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! :)