blubutterfly

Hello! My name is Sarah, I'm in my southern 40's and I was born & raised in Alberta, Canada. Technically I retired from the Canadian Army a few years back (after 20+ years), but with my spouse in school full-time I went back to my old unit as a contractor and I continue to s-l-o-w-l-y work on various education goals. I sometimes cut down on my swaps a little bit during the school semesters, but with the ongoing hot-mess of a global situation I have been travelling less and signing up for swaps more. Because who couldn’t use some happy mail in the ol' mailbox these days?! Sometimes checking the mail is the highlight of my day and my friends/family love to hear about my latest piece of mail:)

I have served in the military as a member of the communications branch (Radio Operator) and in the health services branch (Combat Medic & Nurse). I wasn't really ready to retire from service, but I was badly injured a few years back and I was ready to spend more time with my family. I'm currently working in an office day-job and can't complain as they let me have as many office plants as I want and I even brought a typewriter in to occasionally draft up a letter or fill out a form:)

As a Canadian I am very patriotic, I love our Commonwealth and our Queen, may she rest in peace.

I am in a long-term relationship (over a decade now), after being widowed in my 20's and I still like to do some of the things that brought me joy before I lost my beautiful husband Bryce. I have his picture here because I am so proud of him. I still miss him and think of him every day, he is in everything I do. Bryce was awarded the Canadian Forces Medal of Military Valour for his actions in combat and will forever be remembered as a hero. I am a proud Veteran and a proud soldier's wife!

My spouse and I have had a bit of a small zoo since we've been together, although have lost a few of our companions over the years. Most recently my beloved Yorkie Lucas in April 2024. I am struggling with this loss as he was my soul-dog and saying goodbye to him is one of the hardest things I have had to do. He would have been turning 15 in July so we had many years together and I am trying my best to be thankful for that, but I miss him and there are way more hours in the day now (not in a good way). In 2021 we had to say a very sudden and heart-breaking good bye to our biggest dog, Shiloh. She was my spouse's first ever dog and we will always feel her absence, she had the biggest personality, the loudest bark, and was the momma-bear of our crew. In September 2020 we had to say good-by to our silly and loving mischief-maker cat, Wicket. He was still quite young all things considered and I struggle with loss at the best of times, even more so with everything else 2020 brought (or rather took away...). In November 2017 we lost my long-time companion and totem-cat, Emma. She was my most treasured fur-baby as she was the last cat I had with my late husband, we got her not long after we bought our first home together. Losing a beloved pet never gets easier and I miss them all so much.

Still with us are our now fully-grown cats (Padme) who we added to the family at Christmastime in 2018, and the newest addition- a house terror (feline) that we decided to call "Hope" as we brought her home at the end of 2020- hoping that 2021 would be a better year. That seems to be my wish every year...

In the past I have had a pet rat, ferrets and budgies, in the future we are hoping for bees, goats and chickens! The bees happened briefly in 2023 but sadly our hive was raided by rodents despite all our precautions and did not survive:( The chickens & goats are probably a ways off yet unless our county changes the bylaws on 'farm animals'.

Crafting is my favourite hobby and I'm trying to make sure I have time to be creative amidst the busy pace of daily life . Having swaps to do gives me inspiration and means I have to make time for slowing down and focusing on something that brings joy.

I love paper crafting, reading, journaling, cooking, gardening and jewelry. I used to scrapbook but when I tried to pick it up again I started to find it too restrictive so I have been enjoying my own version of a 'smash book' although the mood to add to it comes and goes.

I love tea but mostly just black and green teas. My favourites are Orange Pekoe and breakfast teas; really do not like Earl Grey or most herbal teas although I did find an amazing cinnamon based herbal infusion that I have before bed. I have a lovely collection of teapots and pottery mugs (which I have promised to try and downsize as it was growing beyond cabinet space) *this is one promise I am still working at...but thanks to Pinterest I have found another means of using some of my tea related items.

Anything vintage is awesome, I can easily spend long hours in the antique malls locally and where ever I might be traveling, looking for old books with illustrations or interesting titles, postcards, photographs and various fun ephemera items. Favourite items are old ledgers (with and without writing), maps and and anything related to the British monarchy.

I have had the privilege of owning a camera for most of my life starting with a Polaroid (which I still have and wish they still made inexpensive film for!). I'm not a great photographer but I used to have fun with it and I am trying to again. I'm also sort of in love with my cell phone as keeping in touch with my family and friends is a top priority for me, plus, built-in camera with good resolution is never a bad thing.

I love old fashioned snail mail, being away so often there was nothing better than hearing my name at mail call. I spent my youth writing to my grandparents and I continued to do so even when we ended up living only 5 minutes apart. I still send mail to my Mom although all my Grandparents have passed away now, and I have standing agreements with a few old friends & army buddies to send postcards from any future travels.

In years gone by I used to like to get out on my motorcycle and had started to learn to do the mechanical work, but after two knee surgeries it was time to retire from that pastime and send the bike off to a new home with someone who can do it justice on the open road. I was sad to see it go, but it was time. Maybe a nice new bicycle would be more my speed for next riding season:)

While I am not a specifically religious person I am spiritual and I enjoy learning about other faiths and beliefs in the world. I would love to receive anything about your faith should you choose to send:)

The Fionavar Tapestry, Harry Potter, The Outsiders, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Belgariad/Mallorean series, the "Cat Who" series as well as a healthy love of any sort of romance novel.

I admit that I used to mostly pick new reads by the cover art as I read so much it seemed a good a way as any. Now with audible, my kindle, and reading mostly healthcare related journals online I rely on recommendations from friends/family and reviews. Recent recommendations from penpals have been: The Thursday Murder Club & The Murderbot Diaries. Both series are very entertaining and are available as audiobooks, which are just the BEST for daily commutes to work.

I used to dream of owning a typewriter and writing/publishing a book and thanks to eBay, Kijiji, local antique malls and several friends & family members who have gifted me with machines they found in a closet, I now own and love quite a few vintage typewriters:) I've told myself I don't need any more in the collection, but they seem to keep following me home... The writing and publishing a book would still be lovely so I'll keep it on the bucket list.

Although some of my friends and family find my typewriter obsession hilarious, it's true; I am a little in love with my typewriters and as my handwriting is one degree shy of abysmal I often type a note when the swap calls for more than a few lines of text and I almost always make typewritten address labels because it's just a good opportunity to use one of my machines:) Plus it's neater and the postal system is a big fan of legible addresses!

My favourite machines are manual portables from the 1940's, 50's & 60's, and if I HAD to pick just one: my all-time favourite is an Underwood Universal from 1944, very similar to the one pictured below. I don't know what it is about that specific machine, it just makes me happy:)

Movies: I do enjoy all kinds of movies: comedy, action, drama, mystery, animated, documentary, sci-fi, romance etc. Too many to list really but all-time favs would be the Indiana Jones movies (especially The Last Crusade), Princess Bride, Groundhog Day, Ghost, Harry Potter, The Goonies, Love Actually, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Four Weddings & A Funeral, The Fifth Element, Guardians of the Galaxy, Red/Red 2, Dogma, California Typewriter, Labyrinth, Monty Python, Toy Story, Star Wars (the original 3), Back to the Future & The Wizard of Oz. Not that big on horror movies although I watched Cabin in the Woods and loved the story line and originality.

Music: Love just about everything! My favourite playlist at the moment has The Eagles, Barenaked Ladies, Dua Lipa, New Edition, Dolly Parton, LL Cool J, Walk The Moon, Counting Crows, Everclear, Rage Against the Machine, Mariana's Trench, Tracy Chapman, Lady GaGa and the Zac Brown Band. My current second favourite playlist is all big band music: Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington.

I don't practice much anymore but in the past I played the piano, oboe, trumpet and flute, I have given up learning to play the guitar but I got a ukulele for Christmas (2019) so that is my new mission!

I watch a ridiculous amount of tv, the insomnia is a lot better these days but the tv covers the tinnitus on bad days. Current favourites (in no particular order) Elsbeth, Not Dead Yet, Will Trent & Ghosts. Perennial favourites are Big Bang Theory, Downton Abbey, Columbo, M.A.S.H, Murder She Wrote, Matlock, Law & Order, Doctor Who (Fourth is my Favourite but I do like Ten and Eleven quite a bit too), Sherlock, Elementary, The Librarians, Lost Letter Mysteries, Star Trek of any kind (I think Sir Patrick Stewart is kind of awesome, I would listen to him read the phone book if they still made phone books;) and of course just about anything on Masterpiece Theatre- especially Agatha Christie’s Poirot & Miss Marple.

PAPER!! Because the nature of my job was unpredictable and I have had to travel extensively for work over the years I gravitated to paper crafting as it is extremely portable. I have dragged my journals through just about everything including field exercises, training courses, domestic and overseas deployments. I wish they looked like this:

In addition to art journaling/smash style books I also enjoy making/collecting cards and stationary that I send to friends and family.

My second favourite craft is jewelry, primarily earrings and I love to repurpose small items with lovely silver and gold findings. A piece of my work (not pictured here) was recently selected for publication in a US publication and I'm still ridiculously happy when I think about calling my Mom to tell her and thank her for the years of putting up with my arts & crafts!

I love pretty much anything vintage, postcards, old time/national geographic magazines and stamps. Constantly going through gel pens and sharpie markers.

Not big on perfumed things as I have terrible scent allergies and we have lots of pets that already test the limits of my sneezing! I tolerate the sneezing and sniffling for my fourfeets because they are wonderful, joyful creatures who desperately needed new homes:)

I like to watch Disney movies but I'm not big on Disney themed stickers, cards, stationary etc. (Small exception for 'vintage' Disney (Robinhood, 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella).

I do surf etsy and after seeing
lots of recommendations to post a favourites list I did figure out how to post it, although I haven’t updated it recently. I spend more time on Pinterest these days creating lists of DIYs that I will probably never get around to!

my etsy favs list

Canada post can be hit and miss for sending and receiving. I have had some packages arrive from the UK in less than a week while the same sized package from the US took 10 days or more. Sometimes a postcard will take over a week to make it to my Mom who lives 5 minutes away. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why things are so variable, we are all at the mercy of the postal gods!

I will try to rate as soon as I receive swaps but sometimes I do wait for the end of the week and rate everything from that week all at once:)

The post office closes on weekends where I live so for swap send-by dates that fall on a weekend I will try to have them sent by the Friday whenever possible. I like to send early when I can but often it does take me until the “send by” date to get things sent off.

Canada Post generally has a daily schedule for pick-up by 5 pm but these days they mostly seem to pick up mail from community boxes when they feel like it versus a set schedule. This means that the postmark may not be dated until several days AFTER a card or letter has been physically put into the mailbox and the sender (me!) has no awareness of when the mail from that box has been collected or how long it will take to go through the sorting machines/be stamped with the postmark. For example: I could put a letter in the mailbox on a Friday but it may not actually be picked up until the following Monday, and it often takes several days to move through the sorting process. Thus the postmark may read anywhere from 3-6 days AFTER the letter was put into the mail system! Just like every other industry these days the postal workers are short staffed and it is affecting how quickly letter mail is processed.

Also, since the switch to those awful community mail boxes I have noticed that I often get other people's mail. From that I have to assume that other people are sometimes getting my mail. I always take the time to return anything that isn't mine and have to hope that other people in my neighbourhood are doing the same!

Please note that postmarks will not always read as the date the item went into the mail, especially if the mail was picked up after 5pm or if it was picked up on a weekend. The stamp may not be cancelled until several days later when the collected mail enters the sorting process!

As I mentioned I do try to send a bit early when I can and I will ALWAYS send by the date the host picks and always to swap requirements.

If you do not receive anything after a reasonable amount of time please pm me! I have great ratings/feedback so far and I only sign-up for a few swaps at a time. I have been flaked on numerous times now so I know exactly how much it sucks!! I will NOT do that to someone!

I received this in the mail in 2013. Not even part of a swap...just because! How cool is that?! Completely unexpected and very much appreciated:)

I absolutely love quirky/odd/strange postcards or note cards of any kind, stamped with real postage (several swappers have introduced me to vintage postage, this is good and bad because I love it, but now spend far too much time (and $$) on eBay buying auction lots of stamps. I did recenetly find a site with lot sales of older Canadian postage which has been a joy, all sorts of different denominations and vintage stamps to feed my postage habit!

I always love to see a nice note on the back of postcards, even if it’s only about the weather & what you did today, maybe a fav book or recipe recommendation:)

I'm active on Postcrossing as well and really haven't come across a postcard that I wasn't happy to see waiting for me in the mail box, but some favourite artists/subjects/suppliers include:

• Banksy
• Henry Rox
• Glen Baxter
• Edward Gorey
• Jetoy cats
• Naughty Little People
• TinTin
• Blue Cats
• Royal Family photo cards (specifically UK)
• vintage cards
• black & white photo cards
• cards with bees/butterflies
• cards with birds or rats
• cards with typewriters
• Redbubble
• Lantern Press
• Inkognito