Good morning!  Well, probably closer to afternoon by the time I get this posted.  I thought that I'd try to brighten your day with a story about my postman.  These days I feel like all we here is sad, negative news.  Whenever I turn on the news all I hear is the bad stuff.  So today I'm going to share something fun and positive and hopefully it will brighten your day a little and remind you that this world is full of wonderful people and you never know when they might surprise you!

Rewind to a couple of weeks ago.  It was a Wednesday and I was in my garage setting up my Valentine mini backdrop.  I always do a couple of trial runs to make sure I get my backdrops perfect.  Of course these days that includes begging my children to cooperate for a few minutes and be my models.  They used to be more willing but I think they are getting tired of my camera.  Photographer's kid's problems!  Haha!  Anyways, here I am, setting up my backdrop.  It is adorable this year!  The name of my backdrop paper is "Ocean Blue."  I made clouds out of pillow stuffing and little heart raindrops out of card stock.  It was coming together pretty nicely.  When I started pulling out my props I rediscovered the red flower petals that I used last year and remembered that my kids loved tossing these in the air.  That was my "aha!" moment...pull out the petals and maybe, just maybe they will cooperate!  So I have all of this stuff out and my kids are out there, throwing petals into the air.

So what about the postman, you might ask.  Well, I'm getting to that part!  As I am taking pics of my kiddos, the postman drives up and slows down as he passes my house.  He says something like, "Hey!  If I'd known you were doing photos I would have dressed up!"  I replied that he looked great and should hop in for a shot.  Next thing I know, I have him sitting on my backdrop tossing rose petals!  He didn't have to think twice about it...just hopped right in and instantly brightened my day. 

Obviously, my postman now deserves the title of "Jolly Postman" based off of a book I read in elementary school (check it out, it is awesome)!  He was such a good sport and so much fun!  This exchange lasted maybe a minute or two, not much.  But it was awesome!  He truly made my day and my kids loved it, too!!!

Of course, soon after this, I went to Facebook and shared some of the shots with a photography group I am in.  My jolly postman was a HIT!  People went crazy over these photos, saying that the pics made their day.  Some said they wished their postman was this awesome.  Many asked if I was going to give him prints. Somewhere in these conversations the suggestion of stamps came up.  That brings us to part two of this story!

PRINTS and STAMPS

Of course I had to get prints for our guy!  I instantly ordered a few 4x6 and a 5x7 for him.  They arrived last week and I handed them off to him.  I think he was pleased.  I also ordered stamps from Shutterfly.  How could I NOT?  He is a POSTMAN for goodness sake!  Those took longer to arrive but they are finally here.  I wanted photograph them and share them here before handing them over. I plan to give them to him tomorrow.  I'm sure he'll cruise by while I'm doing my actual Valentine Mini Sessions.   I hope it makes his day, as he made mine!

Our world is full of wonderful, kind, funny people!  Sometimes we just have to take a minute to slow down and notice them.  I'm so glad I was out there testing my setup when our postman drove by.  By the way, I think it is interesting...I have no idea what his name is but I know for a fact that he knows mine (since he delivers my mail daily).  Perhaps I should ask him when I give him his stamps?!

Have a great day everyone!