from russia {and italy, and france...}, with love

A sweet, thoughful, handwritten, sent-via-snail-mail note is my favorite thing to get in the mail {except for maybe a surprise package from my husband or a dear friend}. And I especially love postcards from far-away places.

Over Christmas, I found this envelope of vintage stamps from around the world on sale at Anthropologie and I just had to have them. I love the idea that these stamps have adorned love letters, thank you cards, just-because notes and, of course, postcards, from people I'll never meet. I'm sure some of these stamps may have traveled quite a distance to reach their destination.

I decided to create an easy weekend DIY project, so I painstakingly sorted through the collection and selected a few of my favorites to display.

I'm loving the way it turned out.

a sweet little note

When Mark is away, I love to send him cards. Just little reminders that I'm thinking of him, missing him and wishing he was here with me. I have a good collection to choose from - big ones, small ones, sweet ones, funny ones - but my favorites are always from Papyrus.

They are cute, creative and always come with a matching envelope liner. It's the little things that make a difference, don't you think?

Thankfully, Papyrus cards are readily available at my Target, so whenever I'm there, I swing by the card section and see if there's anything special.

love letter

It's been so nice to have Mark back in town {he even finally met some of the girls from my team}, and a bit of an adjustment, as well. But nothing beats coming home to his smiling face after a long day.

He's the night owl to my early bird and since he goes to bed later than I do, he had the chance to sneak a sweet note into my lunch tote.

He's taking his mom, aunt and cousin away for a two-day trip up north, where they plan on hitting all the hot spots : Flagstaff, Sedona and, of course, the Grand Canyon; so I get to hold down the fort for a few hours before his dad flies in for a holiday visit.

grazie, merci, danke!

I stopped by the bookstore on my way home from work the other night, just wandering around, and I stumbled upon the cutest selection of thank you cards.

I feel like I should send one to Friday, for finally rolling around!

~by graphique du france~

~found on roadside scholar~

~by jane hancock papers~