kimberly ah

My dad loves pigeons. (Needless to say, he has never lived in a city, where they are perceived as dirty pests.) So when the Letter Writers Alliance came out with the Pigeon Post, I knew it would be a perfect gift for dad’s birthday in March. For Pigeon Post to make sense, you have to know that homing pigeons were used to send messages in World War I and II. Some pigeons were even awarded medals for their heroics during the wars. (See this article for more information.) The LWA’s Pigeon Post is a plastic carrier pigeon that delivers a letter through the mail. He weighs less that 13 ounces, so you can drop him (with postage!) in a blue mailbox without a box and he SHOULD get to your recipient. Yes, technically the USPS would prefer he is in a box, buuuut, he doesn’t have to be. And seriously, what kind of postal worker wouldn’t get a kick out of seeing this face pop out of a mailbox?

So, I typed up my dad’s birthday message:

And then stuck it into the pouch, taped it on his back and stuck on some postage (the LWA ladies make it so easy–everything you need is included, even the proper amount of postage!):

Then, after his photo shoot, Naoto & I walked him down to the neighborhood mailbox:

And, I dropped him in. It took a little shove, but he fit. One last goodbye:

This is where Naoto is telling me that it isn’t going to work.

Kerplunk.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t take much to make me happy (especially when it comes to postal goodness), but dropping him in the mailbox and anticipating his ride through the mail system and into my dad’s mailbox made me downright giddy. And I was on a postal high when I talked to my dad two days later and he had already received him! He said that he opened his mailbox and didn’t know what to think when he saw a BIRD inside! He got a kick out of it for sure!

Now, I’m on the lookout for more crazy things to send. What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever mailed?

Back in the winter, I signed up for the “Elevated Envelope” exchange. I would be making four envelopes to exchange with four other people. May (the deadline) seemed so far away at the time…and the deadline came and went, and today, I finally sat down to make mine. The original plan was to embroider the Big Dipper on envelopes (using lovely French knots in shimmery thread on dark paper)…but then, I checked the blog one day and saw that someone else had done constellations…BOO! Then, I was super-mad at myself for over-thinking my plan and not just going for it.

Still stuck in the embroidery mindset, and wanting to use my new neon embroidery thread, I decided to embroider arrows on faux bois paper and then make some glittery neon notecards (inspiration found here on For the Love of…) for the letter inside. (Sidenote: Martha Stewart’s neon glitter was totally worth the drive to FOUR Michaels to find it!) I protected the stitches by sliding everything into a cello sleeve, then labeling and putting a stamp on that. I didn’t want to cause a mail machine malfunction. I think they ended up looking simple but pretty…and fun to receive.

I have to admit, I really love the neon trend. I love that it feels like summer and when it’s one or two neons paired with a neutral color…unlike the neon of my childhood, which was an explosion of eye-popping colors. I had this really fabulous white cotton tank patterned with neon orange, yellow, pink, red and green flamingos and it had a pleather green & pink sun & flamingo accent on the shoulder…it was awesome…especially because I probably paired it with some sort of neon short…

And that is exactly why I probably won’t be wearing neon this summer…just crafting with it.