Awesome mail & a day at the zoo!

Hi all!  It's been another rough week.  My father was hospitalized on Wednesday but will be going home tomorrow.  He needed another blood transfusion due to severe anemia which is caused by the cancer.  What a horrible disease!  I don't know what else to say except it's rough and sad.
Let's move on to the awesome mail I received this week, no letters just swaps.
AWESOME SWAPS:

"Favourite Animal" swap.  Of course mine is the cat.  I love the pretty cat bag my partner sent.

"Christmas in July" swap.  I love all of the Christmas items my partner sent me.  I had the most awesome partner.  I just love Christmas and I've already started thinking about it.

"Summer" swap.  Such pretty items once again I will put to great use.

"Vintage ephemera" swap.  I absolutely LOVE all of the items my partner sent for this swap.

"Penpal" swap.  Such pretty papers and note cards.

Beautiful birthday deco for me to sign.

BIRTHDAY PRESENT:

My birthday is in September and I have already received a present.  I usually keep them to open on my actual birthday but this year since I'm feeling rather down in the dumps I decided to go ahead and open this one from my dear friend Nicole.  She sent some pretty stationary, Mary Englebreit tags, note paper and note cards by Punch Studio.  She really spoiled me with everything.

FULL DECOS RETURNED:

The "Matryoshka Dolls" deco was made for me.  The "Mickey" deco is one that I made.  The entries in both decos are both beautiful but I want to share the ones made in the "Matryoshka Dolls" deco. They are simple gorgeous!

A FUN DAY AT THE ZOO IN PICTURES:

Goodnight!

Long time no see! (mail post among other things)

Hi all!  My last post was quite a while ago.  Those of you who follow my blog or know me, are aware of how I have been feeling a bit low lately.  I have good days and bad days even though I try to remain positive.  My father is doing okay despite the progression of his cancer.  He has ups and downs emotionally which tears me up inside, knowing there's nothing I can do.  At the beginning of July I had to have my 16 year old sweet cat Kylie put to sleep  because she had a tumor on her jaw and couldn't eat.  That broke my heart.  Then there's the everyday stresses of life and also having an autistic child.  It just hasn't been easy to focus on the positive in my life lately.  I've been trying to keep busy with my hobbies whenever I can muster up the energy.  Those wonderful hobbies are swapping, crafting and letter writing.  I've also been doing a fair amount of reading.  Anyhow, I thought I'd start updating my blog again with mail posts and perhaps some crafting in the future.
Here is the mail I received last week.
LETTERS:

From my sweet friend Aida from Malaysia.  She included some vintage note cards, FBs and journaling tags.

From a long lost friend Satu from Finland.  We used to write each other over 10 years ago and recently she sent me a letter after having found my address in a FB.

POSTCARDS:

From my friend Susi from Austria who recently vacationed in Provence.

SWAPS:

Wonderful selection of craft supplies.

Various decos.

Beautiful "Vintage Medicine Bottles" and "Vintage Paris in the 1920's" decos.  I always love this artist's decos.

Various decos.

Lovely "Vintage Ball Dresses" deco.

And, I wanted to introduce you to two new members of our family.

Sadie (black kitten) and Ginger (caramel/beige kitten).  We adopted them at the end of July.  They have made themselves at home and the boys adapted well to them.  There was some hissing and spiting for the first couple of days but now the boys accept sharing their home.  

The boys:

Subaru.

Mustang.