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

New Penpals!

Between swaps, postcards and letters I've had a full mail week so far! I can't even remember all of the packages that have come in, but my absolute favorite was the package of candy and other goodies from my penpal Lizzie in the U.K. I finally have Crispy M&Ms!

Letter-wise, I've received three so far, all of which are from new penpals!

First off, I got an introduction letter from my new penpal through NaNoWriMo.org, Beth!

Letter from Beth. Status: In Queue

 Second is a new penpal that found me through my old penpal ad on Penpal of the Week! This was the only random letter I received in reply to the ad, and as I wasn't expecting it, it made Monday a very great afternoon indeed.

Letter from Kay. Status: Replied on 5/11.

And last but certainly not least, today I received a letter from Abbye, who I wrote to after reading her awesome penpal on Penpal of the Week a few weeks back. Along with the letter, she sent me some postcards! Much appreciated, Abbye!

Letter from Abbye. Status: In queue.

Sorry for a short, not-so-detailed post, but I only decided to sit down and post a blog entry a few minutes ago, and I'm already on the verge of passing out. It's been a long week and I'm looking forward to a 4-day week next week and a three-day week following that! Yay for graduation, registration and Memorial Day!

On 5/15/2012 I mailed a whole freezer-size Ziploc bag completely full of letters and packages. I was careless and forgot to write down what all went out, though. I know there's a package on its way to Destiny, as well as a letter to my new penpal Eri in Japan, six postcrossing PCs, a "Pick and Choose" tag to Russia, notecards with matching envies to Slovenia... That's all I remember!

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!

Postage is Outrageous

All I have to say for this week is this: WOW.

This week I received two letters and five postcards. The first letter was from Destiny, and with it she sent an awesome new pen and a handmade ATC. My very first ATC exchange. >w< Anyone else want to make me some? Today I received a very long letter from Bri, with an awesome pictured of a striped elephant AND a pack of beautiful buttons! The five postcards were from the Netherlands, the Netherlands, Belarus, Germany and somewhere else I can't remember right now because it's 11:00 p.m. and I need sleep after a full work week. xD; -fail- One of these days I'm going to scan all of my postcards and share them with all of my followers.

What I really felt like ranting about today, though, was the fact that I spent at LEAST $65 on shipping this week. A big part of that was a $25 box I shipped to my new friend Lizzie over in the UK- we're exchanging boxes of candy, and boy am I excited! <3 So that explains a little bit of it.

Other than that, I sent:

-Three sets of American coins. Two to China, one to Ukraine.

-Something Mickey Mouse for the "Something Tag" on the postcrossing forums.

-Quick pick 5 flat mail swap for Swap-Bot (regional)

-An $8 + shipping Etsy Faves swap (Swap-Bot)

-A travelling notebook to Australia

-A local newspaper and a few magazines (Swap-Bot)

So needless to say, I'm feeling pretty poor right now. I did receive my end of the local newspaper swap, and was excited to see it was from a fellow Arkansan. <3

Some things I'm still awaiting include:

-A set of Ukrainian coins (Postcrossing forums)

-A set of Chinese coins (Postcrossing forums)

-Something to put on my keys (Postcrossing forums) - Did I mention I'm collecting keychains now?

-My end of the Etsy Faves swap, though that could take a few weeks. (Swapbot)

-A travelling notebook from Japan (Postcrossing forums)

-A quick pick 5 flat mail swap. (Swapbot)

And I think that's it. As you can see I'm pretty crazy for my new hobby, swapping, but this week has showed me that I might have to space it out a little, or at least keep to flat mail swaps...

Swaps

04.25.2012
First off, I must say it's been an awesome week for snail mail! I've met two new people on IP- Laura in Finland and Cazzie in the UK, both of whom I sent letters out to today. Monday I received a letter from Aliaa in Egypt, and sent a reply on Tuesday. <3 I received postcards of London and Paris from my new friend Nana, a postcrossing card from Finland, and today I received letters from Almante and Melanie as well as a post card from Rachel, who discovered my penpal ad on Penpal of the Week.

So, thanks to everyone who's made me a happy camper every day this week!

In other news, I've recently discovered a love for swapping. This is mostly due to Swapsomething.net, which I discoved on someone's blog (I can't remember whose), which I in turn discovered -once again- from Penpal of the Week.

Anyway, if you're interested in swapping things and haven't heard of them, both Sendsomething.net and Swap-Bot.org are fantastic sites for organizing such events. You can find me on S2 as Shelby and on SB as Beh. I have yet to participate in any swaps or receive any random acts of kindness from S2, but here's hoping! :)

Catching Up and Some Big News

04.21.2012
Okay, so! I haven't been keeping up with my blog as well as I would like. I haven't posted anything about my incoming/outcoming mail in a long while, which is disheartening because that was the original purpose of the blog in the first place. So, while I don't remember what all has come in since my last post, I just wanted to list some of the mail that's gone out this week:

4/21- Letters sent to Kate, Ashley and Victoria.
4/19- Book sent back to Bri!

I've also received quite a few postcards lately. I need to learn how to operate my scanner so I can upload images, because some of them have been so cute I want to brag on them!

In other news, I finished reading The Forest of Hands and Teeth- which is the book I sent back to Bri earlier this week. I have to admit, it was my very first zombie book and I was iffy about it at first. But now I've borrowed my aunt's Kindle to read the two sequels, and I'm on a huge post-apocalyptic kick. I've even gone back and started re-reading The Host.

And now on to the afore-mentioned (not-mail-related) BIG NEWS.

Wednesday, my mother and I drove up to a private college about two hours away for a tour. I'd been to the campus once before for "Honors Day", when there were dozens of other seniors competing for scholarships and touring and whatnot. The crowd and the original scholarship that that first day offered were very discouraging, and since then I'd talked myself into staying in town, keeping my job and just taking online classes at a tech school. I'd even told my dad I didn't plan on going anywhere, and he was pretty relieved because he doesn't want me to go away.

Since that first day in November, the college has done all the figuring and it turns out I got more money than they previously expected. Meaning, it's now within reach, but I was still a little bitter and had my mind made up that I would be content to stay at home for college.

So, the whole drive up there I kept telling mysef it was a waste of time, I didn't want to go, I didn't want to want to go there, etc. I told myself over and over again that I was going to hate it.

....Well. Then we pulled onto campus, and the first thing we saw was a sign (not a paper sign; a real, printed metal sign) on the first parking spot, saying it was reserved for guest Shelby.

Right. Guess who bawled.

After that, my resolved faltered. I ended up loving the dorms and I already knew I loved the cafeteria, and I found myself drawn in by all the promise of their unique classes and outdoor, extraciricular programs.

That said, guess who's going away to college this fall! As a very rooted, very dependent person, I'll admit I'm pretty terrified. I'm socially awkward and don't know how I'm going to survive on my own when I still rely on my mom to pack my lunch for me. But at the same time, I know this is something that I need to do. It'll be good for me, whether I get up there and adjust like I'm sure I will, and even if I don't. It's going to be a learning experience, an it's such a great opportunity.

My dad's out of town, so even though I've called to tell him, I'm not sure how he really feels about it. I know my parents are both proud of me, but I've done my fair share of crying because I know they're going to miss me. I'll miss them too, but for now I'm going to keep reminding myself this is exciting.

Lots of Outgoing Mail And Some Books

3-9-12

Hello, peeps! This has been a productive week for mail (specifically, outgoing). So far I've sent letters to Bri, Melanie, Ashley, Destiny, and Kate, and a swap of a 10x10 crochet square to Missouri. I have six outgoing postcards via postcrossing, to Spain (2), Finland, Thailand, Japan, and Rusia. Finally, I've sent a book to Bri, and I think it should arrive today or tomorrow.

And today (or sometime this week, seeing as I haven't checked my box since last Saturday), I received a letter from Almante! She wrote it on Vampire Knight-themed paper, and even though I haven't seen it, i think it's rather awesome. x3

There's a sticker of a puppy on the envelope, too- see? <3

In other news, I'm still waiting on my One Piece pocketwatch to arrive. It's coming from China and the sender says it takes anywhere from 15-25 days to get here. Today's the 19th day, so hopefully it'll be here soon!

I've also been a little less of a tightwad these past few days. I paid for the postcards I sent out today (which granted, wasn't too expensive as they're only about a dollar each), but I also bought The Lion King 2 on DVD yesterday, and then breakfast at McDonald's, including coffee for my mom. I might have spent a full $40 in the last two days! Time to be thrifty again, huh?

And lastly, I've already finished 2.5 out of the six books my granndma bought me last weekend. Right now I'm halfway through The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. Here are the books I finished earlier this week.

Darker Still by Leanna Renee Hieber- YA Fiction/Paranormal Romance type. Set in the late 1880s- very gothic-y. Lots of corsets and fancy evening gowns and gossiping girls (minus the main character, who is mute), a gypsy-like spiritualist woman, and a young English lord who's soul has been sealed away inside a painting. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, and have been doing my best to not speak like I'm from Victorian era England at work all week.

 House of Many Ways by Dianna Wynne Joes- the sequel to Howl's Moving Castle. I had contemplated buying this after reading HMC, but didn't want to go through the trouble of buying it online. I unexpected found it in the kid's section at B&N last weekend, though, and it was one of the few my grandma got for me. Honestly, I was a tad disappointed. I still loved Diana Wynne Jones's writing style, and in itself it was a good story, but I don't think it should really be called a sequel. It was more like a story about a slightly annoying, somewhat Mary Sue-esque MC who happened to have an adventure that had a little to do with HMC's main character toward the latter half of the book. It wasn't really about them, and I was reminded of a fanfiction in which a daydreaming writer throws theirselves into the main characters' stories. Still, though, I do love her writing. I'm not sure if I'll pursue the third novel, Castle in the Sky(?) but in the future I might look into her other series.


That's all I've got this time, I've a letter to read! <3

Of Mail (Both Incoming and Outcoming), The Triforce Blanket, and an Idea

2-21-12


Consisting Of:
-Mail (Both Incoming and Outcoming)
-The Triforce Blanket
-An Idea


#1. Mail.
Today I received a letter from Bri in California - the first penpal I made on NaNoWriMo. <3 I actually had a bit of a heads-up that it was going to arrive today, because I hadn't gotten anything from her up till yesterday, and as we were heading to the post office today she sent me a message on Interpals saying that I'd probably noticed the missing page in her latest letter. So I wasn't entirely surprised to find it in my box, but I was happy nonetheless.


I'm not posting pictures of my incoming mail yet, because I don't have white-out to cover up my penpals' addresses and I'm too lazy to cut anything up for it.


However, here's the letter I'm sending to her in return!

The envelope and card are both hand crafted.
I hope they don't fall apart in the mail!

I've also contacted a few people today about hopefully becoming penpals, but I've yet to hear back from any of them, so we'll see. -fingers crossed-


#2. The Triforce Blanket
For those of you that don't know, the Triforce Blanket is an ongoing crochet project of mine, featuring the symbolic Triforce from The Legend of Zelda. Due to the way it was charted out on  graph paper, the final product will be rather large. Perhaps it will make a nice wall decoration, or a blanket for a Queen-sized bed. Progress as of 2-20-12 can be seen below.

#3. An Idea

And last but not least, something occurred to me today that (frankly) I'm surprised I haven't  thought of before. For over a year now, I've been trying to talk myself into participating in the 100 Themes Challenge on Deviantart, but I keep coming up with excuses: "I'm not artistic enough, my writing inspiration is currently MIA...." Well, today I got to thinking about it, and I asked myself: Why not blog about each of the themes? It would be easy enough to do #1. Introduction, because all I'd have to do is introduce myself. Then the rest would be as simple as my thoughts/memories/feelings about the other word themes, no? And for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about or are interested in participating, the 100 Themes Challenge can be found here. Wish me luck!

And, in other random news...

Today I spent most of my multi-tasking time at work studying Italian. I've decided that I want more than anything to become fluent in at least Italian and French, but hopefully Latin as well. It's so hard teaching myself from scratch, though... :(   -Hopes that someone who wants to pursue a career in teaching any of these languages will take pity on her- We also played a lot of Harry Potter trivia today, and I was so bad at it I have to go back and reread the books now. At least I knew who Hermione went to the Yule Tide Ball with. Dx Though his name was spelled Crumb on the trivia site. :|

AND. I am giving up FB slots until Easter, for Lent. ._. I can do this! It just means more time for blogging. Let's get this party started.

The Art of Snail Mail

As I've mentioned, I love penpalling via snail mail. It's so nostalgic. So here's where I'll keep most of my ranting about my amazing penpals. owo

In other news, I've been exploring other peoples' penpal blogs, and I've sent out a few letters of introduction to people I found interesting along the way. I can't wait to hear back from them! And I sent out my own penpal ad that I hope will be put on display, so we'll see if I get any random letters. owo

I also received a letter from my new penpal, Kate, written in straight lines on beautiful, unlined stationery. Sadly, this is a talent I do not possess.

 Well, it's getting late here, so I guess that's it for now.

Much love!

-Shelby