Oh my gosh it has been way too long since I've showcased some of the incoming mail I've been lucky enough to receive.* Sometimes I truly marvel at the generosity and creativity of you folks. I'm humbled and so grateful that you take the time to write to me, and put so much thought into your words and so much effort and beauty into the mail you create.

ΔΔ The dancing mice at the top of this post were hand-painted by Australian children's book illustrator Rebecca Berrett. When this mail arrived, I very nearly squealed with delight to hold one of her beautiful paintings in my own hands.

ΔΔ Joanne's letter was such a snail-mail treat, filled with beautiful stationery and ephemera from her life, and even a little paint-sample card I had sent her in previous mail, which she had adorably illustrated

ΔΔ Postcards, postcards, postcards. So many fun postcards!

ΔΔ I loved the happy, neon New Year's pop of this card created by Kate from Thank You Love Cake

ΔΔ Glitter and gemstones and a little note from Mary to tell me all about her latest course on self-love

ΔΔ I sent Gay some paint-sample cards with a challenge: "This is a blank canvas. What will you do with it?" Now feast your eyes on these ah-ma-zing "sending you sunshine" cards she created. Incredible!

ΔΔ The stamps on this mail from Jami were so special. First, a wonderful collection of vintage Christmas stamps, AND... would you take a look at those ridiculously adorable Peanuts stamps on the envelope? Philatelic heaven!

ΔΔ The sweetest hand-made card and hand-painted Christmas envelope, from the lovely Yam

ΔΔ Another letter from Jami, and this one was so incredibly special, bursting with handmade envelopes created from important works of art, port-red wax seals, gifts of stationery ephemera, and a letter that made me cry in a good way

ΔΔ Sandra decorated this sweet-as-pie Christmas mail for me, and then I spent all afternoon repeatedly rescuing it from Scout's covetous clutches

ΔΔ This mail was also from Sandra, a few months earlier. She hand-made the envelope as well as the smaller envelope inside, and then carved the little snail-mail stamp just for me, so look for it on any mail coming your way!

ΔΔ Meaghan from Polaroids and Snailmail is so lovely, and so creative. She stitched this gorgeous paper garland for me from the pages of a book, and shared her recipe for bircher muesli (fyi I LOVE bircher muesli)

That's all I have to share for today. Pretty amazing, huh?

* I always try to showcase the beautiful mail I receive on this blog, but sometimes it slips under the radar, even when I love it. Like...

I open your mail and gasp with delight and read it and love it and then Scout yells "Mummy, Ralph's nappy is smelly!" and so I put your letter down and then I change the nappy and then I supervise them while they play outside and then it's time to make their dinner and then it's bath-story-bed time, then I come downstairs and clean up after the carnage that is an afternoon with toddlers, and start preparing the dinner for us grown-ups. Eat dinner, wash up, feed the cat, water the garden, have a shower, maybe write in my blog a bit. Then in the morning I see your letter and think, "I'd better get that off the kitchen bench, I don't want it to get stained," so I take it into my office and tuck it away with the other beautiful letters and think to myself, "I'll just hurry up and write those 30 other letters that I owe people because I should really write back to this person," so then I get out some materials to hurry up and write the 30 letters, but before I can get much written, the children wake up and call out "Mummy! Mummy!" so I run upstairs to get them and change nappies and get them dressed and make their breakfast and clean their teeth and send them off to daycare, and then I need to start a full day of work, after which I pick the children up and do the afternoon chaos all over again... And maybe in all that I forget to take your letter back out and photograph it.

Still, on the blog or not, your mail is beautiful, and it makes my day. (Also, I'm saving your letters to photograph for my book, which is also pretty special). Thank you!