An Empty Mailbox

Yesterday, I went to the post office to check my P.O. Box and when I looked inside it was empty.

 Imagine my disappointment.

 

I did however, mail a postcard to a member of Postcrossing who lives in the Netherlands.

 

 

 

My day brightened a little when I checked my mail in my regular mailbox.

 

Inside, there were two cards.

 

 

One from my oldest and dearest friend Cari, whom I've known since I was 4 years old.

 

 

She sent me a belated birthday card.

My birthday was over a month ago, so this is definitely belated.

But, better late than never and I was thrilled to get this in my mail because she doesn't do snail mail.

EVER!

 

 

A card from my nephew and his wife.

 

 

 

 

Enclosed was a picture of our great niece Lauren.

She started kindergarden this year so I am quite sure this is her school picture.

 

It turned out to be a good mail day afterall!

 

I wonder what today's mail will bring me.

 

 

 



Friday and Saturday Mail!

I haven't been doing the pen pal thing for very long but I have written a lot of letters and sent out quite a few postcards since early September. This weekend was a good mail weekend for me.

 

 

On Friday, I received a postcard from Jill who is a member of sendsomething.

 

 

This postcard showcases all the fall colors where she lives.

I was very excited to receive the postcard as she was sending me a reply back.

I had sent her a postcard the week before.

 

Saturday was a really good mail day.

I had two letters in my box.

(Smiles)

One was from Mendy and one was from Lynn, both members of sendsomething.

 

 

This was my third correspondence from Mendy and I couldn't wait to read her letter.

Don't you just love her handwriting?

I really like reading her letters. I find them very interesting.

She didn't disappoint. I just hope that my letters don't bore her.

 

 

This is the letter that Lynn sent.

In addition to her wonderful letter, she sent me some mail art.

The above is a postcard that she made, and to the left is an ATC that she made.

She also enclosed a blank postcard and some blank ATC cards so that I could make some art to send to her. Thanks for the challenge, Lynn. I am terrible at drawing but I did my best and I will be sending a reply in a couple of days as well as a reply to Mendy.

Both of those women make me smile.

 

 

Now for the outgoing mail.....................

 

 

A letter to my mother-in-law.

 

 

 

And one to my husband's aunt.

 

I think they will be quite surprised.

 

I hope this coming week brings me some postcrossing mail.

 

I'm still waiting to receive my first one.

I'm starting to feel a little anxious.

I have five postcrossing cards traveling at the moment, and three have been registered so far.

 

If you want to send me a letter I'm open to all corespondence.

 

P.O. Box 337080

North Las Vegas, NV 89033

 

 

I hope to hear from you soon.

 

 

 



My First Mail Post

It's always difficult to know where to start regarding the first post of a new blog.

I have an old footlocker full of letters that I've collected for over 30 years.

I've always loved writing letters and receiving letters in return, however, 

the people that used to write back to me don't write anymore.

I blame it on the internet, social media, and high tech smart phones.

But then again, I can be grateful for the internet for keeping the art of letter writing alive.

I just recently discovered mail art and all the various web-sites dedicated to letter writing and pen pals.

It's amazing that there are so many people who still love getting mail as much as I do.

While blog hopping, I stumbled across the book, Good Mail Day and ordered it right away.

I was like a kid in a candy store when the package finally arrived in my mail.

I drooled over every single page, absorbing all of the mail goodness like a sponge.

I soaked up the inspiration and now I am obsessed with mail art and making my envelopes look pretty.

I started decorating my envelopes, and then making my own envelopes.

I made the above envelopes from a photo calendar. 

I think they turned out really nice.

This is from the same calendar.

Don't you just love it?

I also made a few from some card stock.

It's kind of a vintage look.

Now that I had all this creativity and inspiration inside of me, I had no one to share it with.

What was I to do?

Well, I spanned my search on the internet and found pen pal sites, swapping sites, postcard sites, etc.

I joined as many as possible.

Even so, finding a pen pal isn't quite so easy.

You still need the right fit.

At the beginning of September, I wrote two letters.

One to a blog owner of a blog that I've been a follower of for several years.

And another blog owner who started a mail project, whom I discovered in a newspaper article.

I happily deposited my letters in the mail and then went on vacation for three weeks.

When I returned home, I was anxious to check my P.O. Box.

When I turned the key and looked inside, it was completely empty.

:(

I was quite disappointed.

Still, I went back every day the first week in October.

Finally, I had received a postcard.

But it wasn't a reply from the mail I had sent. 

It was a postcard from a girl who found my profile on sendsomething.net.

It was a Vanity Fair postcard, just my style.

I was so excited and it cheered me up a great deal.

I immediately wrote a letter in response and then I got a letter back and wrote another.

In the meantime, I had sent out a couple of postcards to others on sendsomething.net.

I received my first mail art postcard as a reply.

I think it is so cool.

She used ink, paint, markers, stamps, stencils, stickers and a matte medium.

Very creative and it means a lot that she put so much effort into making this card.

I really like it a lot.

I've also joined postcrossing. 

I think it will be very interesting to see postcards fill my mailbox from around the world. 

How great it will be to learn about other cultures.

I've sent out seven postcards, but I am still waiting to receive my first one from this site.

The first postcard I sent went out to Russia and the person still has not received it.

I hope it didn't get lost in the mail.

Other sites I've joined include the following:

Swap-bot, Your Paper Pantry and The Letter Writer's Alliance.

I think the hardest thing about finding the right pen pal is finding someone close to my age.

So far, it seems like most pen pal ads are by people who are under 25.

I have friends of all ages. so as long as I have something in common with you, age isn't a deterrent.

If you'd like to send me a postcard or a letter I will respond back to all inquiries unless I get a bad vibe.

JarieLyn 

P.O. Box 337080

North LasVegas, NV 89033

Have a happy mail day!

This is my main blog here:  Write Place Write Chick
I haven't updated in awhile though because blogger was causing me problems until last night,
thus the development of my new site and hopefully an update to my main blog.