Secret Christmas RR- #1

     For the past few years I have participated in the Secret Christmas Round Robin in the Postcrossing forums. I love seeing Christmas wishes from different countries. Here are some of the Postcrossing cards, as well as some from penpals around the world:

Varnoja, Lithuania

 Ognesk, France

 Angie, US-

 Masako-k, Japan-

Manu86, Germany

 Barbizon, Netherlands

Christina and Tobi, Germany- Advent calendar

 Donna, Canada

     I will add more posts as they come in. Wishing all the people who read my blog a wonderful Christmas filled with many blessings!

How did you find my blog?

     These past few weeks I have noticed a few changes in the "audience" of my blog.  Normally I will notice traffic sources based on blogs I have commented on, or pages I'm involved with, like Postcrossing. This past month I haven't really written anything interesting on the blog (I intend to write soon, just need to find some free time!) and haven't visited many sites and blogs I am not usually visiting. So, I was wondering-

1) Where are all the new visitors coming from? I have had many views from some countries that I haven't really seen a lot of, is any,  traffic from. This week I've seen some visitors from Lithuania, Poland, and Jordan. I have had the most readers from Canada.

2 )Who are all of you? I'd love to "meet" some new people, so if you have come across this page and you don't know me personally, I'd love if you would say hello and to hear about how you came across the page
    

Christmas mail part 2

Somehow I missed a pile. I also have cards that were directly given to me, but all these are ones from the post!

 From Schoolbag in Germany.

 From Ieva in Lithuania. Cool stamp too

 Thanks Nastya in Russia! Love the music washi tape too.

 From darkpunkangel in Canada. Thanks!

 From Eris in Spain I love the design on the front.

 This card is reflective and very cute. It is from Nathalie in The Netherlands. I am enjoying your orange spice tea while I'm writing this! Thanks :)

 What a pretty card from Veronique in France. A an aside, Veronique also is the moderator for the Secret Christmas card swap so she is busy assigning people to send cards, updating hundreds of posts, etc. In addition to loving the card, I also appreciate the incredible amount of work she puts in just so a bunch of people who love the mail can wish each other a Merry Christmas from across the world. Much respect!

 From Alla in Russia. Look at the little birds!!!

 From my penpal Angie in MD! I am planning on catching up with all mail by New Years so keep an eye on your mailbox within the next few weeks.

This card from Germany is so elegant and beautiful. I also got a cool Christmas postmark. (Love the Santa washi too!) Thanks Corinna!

Last card from Christmas RR

     I realized earlier that I forgot to take a picture of the stuff I sent out today. 1 outgoing postcard went to Japan and 1 letter went to my 2nd ChemoBuddy.
     My mail headed out next is a card to a university student in Taiwan.

 My incoming mail today was the last card in a Secret Christmas Card RR. I sent mine to Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, France and the Netherlands. I received cards from Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, and France. This one, which says "Prettige Kerstdagen en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar" is from Belgium.

Catch-up postcard post and AJT#4

    Well, summer has officially come to an end for me. I went back to school last week. Though my schedule seems like it will be quite a bit more hectic, I was happy to see all of the students and jump right in with all of my lessons. (The students actually came with me too!) This week I see all of my choruses for the first time. It is always nice to talk to the students to see what is going on with their lives and to hear how they sound mixed with new students. It is also amusing to hear how different my middle school boys sound from one year to the next. I am very excited to watch and hear these young musicians grow over time.
     So, the art has slowed down too. I was working on the AJT3 (accordian book), but I'm still finishing. I'm also working on the vivid flower art journal page. (I might even just start an art journal.. lol)  For now, here's the grid from AJT4. Sorry if the 3 pictures are a little too much but I kept seeing different things as I angled the pad different ways. So, here's everything- with a lot of detail. I really like the sheep square and the 3rd one in on the left side, bottom row- which is a scrap of mine from gelli printing. The colors are more vivid in person. This was fun and therapeutic to do.

    This summer was a lonely summer for my mailbox. (Good thing I have Marianne who won't give up on me!)  Fortunately, it was great for postcards. Here are all the cards received since my last post.

From Russia- The postcard was sent in this cool Olympics envelope.  Does anyone know what the building in the 3rd picture down is? It is written in Russian on the back but... I don't speak Russian. 

 Wild Lithuanian strawberries.

From Ukraine

 From Germany

 Taiwan (the 2nd one depicts the story of Sleeping Beauty)

 The Netherlands

 Czech Republic

 South Africa:

   I think I'm officially caught up now. Oh, speaking of being caught up, if any penpals are reading this and I owe you a letter, please let me know. I have found a lot of older letters around the house but I lost track of which ones I have responded too. I'm not the best housekeeper. 

     I hope you are all blessed, happy and healthy.  Thanks for reading. :)

Trakai Castle card+ China card

Here's one of the postcrossing cards I was talking about. It is of Trakai Castle in Lithuania. I would love to see it in person one day!


This card is from Raphaella in China. It is traditional dress in China. The back of the card is also beautifully decorated but I'm going to save that for myself :) I will send Raphaella a card tomorrow.



    I LOVE connecting with people all over the world. If any of my friends love to learn, I would highly recommend Postcrossing!

ICAD2+ letters/Postcrossing cards

This is my second Index card a Day card. I'm not artistic so I was actually pretty pleased with my circus tent.  The prompt was "Circus tent" (I'm also really creative like that..lol) I doodled with pen and used glitter (my friend Diana would be super proud.)
ICAD2:

    I also received a letter from Belinda, one of my penpals from South Africa, and 2 Postcrossing cards. I will post the cards tomorrow. (They are from China and Lithuania) Have a great day!

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.