track 020 - a week's worth of mail

Hi everyone!

It's been a week since my last post! That means I have a week's worth of mail to show you guys. I have one more day to go in my Month of Letters challenge, and this week I fell behind - but I caught up yesterday and wrote 3 letters! Also, for AGES I've thought I have to send 24 pieces of mail, when in reality it's just 20! Oh my, Monday's the last day! I think I will continue after that, too, though. I'm hoping that with all this letter-sending I'll receive something soon enough too... This week I did get some incoming mail, thank goodness! I've been worrying that all the mail to me gets lost on the way, because I haven't heard from my pen pals in forever. 

Monday's mail! Was I happy!

This postcard-looking item is actually an envelope. How fun!

And then for Lettermo letters #14 - #19:

To my newest pen pal Anna, USA.

To Mickey, The Netherlands.

To Jesse, USA, via Sendsomething. Inspired by this post, I loved making this!

To Anna in England, via Sendsomething.

This folder was so much fun to make as well. In this picture it's still without most of the items that I put in the small pockets. I'm just afraid that since the sides are open, something will fall out or it'll be ruined by dirt/moisture... let's hope that the mailmen are delicate. It went to Carissa, USA, via Sendsomething. Inspiration from here, but without the button closure system.

This mini-accordion envelope was inspired by this Martha Stewart craft. It looks super funky when closed! The backside is like the front side, but upside down and with reversed colours. It goes to Aline, also via Sendsomething. I used that site a lot this week since I haven't gotten a lot of mail that requires replying (=non-swaps).

I am quite sad that the challenge is over in one day! All of you who did Lettermo during February, how did you avoid post-partum depression?

track 015 - in and out

I've had several nights of bad sleep (nightmares and waking up constantly) so my brain feels like pudding at the moment. Therefore I won't even try to write anything interesting... a picture is worth 1000 words, right?

Incoming:

Outgoing (Lettermo 4-7):

A card to Sofie via Sendsomething, in two envelopes - a see-through red one and a smaller one made out of a magazine page.

A reply to Romy in Austria. Nature themed (ish).

To Nicole in U.S.A.

This is actually both in- and outcoming: on the left you can see a card sent to me by Helena in Japan (she was doing Lettermo, too!), and on the right is my reply.

That's that! Has your mailbox been happy lately?

track 007 - catching up

Good evening / morning / midday / whatever time it is in your area!

Today I sat down and replied a couple of letters, and I'm still in the middle of writing 2 and haven't even started one. So, I know what I'll be doing with my long weekend (no school tomorrow)!

Romy had sent me a post card through Sendsomething. She ended up writing it so full that she had to continue it on a piece of paper... that's exactly what happens to me! Also why I tend to prefer sending letters to post cards... (: This teeny envelope (you can't properly see the size, but it is about 2/3 of a normal card-sized envelope) holds my reply to her - it's one of the sets I showed earlier on the blog. I realized that I had written in the wrong side of the letter paper! I thought you were supposed to write on the patterned side, but turns out the other one has lines (although they, just like the envelope, are minuscule! Maybe the South Koreans have really petite handwriting or they just like tiny things?).

This doodled envelope is on its way to Russia by now. I participated in a mail art tag, and this is my contribution! I doodle things like that very often, it's calming and if you just have the time and patience, can look very intriguing when you fill areas with different branches, vines and patterns.

In addition to outgoing, I was pampered with incoming mail as well!

The second package in Surprise in an envelope was also definitely more than three items! It included a diary/daily planner for 2013 in a cute cupcake design - something that will come in handy, actually! I bought myself a perfect a5 diary from London last October, but my boyfriend bought me a new handbag for Christmas and it doesn't properly fit in there. This way I can still carry a small diary with me and then copy the stuff in the bigger one if I deem it necessary! Also included were notecards, envelopes and letter papers, a couple of postcards and a stack of pencils.

Tomorrow me and my boyfriend will be having some Mexican food with my family - my mum and brother as well as my aunt are coming over and we're all going to grandma's place, which is about 20 minutes from here. I'm getting hungry just by thinking about it! Mmm. I wish you all a great Friday - and weekend!

P.S. Remember when I told you about the puzzle we were working on? Turns out all our tables are too small for it! We're trying to figure out something now - maybe we'll do it on the floor and hope the cat doesn't eat too many pieces...

P.P.S. The Month of Letters is coming up! Drop me a line in my e-mail (biograffitist@mail.com) if you'd like to receive something in the mail from me in February! I could still use many new people to send something to!

P.P.P.S. Remind me to tell you about how we got locked in the sauna and my boyfriend had to climb out of the window. Next time. I'm going to bed now!

track 006 - mailbox happiness

Yesterday I had three lovely thick envelopes waiting for me at home!

The one on the top was a letter from U.S.A. - Erica wrote to me via Sendsomething. I love it when I receive something I haven't been expecting!

The one in the middle is a very thick envelope from Canada - I finally received the letter papers and airmail stickers I ordered from Julie! I'm always low on letter paper, so I opted for a stationery grab pack. I like surprises and it included several random letter paper designs, a fair amount of each - 50 altogether. That should be good for a few letters! I may have let out a little squeal when I realized what the envelope was - the anticipation between seeing it and opening it is just delicious, don't you think?

I also got an envelope from Germany, one that included tag items. It was a tag where you were supposed to send 3 items in an envelope without checking your partner's profile. It was great to receive something completely surprising! My partner sent me more than 3 items - I feel spoiled now - and they included a beautiful postcard with dunes and a lighthouse, and a big flat felt reindeer! I really loved that one, since I sent some reindeer / elk felt stickers to my pen pals around Christmas (even saved a couple for myself because I liked how they looked) and it looks exactly like them!

Since I'm in the process of talking about stuff I've received, here's some more goodies I ordered online:

So cute lettersets! I ordered them on eBay from DreamingiDesign. Since I couldn't decide which set I liked the best, I ordered the pack that included one of each. The time between ordering them and receiving them was 9 days and they shipped from South Korea - fast!

I think the beige one might be my favourite.

On another note... I discovered a genious game the other day! Challenge Accepted is a game where you play as a role playing character, completing tasks, quests and odysseias - that are your life! Since I'm so hooked on RPG's, I discovered this is a great way to achieve things - I add things I need to do on my list, and when I don't feel like doing them, just the thought of the +50xp gives me some sort of motivation! It's in beta still, so if you do try it out and find bugs, do report them so the game can keep on developing. Oh, and it's made by two American women, Amy and Daisy - girl power all the way.

So, at the moment there are quite a few things on my to-do list. I'm quite busy with school at the moment, since we're doing a project that involves a customer, and those always take time and require loads of meetings. But I won't be forgetting leisure either - me and my boyfriend are working on a 3000-piece puzzle of Picasso's Guernica! That might not sound like fun to everyone, but I happen to thoroughly enjoy puzzles, and when you combine it with us planning our summer (touring around France, anyone?), it is very relaxing AND productive!

photo from pablopicasso.org

Next time I'll try and finally show you how I store my letter-writing stuff and hopefully I'll have some pretty outgoing mail to document as well as incoming! Now I'm off to see if we can make any sense of the puzzle yet...

track 004 - dance till you're dead

This song always makes me want to dance! I love it.

Yesterday I started my dance lessons! They started at 19:30 and I thought I'd try and be there around fifteen minutes before the start, because even though they're held at my school, I don't know where all the dance halls are and I didn't want to be the one wandering around and knocking on every door. So, I took the car (to a 700 metre trip, yes, I'm lazy - I figured I'd be sweaty after the lesson and wouldn't want to walk home in minus degrees) and arrived at the school at 19:18, which wasn't that bad. Until... I realized I left my wallet at home and the receipt for paying for the lessons was in there! So I had to call my boyfriend to bring my wallet outside (so I wouldn't have to park the car, walk up to our apartment, search for the wallet and so on) and, yes, drive back. Because of that, I arrived to the dance department at exactly 19:30 and was so afraid I'd be late! I hovered around a bit until I saw a sign pointing to dance halls 3&4 - the one I had to find was 3. However, there was only one door - and when I walked through it, I ended up looking at a group of people making guttural sounds and banging each others in the back with their fists. (I later found out it was called 'experimental theatre'.) "I assume this isn't the dance hall 3?", I asked the only person who wasn't busy shouting, and she said that ballroom 3 is just on the other side of the wall, there's just no door inbetween them. (Why on earth are they both on the sign?) So, the dance hall 3 was the one I had earlier passed and not paid any more attention to because it had no number or sign on it (why on earth not?). In hindsight, all those people sitting outside of it should've been a hint. Well, all's well when the end's well, and I found the hall and wasn't even late (well, I was, but so was the teacher). 

Now, for the actual lesson. It's called MTV Style and it consists of three different parts: warming up, long choreography and short 'fashion' choreography. I really liked the fact that the warming up part actually made me pant and sweat - it wasn't just, you know, jumping up and down but also crunches, push ups and stretching. The long choreography is something we work on for 4 lessons at a time and then switch to another one - the first one is to a Jennifer Lopez song which I've never heard before, but I'll take the teacher's word for it. Honestly, it's a bit annoying because the song is all whiney and I prefer something a bit more 'pumped up', but the actual choreography isn't that easy so if it was to something faster, I'd be in deep sh*t. I'm having a hard time coordinating my hands and feet at the same time as it is... The third part, 'fashion dance' is something short and easy that's been all the rave at some point, so it's more for the fun part than actually learning something! This time we did Saturday Night Fever - yes, with the Travolta move - and it was a blast. A bit shorter than what I would've liked, but hey, we only had 10 minutes left anyway! It was a great way to end the lesson, although my hand-feet coordination still isn't quite working. There was a place where you're supposed to put your left hand behind your head, lift your left foot and smack it with your right hand. Well, I took the 'smack' part very seriously, it made a very convincing sound - if only I hadn't gotten my hands mixed up and ended up smacking myself in the head. Several times. How come that is so hard to me?

I also got mail yesterday! Eva J. via Sendsomething sent me a post card (in German! I was thrilled to notice I could still understand it, even though the speaking/writing part has completely escaped me) and two tea bags. I'm looking forward to trying them! I haven't gotten mail in ages (really! Since December!) so it was so nice to have an envelope waiting for me. Eva also recommended me to try a site called DaWanda and I've been drooling over everything there, trying to restrain myself. Recently I've ordered TONS of things from Etsy and other similar sites, and I can't wait to receive them and show you all the prettiness!

How was everyone else's Tuesday? I hope you avoided the smacking yourself in the head -part.