#SPSH2015 Reveal Day!

Hey everyone! I know I have been neglecting the blog but...my boyfriend and I have been in Vegas!  I'll do a separate post on that but I'm glad to say we survived - even though my boyfriend came back with an upper respiratory infection.  Ouch.  More on that later, though, because it's Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt Reveal Day!

I had a wonderful art blogged named Lorraine (who you can find here) and she is insanely talented! Here's the spread I sent to her:



Check out more after the ol' jump!

Incoming / Outgoing Mail + SPSH2015!

That's right! Fab is back at it again with the Secret Pen Pal Scavenger Hunt 2015!  Have you signed up yet?! I did and I can't wait to participate again!

 

Isn't this the cutest?! My friend Rachel sent me the prettiest scalloped heart valentine!  I started assembling some valentines to send out but, once again, I'm behind.  Story of my life lol.  It also didn't help that I was terribly sick last week...



Here is the prettiest mail from my friend Kathleen!  I always love getting her letters.  They make me so happy!  And she has the prettiest calligraphy :)



I signed up for Veronica Varlow's International Valentine Exchange and I went on a Googling spree for the name that I drew.  I hope I Googled the right person because I dragged my BF on an extreme Steam Punk hunting expedition looking for anything and everything Steam Punk for my recipient - based on what my Google searches told me.  The result was the gears and sprockets necklace above plus a few other things.  The "Hello Valentine" watercolor was based on this piece from Alexis at Persia Lou.  I love it!  I used Lindsey's method for watercolor jewels to get my lines all pretty.  I hope she likes it!



My friends and I took a break from playing my new favorite card game to get creative. The result: a marbled clay ring dish for my new apartment! I haven't had much experience with bake clay (not sure if this was Fimo...) but B coached me through it and helped me get this pretty marbled result. I love it!

How has February been treating you?

Incoming Mail: Lucky Dip Club + Gem Party!

The lovely Leona of Lucky Dip Club has done it again - this time, with the Think Happy Ice Cream Parlour box!  I squealed like a maniac when I saw the parcel in my mailbox and squealed even more when I opened it to reveal all the wonderful goodies inside!  What always gets me is the customization. I freaked out when I saw the ice cream cone necklace with my name on it!  It was absolutely perfect!  everything about this box was wonderful and cute and it puts the biggest smile on my face every time I use the items - especially the wonderful Sundae Girl bag!  The Think Happy notebook fits right in and I have been carrying it around with me ever since it arrived!
If you have missed out on any boxes, check out the shop and either order past boxes or put in your order for the next surprise box!  You will NOT be disappointed!
*PS - sign up for the mailing list!  September's Magic Forest box sold out in 4 hours!




After watching all of Contessa Miller's awesome videos about crystals, I took it upon myself to load up on some.  I ordered the lot above from Etsy seller Isva Stones about a month ago so I had completely forgotten what I had filled my cart with!  It felt like Christmas morning when I opened my little parcel!  I had forgotten I ordered so many things - like two Chakra pendants, a Rose Quartz pendant, Chakra stones, tumbled stones, a Quartz pendulum, an Amethyst energy booster and a Quartz pyramid.  In my defense, a bulk of it was a Treasure Lot so it wasn't like I went totally nuts, right...?  I've been wearing my gorgeous Chakra bracelet every day since.  I even followed a lot of different advice for cleansing and energizing my stones - I let them sit in salt that W and B gave me that was direct from Hawaii and I saged them right before I put them on (the bracelet and the Chakra pendant on the left side of the photo above).  I love them all!  I even have them energizing on my windowsill so that they get enough sun and moonlight to charge their energies!  All I need now is a chain for the gorgeous Rose Quartz pendant because it is just begging to be worn :)

Happy Monday!

Incoming Mail + Blog Break

I finally made the sign up deadline for the wonderful Pet Parade Box from Lucky Dip Club!! Everything about it was awesome!!!  We were asked to tell Leona what our favorite animal was and because I love me some mythological creatures, I said my favorite animal is the unicorn but if I had to stay with "real" animals, dolphins are my favorite.  To my surprise, the cute little celebration balloon had BOTH my favorite animals!  Score!  This was such a treat to receive in the mail and I can't wait for the Think Happy Ice Cream Parlour box for next month!  I have gotten so many compliments on the kittens in a basket necklace (you can kinda see it in the middle photo next to the balloon), so I can't wait to see what the Ice Cream Party will have in store!  Be sure you sign up for the newsletter so you can order yours before they sell out - and they sell out SUPER FAST!



The other sweet meal treat was my cute little package from Fashionology.  I took advantage of a pretty big sale to get my hands on two gorgeous rings: Malachite and Lapis Lazuli.  Once I took the box out of the packaging sleeve, I could immediately feel the intense love!  I grabbed some Sage and put them to work.  The Lapis really spoke out to me and kind of prompted my little (BIG) life change...

With that said - I'm sorry for the blog hiatus but there are some important bits of life happening right now and I think I need to focus my energies there.  I won't be posting much for a little bit but I hope you'll understand that I need this time.  Things are aligning, there are some scary (but awesome) things on the horizon and I think I just need to take a breather so that I don't live in a constant panic mode.

Happy Friday and I hope you all have a magical weekend!

Incoming Mail: Monster Cookie Heart Squad!

It's official: I'm a member of the Monster Cookie Heart Squad!  "What in the world is that," you might ask...  Check out the mission statement!
I'm so happy this came in when it did because I'm starting a (long overdue) self-love journey that has been totally amazing so far!  Care to join?

*Want to join the growing list of awesome members?  Click me!
**Check out the blog here!
***Want some stuff?  Click here!
****Want to meet the beautiful person behind MCHS?  Click here!

Happy Friday!!

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?

Sweet Incoming Mail + Calligraphy WIPs!

It has been a long time since I did one of these but things have settled down enough for me to finally write an Incoming Mail post!  Marisa sent me a lovely card with cute things for my SMASH*book, Fab sent me a cute little package in response to the one I sent her and Erica sent me her adorable version of Creepy Hearts Club hearts!

I was so happy to see these on Monday because Monday was a crappy day.  My computer kept crashing, I was troubleshooting all day and my producer kept checking in on me every 5 minutes.  Very nerve-wrecking.  My Avid station is still down, unfortunately, but while I'm monitoring an archival file transfer (that is taking forever, btw), I'm staying busy by practicing my calligraphy.

I was inspired by this post at The Postman's Knock.  I have always loved Typography Art in some form (like my chalkboard art) but I didn't really have the desire to pick it up again (on a smaller scale).

Taking inspiration from the "Greetings from..." post cards I collected in Florida, I drew this on my wall at work (before the crash)



Then I saw the Typography Art post at TPK and freaked out!  I didn't need clunky chalk in the way, I needed the needlepoint preciseness of my mechanical pencil (or just a really sharp one)!  I quickly came up with the sentiment of "Wish you were here" because my best friend in the entire Universe landed in Atlanta yesterday morning and I was thinking it was appropriate :)


UPDATE - the "Wish you were here" quote is all inked up and ready to be scanned in and prettified by the ol' Photoshop!

But because I'm a spazz and I only brought the arrow section home with me to work on with my favorite tools, I altered it just a little...



I was so proud of my efforts that I experimented in free-hand! Let me tell you - this worksheet is a great tool to follow!  Download it!  You'll be so glad you did!  I always use it as a base for my capital letters.



For the "Thank you" above, I used TPK's style of "faux calligraphy" - which I picked up in this post.  You might remember this from when I did some envelope calligraphy for my Christmas cards last year!  I wasn't the best at it then but I'm feeling a little more comfortable now!

I hope you're having a great week!

Happy Wednesday!

Incoming Mail: Flowers from Jess + Tattly Temporaries!

They arrived! My Tattly veggies have finally arrived!  And they also included a bonus typography bike tattoo!  Hooray!  The veggies are part of an on-going prank series we're pulling one someone at work.  It will be revealed in time.

In the mean time, check out Jess's pretty cotton candy pink morning glories!!  How pretty are those?!  How pretty is that anchor stationery?!  So cute!  I really need to step it up with my stationery :)  She included some wonderful tips for starting an indoor garden.

My want of an indoor garden started with Nicolette Mason's posts about having fresh flowers in her apartment, the bouquet we got to keep from Lauren and Chandler's engagement brunch, the birthday bouquet I got for my Mom, and this wonderful succulent toolbox DIY from Alana Jones-Mann.  There's only one problem: I'm TERRIBLE with plants.  I don't know how we managed to keep my orchids from Valentine's Day alive for so long.  They're gone now but they lasted for quite some time!

Jess told me to start with succulents, air plants, and cacti.  I mentioned to her that I wanted to have a spot for cacti in our house because the old man really likes them but, knowing my clumsy self, I'd probably get injured trying to water them!  Jess had some great words of encouragement and I thank her so much for that!  It was just the right kind of motivation I needed to start putting our plant display shelf together :)

How's your week going?
Happy Thursday!

Incoming Mail + The Prettiest Handwriting + 3 Things

Yesterday was such a wonderful mail day! I know I usually post my "Incoming Mail" posts on Wednesdays but I've been getting to the post office a day later because of reasons so I've been a day behind.  I'm kinda glad, though, because I was able to take the time to take lovely photos of all the goodies that came in the mail this week!





 This awesome pin-up postcard and collage (which is totally getting framed!) comes from Roberta all the way in Denmark!  I sent her some Creepy Hearts Club hearts and she sent this back as a thank you!  So sweet!  I've got a little something cooking for her, too!  :)



This sweet card (and super cute envelope) is from Rachel.  I told her about my 10 hour adventure in the car in January and shared in my pain.  And guess what?  She's also a video professional!  I love that!  I'm totally going to geek out in my next letter to her!  I hope she doesn't mind :)



This next package is from sweet Kathleen in Australia!  Last time, I sent her an origami heart and some other little things and she was sweet enough to send me some gorgeous origami papers from Japan!  Also tucked away in the cute card, there was a C.S. Lewis quote (which I can't wait to frame), 3 things about her and a Mail Tag with 3 prompts for me: A spritz of perfume (I know just the one!), my birthday, and the best thing about Georgia.  I found a cute little note card in my stockpile and filled out my 3 things already but I'm saving the perfume spray as the absolute last thing I do because I want it to last the whole trip to Oz!

I was so happy to see such a bounty in my P.O. Box yesterday and I realized I have two half assembled packages that need to be sent out!  Ugh - I've been such a space cadet lately.  One of them can be delayed a little but the other should've been sent out ages ago!  I'm hoping the recipient doesn't mind its tardiness!

I'm hoping you're having an awesome week!
Happy Thursday!

Incoming Mail: Spring In Full Bloom!

I know, I know - this post is late.  Oops!  Yesterday was a long day at work and it got even longer when I got home.  Phew!  Anyways...thanks to super awesome pen pal Jess for sending me some sweet blooms in the mail!  I'm hoping she'll like what I sent back!  :)

I'm still experimenting with my Instax Mini.  Yes, I was the crazy lady that held up traffic in the turn lane to get the Instax of the Big Chicken below.



Not bad.  I'm still playing around with the framing.  And why does it look so small here?  I was on the opposite corner of the damn thing and in the Instax, it looks so tiny!  Gotta love perspective...I will say that I l'm liking the colors I'm getting with the yellow gel I added to the flash.  Now...if someone would just let me take their picture...I'll know what it looks like on skin tone.  Maybe I'll get the courage to ask my favorite lady barista for a quick snap?  Or maybe I'll wait until we start filming and take some (more) snaps of the camera guys...

Happy Thursday!

Incoming Mail: YEAH DAWG! DON'T Shake it Like a Polaroid!

 

I like when I can combine last week's super awesome mail with this week's super awesome mail and thanks to The Impossible Project, I did just that! I combined the sweet camera I got from Mini Penny Vintage and some film from The Impossible Project and made a little Polaroid magic.
Check it!

 

They might be a little blurry but I still love them because they're the first Polaroids I have shot in years.  YEARS!  I know, I know, I could totally buy myself an Instax and enjoy the joys of instant film all the time but I've been putting it off because I don't know if I want this one or this one.  Such a Libra...

Cara had me laughing hysterically at the post office when I opened up my P.O. Box to find her "YEAH DAWG" postcard in there!!!  I needed a good laugh!  ^___^
**Remember, you can totally join in on the fun postcard action by signing up for her Anthropomorphic Mail Art Project!!!

And finally, I had sent my friend Cassie a mini get well kit because she had some MAJOR surgery recently and she sent me the cutest thank you note back!  So sweet!  I'll admit - I'm a little jealous of the bow tie the dog is wearing...just putting that out there...

How is your week going so far?
Happy Wednesday!

Incoming Mail + Ye Olde Tumblog Turned 5!

  

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope your week has been going pretty well so far!
Things have been going absolutely CRAZY at work.  Yes, it's another "secret" project that's making us lose our minds so I was delighted to find some goodies in my mailbox!

The paper crane is from Bethany at Happy Crafter Bee.  She's sending out 1000 paper cranes to people all over the world!  Check out her story here and request your own!  I was so happy to see my little guy in the mail and I even sent a little something back as a thank you :)

The Polaroid is one of the two awesome purchases I made from Mini Penny Vintage.  The one that's not pictured is this wonderful liquid silver skirt that I'm hoping to be able to start wearing once the winter weather decides to exit stage left.  I was super excited to see the Polaroid camera up for sale that I had to snatch it up right away!  And last night, I ordered some film from the Impossible Project (the direct link isn't working right now...?).  I almost didn't buy the film since the reviews were iffy and the price is a little high for only 8 exposures but whatever.  YOLO and all that, right?

I love getting the emails from Tumblr on your blog's birthday and I was so happy to see that the She Loves You Tumblr has turned 5!  So crazy how time flies!

Hope you're having a good week!