Built sets, made costumes, rehearsed, rehearsed, rehearsed, sold tickets, printed posters, cued the actors, applauded and cheered, pulled the curtain, had a party. Another show is over.

I can't wait to see what I got in the mail while I spent every waking hour (and some sleeping hours) at the theater.

By one of my Favorite Artists

I just love the look of this.

Postcard on wheels

Old postal delivery vehicle, on display at the James A. Fareley post office in NYC.

Postcard received in the mail.

Lassie lives in Finland, Clarice lives in my Neighborhood

This stamp and postcard arrived last week from Finland.

Clarice hasn't set up her farm stand in the neighborhood yet. She's a musician who lives in the neighborhood, and she has a farm upstate. Every once in awhile, on no schedule that I've figured out, she sets up a tv tray on the sidewalk and sells fresh produce from her farm. We have some bigger farmers' markets around here, but I like Clarice's stand best. When she brings jars of homemade pickles, I know I live in heaven.

If the portrait on the postcard included a cello, and if the woman were 30 years older and wore a colorful skirt, floppy sunhat and a fanny pack around her waist, I would swear it was a painting of Clarice from my neighborhood.

From China

A postcard from China with charming stamps arrived the other day. The red pig diamond-shape stamp is my favorite.

The sender wrote on the card that Shanghai is the largest city in China. How embaressed I am that I didn't know that, and I would not have guessed it if someone asked me. Collecting postcards and stamps from around the world is bound to improve my education.

Plus, collecting mail is really fun.

Birthday on Paper

I celebrated a birthday recently. A little girl who knows her mother well slipped this envelope under the door as a special-delivery birthday surprise. The stamp and postmark made me smile, but knowing my daughter made a card that so suited me really warmed my heart.

As a birthday gift to myself, I bought this little bookbinding kit:

I'm no Leonardo da Vinci, that's for sure, but he was an Aries just like me and was born this time of year. He liked to write and draw on loose leaf papers, not in bound notebooks. So I'm taking a cue from Leonardo and I'll write on the pages first and then bind into a notebook later, rather than making the notebook with blank pages.

Happy Easter!

The Easter bunny brought colorful Gel Gems window clings to our home. They feel a bit gooey, but it's fun to make a design with them on the windows and perk up a room.

A gem of a deal! Get sorta free gel gems. (You do have to pay shipping & handling and are limited to one free item per order.) click here.