sogni d'oro: snail mail

Showing posts with label snail mail. Show all posts

The above photo is a postcard Melissa sent me of a darling Jane Austen quote & illustration, while we were still in the planning stages of our adventures abroad. They're over and done now but I had the best week: visiting M in Geneva (and house- and cat-sitting in France), some quintessentially Swiss day trips, and a jaunt to Paris at the end of the week.

I haven't looked through all my photos yet, but you can bet that once I've sorted them and my thoughts, I'll be posting some here. For now, I plan on going to bed at what is now the appropriate time for my time zone (take that, jet lag).

I'm grateful for my dad: his sense of humor, his recent adoption of emoticons in text messages, his love of music, his value of hard work, his patience, and his dedication to the gospel. I'm grateful for the many lessons he has taught (and still teaches) me.

I also love the fact that he used a Gregory Peck stamp on a jury duty form he forwarded to me. Happy Father's Day, dad! I love you!

A lovely surprise in the mail [a belated valentine] from this girl made my Friday even lovelier.

(it's a little hard to see in this photo of a photo, but this is supposed to evoke the birthday greeting photo we sent to our friends on missions a couple years ago.)

"It was fascinating, especially the stationers' shops—I could look at stationers' shops for ever and ever." —Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle, p. 77

Well, don't quite go away—please just turn into snow. A little bit might be nice.

P.S. Don't you just love this snowstorm card?

[top photo from a few winters ago]

(these items are unrelated, but here they are nonetheless.)

In Italy, the juice we drank was closer to nectar as it's much thicker, and consequently delicious. We had either pear or A.C.E. (a combination of orange, carrot, and lemon juices) every morning with breakfast, and in the states, you can buy pear nectar, which is so similar!

I made some envelopes from maps after seeing the idea here (via pinterest). This is probably a better alternative to purchasing stationery, as I love pretty stationery and always have something on hand from which I could make an envelope, be it a map or otherwise.

Another stationery item: a notebook covered with some of my train and bus tickets from Italy (including my train ticket from Poggibonsi to Siena on that fateful day when we went to San Gimignano, ha).

...that as children, my sisters, cousins, and I played Harry Potter games. In the past, we've come across scrolls for Potions homework and notes between Harry and Ron, etc. Today, however, I discovered this most fabulous letter written by my sister Lauren during one such game.

translation of Lauren's childhood writing:

:) Dear Hermione,

Miss you. How's Hogwarts? [something unintelligible] I have about thirteen patients so now I have to go.

Bye,

Mum

It was in this envelope... please note the hole poked in the corner. We owned a toy stuffed white owl (Hedwig!) that I received from school in fourth grade, as my elementary school mascot was an owl. So it's very likely that we somehow attached this to note Hedwig's leg and threw the owl across the room to the recipient playing Hermione.

Oh how children make me laugh. I love that my childhood is partially immortalized in such silly mementos as this letter.

There are a few stationery stores in Siena. Confession: I've gone to each of them multiple times (though most times just to browse). One thing I'd been looking for was air mail envelopes. I love writing letters, and I really like the quaint feel of air mail envelopes. My stationery store obsession paid off, because I finally found some today!

While I was in the stationery store, a man came in with his young daughter and asked the shopkeeper what would be good "per una bambina che vuole dipingere?" (for a little girl who wants to paint). His daughter looked so excited, and the clerk found some "Giotto bebè" paints for her. I absolutely love the little snippets of conversations like this that I overhear.

I got this letter from my cousin Rachel the other day.

Note the very accurate height difference in the drawing.

That is all.

to say that i am excited to be back in my italian class is one of the biggest understatements. especially after i found these stamps a couple weeks ago!

[i love italy]

i think i need these...... (yes, need. to send letters with, of course!)

(because you might already know how i feel about mark rothko)

i love writing letters :)

sometimes i think it would be really cool to work for the u.s. postal service. part of this not-really-really-a-dream, more-of-a-fancy comes from my philetalist days back in the 4th grade.. ha! although i still collect stamps.. i won't deny it! postage stamps are miniature pieces of art, and i think they reveal a lot about a culture! and therefore i'm a fan.