Good Mail Karma

When I went to check up my little dorm mailbox, I found two stuffed letters and a post card waiting for me! Being surprised by letters from penpals is why I love getting and sending out snail mail.

It's already a month and a week into 2014????

This year is going by hella fast. I feel like just last week I was trying to find a ride back to my dorm to start of second semester. Anyway, hopefully this week will be less hectic than last week. To bask in the-hopefully-calm week to come I put together some letters for my close penpals Emma and Lizzie.

I put together another copy of my WTNV themed zine for Emma since she is also a WTNV fan! Other things I included was one of my favorite organic, fair-trade green tea from Clipper, a scavenger hunt worksheet, and a One Direction valentines day card (haha).

For Lizzie I essentially sent similar things. Except the zine was a film club zine I made on the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It is an ethereal movie and you should definitely watch it if you haven't yet (or watch it again if you have).  I also threw in a different kind of tea for Lizzie and another One Direction valentine's day card! You may recognize the stationery I used to write Lizzie's letter. It was part of what I received from Michelle for the Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt!

Lately, I love sending out flower seeds. I hope they'll be planted and sprout soon. Even if it is just a little patch of earth, I feel like any type of happy vegetation is good for the planet. 

Also, when I checked on my mailbox Saturday, I found this little package stuffed in there! My other partner's parcel for the Indie Inspiration Swap finally had arrived!

What was inside was wonderful. I loved all of the different assorted buttons. The pile of orange and black  in the corner are actually shoelaces that my partner made herself! How unique! The recipe cards were cute too. They were typewritten and very handy. I may have to try them out when I get to go home and have access to a real kitchen sometime.

That's about it! Thanks for reading!

Incoming Mail End of January-First week of February

The past two weeks have been filled with such good mail days! I've been able to reconnect with my old, close friend from the town that I used to live in before moving to Illinois. It's such a different feeling to sending mail to a person that you know and have seen and hung out with face to face compared to the handful of strangers that I send mail to. (Not that sending mail to strangers is bad!) Anyway, here's some photos of the mail I received from the last week of January to the first week of February:

The first letter was from one of my favorite penpal, Carrie,  from the Letter Writer's Alliance! Every letter I received from her has always been such a joy to read. I wish I was as articulate and could craft words to tell about my life (I guess I make up for bad letters with lots of goodies though! haha!). Carrie seemed to have an off day in this recent letter so I put together a small "Bad Day Remedy Kit" for her (which I forgot to take a photo of...ugh). 

Inside the Bad Day Remedy Kit I put in one of my favorite zines to read when I'm feeling down, some healthy snacks, and a long long letter filled with qr codes of playlists, cute videos of dogs, and comedy routines. 

The next letter was from Briana, a follower on Tumblr that always liked my penpal tagged photos. I sent her a letter sometime around the end of winter break and she sent one back to me filled with a bunch of cute shiny stickers.

I had ordered this zine from Miranda (The Love Parcel) a week or so ago and was so impressed when I opened up the vellum envelope it came in! She included some ephemera with the zine and it was such a joy to flip through the pages. 

The zine was filled with love letters from Miranda's path and was absolutely stunning. This was one of my favorite pages. 

The last parcel caught me completely off guard. I had found a parcel pick up slip in my mail box one day and thought it was a parcel from one of the swap-bot swaps I signed up for. Instead, I found a big box parcel from my friend Lizzie! Lizzie was one of my close friends in high school. We both were coffee enthusiast and she introduced me to the heavenly Madcap Coffee Company in downtown Grand Rapids and to Intelligentsia in downtown Chicago. I sent her a Christmas mug and present over winter break but never had a chance to get her dorm address from her. But now I can send snail mail to the first friend that I avidly sent mail to! Lizzie sent me a wonderful cat card, a cute porcelain cat, a really really cute pencil case with the major cities of the world,  and an absolutely fantastic espresso flavored fair-trade chocolate. 

That's all the mail that I have to share this time! 

Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt Revealed!

Around sometime last summer, I was able to find and sign up for postal society. That was also when I discovered Wreckthisgirl's blog and saw the beautiful posts for her Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt swap. I really was looking forward to participating as soon as possible, and last December I finally signed up and was able to take part in it!

Monthly Wrap-Up

I saw this post on Wreckthisgirl's blog and thought it was a cool idea to point things happening in my life during January! So here goes:

Reading: I've been shuffling books around lately so my reading list is a bit unorganized. But so far, I'm reading "1Q85" by Haruka Murakami which has been very interesting so far. It's been highly recommended by my friends a lot and I received it as a birthday present so I'm excited to continue reading it! Another book that I occasionally read when I'm trying to wind down and need something light hearted is Cory O'Brien's gag book called "Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes: A No Bullshit Guide to Mythology". Mythology is one of my favorite subjects to learn about and O'Brien wraps up the summary of world mythologies in a hilarious way. It kind of makes you feel smart without actually committing to serious learning.
Watching: Pushing Daisies! Lee  Pace has been ruining my life and watching him be so adorable in this show (although it's already over) makes me feel all fluttery inside. I also finished season 3 of Sherlock and am still kind of wrapped under my shock blanket.
Drinking: Strawberry and Roses Green Tea. I picked this up at the Coffee & Tea Exchange down at Lakeview in Chicago. Such a nice store with friendly service and wonderful music!
Using: A dip pen! I'm trying to teach myself calligraphy and picked up some dip pens along with white ink! It was super difficult and frustrating at first, but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it. Drawing with a dip pen is really fun too. I love it because the ink is so pigmented and beautiful.
Recently: I started to play League of Legends since 99% of my guy friends play (and nearly everyone guy on this campus plays it) It's kind of difficult trying to play without a computer mouse, but my friend Nathan said I could borrow one of his. It's actually really fun :D
Wearing: My vintage laceup brown leather boots from Canada and a warm scarf.
Listening: Bastille's album "Bad Blood", Arctic Monkey's "AM", and Laura Gibson's "Beasts of Seasons"
Trying: to get motivated to start doing my homework and actually reading my Bio textbook 
Purchased: Pokemon X!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!
Working: trying to start lettermo while simultaneously staying on top of college and playing pokemon x and league