Beauty is a good mail day

There's something magical about looking in your mailbox and seeing a letter addressed to you. An actual letter... not a bill, or an ad, or any other kind of junk mail. Something that was hand-written by a person to wish you well, invite you to a party, or just to say hello. Something that took thought. Something designed to make the recipient feel special.

I think snail mail is a lost art form. It's so easy to type an email or send a text. And I'm just as guilty of it. I used to write letters all the time when I was younger. But when the Internet hit, what was the point? You could send an email across the world and get a response in a matter of minutes.

But recently, I've gotten back into mail. I started with joining Postcrossing.com. This website was designed to allow a person to send and receive postcards from all across the globe. I've enjoyed it a lot and highly recommend it. There's a link at the top right of my blog.

I've also gotten a few new pen pals from a google group I joined. I'm extremely excited to get back into mail, and I've even dabbled in mail art a little. My plan is to do occasional posts on my mail comings and goings, so look for those in the future! : )

My intention was to do this post a few weeks ago, and in the meantime I've had way too much mail to put in one post, so I'll just do some highlights and maybe plug some others in later. I'll do outgoing first.

A while back, my friend Lauren (see previous blog) sent me a letter in an envelope she had made from a magazine page. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, so I decided to give it a try. Here it is:

It could have been better... but I thought it was pretty good for my first attempt. I did end up covering the girl's face with the stamp though. : ) Oops.

I also did my first swap a couple weeks ago. It was a lot of fun. The theme was "Just Because You're Lovely." I really had no idea what I was doing, but the notes said to decorate the packaging, and this is what I came up with:

I think my favorite part though was the bottom:



I've gotten on a cute little owl kick lately and bought this stamp at a craft store. : )

Here is some of my incoming...

Pretty roses from Tanja in Germany:

An adorable Cat DJ from Cindy in Minnesota:

A pretty postcard from Helga in Germany. I love the hearts! : )

Hmmm... I'll do one more for now. This is a lovely vintage postcard I received from Anna and Ivan in Russia:

Oh, I also loved the stamps on this one...



Alrighty... I guess that's it for this post. I've also gotten several postcards with "beauty" definitions, so I'll do a seperate post for those soon. Until then, I hope you all are well and happy! :)