The end of ths year has been a terribly hectic time for me and I'm kind of glad it's coming to an end! The last two working weeks rarely saw me home before 9pm, but I still managed to get 4 letters in the post to my neglected penpals.

Sadly I have no pictures :..(

I can blame it on the batteries, or the fact my camera has taken another turn for the worst, but it's mostly due to me not getting up early enough to sort all these problems before heading out to work.

I hope you have all enjoyed fabulous Christmas days with loved ones, I hope you all ate and drank a little too much and have no regrets :)

Wishing you all a Happy New Year! xx

Apologies

(^ Pronounced Apoh-loh-ghies i.e. with a hard G - for all you Blackadder fans)

AWOL status explained here. Posting, commenting and letter writing will resume shortly.

I hope :)

Incoming/Outgoing

A much delayed update :)

Incoming

The white envie is from Gina in the states and the purple is from Audrey in Malaysia

Outgoing

The HUGE pile of postcards I sent from Venice two weekends ago.

An angel for the Taboo subjects swap

A reply to Caiti.

A long overdue response to Nicola.

I hope you're all enjoying fabulous mail days :)

Incoming/Outgoing

Oh my goodness! Could it be? ANOTHER post so soon?!

I kid you not dear readers, I have written TWO more letters and received two letters today, so no matter how proud I am at getting back into writing and no matter how fabulous it was to find the pretties in my mailbox, I can't help but think of the pile of mail I have to reply to and how todays mail just cancels each other out.

Sigh.

SO pessimistic. I'm not a true sagittarian, that's for sure ;)

Incoming

The little pink one is my very first letter from Italy! A first letter from Erika, written in Italian which was a real test or me! The little cute black one (I have that stationery too!) is a reply from Fabi in Germany :)

Outgoing

This little piggy went to Carla in America!

And the cat cat cat is off to Canada to Muriah.

I'm hoping for another couple of letters to go out this week. Fingers crossed ;)

2 Letters

2 NA

Outgoing! YAY!

I have had little time for posting, little time for the internet at all to be honest. In the past week I've been online only twice and mostly to check emails and catch up with all your lovely blogs.

Aside from the usual mundane things like working and adding to our flat, I've been writing! Now I just need to get my arse in gear and post the little pretties. I'm hoping to write another two this week. I'm not going to push myself because we have a lot of things to do at home before Friday when we GO TO VENICE! WOOOOO!!!!!

Ahem.

So slowly but surely, I'm working my way through my pile. I have a few incoming that I haven't recorded on here. I need to do so, as well as updating my outgoing figures which are lagging behind. Oops.

Dear readers, I know you shall forgive my sporadic posting, my inability to update my blog info correctly and my terrible tardy replies, because, after all, we are all merely human :)

Outgoing

A reply to Candi in Australia.

A reply to Zoe in the States.

A second letter to Gina in the States.

A reply to a first letter from Rosemary in Canada.

And finally a reply to Sarah, in the States.

I contemplated taking a pic of me to show off my new wrap around and super warm scarf, but I'm looking half dead after a ridiculous morning of transport problems, getting soaked twice and a hard day at work so, I'll leave it for now ;) But you can see a bit of my messy hair, part of the headboard of my bed and our fantastic blue wall in the bedroom... what more could you want eh?

As a random ps, my hands are suffering greatly from the cold, excessive washing at work and the use of hand sanitizer gel, does anyone have some good tips for something quick and easy just to perk them up and get a bit of moisture back into them? I know I need to take better care of them, but alas, I have no beauty regime anymore and forget to moisturise anything more often than not :(

5 Letters

1 AU
4 NA

Incoming/Outgoing

Do you remember in my last post I pledged to get three letters posted by Monday? Well, YAY for me, because I did it ;) I may even indulge and write a fourth one today!

I still have 12 letters to reply to and 3 postcards to send, so thank you once again for your patience :D

I've found that now I'm not sleeping on the train so much I can actually write letters during that small space of time to myself. It does, however, mean, that every so often, my writing gets a little crazy thanks to the movement of the train, but I'm sure you all understand ;)

Incoming

A lovely and unexpected first letter from Sheilta in the States.


An equally lovely letter from the fabulous Darcy.

Outgoing

A letter to Michelle in Singapore. She sent me the amazing Kawaii package I most recently received.

A reply to the sweet, sweet Audrey in Malaysia.

And finally a reply to my niece in Ireland.

I've had a lot of fun with stamps because I'm finally running out of exact value stamps so I've been decorating the envies with a multitude of stamps, which has made me happy to no end!

I'm currently sitting on my kitchen balcony, trying to enjoy a home made cappucino from a sachet, which is proving difficult after enjoying milky coffees from cafes for the past two weekends. The air is fragrant and crisp, the courtyard is quiet and there is a light Autumnal mist hanging in the air.

I'm happy and inspired and I want this feeling to last all the way through to Monday... but with a 5.30am alarm call, I'm not sure it will :b

3 Letters

2 AS
1 EU

Incoming

Hello!! I know, I know, it's been an age, I'm sorry :( I've been at my new job for three and a half weeks now but I've still not found a routine. Although, to be honest, I've not been trying to find one. Oops!

I had an ok day at work but then the checkout lady at the supermarket totally ruined my day, so my list of things to do for the evening has gone out of the window and I'm going to veg out with a movie this evening. After posting and reading all your blogs of course ;)

If someone had told me a month ago that I'd only go online every 3-4 days for ten minutes to check my emails, I'd never have believed them. How life changes eh?

Incoming

Letters from Caiti, Muriah and Carla

Posties from Postcrossing and the red telephone is from Nicola

The above is but a small selection of the wonderful mail I've been receiving. Sadly there have been no outgoing pretties, but I have resolved to change that as of this weekend!! Also, sorry for the poor quality of the pics, I am on my balcony, having enjoyed another spectacular pink and orange sunset and now the sun has disappeared and I am left with autumnal blue twilight. Too pretty.

I wish you all fabulous mail days and make a pledge to get three letters posted by this coming monday! xx

Outgoing/Incoming

I am working on an outgoing letter, but managed to get one finished on the weekend. Sadly, of late, my written, addressed and sealed envies seem to sit on my kitchen table for days before making their way to the post box :(

The following is going out tomorrow. For sure ;)

Outgoing

A reply to the lovely Micaela!

Incoming

I had this pretty waiting for me in the mailbox this evening (along with an annoying letter from the Comune) from sweet Sarah in the states.

I'm hoping to finish the letter in progress tonight, so maybe it will even make the post box without the kitchen table delay? One can only hope ;)

1 Letter

1 NA

Stamps!

I had to wait a lot longer for my stamps than anticipated, but I picked them up from the post office a couple of weekends ago, and although I haven't needed to use them yet, I'm going to start pretty soon.

I must say, I was super excited to have them in my hands and I leafed through them, caressing them lovingly, like the strange person I am. Here they are...


All the pretties lined up together :D

What you can't see is that the little envies on these stamps are shiney!

In Italy there is no 0,50 stamp, so I had to settle for 0,52 instead :/

The 1,00E stamp is by far my favourite. So simple and elegant!

I still have some other stamps left over, so the stamps you'll find on your letters may or may not include these. Next time I order stamps I'm going to have some fun mixing and matching designs ;)

Incoming

I checked the mailbox last night in an effort to cheer myself up after my shoulder/neck muscle inflicted an awful cramp on me (which now means I can’t move my neck properly and am in pretty much constant pain) and I wasn’t disappointed. I found these two little pretties waiting for me.

The letter on top is a lovely little note from a reader, Rosemary, in Canada. It was terribly sweet and she sent some very cute little stickers too. The letter underneath is from Zoe in the states who wrote on adorable handmade Moomin paper :)

I received this awesome package some time in the week, from Michelle in Singapore for the few flat kawaii goodies swap. Not only is it cute, cute, cute, but she jam packed it with awesome stuffs.

She included a HUGE stack of memos, most of which I shall find hard to part with!

AND two letter sets, a sticker sheet, some cute sticker flakes, a little zipped pouch, some adorable tissues and a lovely little letter. Too sweet! :D

I didn’t get round to writing any letters yesterday. In fact I hardly crossed off anything from my to do list :( so today will have to be extra productive!! Wish me luck ;)

Incoming

Wow, this week was incredibly busy. I ended up staying behind for 1, 2 or more hours after work everyday... and always get there 30 minutes before my official hours start. I'm exhausted! I ache from head to toe because I've gone from being a sloth since I stopped dancing when I was 17 to now running around after children, having to pick them up a lot, changing nappies and bending over constantly. And I can't count how many times I go from standing to sitting on the floor and back again in one day. I need to find a good masseuse and maybe even a chiropractor as I've developed a problem with my shoulder/neck.

Anyhow, back to the mail... I've had a few incomings this week, but no outgoings so far. I am planning to write 3 or 4 letters this weekend, alongside the huge list of chores and DIY, so will hopefully have more exciting news to come :)

Incoming


A cute little card from my mum to say good luck with the job and to let me know how she's doing. If you don't know, she badly broke her right humerus about 6 or 7 weeks ago, but is much better now. She was even able to write with her right hand for this card! :D



A fabulous huge envie and colourful letter from Gina in the States. I sadly ripped the envie a little when opening it, because, like a child, I was too impatient to find a knife to make a careful opening :/


This is a huge, long letter from Candi in Australia. She also sent along the gorgeous little painting you can see. It's funny because I've been planning to get some art for our living room and all the pieces I've fallen in love with have been floral, so this can go up with the rest of them :D

Even though I'm tired and achey and a bit grumpy in the week, I'm super duper excited! Why? Because Autumn is coming, I can smell it in the evenings. It's always been my favourite season, I particularly love the way the air smells in autumn, crisp and earthy and a little bit smokey, it's divine. I got even more excited a couple of nights ago when it was misty in the evening and although it was a comfy 16 degrees, I felt I should start to dig out my scarf and gloves in anticipation of the cooler weather.

Today is a sunny and warm 25C so the gloves will have to wait, but I'm hoping I get to see the fog rolling over the fields again on my train journey to work on Monday. I can feel the butterlies building up in my tummy as I type!

Buon Weekend ragazzi!

Outgoing

Haha, do you remember that I complained earlier in the month at not being able to find my little stash of Italian stamps? Well tonight I pulled out my crappy piece of paper that documents the price of sending various letter sizes and weights from Italy to other countries and guess what fell out from in between the folds? Yep, stamps! So I'm happy :D

Outgoing

Yesterday's training day did not have the same effect as on Tuesday. Sure, it was tiring, but not nearly as bad. I got home, sealed and stamped the letters from the previous post and even wrote a WHOLE letter!! Crazy huh? ;)

I'm feeling mischevious, so I'm not declaring the destinations of these letters, hehe. Know that they are all going to people who have blogs, who have been waiting a while for replies and are all lovely ladies. Fit the bill? Maybe one of these is yours ;)

I'm obviously tired because I'm starting to sound like a game show hostess! So I'll wrap it up! Hopefully I can get some posties posted tomorrow, but for now my main supplies are trapped behind locked doors and nylon sheeting while our spare room is being painted.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

3 Letters

1 EU
2 NA

AHA!

So, I've no idea as to why I am still awake at such a ridiculous time, considering I have to get up in around 5 hours. And as to why I am contemplating yet another cigarette is again, beyond me.

But no fear! I have insane black circles under my eyes, my brain is even more fried than yesterday and I keep accidentally slipping random Italian words into sentences and yet I have begun to write again :D Well, I finished one at least. One that I started, um, a week ago, added to over the weekend and only just finished... Shame on you Maria! But another part of me needs to be reminded that, for me at least, letters take on a life and shape all of their own. It's not my hand that moves the pen, it's my mind. Anyhow, enough blathering, before I start typing in Italian too!


Incoming

WOOHOO!!!! Finally! I now know that Micaela's lovely letter and fabulous doily (courtesy of her mamma) are not lost forever in the Italian postal system, they are here with me at home! YAY!

AND

Also, my niece is too cute, and has sent me another letter. (This stationery I actually bought for her older brother many years ago to write to me with. I got her some too, but it was girly ;)

Outgoing

I have these two lovelies waiting to go out. I don't want to promise that they will go out tomorrow, as I still have to add a little to one, but depending on the time I get home tomorrow (17:40 today - WOW - early!) I may be able to slip them into the letter box ;)

p.s. I'm Sorry!

I started training for work this week and I had forgotten how draining training is (hehe I'm a poet). So much information, total overload and my brain is fried. Add in 2 hours on the train each day, moving out and cleaning the Cameri flat, spending last weekend in Turin and I'm sure you can imagine... I'm exhausted.

So I apologise for lack of update recently.

I apologise for lack of outgoing mail to those who are expecting a reply.

I'm adjusting, it will take me a while to get used to working again after a year of unemployment. It will take a lot to get used to commuting, for the first time ever and let's not talk about having to get up at 5am (eep!), so please forgive me, it will take a couple of weeks for things to get back to normal on my end.

Thank you for your kind patience my lovelies :)

Incoming

I had two deliveries this morning. One was a package of stationery I had ordered from Artbox.co.uk (part of my last kawaii sationery haul of the year) and the other was a letter from Audrey.

She covered it with beautiful stamps to the front

And endless amounts of sparkly tape to the back.


As if that wasn't enough she has filled this wonderful envie full of amazing goodies for me, including a photo of her and her bf, a gorgeous little cross stitched cat and foreign money!!! :D (I love to collect money from other countries, hehe).

Just WOW. As if the time to write and post a letter wasn't enough, I am gifted with such wonderful friends across the globe :)

I hope you all have great mail days and a fabulous weekend xx

Incoming

I've been having lots of geeky fun organising my pictures of incoming and outgoing mail. The only problem is that I've noticed holes in my records :( For the incoming I can easily fill the gaps (which I may do today) but for my outgoing it's pretty sad :((

I am trying not to send repeat stationery for each of my penpals, so these records help, it's also nice to remember what went to who and when. But alas, there shall forever be some gaps in my records!

As promised, here are the missing incomings, pics in order of when they were received.

Incoming

The gorgeous housewarming card from my Sister in London. It's so pretty it could go into a frame :)

A letter from Caiti, received at the end of last week. (Much love to you Caitlin)

A letter from Megan, received yesterday.

Packed with two awesome recipes I'm dying to try out :D

A scrummy postcard from Esme. I love that she thought of me, even though she's only written to me once (and I still haven't replied - OUCH! But it shall be written today, promise!)

And finally a kawaii swap parcel complete with these AMAZING letter sets.

AND this HUGE haul of memo sheets. This parcel was ace and I squeed a lot over it. My partner also managed to psychicly pick my favourite kawaii characters, even though they aren't stated on my swap-bot profile!

I didn't write any letters yesterday (I spent an eternity on the internet) but I'm hoping to write two today... anymore than that and I get very sleepy very early! Letter writing is taxing for lazy bums like me who haven't worked for a while ;) I have 5 in my 'reply to' pile, which is a great relief from the 10 I had this time last week!

I wish all you lovelies amazing mail days! xx

Incoming/Outgoing

Oops! I made a mistake!

^ That's my favourite saying at the moment. My mistake this time was judging everything here by English standards. I assumed my stamps would be processed and posted on Monday and so here by now, but no. Only today did I get an email insinuating, but not explicitly stating, that my order has been processed. It doesn't say it's been completed or dispatched, but I'm hoping they will arrive tomorrow. Fingers crossed eh?

I got so sick of waiting and as my pile of outgoing mail grew, I went to the post office, which is a mere 82 flip-flop steps away (they are smaller than normal steps for me) and bought a bunch to cover my outgoings for today and any letters I write in the next couple of days. It totalled 16E, so I'm going to deduct that amount from when I next buy stamps. Which shouldn't be until the end of October I believe.

Anyway, a few of these outgoings were posted yesterday, but the bulk of them went into the box this afternoon. Seeing as everything is still running on 'holiday time' here, they likely won't be picked up until tomorrow morning.

Warning... there are a lot of them ;)

Outgoing

On Saturday, we stopped at a Tabaccheria to fuel my filthy habit and we found postcards of NOVARA!!! WOW!!! So we picked up a couple, the top one is going to my mum and the bottom one is to our friend Michael, who we ALWAYS send posties to, whenever we go anywhere. Seriously... anywhere ;)

This letter is for the taboo topics swap, this time the theme was 'Weight'. I like how the envie came out, I addressed it well for once, and added some stickers ontop of the vine like plant and butterfly which came printed on the envie. It's a shame I had to get rid of most of the address :\

(The following are penpal-letters, shown in the order they were written. I tried to reply in the order I received them, and went by post marks if they came in a bunch)

This was a VERY overdue first letter to Gina.


Again, an overdue letter, in reply to Rachel's letter for my Kawaii swap held last month.


I wanted to show you the back of the envie because I bought a couple of Sakura glaze gel pens while in London and I used the white one on my airmail design. I LOVE how it came out :D


A reply to the sweet Sarah who recently returned from a trip to Europe, hence the London themed stationery :)


A reply to Julie in CA who is now the proud mother of 19 hens!!!

A reply to the wonderful Candi in Australia. She always writes me long letters and I try to send long ones back :)

This is one of the lovely notecards Elle sent me on it's way to Muriah. She's expecting her 2nd child and I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl!!!

And finally a bit of Fairyland to my niece Niamh in Ireland. She was too cute to send a letter to my new mailbox (I believe the words my sister used to tell her how excited I was were 'She's wetting her knickers') so she gets this pretty in return :)

There were also a couple of packages for WTA winners from swap-bot, but I won't bore you with those!

Ok, WOW, this is a long post. Don't worry it won't be much longer ;)

As for incoming I got a letter from Miss Caiti last week, a bunch today including a letter from Megan, a Postie from Esme, a postie from Candi and an AWESOME stationery swap, BUT I have no pics... maybe tomorrow??

2 Postcards
8 Letters
2 Packages

1 AU
6 EU
5 NA