Last November we received a paper Flat Stanley in the mail from a good friend. My daughter enjoyed his visit so much that we've decided to do our own Flat Stanley project and participate in The Book Loving Boys’ Flat Stanley Adventure Exchange. It's a virtual exchange and sign up ends on February 20th.
Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun, and it's something we'll be able to do over spring break. If you like to participate, visit the sign up post at Book Loving Boys.
I’ve been so lucky to receive more wonderful ATCs from MAD ATC’s talented artists…
Sweet “Girl with Crab” by
Sara Gancho (Portugal) / Lovely surprise ATC “Pie” by
Bearuh (USA) / the loveliest “Lil. Mergirl” by
Mike R. Baker (USA).
Cute “Olifant” by
Nele Moeys / Amazing zombies “Huckleberry Undead” and “The Great Deadzoo” by
Jeff Brame (USA)
Last but not least … delicate and sweet “Luna Azul” and “Naturaleza Viva” from
Georgina Matich (Argentine)
Thank you so much guys for amazing little art pieces!
As you can see, this post comes with “some” delay; I was waiting for the last package to get here, I had the feeling it wasn’t lost, and that was true! Now, I’m happy to show you the “Christmas Trade” goodies, both sent and received. For you to enjoy! Como pueden ver, este post llega con un poco de retraso; pero estaba esperando recibir el último de los paquetes, presentía que no estaba perdido, y tenia razón! Ahora si que puedo mostrarles todas las cositas lindas del intercambio navideño, las recibidas al igual que las enviadas. Espero sean de su agrado!
From me: Minu, Quesi and Lori were in all my xmas goodies; notebooks, bookmarks, atcs, sleeves, and greeting cards.
From
JC: a lovely felt ATC, mini photo stickers from Gauidi’s Sagrada Familia –one of my favorite architects and buildings-, a reindeer pin, Botticelli’s sticker booklet, and some sweet…love them all, thank you JC!
From
Valerie Walsh: a set of wonderful xmas cards, a bookmark, mini cards and stickers. So colorful and wonderful…thank you Valerie!
From Georgina: cute stamped cards with matching envelopes, along with a wonderful paper tree; “Arbol de Miradas”. The tree is her blog’s anniversary souvenir; the leaves are made from photographs of the eyes of everyone that visited her blog during that month, it’s such an original idea! Thank you Georgina!
This was such a great trade....thanks x 1000
In the past couple of weeks I received wonderful stuff by mail…which I had not posted before simply because my camera was agonizing, now I got a new camera and I’m ready to post these beauties:
From Jannie Ho, better known as
Chickengirl, “
The Mixed-Up Alphabet”, a wonderful and funny book illustrated by Jannie, written by Steve Metzger, and published by Scholastic, out October 2007. I’ve been turning its pages of since I got it… its absolutely great! Thanks you so much Chickengirl!
A lovely ATC from my friend
Pati, look at cute girl on the envelope and hiding little guy between the card’s colored strips…they are so cute! Mil gracias Pati!
From Sapporo, Japan, a funny holiday card by
PaintMonster, this is not only wonderful but also ecological…as she did a set of cards out of office waste paper. Thanks Marty!
Long time ago, there was a great fairy themed trade hosted by Jo Schukar , for the same reasons mentioned bellow, it took me so long to publish this post…again my apologies! 
"Foldable ATC Fairies" -from me / "Haditas Plegables" -de mi parte
From L to R: “Fairy 3 of 4” for the Fairies Swap by Brian Gubicza, “Star Gazer Fairy” by Mary Helke Kilpatrick, “Forest Fairy” and “Springtime Fairy” by Jo Schukar / Recibidas
thanks, 1000 gracias! * btw, i'd like to know who received mine :p
Do you remember your first childhood crush? Mine was on a boy named Dexter, in my third grade class.
I don't remember much about him, or what he looked like, except that he loved to draw, and drew a perfect Charlie Brown. Dexter sat across from me in class, so I watched him draw everyday, while I thought about other things instead of listening to our teacher. When our third grade teacher lectured, all I heard was a voice reminiscent of the adult voices in the Charlie Brown television specials. In other words, I heard, bloc, bloc, bloc, roll off her tongue most of the day. To me, she just rambled a bunch of jumbled grown-up words, that we "bright-eyed and bushy tailed" third graders, hadn't the slightest interest in. Her name was Mrs. Keysler, and she wore those cat-eyed sixties glasses with a chain that jangled when she walked, so we could here her coming at recess. Anyhow, one day while Dexter was drawing, and I was staring at him, my heart thumping around in my chest, I noticed a new shiny whistle on the top of his desk, and when I asked him if I could look at, he put it in my hand. Our teacher continued speaking in the background, bloc, bloc, bloc, bah, bloc… as I turned the whistle over and over in my hand. Then I took the whistle, put it up to my mouth, and blew it as hard as I could! The room fell silent.
After which, I heard the hushed sound of children’s voices fill the empty silence, followed by that snickering sound children make before they start pointing fingers! It's such an annoying tactic among tattlers, whose goal at this time in their life, is to retire as the teachers pet! I could feel the stares, and of course, see their self-serving tattler fingers rise to the occasion, and point in my direction! I heard one little girl cry, “She is sooo dumb!” I just sat there, horrified, as my face grew hot and flushed with humiliation. I thought of this story when thinking of what to write as part of an “about me” profile for a writer’s social community. I was thinking of why I became a writer…, which is another post, that lends a reference to how important a role I think teachers play, in helping us shape our self image; so I guess I was thinking of my teachers, and for some reason Dexter popped into my head!
Anyway, that's what I remember about my first crush; one of those funny to me now, not so funny then, experiences, especially since my teacher made me stand in the back of the classroom the rest of the day!
After that, Dexter (who may have turned out to be an illustrator) looked at me with a cautious look on his face, for what seemed like the rest of my life, and the girl who called me “soooo dumb”, turned out to be one of my closest friends! We never know what our children are going through in a day, or experiencing with their first crush, do we?
I’ll have to ask my son about his experience with his first crush. Do you remember yours?
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Sounds like fun!