Where'd October go?

Hello, everyone!

I promise I haven't forgotten you, but October was just a really busy month for me! I actually stopped taking pics of stuff I was sending because I guess I felt like I didn't have the 10 seconds it took to take some.

I figure in the month of October I have sent 3 Postcrossing postcards, 6 postcards for Swap-Bot swaps, 12 letters/flat mail for Swap-bot swaps, 3 missionary letters, and 4 letters for my pen pals totaling 28 pieces of outgoing mail if I counted correctly.

In any case, here's the pics I do have:

Incoming Postcrossing, Swap-Bot and personal postcards all arrived on the same day. That's one happy mailbox!

Some of Today's Outgoing: September 21, 2015

I can't believe I didn't notice earlier, but Fairy Godmother is totally enchanting that stamp.

Believe it or not, I've been sending TONS of mail out this weekend, and have failed to photographically document almost all of it.

Recently I've discovered a new snail mail website, Swap Bot, and am just barely getting my feet wet testing it out. I plan to post a more complete review when my research is complete. ;) The above letter is just one item from my five initial swaps I'm experimenting with. Because I'm a noob who has yet to establish a solid track record for coming through with swaps, I'm limited to participating in simple exchanges.

This weekend alone I've sent 8 postcards for Postcrossing, 5 Postcards detailing the highlight of my week for Swap Bot, 1 postcard featuring Colorado wildlife (also for Swap Bot), a full blown introductory pen pal letter to a stranger in New Zealand (assigned by Swap Bot, pictured above), and two more tourism themed postcard swaps to 4 more partners I plan to send tonight. Grand total: 19.

My Postcrossing Anniversary

Today I realized that I've been a member of Postcrossing just over one year! Hooray!


I can hardly believe it's been that long. So far I've collected 50 postcards!  The two that have traveled the farthest are from Indonesia and Russia. (It's hard to figure out exactly how far they've come. I'm not sure if Postcrossing calculates it by heading east or west.)

The lines on this map make me think of missiles more than postcards. Maybe if everyone did a little Postcrossing we could get by with fewer missiles. Or so I'll keep dreaming.

 The postcards kind of come in waves of two or three on the same day rather than a nice even one per week, but that really doesn't bother me. I've really enjoyed finding all these surprises and seeing more of the world this way. 9/10, highly recommend, would do again. ;)
I just can't believe snail mail has gone out of style. It's different than just online friends! Online I usually immediately block strangers who try to contact me. I don't like people snooping around in what feels like my private (albeit virtual) space. With snail mail the world is both bigger and smaller. The distance is more apparent when you consider how many days you check your box waiting for something before it finally arrives. Thinking about how many hands, trucks, planes etc a postcard comes into contact with on it's way to you makes the world feel very expansive. However, reading whatever little snippet of life people choose to share makes the world feel so small. We're all just people here, and we do a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same problems. I am so glad I've gotten to connect with so many people this way.  

Yesterday's Outgoing: August 31, 2015

Finally staring to catch up now that the move is over!

Today's Outgoing: June 2, 2015

This one is going out to my newest pen pal! Iris lives in Belgium, and we "met" through Postcrossing.

A while ago I found a bunch of extra thank you postcards from my wedding, so I've been sending out small batches of them for Postcrossing not because I'm a narcissist, but because hopefully it makes an interesting card for the recipient. I always include our wedding date in my note.

Iris sent me an email back through Postcrossing asking for my address so she could send me a thank you in return. I thought she just meant a thank you for sending her a postcard and that she was really going above and beyond the usual e-mail thank yous you can send through Postcrossing, but I was floored by what I found when her thank you arrived. Not only did she send me one of her own {gorgeous!} wedding thank yous, but we were also both married on the exact same day!!! Seriously, how amazing is that?

I got her card a few weeks ago, and I still can't get over its perfection. So beautiful!

Today's Outgoing: December 30, 2014

Slowly getting back on top of things. I'm just crazy exhausted all the time.

Today's Postcrossing December 9, 2014

I was surprised to find two Postcrossing treasures in my mailbox tonight. I'll definitely need to look up where Belarus is!

(The other one is from Illinois, but my blogger app crashes whenever I attempt to put multiple pics on one post. :( )

Postcrossing Album

Over the weekend I snatched up a totally cute 40 page magnetic photo album from a thrift store. It's in great condition, hardly any wear and tear, and the UPC even says it's less than 5 years old from from Target.

The best part is it's just what I've been looking for to store my Postcrossing booty. (The second best part is that I got it for a mere buck fifty plus tax!) Take a gander at half the cards I've received so far.

About 5 of my sent cards were all registered this week, so I'm expecting a postal ambush to add to my collection shortly. :)