Letter A Day v 2.0

Such a huge delay between updates! I have been busy with the start of my final semester, and of course being engrossed by the always fantastic The Walking Dead and now cult hit True Detective.  Sadly for me, the last units I have to complete for my degree are essay based. So many essays. Bah. It is almost the end of semester though, so soon I shall have all the time in the world.. to work full time. I am not sure which option is better. The units are all based on novels still, so I have had the opportunity to read and re-read some pretty amazing books. Handmaids Tale, The Hunger Games, Lolita, American Psycho are just a few.

Now for the actual purpose of this post. On January 1st I decided to try the letter a day challenge.
Annoyingly, I had some personal stuff come up and basically I have restarted the challenge.
I have been noting down who I sent the letters to, but forgot to take photos. Remembered last week  though and today. Yay for mail.

Swear I have a fish brain sometimes. Either way, I had been making brilliant progress, writing every day, not second guessing/self editing everything. Until last Tuesday.
Instead I had to have a few days rest after an idiot decided that the give way sign was entirely optional.
Thankfully I wasn't injured too badly, though the car is a mess.
Now I have the lengthy and frustrating wait to hear back from the insurance company.
There is damage to both sides and the front. So very frustrating. Today I managed to drive a fair distance without much trouble, and dropped kids off to daycare. Got a coffee before leaving to attend work meeting and idiot cab driver cut across double lines to stop at the taxi bay. Argh! I have always heard comments about Canberra drivers being some of the worse, but now I am hyper aware of what they are all doing, it is both frustrating and disappointing that people risk their lives and others just to get somewhere quickly.

I wasn't ready to drive over the long weekend, but I did do plenty of reading and binge watched Naked and Afraid. Camping made all the more unappealing once again.

Now I have a wonderfully fast printer, it is time to print all my form site replies and get cracking on letters for fellow LEP & IGGPPC members. Woo.

Spring cleaning life

Received two lots of meh news in the last few days.
Did a general clean of house today, super clean of office and given it is almost spring- I am thinking about spring cleaning rest of life.
Not sure how to do that though. Maybe a postcard or a sky writer- "Hey hey. Yep I am done. Bye"
That could totally work.

In other news, I got a little friend who I named Jemima and the Ps3 remote died. So plenty of writing is being done. Can't kill dragons, write letters. Perfect trade.

Have had no mail in the last 1 1/2 weeks, which has been kinda crap & good at the same time. Allowing me to catch up on letters. Bills or junk mail only sucks though.

Temporary hiding spot complete with frozen peas

What's in my bag

Or more to the point why is all that in my bag?

I change my bag every day, and each time I try to cull the amount of things I carry with me. It just never happens. Entirely possible I am messing with my shoulder and possibly my spine from oversized bags full of paper. Pictures taken with iPhone, sorry for the dark photos.

I typically only buy leather bags because I tend to overfill my bags, leather ages beautifully & pvc tends to split and break. This bag I purchased for only $2 from an op shop and I think that it might have been a camera bag. Lots of compartments and padded inside. It is however PVC and I can see there are splits on the handle already. Boo.
Looking forward to seeing what the other LEP members are carrying around  ^_^

1. Without fail I always carry: wallet, ipad mini, journal, two different pens sets, overstuffed beauty case filled with pens & markers, notepads, zip up folder of letters, stamp, coin purse, washi tape, lip balm, iPhone 5 & keys (not pictured) and travel toothbrush.

2.  PVC bag of awesome

3. Three notepads and pencils for lettering.

4. Beauty pencil case and folder full of letters received, replies in progress, and blank envelopes for mail art.

5. Pen sets for art

Letter Mo and Op Shops

Received my first #LetterMo letter on Friday. Very exciting.
Have sent out quite a few letters and postcards for both #LetterMo and my regular letter writing. Forgot to take photos though. So here is a shot of today's postcards.

First week back at uni has been rather hectic. Lots of planning, time management and of course reading. So much reading. Have only had one tutorial, but we spent the whole 2 hours discussing graffiti and whether it was art or not. Fantastic to be in classes with 3rd year students, no one has been hung over in class etc. Will see how the year goes.

Friday was class free so I happily spent the day doing mail art & of course the rounds of local op shops.  

1. Postcards out for #lettermo
2. Pearl tea of doom
3. Op shop bag of wool. Can't wait for winter
4. New tea cup
5. Catching up on letters
6. Vistaprint order on the way!

Tattoos and Tea

So after having a little vent on a parenting forum re a filthy stare I got from a complete stranger, I was able to find out other people's views on tattoos. Some close minded, some with the utterly ridiculous "what happens when you are 80", and other like-minded people who agreed with me when I said, having a sleeve of tattoos does not make me any less of a married university educated home owner with 3 healthy happy children.
From that vent has come quite a few recommendations for types of tea (because tea and tattoos just go together). Will be looking at doing tea swaps with my penpals very soon.
Now need to finish my Irish tea and get back to cleaning this office in prep for uni and of course letter writing.

1. Miss I taking a photo of me painting

2. My big girl Ruby

3. My little girl Sugar

4. Tea! 

Last Week of Holidays

Uni is rapidly approaching and I may in fact be wasting the last days of freedom I have.
January is almost over, and I am almost done with replies. Good thing I am caught up as it is nearly A Month of Letters time. Just discovered this, and am amazed there are so many people out there looking for penpals.

1. Sign up here: Month of Letters
2. I am level 41 on Skyrim, so that is something. Not necessarily something useful. Oh well.
3. Fantastic movie. Made me want to cry. And eat southern food as well!
4. Missed it in the cinema. Ended up watching it twice at home. So good.
5. Uni text I have started reading & 'The Mandarins' by Simone De Beauvoir
6. Catching up on mail with the help of my fav cup of tea.

Mail Call #3

INCOMING

OUTGOING

1. Ballet Mail Art from the extremely talented Sarah

2. Letter from the lovely Nicole
3. Christmas letter from my darling Christine. The letter was lost for a while due to awesome postal system.
4. Owl love from Cheryl
5. Last but not least, letter from fellow Potterhead Rin

Lost Post!

Slowing catching up with my letters and I am getting pretty disheartened by the amount of lost post.

I put a lot of thought and time into my letters. Honestly it takes hours and to find out the replies just seemingly disappear into space is incredibly frustrating.

Have also not received 3 replies from overseas penpals. I am hoping they will eventually turn up, but that seems very unlikely. All the effort and time put in from both myself and others, only to have it just vanish.

So yes, still writing, but kind of disheartened by what has happened. Looking at scanning each letter before sending from now on.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year

Continuing on my resolution to do more creative things, here is an update of the last few days. Nothing like making ice mocha at home with nespresso machine to help with cleaning and sorting.
Not sure what coffee it was, I just go by colour. Kept ice cold most of the day with help from the super awesome Starbucks mug.

On top of this major resolution I made a few extra ones while watching fireworks with husband.

2. Read more and not just uni books *

3. Write more *

4. Healthier lifestyle *

and finally 5. More time with my babies & husband *

* Currently re-reading Of Mice and Men. When a single unit at Uni comprised of 7 different books, there was very little interest in reading anything else. This time last year I finished the complete Hunger Games series in less than 3 days. Have downloaded a few reading apps on phone & of course found more books at the op shops to read (pictures to follow).

*When a writer isn't writing, she should be reading. I have been reading and writing less since I started my writing degree. If it wasn't for uni, I wasn't interested. Letter writing has helped get my hands used to writing, something I worry will be a lost skill for my children. My father & husband have beautiful writing, and I have nice writing if I focus, otherwise it is chicken scrawl of doom. Alarm goes off at 8pm each night to write, but usually I am doing something with or for the kids. Making a rule now to stop and go write at least one line. A lovely woman I am following on Instagram recently purchased a line a day journal. I bought one last year, but never followed through. Am starting this year with a new book (pictures to follow).

* Being trapped either in an office, or racing between classes means I don't eat that well. I often skip breakfast, and lunch, but always make a proper dinner. So I am slowly making changes to my diet. No point in saying no junk food. Seriously I last 3 days before I am going crazy for a coke and cheeseburger. So just little steps. Little steps away from Krispy Kreme.

* Working on planning my days out better so I can have more time with those who are important to me.  

So that is just about it. Hope everyone had a Happy New Year

29th of December Resolution

2012 has been an interesting year. I very rarely make new year resolutions and if I do, I don't ever manage to follow through.
So I am making a 29th of December resolution. Realistically I started this yesterday.
I have, for as long as I remember, always second guessed what I was doing. At times I think I am doing something wrong, won't start something or quit half way through because I see no real point to what I am doing.

Even while painting yesterday I had to consciously force myself to continue. Because in my mind there is no real worth of making mail art. It could possibly make the recipient happy & it is a relaxing activity, but realistically there is no real worth to it. It doesn't help me with uni, doesn't help me with work, and although it affords me creative time with my children, I wonder if I should be doing something more productive with them. That thinking spreads over other aspects of my life as well. I should be doing more reading, why bother. Should be replying to letters, why bother. Should probably clean the shed, why bother. Even while writing this I have stopped a number of times and questioned why I would put this out online.

So I am starting to make small steps to change this way of thinking from today (though technically yesterday).
So to my 4 followers, I will endeavour to do more creative things and update the blog more regularly.
Off to research ways to fit in art while working a full time job ^-^

Also planning on adding a simple list each time I send out a letter at the very least. Will list pictures if I remember to take one.

Mail Art

1.Watercolour mixed in ice cube tray
2. Vintage golden day books
3. Envelopes painted by Miss I & Miss S
4. Golden day envelope
5. Golden day envelope
6. Golden day envelope
7. Golden day envelope
8. Watercolour on old music sheets & Shakespeare pages.
9. Washi tape envelopes
10. Watercolour and ink rainbow envelope
11. Doodles on envelopes
12. Headphones

Bad blogger and penpal

Clearly there are moments that rip through your life, and something as simple as posting on a blog, or being able to write letters becomes impossible.

There is also the underlying fear that the bringer of said moments, could track down your blog and have an insight into what you try to keep private.

I am terribly sorry for the lack of contact. In particular Laura Ly whose recorded letter has been redone twice now, but still not something I am happy with. Still working on it lovely :(

I am hoping that now there is a temporary break from matters that have consumed this house for the last 3 months, I can get some positive things done. 

Even though things have been incredibly difficult lately, there have still been moments of utter joy. Mostly being bought to light by my children, the numerous loving letters I receive, and of course this....

Mail Call #2

Oh my.
The postman delivered a stack of letters today and a package from amazon! Thankfully I have the weekend to start replies. The new 3 day reply rule is still being worked on. If interruptions could be limited to 3 an hour, I would be getting more work done. All while of course catching up on uni reading.

1. Packing box of stationary!
2. Lovely note & book from my darling Nicki Marie
3. Mail love
4. More mail love
5. Obsession via amazon. Legal pads galore.
6. Lots of coffee & more mail art

Samantha