Smiles Sent Saturday~7/8/2017

Well, it's July and this will be my second post for the year...a little slow, huh?  It's been a hard year.  I've been recovering from surgery and my sister has been recovering from a bad heart infection.  Then my grandmother who lives with us was diagnosed with dementia, so Hospice came in.  A few months later she died at home.  So, not only has it been hard to find the time and energy, not only to blog about writing, but to actually write and be artistic.  I think up until the last month or so, I only got one letter written this year, but I did pull off A Month of Letters Challenge with small note-cards and get my great aunts cards or postcards most months, and that's important to me...and I believe them.   But, I'm slowly getting back into writing people and decorating envelopes, so I'm hoping to get posting on here.  For now, here's some patriotic mail.

For the 4th of July I sent cards to my "short list" of great aunts, etc.   I've had a hard time over the years finding Independence Day cards, this year I was glad to find 8-packs of cards with blue stars on it at the Dollar Tree.  Was it supposed to be 4th of July cards? No, but with some red pens writing in them, and USA envelopes, they worked great!  I didn't do any big decoration this time, but I addressed with navy ink and returned addressed with red, and with the help of vintage stamps and stickers to seal, it turned out pretty nice I think.   One thing that is easy to find for 4th of July is stamps...there's lots of USA stamps!

I recently got to go to some Civil War historical sites, including Appomattox.  Since I'd gotten a few of the 150 anniversary stamps, when they came out, I stopped at the post office and had a couple Appomattox postcards hand stamped...including one I sent to myself! :)  Fun!  The lady working there was so nice, she lined it up just right, and sat it aside so that it'd dry well and not smear!

Well, that's all for now, hopefully I'll be able to post...& write more going forward!

The name “Smiles Sent Saturday” denotes my hope these things I mailed made the people who got them smile.