Incoming Mail, Unboxings and Outgoing Mail

Hello friends! It has been ages since I last wrote to you and shared anything snail mail related! Last week I had a pretty good mail week despite the fact that I have been dismal at getting much out myself. Sigh...I have been working on mail lately and am hoping to start another few replies tomorrow after I get orders out for customers of my stationery shop Walks In Beauty Paperie on Etsy. I've been adding new designs each week and hope to renew a few of our most popular items soon! 

Anyway, as I said, in the last week a half I've had quite a lot of great happy mail arrive, some letters as well as some subscription boxes which have been to die for! So, I'm going to share them here with you today.

Up first some of my incoming pen pal mail:

I receive a lot of mail from back home in the States from my parents. They've been slowly sending me the things I left behind so it is always a bit of a surprise to re-discover what things I had that my Dad is sending me in small boxes. 

He was able to get ALL of this into the top small box! 

This was also a bit of stuff that my Dad sent me in an envelope from home, a few Hello Kitty stickers, some Barbie paper bits I'd designed for a friend and a set of envelopes that came from an old stationery set.

A letter from my Belgian pen pal which came in the cutest envelope decorated with deco tapes! She always cleverly pairs tapes on her envelopes. There was also a little bag of gummy candies inside but I ate it before I took the photo! Whoops! LOL!

Also received mail from my kindred spirit twin, Bekah a.k.a. Mouse, @miss_mouse_middleton on Instagram,. As well as another envelope of goodies from home. The contents of Bekah's letter are so lovely I think they merit their own blog post so be on the look out for it. ☺

Now, all my pen pals know I am addicted to washi tapes and stickers and the internet has greatly facilitated my addiction and hoarding with the advent of online shopping and subscription boxes. I had, until very recently, only subscribed to the Lucky Dip Club boxes which I will do an unboxing post about with this month's box but then I finally caved and got Pipsticks and also Yoohoo Mail and OMG!!!

Mail nowadays has been taken to another level with all the bits one can add to it! And everything inside is just gorgeous! My other favourite place to shop online for bits, mainly washi tape, is Etsy!

First up: My order from Unwrap Colour's Etsy shop, 2 sets of sticker flakes for my diary and a lovely pink & gold foiled pineapple washi tape. I had two tapes like this before but in white and gold. I am hooked on foiled washi right now!

These fabulous vintage paper clip rolls of washi came from LobsterBisqueVintage which is located in New Hampshire. I sometimes miss the stuff I could get in the States. The lovely Susan added some extra bits to make the shipping worthwhile. Isn't that sweet of her?

Pipsticks is the sticker sensation of the moment! The pro pack comes full of 15 different sticker sheets plus a postcard and print. Plus that packaging is way fun, right?

I'm pretty sure all of these are being put toward my diary, not sure I want to share them! LOL!

Yoohoo Mail is a UK based stationery subscription box and it is to die for! I bought the Wanderlust box this month and it did not disappoint! I am over the moon with the amazing goodies that came in it!

Two fabulous prints, 3 postcards, 5 amazing blank greetings cards, one writing set and the cutest list cards ever! All travel themed and just extremely cute! 

What subscription boxes, if any, do you receive? Lastly, I'd like to show you my latest bit of creative mail I was lately working on which is going out this week to a pal who loves birds! I gathered as many bird themed supplies as I could find in my stash to create this lovely bit of mail for her.

Some of what I used to create a mail folder for her. The Kingfisher card was what I used as a base for making the mail folder, I used all the tapes pictured and some stickers from the booklets pictured. 

Inside the folder: I made a flap for the letter to sit in on the left and used washi tape to secure some bits on the right hand side. Stickers, labels and mini tags I punched using a new craft punch I picked up at TIGER in Cardiff.

Some of the stickers I included...

Mini tags secured in a mini envelope sealed with a feather and some birds on a wire holding in place some pretty pink tags. 

Just a tiny bit of polka dotted tape holding the folder closed and a mail art covered envelope. If you aren't already aware that I now have an instagram account for this blog, follow me at @this_is_myletter_2u where I will be posting the mail art in a photo tomorrow. You can also follow me on Facebook to see the photos which are always automatically posted on there as well. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing all the mail I've received lately! I will be posting tomorrow again with a look at some of the stationery related goodies I purchased in Cardiff two weekends ago. Stay tuned!

Happy Snail Mailing!

Incoming & Outgoing Mail Yesterday and Today

I count myself as one very fortunate girl as I'm very often spoiled by my lovely pals but this pal, she takes the cake! Not only did she send me ALL the goodies you see above included with the letter but the letter itself was a beautiful and heartfelt testament to our friendship and I can only say I feel very honoured and blessed. 

This was a very welcome bit of happy mail which I received! I look forward to putting together my reply and equally fun happy mail for her and sharing it here with you all after she's received it! :) Aren't all those stamps lovely? I can't wait to start using them! 

Yesterday I wrote to another pal in the UK as well (the one I received the above goodies from is in England) only she's in Wales. I have been wanting for a long time to do some themed letters and I've started using the alphabet as my theme so yesterday's letter was 'A is for apple'. Here's what I posted today:

Above you can see that I printed some apple themed illustrations as well as some illustrated apple cake recipes, I then printed some apple illustrations in sticker form and wrote the first page on a Susan Branch apple themed letter paper which seemed to suit the theme quite nicely! I hope she likes it all and I'm looking forward to hearing from her what she thinks! 

Today I received a letter from a pal in the Netherlands and I love the envelope she used! Kissy lips are a personal fave of mine! Have a look:

How was your mail day today? I'd love to know! :)

XOXO,

Nadia 

Letters, Gifts and Musings...

 

Hello from a sunny and hot Florida! Well, it was sunny earlier today and hot but here I am enjoying being in the warmer weather in November! I arrived her this past Tuesday and what a different scene it is from Western NY where I was!  I ☺had a nice little pile of post waiting for me when I arrived here from several places in the world. My dear friend and pal Jo from England had sent me a nice little gift (which included the little notebook and flowers pictured above) which she posted from Greece while she was visiting our mutual pal there, I received an intro from a new pal from the pen pal group I'm in on Facebook, a letter from a friend in Cardiff and a letter from a lady in Canada asking if I wanted to be pals. 

This lovely post was from my friend Ali in Cardiff! I love how all of my pals personalise things! Postcardsm paper bits and even a tea bag!

I think I may have to visit Cheddar Gorge and Glastonbury Tor when I am back in the UK! They look like fabulous places and Ali sure knows how to describe them enticingly enough! :)

Lovely gifts from Jo, my pen palling soul mate, full of loads of little goodies! 

I don't have a photo of the other letters but they were both quite lovely too! I have been re-discovering all the bits and stationery I'd left behind when I left for the UK earlier in April and decided that for now I am going to start using the cards that I have here to accompany my letters. I have so many cards and they are lovely but sometimes I forget to use them so I think I shall start putting them to good use! Today I wrote to my Finnish pen pal Maria on a lovely pink card which I added her name to on the front. I decorated the inside with hand-coloured round labels and other bits. I also answered her mail tag and added my own tag on the back of my business card.

Decorating the inside of the card with hand-coloured dots! Lovely aren't they?

I love mail tags because they are a great way of getting to know more about pals and also of sending things that your pal might like. To the left, on the Diddl paper, is the mail tag my friend sent me and I responded with some hand-drawn/coloured stickers, a little sticky note with something about my country, a list of 10 books that really moved/impressed me and a couple of bits of decorative paper as I sadly could not find a nice paper napkin to send this time.

Do any of you do mail tags and if so, what do you often ask for or include? I also received an intro letter from a new pal in Norway which I'm going to read tonight before sleeping with a cup of tea latte. 

Isn't this a cute envelope? I can't wait to read it with my warm drink all cosy up in my bed!

Anyway, thank you for stopping by and spending some time with me today. I hope you're all having an excellent week! 

Happy Snail Mailing!

Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.  ~Lord Byron

Happy Halloween and some outgoing mail! :)

It's a very brisk day on this All Hallow's Eve and I took a short walk to look for the only post box nearby, down the street a ways, in order to post a few letters I had ready to go out to Belgium, England, The Netherlands and Wales! I was finally able to get stamps the other day (wreath ones for the international mail, flowers for within the US) so that I could post the letters I had all ready and waiting.

Autumn hit its peak here in the State of NY (I'm visiting and will write more about why I am back in the US in another post) the week of the 18th October and now the trees are starting to look barren. Only a few have leaves left but soon enough they too will have none and only the evergreens will look green and full. I took a few photos as I went back and forth between the house and the post box.

You can see the remaining leaves on the one tree in the lower right corner of the collage of photos, the walk to the post box seemed infinite but it is really only about a 10 minute walk back and forth. The autumn leaves and berries are breath-taking though!

Like I said earlier, I posted four fab letters, two of which were to brand new penpals and I have learned from my husband back home in England that I received a letter from Norway and had received a few postcards about a week and a half ago as well! Have you all received many letters lately? Here's a photo I took right before putting my outgoing mail in the box...

I'm looking forward to writing more posts in the next few days! Happy snail mailing all! 

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