Chopsticks!

Incoming...

    So far this week has been a slow mail week but the mail that has come in has been really nice! I received a beautiful Postcrossing card on Monday.  This postcard is from Lithuania. It shows the Trakai Island Castle.  I love the colors in this card. Narina actually put a nice Trakai stamp on the card too. I love it. Thanks! Here's the card:
LT-223497

    Then, yesterday, I received a package from my friend, Akiko, in Japan. She sent me some beautiful chopsticks for each person in my family as well as a very interesting letter which I can't wait to respond to! (Love the information about naming!  I had a conversation about naming with a friend from Uganda yesterday. It's fascinating to me to hear about how children's names are chosen. )

 Outgoing:

    I'm still playing around with making envelopes. Here's an outgoing envelope that I'm sending to Susan in Alabama. I made a whole bunch of envelopes from a New England calendar.  So, any of my penpals who live outside of the States or in a different part of the country, those envelopes will show what my area looks like- or at least areas I can get to pretty easily.  Here's Susan's envelope. I'm probably going to start photographing the envelopes before I write the addresses since I haven't been able to figure out a "non-tacky" way to cover the address. 

The 366 letter project:
Received: 23
Sent: 59
      If you're dropping by my blog for the first time, I'm attempting to send and receive 366 letters this year- one for each day of this year. Yeah, I'm behind right now. SMALL GOALS: Get 20-25% of sent letters out by the end of August. 2) Get 10% of received letters in by the end of next week. So, if you're a stranger passing through, feel free to send me a letter about yourself! E-mail me and I'll give you the address. I love just hearing people's stories so you can just tell me about your everyday life if you're unsure what to write. 
     It will just be sad if I send out 366 letters and have 50 responses. Honestly though, even though it's a large goal I set for myself, I would rather have sincere letters of substance than to just have 366 papers come through the mail. I love to penpal because it enables me to travel the world without leaving home. (I would love to ACTUALLY travel too but being a teacher is not a hugely profitable adventure!) I love making new friends across the world and sharing knowledge and goodies with my children. So, I guess I have fully accepted the fact that I would much rather invest in people (and be invested in) than to just get lots of stuff in the mail. Sorry, rambling.