WIne Bottle Sleeves

 Creative Girl's Mom, aka Tax Girl, went above and beyond for me lately. Tax Girl showed my parents her townhome, here in town. To no avail; regarding my parents moving closer.

Tax girl also volunteers with AARP Tax Help and helped go over our taxes yesterday.
Her daughter says she likes Pinot Grigio white wines so three bottles were purchased and a search for a wine carrier was made on Pinterest.

Maybe five gazillion sewing tutorials for various wine carriers emerged. I picked this one because there was an opportunity to de-stash my felt box enough to maybe get the lid on -if I could find the lid. Ahem.

 Simple construction. Felt doesn't fray, so the seam became part of the details.
I decorated them with a monogram initial. I should have printed these initials  'mirror-image' from my computer. Not bad for free-hand. They are ironed on with Wonder-Under fusible webbing.

 Reusable. All materials were from my stash. The tutorial called for a covered button. I didn't have any the size I was looking for, but I did have vintage covered ones. Instead of being matchy-matchy with the button matching the monogram. It works.

On  this Super Bowl Sunday, it is raining cats & dogs. Sad, gray light. I probably need a glass of wine after this. lol.

I've done another sewing project that will post on Thursday - it needs time to get to it's destination. It feels good to work the creative angle after so many months of family and work issues that I can't post here.

Ideas For Happy Mail

I like this idea. As long as the postal clerk can put their postage labels on it, it can go. This one is a bit small. It would  take $2.54 in postage stamps to send(2016).   It needs to be in a bigger container - clear if possible.

 Envelope art.  Google it.  Seriously.

 I found this road atlas for a buck at the estate sale this morning. For a buck, I can make about 50 envelopes. Well - twenty - cuz I'll get tired of cutting maps out.

 Have you ever made your own envelopes? It's pretty easy to find templates all over the web. Or, if you're fond of a particular size envelope, sacrifice it to be your pattern. I cut my templates out of cardstock-weight paper - usually the ends of a calendar. Then I just trace and cut them out. A little glue stick on the ends to hold things in.

Did you know glue sticks go bad? The glue stick in the kitchen was all dried up and the one in my sewing room looked 'moldy!'. I used Elmers school glue instead.

At garage sales,  I look for large books/calendars that have wonderful images on them. Coffee table books. Nice paper.

 The other two envelopes are from a German calendar. Which is actually awesome as, at most, there are only twelve images, which is doable as a project with a clear end in sight. This US states road atlas looks like a massive black hole of time project.

I'm thinking I will offer up some handmade envelopes as a prize. What do you think? Do you want particular states? I sized my templates for a long business envelope and a smaller, more personal size - is that an A4?

 I also found our local photographer who made these Canby Ferry postcards. This is our car ferry that traverses the Willamette River just north of us.

 One of my favorite ways to send Happy Mail is cute socks for the nephews & nieces in clear freezer ziploc bags. Everyone smiles along the way as these socks make it to their destination. These fun socks are going to DD.  Its fun to send boxes of movie candy - like Sour Patch Kids, in ziploc bags too.

Make sure you use the freezer style as this plastic is thicker.

 Some of the items I have on my counter to pack up and send in the next few days.
Easter is March 27th so this is a reminder to send out those easter packages.

I am sending out all of my plastic easter eggs. They are already filled with candy, ready to post. You can send just one easter egg with stamps on it but my peoples are getting more then ten each. Really! Do plastic eggs re-populate in the dark storage cupboard? When did I get so many? It's been many years since an easter egg hunt was held here.
 

 Adult coloring books anyone?
Awesome happy mail to get colored pencils in a upcycled clear water bottle.

This larger envelope with multiple smaller envelopes.
Please, pretty please, will someone make it for me?

How about printing out a Marauders map and sending it to your niece or nephew who loves Harry Potter?

I've sent coconuts from Hawaii before. A little bit expensive as the coconut has to be USDA approved (no bugs) and they are heavy.  What's the most interesting item you have sent through the mail? Have you tried?

Mail Count Half Over

Flying airplane with chickie pilot - Love it. Looks like our old Cessna 170A.

Fukuoka:  Special postcrossing postcard for different regions in Japan. Vintage castle postcard.

Scandanavian Crocheted Heart - you can find how-to directions on the sidebar of Teresa's Blog:

A fellow Postcrosser: Over 4000 cards sent and she lives 20 minutes from me!!!

Benta sent a fabric postcard for my mail carrier too!

Fumikou - Japanese letter sachets. I can make my own now.

Sweet pile of February fun.

Today's outgoing mail

Taking photos today of some of the postcards I've received. So far.

My carrier is super happy with how much mail volume she has received. Normally, during count, mail volume vanishes. ** As in, everyone suspects the PO of holding back the mail, somehow. Not this time. Lots of packages, lots of hours, lots of first class. Three routes are being counted out of six rural routes for my city of Canbyland. We have five city routes which get figured differently (I know!). So complicated - it's the government at its best. I love being a federal employee (sarcasm!).





I came up with a giveaway for everyone who reads this blog - you can tell your friends too.
To win this chicken pot holder, all you have to do is send me a postcard (or a letter). It must be postmarked between Feb 7 - 24, 2015). My address is in the original giveaway post.

This helps out my amazing mail carrier with more mail volume. I will draw randomly - seriously- the best postcard photo, the best joke, the best drawing, it will be my favorite card.

International peoples are welcome, I will post this chicken hot pad to the winner at the end of February.
Rural mail count goes from February 7 - 28, but I chose to end this giveaway on the 24th so I can receive your entry during mail count.

***You might get extra points if you state on your postcard or in your letter how many other stamped pieces of mail you sent out during this time.
***Or maybe you know some good chicken jokes.
***Or, you can sketch flying airplanes, with chickie pilots.