Six year old Mail Artist

[Lynda Jo Thornbrugh]

Young Bella, who lives down the street, recently heard me talking to her mom one day about mail art...I was very enthusiastic as I described what it is...Bella, age six, never let on she had big plans for my mailbox...
Feeling blue, I spent the better part of a day last week at a friend's place. When I got through the gate at home at dusk, I noticed several little bursts of pink flowers adorning my mailbox...as I got closer, I saw two envelopes and a bag of goodies from mother nature: rocks, acorns and tiny pine cones. As I opened my two envelopes my heart was singing....Bella had thoughtfully created some artwork for me and made good use of some pretty cool stickers, too!
The next day as I was standing in my kitchen, Bella rode up the sidewalk on her training wheels and, ninja-like, crept through the gate to the mailbox....tip toing in broad daylight, she proceeded to place a new art letter for me....she jumped when, closeby, my baby kitty pounced on its older counterpart, crashing into a flower pot in the process....startled, both hands flew to Bellas mouth and wideeyed with fear of a ruined surprise, she made a mad dash for her pink bicycle....
Several moments later, I tiptoed down the walk, looking both ways so as not to give myself away.....I gently opened my new mail.....a really cool Original from Bella! (See photos)....thats when I realized Bella has a trademark.....she writes, 'Fum Belle to you' on all of her letters.

I began to plot my sweet revenge....soon I was rumaging through my random art supplies for cloth birdies, blank postcards, a charcoal Tiger drawing (her kitty is named Tiger Kitty) and a couple other goodies....
Stealthily I made my way down the street to her mailbox....I'd written 'From Lynda To You,' figuring that ws probably pretty safe given that her little brother (age 2) can't read yet and her mom was likely to be quick on the uptake....Delighted, it wasn't too much longer before my young ninja mail artist visited my mailbox again.

This has been going on for several days now, and I expect it will continue for quite some time....We enjoy each other's surprises very much...

At six years old, young Bella understands full well what mail art is (and hand delivered at that!)...she may not understand the need for postage yet, but she has a firm grasp on the concept of shared creativity, as well as mutual kindness....and who can resist the excitement of finding goodies in the mail box?!

I will add photos of my precious 'Fum Belle' collection, but first I've got to visit her mailbox while the coast is clear...

[Lynda Jo Thornbrugh]

Absolutely! 843 court st prosser wa 99350

[Valentine Mark Herman]

What a nice story! Do you think you could act as her mailbox, Lynda Jo, and then I could send Bella something (via you) and -- who knows? -- you could encourage her to send me something back (again via you)?

Start 'em young!

Regards, Monsieur Croque