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

Bag Fail & Postcrossing

Either my bag could read blogs or the universe tried teaching me a lesson.

The day after I wrote the 'what's in my bag' post, my pvc bag of awesome broke. Thankfully it broke as I got into my car, so nothing had to spill all over the ground & no one could hear me cursing out a bag.

It is a long weekend here, and 3 days of 3 children at home will result in nothing creative. I tried my hand at watercolour pencils before small people ran off with them. Instead sending some love via postcrossing and hoping to squeeze in some letter writing once the kids sleep.

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!

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

Brain Fail

And today has been a total waste of time. It is a long weekend though, so I always have tomorrow.
Canberra has had a total identity crisis. I am pretty sure it thinks it is QLD. Blazing hot days with occasional downpour that doesn't actually ease the heat.
In an effort to combat todays weather, I made iced coffee. Talking to husband while making it, not paying attention, and made something equivalent to a long black. My brain is skipping steps, and I feel dreadful. Hoping cups of tea & plenty of water will fix it.

I did get some painting done on Friday with the lovely little Miss S & Miss I. Both of them managed to just make the watercolour work. Incredibly jealous of natural talent and no inhibitions. Seriously at one point Miss I was spreading black over her envelopes and I thought it was screwed. Looks amazing and I am not sure how to replicate it. Think I will put the little ones to work doing my mail art.

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.

Mail

Just a quick post.
Catching up on letters slowly. Having a stupid amount of joint pain at the moment, so that is making everything go slow.
:(