June Totals (A Little Late)

I'm a few days behind, as usual, but I figured it was time to come back and post the final results for the month of June. I have to say, I think it's been the busiest (and therefore best) month of incoming mail since I started penpalling last August. Speaking of, it'll be a year next month! :)

Anyway, on Saturday the 29th, three more pieces of mail came in, bumping the total incoming to 36!

Letter from Bri- the first page is type-written! :)

A colorful and creative letter from Elizabeth

A letter from Jessica on beautiful stationery.

I also sent out a package to my new penpal/swap partner, Lauren. However, as I didn't have time to include a letter as I intended, I won't count it as outgoing. Which means my overall Incoming/Outgoing totals were.... 36 (Inc) and 37 (Out)! So not only was it the best for incoming, it was probably the most I've accomplished in outgoing. Great mail month!

All of the incoming mail for June. :D

And somehow, I'm back up to 12 letters to reply to... So, looks like I'll be spending tonight and tomorrow in another letter-writing marathon. Sounds like a fantastic way to spend the firework-less 4th of July to me!

Incoming: 33 Tári, Caddi, Eri, Stephanie, Ashley, Abbye, Gabby, Beth, Laura and Langley, Anastasya, Sandra, Laura, Emily, Shannah, Laura A., Irina, Fab, Kay, Bri, Kandy, Katherine, Beth, Ilaria, Eri, Melanie, Irene, Morrison, Stephanie I., Everett, Karli, Barbara, Shannah, Sam, Bri, Elizabeth, Jessica

Outgoing: 37 Ilaria, Morrison, Shannah, Michi, Eri, Caddi, Stephanie, Tári, Valérie, Elizabeth, Abbye, Yasmeen, Anastasya, Beth , Sara, Sandra, Laura L., Laura A., Stephanie I, Alicja, Fab, Shannah, Bri, Kandy, Kay, Ilaria, Simona, Beth, Romaine, Barbara, Irina, Mel, Shannah, Stephanie, Cazzie, Hannah, Eri

A Failed Attempt, But No Worries!

So, bad news! I failed my first attempt at Lettermo. Only, I don't really feel like it's bad news, because while I was attempting it, I felt obligated to write the letters and wasn't really enjoying it. So I stopped. But I haven't stopped mailing or anything, I've just been too lazy to update - as usual. :)

Since my last post, I've received letters from Bri, Kandy, Katharina and Beth.

I've sent letters to: Fab, Shannah and Bri.

Incoming: 22 Tári, Caddi, Eri, Stephanie, Ashley, Abbye, Gabby, Beth, Laura and Langley, Anastasya, Sandra, Laura, Emily, Shannah, Laura A., Irina, Fab, Kay, Bri, Kandy, Katherine, Beth

Outgoing: 23 Ilaria, Morrison, Shannah, Michi, Eri, Caddi, Stephanie, Tári, Valérie, Elizabeth, Abbye, Yasmeen, Anastasya, Beth , Sara, Sandra, Laura L., Laura A., Stephanie I, Alicja, Fab, Shannah, Bri

Paper Cranes and Introduction Letters

Hi guys! (And girls!) Random fact: Did you know that "guys" in the sense of "Hi, guys" like that is foul language in my household? It is frowned upon and will  get you called out by my mother in a heartbeat.

Anyway, that's beside the point.

As it's been a holiday weekened there isn't much incoming mail to talk about, with the exception of a lovely letter from my penpal Almantë (hah, I have the alt code memorized! Finally!) which came with an awesome candy bar and a set of coins! 8D No pictures again because I fail at life. Hopefully I'll have a reply out sometime this week!

As for outgoing, the only reply I've written lately will be on its way to Bri tomorrow, the letter being just one part of a parcel I hope she'll enjoy! :)

In addition to that, I have two postcrossing cards going out and six introduction letters: To Tiina in Estonia, Karli, Kandy, Katharina, Laura and Gabby. I've been writing first letters all weekend, but I can't complain because I volunteered to do so in the penpal ad I posted. However, I won't be doing any more for a while x_x

The other thing I wanted to talk about is The Paper Cranes Project. In case you didn't see my previous post about the two snail-mail related projects I'm working on, this is one I've started recently, the goal of which is to receive 1,000 origami cranes from all over the world via snail mail. As it's nearly midnight and I'm going to have a hard enough time getting up tomorrow after a three day weekend I won't go into details here, but if you're interested in the blog see the link above. And if you'd like to contribute, click here for a direct link to the guidelines/information.

Also, if anyone wants to be a dear and help spread the word about the project, I'd really appreciate it! I'm bad with publicity. :(

Take care! Here's hoping there will be lots of mail to blog about tomorrow.

-Shelby

The Day Before

Hi, everyone. Today's post has a little to do with this week's incoming mail and a lot to do with one of the biggest days of my life so far- graduation day!

Technically, I'm going to start by sharing a bit of today- the day before graduation- with you. Between these stupid, sudden allergies of unknown origin and the aftermath of an argument within my house Monday night, I started the morning off in a pretty bad mood. However, that changed pretty quickly when all the people in my office approached me shortly after my morning break, carrying a big basket full of goodies for graduation. I figured they might do something like bring food and maybe some spare change when I go back on Friday, but I definitely was not expecting anything so amazing. The five of them had apparently been planning this for weeks, and instead of telling you the amazing project, I'll show you!

The Basket!

The basket's contents!

 And now, for a closer look!

Stickers and colored pencils! The alphabet set is actually a series of pages with about
360 ABC/Number stickers in all- I definitely needed those! And there are 48 owls,
which I assume they picked because I've been talking about the owl quilt my mother
is making me for my dorm room. The things they catch on to that I never would have expected!



200 stationery sheets and a matching pen! This is probably my favorite item of the whole set!



Yarn! When I first started back in January, I was in the middle of my huge crochet kick.
I haven't crocheted in a while after finishing an exhausting rainbow blanket for my little cousin,
but my inspiration came back with these awesome Buzz Lightyear shades!

And second-to-last-but-not-least, the food! They've apparently caught on to all my favorites
from our daily conversations. Chocolate fudge poptarts, a Coke and a Dr. Pepper, Frank's Red
Hot Sauce (which I'm slightly obsessive about; they often tease me that I need to bring a bottle
to keep in the office- looks like I can, now!), soy sauce, which I'm equally obsessed with (I had a
drawer full of the individual packets until yesterday! My stock is replenished!) and finally, Salt and
Vinegar pringles. I was so surprised that they remembered my choice of flavors that I didn't even realize
there were $20 taped onto the Pringles can until they said "Did you see what elsewas on there?" as I moved
on to the next item! Shows how unobservant I am.

All in all, I thought it was a sweet gesture from all of them. I almost cried, but I managed to control myself and instead of gushing, I settled for hugs for everybody. Thanks so much, everyone! Everything was so neatly wrapped that I almost didn't want to break into it, but I wated to share my day's highlight with my followers.

I also received $100 from one of my dad's closest work friends today! Also completely unexpected and appreciated more than I can put into words or write on any Thank You card. People amaze me! Also in my home mailbox was a $20 Target gift card. I have a feeling I'll have a hard time spending this on something school-related instead of 20 items from the dollar bins!

And as if that wasn't enough, as I'm typing this post, the doorbell rings, and it's our next door neighbor with a check for another $50. ;-; I'm sooooo overwhelmed! I can't thank everyone enough!

For those of you who don't know, tomorrow evening I'll walk the stage and become an official high school graduate. With my stage fright, I'm already a nervous wreck- I bet I'll be in hysterics throughout practice tomorrow morning (which I'm told will take at least two hours! Eek.) I don't know for sure who all is coming yet, but I'm excited to find out. Then again, as I don't want to be there myself, I don't blame the ones who are opting to come to the graduation party at my house Saturday instead of sitting through the ceremony tomorrow.

In conclusion to this part of the post, I just wanted to share how much gratitude I was feeling and rave about some of the amazing gifts I've received today. And now, for my penpals, the part you're probably more interested in  hearing about:

Yesterday I received an amazing package from my penpal Bri. In it was the return of the latest book I sent her- Eon: Dragoneye Reborn, an entire season of a TV show called Pushing Daisies for me to watch (I hope to sit down and get started on it as soon as I'm finished here!), another long letter, an ATC, and a ton of pictures of her, her house, her family, and her room. She's the first of my penpals to have sent pictures, and I must say I find them incredibly special. I've been going around my house taking pictures on a disposable camera. I hope they turn out well and can be developed soon enough that I won't have to keep her waiting for the response too long! Also included was a lot of star confetti in honor of graduation/getting into college!

Today I received some Chinese coins and two nifty bookmarks for a tag on the Postcrossing Forums, as well as something from the "Offering a Lot, at least 20 little items" tag game. In this one came 3 tiny keys, 5 kawaii dragon stickers, a bag of caramel! tea which I haven't made yet, and two lettersets- Rilakkuma and Hello Kitty!

Lastly, I received a letter from my new penpal Cazzie. With it she included a kawaii key cover!

Sorry for the lack of pictures on the incoming mail. I haven't been at the top of my game when it comes to that, lately. D:

I can't wait to sit down and reply to everyone on my new stationery! And while drinking a cup of caramel tea!

Hope everyone has a fantastic, less-nerve-wracking-than-mine-will-be day tomorrow!

-Shelby

Of Scottish Sweets and a Letter From Germany

08 May 2012

I've been stalking pen pal blogs like crazy lately, and I have to say that they've definitely inspired me to better keep up with my own. I went through a bit of a lull in not posting about my incoming mail, and I've never really talked much about the outgoing, but from now on I'm making a goal to post a new blog entry at least once a week. Starting with tonight's entry, which is full of swapped goodies and a couple of letters! :)

First off, the Scottish sweets! I received them today from the "Something... Tag" on Swap-bot.com. Who could resist speaking up at the promise of "something to eat"?! I was so excited about trying my first foreign food that I forgot to take a picture before opening it, though. ._.  Luckily, I remembered eventually!

Tunnock's Caramel Wafer Biscuits. I love the package they came in!
And for anyone who's curious, they taste a bit like Star Crunches.

I also received a newspaper and a couple of entertainment magazines from the "International Local Newspaper" swap on SB.com, but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. Funnily enough, even though it was an international swap, my partner ended up being from the same state! :)
 
Next up is what I received from a private swap there on SB. The exchange was supposed to be two ATCs by me in exchange for a few packets of stickers, but I ended up getting a lovely hand-drawn envelope and two amazing ATCs out of the deal.

Panda envelope, stickers, and two ATCs- "Turtle on a Log" and "Sleeping Fox."
Both were hand-drawn. Aren't they pretty?

Finally, I've had a few incoming letters since the last update!

A letter from Destiny, and my first received ATC- "Within the Red Queen's Gaze"!
Also hand-drawn. <3 I envy all these peoples' artistic abilities.
Working on your reply, Nee!

A very long letter from Bri! In it she included a pack of buttons
and a picture of a striped elephant. Everything's better with stripes!
Your reply and the next book are on their way to you, Bri!

And last, but certainly not least, is a letter from my new penpal Caddi in Germany (who I met through Sendsomething.net, which arrived so much faster than I could have expected. Thank you, Caddi, for the speedy reply! Everyone else, go check out her blog here!

The Envelope, which is beautiful! Made from a newspaper, I think?
I like it very much! 

The letter, which was written on beautiful stationery!

And the stamps! I've never posted a picture of the stamps before,
but they're very pretty as well, so I decided to start doing so!

 Hopefully soon I'll be able to blog about an incoming box of candy from England and a surprise someone bought me in an Etsy Faves swap!