Snail Mail Madness

Sweet September

2010-09-02T20:02:00.002+01:00

I can't believe it's September already! This year has gone far too quickly - some people are already mentioning Christmas and some shops are already stocking stuff for the festive season. The kids are back at school, which is fantastic (6 weeks is far too long I think) and I'm looking forward to having at least part of my days sort of to myself again.

OUTGOING

A reply to Kaz (which should be nearly there now)

I also got the great news that this haul above was received by my stationery swap partner, Gungor, and she loved it; so I can breathe a huge sigh of relief and stop panicking that the things I sent haven't made it to Turkey, cause they have :o) And yes, I know, Twilight sweets aren't stationery, but they are a bonus, and you get to keep the funky box thing for stamps and stickers and stuff once you've eaten the candy hearts (although I can't vouch for what they actually taste like!) Thanks to Gungor for the pic, cause I'm a twit and forgot to take one before I posted out :o)

INCOMING

I got this lovely postcard from Yanjuam in China

This was my first piece of mail for September - from Marion in Germany

A letter from Elle arrived in this lovely envelope

With this lovely envelope inside containing my letter

and these lovely goodies!

And this from Passion, which was in a lovely material-like envelope

written on this gorgeous paper :o)

I've been having "one of those days" today, where I feel a bit bleh, but I think I'll settle down and write a few letters: I have a few replies to write.

Oh and please check out these great giveaways:

Sally is having a gorgeous giveaway to celebrate 100 blog followers, the deadline is the 5th September at 8pm (GMT) with winners announced on the 6th.

Ri is also holding a birthday giveaway with loads of goodies so check that out! The deadline for that is the 24th.

Until next time

:o)

August Stats

2010-09-02T18:57:00.000+01:00

Here are my stats for August 2010.

Incoming
Postcards: 6
Letters: 6

Outgoing
Postcards: 6
Letters: 9

Back into the swing...

2010-08-22T16:55:00.003+01:00

Sorry for the internet silence - we've been away for a week to Penzance in Cornwall for a week, which was fab, and we all really enjoyed it. I didn't have chance to update before I left, because I was so busy ~~organising~~ frantically packing and attempting to get my house in a state that resembled some sort of sanity so the people coming in to look after the pets wouldn't have to traipse over piles of stuff, or feel the need to run a hoover round!

And now, after a lovely, relaxing (ish) week away, I'm back in the insanity. We got in at 10 o'clock on Friday night after leaving Cornwall at 11 (honestly - I think it's the longest journey in history) and I've spent yesterday and today unpacking, doing washing and trying to get back into the swing of things.

Anyway, now I'm back, I can update you on everything :o)

OUTGOING

These were sent before I left, and I know that some have been received already, but still...

A first letter to Passion

A reply to Cole

A first for Liz

And for Elle

And for Ria

PostCrossing card for Inia in Poland

A re-send to Huily as my first had not arrived (I now know they've both turned up at the same time!)

And this one for qYp in China

INCOMING

I came back to a haul of mail which was a lovely to go through.

This beauty is from Nelly in the Netherlands - it shows the youngest pianist in the world.

This one is from Alex in Russia

This one is from Kaisa in Finland.

And this is from Renato in Italy, who also sent me..

A collection of cards and...

lots of bookmarks!

This came from Gungor in Turkey - she was my partner in a stationery swap, and these are the goodies I got. Hopefully, she'll receive mine soon!

I got this wonderful missive from Trout in Australia, which was an extremely entertaining read.

And this gorgeous reply from Shelita :o)

Before I left for holiday, I went into town and looked through some stores for Gungor's swap gift and I found a gorgeous writing set which I fell in love with and immediately purchased. Luckily, Smiths sell the refills for it too, although I did find ot a bit odd that there's no envelopes with it aside from those that come with notecards supplied... Anyway, here it is..

Closed view

Left to right: Address book, writing pad, notecards.

It's called Chinese Blossom Writing Companion by V&A, and on the back it says "Panel of painted wallpaper, Tempera, China, about 1970." I just think it's lovely and pretty (they do other things in the range too, like those writing stations that have little drawers in them) and it's also useful. The paper has a lovely feel to it, and it comes complete with an address book, which I am now in need of!

I think that's about it! I'm looking forward to writing more letters (Kaz, I've not forgotten about you - your reply is my priority this evening!) and getting back into the swing of pretty much everything.

Until next time

:o)

August...

2010-08-06T16:54:00.006+01:00

I can't believe it's August already! This year has gone so quickly, it's crazy. I've been writing plenty of letters this week, but again, funds have been a tad tight, so some won't get sent until Monday now. I've also had my first reply, which really made my day!

INCOMING

This came from Katariina in Finland. It reads:
"If you are able to spend perfectly uselss afternoons in perfectly useless ways, you have learned to live."

This is a reply from Cole at Simplicity Embellished. I haven't read it yet, I'm saving it for tonight when Mum has the kids and I can spend some time to savour it and reply. The envelope is gorgeous, and look at the neat handwriting!

OUTGOING

I decided to make use of some of my hand made envelopes, and they really do the job well. The lady in the Post Office smiled at them when I handed them over.

A reply to the lovely PostMuse

A reply to Shelita

And one for Elle

Until next time

:)

Stats

2010-08-06T16:08:00.002+01:00

I've seen stats recorded in a few places, so I thought it'd be a good idea to do mine! So here are my stats for July 2010.

Incoming
Postcards: 7
Letters: 3

Outgoing
Postcards: 11
Letters: 3

Handmade Envelopes & A Little Mishap

2010-07-29T22:41:00.002+01:00

I've been busy writing letters all week, and am just waiting for payday so that I can pop off to my lovely local post office and send them out - notice I say lovely local there (I'll explain that in a bit.) I've not been doing much stitching, due to a recurring shoulder issue I have, but, I have been keeping myself busy (and stopping myself from killing my kids while they're off for school holidays) by making envelopes while they've been out playing in the garden.

As a first foray into envelope making I'm quite happy with how they've turned out - I scaled them to fit one fold of my post quarto size writing paper, because C5 were too large and I found post quarto envelopes too small. I purchased some quality gift wrap quite cheaply on eBay and decided that was what I'd use to make them. After gluing a single sheet of plain A4 to the paper to make it a tad more sturdy, I marked them out, cut them up and now all I have to do is stick down the flaps with double sided tape (which I've started doing.) I then realised I needed some address labels, so I printed some out (I love Photoshop) and I've got some matching return address labels still lined up to print too. Like I said, I'm quite happy with the whole process, and the end result. Here they are in all their glory:

Just on their own

With the labels to match!

Who doesn't love jelly beans? I love jelly beans...

And jeans...

Gorgeous pink girly swirly things... (and I don't usually like pink but I fell in love with this paper)

Envelopes with a challenge... Where's Wally?

Chocolate with brown labels, or...

Chocolate with white labels.. I'm not sure which looks best, so I went with both :o)

I really enjoyed the whole experience of making these, and hopefully, the people who receive them (even though I kind of want to keep them for some bizarre reason) will like them too. There are 24 in total - 8 jelly beans and 4 of each of the others (because I really do love jelly beans - they remind me of my Grandad) I got 4 to each sheet of gift wrap (and that would be the same with C5 envelopes if I had done them) which I thought was quite good.

Like I said, I've written a few letters, but I need the bits and pieces to go with them before I send them off, and I'm hoping to send them by Monday. I did however, do a few PostCrossing cards.

OUTGOING

This one's off to Elena in Siberia. It shows Wolverhampton's tram system that runs every five-ten minutes to Birmingham. with the police station at the front-left, court and the back-left and nightclub Oceana on the front-right. The trams are very annoying because the pre-recorded voice that tells you what stop is coming up talks every five minutes at least 25 times - yes, there are that many stops between Wolverhampton and Birmingham. Needless to say an mp3 player is really useful on this trip as long as you know where to get off the thing. They're also really loud in general, not the people, just the machinery and the tram lines and the engines. Still, they look nice :o)

This one's off to Helio in Portugal. West Park is the biggest park in Wolverhampton, and has a lake where you can go on a boat, pedlo, or just try not to fall into when you're being chased by the local geese (I had an awful experience with geese as a child) while you're feeding bread to the ducks. Kids love it, and it's popular with exercise driven people who like jogging. Just walking around it wears me out, but it's lovely in both summer and in winter it looks beautiful.

This is for Mika in Japan. She said she likes flowers so I thought this one was perfect. It's a variation on the one I sent to Miranda of the park I went to as a child. As I said before, it's very pretty in summer.

For Mika in Germany, who wanted some discussion on traditions of countries, I sent this. It's actually West Park on Bonfire Night. The celebrations there are huge and the park is always packed full of people annually on Guy Fawkes Night (November 5th) for the fireworks display.

And now, for my little mishap. At my not-so-lovely local post office. I honestly wish I had just waited until I posted my letters and taken the postcards in then to my lovely local post office, but I didn't, and I had a crap experience thanks to my impatience. I took the cards in and said I wanted to send them - fine. I smiled at the clerk, who did not smile back. She honestly looked at me like I had grown a second head after I passed the cards over. She grabbed three stamps for 60p and one for 67p and practically threw them, along with the cards, back to me while asking for me to pay and telling m e to shove them in the box outside. It wasn't until I'd gotten outside and posted the cards into the box in my haste and upset, that I realised she hadn't put any Airmail stickers on, and neither had I. I'm pretty sure they'll get to their destinations (they will, right?) and that hopefully someone in the sorting office will notice that they're not marked and will mark them up. But I felt stupid. And I felt horrible. And I'm never going to that particular post office ever again. Ever.

Have you ever had any awful post office experiences?

On a cheerier (is that even a word?) note I did receive two postcards too:

INCOMING

This cute little card is from Anna in Germany, who is enjoying her summer holiday break from school.

And this one is from Jo in Belgium, who comes over to the U.K. on the ferry sometimes to go shopping at Tesco!!!

Until next time

:o)

Little Gems

2010-07-25T23:41:00.002+01:00

I had some lovely mail yesterday, which totally made my day. I've found, since starting to write letters again, I get excited for the post to turn up and eagerly await the visit each day :o) That probably sounds strange, but I'm really finding it exhilarating. Even my kids are getting used to me receiving cards and such!

This gorgeous note (on absolutely beautiful stationery, might I add) came from the wonderful PostMuse, welcoming me to SendSomething, who will be getting a response sent out some time next week. It really is gorgeous stationery. The paper is just absolutly exquisite and the colourful border just really finishes it off.

This little gem comes from Shelita in the U.S who found me over at Good Mail Day. Look at those gorgeous stitckers! Here's a close up:

And another two postcards from PostCrossing - my kids love looking at these.

This one is from Rebekah in Malaysia (she's a Doctor Who fan.) It looks gorgeous there.

And this one's from Bounder. This shows some of the places of the part of the Netherlands where Bounder lives. Again, gorgeous.

I've also got involved in a stationery swap over at Inspired Mess. I've got my partner's address and I'll be putting together a package for her soon, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what I get too!

Until next time

:o)

I Got Mail!!!!

2010-07-21T18:05:00.003+01:00

INCOMING

I was so excited to find this little gem on my doorstep yesterday. It's from Elle in the U.S.A. who found me on the Good Mail Day Call for Correspondents list and is also on sendsomething. It's a lovely little letter in a gorgeous golden envelope and the paper she used is just gorgeous!

I also got this lovely postcard via the PostCrossing network from Anita in Australia. The card shows a painting by artist Rupert Bunny, who I had never heard of. It really is very nice. I may have to look him up.

OUTGOING

I've been a bit busy for the last few days, so I've not written as many letters as I wanted to, but I managed to get a few things out.

Yes, another of the elephant set. This is one that I find a bit freaky, to be honest, but Sandra in Germany said she likes weird and colourful cards, so I thought this was a perfect fit.

Veerle in Luxembourg wanted to see my home town and for me to tell her about it. So I sent her this postcard - unbelievably, it was the only decent one I found. This shows the entrance to our market at Christmas - I know it's Christmas because it's never usually lit up like that, or that busy! Still, it's a pretty card.

This card shows a picturesque scene of a park I used to frequent as a chilld. I take my own kids there now. The house you can see behind is a museum and they run Victorian-style craft days in the school summer holidays. This was sent to Miranda, who is 5 and does PostCrossing to learn about the world.

I spotted this in WHSmith in town and fell in love with it. I just love the style and the vintage feel of it. Hopefully, Zena in the U.S. will like it too!

This is my first letter to Cole from Simplicity Embellished. I've been playing around with a lot of ideas for envelopes and mail art when I get chance so I printed out a map of each of our locations and a British Airways and American Airlines plane and did some sticky stuff with it - I'm quite happy with it. I also learned not use felt tip to outline stuff (especially not cheap ones) because they bled through the paper and one ran out half way round so I had to use blue instead of black. Yep, shan't be doing that again.

I did have a minor heart attack in the post office, when I thought that I'd forgotten one of the postcards, but it was there after all, and bless her, the clerk avoided sticking the giant gold stamp over the envelope and folded it round the corner so it wouldn't impose on the plane! I really do have to gain some spatial awareness when it comes to stampage. All in all, it's not half bad. I have a few more letters to write, and a reply (yay!) to write too. It's so much fun!

Until next time

:o)

Good Mail Day

2010-07-15T15:09:00.000+01:00

OUTGOING

I've been to the post office today, and finally mailed off a letter to Kaz in Australia. I decided to have a go at some mail art (not that I'd go so far as to call it art but still) and I think it looks ok. Course, this was before it was taken to the post office and they whacked stamps all over it. I'll have to consider where I put what in future when I use the cut and paste method :o)

INCOMING

I received two lovely postcards from PostCrossing this morning. I was so chuffed! Here they are...

This one is from Claudia in Portugal. I was the first person she'd postcrossed to! So that's cool. This image shows the caves at the beach near Lagos.

This lovely circular one (I didn't even know you could get circular postcards!) is of central Telc in the Czech Republic, from the lovely Lucia. She works in the castle pictured on the card!

Until next time

:o)

Mail Art, Envelopes and Air Mail

2010-07-13T16:10:00.005+01:00

I was just wondering where everyone gets the gorgeous materials they use for envelope making/mail art? I know there's the option to cut out things from magazines and whatnot and stick them onto ready made envelopes, but even then, where do you all find the things you use?

I've looked up some envelope making tutorials, and I'm pretty sure I can do them, but it would involve having paper over an A4 size - where do you find your pretty papers and prints?

Any tips anyone has for mail art and envelope making in general would be great.

For you UK letter writers who post overseas, I have a question regarding Air Mail stickers - do you have to use those awful blue things that everyone in the Post Offices insists you use? I know you can write Air Mail on the envelope, so can you use a variety of stickers? And if you can, where can you get them from? Or do you make your own?

Thanks

:o)

Postcrossing & Mail Art

2010-07-09T22:29:00.003+01:00

Two of my postcards were received today so I'm quite chuffed with that! And I also spoke to my daughters about the project and one of them has decided it's something she'd like to try - she's very arty, and said she loves the idea that she could design her own postcards to send, as well as the idea of receiving cards from all over the world, so that's great!

I haven't had chance to go to the art gallery and get some postcards of my city, so I'll pop there tomorrow. I have however, found some really cool designs on magazines that I'm going to have a go at making into envelopes or (and most likely) decorating my envelopes with - so that's my weekend project :o)

For those of you who do mail art, do you have a specific format that you follow? Do you cut and paste or make your own envelopes? Are there certain materials that work better than others when doing either gluing or making your own? Do you have any tips and tricks you would be willing to share? I'd love to hear them...

Also, thanks to the great Letters & Journals blog I found out today about The Envelope Project which sounds like loads of fun, so I'll be joining in with that I think :o)

Until next time...

Not a weirdo stalker person

2010-07-07T11:25:00.001+01:00

I went to the post office today, again (I'm looking forward to that becoming a regular occurence - Marnie, you have a letter on the way!) and saw the Post Office Clerk, whose name is Raj :o)

Yesterday, after I'd left, she ran out of the shop to look for me and apparently caused a bit of a commotion because she couldn't find me - which I feel bad about - but she said not to worry about it and then we had a nice conversation during which she told me that nobody had ever done anything like that for her before and she didn't think I was a weirdo stalker person - so that's good! And she gave me some chocolates - which I thought was really nice of her.

I'm off to town tomorrow to pick up some postcards and some stationery supplies, so I'm really looking forward to that (my bank balance isn't though!)

Until next time

:o)

The Girl in the Post Office

2010-07-06T21:10:00.001+01:00

This morning started off quite crappy. I was in a rubbish mood, and I didn't feel like anything could make me feel better. I dropped the kids off at school, and walked to the post office, expecting to just post my cards, ask my questions about stamps and be done. But when I got there, the Post Office Clerk was really lively and happy, helpful and friendly. She had behind the counter, a copy of Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer which she was reading when they weren't busy - now I know that there are a fair few fans of the Twilight Saga, and I know that there are people who can't stand it, and that's fine, but I fall into the former category, and as it turned out, so did she. She got to telling me (while putting pretty stamps on my postcards) that she'd read all but the last book and really enjoyed them and that her brother was planning on going into town this week to get said book (Breaking Dawn) for her to read. She finished stamping my postcards, wished me well and I went on my way, with a smile on my face from one of the friendliest (albeit shortest) conversations I've had in a long time.

I have multiple copies of the Twilight Saga books as I'm a collector and tend to go a bit nuts on things I really like, so when I got home I dug out a copy of Breaking Dawn that I bought a while ago which didn't fit with any of my collection (it's the U.S. version instead of the British, and yes, it sounds daft, but it doesn't have the same logo on the spine, so I got the one I wanted and this one was left in its packaging until I found something to do with it.) Anyway, I dug it out, grabbed some paper and I wrote a note. To the girl in the post office. It was a simple thank you note, for her being friendly enough to actually hold a conversation with me (the last three times I've been to a different post office, the clerks there have literally just grunted the cost at me, and that's been the extent of it, it's rare to even get a hello or a response to any question other than how much) and for making me smile on a day when I didn't think I would, and for her being helpful and friendly and good at her job. I slipped the note in the book and wrapped it, and this afternoon I dropped it off to her.

She was surprised at first, that I had gone back, but the smile on her face when I told her the package was for her is something I will remember probably every time I write a letter from now on, and if I'm lucky, I'll remember it for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately, I had to rush off as I had a lift waiting, and I'm feeling like I was rude to do that because I didn't have time to talk to her, but I'm going back tomorrow to post a letter overseas (hopefully, the first of many) so I'll explain that to her then. Hopefully she won't think I'm some weirdo stalky person.

The thing is, is yeah, I gave her a book. But it was writing the note and knowing that the note was there that made me feel something - I don't know how to express it - exhilarated, chuffed? And even if I hadn't had the book, I'd have written the note anyway. And I know I'd have felt exactly the same way. Because it was the note that did it. From the moment my pen touched paper, it felt good. More than that, it felt right.

And that's a brilliant feeling.

:o)

First Cards To Postcrossing!

2010-07-05T21:00:00.002+01:00

I've had a fairly good day today. I've caught up on some blog posts (old and new) and I've written my first three postcards (courtesy of Postcrossing) I have five in total to send out, but the other two recipients have asked specifically for a postcard of the city I live in, so I'll be getting those on Thursday when I go to town. I was also quite pleasantly surprised to find that one of the two is a five year-old girl who wants to learn more about the world - her Mum joined the site on her behalf but all the postcards are sent to her :o) I may pop in some extra info on my city even though I'm not in a different country! I think that it's great that her Mum has done this for her, and I've decided to speak to my girls about whether it would be something they would be interested in doing.

So, onto the postcards. I found these funky fellas in a pack in one of my boxes and thought this was the right time to use them. They're all Elmer the Elephant, and I just love the mosaic effect :o)

This one's off to the Netherlands:

This one's going to Malaysia:

This one's off to Finland:

And I've already learnt something from this - gel pens do not happy postcards make - at least not these ones! It fuzzed a bit, so I must remember to use a biro or rollerball next time for similar paper..

Until next time,

:o)

Obsolete? No, Not Anymore...

2010-07-04T00:04:00.000+01:00

Recently while surfing the web I decided to take a look at Send Something since I'd heard it mentioned by a member of a Cross Stitching forum I frequent, and I completely loved the idea of randomly selecting someone to write to from an online database so I joined (and I now have a couple of people on my new writing list!) Inevitably, as tends to be the case with me, this led me to joining Postcrossing - something that I had heard of before, but never thought of joining.

I started searching for various pen-pal sites and found a few blogs of letter writers and a few articles that made me think about mail, and how letter writing, which used to be so common and was at one time the only way to communicate has to some extent become almost obsolete - and it's such a shame. But the worst part about this, is that I too have played my part in making letter writing become obsolete. I've taken to texting and emailing like a duck to water, and that's great, but in the process I'd forgotten about what I've recently been reminded of: times when I was younger, when I used to have pen-pals and write letters daily to keep in touch with them and times when receiving a letter would make me jump with joy and leave me elated for the rest of the day.

I can't remember why I stopped writing letters and sending cards, but I found it odd that I had, because I've always been a "writer" in one form or another; so to suddenly realise that no, I haven't written to anyone for a very long time, even though I encourage my own children to make and write cards and thank you letters etc., was quite a revelation. And it's not just the letter writing aspect of it that makes me excited about letter writing again. There's the creativity aspect of it too. Mail art is a most fantastic thing and a perfect way to combine the enjoyment of creating something with the enjoyment of writing.

Another thing I realised, is that I love getting mail! I don't get much, admittedly, but that's probably because (at the moment) I don't write much, but I do love getting mail. In the craft exchanges I've taken part in, I've absolutely loved receiving what others have taken their time to create for me and I've loved sending what I've created too! That in itself has made me even more determined to revive the craft of letter writing in my life.

I've created this blog so that I can share my mailing adventures, and if you're visiting, I'd love to hear from you.

Until next time

xx