Mail goals week 1

    If you've been on this blog for a while, you probably know that I started this blog to challenge myself to attempt to send (and hopefully receive) 1 piece of mail for each day of the year. (It was a leap year that year.) After failing for 2 years, I finally reached my goal of sending 366 pieces of mail on the 3rd year. Because I have not been as successful at giving myself some time each day to connect with people, I've decided to reattempt this goal.  I will try to post weekly to keep myself on track. These posts may be short and to the point.

Letters in my "respond pile:" 10? (I just noticed that some of my old letters got mixed in there. Ugh) Letter writers- do you always respond in the order received? I do. Here's my problem. I started writing a letter months ago in a notebook I was trying to use up and I LOST IT. I was quite a few pages in and would hate to start over, but this has been the hold up. Seriously, I'm really OCD about this stuff and my books. Some day I will have an organized life. Until then... my reply pile has ten letters.

Mail sent this week 1/1-1/6): 5 postcards, 1 card
Received this week: 1 postcard and 1 card from the Secret Christmas RR. (1 card that is pictured I received before the new year so I didn't count it in my log)

From Italy. This card also benefits Unicef. 

 From Russia- I really enjoyed this card. It was so elegant looking

From Belarus- I got this one right after the one from Russia. Very similar and pretty. There was a great snowman stamp on the back too.

10 minute update- literally

   So, some of my blogging friends have wondered if I've dropped off the face of the earth. March is a super busy month for me. So, why haven't I been writing a lot in Feb or March- in preparation for all the stuff that has to be done. I carved out literally 10 minutes of this afternoon so that I could add some of my cool mail here. If I miraculously end up with more time tonight, which I doubt, I will update my 366 stuff. I just wanted to let you know:
1) I'm alive
2) I miss checking in
3) Thanks for the awesome mail
4) I'm still writing letters/cards so if you're expecting a reply, it should be coming
5) I will emerge again from my season of insanity on April 11.. or 12th depending on if I accept an invitation for the 11th. lol

Here's some of the recent mail:

 Card from a new pal. This is the first mail from her and I look forward to responding!

 Huh? What is this? A package from Peru? Who in the world do I know from Peru? Nobody. Ok, so I rip the parcel open and remember a "mystery envelope" round robin I signed up for. This one wasn't the best loot. I added some postcards and sent it on to Lithuania. Here's what was inside.

 Cool pin

 Self-adhesive bra. This is a first for me.

 Tea

 Ear ring

 Matroyoshka keychain

 bracelet

 washi tape

 Is it weird that these finger puppets from Peru were my favorite things?

 Toys- like the stuff you'd get in a Happy Meal

 Cell phone charm

 Next mail:

 Also from a new pal. Isn't it beautiful!?

 Huh? ANOTHER surprise package? YES!!! It came on a great day too. This was from my friend Ashley and she sent me some awesome music stamps. I'll take a picture and post those later. I might try some gelli plate creativity with them!
Speaking of Ashley- this is today's mail. (AH!!! I'm past my 10 minutes. At the risk of being late for something else...I'm finishing. Have I ever mentioned that I hate being late... or when people are late?) Here's some more Happy mail from Ashley:

 Adorable

 That dress is made of fabric. Your creativity always amazes me

 :)

 Postcrossing card from Singapore. I'm being recruited into the Navy. Cool dragonfly stamp. It shimmers with different angles like real dragonfly wings.

 Il Duomo in Italy.  Beautiful.

 Venice. I've sung at St. Mark's Cathedral. I'm so glad it wasn't flooded when I was there. It was rainy and it smelled gross in Venice I have very strong memories from the day I was there. It was so cool for me to get this card!

Postcrossing card from China. I like the women dancing and the jellyfish stamp.

Ok... 17 minutes until a meeting a mile and a half away. I hope everybody is great. I just realized I have 6!!!! more things I haven't photographed yet. I'll try to do it later tonight. They are also really cool for me. Phew... 15 minutes. I will survive this month.

Outgoing November mail and random musings

Outgoing mail:

So far my mailbox has been very sad in November. As I read once, send good mail to get good mail. I decided to get ahead in my Postcrossing. Check this out! Outgoing to Sweden, Finland, Italy, China, Russia, Germany, Indonesia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, Singapore, Belarus, Ukraine and the US.  

  In addition to the Postcrossing cards, there is 1 to a student who has been out sick all week and 1 to a new friend who I have convinced to try Postcrossing! I also have a cards for one Chemo Buddy and an intro letter to another Chemo Buddy as well as a card for his mom. He's 16. I'm actually really excited to be paired with him. Lastly, I'm mailing Missy the book she won in my giveaway. 
    Tomorrow morning I'm going to set up a mail log, kind of like this.  Ashley, I'm still working on your letter. I haven't forgotten you. I think this will greatly help me in the management of papers that come in and our of my house. 

Random musings this week:

1) I while back I misplaced my journal. I don't keep a diary but I do a little work with my Bible reading and devotions in there. I find that I get off track without having it. I need to find it. I won't start a new one because I'm OCD about things like that. 

2) I also realized that I am not myself when I'm not penpalling. Apparently it is very therapeutic to me. :) I really miss feeling like I know what is going on with people. I am friends with many of my pals on Facebook but, truthfully, letter writing is a lot less shallow than reading something quick on Facebook- or writing knowing that every acquaintance you have will also be reading it. 

3) I am lucky to have my students. I ended my day with 15 8th grade boys today who are just truly good kids. There are a few of them that have given me a few gray hairs over the past few years but generally they are very gentlemanly towards me. I have also had some really great conversations with a few 8th grade girls this week. The younger students I have don't know me as well but their enthusiasm when they see me every day makes me smile.  Another student's family (She and her brother sing for me) got my family advance tickets to go see Big Hero 6. How awesome is it that they thought enough about me to consider giving my whole family a night out? I'm really blessed.

4) We had a lockdown drill at school today. I hate that kids in this generation (and teachers) have to get used to things like this and have to actually worry about the issues they do.

5) This week started off really badly. It reminded me about the importance of letting people know how much you care about them. We only get one chance in life. Sometimes the things that you don't say to someone or decide to wait to say might be the words that they have REALLY needed to hear- even if it's nothing important (to you).  Never pass up the opportunity to be the one who spreads kindness.

6) Do yourself a favor and read this post by Hannah Brencher. *Hugs*

    

Catching up and new art challenge

   My kitchen table has become a pile of "to register" Postcrossing cards and wayward art supplies. God bless my husband for being patient with me. I received lots of great postcards this week. From Belgium:

From Sochi Russia:

From Taiwan. The sender is a 16 year old girl who plays the piano and the erhu.

From Finland. Is this a close up of a grape or something totally different? Where are all my Finnish friends? I love this card!

From the USA. "Ember- the Fire Sprite" by Ruth Thompson

From Australia. For some reason the picture of the stamp she sent doesn't want to cooperate. It's a stamp of the royal visit from Prince William and Kate with their son. I've never seen that before.  Also, she told me about the Aboriginal singer Gurrumul Yunupingu. Check him out. His voice is so soothing. 

From Italy, also with pretty stamps that I hadn't seen.

From Poland

Colorado, USA

Russia:

China, I'm not sure I'm holding the card right. 

2nd card I received from a Penpals&Letters Swap back in July. Thanks, Kirsty!

I finished my Index Card a Day Challenge and since I had so much fun being creative, I joined the next challenges. One is a daily paper prompt- which is basically a create based on a prompt project, no other rules. I'm continuing on with the index cards though many people are moving to an art journal. (This would be easier for size but I would never get anything done at home or for the challenge.)  The Art Journaling Tangents &Tactics is a set of techniques, tutorials and creative prompts. I'm really looking forward to this. I would love if you checked out Tammy's page at http://daisyyellowart.com/    She's pretty awesome. 

     Speaking of awesome.. lol, I am growing a bit in my comfort level with trying to create. I'm usually pretty rule oriented so these prompts are so helpful to me. I am finding, however, that I'm able to come up with more than 1 idea rather than just taking it literally or feeling totally incapacitated. Here are my first 5 (6) daily paper prompts:

DPP1- Rainbow  AJT1- Starburst

DPP2- Window. I'm disappointed with this a little. It's a stained glass window. I wanted the painted outside of the window to be a lighter grey. The window "glass" is painted wax paper. 

DPP3- Drips. I really like this one. It's flicked/dripped watercolors

DPP4- Flowers- inspired by the daisies my nana gave me for my anniversary on Friday. They're much prettier than these. Mutant stems. Oops. 

After my stem issue, I thought maybe I should just do that one over.  So, I tried my hand at collage. DPP4b

DPP5- Linear