Sweetness

This story starts back in November when a new friend started reading this blog for the first time...and she liked it. Really liked it. Which makes me incredibly happy and makes me think that my little challenge is not just my little challenge. It's been shared with readers, friends, recipients of my mail and all mail that might have been inspired by a blog post along the way. And this sweet friend liked my blog/challenge so much that she wanted to help me meet my thousand paper letter challenge! And so...

How Lovely!

she offered up hair clips for me to send out to some little girls in my life. She simply said just tell me how many you would like - I just want to help. How nice is that! My friend and her business partner have a little company called Hair Candy. Super excited to get these out to some sweet girls (already three have made their way out into the world). So thank you, thank you, thank you to a very sweet friend! You may have already met her in my last post  - yep, that was her (and her awesome family) making people happy on Valentine's Day. How lucky am I to have met her - thanks Melissa!

728/1000 some hair clips, some thank you notes, and some randomness.

A Little Inspiration...

Last week I posted some ideas about Valentine's Day and I had to interrupt our regularly scheduled Mailbox Monday to share this with you:

Just got in from a handing out "Free Kisses" on the streets of
Steveston. The amount of smiles we shared has filled our hearts:)
Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

My friend Melissa took some inspiration from my last post and came up with this incredible idea! Melissa and her beautiful kids handed out "Free Kisses" to the people in their community - this would absolutely have made my day if I was passing by. In Melissa's words: "It was a great way to spend the evening. Some people told us it was the only valentines day gesture they received all day. The kids handed out a couple hundred and every person was really happy about accepting a 'kiss.' Made us feel great about the people in our community."  Oh my goodness, they handed out "a couple hundred" - I am just in awe of this gesture. She said she was inspired by me but have to say I'm feeling incredibly inspired by her brilliance and sweetness. Truly a Happy Valentine's Day story (for many).

*Thanks to Melissa for sharing these pictures and her story with me.

Valentine's Day

Radio, tv, the Internet, magazines, store fronts are all a buzz with flowers, diamonds, expensive dinner dates and chocolates...which are lovely (really lovely) but I worry about the expectation it puts out there for Valentine's Day and the entitlement that follows for those that are figuring out this like/love thing (which might just be all of us). There are so many ways to show love, to support friends, to be kind that are special. So ignore the hoopla and make it about love on your own terms!

I received some sweet tea towels from a friend - just because!

Love them!

And Piper received this fabulous hair clip from another lovely friend (more about this later).

Piper was thrilled with this Hair Candy Hair Clip
made just for her!

Not your typical Valentine's Day Fare are they? But amazing nonetheless. Think outside of the roses, chocolates, diamonds, dinners etc. scenario and share love with those around you in amazing ways on Friday!  

Love people you've never thought of loving...your neighbours that you don't know yet (baked goods, a plant...foster a little community), your children's teachers  or office staff (they have to deal with a lot of kids hopped up on Valentine's Day sugar  - maybe a coffee card...maybe something stronger), drive through worker (it's not the best job is it and they are working on Valentine's Day - sucks), buy a bag of chocolate hearts or heart lollipops and just hand them out to everyone you meet, bring flowers to any office/residence/hospital/library for the staff room, if you go out for dinner by all means overtip, fill coin operated coin parking meters, offer to take a couple/group photo for someone so they can be in the photo, or don't plan it out at all and just be open to making someone's day. 

It can certainly be a dark day for some - remember that too and appreciate that/honour that. And if you can lighten their burden, do. If nothing else reach out and have a conversation with them on Friday. I saw a card recently that said something along the lines of "it could be worse you could be dating a total idiot." So I guess there is that. I just saw a cool "new" holiday out there in cyberspace scheduled for February 13th called Galentines...where you get together and have fun with your girlfriends (the gals) - oh fun! Don't forget to love those close to you too an extra little bit today just because! Why not?

Meanwhile at our house my husband and I are pretty low key on the gifts and by that I mean...we don't tend to spend a lot but we do tend to think a lot about the gift or card or gesture (and that's why I love him). My love language is gifts and he knows this but this past weekend he did all of the laundry - ALL! So maybe, service is one of my secondary love languages - it was so thoughtful and to boot he let me sleep in on Monday (Family Day). Those are great Valentine's gifts right there (or any day). A huge thanks to him! He needs to do nothing else (he'll be glad to hear that). 

"Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude."

AA Milne - Winnie the Pooh

711/1000 Four pieces out the door

Mailbox "Fun"day

It's Valentine's Day this week so I opted for Mailbox "Fun"day instead of Mailbox Monday. Yesterday my daughter and I went to my best friend's (Harmony) daughter's (Everleigh) first birthday - she is an almost Valentine's Day baby (February 13th). And for her first birthday Harmony decided to embrace a Valentine's Day/Love theme! It was a lot of fun and let me tell you that Harmony makes THE best sugar cookies (delicious and beautiful) but what fits in best with this little blog of mine is the craft all the kids got to make...a Valentine's Day mailbox (clearly she is my best friend for a reason). She is incredibly crafty (in a good way) - her kids are lucky to have her and so are her students.

Here is the set up:

Yep, those are diaper wipe boxes!

Action shot!

And here is Piper's finished product!

The cool thing is...you still have time to make one (if you are so inclined). Thanks Harmony for giving me some Mailbox Monday material and throwing a great party! A very Happy 1st Birthday to Miss Everleigh!

Have a wonderful week everyone! Here in BC we are celebrating Family Day (mostly by watching the Olympics).

A Little Reading Material...

Back in November I posted Snow Mail where I mentioned that I was "hand" making Christmas presents for my nieces (aged 12, 11 and 9) but it was top secret because it was before Christmas (clearly). So I thought I would take today's post to share what I made for them. My nieces like to read before bed and I wanted to "make" books for them to read before bed that was personalized for them. And then I thought they could trade after they had read their own.

I started with three journals. I first thought of the idea in January but didn't get started until September. My goal was to fill the whole book but I probably ended up doing about 50 pages (next time I will start earlier - which is why I am posting this now in case anyone else wants to give it a go).

Three Awesome Journals for Three Awesome Nieces!

I filled them with magazine articles, jokes, craft instructions, inspiring quotations, favourite photos, interesting facts, How to's, poems, comics, top 10 lists...all things I could have potentially sent them in the mail too. And all short, bite-sized bits so they could pick up and put down at their leisure. I did a lot of reusing and recycling - going through old magazines and catalogues & picking up more at my local thrift shop.

A few sample pages.

I even wrote each of these sweet girls a poem.

I had my husband draw a comic - his go to is always a skeleton (he says it is the one thing he can draw). He picked a sport each girl is involved in.

Soccer.

Gymnastics.

Swimming.

I also "spelled out" their names. Here is an example of one. 

J-A-Y-L-E-N

And while I wish I could have filled every single page (I just ran out of time), I'm not sure the journals would have been able to close if I had.

I'm happy to report that they loved them. The next day after Christmas they flew to India for 2.5 weeks so this turned into something they could read on the plane or during a layover. I know they liked them because when I went over to see them the other day my oldest niece asked if I could fill in the rest (aw that felt so good!). 

I'm thinking I'll do something similar (but start now) for next Christmas but this time I will do more of an interactive book with areas for them to fill out and things for them to do and so on. Right now I'm brainstorming and thinking word puzzles, journal entry type questions, scavenger hunts... I did something like this for my husband when he decided to go on a trip to Europe for the summer after we'd been dating for a short 4 months. He still has it.

He used the second half
as a journal for his trip.

A Sampling...

Lots of ideas if you want to start your own or if you want to just send a few things in the mail to friends. You could even start a journal and send it back and forth to each other - each filling in a few pages at a time (of writing, photos, or bits like I put in the books for my nieces). What fun!

707/1000 25 pieces of "heart" mail this week...and just like that I broke 700!

Mailbox Monday

My friend Poppy who lives in Gloucester sent me this great picture of a mailbox that is just down the road from her house. Here is her description:

This post-box is just 5 minutes down the road from our place and still very much in use! I guess it was once fixed to a living tree, which then got chopped down to leave only a stump, which then became home to the ivy and the mile-a-minute weed… it makes me chuckle to think that someone goes to all the effort of giving it a haircut!

Thanks so much for this one Poppy - a great start to the week!

Shared Memory

Do you have special sayings or inside jokes you share with friends and family?  Little moments that you replay over and over with each other? Something probably comes to mind as you read that sentence. Nicknames even, are little stories in themselves aren't they - full of memory, snapshots in time. Warm yourself this week with some of these moments, stories, & names. And once you've basked in the good times pass it on.  Send some memories to someone this week. Write down a phrase that will get a friend gut laughing just by reading it or get them smiling from ear to ear at a little trip down memory lane (even if that memory is just from last week).

 Or maybe it will just be a time and a place - and that will be enough to bring them back to a special moment.

I'm writing journals to my kids - an idea I got from a beautifully creative person in my life. But as my husband was telling someone...they are secret journals or maybe surprise is a better word. I'm hoping to pass them onto them when they are older (lates teens maybe)...a real trip down memory lane...my memories of them. Something I've been clinging to this week is a phrase that my daughter and I share (usually at bedtime but often whenever the mood strikes)...I say to her, "I love you to the moon and back" (not an uncommon sentiment that parents share with their kids) but what gets me every time is when she turns to me and says, "I love you to the sun and back. That's farther right?" And I hold her close and reply, "Yes, yes it is." And time stops until I release her from my arms. I was reminded by a very special Mom this weekend to write down our kids' stories because as much as we want to remember we sometimes forget little moments. And we never truly know how long we have with them (or anyone).

So share some stories this week - by post, by email, by phone, by text, in person...make a connection and share a smile.

We're all just stories in the end.

682/1000 Two totally terrific tokens...