I decided today that I'd like to introduce you to my mailbox. She was a bit of an ugly duckling until recently when I gave her a quick makeover with a messy splattering of red paint. She's attached very precariously to a fence post and is just a little too high for the mail man to be able to put items in without having to get off his bike. She's scruffy, but since I made her over people have sent her more and more lovely mail.


^ My little red mailbox with yours truly.

I guess my street isn't called 'Fern' for nothing, though these are probably the only ferns in the whole street.

Some inspiring mailboxes I found;

+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+.


+ (This one's actually in NSW, Australia. I know of several odd mailboxes around where I grew up. We used to have one made out of a paint tin, and another made from a huge water bottle)


+.

Okay, okay, I'll stop now. I got a bit carried away with the beauty of mailboxes. After all that I decided to make a new Tumblr just for pictures of things mail related; Fuck Yeah Mail - in line with all of the other 'Fuck Yeah...' Tumblrs eg. Fuck Yeah Morrissey, Fuck Yeah Undercuts, Fuck Yeah Zooey, Fuck Yeah Tattoos, Fuck Yeah Voldemort, etc. Though I might end up changing the name.



On an entirely unrelated note, on my internet travels I came across Boston.com's Scenes From The Recession, which is basically a collection of incredible photos from around the world showing the various effects of the recession. I read somewhere that on paper Greece and Australia have been the only countries not significantly affected by the recession (yet). I certainly haven't seen any scenes like those in Australia. Here's one picture that I thought was interesting;


^ Though as it turns out these unused newspaper racks were removed per city rules, not due to economic pressure.

^ unknown (via).

Of course It's actually 3pm Saturday in Aus (I'm speaking to you from the fuuuuuuture), but it's still Friday in the Northern Hemisphere. After Belen mentioned it I checked out The Little Things We Do's Fill In The Blank Friday and I liked it;

1. If I had two hours to myself today, I'd probably have another elongated nap .

2. If I could travel anywhere today, I would go to somewhere icy .

3. Waking up every day with my love is my happiest memory.

4. Sometimes you're the bat other times you're the ball .

5. Beauty is feeling comfortable in your own skin .

6. I would be embarrassed if anyone knew all of the mean little tormenting things I do to C .

7. Love at first sight is probably lust .

I stumbled across an Australian custom bike parts shop called Candy Cranks last night and I realised that this bike and I are meant to be together. I don't care if you were meant for a boy - we'll be together!;


I opened up an old atlas last night that my family has had since I can remember and noticed all of the pen marks where my dad had shown me his trip to Sumatra and showed me where I was born and where my cousins lived and it made me smile. The atlas made me cough and sneeze a lot, and it's about fifty years old so awfully inaccurate, but it was really interesting to look at the drawings of all the places in world and all of the wonderful place names.

Two outgoing mail items;

^ Another children's book massacre envelope, to GirlZoot.


^ A shiny red envelope with a used scratchy on the back for Wendy.

Stuck In My Head: Help I'm Alive - Metric
Eating: Werthers Original Cream Candies.

^ Hinstudio.

Today my friend Manneh came for a brief visit then he and his dad gave me a lift to Mayfield where I went visit my brother and his wife and little Rosie. I got to play with Rose for ages and even though she was teething and grumpy she gave me a few gorgeous crooked smiles. I'm glad that seeing my niece once a fortnight totally satisfies my baby-love-quota and I feel no need to get one of my own any time soon. Later my brother gave me enough change for the bus fare home and I got off near my friend Doug's house and went to deliver him a birthday postcard that read 'Today is the perfect day for you to thank me for remembering your birthday' (his birthday is in fact tomorrow). We hung out there for a bit and I ate lots of Doug's junk food while he showed me pictures from Awkward Family Photos that he'd photoshopped the heads of his friends onto. Our friend Zoe came over and we all went out to the mall and wandered around, I forgot how anxious and claustrophobic being at the mall on a Thursday night can make you feel. I finally found the Kikki-K store, though I have a total of $1.32 in my bank account so I didn't bring anything awesome home. So many amazing over-priced items! Eventually I got home and commanded that C ride to the shops to buy the ingredients to make an awesome pumpkin and feta pie which he is now cooking. Mmm. Then we're going to have pancakes with chocolate and then we're going to watch Breaking Bad season 2, and that's been my super interesting day!

Mmmmail;


^ This sweet package came from the ever generous mail mistress Lauren. The book is awesome and I can't wait to get some junk mail so I can try some out! :P Thanks so much Lauren!


^ A lovely letter from a lovely lady - Carly from A Girl and Her Blog. She included a pack of two awesome pads that I'm hopefully going to write lots of 'good' and 'crazy' ideas on correspondingly.



^ A very pretty green floral package from Malu in the Philippines that included three awesome smiley themed lettersets. I can't wait to try them out - such a lovely little gift!


^ A great sunny Floridian postcard from Lauren.


^ Beautiful glow worm cave postcard from Rebecca.


^ A pretty postcard with an added Tweety sticker from Malu. This girl has the loveliest font-like handwriting, I'll have to show you sometime.

When I cleaned my desk up yesterday I decided I needed a better system for storing letters that have been replied to, other than the very overflowing folder they were formerly kept in, so I unearthed a big plastic storage box from in the shed (emptied some of C's semi-important miscellanea out of it first) and filled it up with letters. I didn't count how many were in there but I'd guess at least a hundred, maybe two, from the past six months, and I just thought it was amazing; all of these letters from all over the world, from different people from different walks of life, all with different stories, different handwriting, different decorations, different stamps, different postmarks. Lately I've been feeling really overwhelmed by the amount of mail I have sitting around needing replies and worrying about how much time I'll have to devote to it soon (I'd love to know how Missive Maven does it!), but it's just such a beautiful art form, I don't know that I'll ever be able to stop! I hope that mail artists and letter writing aficionados can ensure that post refuses to die out. Sometimes I just find it amazing that someone on the other side of the world can put my name on an envelope, attach a stamp, put it in a box and a few days later it arrives at my house. I love it! :D

I spotted these today on Paper Tastebuds and they are totally my kind of kitchen ware! From the Memo collection by Fishs Eddy. Their other dinnerware sets are pretty cute too;




Listening to: Transatlanticism - Death Cab For Cutie.
Consuming: Pumpkin feta thyme garlic & caramelised onion pie.

PS. Happy birthday Doug!

^ Dan Hillier.

Tonight my mum came to visit (she's actually trying to sleep in our spare room as I type and keeps yelling out at me that my chair is too squeaky). She and her boyfriend are finalising plans for going to Japan in April, and during that time C and I are going to mind their house (and my step siblings and my sister) under the condition that she brings me back a bunch of sweet Japanese stationery and takes lots of pictures of the amazing street fashions (ala FRUiTS). Sweet deal. I received five lovely letters today;







^ Another fantastic typewriter-written letter from the delightful miss Milly. As a mail-tag request I asked for 'something red' and I received an amazing little red post box keyring in return. In tiny writing in that white square it reads 'London Post'. LOVE IT!



^ This is the second wonderful letter I have received from Melody and both times I have been dumbfounded by the fact that she is so young! I wish I was that cool, articulate and lovely when I was thirteen. Brilliant letter, gorgeous stamps and great stationery (you can't go wrong with Dark Horse).




^ This wonderful surprise package came from REread Design in Queensland. I wasn't sure how I should use the gorgeous sewn round circles, so my mum suggested that I temporarily hang them from the door knobs around my house where I can admire them all the time;





^ Another beautiful letter from Lila.

As well as this I also received a note from a lady in the US today that read that until further notice she would be ceasing all activity in regards to snail mail as she has returned to school. Of course this made me sad to lose a good penpal, but it also made me consider that going back to school is a big commitment and writing a great deal of letters every week and blogging are big commitments. I'm not sure how I'll go about juggling all of the above when I go back to university, but hopefully I can find a way to make sure all of these important elements in my life get the attention they deserve.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to make a batch of Vegan Crimson Velveteen Cupcakes (hopefully at least half as good as Whisk-Kid's look!).