To Russia, With Love

All three of the postcrossers I was assigned this morning to send postcards to, are in Russia. The novelty has added a bit of fun to what is already a blast - (sending postcards out into the world).

I even addressed one of them by hand in Cyrillic script. Mad fun.

Ta-Ta, for now...

Mystery Mail

The letter is from Nepal and the postcard is from Finland but I do not know who they are from. I kind of think that the postcard might be from my penpal Niina so I need to retrace to see if she signed her letters as she has on the postcard. I have not opened the letter yet to read it - that is something to be savored.

It is my son's (my eldest child) 22nd birthday, today. I made quiche tarts for brunch for Cerridwen, Daddy, and I. We had each gone back to our own pursuits when Joseph and Alicia came by en-route to an afternoon/evening of birthday fun, followed a minute later by my godson Michael. So it has been a bit busy, and there are other things... Later tonight when everything is quiet, I will open my letter from Nepal. The writer will fare better than some other penpals who have waited quite a while to hear from me but the latest ebbs have finally transitioned back into a flow where I can catch up with my letter writing and such. Finally. I miss the busy fun of it all but yesterday I finally got all of my postcrossing postcards up-to-date on my postcards page.

Outgoing: Finland, Finland, Australia

Outgoing Batch

I am running a bit behind. If I weren't, there'd be an extra few letters here. A new guy has been preoccupying some of my schedule but I'll be back on track soon ... Today, hopefully.

New Mail To Be Answered

Mail from Cylvia, Esther, and JoAnn.

Posted Today...

Plum Brandy

I just realized that I forgot to photograph the two letters I sent out today ... Bummer because they were really cute! But I was afraid that I'd miss the mail carrier who usually has come and gone by the time I finished up that second letter this afternoon. Besides, I was distracted. My godson brought by an early birthday present last night - a large bottle of a Serbian plum brandy...

I poured some earlier for a friend of mine who was over visiting. Excited to show me (via her cellphone) a photo of this hottie she spotted on facebook, she excitedly reached over and spilled her brandy on some absolutely lovely envelopes I made from pages of Yoga Journal (eek!), my personal journal, my nook, a penpal letter from an Australian friend that was next in the queue to be answered, the envelope of the letter I was working on at the time - and a couple of drops on the letter I was writing! Thankfully, my letter-in-progress to Tony-in-Liverpool was not harmed, the next-in-queue envelope was soaked, but surprisingly, it did not leak through at all so the letter itself was unharmed (quality paper, that stationery she used!), my nook and journal got dried quickly as my daughter was moving fast as were my friend and I in the whole damage control process - but alas, my beautiful Yoga Journal envelopes! (Sigh) It could have been a lot worse. However - I have gone over to her facebook page to retrieve a photo of the guy who caused all of this trouble in the first place...

...And so it is clearly understandable how my girl - any girl - could lose her cool!

wOw!

Happy Birthday Mail!

I was answering a letter to my penfriend Cylvia when the doorbell rang. The mail carrier had a package that needed to be signed for and she also had my mail, of course -  and what a surprise that among it was a pretty orange envelope with a birthday sticker on the front, from the very friend I was in the midst of writing a letter to! I thought that was cool!

What wasn't cool, however, was the condition in which the card arrived ... I haven't opened it yet, but one can tell it is likely a card by feeling it, and I can see that it is a card because someone between Cylvia's home and mine, has pried into it! I am assuming it is on this side because unfortunately, this kind of thing does occur - our postal system does not have the kind of people of integrity that it once had long ago. People sometimes put money or gift cards in cards so there are people in the trusted positions of postal service who will try to get it out of the envelopes. Disgraceful. Of course, I could be assuming that was what happened, but here are the photos. . .

. . .So it is clear that I am not being completely paranoid, even if I am jumping to the wrong conclusions!

Even so-

It is a very exciting,

and happy surprise

to receive a birthday greeting

from my friend Cylvia!

And

I

will save it 'til

Sunday

so I can open it up

on my actual

birthday.

:D

A New Batch

A few days had gone by with no new mail at all. What a drag that was! But toward the end of the week, they started to come in - so I have a batch of 5 new letters from: Tennessee, England, Finland, the Netherlands, and Australia.

My friend from the Netherlands did such a lovely job with that checkered envelope! I'll answer as many as I can before the post tomorrow. It'll be a challenge because a few of the writers in this particular batch, write really great letters that requires extra effort in the response. . .My favorite kind! :D

Stationery Set(s)

Postcards I've Made

Here are a couple of postcards I've made...

I think I'll make some more.

Recycled Envelopes

It only took about half an hour to whip up this batch of envelopes made from pages of old magazines.

I found my blank labels so it will even be convenient to address them. I am sorting through stationery designs I've done in the past, and developing some more. I was going to order packaging but I think I should like to design the packaging, instead. I have an idea...

Outgoing

With these two outgoing, I am all caught up.

I did track down the lady who sent me mail from Indonesia and forgot to add a return address - I sent her a message online this morning requesting it.

A Post Office Run

I actually ran out of stamps!

International stamps, that is. The letter I am writing to a penfriend in Japan is already stamped, but there are four that I will write this weekend that will need stamps - plus five postcards going to international addresses. I am thinking that maybe it is a good idea to simply buy my stamps online so that they too can come in the mail! It's more efficient, I think. Plus, it'll be easier to get the stamps that I want.

At any rate, the shortage makes it easier to know who to write to first. I have three American penpals whose letters need answering, so I can post those three tomorrow!

It was another good mail day...
I got three letters, this afternoon from: Montana, Germany, and the Netherlands.

I also prepared my first batch of postcards for postcrossings . . . Happy to get that ball rolling!

Anyway, the remainder of my penpalling ventures for today - writing letters to Todd, David and T.J. - means it is time for me to get off the internet and get to it! 

Just A Really Good Mail Day!

I woke up to my Amazon package of postcards and this book I got as an assist to help me improve the quality of my zines and other alternative, indie publications. . .

But then, later this afternoon, this anticipated letter from an Australian penpal arrived (like 10-minutes ago).

Just thought I'd share that here before going to chill with my Aussie pal!

The other cool thing about the mail today is that my daughter got 2 netflix movies today that she ordered as surprises for me, and I don't get to know what they are until they show up on the screen (she likes to see me the look on my face when I am happily surprised). Little minx even hid my Aussie letter just now, when she brought up the mail; she slid it into some junkmail. I didn't notice it and set it aside so she had to redirect me to it - and then giggled delightedly at my surprise!

Two More Letters

I've gotten two more letters since I last posted. A letter came from Australia the other day, and this afternoon I received one from a fellow in Tennessee. I really loved the letter from Tennessee because he wrote about writing and poetry and his experiences with small press. I just love independent publishing, especially for something like poetry. He even sent me a great little zine of poetry from Lilliput Press. Anyone that sends me a zine, is automatically on my "favorite people" list!

I have four letters to return before I even get to respond back to him, which is what I shall do this afternoon and this evening. The past few days, I have been making crocheted backpacks and got no letter-writing done at all. But it's all about keeping balanced.

Words From Japan!

I received a new penfriend from Japan, yesterday. Excellent match up! Her letter was fantastic and I have a feeling that we will be penfriends for a long time!

A Good Mail Day!

Oh it has been one of those GOOD mail days! I got letters from three penpals today!

From:

Finland

Holland

Minnesota

My penfriend in Finland also sent me this postcard of her beautiful city of Jyvaskyla...

And ... My first issue of Mental Floss showed up today, too!

Utter awesomeness!

=D

One More Letter Written, and Then Some

I managed to get another intro letter written! Ridiculous, considering how late it is. But I had a little oomph left to me and I'd rather get those letters moving! So now there are three that will go out with the mailman when he comes to deliver and pick up, in a few hours. That's just such a good feeling to take the time to write to someone.

Another kind of good feeling is when I can learn how to make something new ... My daughter learned how, and then taught me how to make pompom balls a few hours ago. I took a photo of the first one:

I made 3 more afterward. I can already tell that this is going to be a slight obsession for a week or two, because I have already thought of several things to do with them!

Two More Down (and almost) Out

I got two more introductory letters written this evening. They'll go out in the afternoon mail. I was a bit lazy decorating the first envelope...

but got a bit of a burst to do something with the second one...

It was kinda funny that the piece of paper I grabbed to cover the return address for this photo was the receipt from the post office ... I just had to play with that!