Last week's mail!

Phew! It was certainly hot and humid this past week. Last Thursday the temps reached 44 celcius. Now, living in Quebec we don't get those types of temps very often so when we do it is HOT for us. Today it was much more seasonable with 25 celcius. Aw...much better! So, did I get much done last week? No, not with these temps. We spent most of our days at the pool or in front of the fans. I did enjoy receiving some beautiful mail although I didn't put together many enveloppes due to lazyness from the heat. :(

I belong to a few swap groups at yahoo mostly having to do with HQFBs and decos but we also have fun swaps too. I was paired up with this lovely lady from Jordan for many swaps and she really spoiled me. She sent the socks above as part of one swap.

We also had a "Pick 5" swap and the loot above is what I received from her.

Then she was also my partner for "Paris at Night" deco, "Paddington Bear" deco and "Vintage Mickey Mouse" deco. Aren't her decos so beautiful?!

Her daughter was also paired with me for this "1950's America" deco swap so she sent it in the same enveloppe. It seems talent runs in this family as this is also a pretty deco.

And, finally she (not the daughter but the mom) sent me some decos as part of another swap. You can imagine how thrilled I was to receive such a fat enveloppe in the mail. Yay! :)

I also received a lovely letter and HQFBs from my friend Tomomi from Japan. She also sent me some pretty flowers for crafting.

Two more swaps I received from Germany; a "Vintage Romantic" deco and "Suzy Zoo" deco. They are beautiful!

Another swap, "All for Myself" FBs from Saudi Arabia.

And, there's Noah (far distance) having fun in the pool. The family whose children I teach English to are away on vacation until mid August and are letting us use their pool. They are really a nice family and Noah is enjoying their pool. Lucky for us because city workers are going on strike next week so pools will be closed as they are not considered an essential service. I can't imagine having no place to cool off with temps of 44 celcius. Lucky for us we won't have to worry about it. :) Aw..great, one of the cats just stole my spot on the couch (next to my writing stuff). Not sure where I'm supposed to sit and write now??????????

Crafts & mail!

Aw...the weather has been so incredibly gorgeous and I've been enjoying it to the fullest. Most of the past days have been spent outdoors; hanging out laundry, taking in nature, trying to write letters and swimming at the pool with Noah and Jeffrey. It's just too nice to stay inside. However, today I started teaching English again after being on vacation since the end of June. I'm doing private lessons at my student's home at her parents request. It's all very relaxed since Chloe is only 6 years old. I just love her family. Anyway, there are still so many things I want to accomplish this summer but time just seems to be flying so quickly. So, before I keep babbling on here I wanted to share a couple of things I made and last week's mail.

A "Vintage Ballerina" deco I made for a group swap.

Two "Vintage Ad" ATCs I made for another group swap.

I just love this "Vintage Sailors" deco I received from a group swap.

Some very fun and original decos I received from another group swap.

Another group swap of FBs and decos.

"Anything Vintage" and "Alice in Wonderland" FBs from another group swap.

A postcard from my Greek friend Ioanna.

A wonderful letter (as always) from my friend from Finland Rosita. She included some really nice stuff, including some of my favourites from the "Tilda" collection. It is so difficult for me to use these things since I can't buy them here. Sigh!

Another great letter from my friend Andrea from England who also sent some nice things, including photos of her sweet cats. I just love cats, they are such wonderful creatures.

A lovely letter from my friend Sarah from New Zealand. I love the stationary she used, so pretty.

On another note, I wanted to share a very bad experience we had last week. Well, those of you who follow my blog and know me personally know we have really terrible neighbours. They have two young daughters and are just horrible people who teach their children to be intolerant towards those who are different. They don't like Noah because he is diffrent, meaning autistic. They don't want their daughters playing with Noah and don't even want him on their property. However, Noah for some unknown reason to me likes the neighbours and wants them to be nice, so he tells me. He goes to see them and they always send him home or ignore him by running in the house yelling "lock the door." Yes, we're talking about adults here who are well educated and we live in a good neighbourhood. Anyway, I think you get the picture of what they are like. So, last week I look out my front window to see the police coming up my driveway. The neighbours called the police to let us know they never want Noah to go on their property again. I was livid, and I don't even think that describes the anger I felt. Oh my goodness, Noah is 9 years old and not a monster. They should really be ashamed of themselves. I'm thinking karma will get them. Noah was traumatised at first and didn't even want to go outside but now he's okay although he doesn't understand why they dislike him so. I told him not everybody is nice like him. It's not easy to explain since I don't understand myself. Thanks for letting me vent. See you again sometime this week.

Incoming mail!

It's such a gorgeous day! I'm so happy because I have nowhere to go and I can just sit in my backyard writing letters. :) I haven't been able to relax at home for some time because it seems I am always having to go somewhere. Before heading outside for my day of writing I thought I'd show you some of the mail I received this week. First though, I want to share a couple of photos of some friendship books I recently made for group swaps.

"Alice in Wonderland" FBs.

"Sarah Kay" FBs.

Not quite sure why some of my photos come out blurry like this sometimes, but these are two ATCs with the theme "Vintage Ads" from a swap partner. They really are lovely. :)

A pretty postcard from my friend Molly from New Hampshire.

A wonderful letter and HQFBs from my friend Margaret from Scotland.

A sweet letter and FBs from my friend Astrid from Norway.

We belong to one of the same swap groups so she made me these cute "Sarah Kay" FBs since I was her partner.

Two pretty decos from a swap partner.

A few decos from another swap partner.

A cute "Felix the Cat" deco from another swap partner.

And, finally a wonderland letter from my friend Lone from Germany who also sent a few fun things. I had been waiting for this letter since she had mentioned sending it during the Canada Post strike. Yay! It arrived safely. :)
Hope everyone has a fantastic day!

A day at the zoo!

We went to the Granby Zoo yesterday. We go every summer at least once. It's such a nice zoo which includes both amusement and water parks. Noah enjoys the water park the most of course. Here are some photos of our day.

Unfortunately it started drizzling on and off when we arrived at the zoo, then there was a thunderstorm, it cleared and we headed to the water park. We were there for about an hour when it started pouring, thundering and lightening again. So, our day ended like this:

We still had a wonderful day together and spent from 11:00-4:00 checking out the animals, going on the rides and playing at the water park. And, of course there was a stop at the gift shop.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back soon with a mail post.

Finally, some mail again!

I finally received mail last week after two weeks of nothing in my mailbox. Mind you the mail is still moving quite slowly due to the huge backlog. No matter, I'm just happy to see the mailman come up my driveway. :)

I received this lovely enveloppe full of thank you goodies from my friend Margaret in Scotland. I especially LOVE the Matryoshka doll stickers and will most likely use them sparingly.

A little blurry but this postcard comes from my friend Susi from Austria who was traveling to Jersey in the British Isles. It looks really beautiful there.

Some FBs from my partner for a group swap.

A private FB swap from China.

And, that's all the mail I got last week. I've missed hearing from my friends around the world so hopefully their letters will start coming in soon. Hope everyone has a nice beginning of the week. See you soon. :)