post office surprises

A couple of weeks ago, I closed the post office box that I've had for the past twenty years. I've hung onto it for the past five years, even though it's too far from the house and I could only pick up my mail once a week. This time, when the box came up for renewal, we decided to get a box closer to home. Mostly so we could have a Netflix subscription and not wait so long for the DVDs.

I filled out all of the forms to get our mail forwarded, which was a lot more complicated than it should have been and after two weeks, nothing had been forwarded to me. Bill and the kids get mail with yellow stickers, but I don't. I've call, I called again, I went in to the old post office and begged... My mail had been sent to the place that does the forwarding, but hadn't gone on to me.

Maybe it's so many years of sending submissions to publishers and waiting anxiously for replies (even though it's been years since I did either) but not getting my mail stresses me out. The nice lady at the post office, the same one I've talked to six or eight times, assured me that my mail wasn't being thrown away or returned to sender.

I finally almost convinced myself that I wasn't expecting anything but bills and bank statements and that those were easy enough to replace. The one thing I was expecting probably wasn't on its way yet.

So I was surprised to find a squishy envelope when I checked the mail at the new post office. No yellow sticker -- someone had written my new address in black marker. It must've been a long day, because it never occurred to me that the package in my hands could be that one thing I was expecting.

Angela from Country Scrap Quilts had sent my Pay it Forward gift, the sweetest little table topper in 30s prints.



I'm absolutely in love with this sweet little thing. And now it's my turn to Pay it Forward, so I need three people to send gifts to.

Here are the rules, borrowed from Angela's blog --

1. The first 3 people to visit my blog and leave a comment saying they want to participate will receive a handmade gift from me, within the next year... (Probably much sooner than that, but you are suppose give everyone a year, because sometimes life gets in the way!)

2. You MUST have a blog of your own to to participate in the PIF.

3. You must post about the PIF on your blog & offer the PIF challenge on your blog.

By accepting the Pay It Forward challenge, YOU agree to host a Pay It Forward to the first 3 people who sign up on your blog...you will then carry on the PIF by sending them a homemade gift within a year's time, and so it goes :)

Let me know if you could use a baby quilt, or if I need to dream up something different to send! And please make sure there's a way for me to contact you for your address. If I can't find you, I won't be able to send your gift!