About a Dog

I first read about Owney in a children's book that Rebecca found at the library.

When I saw the book, I thought,. "Too many words", but read it at bed time anyway and actually found the "biography" interesting and even endearing.

I had to read it several more times to Rebecca before we returned it.

Owney was a stray that wandered in through the back door of an Albany, NY post office one night in 1888, to get in out of the rain, and because he guarded the bags of mail and the blue suited mailmen, he became a mascot.

One day he jumped on a mail train and traveled all over the country and even up into Canada.

Local papers covered his appearances and the medals, tokens and tags he received on his journey documented his stops.

He made more than one trip.

Later he was even shipped over seas once as an unofficial postal embassader.

You can read Owney's story in this book.

It's really not too may words for a bedtime story.

I kind of envied his freedom to travel and the adventures he had.

I was very excited when I found out that there was a commemorative Owney stamp coming out. It went on sale yesterday.

I bought two sheets.

If your post office doesn't carry it, you can go to USPS.com to order some and have them delivered to your door (along with a lot of other interesting and pretty stamps!)

Owney was stuffed, mounted and now "lives" at the Smithsonian Postal Museum.

Might be fun to make a journey to see him.

He's displayed with his harness full of tags.

Hmmm, he could make an interesting subject for a round robin.

If a dog deco shows up in your mailbox, with instructions to collect a postmark from your local post office, you will know who it's from!
:)

Fixated On Details

Nope, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, just off the face of the Internet.

Busy, busy, busy.

With kids. With stuff.

It's summer after all.

But last Friday, while working at the post office, I had little to do.

The extreme heat has been keeping people indoors so the post office was not terribly busy.

And mail volume is down so putting up the mail did not take me long.

During my lunch hour, I went to the library across the street for some reading material.

Instead I came away with a book, from the library discard shelves, to "play" in.

The children's book cost me a whole 25 cents.

I couldn't buy a sketchbook for that!

No paints (to add color). No decent glue stick (to do some collage).

All I had handy was a black ink gel pen and some postal rubber stamps.

I did this page over the course of 2 1/2 hours between waiting on customers at the window.

I plan to create a tag for the pocket sometime.

Hopefully I will do more pages.

This is the 4th art journal/ sketchbook I've started.

I am not a great finisher.

I lose interest.

How many "starts" do you have lying around?

Tea Tuesday Childhood Memory Found!

You would think a humble cup like this from the 1960s would be a dime a dozen in thrift stores and flea markets. There is nothing special about it that would make collectors snap it up.

But I haven't seen one of these since I was maybe 6 years old.

My grandmother served me milky, sugary black tea or "chai" (because she was from the "old country") in a mug just like this one and for some reason I remember the mug.

So when I found this humble white mug at the thrift store last week, the taste of Baba's chai, the warmth of the kitchen, the piano stool I used to sit on in the kitchen, ALL of it came flooding back in a rush.

And the mug only cost me a dime.

I also thought I would share my other finds, from my local junk shop.

I got them all free, because Mr. Mahnken was rotating a little of his stock, because his shelves are always dangerously full and a back room of auction boxes always waits to be emptied.

These were the beauties I rescued from a "free" box destined for the back room, and eternity in the dark. I got the string too, only it was a stained, tangled looking mess when I first saw it. Now it is a stained, neatly wound, ball of cotton string.

It looks right at home with the china.

Funny how that is.

So I'm here to tell you that best things in life are free.

What kind of "junk" tugs at your heart strings?

For more Tea on Tuesday posts, visit our hostess, Kimmie.

Olde Tyme Photos

For the next QB5 swap, we are altering pictures of ourselves on honeycomb shaped pages. This is the photo I am choosing. My first "Olde Tyme Photo" when I was 17. Looks pretty authentic all spattered with water and such (it was displayed in a bathroom outside of a protective frame for awhile). I also have to share a photo of me and my honey when we were engaged. I love playing dress up!

Here are the rest-- family photos taken on trips down to Lake of the Ozarks, MO and photos with friends taken at Branson, MO and Eureka Springs, AR.

I have them hanging on a wall in our living room.

They look at home in a 100 year old house, especially when the largest (widest) frame is a true antique (bought at a garage sale!)

I love sepia photos. How about you?