I've been busy writing letters all week, and am just waiting for payday so that I can pop off to my
lovely local post office and send them out - notice I say
lovely local there (I'll explain that in a bit.) I've not been doing much
stitching, due to a recurring shoulder issue I have, but, I have been keeping myself busy (and stopping myself from killing my kids while they're off for school holidays) by making envelopes while they've been out playing in the garden.
As a first foray into envelope making I'm quite happy with how they've turned out - I scaled them to fit one fold of my post quarto size writing paper, because C5 were too large and I found post quarto envelopes too small. I purchased some quality gift wrap quite cheaply on eBay and decided that was what I'd use to make them. After gluing a single sheet of plain A4 to the paper to make it a tad more sturdy, I marked them out, cut them up and now all I have to do is stick down the flaps with double sided tape (which I've started doing.) I then realised I needed some address labels, so I printed some out (I love Photoshop) and I've got some matching return address labels still lined up to print too. Like I said, I'm quite happy with the whole process, and the end result. Here they are in all their glory:
Just on their own
With the labels to match!
Who doesn't love jelly beans? I love jelly beans...
And jeans...
Gorgeous pink girly swirly things... (and I don't usually like pink but I fell in love with this paper)
Envelopes with a challenge... Where's Wally?
Chocolate with brown labels, or...
Chocolate with white labels.. I'm not sure which looks best, so I went with both :o)
I really enjoyed the whole experience of making these, and hopefully, the people who receive them (even though I kind of want to keep them for some bizarre reason) will like them too. There are 24 in total - 8 jelly beans and 4 of each of the others (because I really do love jelly beans - they remind me of my Grandad) I got 4 to each sheet of gift wrap (and that would be the same with C5 envelopes if I had done them) which I thought was quite good.
Like I said, I've written a few letters, but I need the bits and pieces to go with them before I send them off, and I'm hoping to send them by Monday. I did however, do a few PostCrossing cards.
OUTGOING
This one's off to Elena in Siberia. It shows Wolverhampton's tram system that runs every five-ten minutes to Birmingham. with the police station at the front-left, court and the back-left and nightclub Oceana on the front-right. The trams are very annoying because the pre-recorded voice that tells you what stop is coming up talks every five minutes at least 25 times - yes, there are that many stops between Wolverhampton and Birmingham. Needless to say an mp3 player is really useful on this trip as long as you know where to get off the thing. They're also really loud in general, not the people, just the machinery and the tram lines and the engines. Still, they look nice :o)
This one's off to Helio in Portugal. West Park is the biggest park in Wolverhampton, and has a lake where you can go on a boat, pedlo, or just try not to fall into when you're being chased by the local geese (I had an awful experience with geese as a child) while you're feeding bread to the ducks. Kids love it, and it's popular with exercise driven people who like jogging. Just walking around it wears me out, but it's lovely in both summer and in winter it looks beautiful.
This is for Mika in Japan. She said she likes flowers so I thought this one was perfect. It's a variation on the one I sent to Miranda of the park I went to as a child. As I said before, it's very pretty in summer.
For Mika in Germany, who wanted some discussion on traditions of countries, I sent this. It's actually West Park on Bonfire Night. The celebrations there are huge and the park is always packed full of people annually on Guy Fawkes Night (November 5th) for the fireworks display.
And now, for my little mishap. At my not-so-lovely local post office. I honestly wish I had just waited until I posted my letters and taken the postcards in then to my lovely local post office, but I didn't, and I had a crap experience thanks to my impatience. I took the cards in and said I wanted to send them - fine. I smiled at the clerk, who did not smile back. She honestly looked at me like I had grown a second head after I passed the cards over. She grabbed three stamps for 60p and one for 67p and practically threw them, along with the cards, back to me while asking for me to pay and telling m e to shove them in the box outside. It wasn't until I'd gotten outside and posted the cards into the box in my haste and upset, that I realised she hadn't put any Airmail stickers on, and neither had I. I'm pretty sure they'll get to their destinations (they will, right?) and that hopefully someone in the sorting office will notice that they're not marked and will mark them up. But I felt stupid. And I felt horrible. And I'm never going to that particular post office ever again. Ever.
Have you ever had any awful post office experiences?
On a cheerier (is that even a word?) note I did receive two postcards too:
INCOMING
This cute little card is from Anna in Germany, who is enjoying her summer holiday break from school.
And this one is from Jo in Belgium, who comes over to the U.K. on the ferry sometimes to go shopping at Tesco!!!
Until next time
:o)
