Christmas tree and mail

Uff, I'm stuffed with food. I ate too much for those two days! But how can you resist while there's so much good food around? How's your Christams going?:)

This is my Christmas tree. I love the scent of the tree in the house in Christmas time^^

 

My favourite decorations. Little angels:D

These I gave to my mum and aunt for Christmas. Inside were tickets to theatre. It was a surprise, they didn't expect it at all and were very happy^^ When my aunt saw the envelope she thought it's from the kids and contains some handmade card:P

This is what I made for mail art + mini letter exchange last month. I made the envelope of materials from the Warsaw Uprising museum and a lacy heart I once got from Maria Laura. I put inside a postcard (also from that museum) showing marriage during the uprising (of which I unfortunatelly forgot to take photo) so I made war + love theme. 

 Christmas envelope. I took a white envelope and glued a Christmas themed table napkin to it, added some deco tape on the edges. It was an experiment but the texture of the envelope turned out very nice. Easy way to make colorful envelopes if you don't have better idea or materials to decorate it;)

Unfortunatelly I didn't manage to send Christmas cards to everyone I wanted to before Christmas:( I am so scatterbrained, do everything too late. I barely managed to find a gift for my dad before holidays. Did you manage sending all your Christmas mail? Am I the only bad one?

Citrus juice

Orange.

Lime.

Pink grapefruit.

And in the back labels from Lovelia.

Little pleasures Monday

 It wasn't any special day, just a normal Monday but I have a new bath. The old one was leaking so I never used it. I was just always taking shower and it's been years since I actually took a bath. So it is real attraction for me now! You can't imagine how big! And then those wasabi peanuts. When I first tried one, I spilled it out. It seemed so awful. But then I ate some more and I started to love them. Me, who never liked spicy food. Those two little things made my day today and I thought of all little pleasures on a such a non-special day, the worst day of a week actually, Monday...

1. a long bubble bath
2. wasabi peanuts
3. a Vietnamese film (The Scent of Green Papaya)
4. a bowl of spinach
5. two chapters of Lolita (read in a bath)

 What little pleasures did you have today?

This one never reached it's destination. Not that I want to spoil a positive post:P I just won't make a separate post for this lonely envelope.

La Dolce Vita

I finally used my cupcake stamps... I smeared the black ink a little:/ This one went inside bigger envelope so no address and stamps on it.

Kawaii stuff

I will do the advertising today:P If you're looking for some kawaii penpalling stuff, here's a nice shop in Facebook (click on the image).

There is kawaii stationery, decotapes, stapms and other things. The prices are in Mexican pesos but you can buy abroad if someone is interested:)

1 MXN ≈ 0.08 USD

1 MXN ≈ 0.06 EUR

Letter booklets

For some misterious reason I don't like sending letters on file binder sheets, with those little holes on one edge but I've had quite a lot of those little sheets as I used to collect them in the past when I was a kid. So I decided to bind them with a band and in result I made little letter booklets. I don't know if it's any good but I just thought I'll share the idea:)

Weird tastes

I have thought about discussing this issue after reading a post about Vegemite on Travel by postcards and letters blog. I sometimes send Polish sweets or typical (and 'sendable') foods to my penpals. And sometimes they do it for me as well:) Usually they're delicious things:9 But few times I got some bizzare sweets that didn't taste like sweets to me at all and truth is I couldn't even eat them. Like it happened for example in case of Finnish candies Salmiakki, which is a black salty! licorice. I gave it to my family and friends and everyone reacted the same way. They made shocked expressions, spilled it out, and one friend even cursed me:P Salmiakki is definitely not something for Polish tongues. However bad I found it, I thought it was interesting to try and I had fun seeing reactions of my friends to it:P The other weird sweet was some Mexican candy which name I can't remember unfortunatelly and it contained sugar, salt and chili. For me it was really shocking mix. And as I always share foods I get with my family, I gave half to my mum. I tasted it first so I already knew that it might be worth to observe her reaction:P Like me, she expected to feel sweet taste and made big eyes when she felt something elseXD

I am always afraid to tell to a penpal I didn't like the taste of what they had sent me because I wouldn't want them to think I'm rude. But even though I find something 'inedible', I am still always very happy that my penpal sent it to me and I had a chance to try something typical from foreign country. After all different nations have different tastes and sometimes even the same products taste differently in different countries as the producers must fit them to the market. Personally, I wouldn't get offended at all if my penpal wrote me they didn't like the taste of some food from me, especially if it's not a sweet candy which flavour you can consider 'universal'. I don't think it's rude and it wouldn't be a reason for me to stop sending different stuff.

Do you tell your penpals if you didn't like the taste of something from them? Would you be offended if you heard something like that from your penpal?

Writing crisis

 I can't believe it's already been half a year since my last post O.o

I had some health issues and little time, not only for blogging but also for writing letters. From a regular writer I became a really awful penpal that took months to write back :S Thankfully all my penpals understood my situation and forgave me. How could I not love them, huh? :)

So, I come back with a problem that I call writing crisis.

 After the 'bad' period in my life when I really had no energy to write letters, my health got better again, my language courses ended for summertime and I've had enough time for myself again - and therefore enough time to write letters. All letters from my penpals were on my side. All were lovely and interesting. I had lots to tell my friends after my such long 'absence'. But I still couldn't grab a pen and sit at my desk. I went out a lot and started reading more books again instead. I think I just needed to spend time outside with people and enjoy the summer. I didn't feel like writing. And I felt bad with it. It lasted for some 2 months I think. Then I had little accident and was stuck at home for 2 weeks. I caught up with all my letters and sending back ALL replies freed me from my 'inner pressure' that I felt about unreplied for too long time letters and from writing crisis.

It was my second crisis in my penpalling 'career'. The previous one was caused with stress and lack of time when writing my thesis. It took me a while to come back to writing regularly after defence as well. I had lots of time again then but had some blockade for writing letters and it also passed when I caught up with all. I suddenly felt lighter and the happiness to reply next letters came back. I feel the same way now and I am pretty sure I will be back my-old-fast-replying-self now:) Until next writing crisis which hopefully won't happen to me again!

Have you ever had writing crisis? How do you feel and deal with it?

Golden poop

My Korean friend has been to Toilet Museum. It is in the toilet-shaped house - Mr. Toilet House (Haewoojae) in Suwon City. Mr. Toilet House has the meaning of a house to relieve worries. It was built by Sim Jae-duck, also known as Mr. Toilet, who lived the life in full and passionate devotion to develop the toilet culture movement. This movement bagan in Suwon in the late 90's and spread out to Korea and overseas as one of the improvement movement of mankind. The purpose of it was to change dirty public toilets into beautiful and clean ones before the 2002 FIFA World Cup games. It gave birth to World Toilet Association (WTA) which purpose is to improve the health and sanitation of the world by building and improving public toilets in developing countries.

Obviously inside the Mr. Toilet House the visitors can see all kinds of toilets and learn toilet history. You can find more information about museum and photos of the toilets here

Isn't it amazing what you can find out through penpalling? :D

 Aaaand I got the golden poop XD

The first letter I wrote in my life!

My mum was cleaning her room today and she has found the first letter that I have ever written! What a surprise!!! And how excited I am about it :D I sent it from school trip when I was 9 years old (in 3rd grade) to my parents. It contains only one ortographic mistake (that is a reason to be proud of!;))

The letter sais:

Dear Parents!

We arrived to 'Fir Mansion' happily.

When I went into the room with Natalka and Magda we got a fright because the wall was scribbled and there were captions in the wardrobe. Still the same day we went for a trip and we saw how iron is being made. Me and the girls from my room didn't sleep the first night. Later we fell asleep.

The next day fifth, fourth and third grade went to the Holy Cross Hill and second and first ones to the swimming pool. I am doing well here. It's fun. Near the resort there even is a playground.

P.S. You could come here.

Yours Agnieszka

Valentine envelopes

A letter in a little notebook

Some time ago I bought these little notebooks. I thought they'll be perfect for letters.

 

Inside they're simple, just checkered but I decorated it with stickers and deco tapes, added some text :P

And ta-dam - letter is ready:)

Good idea if someone is lacking stationery;)

The Insurgent Post

I was looking through old photos and found some from my visit in the Warsaw Uprising Museum some 2 years ago. Among them are photos of the letters that people were sending during the Uprising and I thought it might be an interesting topic for mail lovers. Sorry, the photos are not of best quality.

"On 1 August 1944, the Warsaw Uprising was launched that lasted for 63 days involving the civil population, including women and children. Upon its failure, the residents were driven outside the city or placed in camps and the city was razed to the ground. The losses of the civilian population as well as Polish culture were formidable: burnt libraries and museum collections, temples and palaces. Nearly 200 thousand Warsaw residents perished and 84% of the buildings were destroyed". [source]

As soon as the fights started people organized the Scout Field Post (I hope I translated the name well) that was functioning within the limits of Warsaw during the Warsaw Uprising. The post was run by volunteers and sending letters was free of charge (although people were willingly "paying" with books, bandages and food for people in hospitals). It produced it's own stamps in 5 different colors for each of 5 districts. The post boxes with the sign "The Insurgent Post" were located in 40 points of the city. The letters were delivered by scout boys and girls. They could contain up to 25 words and were cenzored (there could be no military information in them). Daily were sent from 3 to 6 thousand letters. During the 63 days of the Uprising 200 thousand letters were delivered. It was one of the biggest organisational phenomenas during the Warsaw Uprising, functioning in extreme circumstances.

In those letter people were writing mostly about their situation, if they are alright and asking for health of their relatives and saying that they're missing them.

If you ever visit Warsaw don't miss the Warsaw Uprising Museum:) It's organised in a very interesting way, even for those that are not particularly interested in history.

This and that and Merry Christmas

I vanished. I had vacation. I was sick, tired, busy. I was writing letters. I was reading books. I needed a break from blogging. I am not the most regular blogger anyway:P But I am back to wish to all who celebrates Christmas - Happy Holidays and to those who don't but have free time - Happy Free Time=)

I haven't painted any envelopes lately but I had the lovely daisy parchment envelopes. The only problem is they're transparent but on the other hand I think it makes a nice effect.

Two letters to me got lost:_( Which made me very sad and nervous about letters on their way to and from me:S I hope it won't happen again:(

On a happier note, I bought new stamps, yay:D

These are this years' Christmas stamps in Poland.

I made few Christmas cards but quit it quickly as I'm not good at it at all:S I decided to show them here anyway because someone was curious about them=)

I am listening much to Marilyn Manson nowadays as I'm reading his biography but it's not the best Christmas theme I guess:P But in my last post TheSnailMailer suggested a very nice singer - Alison Krauss. Thanks:) She has a sweet voice.

I've also found a secret in Post Secret that I like and sais what I think as well.

Therefore, I sent Christmas cards to my friends whenever they celebrate it or not. I would be happy of any good wishes from whichever occasion myself so I don't get the whole offending thing... good wishes have only good intentions behind them, right? Make love, not war;) Merry Christmas!:)

Comic envelope

One day I found some comics in a closet. I was reading those when I was a kid regularly. Now when I foud them I thought they'd be good to decorate an envelope:)

Long vs short

Which are better - long or short letters? I've found this being a controversial subject in penpalling world. And I'm not going to write about it because to each their own, we all have different preferences and definitions of what's long what's not. That's not my point. But I've always in such discussions seen the argument "long letters can be boring too". And I'm always astonished with that assumption. I have a feeling that people have in mind "diary entries" that some confuse with letters. But that can be both in case of long as well as short letters. However if a letter is a letter - that is discussion, in which people refer to the points made by the other party, how can long be boring? I have never ever got a boring long letter maybe that's why it's difficult for me to understand. I had discussions on so many subjects with my penpals: books, history, travels, feelings, vegetarianism, beliefs, death, psychological things, views on any possible topics plus daily life as well. It takes a lot of space on paper. But how much information about someone is that! Not only what they read but why they do or don't like the book, not only where they've been but all details about the place and trip, not only what they believe in but why, not only what they've done but also how they felt about it. Details, reasons, feelings. Tonnes of words, sheets and sheets of paper, new questions and new ideas. Long. Boring? No way! I refuse to accept "long letters can be boring too" argument. In case someone who prefers short letters gets angry with this post, I'll say it's not a post against short letters, everyone knows best from their own experience if they make good friends with someone and have interesting conversations regardless the lenght of their letters. It's just to underline the fact that long letters aren't day descriptions and those who are only interested in long letters are not some arrogant people that set rules about the lenght of letters. They are not the people who write what they ate for dinner and what shoes they bought last Saturday but discuss this and that. In this case can it be boring to know as much as possible about a friend?

Halloween card

For my American penpal =)

Get wild #2

Sent long time ago so no surprises for my penpals... for my blog readers maybe no surprise either as I have already posted photos of some of mine "wild envelopes"... so nothing new, ol' boring stuff:P

Canada envelope

For my Canada loving penpal =)

100 reasons to snail mail # 7

After a long time, I'm back with 100 reasons to snail mail. I didn't feel like blogging lately, lazy me. I wanted to present one reason weekly but I seem not to be able to be regular in anything:P Sooo, sorry in advance for any future breaks in 100 reasons if someone is interested in it:) In the meantime, let me tell you that through letters you can...

SHARE HOBBIES

Hobbies, interest, obsessions...;) Not always we have someone around who would share our passion for something or someone. I guess everyone knows that there's nothing worse than listening to ecstatic raptures over something out of our interest over and over again that we maybe don't even understand. Or how it is to talk to someone who doesn't know what the hell you're talking about and justs stares at you with bored "can you end this topic please" eyes. That's totally normal and understandable. Even if we love someone dearly, we can simply not have the same interests. But maybe somewhere far away is someone as crazy about something as you? Maybe someone would love to exchange ideas, news, photos connected with your passion? Maybe there is someone also "not understood", waiting for your letter about yours common favourite topic?