote in the primaries, but cannot vote in the presidential elections. Anyway, I thought this was kind of interesting, hopefully it's not too boring to you! I'm wasn't really sure how I should list Puerto Rico on my map, because it isn't a state, but it also isn't quite its own country. It costs the same to send a letter or postcard to Puerto Rico as to any US state. I think I will list it under countries though...

Exploding cucumbers!

Yesterday I got some really interesting mail!

A postcard from Kate in Portland, Oregon (I just read a book that took place in Portland, If I Stay. It was pretty good!). It has a really cool stamp on the back!

I got some Exploding Cucumber (Cyclanthera Explodens) seeds from Jeff in Shelbyville, Indiana. I can't wait to try growing them!

Here is a video of one. Isn't it funny?

Connie in Cuddebackville New York sent me all kinds of fun stuff!

I really like the stickers on top! They are kind of weird, but really cute! She also sent me a bunch of postcards!!!

There is one with a picture of Rue Anemone...

It makes me think of a character in the book The Hunger Games, Rue. I'm pretty sure she was named after a flower, and now I know what that flower looks like! I highly recommend the book. I am so excited about the movie coming out in March! The previews I've seen so far for it look really good!

Teacups and fancy letters

I received a letter from my dear friend Alex (Alexandra) in Lithia Springs, Georgia, and a postcard from Debra in Wauconda, Illinois.

I like all the different teacups on Alex's card! On the postcard from Debra, I like how the letters look like they're cut out of pictures. I'm going to have to try that some time! Debra works with postcards every day at the Lake County Discovery Museum. She has a blog too. I just wrote back to Alex, but Debra didn't put a return address on her postcard.

I have been thinking. I made that postcard book and filled it with postcards I had gotten from Postcrossing (the only ones I had at the time). Well that one is full, and I need to make another. I don't know, though, if I want it to only be of Postcrossing cards, and keep all the letters from my blog together, or if I want to include in the book postcards from other places. I like the idea of having all my postcards in the one book, but I also want all the letters from my blog together.