Mary's mermaid

This super cute mermaid arrived from Mary. It's part drawn with some extras added on. Nicely coordinated with the stamp. And a cute card - that looks like Mary prints her own work. And also some fun lunch box notes. I'll take them to Chicago and tuck them into the grandkids' lunchboxes. 

Also -- I'm going to add a bit about the PO - and what can happen when the address is in the vertical orientation. Some of the readers who are new to mail art might wonder about addressing an envelope in the vertical orientation. 

This one came through just fine - but some postal workers will tack on the *non-conforming* charge. When I first got into mail art - I would do all kinds of things that were hard to read. And I fielded quite a few questions about what was *OK with the post office.* My impression is that if you just drop it in the mail - it will be fine. I don't think any of the carriers want to stop and fuss with non-conforming addresses.

But -- I would never take something like this in to a post office and hand it to a clerk - unless I had extra postage on it. You might run into someone who loves it -- but you might run into someone who gets very stern with you. It can be awkward.

So that's my 2-cents.

Go to USPS.com for the rates for non-standard. I don't remember what they are - and some rates are changing in July - and it's just too hard to keep up with rates anymore. I depend on Forevers - and then if I want to do something non-conforming - I use 2 Forevers - which is more than necessary - but, I figure it buys a little goodwill.

Clever little *lunch notes.*