Mini Mail Samplers

I just ordered my first Sampler! Well, mini sampler, and I am quite excited! I've been studying pictures of Samplers, for quite some time, on sites like Modish, Whip-Up and DesignSponge but I am finally getting my own (small one) in the mail.

Thing is I love snail mail, but I never seem to get the stuff I want ... like letters and postcards from exotic places, random music selections (be they tape or cd) or comic books (hint hint) all I get is Kroger inserts and bills, even with my NetFlix cue I've hit a rough patch. But when I do get those comics (thanks Pete) or exotic um ... er ... postcards (Colorado) or even exotic foodstuffs it makes my day.

Like these! The picture doesn't do them justice, the gray cube, the jug of water (just wanted to give the full effect of my office environment note the desk underneath the papers, also gray). But they came, a bunch of beautiful bananas, a pink bow and a card,

"PLEASE SHARE WITH HECTOR"

(Hector being my imaginary helper monkey of course, but the kind who gets dry cleaning and washes dishes).

It was magic. The cycle of giving continued with bangin' banana bread being sent back, and it all started with a running joke and bananas that came in the mail from The Chip!

It was obvious I just had to take some control of my mail situation, less bills, more random goodness (still working on the less bills) so after I ordered my Sampler I started poking around to see what else was out there. Staying in the crafty vein Etsy is the jackpot of random mail goodness! While these samplers don't have the same allure as a handmade grab bag (or bananas) all of them are something unexpected, a yarn sampler set, mini ephemera packets, little brass things, perfume sampler, bird sampler, lip balm sampler lots of different soap samplers and there are tons more.

Outside of crafty samplers their are cosmetic samplers like TestTube which comes four times a year full of new cosmetics and (apparently not the small stuff either). Then there are tea samplers, cheese samplers, women's samplers and celestial samplers (whatever those are). But still I'm way more excited about THE Sampler I'm expecting.

Aside from actually ordering something, there's also the allure of the mail swap. I found Swap-Bot after hearing about Magic Yarn Balls and I immediately wanted one, so I found a Magic Yarn Swap on the Bot (can I call it the Bot? I hope so). Dangerously close to the deadline I didn't do the swap so while I haven't tried it yet I'm seriously eyeing going out for the Themed Surprises in 6 x 9. Any takers on this one?

The whole idea of Swaps, Sampler's and bananas is like a Pen Pal x 10, and makes the blow of getting the funny feeling paper Verizon bill (you know the one in the unltra-thin envelope with red type on it) a little softer. Sometimes you just need a little inspiration be it handpicked papers, or crafty goodies from talented people, or bananas with pink ribbons, a little pick me up while sifting through the rest of your deadlined and metered life.  As a rule though you get what you give and and it's time to take charge of your mail!

The Ideal Pancreas Part: 2

My first blog post! I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, I've been waiting and watching silently following my own personal faves but I have a definite type of blog I look towards, something pretty, something designed well, great fabrics, or new craft ideas and projects, art, decoration, quirky insights and I'm always looking for great shelving or trend-watching on new web tools, social networking advice and non-profits (yes I work for one). There are so many great bloggers who are a pleasure to read, it took me a while to find my muse, well to the right you'll see my inspiration. 

What started as a joke with a designer friend of mine, "Can you get me a job at your Medical Illustration firm, I draw a mean pancreas ..." became a blog. 

I'm an Interactive Designer for a relatively large and very confused non-profit who does great humanitarian work but doesn't really get the web, so I needed another outlet besides spinning my wheels at work. Besides web work I went to school for illustration and love drawing (I tend to stick with dry mediums) as well as crafting and doing things with my hands, which I find is necessary because it breaks off the monotony of working on the computer for long stretches of time. Recently I've gotten into baking, I've been on a banana bread kick after I got a delivery of bananas at work (but that's for another post). And later today I plan to cook with escarole! It's the little things ...

So this silly joke about the pancreas is now my new blog where I plan to post my own fun web finds and projects that I'm working on (who knows maybe I'll finish some of them this way) and hopefully I'll get to the bottom of the best banana bread recipe soon.

As a side note the pancreas is a pretty mean organ, although I found later after registering my blog, fairly ugly, a diamond in the rough really ... to read more on the pancreas click here ...