track 025 - coffee and letters

It's been a while! I have been extremely busy and stressed out with school lately, and haven't written a lot of letters, or at least not ones that look pretty enough to show over here. I sometimes resort to ready-made stationery, too..! However, I have received lovely, lovely mail as demonstrated here:

I'll post some more pictures tomorrow, since the battery of my camera died, had to be charged and now there's not enough light anymore to take decent photos! But just let me tell you... it's ALL SO WONDERFUL!

The green envelope you see is from Mickey, who included something very precious, which you'll see later (yes, I'm a tease). I figured that the reply required some special stationery, so I decided to give coffee a try. Now, normally I'm a tea person through and through... but when it comes to aging paper, coffee is the way to go! There are plenty of tutorials out there on the wide web on how to do this yourself, but here's my method very briefly:

1. Brew strong instant coffee.
2. Apply on letter paper with wide brush.
3. Add blotches/splatters/lines/ whatever your heart desires.
4. Let dry, or, if you're impatient like me, blow carefully with hair dryer.

Ta-dah!

track 022 - an abundance of mail

I'm back home and, as promised, showing what goodies I have received lately. It's not a lot, but I value quality over quantity!

Some of these were received a while ago and even replied to already, such as Mickey's letter, which was a pleasure to read as always, and a wonderfully chatty long letter from Helena, Japan:

And a couple of them were received by opening my mouth in the right place at the right time:

A wonderful Easter goodie bag from Katri, Canada. A while ago she asked for comments from people who wanted her to send them something, and obviously I was one of them. I follow her blog regularly and have seen the beautiful things she creates, how could I not want something from her?

This one came from Bubbles. One of her blogs, Make My Day, specializes in, well, making people's days by sending them various things. In addition to the gorgeous Alice in Wonderland post card, she included a bunch of funky memo sheets. I love Pingu! This definitely made my day. (:

And lastly (but definitely not leastly), I received some 'normal' correspondence as well - that is, things I didn't go begging for! Sofie from Sweden sent a beautiful tomte-postcard after I sent her something during my Month of Letters, and Caroline from France sent me a letter with some extra goodies.

That's my incoming mail in a nut shell! Now, from letters let's move on to something smaller, but equally important when it comes to snail mail... stamps! I already mentioned I got a bunch of old Finnish stamps when I spent the Easter at my parents' place, and here's some proof. (Also proof that I celebrated Easter: origami bunnies!)

This is the pile. Most of them are from the 80's, but I did manage to spot some older ones:

The dark green ones are the oldest ones: they were manufactured in 1932. The rest of the stamps in this picture date to the late 1940s or early 1950s.

In addition to the old stamps, the pile is full of otherwise interesting stamps. I really liked the visual look of these, for example! I can't wait to stick them on envelopes and make collages. (:

And finally, as promised, bunnies. Instructions from here and here.

track 009 - an organized mess

First, I have an announcement to make. Due to personal family reasons, me and my boyfriend are flying to the Netherlands next Thursday for an unknown amount of time - no less than a week in any case. This means that I won't be home for at least a part of the Month of Letters - however, I'm not planning to give up on it. I will start as soon as I get back home and go on for 28 days. So, all of you who wish to receive something from me, drop me a line at biograffitist@mail.com and I'll get to you eventually! I'm really bummed out, since this is my first Month of Letters, and I was really looking forward to February, but something more important has come up so I'll just have to do it my way.

On another note, I hope everyone's having a great weekend! We're having pizza, and while there was still light outside I took quite a few photos so I can finally show you all how I keep my letter-writing stuff in order (or try to) as promised.

I usually write my letters on the couch, very rarely on the proper desk we have here in the living room. I like to watch TV while I write... This is how the sofa table looks like:

As you can see, it's far from tidy... but I have a system! On the tray with candles, I also store my outgoing letters. You can see Romy's letter there, waiting to be mailed. The plastic box under the table has rolls under it for easy rolling out and in. And once you roll it out, this is what you see:

Most of my letter-writing supplies! Since it is a bit chaotic to look at like this (but let me assure you, it's all logically piled up), we'll start breaking it down from the bottom. The bottom layer has three boxes in it:

The boxes on the left store my unwritten post cards and cardboard, and pen pal letters.

We'll elaborate the rightmost one a bit more, since that's the one I use every single time I write a letter. It's a woven box with layers of stuff in it - if you were to take the box away and leave the stuff as it is, it would look like something like this.

This box works as a home for my lettersets (bottom box with flowers on it), pencil case, scissors, pens and glue. There are also two bags - one plastic one and one paper one - and a mysterious white box, all pictured below with their contents. The paper bag has my stamps and priority -stickers, the plastic bag my envelopes and loose lettersheets and the mystery box has everything random that I use fairly often - stickers, memo sheets, deco tape, extra glue, carved stamps...

Now, onto the next layer of stuff! It begins with two folders that have magazine pages and clippings in them. The black one only has a4 sized magazine pages (that could be turned into envelopes) and the red one has various sized clippings.

After that, in comes a mystery bag with random embellishments and goodies in it, and a box with paper goods. Scrapbooking paper, illustrations, ephemera etc.

Almost done! The second-last layer includes a box with small paper ephemera, and other random flat things. In addition to that, there is another mystery bag - with sticker sheets that are too big for the rightmost box, some ribbons and so on - and a sheet that shows how much postage I have to pay when I send stuff. It's covered in plastic because I have a tendency to spill things. (That's why it looks a bit strange in the picture.)

And last but not least, in goes some wrapping paper I have no better place for, and my loyal sketchbook. I use it as a writing pad, I make letter paper out of its pages, I store letters in progress inbetween it... I don't know what I would do without it!

In addition to my plastic box, I have a couple of more places left. I store my swap envelopes and notes, Christmas cards etc. in a separate box on the bottom level of the sofa table. You can see where in the very first picture (go on, scroll up!).

And I also have a corner bookshelf in the living room that holds my artsy stuff (charcoals, pastels, watercolour pencils and watercolours), a box with some more paper and cardboard and wrapping paper that will be turned into for example envelopes!

So, that is the controlled chaos known as my letter-writing and craft supplies. Let me tell you, it took a long time to find a way that works! For ages my papers etc. were just two overflowing boxes on the floor next to the desk. I still haven't rounded up everything - my watercolour papers, brushes, canvases and oil colours are scattered around the bookshelf area.

Does everyone have fun plans for the weekend? If you're bored, I would love to see how you keep your supplies in order - pictures please!

track 001 - me

Hello again!

So, in my first post I explained a bit why I'm writing this blog. In this post I will tell you who the person writing this blog is! I find it annoying when I read a blog where the writer never really introduces themselves, or does it very briefly. I'm a voyeur by nature, and to satisfy my curiosity, I want to know! Everything and anything! So, here goes my attempt to satisfy my readers' (a bit optimistic now, since nobody reads it yet, but I plan to get readers!) curiosity.

At the moment of writing, I am 21 years, 7 months and almost 3 days old. In other words, I was born in June 8th, 1991. In Finland. I lived the first 19 years of my live above the Arctic Circle, then I moved to Belgium to work as an au pair. After a few months, I moved to the Netherlands and lived with my boyfriend's family - I loved it in the Netherlands. The atmosphere and the people were so different from the reserved Finns, and I felt like the Dutch are more open to different kinds of people, whereas the Finns tend to judge everything that isn't the norm. Obviously there are exceptions, but that's the overall impression I got. I lived in the Netherlands for two months, and then moved back to Finland in January 2011. In June 2011, my boyfriend moved in with me and we've been living together in Oulu ever since.

So, that's my life story very briefly... since nobody really ever cares what has happened to the person before they start writing the blog, eh? It's the events that happen during the blog-writing that really matter, because then you get almost a live commentary on the writer's life. So, let me tell you what's happening in my life and what I'm planning for the future!

Right now, my life is in a bit of lull. I study media production, and I do like it, I'm just not too keen on the courses we're having right now, haha. Next autumn I'm planning to go on an exchange period, and I'm really excited about that, though! Any guesses where I want to go? (drum roll) The Netherlands! On the other hand, it's going to be a lot of work with all the stuff we have here in Finland, but hey, if other exchange students have managed to do something about their stuff, I'm sure I can do something, too.

I've never been much of a hobby type, or rather, I have, just not the organized ones. I like to do things when I feel like doing them, not when I'm told to do them. (This has caused some problems with school deadlines over the years... I'm a huge procrastinator.) However, this spring I've enrolled myself on a dance course that begins next Tuesday, and I'm actually really looking forward to it! Other hobbies I have are pen palling (I have such amazing pen pals! Expect to have a lot of mail-related entries.) and making my own stationery (if I ever take pictures, I'll put them on here), reading (you can see my Goodreads profile in the sidebar - I like to track my process in different things, also reading), spending time on the computer and trying out different things. I have these urges to do something every now and then - sometimes I'll feel like cooking something really elaborate, sometimes I feel like drawing, sometimes I even feel like going out for a run. I've never actually been crazy enough to do the latter one - the thought is ridiculous since I loathe running, but I have gotten the urge to do so! I think it was right after I found about Zombies, Run!. Then I realized I don't own a smartphone and was sort of bummed, but mainly just relieved because I had passed the moment of craziness and remembered that I hate running.

So, like the previous incident proves, I like games as well. I'll admit that any day, but I'll also admit I'm a very casual gamer, the type that all 'serious' gamers frown upon. Well, too bad. I believe games were invented for fun and for fun I shall use them. I very rarely finish games (the only ones I can remember finishing lately were Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II, which are just PERFECT. I think I had a little crush on Alistair in Origins, shhh.), but I do like to try out different types. Right now I'm in the middle of Mass Effect (the first one), Black and White II, and I also sometimes play The Sims 3, World of Warcraft (since I got a free month because I bought Diablo 3), Dofus (that's a small MMORPG that I have a long history with, since 2005, and it's actually how I met my boyfriend so it'll always have a special place in my heart) and other games I don't remember right now. I get bored easily, so a game has to offer something special to keep me entertained.

And the last thing you should know about me is that all the things I've listed here are by no means the only ones I enjoy. Like I mentioned before, I have urges. Because of that, I'm interested in zillions of subject and I know about a lot of things - just not very much about anything specific. I'm very good at trivias, haha, because my head is filled with useless information. I'm the kind of person you want to play team up with to play Charades, or Alias, or... well, you get the point. So, yes I like the things I mentioned so far, but I also like a variety of other things. And that will probably be showcased here in the blog as well, since I like to talk about things I like. So, expect the unexpected.

Pictures in this post: letter papers by me. Last image from Mickey's blog.