Day #44

Post-crossing cards today to Germany, Thailand and Russia, and my weekly letter to soldier Amanda in Afghanistan, along with a pop-up Kliban cat card, which I hope gives her a bit of a smile.


Nice stuff in the mail, too:


A letter from Denise in Wales, a Swap-bot letter with all sorts of sparkly things pasted on it from Kristen inTexas (it came postage-due, but I guess the letter carrier didn't notice), and a Post-crossing postcard from Toledo, Ohio

Day #43

This was long letter day. I wrote one letter, to Denise, to keep myself awake while watching the Royal Wedding (1 a.m. - 4 a.m.). And I wrote a very long letter to Nancy this morning.


The mail brought a nice letter from Sarala. I had sent her a letter in one of my favorite envelopes, the one with one made-up eye in one corner, fading into white makeup on the face. I loved that envelope and was happy to hear that it arrived safely. I also liked Sarala's envelope, made out of a page of a map.

Day #42

I wrote one letter this morning, to a penpal, Noreen, in North Carolina.

In the afternoon there were two from SwapBot people, a postcard from Justine, telling me a funny story, and a great letter from Lil Mavis telling me about a special 30-year friendship.

Day #41

Today's outgoing included two to Post-crossing people, one to a friend in Australia, and one postcard to my brother-in-law, as well as a letter to a penpal in the Netherlands (I like the butterfly envelope!)

And I loved this beautiful card from Merimax in Slovenia.

Day #40

It's all about the envelopes today. The one on the left goes to Cindy Y, whose profile read that cupcakes are her favorite thing. I found the picture in a Food Network magazine. The one on the right goes to Elle Mental, who sent a great post card yesterday and offered to send me some special stickers. I could have sent her an e-mail, but I have now made all these envelopes I want to use!


What a great package came from Denise today, via Swap-Bot.

What fun. I'm trying to think how I'm going to use this stuff. What is even more fun, Denise had been following my blog before she was assigned to be my partner on SwapBot.

Day #39

Just one letter written this morning, since we were driving to Berkeley for a class. This to Kestrel, from sendsomething, in response to her note.


When we got home from Berkeley it was fun to pick up the mail, which included two penpal letters and three postcards, one from postcrossing, one from a blogger, and one from sendsomething.

Day #38

It's Easter Sunday, so all I could do today was get mail ready to be sent tomorrow.


It is a big day for Postcrossing postcards. Where's Waldo is going to Belarus. The Davis post card is going to Belgium. The card from the Jelly Belly factory is going to Slovenia. The Pony Express card is going to a 12 year old boy in Switzerland. And I sent a text message to Walt, who was in Sacramento, to stop off and get the train post card to send to a man in Germany, who only wants postcards of trains.

The Wizard of Oz card is going to a sendsomething woman in Sunnyvale (which is just a couple of hours from here)

Day #37

Today I'm trying to find a snippet of order in the chaos of my office, so I only wrote one letter, to my soldier-friend Amanda. I also sent a 3-D postcard of a worm turning into a butterfly to one of my Compassion kids when you tilt the card back and forth.

It was a red-letter day for mail. In addition to a late New Year's Day card and note from my cousin, there was a letter from Fred in the Philippines, a note from Kestrel from SendSomething, postcard from Lilac Girl at SendSomething, and three postcards from Postcrossing: Voronezh (Russia), Giant Pandas (from Shenzhen, China), and a card from Ukraine.


I've spent the day organizing drawers and boxes so that I can more efficiently handle all this snail mail, incoming and outgoing! I have actually made a little progress.

Day #36

I had a busy morning. I sent a Jumping Frog of Calaveras County postcard to my sponsored children in the Philippines and in Haiti, along with a VERY watered down version of Twain's original story. I wrote two cards about "my day" to women on Swap-Bot, sent 2 more frog cards to SendSomething people, and wrote a letter to Jeri, using one of my dog envelopes.


Here's the afternoon mail:


The Easter card is from a pen pal, the horse postcard is from a Swap-bot exchange and I'm disappointed at the bad address for "alisa" because I had sent her a card I really liked.

You know, when you start a project like this...or, maybe more particularly, when I start a project like this...you check out everything, contact everybody, do all the things you can, but eventually you settle down to just a few. I'm probably going to stop sending things to people on SendSomething because they don't seem to stick around, and Swap Bot seems to be mostly really young people (one of whom told me it was nice to see "elders" participating), and also to really be geared more to sharing crafts rather than cards and/or letters.

But I've made a few new friends who seem to be sticking around, so perhaps the frenzy will die down a bit. I am committed to more snail mail type of mail, though, so this project blog will continue.

Day #35

There was incoming mail, combining yesterday and today.


There was a card from Sharlzie in Australia, a note from Brasil that was more of a generic questionnaire than an answer to my letter, and a thank you card from our granddaughter, Brianna (start 'em early on learning to write to people--she just turned 3). There were two postcrossing postcards, the one of the cats having been created on Zazzle, which I had never thought of checking. I think I will make some postcards there!

And then there was my first package from Swap-Bot, a delightful combination of envelopes made from calendars, and little note cards to go in them, along with some stickers and a small note to me. I loved it!

Day #33 and #34

Well, as I suspected there was no mail written and, since I wasn't home, no mail received -- but I did have a wonderful time going with my 91 year old mother to find where the house that she lived in from age 3 (about 1922) through 5th grade used to be.

It was an almost perfect day spent with my mother and my cousin.

Day #32

I was really tickled about this envelope. I used a Mel's Diner take-out menu for the envelope and then I found some patterned name tags with these cute monkeys on them and some monkey stickers, so used those for address label and decoration. There is a bigger monkey on the back of the envelope. I have no clue if it's going to go through the machines, but I'm pleased with how it looks when it leaves here!


I also made these envelopes, which I LOVE from a 2011 calendar I picked up on sale yesterday.


And now I'm leaving. I will be back Thursday afternoon and post then...probably not much sent, but maybe some interesting letters.

Day #31

Well, slim pickings for the post office today...just the two cards I wrote yesterday and my Monday letter to Amanda, the soldier I'm writing to (I've decided that Monday is "Write to Amanda Day"). But I also wrote a long letter to a penpal in England...that goes e-mail, because we're too cheap to pay postage when we don't have to!

I was excited to go to the post office to see what I was getting in the mail from Sharla, from sendsomething. It was 78 cents postage due, which indicated that it must be a heavy letter.

Uh.

No.



It was a postcard she'd made out of a campaign sign she had. Clever idea, but it wouldn't bend, so the clerk says that the post office considers it a package, not a postcard. Expensive mistake! But we've all learned something, right?

The afternoon brought an interesting letter from a penpal in The Netherlands.

Now I'm going to be leaving for 2 days tomorrow morning. I will write something while I'm gone, but I won't have internet access, so I won't post entries or pictures until I get home on Wednesday, though I will probably post something tomorrow morning before I leave, since I already have started on tomorrow's mail!

Day #30

Today is Sunday, so no incoming mail...and not much ready to go out either.

There is a Postcrossing card of spots in Yosemite for someone who said she liked waterfalls and a sendsomething card to someone who said she liked recipes.

I just realized that the postcard rate changed today and I have to go buy four additional postage stamps to send out these postcards in the morning.

Day #29

Today I sent a long letter to my new penpal, Sheila. I hope I don't scare her off.

Also last night I found this GREAT book of Where's Waldo postcards and was eager to send some off today, so I sent to 2 people on Send Something. I hope to send some of these to a few of my Compassion kids too, the next time I write to them.

The day's mail brought an interesting coincidence. The first card I read was this one, a card from Postcrossing.


and then there was this one from Munich, part of a Swap-Bot postcard swap. The writer says she bought the card last weekend when she spent the weekend in Bratislava!


Finally there was this...

which tells me that I have a heavy letter to pick up at the post office and 78 cents to pay in postage due.

Day #28

Not a lot of outgoing mail today. I wrote a postcard to someone I'd sent a letter to yesterday. I enclosed something in that letter that I meant to send to someone else and I figured she'd be a little confused when she saw it.

I also wrote a letter to my Compassion child in India, who had asked about our dogs and wanted to know, again, what their names were. I had just received some of those cute little Moo stickers with the dogs' pictures, so I just sent her a short letter so I could use the stickers (and I'd just written to her a couple of days ago)

Later, I read the profile of a woman who said she LOVED the musical Wicked. I decided to make an envelope and send her a note.


Then the mail came and it was a good mail day.

There was my first letter from Lenial, the little boy I write to in the Dominican Republic. There was the first letter from a penpal from 16sparrows, to whom I wrote last week. And there were 4 fun postcards, 2 from Postcrossing, and one from a blogger I wrote to. Unfortunately, the third postcard, from Bad Hersfeld, written by someone named Irene, had no indication as to where it came from. I checked Swap-Bot and SendSomething and could not find her in either place. So, Irene, on the off chance that you sent this postcard, please contact me1

Fun day!

Day #27

Big postcard mailing today. Three postcrossing postcards to Lithuania, Ukraine and Belgium. And 3 sendsomething postcards to Muscatine, Iowa; Chelsea, MA; and Ash, NC. There was also a Swap-Bot penpal letter to Candler, NC.


There was a variety of things in the mail today.


The two postcards were from people on Swap-Bot (the colored card is from Malibu, where Two and a Half Men is set). There was a letter from my compassion child, Anjali. The part she wrote seems to be the times table! Compassion sent a newsletter about the area where my child, Victor, lives in Bolivia.

I also had a swap-bot letter returned, presumably because the address had no last name! (Of course it was a university address, so that must be why. Too bad because I really liked that letter!)

Day #26

This was the outgoing mail for today...two homemade postcards that were sent to people on Sendsomething, and a response to the woman from 16Sparrows, who decided I was a better fit for her sister (and indeed she was right!)

Unfortunately there was no incoming mail. Owell...can't be a winner every day!

Day #25

The day started off with putting together letters for our Compassion kids. Mostly they were boilerplate, though personalized a bit for each child. Each letter also was sent with pictures from Brianna's birthday party


Then I put together an envelope for Swap-Bot. I had chosen something about List of Lists. I had to create lists of 5 different things, 4 of which were chosen from a list they made and one of which was my own. Below are: "what's in my bag" which was a paper bag filled with the typical things that I carry in my purse (a package of tissues, a faux credit card, dental floss and a couple of other things); for "favorite foods," I wrote a poem and printed it on the "Diet of the Damned" paper.

There was a topic "words that describe me." I wish my printer were better, because that photo is supposed to be a knock off of Obama's blue and red poster, but it came out green. Still, it worked for what I wanted. My own choice of lists was "things that remind me of my childhood," with things like bottled milk, clip on roller skates, beehive hair does, etc. And finally there were "life lessons," which started off with "be the person your dog thinks you are," hence the dog stationery.


Finally I got everything packed up and included another Swap Bot project, which was to make 2 envelopes out of a calendar page and send it to someone. i actually made three and sent it off in that blue envelope. I also wrote to my penpal in Arkansas and then ended up putting the stamp and return address label on the BACK side of the envelope. Dummy! I added that to the package for the Compassion kids and drove off to the post office.


When I got home, there was a Postcrossing postcard waiting for me. I was very excited because it was from Vietnam, the very first card (in 100) that I have had from Vietnam.

Day #24

We had to leave early today to go to our China class, but I did get up early to write to Amanda, my soldier penpal. I've decided to make Monday "Writing to Amanda" day. I even made an envelope for her.


We came home to a nice assortment of mail.


The letter was from someone who got my name through a group known as "16 Sparrows." Its purpose is to put people who want pen pals together. You give only your name and address and they send you the names of two people to write to. But you are matched on nothing except a desire to correspond with someone. You don't know the age, interests or anything else. And this woman was writing to tell me that she had never done this before, but she was going to suggest that I write to someone else, specifically her sister. After reading her letter it's clear that we have almost nothing in common (she doesn't like animals, for one thing--any animals!), which is not necessarily a detriment, but she feels that her sister and I would be perfect pen pals...so I guess I'm going to write to the sister.

The other mail was all postcards. The top left is a picture from India, because the Postcrossing writer lives in San Francisco and figured I didn't need a postcard from there! (good thinking!). The card with the light glare is from Hersey, PA ("Chocolate town"). She is part of a Swap-Bot random post card exchange, as is the writer of the shoreline postcard.

The card at the bottom is from the woman who gave me the idea to start this blog, the writer of "100 days of snail mail."

Day #23

It's Sunday, so I'm not looking for incoming mail, but I made the most of my morning. There are two notes to my cousins, so I can show them some of the envelopes I've been making (all of these are in home-made envelopes), a letter to my daughter, a note to my mother sending her some photos, and two letters to two people on sendsomething. One envelope has no note, just photos sent to my son and his wife.

Day #22

This was a very busy day today, so I only had the opportunity to dash off two notes to the two oldest of my Compassion kids, both of whom live in Africa (Uganda and Kenya, respectively), and both speak English so I was sending them some "find-a-word" puzzles.


Then I went off to my cousin's house to spend the day with my two cousins, have high tea, and play 3 games of 65 (2 of which I won). When I got home there was a letter from my penpal Danette and a postcard from Darci of sendsomething.net.

Day #21

Yesterday I received a card from someone on sendsomething to whom I had sent some bookplates and another letter from Fred. I will be doing some Compassion kids letters today, to be mailed tomorrow (hoping that the photos I ordered from Brianna's birthday party arrive today!)

This is this morning's outgoing mail, including 2 Postcrossing postcards, one to someone on sendsomething, a letter to a woman in Georgia (in one of my Trader Joe bag envelopes!) and a Wizard of Oz card to someone from sendsomething who said she liked Oz things.

Day #20

Since I had no personal mail yesterday, there wasn't much to answer, but I did write a thank you letter to 3 year old Brianna, for letting me come to her birthday party, and I sent a short letter to a young woman in Tasmania, whose blog I have been reading, just because I had made this great envelope and it just looked like something she'd appreciate. I didn't block out her address in the photo, because it is printed plain on her web site, Good Night Little Spoon.



The postcard was for someone on swapbot. We were supposed to send a postcard from a place where we'd traveled. Unfortunately, I have no exotic postcards, but I did have one from Chicago. Note to self: when I travel, buy postcards to share later!

I also was doing some cleaning and found a photography newsletter and managed to make this wonderful envelope out of it. I just love it!


Now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with it. Any ideas?

Day #19

I had such a fun time last night making envelopes. Here are the front and backs of the ones I did. Two were made from wrapping paper, one was from a Trader Joe's bag, one was a brochure I picked up somewhere, and one was a page from a magazine.

And below is the outgoing mail today. There is a response to my penpal Nancy, a note to my friend Peggy, a small gift for a sendsomething person in Australia, and a whole bunch of postcards. I joined a swap-bot.com group for exchanging postcards and had to send 5 of them off to other members. The two dog postcards both went to Postcrossing people.

I can hardly wait for the mail to be delivered today!

Update: No mail today. :(