easter egg mail!

Today I mailed some Easter eggs: no big deal. I got the idea from this blog I follow called Giver's Log. She does these great little posts about things you can send through the mail that are 13 ounces or less and, you guessed it, Easter eggs are one of them! Below are a picture of her eggs with postage and then my eggs sans postage.

Via Giver's Log.

The blurred out labels are the private addresses,
not just smeary messes.

I brought them into the post office and I was a little worried that they wouldn't let me mail them, but it was no problem! I'd weighed them at home and they were half an ounce and sending them parcel post was $1.95. I asked if we could use stamps instead of the little print-outs they do with the postage printed on a bar code, so we used 2 $1 stamps. Sure, that added an extra 5 cents per egg, but I think it was worth it, don't you? They looked really great all stamped up and ready to go! I hope my lovely pen-pal friends will enjoy them.

Side note about postage: all the new stamps coming out in 2012 are forever stamps! Isn't that wonderful? Now you can have all sorts of fun stamps that will never decrease in mailing value. (My favorites that I've been coveting for a while are the Pioneers of Industrial Design ones, but I won't let myself buy until I use up the stamps I already have: clearly I need to get mailing!)

letters!

So Lindsey (who you may remember from the Beard post) and I have become pen pals since I've moved out here to Iowa and pen pals are one of my favorite things. She wrote me while I was in Utah on Christmas break and I have just gotten to writing her back this week: fail. Hopefully this fun letter will make up for the tardiness.

This is the front...

And this is the inside!

I made the cute girl on the right out of fun-shaped paper clips that I bought at Staples the other day. I'd seen them around and suggested to Gloria that she might want to buy a bunch of the ring shaped ones (ie the girl's head and hair in this interpretation) to use for my bridal shower invites (although I really should have no input here, sometimes I just can't help myself...). When Braeden and I were at Staples most recently I saw that they were on super clearance in a big bag with all the other "girlie" paper clips so I had no choice but to buy the whole bag. (It was only $2.50 for the bag and I saved $9997.40—at least, that's what the label on the bag claimed. Haha.) I thought Lindsey, because she is a girl and likes girlie things, might like them, so I made them into a picture for her: I'm sure she'll be getting more in her next letter, too.

books and letters, letters and books

Here's some stuff I've been working on recently...

Erin commissioned me to make a book for her roommate Francis for her birthday. This is what I came up with.

The title says,
"Francis Newton
Geophysicist
Friend
Future Zombiepocalypse Survivor"
It also has cool spots to put pens.

This is what it looks like closed.

I wrote this letter to my friend Matt Webb. It is on a milk carton.

Look! A letter! The guy at the post office said he'd mailed coconuts before, but this was his first ever milk carton. Exciting.

what's with today, today?

Things that I did today:

• Some yard maintenance: swept up some leaves around the side door, put some stuff in the garage, turned the open trash cans upside down so they won't accumulate stagnant water.
• Laundry: the dryer stopped working again so I had to finish up my one load at the neighbor's house: I have the best neighbors in the world
• Cleaned up the studio: since my initial move-in the studio has gotten less and less organized and more and more useless. Today I finally stopped  being afraid and dove in to put everything back in its place. Braeden also helped me take the door off its hinges so now I have to keep it clean since you can see into it from the living room. Good motivation. Also, the door was über obnoxious because it opened into the room in a weird and intrusive way.
• Went to Stuff Etc: my friend Autumn asked me to make her guest book for her wedding in December (so exciting!!!) so I went and found some fabric for the cover today. Their colors are dark teal and silver with a peacock feather accent, so I was hoping to find some kind of crazy peacock patterned something, but alas, no luck. I did find a great satin-y robe though that I think will work just fine...
• Went to Institute: I love my Institute class here so much. We always have awesome discussions, and there are great people and food and it is fun.
• Hung out with the Braeden face: he makes me happy

Additionally, yesterday we took Stephanie's challenge to try the green smoothie a second time. I found a recipe for it in a random Kiwi magazine I found in one of my boots (why are all these strange magazines following me across the country?) so I felt better about the proportions, plus I used the standard baby spinach instead of the funky Farmer's Market spinach so it was so much better. You may view our various reactions below:

Gloria, Me, and Braeden with our fancy London Hard Rock glasses filled with green smoothie take 2.

Bottoms up!

Cue the crazy eyes. Clearly a sign of a successful smoothie. A+.

Additionally, here is a final letter for the letter series of posts. I found these envelopes at this amazing Amish thrift store that Gloria introduced us to and they were only a buck twenty five for a whole box of them. Amazing. Below is the first letter I ever sent using one, to my friend Erin. Because she is amazing.

the fine print

I wrote this letter to my friend Erin, one of my friends from high school and faithful pen-pal. Speaking of, I just got a letter from her today! Hooray! (Also a long-awaited one from Matt Webb which is AMAZING. Pen pals are the best!!!) Erin is currently going to grad school up in Wisconsin (read: wiss-KHAN-sun) for science journalism, and I thought this amazingly depicted scientist was right up her ally. All it is is a full page illustration from a BYU Magazine I had lying around (don't ask me why, I'm not in the habit of reading let alone saving said magazine, but somehow this one stowed away with me in my move to Iowa) that I put into my typewriter and typed my letter onto. I avoided typing over his face since I figured that would a) look weird and b) be difficult to read over his thick, black rimmed glasses etc. Now whenever I leaf through a magazine of any kind I'm always on the look out for great letter writing material.

In other news, I watched all four sessions of General Conference this weekend and it was great! I watched the Saturday morning session online with Braeden at the Batcave (aka his one-bedroom apartment in sketchville—while we were watching his neighbors threw 2 potted plants over the railings of the stairwell into his outdoor walkway that smashed and spread dirt all over), then the afternoon session online up in North Liberty with Gloria, Sarah, Braeden, Jayne, and Keith at Keith's place (the connection was a little intermittent so we didn't get all of the talks, but the company was superb, as was the gluten-free snackage). Sunday we all went to the Stake Center to watch and participate in the potluck lunch, then Braeden and I went up to Amy's place in West Bend(?) with Eric and Megan(?) to watch the final session. There is something so lovey about sitting among friends, listening to our church leaders expound upon principles of our faith and just knowing that you are where you are supposed to be. Some of my favorite talks were President Monson's in the Sunday morning session where he talked about gratitude and Elder Gong's talk in the Saturday afternoon session where he mentioned his ancestor named First Dragon Gong. Best. Name. Ever. You can check out and download any and all of these talks at your leisure at the church website. I highly recommend them all.

And, PS, at the movie night at Jarrod's house after the Priesthood session of conference, Braeden Jones held my hand. Fact. I feel like I am in middle school. Haha. But I am happy.

all-in-one

For a while now I've wanted to write a letter directly on the envelope in which it was sent. So I did. This one was sent to my bff pen-pal Matt Webb because I knew that he would be appreciative of such an innovation: he was.

I taped it shut and affixed an old stamp to the flaps to keep them together.

I used some red ink in there too, just for fun.

Next time: magazine letters!

mail: lost in transit

I love mail. This is a fact. Most people who know me know this about me. I don't know what it is about checking the mail and finding an envelope for me that just makes my whole day slash sometimes week. I guess I get my love of the handwritten note (read: personal; typed letters from friends are just as appreciated) from my dad, and since he's a best-selling author he must be onto something, right?

In honor of mail, I have been making slash writing lots of letters and cards recently and I thought I should share some of them with you. (A few of you may recognize these as little gifts that have arrived to you recently...) Since there are a lot of them and usually one picture doesn't quite do them justice, I think we'll try doing a series of posts.

This first one is a card that I wrote to my dear friend Matt Webb while he was at summer camp (the same camp I worked at with him last year). We exchanged several letters this summer, and this was the last one I wrote to him while he was a camp, but it got lost in the mail. What? Lame sauce. All that survives are these photos...

Looks, confusing, right?

Here it is from the back: this paper á la Purgatory recycling bin.

You open it up, pull the sides apart, and behold! the world makes sense again. (There was also a secret stamped message between the cards that was not photographed, regrettably. I guess you'll just have to use your imagination.)

Tomorrow: Playing Cards: They're not just for "gaming" anymore.

oh the hemorrhaging!

Do you ever have those days/weeks/maybe months where your emotions just seem stretched so thin that you have to remind yourself to breathe? I just had one of those weeks. It was one of those unexpectedly tough weeks, where lots of things just happened at all once for no apparent reason, and every one of them added to my stress little upon little until it was almost comical. To give you an idea of what I mean, let me give you a brief, general summary of what happened: a long weekend away from home followed immediately by my first house guest, discussion of neglected friendships, the growth of new friendships, the prospect of new relationships, a dinner date, and a message from a long-avoided former admirer. I have never felt more sought-after or more confused about why.

Despite the stomach ulcers that I'm sure were formed this week, it was also a good week for lots of reasons: I felt like I learned a lot about myself and about other people, about good and bad communication, and about self-restraint. These times of trial and self-discovery are hard. But they have to be that way. I'm learning how to be grateful for them.

Part of the healing process was jump-started yesterday when I got a mix cd and letter from my dear friend Erin and it made all the emotional hemorrhaging of the last week seem to fade away and the world made sense again.

I love mail. Also, Erin.

letters to camp (matt webb)

More pen-pal letters! A few weeks ago I sent my friend Matt Webb a letter at camp (the first one he'd ever received at camp—ever!) and he's been sending me letters back. One of the great things about being a pen-pal with an artist? The letters themselves are works of art.

The envelope. The "currfully" part is funny because Matt is from Tennessee.

Secretly in code but awesome looking! Can you figure it out...?

And bonus secret fold-out letter on the side. Amazing!

My response letter: a mini book! (Shocking, I know.)

I made it Insta-Book style with a secret nature scene inside.

Honestly, Matt's letter was so amazing when I just saw the envelope I got so excited I shook a little. Fact. Hopefully mine can make him a little happy, too.

letters to camp (ashley)

I made this tiny book and then wrote a letter in it to Ashley and sent it to her at summer camp because who doesn't like mail?

Don't be fooled, this book was originally made out of blank computer paper: I lined these pages myself.

Surprise! The book is tiny! Doesn't that just make it so much better?!
(The correct answer is yes.)