Fun mail and photo booths!

This postcard arrived in the mail today from my American penpal (Sarah!) living in South Korea. It was too cute to not share. Doesn’t it remind you of an Andy Warhol print?

Super cute!

Last Saturday when we were in Seattle Eric spotted a photo booth. I have wanted to have our photo taken in a photo booth for a long time so we hopped on in! The camera went off before we were ready for the first photo.  The second photo wasn’t so bad…note the spooky bats in the background.  In the third photo I was trying to kiss him on the cheek and I didn’t realize he was trying to kiss me too so that just looks awkward.  And the last photo…that’s what Eric has to look forward to for the rest of his life!

We tried!

Midweek roundup.

My penpals send me adorable squirrel postcards!

 

I ventured out to the thrift store tonight. I found a chicken cup that was made in Japan. Bock bock!

 

I also stopped at the craft store to pick up some supplies tonight. I was also a creeper and took a photo of this gal’s jacket. Awesome stitching! Isn’t it beautiful?!

 

I came home with some Mod Podge. You’ll be seeing more of this stuff from me in the next few days.

Greetings from Polska!

A letter arrived in the mail today from my penpal, Aga, from Poland.  She wrote a rather long letter and sent along a postcard with a local Cathedral on the front.  She also mailed me a pin and a packet of basil seeds.  She’s going to school to be a horticulturalist.  The seed packet is written in Polish…which I don’t speak.  But I don’t see this as a problem, because I kill all plants we own.  This one wasn’t going to have any luck even if I could read the instructions.  Good luck basil seeds!  I don’t expect you’ll be around very long, but the best of luck to you!  The pin she sent says “Kocham Marcina!”  Which translates to “I love Martin!”  I did a little research to find out what this means.  Check out what I found below the photo!

The pin is actually for St. Martin’s Day.

St. Martin’s Day is celebrated on Nov. 11 throughout Europe. Named after St. Martin, the 4th-century Roman Catholic Bishop of Tours, France, this holiday spread from France to Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe.

It celebrates the end of the growing season and the beginning of harvesting. It also marks the last day to celebrate before the fasting of Advent begins. Children and adults walk down the streets with lanterns and torches, and sing St. Martin songs. The children visit neighborhood houses singing and reciting poems, which earns them sweet treats, not unlike Western Halloween.

Nov. 11 is Independence Day in Poland, but it is also St. Martin’s Day and in Poznań, Poland, the Roman Catholic saint’s name day seems to take precedence.

Every year on Nov. 11, thousands of Poznań residents attend a high Mass in St. Martin’s Church followed by a parade through St. Martin Street led by “St. Martin” sitting astride a white horse. St. Martin rides up to the square in front of Zamek Cultural Centre and is handed the keys to the city by the mayor. Then the celebration begins in earnest.

Inside Zamek, there are exhibitions, concerts and performances, while outside, there’s a street market with knights reenacting medieval jousting tournaments. A splendid fireworks display ends the day.

Pozanians treat themselves to St. Martin’s Croissants – rogale swietomarcinski also known simply as marcinski. These crescent-shaped pastries filled with poppyseeds and almond paste are consumed by the hundreds of thousands.

Legend has it this centuries-old tradition commemorates a Poznan baker’s dream. His nighttime reveries had St. Martin entering the city on a white horse that lost its golden horseshoe. The very next morning, the baker whipped up horseshoe-shaped croissants filled with almonds, white poppyseeds and nuts, and gave them to the poor.  (Click here to read more).

I’m part Polish if you didn’t know, so I love to learn more about Poland from Aga.  I wish I could speak Polish.  Italian is first on my list of languages to learn though.

Antiques and Root Beer for all!

Eric and I felt like venturing out of the house today.  We decided to go to an antique store in Shoreline, which is just north of Seattle…but south of Everett.  We’ve been to this antique store, but it had been almost two years since our last visit!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they have quite a bit more merchandise than they did the last time we were here.  And these are fun antiques!  Not just stuff for hipsters!  I’m planning on taking my parents to this particular antique store when they visit this summer.  I think they would enjoy it as well!

Look at this fantastic movie projector!

This obnoxious wooden horse was for sale. I love horses...but this was just too much. They even censored it by tying some fabric around the horses naughty bits. Is someone really going to be offended by seeing the privates of a horse? Talk about uptight Seattleites!!

I want this for my dream house! And yes I do have a folder on my computer where I keep photos of things I would like in my dream house. You'll also find a claw-foot bathtub and a wrap-around porch on that list.

Horses, plates and creepy masks!

My parents had (possibly still have?) this!

I found some fun vintage postcards there as well!  I’ve been updating a few of the postcard galleries here on my blog!  In case you missed it, if you look at the top of this page just below the header you will see a few pages where you can view my postcard collection!

Eagle Gate at the state capitol in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Bathing in The Great Salt Lake, Utah.

This postcard shows the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. I love Utah! I think if it were near a coast I would want to live there. I DO want to live there...but I'd rather live near a coast.

Greetings from Florida! This postcard reads..."A gorgeous bird is the pelican, whose beak can hold more than his belican, he can put in his beak, food enough for a week, but I'll be d--d if I can see how in helican.

Crazy Horse Monument.

Tale of the Sea Horse.

After antiquing we stop by PCC in Edmonds.  PCC is a fantastic co-op chain here in Seattle and surrounding cities.  And then we made out way to The Root Beer Store!  The Root Beer Store carries what looks like a few hundred varieties of root beer as well as birch beer and other varieties of soda.  Eric and I are not soda drinkers, but this was a must see and we did walk away with a few bottles to sample over the next few weeks.  I think my parents would find this to be rather amusing as well when they are here visiting!

The Root Beer Store! And that was only about half of the store.

Haul!

We sampled two bottles. I picked out the Triple XXX because is seemed inappropriate enough.

Say what is right!

Juniper wanted to sample the birch beer. Kitten was only allowed to sniff it though.

Lamb cuddles!

This fantastic postcard arrived in the mail today for me!  Super cute!

Four new postcards!

I found these postcards at an antique store today! I love the state of Utah if you can’t tell! I scan all of my postcards and upload them to my Flickr account. After many frustrating hours I finally realized that Flickr will only let you have 200 photos in your account if you only have their free account. Oh. My. Goodness. I spent HOURS uploading…and uploading again because I didn’t see all of the items I uploaded. I thought I accidently deleted them. NOOO…Flickr deleted them because I had over 200 photos. Do you upload your photos to a particular website? And if so, which one do you use?

I

The official state song of Utah! I love Utah.

Queen Victoria, Bryce National Park, Utah.

Seagulls. The sacred birds of Utah. I wasn't lying when I said I loved Utah!

The Redwoods of California.

Happy Friday!

It was 50 degrees today and super sunny! From my front porch if you look between the condos and the hippie house you can see Puget Sound and the Olympic mountain range!

 

This letter arrived in the mail for me today from Sri Lanka. Why do other countries have such fun stamps and ours are semi-lame. Sorry, but I'm tired of seeing the Liberty Bell forever stamps. Mix it up USPS!

 

I found this awesome glass jar at the co-op today for $3! I also bought organic apples, ginger and a lemon to make juice tonight. My juicer is awesome! And so is my glass bottle!

Juice! and a fun postcard.

Tonight we went crazy and we didn't make rice for supper! We purchased sliced rice cakes this weekend in Seattle. Those round things in the bowl are the rice cakes. They are just made out of rice, salt and water and they are super good!

 

Tonight I purchased a juicer! I super excited about this. I juiced some apples and ginger tonight. It's fantastic...but I added way too much ginger. WAY too much.

 

And here's a new postcard for my collection! She's one pretty lady.

Four things.

1.  Last night I had a dream that I was on a hunt with Dog the Bounty Hunter.

2.  I want to buy a juicer.  I watched a documentary tonight about juicing and I’ve been inspired to eat healthier than I currently am.

3.  I uploaded all of my postcards to my Flickr account that I received through Postcrossing.  Click here to check them out!

4.  And here’s a photo of my kitten just because she’s adorable!

There’s no easy way to photograph or scan this.

This is my first copper postcard!  AND it’s a jackalope!  Score.