Incoming #2 + Postcrossing

Incoming letters two, three and four came this week!  Can you say exciting?!

Incoming letter two was from my lovely friend Lindsey...the first letter from a "real life" friend!  I was so excited and wrote her back already.  We won't be writing much longer though, since we'll be reunited in the same city in just a few weeks!

Lindsey's letter on the left and a letter from Lucas on the right!

Incoming letter three was from Lucas.  He's practically my neighbor, considering he lives just an hour and a half north of me and seemed very familiar with the town I'm living in this summer!  Maybe I'm easily impressed, but I thought it was so cool that he wrote his letter on a typewriter.  I wouldn't know what to do with a typewriter if somebody put it in front of me.  I'm really looking forward to keeping up with this new pen pal, though!

Incoming letter four was from Anna.  I saw on Anna's blog that she had an outgoing letter coming my way earlier this week, so I've been excitedly awaiting its arrival.  Today, as I stood at the edge of the driveway (promptly at 4:40 p.m.) waiting for my postie, I crossed my fingers that it would arrive...and it did--along with two postcards!  (See below.)  I loved the beachy envelope Anna decorated for me and am so excited to respond.

My second letter from Anna in between two Postcrossing cards.

Postcrossing update-- I got two postcards!  So far, five people have received my postcards and I have received two myself.  One of my postcards was from Rose in Canada (yay international mail!) and the other was from Susan in Philadelphia.   This might be the start of a beautiful hobby... 

One other thing- I began an email pen pal friendship this week.  It began as me sending my first Postcrossing card to a stranger in the Netherlands, and it has turned into a fast friendship!  After she emailed me thanking for my letter, I sent her a long response and our conversation started there.  We've found we have so much in common and I am so thrilled to get to know my new friend Henrike better!

letters 24, 25, 26 and 27

Letter twenty four was a birthday note!  I wrote it to Amy, who might very well be one of the sweetest people I know.  She is someone who puts a smile on your face every single time you see her, so I'm hoping that for once, I'll be the one putting a smile on her face as she reads her birthday card.  I made yet another attempt at going the handmade route, so hopefully Amy didn't laugh too much at my amateur effort.  :)

Letter twenty five was a reply letter!  Hooray!  My stunning friend Lindsey was the recipient of letter eleven (seen here) and I was lucky enough to get a wonderful response from her today.  It's so nice when my "real life" friends (as opposed to my pen pals/blog friends-- though you all are fabulous too) take the time to send snail mail.  As long as I get letters, I will always respond.  You hear me, Linds?  Although with going back to school in a few weeks, we'll get to communicate in person.  What a great day that will be!

Letter twenty six went to my amazingly intelligent, self-aware, hilarious law student of a friend, Ben.  Ben and I have had several phone chats throughout the summer and they have really been some of the highlights of my time.  That sounds a little pathetic, I realize, but I'm just being honest.  This guy can lift up a mood, make you laugh, talk seriously, give advice... you name it, Ben's the guy for it.  Clearly, he warrants receiving a letter of appreciation, so I sent him just that.  I probably owe him ten more letters if I were trying to adequately depict for him the gratitude I have for him in my life, but I'll stick with the one for now.  :)

Letter twenty seven... yet another birthday note!  I'm going to post her full name-- JOCELYN LONQUIST.  Why am I taking special care to share that?  Because this girl will be famous in approximately five years.  She's a musical theatre student currently who just finished getting paid for a summer of performances at a theatre in Virginia.  I've already made Joce promise me that when she makes it big on Broadway, she has to take me backstage and let me stay with her in the city... that is, if I'm not living there at that point (living in NYC at some point is on my bucket list).  Anyway, Jocelyn ended her teenage years and I sent her a card to celebrate!  It's not as good as being there in person, but it'll work!

letters 21, 22 and 23

Letter twenty one was a birthday card for a friend named Anthony.  The circumstances are slightly weird; I've interacted with him in person four times at the most.  However, I feel so utterly connected to him and wrote him what was quite possibly one of the best birthday messages I've written!  I didn't tell him about this project (mainly because I ran out of room on the card!) but I did let him know that a person as great as him deserved a truly stellar birthday, and I meant that.  In a time of Facebook wall posts and text messages, I think that a real, tangible birthday card is a great gesture and I'm hoping Anthony felt that way too.  Pay it forward!  Send someone (maybe even someone a little random) a birthday card to tell them you care.  :)

Letter twenty two went to my beloved Momma Bear!  By that, I don't mean my actual birth mother...  I mean my fabulous friend Erin!   She recently made her way up to Wisconsin (quite a contrast to Florida) and I thought she could use some snail mail love.  This letter was basically a profession of love for her, because she's responsible for a large portion of my life that means a whole lot to me.  (If you don't know me in real life, that seems vague, I know, and I apologize.)  EP... you are about to show Wisconsin what that state has been missing out on throughout the majority of its existence.  And they're never going to want you to leave.  I love and miss you!

Perfectly robotic card for Josie

Letter twenty three was a birthday card for my enemy Josie.  Did I say enemy?  I clearly meant friend.  This birthday card was perfectly fitting because it had robots on it and Josie is indeed a robot.  I actually bought it in June and have been holding on to it this long so that I could send it in a relatively close proximity to the day of celebration of the birth of Josefina.  Do you see how I'm talking kind of strangely?  That's what Robot Josie does to people.  Anyways, Josie, if you're reading this, you should know that I wish you all the best for your twenty first anniversary of life.  Feel free to make any semi-poor decisions because I'm pretty sure that your body has the Ctrl + Z function as a part of your non-humanity.  Also, I'm excited to embrace you next month.  Prepare yourself accordingly. Or, in your native tongue, "G3t r3@dY $$~~~~~."

letters 17, 18, 19 and 20

Letter seventeen is going somewhere I've never been: Ann Arbor, MI!  My friend Orlando is the lucky recipient of this card.  Orlando is currently interning at GOOGLE!  Yes, GOOGLE!  He is one of those people who is outrageously successful and brilliant yet still totally cool and down-to-earth.  Hence, I like having him as a friend.  I've found that in life I am drawn to having a bunch of girlfriends and a few key guy friends.  (Are you like this?  I'm always awed by the "guy's girls" of the world.)  Orlando is definitely shaping up to be one of these key guy friends!  Aside from the fact that we'll be working together constantly this year for our campus's ambassador program, we're also going be friends who hang out and eat good food and enjoy each other's company.  I can feel it.

Letter eighteen turned out cute!  I returned some spray paint to JoAnn's (Pinterest project aborted) and instead bought some paper crafting supplies.  Great move, Mallory.  I stayed up the better part of the night yesterday working on some cards and envelopes and I think Morgan's came out pretty cute!

Morgan's envelope... yay new supplies!

Morgan is working in her post-grad "big girl job" back at my school.  She regularly acts as my mother, therapist, friend, confidante, motivator, and everything in between during the school year.  A letter does not satisfy how much I owe her, but it's a start right?  I think everyone deserves to know how much you miss and love them, so I told Morgan in writing.  Side note-- Morgan has a highly-entertaining, non-mail blog called Gradually Ginger.  You should check it out.

The back of the envelope with a precious zebra

Letter nineteen is in the hands of my dear friend Hayley.  She started out as my R.A. in my dorm for my freshman year of college.  At first, I thought she would be the intimidating rule-enforcer at the end of the hallway to beavoided at all costs.  I learned quickly though that Hayley was a friend first and foremost, and I grew to love this girl!  I wish that I could be with her to celebrate her 21st birthday but a letter had to work in my place this time.  However, Hayley, if you're reading this, we are having a celebratory lunch/dinner/outing/something in your honor when we return to school next month!  Happiest of birthdays, pretty girl.  I miss you!

Letter twenty, written on the same day as letter nineteen (I'm getting way out of hand), went to a stranger named Lucas.  I found his blog, Lucas Writes, and decided I should most definitely correspond with him.  So, I sat down and made a sea-themed card (I guess I'm missing living so close to the beach) and then set about writing to him.

I love this saying!  It's so true.

Writing to a stranger is bizarre yet invigorating.  There's a sort of anonymity that is quite liberating; you can say anything at all and not have to see the look on the reader's face as he or she processes it.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't say anything all that weird, but the option was nice.  I am hopeful that Lucas will become another pen pal.  After all, my "real life" friends are wonderful but very few of you love snail mail enough to correspond repeatedly over time!

A P.O. box means no concealed address!  Yay unedited image!

That's all for now.  To my very few loyal readers, thanks for caring and keeping up.  :)  Happy snail mailing!

letters 14, 15 and 16

Letter fourteen was a first for me-- I made the stationery!  I went to a local store called Rubber Stamp Fantasy last week and bought shimmery black envelopes, gold and silver stickers, metallic pens and cream-colored card stock.  Lauren's was kind of a guinea pig test but I was so happy with how it turned out.  Lauren is someone who I really admire and respect but with whom I have never really spent very much time... Why on earth is that the case?!  Our school is lucky enough to have her around another year as she gets her Master's degree, so I'm going to jump on the opportunity and spend more time with this amazing individual.  I hope that she's okay with this, because I'm pretty persistent.  :)

An attempt at nice lettering on LV's envelope

Letter fifteen was written on the same day as letter fourteen!  That's right-- two letters in one day!  I have lost my mind!  It was an exciting one for me because it was my first letter to a "stranger."  Anna at  The Lettering sent me the letter from the post below and I was thrilled to respond!  She is what I hope I'll be in a few months: a mail art master, letter writing extraordinaire.  Anna, your letter got put in the mail today so it should arrive soon!  Yay for finding others who love snail mail like I do!

Letter sixteen just got picked up by my postie!  It is in transit to bright, beautiful New York City to be with my lovely friend Sara.  Sara lives in this fabulous area of Brooklyn called Park Slope and she was sweet enough to host me at her apartment this past February!  I envy and admire this girl so much.  She moved up to NYC to follow her dreams-- she got a great apartment, two jobs, settled into a fabulous social life and now she's working for NBC!  Yes, NB-freaking-C!  Less than a year after arriving in New York!  I get a little excited when I think about it because I just know that I'm going to see Sara on the Oscars someday.  :)  Anyways, a girl this wonderful (and a great friend and listener on top of all that!) is fully deserving of a letter, so she got just that today.

Incoming #1

Incoming letter one came in the mail on Saturday!  I was so excited when I saw a lovely envelope addressed to me in the stack of mail for the day.  It took every ounce of self control not to rip open the envelope before taking pictures!

Adorable letter from Anna!

This letter came from my fellow snail mail lover Anna who blogs at The Lettering.  She is a letter writing fiend.  

Even the back was precious!

I enjoyed reading her long letter which included a hilarious story about a misadventure in a German airport... love it!  

Thumbs up for long letters

You should know that I'm one of those people who doesn't use the expression "lol" often because I'm usually not actually laughing out loud.  In this instance though, I totally was!  Anna was sweet enough to even include a little gift bag of stickers and mail decorations!  

Gift bag with stickers and goodies inside-- love the chevron!

All in all, I was ecstatic to have my first piece of incoming mail.  I wrote Anna back today (check tomorrow's blog post for that) and will be sending it out bright and early in the morning!  I'm so excited for my new mail friend in Portland, OR.

letters 11, 12 and 13

Letter eleven was so pretty.  I'm bummed I didn't take a picture of it!  I sent it to my lovely friend Lindsey Creahan.  The thing about Linds and I is that we go to the same school but are so bad about seeing each other regularly.  She's an engineering major and I'm extremely involved on campus, so our schedules clash a lot.  However, we both agree that we're going to do better this year and I took it a step further by putting it in writing!  :)  Lindsey, if you're reading this, just know that... I CANNOT WAIT TO REUNITE!

Letter twelve was a birthday card for my great friend Joe.  He took me under his wing last year and has been such a good addition to my life!  He is always honest and straightforward with me, and I really appreciate that in a society where so many try to say what you want to hear!  Also, he knows more about medical topics than I could ever dream of, so it's good to have him around for that ;)

A cute envelope for my cute friend Kendall

Letter thirteen went to one of my oldest girlfriends, Kendall.  We've been buds for as long as I can remember.  Her mom was my preschool teacher and we've been in the same church together our whole lives.  Kendall is someone who has always understood me (especially my outlook on my love life) and has been there for me through a lot.  She's one of the special kinds of friends who I can be apart from for any amount of time and then reunite and everything is right back to normal.  I love this about her, I cherish her, and I will definitely be sending her more letters throughout this project!