Mail Call October 26

Another slow week for incoming mail. Only received two. Hopefully this week will be a better week. Here's what I got!

This beautiful card came from Nora in Ireland. This is the first card I have received from there.

This multi-view card comes from Sascha in Germany.

Thrift Store Finds

Today my family and I went thrifting at a few stores around westside Jacksonville. One store we stopped at called Urban Junk was a small and dainty little place filled with an eclectic assortment of treasures and troves. I could have spent a lot of money in this place, but settled for some little stamps and some very vintage postcards.

We then headed to a store called Ugly Junk. It was recommended to us by the young lady in charge over at Urban Junk. Ugly Junk is a pretty large store with an assortment of things for everyone. My daughter found a book for $1 among the stacks of things. They had lots of great vinyl records and 45s. I could have spent a lot of time in this store. We were almost finished browsing when I noticed a blue plastic tub filled with old vintage postcards. The tub had a sign on it that read 2/$1. My heart I think stopped. I started going through the postcards weeding out ones I knew I definitely wanted. After the first go through I had about 30 or so postcards in my stack. Knowing Jesse wasn't about to let me buy that many I narrowed it down to just $5 worth. Heartbroken and sad I mad my way to the counter to pay. As the young lady started to ring up my postcards I asked her very kindly if she'd be willing to cut a deal on the entire tub of cards for one price. She asked me to go grab it and bring it to the counter. She looked at the sign and picked up the stack and kind of just thumbed through quickly and said "Ughh...how does $20 sound?" I couldn't believe it! I turned to Jesse who had already had his hand towards me with a $20 bill outstretched my way. I started glowing with excitement and joy. The young lady behind the counter knew she made my day by selling me all of those cards. We bagged them up and went on our way. Here are a couple photos of some of the postcards from the haul.

The bagged photo I took when I got into the car.

Stacked up out of the bag.

There were loads more too obviously and from all over the world as well. Also mixed in were some old photos of people. I wonder who they are. How old could these photos be. It's almost eerie to me.

There was also some postcard books and other miscellaneous ephemra I'll be able to use for crafting purposes.

October 9 Disney Trip

On Thursday October 9 I headed to Epcot alone for a day of Food & Wine Festival. I primarily went down because an acquaintance of mine, Brad Stewart, was playing with his band Fuel at the Eat To The Beat concert series held during the festival. So here's a photo log of the things I enjoyed through the day.

I started the day over at Magic Kingdom for a stroll along Main Street USA. I had hoped to do some pin trading with Scoop Sanderson, but he was not there that day. Around 10:15 a.m. I hopped on the monorail and headed over to Epcot. I got there right as the festival was opening up for the day.

Passing the Greece booth I noticed the above recipe posted for passerby's. I think I'd like to make these sometime. They sound very yummy! I made my first stop at The Refreshment Port for the Croissant Doughnut with Cinnamon Sugar. This thing was so good! A litle heavier on the stomach than expected. It was flaky like a croissant, but doughy and buttery like a doughnut. The cinnamon and sugar gave it a perfect sweetness that satisfied my craving for breakfast. I should say brunch since it was just after 11 a.m. This is actually served all year long at the location, but it is listed in the Food & Wine Festival Passport. So I got my stamp and continued on. 

 I wasn't allowed to "go crazy", as my husband calls it, so i had to choose wisely on the offerings I tried that day. I got to Italy and took a look over the menu. I knew Jesse would not want to get anything from this kiosk so I grabbed the Ravioli alla Caprese. This was very fresh tasting and sweet. I may end up getting this again. It tasted wonderful and had that comfort food feel to it.

By the time I reached Singapore I was feeling a little thirsty so I decided to get a Singapore Sling featuring Hendrick's Gin and Cherry Herring. I walked to Norway and had a seat on a bench to relax a minute. This drink was nice, but you could tell they really skimped on the alcohol. 

I had reached the start of World Showcase, the point I started from and was ready for another dish. I grabbed the Blackened Chick'n Breast, Farro Wheat and Spicy Gumbo Sauce from the Terra Marketplace. This dish was so surprisingly delicious! The chicken is a soy product and the entire dish is vegetarian. This has to be one of my favorite dishes that's new this year. Was spicy just enough and had loads of flavor!

At this point I decided to book some quick fastpasses on my phone and hop on some rides and kill some time. Here are a couple photos from our favorite attraction at Epcot, Living With The Land.

Around 3:30 p.m. I was ready to head back through the festival, grab some food, and head to the American Adventure for some free soda and a charge up on my phone before the concert began. I stopped by the Puerto Rico Marketplace for the Carne Guisada con Arroz Blanco which is Slow Braised Beef with Puerto Rican Grown Rice. This was pretty good. Meat was slightly tough, but the flavor and spice was strong and good. Not a favorite dish, but I would say it is worth a try.

After relaxing in the a.c. a bit I went and grabbed my spot in line for the concert. While I waited a surprise pop-up character meet and greet happened on the side of the American Adventure Pavilion. I saw Stitch, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy Duck, and DOPEY!

Not a great photo of me for sure. I guess I was just too excited to see Dopey out for once. This was my first time getting to meet him without waiting for four hours at one of the parties with the other six dwarfs. I hopped back in line for the Fuel show and ended up watching all three sets they did that day. Each set was slightly different than the others. They did an awesome job and sounded great. I ended up making friends with one their biggest fans that was there and had a blast. Here are some photos from the show.

Well I do hope you enjoyed this trip report. Keep rockin'!

Mail Call October 18

This past week was an excellent week for mail. I received a total of four postcards and a letter from my penpal in China and Amara received one postcard. 

I received my first postcard from Indonesia this week. That's another country to mark off the map! 

Received a nice vintage ad card from New York.

This one traveled from Germany.

I received ANOTHER vintage Disney postcard. I swear I love these old, vintage postcards. Also it's from my favorite attraction at Disney, The Haunted Mansion! So cool to get! This came from Illinois, United States.

And below is the great letter I got from Zhang Meng, my penpal in China. She sent some nice little goodies that I truly enjoyed!

She sent me One Yuan.

Also two bookmarks made from postcards.

Here below is a photo of two postcards she made, some stationery sheets, and the stamped envelope everything came in.

Oh and she also sent me this rad Frozen poster. I gave this to Amara to hang on her wall. So cool! I love Disney stuff from other countries as it's quite difficult to get overseas Disney merch here in the states without paying an arm and a leg for it.

Here is the one postcard Amara got this week. It came from Germany. Can you tell she likes getting postcards with cats on them?