A postal employee, a full mailbox, then Bleubeard gets nipped

This tale begins quite sad. It is about a postal employee who couldn't keep up with her route. Our regular postman, the one I often complain about who has the "attitude," was on vacation for three days this week, and the gal who took his place couldn't do both her route and his (which is mine) in the same day. So she left the mail at the post office. I learned this on Thursday when another postal employee came up with a stack of mail, including two packages. Yesterday I got a mailbox full of mail. I just happened to be walking outside as the gal was stuffing the mail in my box. I asked her again what happened, since she was the same person I had talked to on Thursday. Thursday I learned that the gal had been fired for leaving the mail. According to the postal employee, that same day postal inspectors had gone to her home and retrieved bag after bag of mail that she had taken home, all unopened, but never delivered. Apparently, if she couldn't deliver the mail, she took it home so no one would be the wiser. I guess I won't complain too much about my regular mail carrier anymore, although I haven't seen him through this whole debacle.

Now I admit, this photo is staged (and very poorly lit, too). My box was much fuller on both Thursday and Friday. The large box from Melinda at Melinda's Fabric Fancies, and white envelope from Jo at JoZart, I received on Thursday, the green one from Tess at The HeART of Words on Friday. Tess lives about two hours from me, yet her gift took over two weeks to reach me. I could have walked to her house to get it, had I known.

So what about all the thoughtful gifts in the packages? Well, there were two gorgeous ATCs handmade by Tess in the Tyvek painted envelope. Behind that is a stunning dimensional card from Jo, along with these darling, adorable, wonderful Rocking Horses on clothes pins that she brought all the way from Germany to the UK, then sent them to me. Also, there are two chocolate bars from the UK. And finally a gift from Melinda that I won. Truthfully, I don't even remember entering the giveaway, but I'm sure glad I won it!!

I thought I would use my WOYWW easel sent to me by Julia and her talented Mr. Dunnit to show off these lovely ATCs.

However, the lighting was not right and I ended up having to hold this one so you could see its beauty. Tess really made my day with these very personal gifts. And that handpainted and decorated Tyvek envelope was the perfect thing to make my "green" heart sing. A very belated thank you goes to Tess, who probably thought I spaced her thoughtful gift off.

Next are the lovely and oh-so-personal gifts I received from Jo. One of the horses freed itself from a clothes pin, but that is nothing a little glue can't cure. After all, who knows where those poor babies have been and how long they've been cooped up in that envelope. I'm surprised they didn't eat the chocolate while they waited to be rescued.

You can also see the stunning card that Jo made and included in the gift. Her thoughtful words touched me deeply and I am so grateful I "met" her through WOYWW. And I am so happy and thankful for such a sweet and thoughtful gesture. A big thank you to Jo.

Finally, I won Melinda's giveaway and this is what she made me. The beautiful heart is filled with lavender and it smelled so wonderful when I opened the box. Not only that, it is a beautiful piece of handmade goodness, too. She also sent me some Raspberry cookies, some Lavender Earl Grey Tea (which I promise to use one of these Tuesdays) and a package of mints I didn't notice were left in the bag until I was cleaning up and putting things away.

Also as part of the gift, Melinda made Bleubeard a catnip toy. Now I must admit, he has never, EVER cared for catnip. I bought some at the Spice Merchant and he wouldn't touch it. Marlynn from Honeysuckle Breeze sent cat toys with catnip in them and he walked away uninterested. So, when I read Melinda's cat was impressed, I thought I would hate to be an ingrate and have Mr. Spoiled, aka Bleubeard, turn his nose up to the thoughtful gift. As an aside, Miss Kitty and Egmont are trying to get me to start a Bleubeard blog (say that three times fast), even though he is camera phobic. So I've also been trying to get him used to the camera. If only he would act grateful, I would not have to slink away with a silent apology.

I no sooner set the toy on the floor in the living room where he was waiting patiently for me, when he was up sniffing the toy.

All of a sudden, he made these mewing noises

and began rolling around and rubbing his face on the toy.

After about 100 out-of-focus photos, he was in a playful mood,

and began lifting the toy.

More out of focus rolling and mewing ensued. Look at that back leg in relation to the front ones. This was one moving cat!

And now he had the toy in his mouth and flipped it over. Of course, that was one or more of the next 60 or so shots that were too out of focus to share.

A rare time he was still at the exact time I took the photo

didn't last long because he was once again rolling all over the living room floor.

Finally, he was quiet enough I was able to get a half way decent shot of him. I hope Melinda is happy because I was thrilled. Not sure where she got her catnip, but he's never, ever acted like a crazed kitten on drugs before. Thank you again, Melinda for providing a very happy ending to today's tale (or tail)!

Today's blog will appeal to about half of my readers. It is one that, according to their site, is for "painter, sculptor, photographer, graphic artist, . . . ." Passion 4 Art provides resources for visual artists and also shows their art. There are many artists' works on this site. When you get to the home page, click on "Gallery" on the top menu and you will be taken to more artists than you can visit in a weekend. Each artist has several works in his/her portfolio, too. Unless you do nothing more than click on artists, you won't get through all of them in one setting. So if you are tired of looking at a nipped cat and a blogger whose art has dried up, you will be in for a real treat at Passion 4 Art. Have a great weekend and please find my mojo/muse/or whatever you call it, and return it to me.