Welcome to 2013 fellow Oregonians!!! May this be the year of even more delightful plantings, creative clue writing, and a goal for each of us to create the most outstanding boxes available!! Happy New Year!

Jeff

I'd love to join this ring. Sent you my address and alternate email. I don't see a join button.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

May 2013 bring us MUCH HAPPINESS !! Many new letterboxes to find and many new friends to harass .... er.... I mean .... spend time with !!!

*MUCH SEEKER LOVE*
Dina B. & Charlie

Looking forward to more boxing adventures with my obsessive friends! January is a good time for carving so plants are in the future!
All the best to everyone in 2013.

Anniversaries: Little Bookworms, 6; porsche356, 5; Casa del Sol, 5; Traveling Garden Gnome, 5; hanksfolks, 4; The Buddens, 3; Marmadoce, 1

Happy anniversary and Happy New Year to all!!!

Thank you everyone!!!

BB

So... i was laying in bed last night and i was thinking... i have a really good idea for a postal, but its kinda strange... i wonder if anyone would be interested in it.

my "concept" postal would be as follows, each person in the postal ring would take one full block of pink, blue whatever color Stuff they wanted to. they would begin the ring with a small carving of whatever they wanted on the "stuff" they would then send the stuff to the next person in the ring, the 2nd person in the rotation would then ADD a small carving to the already started block of Pink, blue whatever stuff and would then send it on its way, the third would do the same, and so on and so forth until the ring was over. at the end of the ring, the Originator of said pink stuff would then stamp the entire image from the pink stuff and send each person in the ring an image of the now completed stamp. now each of the images on the pink stuff would or could be labled on the back of the pink stuff to show whose image was whose. also the originator of the pink stuff could, idealy say ok i want this stamp to have a theme, of whatever they wanted, or they could just be random carves.

Does this make sense and does anybody think that this would be something they would be interested in becoming a part of?
also up for suggestions on how to possibly make this postal, if i decide to do it, better
Loverboy

I hope for a lot MORE, as I have not had much time to find or plant recently! Happy New Year, everyone.

Yes, nosox, and then VeganF and the Dolphins

You all set?

Hallmark sold Easter ornaments for a short time. My girlfriend had a store so I used to put up little trees when the girls were small.

Chris broke his leg the year we came here ...the day I was putting up the Christmas tree. It did get decorated, but I didn't get to enjoy it much. I told Chris HE was taking it down. Easter was late that year so I did take the Christmas ornaments off...found Peeps Garland, added some lillies like people do Poinsettias stuffed in.

Meanwhile another section ..in the same piece of lights more went out so I decided that I would be taking it apart and putting the new piece in then putting the old one at the curb. Don't even want the bulbs!!

I realize that I had less than 1/3 of my decorations on it and only 1 bowl of ornaments instead of 3...I mean like the biggest Tupperware bowl and a large stainless steel one! (In addition I usually filled a cake save top!)

I won't likely do much Valentines Day but will take the time to do Easter. That way I will get to enjoy the Easter stuff I haven't done in years.

Alex is here. Spent the night so he could go to the pastor of the Christian church's house.

Will talk with you later today. Need to get breakfast fixed. 10:59 am.

that's because you're crazy and up WAY TOO EARLY!!!

~tigs(who went to bed early)

Happy New Year NC.. wishing you all the best for 2013.
May happiness and health be with you all the year.

I think so..... will go back through things.... I guess I missed about 4-5 boxes up there yesterday. Not bad considering there was a foot of snow on the ground, and it was VERY hard to find the ones scattered around the yard!

BB

I expected nothing less from the three of you!! :)

interesting concept. . .i'm not really sure how it would work in the practice. It's kind of like doing an inchie postal, except all on one piece of pink stuff - or other carving material.

i would feel really bad if i goofed on someone else's stuff. it might also get bogged down, given the number of people in the ring and the rate at which each of them carves. it would mean making a commitment to carve 4? 5? 6? *somethings* of some size - with a 2-3 day turnaround? that's a lot of carving and considerable time commitment. Not that i mean that as a deterrent for doing it; it's just a real consideration for those participating.

the way you've laid it out, it's a combination postal/LTC ring. first, there's the postal part where you mail around the materials and carve on it. Then, the LTC (and oversized at that) where everyone gets a copy of the completed images. There's a LOT of coordination there. if i were in the ring, i would want to see each of the completed blocks. Which means i would make 6 LTC's of my completed block, mail them off to a central location, and hopefully get 6 LTC's back, one of each completed block that i had helped carve on. i'd get to keep my completed carved block - maybe to plant? cut apart and plant? oh the possibilities are endless.

interesting thoughts to think on the first day of the New Year. . .

~tigs(stuck in the house on this wet COLD day)

How big of a block? The 4 x 5 inch? Anything bigger is hard to stamp... and pricey to mail.

Interesting idea, though!

I find this an interesting idea too. I like that you could specify a theme for your sheet. It could be so filled with surprises. Everyone always seems to have a different spin on things, which is half of the fun!!
Tigs, you did a nice job of thinking through many of the issues. I know that it takes me SOME time to settle on images, get them printed, transferred & carved - I admit, I'm a poke. I would mess the whole thing up, timing wise. Surely, I can't be the only one to work that part slowly.

I think this seems like an idea worth pursuing.
bluebirdlover

That is terrible hope you find it soon!

I was updating my LTC's to see what one's needed to be retired and found I had serveral with only one or two left. I shuffled them up and have 4 envelopes with 8 cards each in them. If you would like one of the sets send me your address and I'll send them to you. The first 4 people who AQ mail me their address will get them.

Guzzelin' Gal

For Christmas I got "A Red Herring without Mustard".

I gave "Midwife"~ to my mother. It's Jennifer Lee Worth's account of her days as a midwife and it the book "Call the Midwife" British Series is based on.

and "Dairy of A Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel"~to my son. He apparently loves this series. Well, I am glad he is reading.

csk

Hi! Can somebody recommend good LTC storage via Amazon? Thanks!

After spending New Year's Eve with us my granddaughter woke up this morning wanting to look at my collection of LTC's. As we flipped the pages I was able to recall how I received most of the cards.
My first was from Butterfly Suzy - an award for finding a letterbox (which I later adopted).
We ooohed some of the more beautiful carves - we both love the fairy carves
We aaahed at some of the more intricate and complex cards.
We looked at each other with concern at some of the scary ones - the blood, gore, zombies, and freaky movie characters
She reacted with pride she we recognized one that either her mom or dad carved
She was surprised her mom made an LTC from her siggy
She was stunned that I had a copy of one that Gg sent her in the mail. That brought on a short story as did the card I got from a boxer that I lent my carving tools to so she could complete her project.
Surprisingly my granddaughter recognized almost all of the few cards I made.
Her favorites were many but the Hello Kitty card and the card with the frog in the jar I think were her favorite-favorites.
LTC's are pretty cool and can, in fact, be a ton of fun. A great way to bond with family members.

Who is your daughter, if I may ask, and how old is your granddaughter? LTCer in the making, it sounds like to me. Good for you and good for her. Nice post. Happy New Year to you and your family.

I order these page protectors from Amazon to use with inexpensive 3-ring binders from WalMart.

Here's a better deal if you do a lot of swaps or want a lifetime supply!

Daughter is part of Sneakysnipes, currently on sabbatical from letterboxing as she tries to raise a family, got to college full-time and work full-time as well.

Granddaughter is Birdie, age eight.

Both are pictured in photos loaded by Safari Man in the Holiday Meet n Greet Event.

I agree, I think it would take me about a week... or so to get an idea, and get it carved and mailed.

I kinda think of this like when people have a ton of tattoos, and they have to think of a cohesive way to add more and fit them in, and not make it look like a mess. It would take carvers who have confidence in their ideas and skills and the creativity to be able to work around all different people's styles and ideas. There wouldn't be a lot of room for mistakes, but then again, depending on the carve, some mistakes can be altered into something else.

Keep going with it, Loverboy, I think it has potential. It could work in a free- flowing abstract sort of way, such as in doodling and zentangles. It wouldn't be for everyone, and it would take patience.

Myself, I would be more inclined to try it, if there was only one slab of pink stuff being mailed around, and thus one final image. Might be a good way to start it out, anyway, and see how it goes, rather than jump in with several people all sending around their own slabs.

Thanks. Looks like you all had a good time. Good looking group!

I use index card boxes like this one, and get the manila dividers, and separate them by swap.

Okay - how do I store/display these lovely little gems?