This entire thing is absolutely horrible, am I right? Out of & in to Canada

So, we’ve been talking about those swap-bot nerves, and my latest bout, incurred while preparing a swap I’ve sent off to India.  Always, always going for that extra-effort heart, always somewhat in fear I won’t even be awarded the “you at least did what you were supposed to do” rating of 5…

Well, I’ve received my goods from the person who drew my name in this “flat envie envelope of fun” swap, and…WOW.  In from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:

Holy cats.

An envelope with an elephant; address labels; postcards; and that booklet–about the size of a passport, but with many, many more pages (more than 20 in all), full of fun & wonder.  Let’s take a few peeks:

Yes, there were yoga-tastic pandas throughout the thing, but I did not count them; I was just way too overwhelmed!

 

Cool! Hey, what’s with these tiny Polaroid shots, is this a thing?

Another photo of another photo:

I want to rescue it from its landfill, I do.

This page made me gasp:

I don’t believe in dressing up animals, but these stamps are amazing.

And then there’s this scene, depicting ME:

This entire thing is absolutely horrible, am I right?

I mean, clearly this is full credit & an extra credit heart; she obviously spent HOURS on this package.  And then there’s that stuff I was so proud of, the stuff I just linked back to several photos ago.  I mean, I did go over & above, but THIS person, she went over & above, and a Disneyland fireworks show!

I was so overwhelmed, I practically babbled in my swap-bot thank-you message.  She’d asked a lot of funny little questions in her book, and she’d left a return address on her envelope, so I figured the decent thing to do would be to send off a little “thank you” mailing.  Nothing to compete, but I should at least try to go a bit for the overall spirit.  What was going to be one postcard, turned into 2 cards, an envelope & a tattoo.  I’ll show most of everything but the tattoo, simply because I forgot to take a shot of it (it’s Snoopy).  Here we go–2 postcards…

She likes silly, odd postcards; I give her silly, odd postcards.

 

…written…

I used to actually do this kind of thing.  It’s been decades–pre-internet, and this post is already too long, so let’s not go time-traveling now.

…in an envelope I (had previously) made…

SmurfMail

…and envelope that also had a backside:

Just don’t show the lady in India the mail I got; she may think I done her wrong.

So anyhow, I think I may have to take something for my swap-bot nerves.