Mail sent and mail received

Yesterday was a wonderful mail day. I got some mail sent out and there was some mail received. By me and by people who were waiting to get something from me.
First of all, Suki has been sent on to the first part of her journey!

Then there was the email from Mandy saying that she received my Pay it Forward crafts. I made her two mini (3"x3") fabric art pieces. One with one of my illustrations turned into a felt applique and one with a felt flower on the front. I added two bottlecap magnets with images taken from my vintage postcard collection.
More surprises arrived at new homes. I did a cute and crafty swap with Roxanne and she got the goodies I've sent her. I don't have a picture of all the goodies i put in the box, but do have a picture of what i made for her. I felted this little bear like animal for her. I found this pretty box which made a perfect little home, it fitted like a glove!


Last month i was the very lucky winner of this gorgeous milk glass set from the wonderful blog at happydash! It took awhile for it to arrive here, due to the wonderful service at my local post office (yes, this is sarcastic).
But let's say it was just to build up anticipation and my joy was even greater when it finally did arrive! It is soooo gorgeous i can't even explain. The two cups and plates with their lovely prints and the shape of the plates resemble painters tablets. Oooohhh... loving it, thank you Tonya for spoiling me with these!
And i got even more spoiled when i opened up a surprise package from Jonah of Maluhia Designs. The prettiest and cutest fabric! I really needed to catch my breath for a second. I can't think of any crafty project that is so wonderful that i will be able to really cut in these fabrics. But i'm also aware they are meant for me to use. Maybe one day i'll think of something. Thank you sooo much for this amazing treat!

Unexpected mail

Unexpected mail is the best. Especially crafty surprises. And especially if you are expecting something boring as Tax papers from the country you lived before. My parents are my send to address back in the Netherlands and received the final paperwork from the Dutch Taxes for me to fill out. So they were gonna send those to me in NY. When i found a large envelop with my dad's handwriting of course i thought it was that.
How joyful when i found these two magazines inside instead!
Old copies of 'Knutselwereld' which means something like 'Craftyworld'. Filled with cute ideas.

You would think i'm not crafty at all lately when you look at the posts on my blog. But i am. I really am. But all my time goes into the projects for the book and those i can not show here. But i wish i could. So many days and projects go by that i wanted to post them and get some feedback on what i'm doing. I really hope people will like it when it's done.

JCaroline's Fabrics

Have you got your fabric fix today? Let me say i Adore the J Caroline Creative online store. And i am feeling so lucky that Caroline has sent me lovely fabrics to use on some of the projects in my upcoming book! The shop makes me feel like a kid in a candystore, so many gorgeous pretty fabrics. And if all the patterns are not enough, there is also a page with a lot of project ideas and tutorials!
Go go go get your fabrics and inpiration!

Wilbur the world traveller

Meet Wilbur the pink piggy. He is staying with us for a little while. He belongs to a 7th grade student from Des Moines, Iowa. His travels are part of a school project. So far he went from Iowa to a couple of places in The Netherlands, then to Iceland and now arrived in New York, the Big Apple.

He even has a cute backpack! There's a passport inside with stories about his adventures everywhere.
I think he is very happy sleeping over at our place. All our little friends love him very much.

He is already deep in conversation with Kuri and Suki, the two sock monkeys. Now Suki wants to travel the world too. But Kuri is scared of flying, so if she goes they will have a long distance relationship for a while. Kuri is a bit sad about this, but knows that if his girlfriend wants to go he will have to wish her well and bless her adventures.

With this post there are two questions.
1. I'm looking for somebody in the USA to take Wilbur in as a guest. After showing him a good time, send him back to his owner in Iowa. He is expected to be back from his journey before April 30th this year. Wilbur has found a place for his upcoming adventure! Thank you Roxanne!
2. Second question, is there anyone sweet out there who would want to give Suki, the pink sockmonkey, a place to stay if she would want to go on a trip around the world too? I don't want to send her off just like that, it would be nice to know that she has a place where she can stay for awhile and be taken care of. All you have to do is write in her little passport and send her on to someone else in the world with her passport and adventures. Thank you Mari! She would love to stay with you for awhile!

So i'm looking for two people, one in the USA to send Wilbur to, and one anywhere in the world as a first adventure spot for Suki. Please leave a comment (with email addy) if you want to play! I'll contact you for details.

More Hearts

Thanks to Shibooya there are some more Valentine's vibes in our house.
She has sent me these three lovely heart shaped cookie cutters! Thank you so much lady, i will be baking soon.
And you know, everyday is Valentine's day in this house. So the heart shaped cookie cutters will definitely be used more than only on V-day!

Mail surprises

Who doesn't like surprises in the mail? I know i do!

And i'm feeling very spoiled.
Should have posted this earlier since it arrived in my mailbox a while ago already. Dear Roxanne has sent me all these goodies for our cute and crafty swap. How sweet is the poptart cozy she made for my pink ipod?
She surprised me with cute Hello Kitty goodies and pink poodle erasers, pretty postal stamps, vintage handkerchiefs and a gorgeous clutch which she embellished with a little bit of sparkle on top!
And then the other day my mailbox was happily filled with a little package from my friend Tess from London. Oh, how i love tiny things! Look at these.
Small Pucca's, Hello Kitties and My Melodies! They all have a little hanging loop on top so i can make something with them. Ohoh what to do with them? I adore them. The pucca figurines have a little edge so they can sit on the edge of something. Too cute!
And she also added this Hello Kitty lollipop/popping candy too. I normally never open cute candies, just keep them and admire their cuteness. But in this case i'm tempted. Because A) i love popping candy + lollipops and B) it looks like there might be stickers inside. Of course i'm curious and want to look at those. If there are any.
Well, it says '48 stickers to collect' on the package...

I won, i won!

If you are on the mailinglist of the Indie Yellow Pages, you saw my name as the winner of the last giveaway of 2007!
I won this set of gorgeous handcrafted sterling silver and aquamarine briolette earrings made by Megan of Bel Bacio Jewelry. She creates stunning one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.
I feel so lucky and spoiled!

Pay it Forward and Return it

Remember my Pay it Forward post a little while ago? Jenavi was one of the 3 who wanted to play. Nope, i haven't made my crafts yet, but she was so nice to not only Pay it Forward, but also return the favor to me. So she made me something too!
Look what i found in my mailbox! So cute, he is already making friends in his new residence here.

Self Promotion Anyone?

This is my cute 'Happy Girls' album. It's basically a photo album, but i use it to store pretty illustrated flyers and promo postcards.

And since my new 'sunny' PO Box loves to be filled with lovely mail, i ask you: are you up for some shameless self-promotion?

Are you an illustrator or do you have a crafty shop? Most important, do you have pretty flyers or promo postcards?

Send them to me and if it's pretty or cute, i will not only adore it, but also put a picture of it on my blog and link to your website!

Ismoyo Green
PO Box 4694
Sunnyside, NY 11104

A good mail day

I was expecting a courier to ring my bell to deliver my first package at my new address. I wanted to wait for it, but had things to do and had to leave. I waited as long as i could and when i finally left and opened my front door, there was the package waiting for me in the hallway. Did the courier came up and tried to ring the bell at the front door instead of downstairs? (frontdoor bell doesn't work) Or did he leave it downstairs at the mailboxes and did one of my new neighbours bring it up for me? Mystery. But no time to think about it and you will never figure it out anyway. Hopped on the train and made a pitstop at my PO Box. Oh, how i love to find notice slips that there are packages waiting for me! Especially if there are two! There was a long line, but i just had to know who send me what. I got my two packages and the rest of my mail, went on with my day, did whatever i needed to get done and rushed home.

Finally, time to open everything and discover that i was truly spoiled. Happy not your birthday day!
There were the candies from London sent by my funny friend at Quarto publishing house.
There was this adorable pouch/organizer and fabric buttons made by Jonah. She also sent me the business cards and promotional postcards i have recently designed for her. I love how they came out. And she does too. Which is of course most important. If you haven't done so already, you should check out her wonderful handmade goodies!



And the sweet Joyce sent me this amazing set of postcards and a gorgeous new journal. Everyday is a good day for a new journal! They are so perfect it felt like she actually knew me. Or at least knew what i would love. Thank you soooo so much you all. My day was perfectly spoiled.

And to top if off, my Love came home with this huge giftbox of Ferrero Rocher. Chocolate anyone?

Pay it forward

Have you heard about the crafty Pay-it-forward movement already? I am following Deborah at Nesting Notes, who followed camilla, who followed bibi, and the list goes on with beautiful crafty bloggers who are participating.

How it works is, I send a crafted gift to the first three people that comment on this post that want to p(l)ay. Each of them then posts the message below on their blog and invites another three people to join in on the fun.

The gifts of handmade stuff gets paid forward, and we all get packages in the mail! Who doesn't love that?

The promise:
"I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don't know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog."

Even if you've never commented on my blog before, only came to read my adventures, now would be the perfect time to come out and say hi!

(Image with this post is from my vintage postcard collection.)

Going away party

No time to design my own invitation cards... But i did find a pack with these stylish cards to invite my family to my birthday & going away party.

I'll be leaving for NYC on June 7th and my birthday is on June 3rd, so it all comes together like that. I hope it will be a wonderful Sunday with my lovely large family (around 60 people!). I will miss them so when i'm gone, but i'm also so excited to go!
More on this and the rest of my journey soon!

A good mail day

It was a good mail day. Even though the mailman was late. No time to stay home and wait for him all day, so decided to just go out. i saw the mailman in my street going towards my door.
I decided to walk back, following the mail to my home when i saw him ringing my bell. (me turning around and following him must have looked very suspicious to him)
"You got some mail for #75?"
"yep!"
"That's for me, I'm expecting an important signed delivery."
"Hm." Now he's seizing me up. If it's really for me.
"From whom do you expect to receive something lady?"
"The US consulate, sir."
A smile appears on his face as he pulls out a large envelope from his bag and has me sign for it.
"Thank you for probably the most important mail delivery of my life!"

I went back inside and opened the envelop. Found my passport inside, with my official visa in it! Woohoo! It's really real now. Inside was also a letter explaining me how to enter the US next time and another large envelop with DO NOT OPEN on it. That's just plain cruel. You know now i do want to open it. I won't. But i do want to. Because it says not to.

Baby Girl Alyssa Isabella

Finding an envelope with your name printed on in pink is a very good thing.

The baby announcement cards have been ordered, sent out and received. I think they came out lovely. Hope that it touches the cute spot inside everyone who received it from the happy parents.

I loved designing it for them. Really wanted to end up with a card that they would truly love.

It was a fun process. Of course it would turn out as a typical ismoyo illustration. But it wasn't only up to me, desiging it for them wasn't only a great gift to give to them, but in a way they were my clients too, so i had to listen to what the mommy wanted and liked and what daddy saw for his little girl.

We went and moved on from some other ideas, ending up choosing the pink baby deer.

Showing some variations that went by the 'judging committee'. ;)

Vintage mail presents!

What a joy to pick up my mail this morning!
I was jumping up and down with joy even before i opened it. hihi. i love pretty foreign stamps and cute wrapped presents!
My Portuguese friend Micaela has sent me these lovelies. The letter included was filled with creativity, thanks for the inspiration.
I can't read Portuguese, but the pictures in this children's book are sooooo perfect! Jumping up and down in excitement again! The vintage flower pin is so pretty too! And the plastic baby diaper fabric; what can i say? I want to make some great things with it, but at the same time it's so precious i don't want to cut it!
Thank you for the wonderful surprise mail gifts, I'm loving it!

Magazines, magazines, magazines

Woohoo! Just the other day I got a box loaded with magazines from my friend!
Thanks hon, you're great!
Where to start? So much to see, so much to cut out and paste in to my collage albums. Some treasures are the gorgeous design and advertising magazines, there were stock photo albums and even a large photography annual of the Netherlands.
And then yesterday, i walked down the stairs and what was on my doormat? A pile of large stuffed envelopes. Yep. A pile of them! How wonderful, my friend surprised me with loads more magazines. Lot of advertising, design and other creative mags. Wonderful!
So expect some pictures of new pages of my collage book soon!

Sticky mail

Got some sticky mail!

I'd sent some Ismoyo stickers that i still had, to Stickertraders a couple of weeks ago and almost forgot about it. But then this envelop arrived with a cute meowing cat drawn on it and i remembered!
I wasn't expecting to get so many stickers in return, but I'm loving them. After going through all of them and being all excited, this feeling of doubt came over me. What to do with these stickers? I think the original artist would like me to put them up in Amsterdam. Get them seen out there. But some i love so much i would like to keep them. Put them in my sticker book. Could i? Or is that being selfish? I'm not sure what others do. If i show the stickers on my blog and give credit, is that getting the art out there? Maybe i should just send an email to Stickertraders with my dilemma... i want to send them a thank you note anyway.

Isomoyo who??

I was so happy to receive my new labels, but what was that?? The label maker has been a bit generous on the amount of O's in ismoyo...
Isomoyo? Nope, not me.
Ohohoh. I hope they send me new correct ones soon. Last time i ordered my labels (same company) it all went fast and fine. Wasn't expecting this. I have a number of half finished projects waiting around for labels to be put on. Well, got to wait a bit longer i guess.

Luckily another (surprise) envelop made me happy again. Look at the sweet christmas card Miss Meshell has sent me! Thanks darling! Will you believe i had just put something in an envelop to send to Australia myself? Watch your mailbox girl.
And what do you think about my great origami cutting skills? hihi.. no i'm not seriously thinking of taking up a new hobby in this.

Inspiration in my mailbox

I don't have an actual mailbox, my mail falls on the doormat downstairs.
I dislike bills, unrequested adpapers who have you consumer targeted totally wrong; I'm not interested in lawnmowers or a new insurance policy. I don't like the Blue envelopes from the Tax administration. But i love love envelopes and parcels with my address handwritten on them. Or stickers on them. It's like the secret code that it contains something joyous.
Can you image how happy i was finding this amazing collection! I'm thanking Babelfish for these gifts of inspiration. How great! Will you believe i was holding that copy of Computer arts Projects in the bookstore just the other day? I really wanted to buy it, but needed to use the money for something else... guess it was meant to be that i got the magazine! Opening the package i was constantely Ooh-ing and Aah-ing, loved everything that much!

Another surprise gift i got recently was from a friend from New York. It didn't actually came by mail, she gave it to my hubby, who brought it with him to Amsterdam to give to me. It's a lovely book full of drawings of pretty exotic flowers. More pages of inspiration!! I feel so spoiled this week!

I heart mail

I like receiving e-mails, but i can't get enough of those days that you come home and find a large envelop or parcel waiting for you on the doormat! Snail Mail. Doesn't matter if it's something i expected already, like something found in an online auction or part of a swap, or totally unexpected surprise gifts by mail from my friends in other countries. I like the thrill of opening it up. Deciding to be careful and thus not tear up the packaging, or just be inpatient and dive right in. Just like with my sewing projects, I'm also very behind with posting my current mail adventures.

I ordered pretty and vintage apple heavy cotton fabric. There's a plan forming in my mind that involvs multi different types of green fabrics. Looking around my fabric stash, there is a lot of pink. And some more shades of pink. And some pink prints. And some. Well you get the picture. Pink. I have a bit of green, but not nearly enough to finish my plan. So I'm currently on the lookout for green fabrics and prints. Huge smile when i received these lovely apples.

I participated in the Vintage button swap awhile ago. Never got to post a picture of what I'd sent to my swappartner Camilla from Made by Milla. I used some lightweight see-through vinyl and sewed up a small bag to put everything in. An origami papersheet with two staples closed the top off.

Camilla posted this picture on her blog on which you can better see what was actually inside. Hope she'll enjoy!! Great swappartner!

On my last visit to NY i got myself a terrific marker at the artstore. And it made me so incredibly happy that i wished i had great markers in every color...
Enter Kate at udream2. She was so generous and sweet to send me a whole bunch of her markers! I feel humbled using them, knowing so many great illustrations have already been made with them. Darling, thank you, it's much appreciated!

Beautiful Pyglet Postcard

I felt so special receiving this gorgeous postcard from the talented Dani over at pyglet whispers. I adore it. Front and back! I love the work she showcases on her blog, and now i have my own little piece of pyglet's art! Will treasure it. For now it got a temporary, but prominent place in my bookcase.
(And posting this gives me a reason to finally show "a little corner of my home".)

Button swap and other gifts

I think it's always nice to give something beautiful to someone you care about. Lately, i have been lucky to have a couple of occasions on which i could give presents to a friend!

And yesterday, when i got back from dropping of my swap package for the vintage button swap at the postoffice, a thick envelop was on my doormat! It was from my swap partner Milla! She spoiled me with more than the requested 12 buttons. Girl, you're sweet! She sent me some very large and some smaller buttons. Very nice. Hello Kitty is an envelope in which she put a note letting me know the red apple buttons came from New York. Thank You! I miss that city, so now i can look at the buttons and think about going back one day soon. She added some cute stickers and a beautiful postcard announcing an exposition she held.
I now realize i made a totally crappy picture (you can't even see that the red buttons are apple-shaped at all). Sorry.
I also made a (crappy?) picture of the stuff i sent to Milla. But hey, it's still on it's way over to her, and it's supposed to be a surprise, right.

Patience is rewarded: Ismoyo bowl

Patience is a virtue.
I had to go back to my February archives to find the original post where i talked about ordering the free customized bowl. At first the delivery time was announced to be 6 weeks. Hm. February - August. A bit longer. But then the mailman finally arrived with my Ismoyo bowl, and i really like it. It's perfect for soup and noodles!

The color and the circle is basically the trademark of the brand which gave away the free bowls, but then instead of their brandname in the circle, you could request your name to be printed instead. Go ismoyo!

Thank you visitors!

Since i used to work in the Internet industry for a number of years and on different occasions was responsible for reporting and analyzing visitor stats, it's still in my system to do so with my own internet ventures. I love knowing that there are actually people reading and looking at my pages. And not only the ones that leave comments from time to time (VERY much appreciated!) but also loads of anonymous persons who are just dropping by.
This month i hit the highscore! More returning visitors then before, more unique visitors this month than any month since i started Ismoyo.com and more pageviews than any month before.
So thank you. For real. I love getting feedback. I love knowing there are people out there who like my creative adventures enough to take the time out to visit my website.
That is what keeps me going.

About the picture, just before i left for NY i did a postcard swap with Meshell (she sent me four great cards from Australia!) and this was one of the cards i sent to her. I think it's alright to use it to brighten up this post and it's kinda appropriate too, hope you all enjoy my blog for many posts to come!
And Mari requested some cupcakes to go with my blog. Will this do?

Vintage button swap

Sally from Shim + Sons is organizing this great vintage button swap! But...
I found out about it the day after the final signup date. And... i wouldn't be back in Amsterdam with all my lovely vintage buttons in time to make the send out deadline either.

*not a happy puppy*

The only thing i could do was leave a message saying that if there would be ever a second edition i wanted to be in it! And now Sally has been so great to let me participate anyway, and with a later deadline! Thank you!

Illustration Birthday Postcard

I hadn't had the change to scan in this great postcard yet! It was sent to me for my birthday by a group of people i worked with in the past and most likely will be working with in the near future.
I love it when it's so obvious that something is picked out especially for me and when the person who picks it out really knows the style of design i like!
(of course all other cards which i received were beautiful and much appreciated also, i just wanted to share this one with my fellow design/illustration freaks out there).

Ordered free Ismoyo Noodle bowl

I just love ordering free personalized items you can save coupons for when doing your groceries!
For these Honig noodle bowls you had to collect 4 coupons and send them in.
Ofcourse I ordered one with Ismoyo on it!
The card you had to fill in stated the delivery time would be 6 weeks, but I just checked the website and there they say it can be up to 9 weeks! Wow, my patience will be tested...

I will post a picture when i do receive my bowl!

Limited Edition Engraving

I received this limited edition engraving by Luis Perez Calvo from my Spanish friends at Blank Magazine.

It's number 60 in a range of 100 printed engravings.
I can't say it's my typical cute, but i like it still and will give it a special place somewhere around my craft area.

Bacardi Bag Update

It's been a hectic week for me, haven't been home a lot. On Wednesday i found a note from the mailman that he had tried to deliver a package for me. It didn't say who it was from, but i just knew it would be my bag! The mailman came again on Friday afternoon, and luckily i was there to receive it.
The box it came in was huge! The bag came with a note saying that due to the high response they ran out of Bacardi Coco bags. But i didn't care, i wanted the Razz bag anyway. It will easily fit all my stuff when i travel for a longweekend or so.
I'm so happy!

See the bag and read the Bacardi Bag post here.

Requested my bacardi bag!

Isn't it cute?

And it's free! Really, not even shipping and handling. Yeah, buy two bottles of bacardi, but that's no problem... hihi...
I don't know how long i have to wait for it to arrive, but i'm hoping it will be here soon!