Stamp Oasis: We have fun playing with postcards!

I finished another weekend, or rather a brief weekend as Cheryl could only be here for a short period of time: 28 hours. Because of my disease, I am now too weak to move the boxes around myself, whether postcards or stickers, and thus too weak to do the Postcard Project alone. Besides, things are better with friends! With the help of Linda and then Cheryl I/we did 50 postcards in about 32 hours. I don’t know how. Seriously, with all the stages the postcards have to go through from addresses being made up to stamping and stickering, sometimes I feel like this: and I am going, “Spot? A little help? Spotter? Where’s the spotter? Ack! My neck!”

THIS week, all three of us were excited because we had NEW rubber stamps from Stamp Oasis, a few of which WE had ordered. Stamp Oasis which was a HUGE store in Las Vegas, totally dedicated to the highest quality of rubber stamps. However when scrapbooking and other crafts came in, the store went under in 2006. The online store finished 18 months ago and now getting any of their rubber stamps is very difficult. Here is the Floating Torii off of Miyajima which we saw ourselves in Japan on our great Dai-Boken! This is not a great stamping: this is a stamping by someone with hand control problems and it STILL looks beautiful. A complex stamp with hundreds of lines, a reflection in the water and I had an uneven pressure on it and THAT is what I got. And 'THAT' is why I love these stamps (they are disability friendly!), I have used one particular stamp from Stamp Oasis over 300 times, and it is just as clear now as the first time. I added a few to my wish list (which is both on my profile next to my picture – or just to the left on the blog in 'links' up from 'Zed at Amazon'). But also, for those who want to shop now, here is the link DIRECTLY to Stamp Oasis at KraftyatKrafts

Wow, that was VERY unsubtle of me wasn’t it? But I’m not sorry. You know why? Here is why: This is the Dryad from Stamp Oasis, available from that link above. COOL! (We have one now, so you have to choose another stamp for your immortality! Read on to understand.)

We had a person donate a couple rubber stamps (these ones at the link above which come with wooden handles for pressing). They arrived on Friday and that person for $10 or $20 is going to be making people happy for as long as I live. And beyond that maybe, as long at the project continues after I live. Making people happy and letting me do the inking and the heavy pushing. That’s pretty cool. Thanks for the rubber block stamps. Now we can impress people all over the world, again! That Stamp Oasis and other Wooden Rubber stamps will sit and be treasures, be thrown away, be passed down. Years, decades, scrapbooks; who knows where your gift to the postcard project will end up. Wouldn't it be interesting to see the inking of YOUR stamp it in some museum display on 'postcards at the turn of the millenium' somewhere in 40 or 50 years?

I did 50 postcards, I have only slept 5.5 hours in over two days. But 50, that's a pretty good number! Too bad my body is the sacrifice for the postcards. Pretty stupid right? Only to me it is like at PFLG when they were saying there were “too many letters” and I wanted to know: Okay, who do we kick out, the queer youth, the intersex individuals; which group do we leave behind to make things simple for ourselves? No person left behind, no postcards left behind. They are all going out and will be there, 131 postcards in 8 days. I hope they make a difference. But I can just help them on their way. Now, aside from that, the stamping part was full of “OMG! Try that in cobalt blue! WOW! Okay, try that in Burgundy!” Yes, we like making the postcards look as super and special as we can.

Oh, need to mention, some people have been having difficulties because on the universal wishlist because there are suppliers who don’t send to a P.O. box like I have (UPS won't deliver there). Cheryl has agreed to provide a street address. And while I COULD put it here and let her get spam, stalkers and to find she voted 18 times in an election, I think it is better if you email me (go to my profile, and hit email) or go to A Girl's Gotta Fly and hit Linda – you will go to HER profile which now has HER email so hit email. Let us know you need Cheryl’s address for a non-P.O. Box delivery and we will email you the address to give to the supplier right back. Cool?

Okay, what else did I do this weekend? Um, have no idea. I made cute stamps (Stamp Oasis again) of THIS guy. I mean, who DOESN’T need to get a postcard with this guy to cheer your day? I do! Also, it snowed, is melted, it iced, and it snowed again and is still snowing. Great fun. So I am snowbound. Sounds better than housebound right?

I am off to sleep and I hope I sleep many, many hours, because my body is in very bad pain. I did however hand write every postcard, and selected every postcard (so if you think yours sucks – blame me!). If you WANT a postcard, and you haven’t gotten one yet, this is the Something for Nothing deal: you email me at mpshiel at hotmail.com with the title postcard and your name and address (and some interests if possible and orientation.....since I tend to assume everyone is gay...hope for the best right?). If you do that, in less than 10 days usually a postcard will be in your postal box. And they will keep randomly appearing as long as I stay alive (thus keep hoping I stay alive!).

I hope everyone had Xmas parties and good times. I can say that we had a pretty good time but I was a little punch drunk at 7:30 a.m. still working straight on postcards. I love the people. And the only way I can show it is the postcards. If I could, I would have this wondrous expanding joyful thing, a very Willy Wonka type thing to post. But I have postcards, and I try my best to do it with that.