Day #113

I came home from San Diego to a stack of mail.


Actually, it's letters from 3 of my Compassion kids, Fred (Philippines), Henrique (Brasil--our first letter from him), and Esther in Indonesia, who said she had included pictures of herself with her family, but I was disappointed that they weren't in the envelope.

There was also a postcrossing card from the Netherlands.

A weekend off

I am spending the weekend in San Diego, returning tomorrow (Sunday). Didn't write a single letter or post card, but I sure spent (too much) money on stuff to use in upcoming weeks for mailing letters and postcards. I can hardly wait!

(just a teeny sample)

Day #112

Four things to send out before I leave town for a couple of days.

There is a thank you letter to a neighbor, a Postcrossing postcard, a letter to a soldier starting his second deployment in Afghanistan and feeling depressed about it, and a letter to a penpal.

Incoming was one letter from a Compassion child.

This is from Murugi, in Kenya. I was amazed that her first letter came so quickly--I was not looking for it for a month yet. But it was very nice to receive.

Day #111

I spent the day driving to San Francisco, conducting an interview, and driving home again, so there was only time to write one letter.


This is to another soldier in Afghanistan, not one I've "adopted," but one who just needs to hear cheery things from home. His wife is pregnant and so I sent him one of my parenting stories from my diary of the years when the kids were little. I hope it doesn't terrify him!

There were two penpal letters in the incoming mail. One was from a penpal in Ohio and one was from a penpal in England.


But the best thing about the envelope from England were the stamps.


This envelope is definitely a keeper!

Day #110

I liked my outgoing letter envelopes today.

One was from a cookie sheet that I just bought, the other was a brochure for Scarborough Boys, at ACT. I folded it around the letter and taped the ends to make it an envelope. The third letter, to a Swap Bot person was just in a regular envelope. There were also two postcrossing postcards.

There was just one incoming postcard, from a woman in So. California. I think it's very cute!

Day #109

I sent out 2 letters and some postcrossing post cards today.


One of the letters went to Amanda #1, in response to her letter yesterday. The other was to a soldier in one of the fighting areas of Afghanistan. I read that he was hoping for more letters, so I sent him what I hope is a funny letter about our dogs.

In the afternoon, there was only one small package, but it was great.


In addition to a fascinating letter, Rose sent me a DVD of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud and this great little tea bag carrier that she made (I may send it to my daughter, since I'm not a tea drinker)

Day #107, 108

I only wrote one letter yesterday, since it was Sunday, but I wrote two today, so I combined all three into one photo. This is a letter to a friend, one to one of the Amandas, whose unit's Facebook page I found yesterday, and one to a penpal, mailed inside a menu from China Air, which, with decorative tape, made a fun "envelope."


But what a banner day it was for incoming!!

The most exciting thing is the envelope that I put a red star on. This is my first letter from one of the soldier Amandas! I was so excited. That combined with all the pictures I saw of her unit yesterday has made her a "real person" to me, not just a blank wall that I keep throwing letters at.

The rest of the mail was also exciting. There was a letter from one of my Compassion children, a reply from the woman who wrote me a 30 page introductory letter (her reply is only 10 pages, which is a great improvement!). The cute little yellow envelope was from someone at Swap Bot, who wrote a fun letter. And then there were postcards, three from PostCrossing, one from SendSomething, and one from Swap-Bot.

Day #106

It's Saturday!


It's the day I write to the two soldier Amandas. I also wrote a letter to one of the Compassion children and then two pen pal letters, one of which I mailed in an airsick bag from China Air.

The afternoon brought a Swap-Bot postcards and a letter from a pen pal.

Day #105

I got home from my overnight event too late to send any outgoing mail, but my friends hadn't forsaken me.


There is a cute package from Lavender Lizard, which contained a "mini-zine," and there were 3 Post-crossing cards, including one of the great Inge Look ("Grannies in Finland") postcards

Day #104

I only had time to write one short letter today, to our new Compassion Child, Emmanuella.


I was going out for the day, so wasn't here when the mail came, but when I got home, I had a nice bunch of fun mail.


The two postcards are both from Swap-bot swaps and the smaller letter is from pen pal, Noreen

Day #103

Only one outgoing letter today. I received an intro letter from Lynn yesterday and spent time writing her a response...also, the dogs had me up for over an hour in the middle of the night, barking at the police, who had stopped a drunken biker in front of our house, so the need for a morning nap won out over writing another letter!


Incoming today included a packet for my new sponsored child, Emmanuella from Ghana, a pen pal card from Randi in Oklahoma, and a Postcrossing card from Canada

Day #102

A mish-mash of outgoing today.


Actually the top 3 are pen pal letters (two of which were re-mails because I made stupid mistakes in addressing them), but the bottom one was a "dear Rodrigo letter." This young man from Brasil and I have nothing in common and I find his letters to be more of an irritant. I thought I would just not answer, but he sent another letter, so I wrote to let him know that I just didn't think it was going to work out. He's younger than my children and seems to only be interested in heavy metal music and getting drunk. NOT my kinda guy!


Only two things incoming, but what fun. Lynn, in Pennsylvania sent a getting to know you letter. She was the first person to write first and I found her letter charming. And then Treva wrote a letter that for a time I thought I wasn't going to be able to get out of the envelope because she had it taped so securely, but she included such fun things, including a regular post card, the "world's tiniest postcard," and some blank postcards for decorating.

Day #101

I had no letters to answer today, so I wrote two letters to friends in Japan, congratulating them on the Women's Soccer team's win in the World Cup. I was rooting for the Americans, of course, but if they couldn't win, I was thrilled that Japan had something wonderful to celebrate, which I think they sorely needed this year.

The incoming mail was almost overwhelming!



3 pen pal letters (Canada, Brasil, and Ohio), 2 Swap-Bot postcards from the "You Animal" swap, 3 Post-Crossing post cards (California, Netherlands, Japan), and 4 cards from SendSomething people. Also two of my own letters were returned because I made stupid mistakes in addressing the envelopes.

Day #100

Somehow it seems there should be something more exciting about day #100 than just new stamps, but that's about it.


I sent 2 letters to compassion kids and a note to my mother, but since it's Sunday, there is no incoming (or outgoing, for that matter) mail. But the stamps are new, so you can enjoy those!

Day #99

I was kind of lazy today and the only letters I wrote were to the two soldier Amandas.

But I was thrilled to hear from my Compassion kid, Fred, finally. I had been worried about him, but all seems to be well.

Day #98

Home made day!


Four home made postcards went out to SendSomething people today, in addition to a pen pall letter and a letter to one of the Compassion children.

And finally Compassion came through with good mail, after a very long dry spell.


There were letters from both Wainaina in Kenya and Shallon in Uganda, and a newsletter from the office where Anjali lives in India.

There was also a postcard from Belarus through PostCrossing (which made me angry about the so-called "free" postcards we got to send yesterday. I now won't be able to send another postcard probably for 2-4 weeks, until those "free" postcards get delivered. I told the guy who runs it that I had been thinking of cutting back on Postcrossing and it looks like he has just handed me a reason to do that.

Finally there was a weird thing from someone over at IUOMA. Zombies and bloody stuff and nothing that interested me at all.

Day #97

In honor of its 6th anniversary, Postcrossing let everyone send 6 additional postcards for one day. I took advantage of the offer (plus had a regular Postcrossing card to send as well)

Today was also the day to send out the postcards for a Swap-Bot exchange called "You Animal."


Finally, I also sent off a sunflower postcard to a friend who likes sunflowers, and another pen-pal letter (actually a follow-up to one I sent yesterday)


Incoming was a letter from one of my Compassion children (who asks me to "pray for her cute future," which I thought was in itself "cute") and a Postcrossing card from China.

Day #96

It was inevitable...

Today there was only outgoing mail -- a Postcrossing post card, a SendSomething postcard, and a pen pal answer.

But that's ok. Tomorrow is...another day.

Day #95

It's postcard day!

Each of these is going out to a Post-crossing person.

And there was fun stuff incoming.

I loved the little mice on the Postcrossing postcard from Germany. Then there is the hand made postcard from someone in IUOMA and two pen pal letters. The one in the left came in such a beautiful envelope. I'm going to have to find out from these IUOMA folks how they get such clean pastings and what they use for a base for their postcards.

With that theater postcard I made the other day, I stuck everything down with glue, but it didn't seem like it was going to stay stuck, so I pasted it all with tape, but that didn't look very good. I mailed it, but I also liked the design, so I scanned it and then uploaded it to Snapfish and ordered 5 "real" postcards to be mailed.

I think I would make a rotten artist. I could never sell something because I couldn't also keep it!

Day #94

Monday's outgoing


I added these to the batch I did on Sunday. They are a small gift for my cousin, a package for my son's new baby (due in September), a Swap-Bot package for a Dog/Puppy exchange, a Swap-bot postcard to Brasil, a letter to one of the Compassion kids, a response to someone who stumbled across this page and wrote to me, and a pen pal letter. Quite a variety this time!

...and Incoming...

2 Post-crossing postcards, the great hand made card from Linda at IUOMA, and two wonderful postcard orders from the Missive Maven

Day #93

It's Sunday, so only outgoing mail. I have spent most of the day organizing my office, but I did manage to get these ready to go out tomorrow:


Two pen pal letters, one postcard from China, the "Toad Town" postcard to a Post-crossing person. (I took the photo and had the postcard printed) The last one I'm rather proud of, It's a collage postcard made of two theater tickets, part of a program and a couple of show biz stickers. I wish I could print it and make more than one copy!

Day #92

I love the envelope at the top, which is made from a Nugget Market bag.


Also mailed out today: a letter to my mother, letters to the 2 Amandas, and a Postcrossing postcard.

Incoming a letter from someone who came across this page and decided to write, and a clever postcard from Mrs. Andrews.

Day #91

I left the house at 5:30 a.m. today to drive to my mother's house, pick her up, and go with her to a funeral about 2 hours south of San Francisco. By the time I got home, it was after 9 p.m., so needless to say I did not write any outgoing mail today.

But incoming more than made up for it.


First there was the sad notification that my sponsored child Victor, in Bolivia, has been removed from the program. I'm sad about that.

Also in the mail were a card from a person in Oklahoma who found my name while looking for people who like to write letters and decided to write to me (ironically she lives in a town that I've actually visited in Oklahoma). There was a Swap-Bot postcard from someone listing for me things that make her happy. There was a Swap-Bot package filled with wonderful dog-themed things. And there was a letter from a pen pal in Florida.

A very nice way to return home from a funeral! (There was also a wonderful package of mail-related stuff that I ordered from The Frantic Meerkat)

Day #90

There was a penpal letter going to New Zealand, a PostCrossing post card, a SendSomething card to a guy in Wuhan China, where we just visited and a card to the girl who wrote to me because I'm from Davis, her former home town.

Polly was unimpressed by my mail today (but they she's unimpressed by all of my mail). This is from the SwapBot which asked to send a list of 3 things that make you happy.

(I liked her list, which included being unemployed, being in a great relationship, and developing film--who develops film any more? I applaud her!)

Day #89

well, the card on the left below is my first attempt at "mail art." We'll see how it goes. It is an addition to one of the cards I got in China, hopefully making it more interesting.

The others are a response to a penpal, a response to a new person on SendSomething with whom I find I have much in common (age being one things!), and a postcard to a guy in France from PostCrossing.

Incoming is a postcard from PostCrossing and a card from someone who saw my name on SendSomething and wrote because she used to live in Davis and still considers this home.


(the PostCrossing postcard is from Taiwan but it is a card that someone in Sweden sent to her!)

Day #88

I added these to the outgoing mail I collected over the long weekend.


Both were Sendsomething people. Haley is in NY and is an actress...plus likes biking and works in a no-kill shelter. Except for the 50 year difference in our ages, we could be contemporaries! LOL. The envelope I chose for her was a program from Oliver! which, as an actress, I thought she would appreciate.

In the afternoon, I had a lapful of incoming mail.


I'm not sure where the post card came from, but I suspect it was someone from the IUMA, since it doesn't seem to be a postcrossing postcard. The letter with the Gregory Peck stamp was great, a new penpal with whom I have much in common. The other two were from pen pals I've been writing to for awhile, since I started this project, and both were such fun to receive.

Day #87

The zebra envelope may be one of my very favorites.

It's going to a friend who loves zebras. It just all came together just the way I wanted. (The little zebra is actually all black and white; it was the flash that gave it a sepia head.)

The package is going to a pen pal, but I won't say anything about it because I don't want to spoil the surprise. Tomorrow there will be mail delivery again. I hope everyone had a good 4th. I spent most of the day with my 3 year old granddaughter.