a special delivery

As I mentioned a couple days ago, my son has found a pretty good use for his big sister's princess and the pea mattress set... he pretends that each mattress is a piece of mail. Probably since around the time he started walking, he's been delivering these mattresses all over the house. And he's loved it. And I've loved it. They're soft and safe, and usually don't involve climbing or danger. Really, they're fantastic toys, these mattresses.

And so I decided to make him his very own postal bag with mail and packages. I've tumbled this idea around in my head for a long, long time. I feel guilty that he's almost four and may be outgrowing this mail delivery game. But with the nudge of an impending birthday for a little friend, I decided to whip up some prototypes.

After some technical difficulties, I put together a little postal bag with four letters and one package tied up with pretty pink and white twine. The first bag I made didn't have a long enough flap, and the fabric was too stiff and thick for what I wanted. The second bag isn't perfect, it's outer fabric is a bit too thin, but I think it turned out pretty cute for a toy. The kids gobbled it up immediately acting out a whole story, and of course involving the toy horses and other items as packages, too. I had to confiscate the bag just to get the kids ready for school one morning.

I used an alphabet stamp kit that I already had to stamp out the letters. I had some trouble with the ink smearing, but finally solved that by using a blotting sheet and the iron. The ink seems to have set, for the moment, but probably shouldn't get wet. I need to buy some waterproof inks. I carved the little heart stamp from a pink erasure. Stamps are so much fun. I imagined the birthday boy delivering the mail to stuffed animals in his house... hoping that he probably has a mouse, squirrel, owl and fox [we do]. And knowing what his favorite stuffed animals are, I addressed an envelope to a very special zebra.

{ You may have noticed that big sister and Klaus the cat had to model, because a certain little boy refused, of course. I did manage to snap a quick photo of his frisky self eyeing up a very large and captured leaf-footed bug. }