"Limits" on Mail Art

So this morning, I had another appointment with the doctor/chiropractor for my back... It hurt.. It really hurt. Last night I spent on the floor just to see if that would help anything but it made things worse to my thinking. When I woke up this morning, it hurt to get up off the floor. Not even kidding.

I've been having problems with my back for about a year now and they just won't go away. The doctor said I don't have enough muscle or fat in my body to hold all the bones in place so they easily get thrown out of alignment. Basically, the only thing I can do for it is maintain good posture and start building up the muscles in my back.

I've been having a little trouble in the posture department though. When I make mail art, I start to hunch over after a while. I don't even think about it half the time. And I'll spend hours and hours sitting on the floor of my room making mail art. The above envelope, I created last night. I painted that!!! I've been trying out some new techniques and stuff. It's pretty fun.

But today, Mom broke the depressing news to me that she's going to start "limiting" my mail art activities. Which means, I can't do mail art for a little while. What? No mail art? How will I live??? Mail art is my outlet for creativity!! Mail art is like my life!

It's the worst punishment she could possibly give me and I didn't even do anything! I know she just wants me to be healthy and feel better...but but. Art is my baby!

It makes me want to cry.

Mom Scores Big for Valentine's Day!!!

They looked more impressive before... But Daddy got Mom flowers. And they went out for dinner on Tuesday.

and here are my Valentines!!!!

If I sent you one, do you see yours?? This year, my valentines featured Mr. Charles Dickens. I decided that I am in love with his work and so he is worthy of my valentines. :) You like? Some of them have quotes, which I would post here, except I can't remember any of them. They were all different. I think there were more than what's pictured here.

I got a grand total of THREE valentine's this year. One of them was from my mom. I hope you guys all got more valentines than that!!!

This year, mine turned out really nerdy but they were super fun to make. I think I'm gonna have to make it a tradition... Nerdy Valentines. Yep. Although, I don't know how I'm gonna top this next year... Somehow. I already have a few ideas. We shall see.

The Past Revisited: Valentines from Last year-

Those ones turned out cute! But I was really happy with this years. And they weren't such a pain to make! And I went super stingy by only sending postcards instead of sticking them in envelopes. But I had more to send this year so I justified it. Hopefully those evil postal machines didn't tear them up too badly...

I also made cookies like last year but I didn't take pictures of them. Which is a shame because they turned out really cute!! And tasty!! All in all though, the day was pretty ordinary... But that's alright. I'm just happy to know that my valentines brightened up other people's V-day. (And this I know, because some people have told me!) 

Goodies from the mailman

I declare, I have the BEST mailman in the world!! (or at least our town!)

He happens to know how much I love letters (judging by the fact that I probably send out and receive the most amazing mail he's ever seen!) and consequently office supplies and so he left these treasures in our mailbox this morning!! Isn't that nice!!! our mailman is awesome!!!

For some odd reason, I feel the need to sum this up in conditional statements! Yay for applying what we've learned in school!!!

Major Premise: If you like writing letters, then you like office supplies.
Minor Premise: Misha likes writing letters.
Conclusion: Therefore, Misha likes office supplies!!!

Therefore, my statement above saying that Chip (for that is our mailman's name) knows I like office supplies is correct if we are using these premises. Don't you love logic? It is probably the most pointless thing I've learned in math so far but it is quite a lot of fun!

Mysterious Person

Hey all!!! So today, in the mail, some fabulous Mysterious Person, sent me the most wonderful surprise!!! Anonymously (hence the title-mysterious person). They sent me some return address labels with my address all over them and they had little kittens on them...they were sooo cute!!! It was like Christmas in July!! And doubly so because I actually put return address labels on last years Christmas list!! (I get kinda desperate sometimes when my mom asks me what I want... "I don't want anything." I tell her. Well, that will all change this year because I will be begging all y'all for postage stamps!!! And office supplies!) And I don't know to whom I owe my gratitude.So, Mysterious Person-- thank you very much indeed!! It totally made my day!!!


*edit* Found out it was Auntie Colleen!! Hooray!!! Thank you so much Aunt Colleen!!! ♥

Whiplash and Lotsa Lotsa Mail!!!

It's been a while... But I have not disappeared completely!! And I have pictures from the Grand Canyon which I will post...eventually. Probably after this week.

Anyways! Boy do I have a story!!

So on Wednesday, we decided to play chase and we were running all around the church. Inside and Outside and around the back and through to the front... It was great!!

Until...

I crashed into my friend Christian! We just collided into each other. I hit him in the knee and he ended up on the floor and somehow he hit me in the face and while I was still standing, I could not feel half of my face for about two minutes! After the numbness wore off, it stung for a little and then I had a headache.Thinking it would go away in the morning, I took some tylenol and went to bed. When it was still there the next day, I told my mom. When it hurt with more intensity yesterday morning, Mom scheduled a doctor's appointment.

The doctor (who also happens to be a chiropractor) said I had whiplash and my neck was way out of alignment. That was causing the headaches. So he adjusted me up (which is pretty scary if you've never been adjusted before. This was my second time and it was still freaky!) and that was that. Then he gave me neck stretching exercises and told me to rest up.

Mom had been afraid that maybe I had a concussion. Or maybe I fractured my skull or something weird like that. She thought my summer camp (for which I leave tomorrow!!!) would be in jeopardy but the doctor said I can go as long as I took it easy until I left. So I've been a good girl and I took a three hour nap on the couch this afternoon! And y'know, when you lie flat on your back, there really is nothing you can do besides sleep. My neck is still a little sore but I felt immediately better when the doctor snapped me back into place!

And also, this week, I have just gotten a TON of mail!!! Wow!

These three (THREE!!!) letters came this morning!! Courtesy of Melissa, Sydney, and Kerri. Melissa sent me a sweet letter and Sydney sent me a couple ATC's to swap and Kerri sent me the most amazing letter ever!!! It was so colorful inside with lots of marker doodles in pretty colors.... it was amazing and it made me laugh!

And these two lovely letters came from Sabrina and Milea yesterday!!! They were both very sweet and nice long letters too! So, lots of mail to reply to!! And a lot of it I probably won't get to until after I get back from summer camp. =( Oh well.

And THIS is some amazing mail art that I sent to Kerri last week!! It's kinda hard to tell but the theme of the envelope is the zombie dinosaur apocalypse. Coming to a city near you in 2012!! It's a joke but I had a lot of fun making it. And Kerri said it made her laugh so much!! Which it always makes me smile to discover that my mail makes others happy.

100 More Stamps

We made another trip to the post office today. They are very nice people, you know that? Especially when you are buying a hundred stamps from them. Actually One hundred and ten because we got some postcard stamps too.

I had to buy the stamps myself to reimburse her (it was a fast fifty bucks.) and I get an allotment of twenty for the month. After that, I have to start asking and she's going to hide them too. Dang it! lol. But guess what! She admitted to sending valentines too so that means I only used EIGHTY stamps instead of ninety. Isn't that great news? It makes me feel exceptionally better about myself even though it's still a lot. and now, there are only twenty stamps I cannot specifically account for. (that wasn't valentines, invitations, thank yous, or mail art.) I can easily go through 20 stamps so I'm sure I used them.

My Great Stamp Dilemma

You may or may not know that I am a letter writer. I love everything that has to do with the USPS, mail, stamps, etc. I could talk to you for hours about how awesome the Post Office is (but I won't right now Perhaps later.)

My mail output is several times more than my mail input but everyone's been writing a lot more this month. (Maybe it's all the rain. people are inside and have nothing else to do.) And of course, I send tons of letters for no reason. No special occasion. Just to say hello and ask how people are doing.

But now, I am doing mail art. Mail art is art that you send through the mail (usually but not limited to envelopes) and generally requires two stamps for hand cancel-ing purposes.

So considering all this, I go through a lot of stamps each month. 90 to be precise. Yes, I used 90 stamps over the last month. Not even kidding. And here's how I found out!

This evening, my mom says, in a very meaningful voice, "Misha, where are the stamps?" She couldn't find them and bills needed to be paid. (I'm thinking "Uh oh." but it gets better!) Mom goes on to say that a little less than a month ago, she bought a pack of 100 stamps. She used 10 for bills last month. "What happened to the 90 other stamps?" she wanted to know.

Well, I believe that the only answer I can give is that they have gone into the postal system, never to return again. Sorry, Mom. I think she's going to make me start buying my own stamps now. (She tried to do it before, but it didn't work out.) Dad says I'm gonna need a job just so I can pay for my stamps! Or, I was thinking that I could stand on street corners with cardboard signs saying "Money for Stamps. Will send mail art if desired." I'm not sure how much I'd generate from that.

So be warned! If I don't reply to any letters right away, it is probably because I don't have any stamps. And if I do reply right away, it is probably because I am stealing stamps from the bill's allotment ( because I am that desperate.) If for some reason at all, you feel the strange urge to send me stamps, please do not hesitate in the least. I'll send you mail art!

Happy Mail Day!

I've been a busy girl today!

I got all my valentime's finished and addressed, ready to be mailed out tomorrow! Yippee! I say, I'm sending 15 this year. Of course, the design I picked was utterly complicated and painful and long and whatever adjectives that mean long and hard. I hope my family appreciates them! (jk)

This year, they have lions on them and say, "I'd be 'lion' if I said I didn't like you!" It's kinda cheesy, but you know what? I don't care! Last year, My valentines had duct-tape on the card back and then there was a heart in the middle. Pretty awesome, if you ask me. My valentines this year were set up to be postcards but I decided I didn't want them to get mangled in the post office's evil sorting machines! (nothing against the mail people. I LOVE them. But I don't like their machines when they put all their marks and wrinkle my pretty mail.)

I also filled out all of my invitations for my birthday party! Hooray! It really hurt my hand. This is only three of them.

  

This is the lovely front! I made it myself! I'm so excited! I am actually going to have a real birthday party this year! I haven't had a "real" birthday party in ages! It's going to be a scrapbooking sleepover the weekend after my birthday. I am looking forward to it very much. 

Most likely, I'll blog about it in a couple of weeks. You'll know we had fun if there is a definite lack in pictures. We'll try to be on top of the pictures.

The pictures are dark because the flash washed out the white and it looked bad so they're dark. What can I say?

ATC's

Every few months or so, I discover something new that I attack with wild enthusiasm. This time, it's ATC's or artist trading cards. Essentially, they are small works of art, of any media, that fit on a 3½"X2½" sheet of paper-the same size as a typical sports trading card. The only rule of ATC's is the sizing and because it can be made using any media, it is very open to creativity-which is what I like! The possibilities are endless!

There are three things you can do with them. 1) keep them 2) trade them or 3) swap them. At this point, I'm doing a combination of all three. Keeping some, trading others, swapping more. These two are for a swap. I'll be sending them out tomorrow. I can't wait to see what comes back to me. I'm so excited. In a swap, you make several ATC's-all the same and send them along with a SASE (Self-Adressed-Stamped-Envelope) to your hostess. She divides up the cards equally and sends new ones back to you! It's been quite fun so far. I'm still learning the ropes of it but that's all part of the process.

HAPPINESS!!!! (aka. Milea's coming)

I have a wonderful penpal, whom I've been writing for about five and a half years. And in those five and a half years, we only saw each other in real life, twice. The day we met and another day, last June, when we stopped by her hometown for a couple hours. We are so alike, it's not even funny! We could be twins!! We have such similar tastes and we even look alike!

So, ever since I hung out with her last June, we've been trying to get her to fly out for Easter Break. And we finally booked her flight today! YAY!!! I am so happy! She will be here, the week just prior to Easter. I'm so excited! It even makes today feel a little better since we couldn't go the snow.

(The roads were closed so we couldn't go to the snow with Jacob. sadness. Maybe next weekend.) But Milea is coming and I am so so SO excited! yay!