NOTE TO EVERYBODY

I have not updated in a month, nor answered many letters.  I've been busy, out of town, and "conflicted," and had computer problems as well, but I promise that I WILL get everything answered eventually.  But we are getting ready to go to Europe and won't be home until the end of the month -- we have a dog sitter moving in to take care of the dogs, and bringing her dogs with her, so don't bother about breaking in...if you make it past the dogs, there is nothing to steal anyway.

But I mainly want to tell MELISSA IN MINNESOTA that I received your amazing letter and don't have time to answer it, but I LOVED it. I am humbled by your inventiveness.

August will, I hope, be the start of a new leaf for me, so everyone please forgive me and be patient!

Out of order

I have a ton of incoming mails to photograph, but I can't hold off on this one any longer.  This may be the fanciest letter I've ever received, from Melissa in Minnesota.  I was blown away when I opened it, May 31.  I hope to be answering it today.

Are you there, Karl?

I received this from a Grandpa named Karl, who gave no information as to how he came to send it to me.  I can't find him on SwapBot or Post-Crossing.  Karl, if you're there, please drop me an e-mail to basykes@dcn.org and identify yourself...and thank you for the cute card!

Guys, I am so behind on posting income and outgoing mail.  I really do hope to get caught up.  Someday!

5/18/2012

I joined a SwapBot swap where we had to send one "free" card, some sort of advertising card.  Someone had come into the book store this week to drop off a bunch of these cards, so I decided to choose this one.

And then in the mail were these two post-crossing cards (both from China), and an envelope with 3 cards in it from a Swap Bot person,.

5/17/2012

I sent postcards of 4-legged animals to 3 different Swap Bot people, wrote a business letter of sorts, and sent a note to a nice person who had contacted me, out of the blue, from my address on this sitw.

5/16/12

Hopefully this puts me back on track again, with things I sent today...

There were two Post-crossing people who liked children's illustrations (one was a toddler).  And the Ira Gershwin envelope went to a pen pal.

This was incoming today.

 

There was a Mothers Day card from my sister-in-law, a postcard from Swap-Bot, and a letter from my penpal, with a photo of her twins.

From YOU

Here are the things that have come through the mail lately...with my apologies for not answering a lot of them yet...

 These postcards are all from a Swap Bot "National Postcard Week" swap, a new postcard every day from the same person.  I love the variety!

 

This is a Postcrossing card, a letter from the Netherlands, a mother's day card from Canada, a change of address ostcard, and 5 postcards from a SwapBot swap.

 

Two Postcrossing cards, one SwapBot card, an enclosure card from a Swap Bot "exchange something interesting" and two pen pal letters (one was sent twice!)

My Mother's Day cards--from 8 month old Lacie, from 4 year old Brianna, and from 46 year old Jeri!

 

 I think the card are all Postcrossing, there were Compassion letters (4 of them all together), and a couple of pen pal letters

 

These are all Postcrossing cards.

OK...here we go

\I'm trying to get caught up on the last week or so of mail, in and out.  These are the things I have sent out. As you can see, I've done a good job with sending out postcards, not such a good job sending letters.  I can't even remember most of where these cards went.

 

 

This batch includes a letter to President Obama, congratulating him on his

support of gay marriage, and assuring him he had my vote (which I will cast proudly)

Explanation

To everyone who has written, and to everyone to whom I have written, I have been in a funk for several weeks now, due to a couple of deaths and some personal matters.  I apologize for not posting photos, and for not writing.  I will be getting to it soon. 

Day #309

I sent so many things out today, it takes 3 photos...

These were orphaned postcards I was sent, 2 from Russia and one from Yosemite Park.  I wrote a message on them and sent them back.

These were two post-crossing cards and a card sent to our granddaughter.

I actually wrote 3 letters and the cowboy postcard was another one for Post-Crossing.

Incoming was gratifying too.

A post crossing card from Belarus, a lovely letter from a sponsored child in Kenya, and 3 postcards enclosed in that West End Review card, a Swap-Bot exchange.

Day #308

Again, I had good intentions to write, and actually got half of a letter written, but then came news that another friend had just died (the second long-term close friend this week) and that pretty much ended any chatty letter writing.

But it was a good feeling to get these incoming messages.

The envelope from Bonnie is from the orphan postcard project, with more postcards for me to write, there was a letter from my penpal in Germany, one from a penpal in So. Africa, and two Swap Bot cards.

Day #307

I had great plans to write this morning, but had an early morning get together with some friends and by the time I got home, the mail had already been picked up.  But this card came from a Swap-Bot mothers day exchange.

Day #306

I believe both of the postcards were for Swap Bot swaps.  The letter went to a pen pal.

The incoming were a mix of Post-crossing and Swap-Bot cards and a letter from my pen pal Kimi

Day #305

A good friend of ours died this morning.  I just couldn't find the desire to write a chatty pen pal latter.  But this was the incoming mail.

Loved the two letters from compassion kids--both were long, chatty letters.  The other envelope came from a Swap-Bot person.

Day #304

Another day with no incoming mail, but 3 cards sent thru Post-crossing.

I should mention that I have a horrible cold and each day I sit down to write a letter, I end up in the recliner taking a nap!

Day #303

These post cards were all for Swap Bot swaps.

These are post-crossing and SwapBot

Day #302

I sent out one letter today, and there was no incoming mail

Day #301

These are two post-crossing cards I sent off this morning.  The one on the left is actually an ad card,but I covered up the ad so I could write a message.  The girl said she liked Cirque du Soleil and this reminded me of that.

Only one incoming from my pen pal Patty, who is always nice to hear from.

Day #300

Well, after all that great mail yesterday, there was no mail today, but it was post card day for me.  I sent out lots and lots of postcards.

All of these were post-crossing cards.  The envelope went to a guy in Austria who asked that his card be sent in an envelope with "nice stamps."  The Quaker card was one I made for a woman who suggested it would be fun to receive such a card.

 

These were the orphaned cards I requested...one in honor of Braille, two cartoonish ones from the Netherlands, the Great Wall and Summer palace from China, and one from Avignon.  They all came pre-addressed and I just had to write a message on each, put a stamp on it and return it to the sender.  Kind of a fun project.  If you're interested, you can find out more at The Orphaned Postcard Project.

Finally there were these:

The top two went for Swap Bot swaps and the bottom one was another PostCrossing card.

Day #299

I love coming home from a short trip and finding all the mail waiting.  We were gone over the weekend and came home to:

-- all these wonderful post-crossing cards

two from the Netherlands, one from Belarus, the dogs came from Roanoak, VA,  the multi-view is from Poland, the church (which is gorgeous) is from Switzerland, and the bottom  right card is from Poland.

And then there was:

Three of these are from a Swap Bot exchange and the envelope is from the Orphaned Postcard projects, cards from all over the world, from which list I chose a group to be mailed to me and I will write on them and mail them back to the sender.

Day #298

This is actually 15 postcards and a letter.  I am in a Swap-Bot swap where you send 5 postcards in an envelope to someone.  I chose strange cards that matched the interests of the person to whom I was writing...I hope.  The letter is to one of my faithful (and patient) pen pals.

Some nice postcards in the mail.  The top right is for a Swap-Bot exchange; it's from New South Wales in Austraila.  Next to it is "Dorothy's House" in Liberal, Kansas.  This was for another Swap-Bot exchange, for a poem on a post card.  The writer chose Langdon Smith's 1895 poem, "Evolution."  Bottom left is the British museum from my cousin's widower, Fred, who is visiting London at present, and the bottom right is a Postcrossing card from Amish Country.

Day #297

The postcard was for a Swap-Bot exchange for sending a picture of a bridge.  Then there were 4 letters, including one to someone who found this blog through The Missive Maven

The only incoming was this lovely picture of a Memorial Rose Garden, labeled "not official" by Betty in Texas.  I wish I had contact information so I could thank her for it!

Day #296

Here are four post-crossing cards and a letter to a SwapBot person, all outgoing

There was no incoming today.  :(

Day #295

I was catching up on stuff that had been recorded on our DVR while we were at Easter dinner last night, so I only got a postcard and a letter ready to go out this morning.

The postcard went to a school which joined post-crossing to get a view of the world.  I thought that this old schoolhouse in Old Sacramento would be interesting for them.

I also wrote a letter to my sponsored child in the Philippines, but that gets sent by e-mail through Compassion, Int'l.

There was a great bunch of incoming mail.

Two great post-crossing cards, from Spain and Finland (including one of the great Inge Look cards) and a wonderful Swap-Bot card from Perth (Western Australia).  Then there were three penpal letters, and one Swap Bot letter from someone with whom, I think it's fair to say, I have absolutely nothing in common.  But that's the breaks when you enter into a random swap.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Day #294

Outgoing:  two post-crossing post cards, one pen pal post card and a letter to a pen pal.

 

Incoming:  a cute Easter card from Kimi and 3 post-crossing cards, including on of the wonderful Inge Look cards, which are my favorites!