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.

Dealing with a lot!

Hi all!  I know I haven't posted in quite a while but I have been dealing with a lot since January and it's a bit too much for me these days,  :(  As you all know my father has cancer in his bones and it's been difficult to handle.  Now, my oldest cat Kylie also has cancer.  A tumor was found on her jaw a few weeks ago.  She was doing well last week but she hasn't been eating much these past couple of days.  I have an appointment at the vet's tomorrow and I suspect she may not be coming home.  It breaks my heart and I'm just so overwhelmed at the moment with everything happening in my life.  I hope to be back soon when I'm feeling a little more hopeful.

Mail and other fun happenings!

Hello all!  I guess it's about time I catch you up on my mail.  It just seems like I have been so busy lately and time is just zipping right by.  I can't believe it's already the end of May.  Phew!  Really!  Where does the time go?  It always seems like I have a lot to do or want to do but then never get done!  Anyone else have this problem?  I've been trying to find time for hobbies lately but I always have a more pressing issue to deal with.  As some of you know my son Noah is autistic and he has priority in my life.  I'm also trying to grow my teaching business which takes a lot of time and energy. There's also my father who is precious to me and I try to spend as much time with him as I can.  After all of these there is Me time.  It's a juggling act and not an easy one.  And now it's time for the mail.
Letters/postcards:

From my friend Judy from England.  She also included some lovely stationary sheets, stickers and note cards.

From my dear friend Ayaka from Japan.  She also sent some lovely stationary sheets and bookmarks.

From my friend Molly from New Hampshire.

Swaps:

Two beautiful "Lilacs" decos.

A "Vintage Men" deco.

Variety of beautiful decos.  I especially LOVE the "Eggs & Nests" deco.

Another variety of lovely decos.

This is not really a swap but one of my friends made me some beautiful address labels.  She also sent me a small note pad.

In other news, a couple of weeks ago Noah and I spent a weekend visiting my friend Molly and family in New Hampshire.  On the Saturday we spent a beautiful day walking the streets of Boston.  I love Boston, such a pretty city and full of energy!

Delicious cakes at the Cheesecake Factory.  What I wouldn't give for a piece of one of those cakes right at this moment!

A Memorial to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.  I have never seen anything like it.  It was quite moving!

Noah and I.

Noah and Molly's daughter Jadira at the beautiful Public Gardens.

We had a nice ride on the lovely Swan Boats at the Public Gardens.

We also stopped by the Paper Source for a look.  What an amazing store but expensive.

I bought lot's of postcards, a vintage camera pencil case and nice smelling soaps.

Other things I bought at Michael's while in New Hampshire:

Goodnight everyone!  

Another mail update & National Scrapbooking Day!

Hi all!  The weather has been gorgeous and I've been busy which is why I haven't been around much lately.  I LOVE this time of the year.  I'm quite behind on my hobbies though.  Yikes!  Well, this weekend the forecast is for rain so I'll be able to hang out in my craft room.  I need to do some prep work for my painting class on Tuesday too and that'll take a while.  I have gotten some good mail in the past two weeks although my mailbox has remained empty for the past three days.  Not sure if the mailman decided to take an extra long weekend but I hope he brings me something on Monday.  Here's the mail that has come lately:
Letters:

From my dear friend Rosita from Finland.  I always love reading her letters.  She also sent a great assortment of craft supplies.

From my sweet friend Rina from Japan.  I love her cute stationary and she included a couple of FBs.

From my dear friend Lone from Germany.  She always writes her wonderful letters on such pretty papers.  She also included some craft supplies and decos.  The Suzy Zoo deco (bottom right) is a homer.  It's so cute!

From another dear friend, Andrea from England.  She included a lovely photo of Teddy, the newest addition to her cat family.

From my friend Jeanette from Denmark.  She also included a lovely swap of decos.

Swaps:

A "Vintage Easter" ATC + extra papers.

A beautiful "Travel" deco and "Peter Rabbit" ATC.

A variety of decos.

A beautiful "Vintage Child Star" deco.

Craft supplies.

A wonderful selection of craft supplies and yummy chocolates.

Last Sunday was National Scrapbooking Day here so my friend and I went to a couple of stores in Montreal.  I bought a few items as it was 20% off in one of the stores.  I can't wait to start using everything.

Take a look at some of the papercraft works on display at the store.

And, finally, a look at some of the supplies I've bought in Sherbrooke (the city I live in) recently.

Have a nice weekend everyone!