Incoming//Outgoing

I've been terrible about posting my mail regularly, I'm sorry! I also realised that I posted my outgoing last week without posting about the incoming I was replying to... double sorry :(

Anyhoo, I went for an early bike ride because the morning was cloudy and cool yesterday (but it got sunny and humid toward the end of my journey) and when I got back to Via Cavour I found two letters poking out of the mailbox, just waiting for my return! I was so excited I yanked them out before I'd even gotten off my bike, but managed the self control needed to wait until I got back to the flat to investigate :D

Incoming

They were both surprise letters, what a treat!! The first was from my sister in London and the second a first letter from the sweet Sarah.

Outgoing

The large envie is for a swap 'Just Draw 2' where you had to sit and draw for an hour. The smaller envie is a reply to my sister. Just a short note really.

For the drawing swap I pencilled the view from my balcony of the church clock tower and rooftops and I sent another pen drawing inspired by the beautiful landscape of Novara. Silly me forgot to take pictures of the drawings before I sealed the envie, so you'll just have to imagine I'm afraid.

I've yet to check the mailbox today, so if I'm a very lucky girl then there may be an edit to this post. Fingers crossed!!

1 Package
1 Letter

1 NA
1 EU

Empty mailbox

I'm not sure when or how often the mail is delivered in Cameri. I think I'd have a hard time finding out because the post office staff here aren't the nicest.

I'm sad for other reasons, but my empty mailbox doesn't help :(

Maybe it's a good thing that I don't have mail to reply to...? There's so much to do in the flat it's unreal and if I start writing letters I'll never get anything done!

I'd better get on with that 'stuff' eh?

I hope you're all having much better mail days than me ;)

Outgoing

I've had a super busy and tiring week, but I've been workng on these letters the whole time. Or rather, I worked on them when I was free and wasn't too tired. I was most pleased to get them posted today, my last day in Lyon, because the post office experience is much less traumatic here ;)

So we have a much needed 1st resposne to Zoe, a terribly delayed reponse to the lovely and patient Ashley, only slightly more prompt replies to Julie and Nicola and a surprise 1st letter to a fellow blogger. I'm hoping they all reach their destinations safely :D

I'm going back to Italy tomorrow, I am aware that some of you have posted things to me in Italy. I'm hoping that they arrive soon because I'm back in the UK for a couple of weeks as of the 6th of July. (Italian post isn't the most reliable, especially in the middle of nowhere like Cameri) I'm hoping to find a mailbox full of things come Monday, but I know that shan't be the case :(

I hope you all have wonderful weekends!! I'm not looking forward to the weather in Italy, it's been pretty hot here in France, but I have it on good authority that it's boiling down there :( I'll leave you with the view from my bedroom window this afternoon... xx

EDIT: if you wanna see my efforts for the superhero day at the ISL, jump to here :)

5 Letters

3 NA
2 EU

Outgoing

Today I posted an Italian care package to Micaela. I had intended to post it before I came to France, but never got the chance to shop for it, then I decided to post it on Saturday from Torino, but after 5 hours of walking, a boozy night and terrible blisters on my feet, I didn't make it to the post office before closing time.

I kinda wished I'd posted it from Torino after all. Postage in France is super expensive. Seriously. But it was worth it! I hope she likes everything :) I didn't get any pics because I had to buy packaging in the post office (which is also why it was expensive), sorry!

1 Package

1 NA

Inspire Me Swap - Pic Heavy

So, as I said a very long time ago, I'd go into more depth on the inspire me swap I put together for the start of June.

As a recap, the swap required filling an envelope with 7 smaller envies, each containing an inspiration item, quote, poem, drawing etc. And they had to be decorated. I didn't go overboard with the decoration of the envelopes, but I included more than one inspiration item in each envie, so I hope it balanced out ok.

Here goes...

I took most of my inspiration from two books: When I loved myself enough by Kim McMillen and 101 Poems that could save your life, I also used a quote from William Blake in each envelope, he is one of my favourite artists... such great poetry and illustrations! I also used a few quotes that I found on the net.

I really hope my partner likes it and can draw comfort and inspiration from each page. I know that is what it brought me as I was making it!

Outgoing

Ok, this won't be a very exciting post, but remember those postcards down there *points to the post below* well I posted them and one of the coke ad posties today. It cost me a whopping 12 Euros in postage, so add the 8 Euros for the actual cards and I spent 20 euros on postal love!

I hope all the recipients like the cards I picked for them :D

I'm in Torino for the weekend, so I'll wish you a buon weekend now!

Ciao my lovelies xx

15 Postcards

5 EU
7 NA
1 AS
2 AU

Giveaway?

I'm feeling the urge to host a giveaway. I know I don't have many followers, but who cares, you're all important, no matter how small your number and I want to give something back :D

It's also an excuse to spend a little money, and we all know I love doing that.

So, as I said, I'm contemplating it. I'll probably wait until I'm back in London because I have a shitload of goodies sitting there waiting to be doled out and I'm feeling generous!

I'm really missing my stationery stash. I only brought a handful of lettersets (i.e. 2 sheets and 1 envie) with me because I didn't think I'd be writing too much and seriously didn't even take into account the replies I had to write. I almost bought a Hello Kitty letter set in Ste Foy today, but I resisted. At 7 Euros, I didn't think it was worth the money.

However, on Monday I picked up these

A bunch of Lyon postcards.


Awesome Coke ad postcards.

The Lyon postcards are intended for my penpals, I would have bought more to spread the love a little further, but posties are expensive here! I managed to get a decdent deal which worked out to 50c a card, but in London I can get 15 for £1, less than 7p a card!! I guess there just isn't so much demand for touristy postcards here.

The coke ad cards are for my personal stash. Me and the bf have a large collection of vintage ad and movie poster cards, just plain bizarre cards, cards of our favourite modern movie posters and various cards from places we've visited that we will *eventually* combine into a huge collage and put into an appropriate frame. Who knows when we will finally get around to completing our project, maybe only when we have bought a house?? But we will do it... one day ;)

As I'm in Lyon, I don't know if I've had any replies in Italy, but I will ask the lovely bf to bring any mail to Torino this weekend, so I'll be able to get any replies out from Lyon next week.

Thank you for being patient with my constant moving around and the delays it's caused to my correspondence ♥

Outgoing

I was comforted by the knowledge, given to me by my bf, that the post office here in Ste Foy has a machine that you can use to print stamps, so I didn't have to use my awful knowledge of French to try and get postage over the counter.

I was even more pleased when I went there today and saw you could change the language on the machine, so I got to press buttons in English! However, I wasn't really counting on things being called different names (I'm sheltered, I know), so as usual, I'm a little worried about the letter I posted today... although the price of the postage seems about right for the weight and destination, so fingers crossed it will get there.

Also, the printed stamp was pretty cool, with pics of paper airplanes and whatnot. I'll have to take a pic for the next letter I post from here.

A first letter reply to Megan

I hope it reaches you ok!!

1 Letter

1 Australasia

Outgoing

I got in trouble when I went to the post office on Friday. Apparently I hadn't left enough space for the stamp (wuh?!) and the moody lady at the post office spent a lot of time complaining in Italian. I almost muttered 'che palle' under my breath, but thankfully held my tongue.

If I was worried that your letters weren't going to reach you last time, I'm even more worried this time round!

Anyhoo, here is documentation that I did actually write the letters, but after Caiti's tease with the mystery letters, I decided to do the same ;) I have one more letter to reply to and one that is written already and will be sent tomorrow. I'm currently in Lyon, so some of you will get Italian stamps and some of you will get French ones :)

A handful of mystery letters :)

4 Letters

3 NA
1 Asia

It's official!

My beloved picked up a key for the mailbox today :D

I spent a considerable amount of time cleaning out the tonnes of dust and dirt that had accumulated from goodness knows how many months of being empty, so my incoming letters don't get dirty. And although it's not perfect (have you ever tried cleaning one of those guys? It's tough!) I'm confident any mail coming my way won't suffer too much from grit and grime.

Anyhoo, I'm delighted to give you all my Italian address and I'm happy to publish it here for all, so if you're a reader and want to send me something amazing, please, feel free... it will make my day :D

The only thing about this address is that it's temporary. I'm going back to the UK on July 5th for an undecided amount of time, and we'll hopefully be moving to a new place in August, but I'll deal with that when the time comes. So, without further delay here you go :D

Maria Nagy
Via Camillo Cavour, 3
Cameri 28062 (NO)
Italia

The other thing about this mailbox is that you'll have to write my full name to make sure it gets into the correct box, so for anyone who currently writes to me as Ria, the envie will have to display my full name... and surname (Booooo!!)

But YAY for new address and all the lovely post I'm anticipating. You guys brighten my life :)

Incoming/outgoing/London Post trip!

So, I was in london for 48 hours... or maybe 50 hours. I had a beautiful pile of post waiting for me and I got a lovely first letter from Megan on the Friday! As if that wasn't good enough, I got back to Cameri on Saturday morning to find another first letter waiting for me on top of the call buttons outside our building. We haven't got our names on a mailbox, because we haven't got a key for the mailbox yet (grrr) but the post person was kind enough to leave it out for me anyway, YAY!

I was so happy to receive my first letter here :D

Anyhoo, I'll give you some much needed pictures to brighten things up a bit in here... (sorry that some are out of focus, all the postcards are still in London so I can't do retakes ): )

Incoming

All my envie post... *drool*


My postcards


The ultra cool first letter from Megan. Look, it's Milan (and if you look even harder you can see Novara!) ooh and a Trudi (also known as a ladybird)!!


The coolest material ever that came in the big padded envie pictured.

Outgoing

My outgoing for the "Inspire me please #2" swap. I'll post in greater detail about this tomorrow.

It's ridiculuously humid here and we slept with the windows open last night because we were so boiling and despite using some repellent, I got bitten 4 times :( The mosquitos have landed... and they're after my blood :''(

I have a horrid feeling I may have left a letter in the UK, which would suck... suck so much. But I can get my mum to forward anything, so I'll be giving out my Italian add, but if you've sent something to London, or send it there by accident, have no fear, I'll get it eventually :)

Ciao for now my lovelies!

1 Package

1 NA

Happy Happy Happy!!

My mum regularly informs me that I have a huge pile of post mounting up at home. This makes me both happy and sad at the same time... happy that it's there, but sad that I'm not.

The happy happy is that I'm going home tomorrow (albeit for 2 days) to pick up all the stuff we need and getting back here for saturday morning so we can keep our plans to explore Milano together and maybe meet up with some friends from the bf's work.

I'm so excited to see my kitty and my mum and my POST :D :D :D :D

I'm also going to pick up books and my jewellery making supplies and loads of stationery (as well as all the practical things we need here) so I have plenty of things to do here while the school take their time on deciding when they are going to start training... (bah, more on that another time maybe?)

But yes, for now I'm happy about the mail situation. And hopefully we'll get a key to the mailbox this evening so I can finally give everyone my Italian Address :D

Ah, simple pleasures, hehe