The Magic of Mail

Hello once again my friends out in Bloggerville. I hope today is finding you in a good mood and good spirits.
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You know I usually have a love/hate relationship with the daily mail. (I love to hate it. hee hee) As of late though, I have had reason to love going to my mail box.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Melissa of "Oh My Darling", proposed a project that would return those of us that chose to do so to a time when there was such a thing as writing letter. *gasp* 
She organized us in to groups and sent us on our way to write letters to each other.

In the last two weeks or so, I have received a couple through the mail. The first card I received was from Melissa herself. She sent me this lovely card.

The next card I received was from a pen pal in Virginia. She is such a sweet gal. She sent me a whimsical and girlie card.

The next card I received, just this week, from my pen pal in Switzerland. She is a 24 year old with a good heart who joined just so she could improve her English and meet new people. How cool is that?!

I decided to post another photo of the envelope and the paper. The stamps are just fantastic I think.

I do have one other pen pal from Germany but have not heard from her yet. I hope to soon. As soon as I do, I will certainly let you know.

I think it is pure magic getting "real" letters in the mail. There is something about seeing the stamps, the envelopes and of course the written words.  They give you a glimpse in to the life of the writer and their personality through the stoke of the pen.

I want to leave you with a thrift store find. Does anyone remember these self folding note cards with the gold stickers?

Hope your weekend and subsequent week is fantastic.
Peace...
Naila Moon

Spreading love follow up

Hello friends in blogger land. I have been away for a while attempting to get life in order as I am once again in the midst of college chaos.

I wanted to tie up some loose ends that have been floating about in the past few weeks. Bare with me because they actually all tie in together. I think....

 If you read my Mashugana blog you will find out I spoke about "spreading the love" week and my inspiration.
Here is the link to the blog if you want to read it. (I'll wait.)  ---> My Spreading love post part 1

I thought you might want to know some of the things I did for this week. If you do not mind, I will just list them and comment on them as need be. (Note: I do not generally like to boast or tell the things I do special for people but in this case Melissa asked we blog about it.)

1. Bought lunch for my captioner, Trish.  She is so incredibly helpful in my classes. I simply would be lost without her.  Besides "working" for me, she is my friend and I just appreciate her.
2. Sent special somethings to my pen pals. If you want to know more about that leave me a comment and I will try to find the link. (For some reason, I can't find it at the moment.)

Oh yes, I received a sweet note from Melissa. Along with the hand-written letter, I received this cute little bracelet. The bracelet is a reminder to spread love wherever and whenever you can. Thanks so much for the bracelet!
3. I made chili one night and decided to take a huge bowl to my neighbor. When she asked what this was for, I told her just because. It turned out she had just been home only a few minutes, tired and needed to eat.  Yesterday, I got a note from her, along with my bowl. The note essentially thanked me and told me that it could not have come at a better time because she had been going through a rough patch and needed a pick me up.  Who knew? See, you never know who needs a little love do you?
4. I gave some money to some guy  for a cup of coffee.
5. I paid a guys bus fair one day.
6. The biggest thing I did, with my hubby, mom and kids as co-conspirators was plan a surprise bbq.  Well, actually, we started planning it 2 weeks prior to this week but the bbq happened last Saturday.

As I have noted recently, my Aunt has been going through chemo this summer. This past Tuesday she was scheduled to have a double mastectomy. My hubby and I wanted to be there for her. So....
We conspired with said co-conspirators to plan a bbq in her honor (and of another aunt who is 25 year survivor) and fly in unbeknownst to no other family members. We totally kept it secret! Needless to say, it was a wonderful surprise by all and especially to my aunt! (side note: the family has not seen my hubby since last Dec. 2009 and not seen me since Jan.)
 Here are several photos from that party.

My Aunt M. whom the party was for

My Aunt C., 25 year survivor...I painted this rock for her.

One of my brothers taking over BBQ-ing

Me & my Grand-baby...first time I had seen her!

My cousin, Me & her hubby goofing off

This is my Uncle J. He had this shirt made special for Aunt M.

All in all, it was a good week!! However, just because the week had ended does not mean I cannot do special things for people I know or don't know. Spreading love and not hate should always be in my mind as well as others. Our world is a much better place when we continue to spread the love around.

Have a great weekend.
Peace...Naila Moon