Quick Note

I got some awesome mail today.  My friend Mrs. Fakefish is selling a cute Half-Size Zine Kit on etsy.  She gave me one to check/try out.  What a fun idea!  I'm off to go write something!!!  Thanks!!!

My Pen Pal History

When I was 6 my family moved from the Dayton, Ohio area to the north of Dayton, Ohio area.  I had one best friend and she and I were determined to keep in touch.  Which we did.  We have kept in touch for about 37 years!  Neither of us writes all the time, but we continue to touch base and send Christmas cards.

In middle-school, I somehow managed to get a pen pal who lived in Manchester Endland.  She wrote to me for a few years and even sent me souvenirs from the Royal Wedding.  (Charles & Diane)  Eventually, this gal stopped writing.

As I got older and began having friends who were going off on adventures around the globe, I started to get more international mail.  And when I crossed the U.S. I began writing letters to everyone I knew & especially those who would write back!!!  My mom and her sister (Bonnie) sent me awesome care packages.  I began writing back on anything I could find (candy bar wrappers, scrap paper, whatever).

My letters became even more fun when I had a very creative pen pal (a boy!!!) who had a great sense of humor.  One of my letters to him included a photo from the outside of my house of my bedroom window.  I had added some doodles and a detailed escape plan.  (I was home & bored to death for the summer.)

I was in heaven the year and a half that I lived in France.  A) because it was France  B) they have the coolest stationery stores C) again, France!!!  I was able to send home all kinds of crazy stuff; mostly to my family and I was getting letters from other friends who were stationed around the globe.  At this time, I also began using cassette tapes to record messages from all the great people I got to know and of all the sounds of France.

As I've gotten older, the internet, cell phones, kids have changed the amount of mail that has come my way.  I still adore mail and had a hard time not hearing back from folks.  (Not my folks; my mother has been my one faithful penpal ever since I flew the coup!)

What joy it was to discover that I was not alone!!!  After moving from Ohio I was quite lonely for mail and somehow managed to find Swap-bot, Postcrossing, and Walltype*.  I was hooked instantly.  The only thing holding me back was postage!  (or money; which is required to buy postage)

A couple of years ago some friends talked me into blogging.  I have nothing interesting to blog about.  After moving & finding others who love stationery, magnets, mailart, etc., I just started sharing my mail "adventures."  I'm sure very few friends even reads my posts.  Oh well.  But I've made another discovery:  other people blog about their mail.  Can life get any better???!!!  Now, if only I could find a way to pay for my new habit!!!

5-5-8-1

Five letters: Ohio, Pennsylvania, England, Colorado, California

Five postcards:  Canada, Washington D.C., Poland, Australia, Italy

Junk Mail:  bill, credit card application, another bill, another bill, request to donate money, cataloge for a place I can't afford to shot at, free cell phone if I add another line

Freebies:  Suave goodies from Walmart.

First Arrivals

The swaps came in a huge pile yesterday.  (Maybe not huge, but all at once.)  Here they are:

This came from Asheville, NC:  we were to write about our week and the plans we had for the weekend.

Blythe Doll came from Arizona:  5 book suggestions.

From Washington State:  Random postcard with greeting.  (This sender is new to the west like me.)

These envelopes came from Missouri and were made from a calendar.

I find it ironic that I would get bird calendar envelopes since that is what I sent.  (Only mine went to Australia!)

Here is the inside view.

This swapper also sent some extras!

Pages from a book & some cutouts.

Learn a Spanish phrase-a-day calendar.

Stickers.  (Sage has her eyes on these!)

My final treasure of the day was a package from California with loads of 6x6 scrapbook pages & stickers.

Greeting card with the papers.

I think I love this hobby!!!  There were also some neat stamps, but Sage is tired of waiting for her turn at the computer, so I'll save those for another day.

Postcrossing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Postcrossing is an online project that allows its members to send and receive real postcards from all over the world. The project's tag line is "send a postcard and receive a postcard back from a random person somewhere in the world!”^[1] Its members, also known as Postcrossers, send postcards to other members and receive postcards back from other random Postcrossers. Where the postcards come from is always a surprise.

Postcrossing is the union of the words "postcard" and "crossing" and its origin "is loosely-based on theBookcrossing site".^[2] However, the "crossing" or exchange of postcards works in a different way. A member sends a postcard to another Postcrosser and receives a postcard back from a random Postcrosser. Exchanges between the same two members only occur once, although direct swaps between members happen, they are not part of the official happenings on the site. The project is completely free and anyone with an address can create an account. However, the postcards themselves and postage fees to mail them are the responsibility of each user.

As of April 2011, Postcrossing had over 219,000 members in 203 different countries who had exchanged over 7 million postcards that have traveled over 38 billion kilometers.^[3]

The highest concentration of Postcrossing members reside in the United States, China, Russia, Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland.^[4] Globally, most Postcrossers reside in North America, Europe, and East Asia.^[5]

How it works

The main idea is that if a member sends a postcard he or she will receive at least one back from a random Postcrosser somewhere in the world.

The first step is to request to send a postcard. The website will display (and send the member an e-mail) the address of another Postcrosser and a Postcard ID (e.g.: US-786). The Postcard ID uniquely identifies that postcard in the system. The member then mails a postcard to that Postcrosser and writes the Postcard ID on it. The Postcrosser receives the postcard and registers it using the Postcard ID that is on the postcard. At this point, the member is eligible to receive a postcard from another Postcrosser. Where that postcard comes from is a surprise!^[6]

Initially each member can have up to 5 postcards traveling at any single time. Every time one of the sent postcards is registered, that Postcrosser can request another address. The number of postcards allowed to travel at any single time goes up the more postcards a member sends.^[7]

The Postcrossing system allows for the same two members to exchange postcards only once. By default, members will exchange postcards with countries other than their own; however, the users can decide to exchange postcards with other users in his or her own country.

A small percentage of mailed postcards do get lost during their travels; others may arrive with the Postcard ID unreadable and are difficult to register. There are also members who become inactive while postcards are on the way to them. The system behind the website accounts for all these factors and compensates active members by attempting to reduce the difference between the number of sent and received postcards of each member.

History

The idea for the project was created by Paulo Magalhães, who started the site on July 14, 2005. The motivation was based on the fact that he liked to receive mail, especially postcards.^[8] “The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you’d probably never have heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises – and who wouldn’t like that?”^[9]

The project started initially as a hobby for Paulo, but its unexpected success revealed that the idea was more popular than he ever predicted. Initially, Paulo hosted the project on an old computer housed in a clothes closet at his home. This setup quickly was shown to be insufficient. Based on word of mouth, the project quickly expanded over the Portuguese borders where the project was developed.

Over time the project received attention from the media which contributed to its growth and popularity. Postcrossing reached its first million exchanged postcards on April 11, 2008 and has since grown even more rapidly.^[10] It reached the second million on February 26, 2009, with a postcard that traveled from Germany to Norway.^[11] The third million was reached on September 24, 2009 with a postcard traveling from Finland to Slovenia.^[12] The fourth million was reached on March 28, 2010 with a postcard traveling from the Czech Republic to the Netherlands.^[13]

Postcrossing.com celebrated its five year anniversary on July 14, 2010 with a photography contest for its members. ^[14] Shortly after celebrating their fifth birthday, Postcrossing.com reached 5,000,000 postcards received on August 24, 2010 with a postcard traveling from Isle of Man (registered under an Italian member) to Thailand. ^[15

^]http://jandlsupplyonline.com

Empty MailBox

Empty Mailbox

This is my standing next to an empty mailbox (a bunch of empty mailboxes) at the Idaho City Museum.  There are a number of exhibits detailing the history of the lovely little town of Idaho City.  My favorite display was the one about the early postal system in town.