A Girlie Sketch

The postcard that Lindsay Ostrom sent me the other day made me wish I could draw cute little girls like that. Then I thought, why not give it a go?  Here's what came out from my pen:

The "F" on her sign is because I keep thinking of Sesame Street whenever I write "National Letter Writing Month", as in "this month has been brought to you by the letter __."  :)

Friday's Mail

In my mailbox on Friday - one bank statement (to be opened eventually) and two lovelies from fellow National Letter Writing Month group members - yay!!

This beautifully hand drawn postcard from Nancy in Wisconsin (it's actually a photocopy of the original which I am assuming she drew herself, with a cool stamp in the corner that says "destiny awaits"):

and this handmade card from Gail in California:

This is the fourth year of this event and Gail tells me they started with 17 people the first year. As I believe I have mentioned before, there are now 100 people in the group - pretty exciting to see how it has grown.  The Facebook group is alive with activity, including a video on Friday of the young daughter of one of the members bouncing excitedly as she checks the mailbox and discovers 5 pieces of  mail inside addressed to her.  What fun!

(was able to upload these photos using Google Chrome instead of Internet Explorer - not sure what that is all about but for now, this works!)

Talk Amongst Yourselves

I am so tired, I can hardly form cohesive thoughts, let alone type them out but I did write a blog post and after scanning the lovely letters I found in my mailbox tonight, I went to upload them and discovered my entire Picasa photos folder seems to have somehow disappeared today.  I'm too tired to panic, although I'd really like to.  Instead, it's 8 p.m. and I'm thinking that's really not too early to go to bed.  Maybe when I wake up tomorrow, the folder will have magically reappeared. 

In the meantime, talk amongst yourselves.

An Empty Box

Alas, my mailbox was empty today. 

Which is not unusual so I'm not surprised; normally I only check my mailbox once or twice a week just to give things a chance to accumulate in there.  Of course, now that it is April and after finding 3 special deliveries in the past 2 days, I was hoping for more treasures from my fellow National Letter Writing Month members.  Maybe tomorrow?!

In the meantime, I shall just busy myself stalking the mail delivery truck instead...

Follow that truck!

Got anything for me?

What a Treat!

It's only the 2nd day of mail delivery for April (here in Canada, the post office was closed for Easter Monday) and already I'm getting some lovely goodies delivered from my fellow National Letter Writing Month group members.

Yesterday, one of the ladies in the group posted on Facebook that she'd found a baby black widow spider lurking in her mailbox when she went to check it.  Can you imagine? Not just any garden variety spider (that would be bad enough!) but a black widow!!  ICK!!! It makes me shudder just to think of it.

Imagine my surprise to find a cougar in my mailbox shortly thereafter??

Love the global stamp too!

It was actually a very cool envelope made out of a folded calendar page by Chris from California.  Inside was this pretty, handmade card.  Thanks so much, Chris!

Today, I had two lovely missives intermixed with some regular, much less exciting mail.  This pretty fuchsia pink card from Terrie, who is also from California.

This card is from the group organizer, Lindsay Ostrom.  I love the drawing of the girl on the front of her postcard and I love, love, love her lettering - man, what I wouldn't give to be able to do that!

Such a treat, can't wait to see what comes in the mailbox tomorrow!

National Letter Writing Month

Did you know April is "National Letter Writing Month" in the U.S.?  I joined a group organized by Lindsay Ostrom, who has sorted us into pairs for penpals.  The deal is you only have to write one letter to your assigned penpal but apparently some of the members do much more than the minimum.  Lindsay actually writes to everyone in the group, which is quite an undertaking, considering that there are officially 98 of us signed up to participate!

I am looking forward to seeing what arrives in the mail this month.  I hope I don't fall behind but if I do, I found this cute little picture that I could use!

Don't Be Fooled

Don't be fooled by the calendar on this April Fool's Day 2013.  It may say it's spring but as soon as you step out the door today here in Ontario, you'll know winter isn't quite over.

I was driving in the country on the weekend and there's a lot more snow hanging around than I expected.

Most of the ponds are still frozen

although there is also some water in the fields. Just don't be fooled by the migrating geese, they're probably thinking they took a wrong turn somewhere in Texas, wondering how to get back down south.

Still snow in my mom's backyard but the annual spring puddle is starting form as well.

That's where I saw my first robin in Ontario yesterday - the poor thing was hopping around, trying to avoid the snow on the grass.

Saw my first robin of the year in Seattle back in February.  I'm told it's "ice cream weather" there today, lucky them! Of course, you could say we're having ice cream weather here today too - as in, we could keep ice cream outside!!

Ah, Mother Nature.  You do like to fool with us, don't you?!