Just an update

Wow, two whole days without a blog entry? You know something must be up with me!

I was feelin' kinda casual about the whole computer crash thing, since I stored all my data on a nice portable external hard drive. Except my external hard drive crashed two days after my desktop did.

So, I've been in a whiz of laptop shopping, tech mystery sleuthing, and trying very, very hard not to cry over spilled milk... or in this case, lost data. Yes, I was stupid, and I didn't back anything up. I thought this external hard drive was the way to go. Well, I'm still investigating ways to retrieve my data from it, but for the time being I am assuming years of data (music files, photo files, a whole lot of other personal things) are just gone. If I get them back, it will be a boon.

But yeah, I am missing a lot of photos, and I don't have all my old software re-installed on my new laptop, and I may not be able to resurrect some things. Like, I can't find my Photoshop disk... anyway, this is a long and rambling entry to say that I hope to be back in the business of blogging about all things letter, postal, and snail mail... but I'm still working on the numerous high-tech glitches. (Don't even ask me how many letters I've written in the past few days... not many.)

Thank you, loyal blog readers, for all your patience, and I promise I will be rolling back along as the Missive Maven as soon as I can.

Snail mail wax seal

I went "squeeeeeeee!", overwhelmed with the cuteness, when I saw this awesome wax seal on a letter. Lovely, meta, fabulous.

Space: The Final Frontier

Here's another fine item from the Star Trek Postcard Box by Chronicle Books. I just love these things.

Herein begins my bumpier blogging... I'm on my work laptop, which has no Photoshop, so I'm experimenting with slapdash photo editing techniques. ARRRRRRGH. My apologies now for the clunkier photos for moment (and immediate future?) but I figure they're better than nothing.

My computer died

Alas, my beloved 6-year-old Dell desktop died this morning with a poof. Yes, my stuff is backed up, but it is a huge inconvenience right now. Please be patient - no photos today, no letter post at the moment, and I will only be checking email once a day for now. Argh.

I am trying to view this as an opportunity to spend less time on the computer and more time writing letters...

Happy Halloween!

In honor of this fine, fine holiday, I present a fine, fine letterpress card by hello! Lucky, which I received recently from a dear friend. I am so grooving on this black cat with the bold orange stripes emanating from his head.



Even their insignia is beautiful. Ah, the gorgeous texture of letterpress...



Said friend drew me a l'il pumpkin on the orange envelope.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, everybody!

(heh heh... BOO!)

Happy-making postcards

Today's post, just a couple of recently received postcards that made me smile. I love this lady. She is full of life.



I am not-so-secretly a pug fancier. I forgot to photograph the back of this card - I know it came from a Postcrosser but I can't remember who now. Ack.

Cat Postcard Swap

I'm coordinating a November cat postcard swap on Swap-bot as part of my new adventures there. I was looking for one, and there wasn't one there, so I figured, what the heck, I'll give it a try myself! I hope some of my blog readers who do Swap-Bot will join it.

The full info, as listed on Swap-bot:
The theme of this international postcard swap is cats, both in the imagery and in what you write.

Send 1 postcard each to 2 partners. The image on the postcard must contain a cat, or have a cat as the central image. It can be photography or artwork, it can be handmade, but it must be clearly kitty!

Also - equally important - on the back you must write a little bit about a cat or cats. You can write about your cat or cats you own now, ones you owned before or grew up with, copy a short poem about a cat, or talk about the awesome cat that hangs out in your favorite bookstore. Any cat-related prose will do! I'm just looking to "double" the cat theme, and also ensure that no one gets a postcard with no writing on it.

My apologies if I am duplicating any past swaps. I am new here and I searched for cat postcard swaps and didn't see any... so I started my own!

Newbies are welcome if they have a complete profile, with more than just a couple of sentences. No one with a minimal profile or a low rating will be allowed to participate. I hope no one will flake, but I think I can angel if you get a no-send. There's over a week to send this, and that week includes the USA Thanksgiving holiday, so that should be plenty of time.

I'm advertising this on my own blog so I hope some of my blog readers at http://missivemaven.blogspot.com/ will be participating!

Hope to see a few Missive Maven readers there! (By the way, my swap-bot user ID is GreenVelvet.)

Autumn bats mail art

Earlier this month I got a most exciting handmade batty envelope from a blog reader in the Netherlands. I don't know where she found this paper, or if she made it, but the bats are realistic and amazing!



I liked the contrast of the rainbows on the return address sticker.



There was a letter written on the back of this fantastic collage, which was layered and handmade and gorgeous, and must have taken her a lot of time to make it. I love the way the bat is flying into the round moon...

I was just blown away by this batty creation.