One of my favorite things is to find real mail delivered my mailbox. Even the best e-mail can’t quite top a handwritten letter. And when you throw a handmade surprise into the mix, well, that’s when opening mail really starts to rock.

The friendship bracelets from Beverly’s swap arrived yesterday and my girls and I really enjoyed checking out our five new bracelets. Aren’t they great?! (You can see the ones I made on deadline here.) Thanks to (bracelet makers of those pictured from left) Katie, Lauren, Christina, Marie, and Jill for making great bracelets. And a special thanks to Beverly for organizing the swap. It was a lot of fun and I’m really glad that I stole some time to participate.

Saturday’s FestiBooks in Ann Arbor was a bust for CraftSanity which was a 340-mile round trip bummer. However, I did meet some interesting people and recruited a new contributor for the magazine, so not all was lost.

Lately, I’ve been meeting some very interesting people. I just met eight young Dinderbeck artists (seven actually, I already knew one of them) on Sunday and left our meeting feeling very optimistic about the future. Look for a story about these artists in next Sunday’s edition of The Grand Rapids Press.

I’ve been selling a lot of looms in person lately and I’m really enjoying meeting my customers and hearing about what they plan to make. It’s also very nice to be able to shake their hands and say “thank you” in person. It’s so nice to have community support.

Today I spent a couple hours hanging out with two hobo musicians that I met at the Fulton Street Artisans Market on Sunday. I interviewed Nick and Roy in a Grand Rapids park and then shot some photos and a couple videos of them playing music. I’ll be posting the clips online soon. Look for a story about them in the fall issue of CraftSanity Magazine. And look for Nick and Roy in Northern Michigan and eventually Canada in the coming weeks.

The stove broke last night and a repair man fixed it today. If I added up all the money we’ve spent on vehicle and household repairs in the last month, I’m pretty sure I’d wish I was a hobo. And then I’d probably remember that I want to make pita bread and owning a working stove does come in handy for that. Plus, I’d never be able to jump a train while lugging seven giant bags of “travel” crafts. Yep, I’m pretty sure the hobo lifestyle is not for me. Yet I remain intrigued by it.