Day #141

A trip to the post office.

Today's outgoing was a package to Soldier Amanda, a postcard to another soldier, and a big package of all those letters I wrote yesterday to the Compassion kids.

No incoming again :(

Day #140

This is what it looks like when you write 10 letters and include little gifts to accompany each letter. It was a full day's work!

There was no incoming mail. :(

Day #139

The outgoing mail was a combination of what was written on Sunday, and what written today. Today was a day for long letters.

Only one letter incoming, from Karen, who just moved to Calgary. Now Karen's pen is very light and I struggle to read her letters, and as she just moved, I needed her return address from the envelope, but the end of the address (which turned out to be "SW") had been stamped over by the post office. So I did a Google search and--what fun!--I found a real estate video of the guy who was trying to sell their house. So I got to see it before they moved in.

I also created a spreadsheet today to track when letters arrive and addresses of writers. I know that many are going to drop off because we don't click and this is a good way to track that...and discard the drop offs after a few months.

I found out I have heard from 36 people since I started the project. My best writer has sent 8 letters. Second are two women who have each written 4 times, then 3 who have written 3 times (not all of these wrote their first letter at the same time, of course). Thirteen have only written once and I guess after receiving my reply aren't interested in continuing the correspondence, but who knows--maybe I will hear again from them some day. I'm happy to get a letter a month from someone. Not happy...thrilled!

I also found a letter buried under the junk on my desk which I haven't answered in over a month...I will be answering that letter tonight! (Maybe that happened to some of my letters that have not been answered.)

Day #138

It's the weekly letter to soldier Amanda, and a reply to the neat letter I got yesterday.

Incoming was a note from my daughter, a penpal letter, an IOUMA envelope of goodies, and 4 post-crossing post cards

Day #137

These were two penpal letters that I sent, one of which was an introductory letter through SwapBot.

But incoming was a sweet note and also a great letter from someone in Germany, whom I want to get to know.

Day #136

I had to leave early today, so I only got one compassion letter written.

This is to Emmanuella, my sponsored child in Ghana, and I included a book about butterflies.

Lots of fun stuff in the afternoon.

Other than a Compassion brochure telling me about Ghana (which I very much appreciated), these were all postcards, 3 from PostCrossing (Russia, Florida and a home made card), 2 from a Swap-Bot, and one from the IOUMA.

Day #135

I sent out 2 Postcrossing postcards, one of which was requested to be sent in an envelope. And there were also two pen pal letters.

This was the only incoming mail today, a post-crossing card from Hong Kong all in German--and I don't read German!

I looked at other postcards this postcrosser had sent and wondered why I rated the ugly, unreadable one!

Day #134

Here's the outgoing mail--a pen pal (envelope decorated with Washi tape) and two postcrossing postcards.

The afternoon mail was a postcrossing card, my first from Norway.

Day #133

Three outgoing today. A penpal letter, a thank you letter, and the weekly letter to Soldier Amanda.


Good incoming mail. Finally heard from our Japanese daughter that she, her friend and family are OK after the earthquake. There were 2 penpal letters, an envelope of great postcards from Speck, and a card from Brasil for the IOUMA.


But even better were two letters from two of my Compassion kids, Fred in the Philipppines and the first letter from Emmanuella, in Ghana.

Day #132

Today was a very busy day...and Sunday to boot, so no incoming mail and not much for tomorrow's outgoing either.

There were 2 Swap-Bot postcards and one for Send-Something and then a brief penpal letter.

Day #131

Outgoing, there was a penpal letter and 3 soldier letters (to misc. soldiers who needed a boost). Also, a postcard about how I'm spending my summer vacation (at the butterfly exhibit in Santa Barbara).


I used some Washi decorative tape to decorate one of the soldier letters. This is a new item for me and I'm getting the hang of how to be creative.

In the mailbox was a letter from a pen pal, a SendSomething postcard, a Postcrossing card, and an art card from a guy in Brasil who is a member of IOUMA.

Lastly, there was this great book from The Pen Thief, which I won in a give-away contest.

I'm thrilled!

Day #130

Two outgoing today, one to a penpal in the UK and one to my granddaughter, thanking her for taking me to see butterflies when we were visiting her last weekend.


Incoming included a Swap-Bot dog swap card, a penpal letter, and a card from someone on SendSomething.

Day #129

Today was a very busy day, and I didn't have time to write anything but one postcard, which went to a SendSomething person who likes The Simpsons.


But there was nice incoming mail. A postcard from the Netherlands thru PostCrossing, and three very nice penpal letters.

Day #128

Today was a day to send Post-crossing postcards.

They went to Australia, Netherlands, Taiwan, Belarus, Finland and Greece.

No incoming.

Day #127

The nice thing about going away for a long weekend, is when you get back you get a stack of mail!
There were 4 post-crossing cards, 4 Swap-Bot dog postcards, and 2 SendSomething postcards

There were also 2 Swap-Bot letters and a letter from Anjali--the first she has actually written herself, which was very nice!

I also sent out a bunch of stuff, 5 dog cards for the Swap-Bot exchange, a letter to Amanda, one to a pen pal, and a letter to Denny's about the waitress we had last night (who deserved a commendation)

Day #126

This was the first day I have written nothing and received nothing because we had our mail held while we were away for the weekend and got home too late to pick it up. Should be a lot (I hope) when we go to the post office tomorrow!

Day #125

From our adventures yesterday

We went to the natural history museum and walked Stearns Wharf...so I sent postcards to 2 penpals to commemorate that!

It's Sunday...no incoming

Day #124

Ever prepared...

I remembered to bring a writing kit of sorts, so I could send post cards from Santa Barbara.

Naturally, no incoming today.

Day #123

Two outgoing postcards today.


One is for post-crossing, and the other is kind of a goodbye card to a woman I've been sponsoring through Women for Women Int'l. She will graduate from the program next month and I loved this animated postcard which showed a caterpillar turning into a butterfly (technically, probably a moth, but it was the thought which counts!)...if you look closely, you can see the figure of the caterpillar underneath the moth's wings.

No incoming mail.

Day #122

This was kind of a long pen pal letter and I thought it was going to be the only one I would write today.


But then I had time to write a quick letter to my Compassion child, Fred, to send him this little pad of mini dollars to show him what American money looks like. Notice also the alphabet tape on both the pen pal letter and Fred's letter, something I found at the dollar store.


No incoming mail today.

Day #121

I did my bit...

This is a letter to a pen pal, two cold-call letters to SendSomething people, and a card to a PostCrossing person.

No incoming mail today, BUT, I did win a contest! The Pen Thief was giving away this lovely book and pen to celebrate her birthday.

I never win anything, but what the heck...I chose an in-joke number: 63. And I won!!!! Thanks, Misty! Can't wait to see it.

Day #120

Going out today were 2 Postcrossing cards, and a birthday card to my friend Jim Brochu.


Incoming were a postcrossing postcard and something from someone in IOUMA (that's the one on the left)

Day #119

Only one letter to go out, but it was a long one.


More fun incoming. A letter from a 16 year old, Kate, from Michigan. She and her sister are starting the "365 Project," hoping to get 365 letters over the next year and to hear about all the states in the union. (If you're interested in helping them, you can check out their web page here.

I also had a Postcrossing card, a Send Something card, and another letter from Michelle in South Carolina, complete with a couple of lovely postcards.

It's Sunday, so nothing goes out, but I wrote these...

I had found some great cat yoga postcards and sent them out mostly to SendSomething cat lovers. The two letters were both to soldiers, one to Amanda (the one with the cool "courage" sticker I found at Michael's) and one to a misc. soldier who is lonely and asked for mail.

Day #118

I only wrote one postcard, for Postcrossing, today.


But I got some nice incoming mail. The post card is for Swap-Bot, and then fun pen pal letters from Canada and Texas. Good day.

Day #117

Whew. Don't tell me I didn't write letters today!

This is a letter to each of my 10 Compassion kids, each letter with a little gift, like a small book or some stickers or soccer cards or something that is appropriate for the specific child.

I also sent a care package to Amanda, in Afghanistan. Amanda #2 has received her notice that she is returning to the States (yay, Amanda!) so I won't be writing to her again.

Love those flat rate packages! I don't know how heavy my box to Amanda was, but it had a bunch of books as well as lots of food in it and it only cost $10 to send.

There was no incoming mail today. :(

Day #116

Just 3 outgoing today.


All three of these went to pen pals, 2 through SendSomething. (I liked that I used the ticket for "Oliver!" to seal the flap on the back of the "Oliver!" envelope.)

The one incoming was really cool.

A post-crossing card made by Lori in South Carolina. It's her favorite digital painting. I loved it!

Day #115

A bit of outgoing mail today...


A note to a friend in Australia, 2 pen pal letters, a recipe postcard to my friend Lynn (who just hosted me in San Diego), and 2 Postcrossing cards.

No incoming mail today. :(

Day #114

Starting to get up to date on letters.

This is this week's letters to the two Amandas, and a Swap-Bot exchange for Monsters postcard exchange (Hey--monsters can be cute, right?)


It was a thrill to get the afternoon mail, which included a second letter from Esther, this one with the photos attached. There was also a postcrossing postcard, a letter from a friend in Japan, reporting that nobody in her family had been affected by the earthquake or tsunami (though they are still concerned about the nuclear reactor). There was also a pen pal letter from the Netherlands, and a Mail Artist letter from Brasil, though the writing is so tiny and so light that I can barely read it.