Happy Mail!!!

If you have followed my blog for a while, you know that one of the main reasons I enjoy card making so much is the joy that comes from the simple act of mailing a card.  Now don't get me wrong, I love the therapeutic benefits I receive and the excuse to go shopping, and hand delivering a card is very nice as well.  But, it just doesn't compare with the feeling that comes from going to the mailbox and finding a CARD when you were expecting bills, political flyers, and junk mail. I like to refer to this as happy mail!  And if it arrives at just the right time, all the better!

My past two weeks have been nuts.  Not the normal crazy that seems to always be happening, but 'how in the world did I forget to do that' nuts!!  The end of the month is always a busy time for me at school, but this month seems to be worse than normal, and then adding to that two busy kids, and an even busier husband and I felt like I was being swamped with demands and requests for my time.  You know it's bad when you don't even feel like being crafty when you have a little free time.   This is usually when I get incredibly frustrated and overwhelmed and don't feel like doing anything. I was having one of those days last week and I walked to our mailbox and saw an envelope addressed to me. It wasn't my birthday and I wasn't expecting anything so I was so pleasantly surprised to open the envelope and see this...

It was from a fellow SU demo, Colleen.  Colleen and I are both a part of the same team and our challenge for October was to make and send out 5 cards. I was blessed that she chose me as one of the recipients.  It made my day so much better!  While you can't really see it in my pic, the centers of the flowers have silvery centers that shimmer so prettily! 

Imagine my surprise the next day when there was another card addressed to me. It was from my wonderful blogging friend, Heather 'witching' me a happy Halloween!  Now I'm really starting to feel special! Two cards in one week!!

This card has the most wonderful water coloring and she even added a little trim of orange glitter to the frame to make it extra festive!!

So by now I'm thinking things just might not be so bad and I just need to suck it up and tough it out.  I'm also beginning to race the girls to the mailbox to see what other treasure might be waiting for me, even though I know that the likelihood of receiving more happy mail is quite small.  Well...Surprise, surprise!! Look what showed up amid the bills and 'vote for me' papers this week!!

This lovely creation was from another wonderful blogging friend, Sherry.  I did a little searching and found some retired ribbon for her and she sent me this as a thank you-even though her ribbon arrived a week late...sorry!! She also included some gorgeous enamel dots for me to play with!! Such a sweetie!!!!!

So today I am sitting here not only sharing their gorgeous creations and thanking them for their thoughtfulness, but also reminded that we never know just how much those small acts of kindness can mean to someone.  I am sure that none of these wonderful ladies thought "I'll mail a card to Margaret.  It will thrill her to death and I will be the most wonderful person ever!"  They are much too humble and big hearted to use that as their purpose.  But all the same, their simple gesture made a huge difference in the way I was feeling and for that I thank them from the bottom of my heart!!

I also want to encourage all of you to follow their lead and join me in paying it forward by sending some  'just because' cards.  I don't send nearly enough of these, but intend to change that this week!

Have a great day (it's almost Friday, that in itself makes it great!) and find some time to be crafty!!