How did it happen...

...that I am privileged to know the world's loveliest, kindest, and most creative people? I can only assume it is God's generous grace.

Today I found a bright red package in my mailbox -- completely unexpected -- which had travelled 'cross land and sea. I spent a jolly hour relishing in the kindness and fun of a kindred spirit whom I have never met but whom I count among my good friends.

The lovely package included:

Handwritten words of news and encouragement...

The dignified grey hair of Mr. Clooney...

Gentlemen in amazing headwear posing with unique instruments (possibly friends of this guy)...

Pirate guinea pigs with peg legs! (I'd like to meet this dude)...

Enchanting artwork on brown paper...


An amazing scarf of vibrant stripes...

After Shakespeare Mints...

Billy-karting nuns...

Luscious reading material...

And heartwarming-ness.

A book I was reading today said something about "a gift so thoughtful it almost hurt". It seems apt. Thank you so much, friend, for all your excellence.

Now to do a few more odd jobs before bed and then to settle down with A Winter Book (the evening is appropriately cool and cloudy for just such reading material).

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Conversations:

Mothercare -- I'm happy, too, that the ground didn't open up and swallow that post office!

Rebecca Simon -- ah, memories :). Hey, I just realised that Whatsoever is how we know each other, isn't it? So many friends through the pages of that little publication!

Samantha R -- yes, it's strange closing this chapter of my life. But it makes perfect sense knowing that it's in God's timing. I wouldn't be able to do it otherwise. :)

Asea -- honestly, we really need to start The Adults' Colouring-In Society. There's a lot of us out there. PS. This post is all about you :).

Caitlin -- yes, a happy relief!

Abbie -- likewise, thank you for your faithfulness to encourage, pray for, and write for this magazine! You've been such a blessing (I don't think you realise how much).

Eweight -- I got a comment from you while you're overseasssss!

Just a minute...

or: blogging in a few short words

Currently making: cards for all the engagements and weddings bursting into bloom around here.

Currently watching: Cranford, and enjoying it immensely. What I love about so much of what the BBC makes is that they reveal the beauty of the ordinary character. The person may not be beautiful by the world's standard, but British television knows how to show the hero's heart. I like that.

Currently reading: The Potter's Field by Ellis Peters (remind me to talk about the Brother Cadfael books at bookity boo sometime soon) and Radical Womanhood by Carolyn McCulley. Both excellent, though in completely different ways, obviously.

Currently listening: to Jimmy Needham's Speak. I have a chronic hatred of overplaying. I can't stand listening to songs too many times in a row. But I confess: I have been guilty of listening to this one at some stage every day of the last week. It's so lovely -- think Michael Buble's sound but with so much more exuberance, and then add worship into the mix. I'm liking it so much.

Currently wearing: ugg boots, because it's really quite cold. And grey. And wet.

Currently inspired: by a big fat package from the US with lots of crafting supplies courtesy of this lady (all the pictures in this post are goodies from the parcel). Now I want to have a crafternoon and Make Things.

Looking forward to: weddings, this Saturday and the next. Yay, weddings!

Not looking forward to: waving goodbye to loved ones at the airport.

(Just a minute came via Hayley from here.)

More fabulousness in the mail.

The cheering mail continued throughout the week, with the deliciousness pictured below arriving on Wednesday and then more lovely things today (to follow in another post).

Although it seems to be the one answer no one wants to admit to, I'm pretty sure my love language is gifts. So when mail arrives to prove that someone has taken a moment of their busy life and reserved a slice of it to send something to me, I feel truly loved. And when the timing of it is so good, I feel doubly loved -- knowing the gift is not just from the friend who sent it, but from God, too, who knows what we need when we need it.

Wednesday's awesome letter came from my American friend living in Russia who posted her letter from Finland. Everything about that is super.

Enclosed in the letter were the following: a postcard of intense cuteness! (It makes me want to read Pippi Longstocking.)

Also, amazing vintage photographs of people whose stories I want to discover or invent and then tell. Incredibly inspiring.

And this fellow is saved till last because he's my favourite. I love him. I love his smile. I love his awesome cap. I love his bony hands and how proudly he's holding up the fish he's caught. I love that he's sitting in a little wooden boat in some European sea. I love the cigarette dangling nonchalantly from his lip...

... and I love the writing on the back of the postcard, completely unintelligible to me except for the date: July 1949.

Thank you so, so much, AL, for your full-of-joy-and-inspiration mail. I'm smiling real big!

Mail day of fabulousness.

Today was a very down day for a million reasons and for no reason at all. I could tell you why there was gloom but I'd rather tell you it was perfect timing that this amazing little package got stuffed into my mailbox today.


A little while ago, an awesome handmade creative mail swap project did the facebook circuit. I'm still on the go with the gifts I'm making for a half a dozen or so friends (roll on the holidays for creative good times, I say!), but today I received a gift myself. Yaaay!


For starters: just lookit the packaging! I bet every postman or mail sorter who had to touch that package smiled and wished they could open it. Seriously.

And then, inside the Mailing Envelope of Greatness, was the Tote Bag of Awesomeness! Long-ago school friend Sarah has hand-painted and hand-inked this tote bag into sheer adorability and it's an absolute work of art. I am currently tossing up whether to a) actually use it or b) hang it on the wall and gaze on the loveliness instead.

Thank you, Sarah! It's so gorgeous and completely brightened my grey day.

P.S. Sarah has an etsy store where the cuteness continues. Check it! Little Miss Swan.

Words. See them grow!

[a sneaky peeky at the upcoming project for Homespun magazine. Don't tell anyone!]

One of the things that I'm looking forward to about the Tasmania trip -- I mean, even apart from the cool weather, the lack of sensible bedtimes, the day trips, the walks, the old buildings, the bakeries, the reading, the explorations, the familyness (is your mouth watering yet?) -- is the chance to make amends for my utter failure to meet my 20,000 word goal in January.

To be sure, I hadn't expected that our home would explode with such a multitude of delightful people all one after the other. I struggled to make my bed most days, let alone sit and type for a few hours uninterrupted. So I have an excuse -- sort of -- but I also have an opportunity to redeem myself.

If anything, it might be harder to write, over there. There is nothing so very pressing to do, but all the delights of a new place distract and delight. Nevertheless, I will chain myself to the keyboard at least a little each day, and see what happens. I want to reacquaint myself with my writing projects, to begin to care about them again. To write, you have to care, at least in some small way, about the words or the characters or the story. I've been so long absent from my characters and stories that I've forgotten to care. I want to start caring again, and I hope the holiday will work for me.

Also: journalling. I very very much would like to start writing again. My brain needs it and I think my family would appreciate me pouring out my thoughts on paper before I launch the bombardment on them.

On a sort of slightly related note: would you like postcards? I'd certainly like to send them :). If you would like a postcard from the tiny little crooked island down south, send your mailing address to postcardsplease@gmail.com. The first fifteen people (I'm being ambitious) will get something in the mail! Oh, and even if you know that I know your address, send it anyway because it's nice to have everything in the one little place.

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conversations:

Caitlin -- We can't understand it all, but you are so right: God is definitely in control.