My treasures...

This week was so full of mail ^0^ And very busy too, but I enjoyed myself most of the time ^.^

 

not so much outdoing mail, because the last two letters I wrote were really long... ^^   The last envelope's decoration was an article about a dance performance I MISSED lately =.= I'm not fond of classical ballet at all, but sometimes I like some modern stuff... it's amazing what a body can be like, what it can express...

On that day I almost went crazy because of all this awesomeness!! fat mail from two beautiful people ~ and one hopefully beautiful person who requested my address on letternet and who actually did write me a letter... amazing!

 this week was also Hong Kong week ~ a short letter from my friend and a postcrossing postcard, isn't it terrific?? I believe it's self-made ^.^

 my friend added this amazing Christmas card (though I'm not too fond of thinking of Christmas already), Asian people never stop to surprise me with their decoration ideas!!

 so much love inside one envelope ^0^ the leaf is a real one ^0^ I didn't even notice at first ^.^

 

more awesomeness ^0^ and Romanian pufuleti (fluffy corn snack) below (they're half-gone on the pic and they were gone completely a minute later ^^)

 

 I loved the post by GotThatSwing on her blog, about good things on a crappy day... I've been making a list of great things too, so that I can be truly happy when a day is over ^.^ even if I feel tired and don't write as much as I'd like to... But, apart from my full mailbox and some great snacks and dishes, I've discovered that there are people who still make good music years after years ^0^

I was enchanted by Sandy Lam this week! Like, she swept me away, totally... I mean, I did like her before, she has a voice that I can always enjoy, even if she sings the letters of the alphabet ~ but Sandy Lam was probably the last of the Hong Kong singers I like (it IS Hong Kong week ^0^) that I'd have expected to be so WOW! Nice ~ yes, cute ~ yes, lovely ~ yes, but not WOOOOOOOOOW!! o.O I've discovered the new album 'Gaia' while browsing a Chinese music site and I just can't stop listening to it...I was prepared to discover one or another catchy pop song (well, it's been what I call quality pop after all) among countless sugar-coated-honey-dripping ballads about how her darling went away and how she misses him so... but OMG, she certainly didn't waste her time during those two years she took for producing it! Her vocals are mindblowing, the lyrics are truly moving me, especially the beauty of thoughtfully arranged words that add a special flavour to the music and it's music that I actually find interesting... I mean, come on, I was really pretty tired of looking forward to the album of a Chinese singer I liked and of being disappointed and bored to tears! Stanley Huang, Jay Zhou, Evonne Hsu, Angela Zhang (now once again) =.= I literaly HAD to turn to Jolin Tsai and S.H.E. who at least maintain their usual level... Then, cute little Sandy decides to explore her inner self and the never-ending possibilities of music and just takes my breath away! Girl, you rock ~ and I love you creepy and sexy ^0^

It was so hard to decide which video to choose, because those are awesome too, but I decided to share this one... The whole damn thing gives me goosebumps T0T

OK, did I just say 'I love you' to someone else than Maura? Oh, darling, of course, I didn't mean it! ^.^ You are a goddess even without singing ^0^

Slow mail week...

 It looks like this post will contain everything ^^

First enjoy the music by the Oh Hellos as background ^0^ I'm thinking about buying that album ^.^

As for mail, I've got two letters last week... I must admit, I go mad when there is no mail in my mailbox, but  that only lasts a few minutes and later my brain starts working again and thinks ~ well, two fat letters is amazingly awesome ~ and I would probably die if I got letters every day, because there's no way I could answer them o.O Some of the letters I write are endless, so I need quite a few hours or days or even weeks to write them and I just don't have that much free time... 

  

here is my incoming awesomeness ^0^ I love getting goodies in the mail, but nothing beats a huge fat envelope that contains lots of sheets of paper with so many words on them ^0^ 

 this was for a swap 'Draw this word' ~ which was a fun idea, I guess ^^ The word was 'nubivagant', obviously, and I thought it must be the adjective of 'Nubian vagabond' ^.^ Well, I don't know what kind of person actually looks Nubian, because my person looks Tuareg in fact, but I think there is some kind of atmosphere there ~ that probably comes close to the actual meaning ^^ (moving through the clouds)

some of my outgoing... I love that stamp about the first German airmail transfer... I'm wondering whether it was from Heidelberg to Mannheim and why they had to fly there (it's like 20 minutes away by car), but it's definitely a cool design ^^ 

 oh gosh, I went to the city library to RETURN some books... and then things happened very fast... (I just love going to library, taking everything I want and going home with my new - temporary - treasures!!) So, I'm looking forward to reading all of that ^0^ Yoko Ogawa is one of those weird Japanese ladies (whom I love dearly ~ it's not like you can't love someone just because he's weird ^^) ~ she's weirder than Banana Yoshimoto, but not as weird as Yoko Tawada (who is really wacky!) and I was waiting for some books that I haven't read yet to appear on the shelf, so today I've got myself 'The Professor's beloved equation' (博士の愛した数式) which was made into a movie that I wanted to watch for a while now...

 my parents came over for a short visit and brought some floss halva from Bulgaria... This was one of the greatest things I've eaten for a long time! (I sooooo love candy floss!!)

I cooked some borsh recently... it was VERY good ^0^

It's always a good day to say ~ Maura, I love you! I love you! I love you...

Recent mail

So far it's three sent, three received for November... Not a bad start, actually... This weekend was Chinese time ^0^ I noticed that it became harder for me to write in Chinese after not practicing for a long while, who would have thought... Now I also prefer to have my online dictionary available, but then I prefer shutting down my computer when writing letters, because internet and crap always distract me, so that was a kind of a dilemma =.= Soooo, I grabbed my good old paper dictionaries to use... I've a small one that is German-Chinese and Chinese-German and a big one that is Chinese-English only, so I sometimes need to be inventive when expressing myself ~ but it's still good to look up characters I forgot how to write (*yeah, shame on me*) and those that I could never remember (silly things like 'wall' or 'lazy', it's ridiculous, but obviously I can't help it...). Do you also have words you always spell wrong? Somehow, Chinese is pretty compact, both in writing and structure, so if I write like 5-6 pages, it's already like a pretty long letter ~ and these few pages have pretty much taken up my free day... But letters are always worth spending time on, right? ^^

 

My incoming from last week ^^ My mail all came on the same day... sigh... some more Chinese letters to write ^^

I've ordered those amazing books on amazon... I adore illustrators and secretly dream of being one (just dreaming, actually... in reality I just want to draw something once in a while ^^), so I've got this huge book with sketches and illustrator stories in the middle, then 'drawing lab' for just drawing (there are soooo many fun ideas ^0^) and the hand lettering one because I looooooooove fooling around with letters and characters but I'm too impatient to learn real calligraphy, so I'm going to try some of that ^^

My ultimate goal would be to draw Maura ^0^ But now I'm still too scared of 'disfiguring' her wonderful face, so I've just tried one eye... and her dog that sat by her side ^.^

oh, my sweetheart... 

yeah, I know, I'm derailing my own post... so here's my outgoing... (I forgot to take pix of two letters last week... mehhh)

well, I feel like this space looks too blank without a comment ^.^

 I had such a wonderful time with this Kagoneko calendar all this year, so I'm happily recycling/sharing it ^^

insert another nonsense comment...

 I've copied a page from a book by Jimmy Liao, a Taiwanese writer/illustrator, because my friend likes bunnies ^^ This book is 'Turn left, turn right' and it's about two people who live next door but don't know it, then they meet somewhere by accident and lose each other again and oh, it's such a sweet story and I love Jimmy for combining text and pictures so brilliantly...
I watched the movie that was made after this book in Taiwan and it bears so many memories, because well, this was what Taiwan looked like for me too... and isn't Takeshi Kaneshiro one of the best looking guys on earth?? ^0^

I've found a good trailer on youku, but this page won't let me embed it, so here's a link...

Turn Left Turn Right Trailer

Some more nice pix from Jimmy's homepage ^.^

Mail post ^.^

Uhm... I like drawing on envelopes lately... I thought I'd post some envelopes that I took pix of while not blogging, so some of those letters have arrived ages ago... Others haven't even gone out yet. I actually have two more letters written and pending, because I wanted to add a little something, but still feel too sick to really go shopping... They will go to Italy and England ^.^
Lately, I sometimes happen to bump into the stamp lady at the post office. I never know when she comes, so I decided that I'll just buy a bunch each time. You don't need to stand in line and you can choose from all the stamps that are available in Germany ^0^ It's sad though that nobody goes to the post office to buy stamps... 

This is supposed to be Anne of Green Gables ^^ Well, the one from the Ghibli series ^^

 haha ^^ don't even ask me why ^^

This is from a Soviet cartoon that tells the story of Karlsson-on-the-roof (Astrid Lindgren) and this character is a housemaid called 'house-torturer' ^^ Karlsson drives her crazy, so that eventually she sits down in the bathtub and acts as if the shower head was a telephone...

my head almost exploded doing all the math for this package ^.^ 

autumn feeling ^.^ 

don't ask me why neither... I just felt like drawing a reptile ^.^ 

OMG, this is Maura-mail ^0^ The combination is enough to make me die (especially this picture, probably the only 'sexy'-kinda photosession with Maura)! So, thank you, dear friend, I'm dead!!

the meagre incoming from last and this week... I'm not complaining though ^^ Totally loved all of it ^0^

Le blogue est mort...

Hello there... who'd have expected to see me starting another blog... I guess I have something to share again... This year I had to start anew for about three times. To adjust to new stuff coming at me. To reschedule, rearrange, rebuild and recycle... I feel like a damn phoenix now and again! But things are falling into place, I hope, or maybe I became stronger, wiser less stupid and impulsive? We'll see ^.^

I'm not a fan of new profiles, new accounts and new blogs, they look like you want to hide from one group of people and be visible for another. But I decided that I will bury my old blog after all, because I feel I shared too much and because it was one of a kind for me. And you do need  a new start sometimes...

I plan to show some stuff I create, especially mail art (however you define it), some places I see, some food I enjoy, some funny trivia, some funky music and yes, my everlasting Mauralove. Whoever wants to read about it ^.^

I'm sorry for my design right now, it turned out kinda creepy, both the banner and the background... But I'm going to work on it when my mind is less hazy ^.^

Alors, vive le blogue ^.^