February Snail Mail

One of my intentions for 2014 was to send more snail-mail.
I love the feeling of finding a beautifully decorated envelope on the doormat or a cute postcard.
And reciving such mail starts with sending it out yourself first.

First of all; it being the first week of February; I just finished writing my birthdaycards for this month.
I always do this at the start of the month. That way everyone gets their card on time.

See that yellow post-it tab on the envelope? I use it to write the down when the card needs to be posted. 

Everyday before I go for a walk with Abby I check the stack on the stairs to see if there is a card that needs to get mailed. 

Next; a small stack of Postcrossing cards. 

For those of you who don't know about Postcrossing; it's a community where you can request a random adress, after signing up,  that you send a postcard to. And your adres can also be requested. It is a lovely way to recive postcards from all over the world.

And last one, for now, a card for my mother. Not telling you what's on it. It won't arrive at her house utill tomorrow.. ;-)

I'm still working on my first leter to a penpal. So no pictures yet.

But when it's done I will share it here.

My 2014 projects

A new year, time for some new projects.
I always see lots of interesting projects on several blogs, Instagram and Pintrest. But there is only so many I can realisticly take on.
In the spirit of not taking on too many major projects (one of my intentions for this year)  I made a small selection of projects that I want to focus on this year.
All of the other projects I come across will be put on the "maybe/someday" list. That's where I keep track of all the things I want to do someday.

The Projects for this year are:

* The mood-blanket 
I am jumping on the "mood blanket" bandwagon. I will crochet a granny square every week in a color that reflects my mood. I stmbled upon this project on Instagram. It's a mind-child from mummy_stacey.
I went to the wool-shop yesterday and selected some awesome colors. More details on that in an upcoming post. I also made my first square yesterday. Along with crocheting I also keep a small journal about wich colors I choose for wich week. And why I chose that color.
There's also the option to make (by crocheting, knitting or what ever method you prefer) a daily square instead of a weekly square. But with all of the other things I have going on (work, the house, a social life, Abby and the ratties) and my fybromyalgia I opted for the weekly square.

* Draw everyday
I really want to pick up drawing again. I'm folowing Lou Niestadt's advice and intend to make a small drawing everyday. I would like to ge inspired by the things around me but will also use the doodle-a-day prompts from ellolovey of Instagram.
I bought a small planner for this project. It's just a cheap one with poor quality paper. I hope that will cure me of the 'blank-page-fear" and the need for me to make perfect doodles.

* The Currently challenge
The Currently challenge is a mind-child from Kristin from rukristin.com. It is all about taking a moment, no more than 5 minutes, and record what is going on in your life right now. I have been doing this for a few months in 2013. I love how easy she makes it with those very cute little printable cards. I really only takes 5 minytes to fill out all the questions. At the moment I paste them into my journal (the december ones went into my December Daily album). For 2014 I'm thinking of making them into a mini-album ...

*One Little Word
A project by Ali Edwards. It's about chosing your Word for the coming year and seeing how it fits into your life. I've seen some of my favorite bloggers take part in this and loved how they worked with their word.
This is the project I have been debating about wether or not to do for the longest time. Partly because I had no intention of siging up for the actual class. And without the structure of a class or assignments to hold on to the idea of what to do with my word was a bit vague.
But this one word kept calling me. So I intend to make an art-journal about my word. Not exactly shureabout the actual content but I will just let it develope itself.
The word I chose, or rather the word that chose me, is : Balance.
It is a thing I struggle with everyday. So it will be interesting to see how this project unfolds in the course of 2014.

So these are my main projects for 2014. It's a little bit of everything that I love to do.
What are your major projects for 2014?

Keeping organised: the Birthday-chart

As you've read earlier I love to write cards and letters.
And what better occasion then a birthday to send a personal  card?

But I have lots of family-members and keeping track of the dates is not really my "thing"
So sometimes cards are late..
But not anymore!!

On an afternoon of random internet-hopping I came across THIS post on the Martha Steward website.
Basically it's a small list of alle the birthdays you want to remember you put somewhere handy.

I've made my own list because the one on Martha Steward's website was too small for me. I've put it next to my computerscreen. Once a month, ususally near the end of the month I sit down and write all the birthdaycards for the coming month.
Put on a stamp, a post-it with the date you need to mail it so it get's there on time, put the stack of cards near your keys and your done!

** some of my card-writing supplies

** my favorite stamp to use at the moment..

Do you send out birthday cards? And how you you make sure they arrive on time?

                                            

Postcrossing

Ask any of my friends and they'll tell you;
I love to write cards and letters.
Birthday's, special occasions or just for no reason at all.
All of them handwritten on nice paper, a specially selected card and decorated with stickers and stuff.
And, because of a smart little list next to my computer I never miss a birthday.
(and with a little luck they almost always arrive on time)

In 2008 I read an article in "Flow" magazine about a website called Postcrossing.
It is a project where you send a postcard to a randomly selected adres and then recieve a postcard from a different random stanger.

For me, as an avid card-sender, it's a really cool project.
And not even that expensive. It only costs you a stamp and a postcard.
Over the past few years I have sent cards to Polland, Russia, the USA and China.
I wite about 9 cards a moth.
**Or until I run out of stamps...

I buy my postcards whenever I see cute ones.
That can be in tourist-shops, HEMA, bookstores or supermarkets..
I have some really touristy cards on hand, with windmils, cows and tullips.
But also have a collection of cards with animals, art, cute drawings, flowers and stuff like that.
Some "Postcrossers" have a whishlist of specific types of cards they would like to recieve.
I always try to find the right postcard for a specific person.

Next step is to write something on the card. This is the part that I find really difficult.
Most of the time I write some random fact about my country or city, a bit about my day.
If I have something in common with the Postcrosser I'm sending my card to I'll write something about that..
I might include a little weather drawing..
The options are endless. And that's what makes it kind of difficult.

Essential is the postcard-ID.
It's a special code you get when you request an adress.
When your postcard arrives at the Postcrosser, they log the code onto the postcrossing website.
They can leave you a little message and it registers how long it took for the card to arrive.


This month I have postcards traveling to China, the USA, the Republic of Belarus, Taiwan and the Ukraine.
I wonder how long it takes them to get there.....