Pioneer days.

Every year on August long weekend (which was this past weekend), the Mennonite Heritage Village here in Steinbach throws their Pioneer Days, which is 4 days of living like the old times. Volunteers come and do demonstrations with the old farming equipment, in the blacksmith shop, in the printery, and all these cool things that people used to have that we have no clue how to work now.

Last year I went with my friend Estela (see that post here) and this year Chris came with us. He has lived here for 12 years and he had never been to the museum before! Estela and I were both shocked. So obviously we had to go into every building for his sake.

This year there was also a flea market, which I don't recall ever happening before. There was a man running a stall with handcrafted pens and stuff like that (which were beautiful but I didn't have any cash *sad face*). he had a couple letter openers, and I picked one up, and he asked me if I knew what a letter opener was. We all kind of laughed at him. Do I know what a letter opener is. HA! I'm just that awesome.

Anyway, here are some pictures from our day there.

Some old writing utensils in the store.

Old handkerchiefs. So cute!

Barkman, represent!

They were just going to change the plates when we were in the print shop, so we didn't get to see them actually making anything. Boo.

More Barkman!

Some shots from inside the public school.

Estela felt the need to open all the car doors in the antique car display.

Chris wrote that.

We are so mature.

Da windmill! They actually grind flour there, and then the bread they sell in the restaurant is made from that flour. Yummy.

The grain thresher in action. You would not want to get too close to that thing - scary!

Estela was joking that she was going to get married on that island, and everyone would have to sit on the other side, so that they wouldn't be able to hear anything.

We found some super rad stuff at the antique sellers stalls!! I wanted those bookends and those glasses real bad.

The phone has an idea?

Winnie the Pooh and Christoper Robin and Piglet!!

Sweet camera Estela spied.

I am an Eskimo.

This pencil case was carved with a pocketknife! Can you believe that? It is so flipping intricate.

This is where you get the fresh bread. And awesome Menno food. We stood in line outside for about 20 minutes. It's that good.

Chris wants one of these constructed for him when he dies. So people will think he's epic or something.

Estela is milking an invisible cow. We are good friends for a reason.

YEAH  MENNONITE WOMEN REPRESENT!

Chris found a cane. He looks quite dapper indeed.

And... the windmill. (This year it uploaded right! Hurrah!)

If you ever come to visit me, please come the first weekend of August so that I can bring you to Pioneer Days.

Random (old) pictures.

Well, I have had this draft saved since JUNE! WHAT THE HECK, FE?? Um, so these pictures were all taken around Mother's Day weekend, when my family took our semi-annual trip to North Dakota for shopping and hanging out. We ate at Paradiso's, which is awesome Mexican food, went shopping at stores we don't have here in Canada, and saw the Avengers. So. Freaking. Awesome. Also, there is one picture from my birthday at the end of May, and one from our first anniversary in June! So enjoy these old-ish pictures.

Still at home: Doesn't Storm look so fat here, cuddling her straw? I love her.

At Paradiso: Chris gave me this depressed face...

So I gave him this face...

My parents, married for 34 years! They both look happy here, which is rare. Dad doesn't smile in pictures much.

Waiting for our table at... I forget. Not Texas Roadhouse but some other steakhouse. My family likes steak. Also, my siblings are weirdos and I love them.

A decent picture of me and Chris!

Interesting billboard, no? Depression on the left, and a lady that looks like she's going to jump on the right??

At the theatre: Valida and Brenden imitating the Hulk.

Me imitating Thor without having taken a proper look at the picture. Geez.

Clockwise: Mom, Valida, and me after our traditional Mother's Day pedicures!  (Not at the theatre, how did this get here? Oh I don't want to mess up the pictures so here it will stay.)

Tyrone loves Scarlett Johansson.

And apparently he loves Andy Samburg too.

Oh yeah! My house! Look at my cheerful yellow door! I painted it at the beginning of June, and I just love it. My 7-year old neighbour told me that her mom doesn't like it. Because our side door is also painted this colour and is exactly across from their kitchen, she has to look at it when she does the dishes and she thinks it is the worst colour ever. I don't feel bad though because it is clearly not the worst colour. (We have nice neighbours, don't worry. Also, you know kid's interpretations of things they hear their parents say.)

Birthday ice cream cake for me. Yum yum. (My birthday is May 28 and I love presents! Next year I turn quarter of a century, so that's a big one that should be celebrated with presents.)

This is the only decent picture I got of us on our anniversary, and even so we look like derps. Oh well. Happy one year, babe! Here's to 60 more years of being derps together!

I should do these more often. And maybe try to post recent pictures.

Mail post 3.8

Hallo my dear readers! Today I spent the day outside (shock and awe!) at the heritage museum here in town with my hubby and dear friend Estela. We may or may not have sunburns. Chris may or may not have burned his freshly shaven head (poor hubby). It was quite hot, but not as hot as it's been lately. Plus there was a nice breeze that got the windmill going. I took a zillion pictures so I will post some later this week.

Right now, it's time for some mail. These are not in any particular order, and I apologize if I missed a picture of your letter!

From the lovely Laura. I really like what she did with the washi tape!

From my awesome sister in law. She sent me some tea from the coffee house she works at.

From Penny in Brazil. She has just started her own mail blog, check it out (okay, I almost wrote "sheck" it out which is how my Mennonite mother would say it. I have lived in this area too long.)

From Miri in New Zealand

From dear Olga in the Ukraine.

A cute handmade card from my new friend Ely in Mexico. Check out her blog as well!

Stickers and envelopes from my darling Belen.

I die over the Pixar stamps! Thank you dear!!

Okay, the Dr Seuss stamp from Merissa is also amazing. The USPS has way better stamps than Canada Post. Not fair.

Snail Mail Fan sent me this sweet Titanic stamp.

And Kelly used Franklin! Okay, maybe we do have cool stamps as well :P

And a lovely letter from Melanie. Her Care Bear address labels always put a smile on my face.

To my cousin in Alberta. She just started her own blog, like today!

For Lauren. You'll see me use washi tape a lot like this from now on. I love it.

To Abbye in Ireland. I spent an evening collaging envelopes and you will see some of my fruits in these pictures as well.

For my dearest Callie.

A reply for Laura. Honestly, we have so much in common it's hilarious.

A reply for my sis.

For a new friend, Katelynn. I'm excited to get to know someone from Alaska! She's also my first pen pal from Instgram, which is cool.

A few Postcrossing cards going out. I was a really good girl and I actually wrote them out on the same day that I requested the addresses! Usually I request addresses and then write the cards like a week later. Bad Fe.

To Olive, who has finally figured out her mailbox issues! Hurrah!

 

Long overdue reply going out to Lady Kay!

A couple things I wanted to note today:
1. If you have a blog and you send me mail, I will always link back to it. If you write to me, and I don't link back to your blog, that means I don't know you have a blog! In that case, please let me know what your blog address is.
2. I don't think that the links show up in a different colour on my blog. I'm going to change that.
3. I will only leave your first name and your state/country in the pictures. I don't want creepy online people stalking you and have it be my fault. I only leave addresses if I know for a fact that you do it on your blog. If you don't want me to show your state or your country, then let me know and I won't do that either!

Have a good mail day, my friends! Send out at least one mail item this week!

Oh July

Buying pretty washi tape

I have a goal to work through all of Jane Austen's novels by Christmas.

I got some trendy shades.

Canada Day fireworks with Chris

My favorite summer manicure so far

Summer is not summer without some ice cream from Bridge Drive-In

 

I don't know about you, but this summer is going by way too quickly. Family from out of town have been visiting left and right. I've been haunting the public library and reading lots. My letter pile does not diminish as quickly as I'd like. One of my best friend's wedding is coming up in 2 weeks. I wish I had more interesting things to say right now.

Filling in the blanks 3.5

Wow, it's been a while since I filled in the blanks. Lauren has since changed the format, and I'm okay with that. I really like her prompt today, so I decided to participate.

"If I could get away for the day, I would go..."

Nowhere.

This is my house. I would stay here.

The past two weeks have been so crazy busy that I haven't had much time for myself. It was actually just last week that I realized that I am an introvert (okay, Chris pointed it out to me) and that I need time to myself to function properly. So if I could get away for the day, I would stay in my house with my cats. I would write letters, watch lovely movies that Chris has no interest in watching with me (i.e. Pride & Prejudice, The Young Victoria, Roman Holiday...) and maybe even bake some cupcakes. It would be so perfect. I would make something new for supper, and then after I would force Chris to help me with the dishes, we would probably end up playing some Super Mario Bros. or reading on the couch. That's what I would do to get away. 

Friendship and mail (a link-up)

 

My friend Callie is hosting a friendship linkup over on her blog, and she mentioned maintaining friendships through mail. Well, I think I know a little something about that, so I decided I would add my two cents over here.

(Will we have to change that saying to a nickel or something, since the penny is being phased out in Canada?)

Well, here's my nickel anyway.

If you've read my blog for any length of time, you will know that I love snail mail! It's one of my joys in life and I love to share that joy with others! I think it's a great way to reach out to someone you treasure even if you see them all the time. It's also great to keep in contact with someone far away, and it's so much more personal than Facebook, am I right? I have friends that I have on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, email... yet at the end of the day I'd much rather send them a letter. So here are some suggestions for keeping your friendship alive via postal service!

Keep her updated.
We all have friends that have moved away, either temporarily or permanently, that we don't get to see very often. It's awesome to keep them updated with a nice long letter. I prefer a letter to an email or Facebook message because, I don't know about you, but for me I lose track of emails and messages and forget to reply! With a letter, it's tangible, and I can put it somewhere where I remember to reply!

Another reason a letter is better than a tweet or status update is that you can personalize it. You can share something with a friend that you wouldn't necessarily want a co-worker or that person from high school that you never talk to anymore to see. For example, Callie recently sent me a letter to let me know her big news, instead of just letting me find out on her blog like everyone else. I really appreciated that!

Deepen your friendship.
I am a very chatty letter writer, and I think that people might get to know me better through letters for the simple fact that I basically have no filter when I write! I also love to ask tons of questions that you might not have a chance to ask in a face-to-face conversation, and I like to ask the most random questions in letters to find out more about people that I might not otherwise never know! And honestly, writing a letter is more fun when you have more to write about! If you have a lot of questions to answer, that makes for a more entertaining letter than just the basic life goings-on (although those are obviously fantastic as well).

Send a random card.
Isn't there something incredibly fun and special about getting a card from someone you see a lot? YES.
When I'm out looking at cards and I see one that I know a friend would like, I'll buy it and send it to her. Does it matter that I saw her yesterday and she lives 2 blocks away? NO. Come one, what's 61 cents to make someone you love smile?

Of course, I think we all have a way or two to do this without postage. Primary example: Church mail box. If you are a member of a church you get a mail box/file, and if you are like me, 50 out of 52 Sundays that thing is empty. Why not put something in your friend's box to make her smile? When I was in college my friends and I used to write each other notes and put them in our "disappointment boxes." It certainly made trips to the mail room more worthwhile!

Don't know what to write in the card? Bring up a funny memory you two share. Tell her some things you appreciate about her. Tell her why she's a great friend. Encourage her if she's going through a hard time. Invite her over to your house/out for coffee. Or just write an inside joke and send it on it's way!

Make it personal.
It's nice to get a letter - it's even nicer when there's something else in the envelope! Now, I fully admit that I don't always do this, but I wish I did! It doesn't have to be the most amazingest, perfectest (woah, perfectest is apparently a word!) thing ever. In fact, here's a tip for you: dollar store. Don't judge me, it's great! You can find stickers, postcards, ribbon, glitter, little notebooks, candies and chocolates, and even little trinkets that will fit in an envelope no problem! Even if they don't look super, you can always jazz it up at home yourself, no? I recently bought some little notebooks that look really boring, but I have some plans for them (washi tape and glitter glue).

Don't want to spend any money? Well, you could always make something. Origami is cool, and it fits real nice in an envelope! Make a little bookmark out of some colourful scraps of paper. Friendship bracelets are totally back in style - go back in your memory for those patterns you used to know. Find some free printables and add those. You probably have some tea bags lying around your kitchen somewhere. (Packets of hot chocolate are nice too!) Something I like to do is make mix cds. I usually make a mix or two every summer, and I send those out to people I think would enjoy it. You just need a bigger/stiffer envelope, and an extra stamp, and you're good to go.

Once in a while, bulk it up.
I keep a mail log, of all the mail I receive and send out. It has helped me a lot in this past year, knowing who I haven't heard from in a while, and who should go on my list to write to. I also keep track of what I get and send out with those letters. I have a dear friend Jasmine who spoils me quite often, and when I can afford it, I like to spoil her back. For example, she eats gluten-free, so I sent her some Skittles, which are not gluten-free in Australia but they are in North America. Yeah, a few big bags of Skittles costs a little more in postage, but it's worth it every once in a while. Letter sets, pens, nail polish, even things like coffee mugs in bubble wrap and a box can be sent. No, you shouldn't send stuff like this out all the time if you can't afford it. I sure can't. But when you have an extra 15 or 20 bucks, go ahead. Maybe plan ahead throughout the year and buy one thing here and one thing there, stock up, and send it out as a birthday gift.

In the end...
Don't worry about having the best present ever, or being more extravagant than her other friends/pen pals (which is something I personally get caught up in, to be honest). It's about being thoughtful. It's about showing your friend that you're thinking about her. Maybe in the end, all you can do is send out a heartfelt letter with love. Then go for it! If she's a true friend, she will treasure it no matter what.


Another thing...
Don't worry about how much time has passed! If it's been 6 months or a year, even more reason to get that pen and paper out, girl! Tell them what's made you so busy that you haven't been able to write! True friendship will last if a while passes. But don't let it fall through altogether!! Take the initiative and get back in contact with someone you miss. Just reach out. Usually someone will reach back.