Curiouser and Curiouser

After getting assigned 5 'send tos' to Russia, in a row - I then received 4 postcards from The Netherlands in a row!

from Marie-Jose

from Martin (and it's a vintage card
that he found in a curiosity shop, too!)

 

from Marion

and from Hennie

Rather good cards, too.

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...

PenPalWorld

I have a list of penpal sites I have been methodically checking out. They are not all equal. PenpalWorld is kinda sketchy - at least my experience with it has been thus far. The one person who seemed promising - says she sent a letter to me and it bounced back to her saying something like, 'no one lives there.' ... But we do! We do live here! And I have gotten really great mail all week long. Monday, I got a whole stack of catalogs and magazines - it was like flapping Christmas!

Anyway, I digress. On PenpalWorld it seems I am a magnet for those foreign scammer creeps with poorly accented English grammar ... And of course they're all just sure that I am the perfect match for them. Jeezum Crow guys - I just want to pass notes through the postal service not be drowned in insipid attempts to set me up for some scam or another. Sheesh!

PenpalWorld is a little too penpalweird for me.

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.

PERFECT for postcards...

Another good thing from Martha ... I love it!

Outgoing

I am almost caught up on postcards going out. This lot makes up the maximum I can send out at Postcrossings so far, included are two re-sends to cover expired cards ... Hate it when my postcards expire.

I am able to send out nine postcards at a time but once the next three recipients register their cards from me, I'll be able to send out 10 at a time.

Hoped to get more of my received cards posted by now but I am not even close! It is NaNoWriMo time and that is definitely going to be cutting into the time I have available to catch up to penpals I owe letters to. But I figure if I can do at least one a day, I'll be caught up before long. The challenge is doing the envelopes. I cannot make myself mail a dreary envelope ... I'll have to be inventive.

With the postcards above I must post the swap going to Canada and a package to Amy in Maine and a late birthday package to Esther in the Netherlands. But first I need to cut into the amount of words I need to accomplish on my novel today, so I am off to do that now.

 

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!

OMG - My Postcard Books Arrived!

My postcardbooks finally arrived - they're perfect!

My venture into postcrossing was awkward from the giddy-up. Postcrossing is a fantastic site that matches people around the world who are into sending and receiving postcards. I think of it as a social penpal network because, well, that's what it is.

Whenever you want to send a postcard to someone, they give you a name and address, you send a card to that person and they, or someone else, sends one to you. There is a serial number associated and when you receive your postcard, you register it on the site, and a tally is displayed in your profile of how many postcards sent, how many received. Many people also display their postcards received, in a gallery that is part of your profile. Some have their display categorized as, "favorites". There are enough options to make it fun, interesting and, social.

Some people list what types of postcards they'd prefer- and/or, prefer not to receive. This can range from subtle suggestions to obnoxiously demanding ... I've discovered that listing preferences can be a sketchy option if done indelicately, but it can be handy if well executed.

I was eager to get into the mix. First things first. How to register? I clicked on the option I thought would lead me to the answer and it ended up popping out the name and address of a 20 year old woman in Russia that I needed to send a postcard to. I just wanted to know the process at that time - I didn't even have any postcards and it'd be at least a couple of weeks before I could get any. So I ordered some from Amazon. After a week + and no postcards, my daughter suggested I check my account to verify that the order even went through. I followed her sensible suggestion. Sure enough, the order had not gone through. Now this young woman in Russia was going to wait even longer for her postcard! I was starting this whole venture, feeling like a dweeb! However, humble is good.

This morning, my postcards finally arrived! ... And they're fantastic! I think I chose really well.  Actually, it wasn't until after I had unwittingly registered to send a postcard, that I even discovered postcard books. Once I had made the discovery, I went a bit ape-shit on Amazon. Holy cow are they cool! It wasn't easy deciding which 'books to choose. I had a budget. And the mid-range was about $7. to $16. depending upon my choices, I could afford 2-3 'books. After a while, I recalled how people from other countries don't seem to grok that NYC is one city [ albeit The City of Earth ] in a larger state. I kind of get it. But I was closer to The City in Connecticut, where I grew up, than from up here in The Capitol Region of New York. Anyway, although there are NYC postcards, I felt it would be misleading of me to use them. When the absolute perfect option presented itself: A postcard book of 100 (The) New Yorker covers (spanning 10 decades)! LOOK!

I haven't even scanned a third of them yet and I can assert that they are just terrific! I can certainly see why some enthusiasts claim to always buy two of each book - one to mail out, the other for themselves!

And then, the other obvious choice for me was...

Since I have been so delayed in sending my first postcard pal her postcard, I think that sending her one from each book is the thing to do ... Don't you?

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!