Mailbox happiness!

Incoming...

     We went on vacation for a few days and I came home to a lovely stack of mail. Here it is:

 From a postcrosser in Belarus. I don't have many long cards like this.

 Timmy loved this pig card from a postcrosser in the Netherlands.

 Here is a winking gnome from Stefanie, a postcrosser in Germany.

 From postcrosser, Liyn, in China. They work for a chocolate company. The chocolate looks delicious. The top of the card says "Every piece of Choc Choco tells a story" My chocolates are usually screaming in fear.. lol.

 This is from a Lettermo friend from Georgia. I love postcards that are mail related!

 Another new Lettermo friend. Missy is from Arizona. I love the Mother Theresa quote. Missy, if you're reading this, you should check out a woman named Mama Maggie Gobran. She works with the street children of Cairo, Egypt and is the most humble person I have ever heard speak. If I remember I will add some of her quotes to your letter.

Mail from South Africa, Australia, Maryland and Virginia. The woman in South Africa is a fairly new penpal and the other 3 are fascinating new pals from Lettermo. I'm so excited to that I joined this year.
  Reading back in the blog, I realized that I needed to update a few other pieces of mail too.  This was from last week. Sorry I have not been good about updating this week. 

 Package from my friend, Akiko, in Japan!

 Ooooh! Exciting.

 Oops... this was out of order. Great postcrossing card. It's in the other room so I don't remember off the top of my head where it is from.

 Tea from Japan- this will make me feel beauty... good stuff.

 Nice postcard from Akiko

 Tsurago Castle in Japan

 "The Big Bad Wolf and the Seven Little Goats" Akiko, is this a story? We don't have this story here. You will have to tell me it.

 Tea!

 Chocolate- white, milk and dark!

 New Lettermo friend from Indiana. I love the card. She made the photo below as well.

       Lastly, I got a letter from Wendy (Lettermo) in Australia. I grabbed it on my way off for vacation so I didn't take a picture.
     I can't complain about not having any mail this week! Hopefully it keeps up like this and I can write like a madwoman to keep up!

Outgoing...

    Didn't take any pictures of mail on vacation but I mailed 3 of my soldiers, a penpal package (Melanie's) and a few Postcrossing cards. Here are my new numbers since it's been a while.

The 366 Project:

Received: 31
Sent: 59

     Today is the 52nd day of the year so I'm still on track!!! Woohoo! 

    Off to write some letters.  Today I saw that my page has hit 2000 page views. Yeah!

   

Mail time...

Incoming...
     Well, I got NOTHING in the mail today- no bills, no samples, no junk and certainly no letters or postcards. However, I did get a few things over the past week that I really enjoyed. Here they are:

     I received my first letter from a new penpal, Jodie, who is from Australia. I'm really excited to get to know her. She sent a beautiful letter, a cute cupcake card that had a recipe on the back, 2 pictures and map of her area. It was really neat to go through the thick envelope and I'm looking forward to asking her about a few places on the map she sent.  Here's a picture. Isn't the cupcake card nice?  Looks like you could eat it right off the page :)

        I also got some postcrossing cards this week. 
TW-531352
Unfortunately Kristin resent a card for me from Postcrossing and I had just registered her 1st card. (Sorry Kristin :( )  This is the beautiful bamboo bridge over University Pond at Luku Chitou.

 
FI-1486076
The more I see (and taste!) of Finland, the more interest I have in it. I don't think I've ever actually met someone from Finland before. This is Suomi, Finland. It looks very peaceful. This city must have great things to offer because I have numerous postcards of Suomi and all are very different from each other. I like that.

     Speaking of tasting Finland- I tried the cheddar and broccoli soup. The taste was good. It was a little different from the American soups I've had. It is still creamy but maybe not as buttery tasting as the cheddar broccoli soups here. It was a little thinner and tasted more peppery. Overall, it was pretty good.

Outgoing:

     I forgot to post the mail I sent out a few days ago. I sent a few swaps out and a few letters. My pal Kathy from Australia sent me a swapper sheet (I don't know if it has a formal name) and an x-slip. The swapper sheet had numerous items on it that you could send to other swappers- such as stickers, friendship books, postcards, x-slips, surprises, etc. You then cover the names of the people you sent items to with your own address. So, hopefully I will get lots of interesting surprises from this sheet. It is my first time doing this kind of a swap. My packages went to South Africa and Norway.  I also sent a few letters. The items on top of the envelopes are the first friendship books I've ever made.
      A friendship book contains paper inside and is sent from penpal to penpal. Each new person adds their address and can state if they are looking for new pals, swappers, etc. When all of the paper is used, the completed book is then sent to the person who the book was made for. Again, a new thing for me.
     An x-slip is almost like a chain letter. You send something- in this case I had to send "an envelope of goodies"- to the first person on the list. You then take their name off of the slip, move everyone up a number and add your name and address to the bottom. You then pass it on to 10 people. 

     Today seemed to be a "send mail to Germany" day! Jenny, Christina, Melanie- heads up!

     And who could this be for? You?  Don't get too excited, you're going to laugh when you open it!

The 366 project:
Received: 20
Sent: 48
     I'm finally making some progress. I love sitting down and getting all the way through a letter. I feel like I'm getting back into the swing of things. School starts again in September. It's a lot easier for me to write during the summer. Feel free to flood my mailbox. If you don't want a new penpal but want to write a letter, feel free to just write to tell me about the details of your day, something about your city, blogs you like, what makes you unique, tell me about someone/something that inspires you... whatever you'd like. If you want me to write back, I will write you back.  E-mail me with your address if you'd like a letter from me first.