Incoming: mail week 1

As a total surprise this lovely mail from Nancy arrived just after Christmas. Love these stamps! She made an envelope which she wrapped in clear plastic. Between the plastic and the envelope was a Christmas cookie and a branch of a Christmas tree. Unfortunately the cookie didn't survive the mail. The envelope smelled lovely though from the crushed cookie!

Inside two small green parcels, a little winter book, which I totally adored, and a letter on lovely stationary.

The little winterbook was full of vintage Christmas cards!

So cute! Quote: "the happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything"

Inside the small green parcels was this wooden hanger.

And a small tin inside the other. It's actually a tin she had received through mail herself, and now she has sent it to me. And I love it!

More incoming mail! A card from Inge and a mail from Christel.

This arrived from Christel. She had contacted me on my blog, and this is what she had sent me. A book of gold!

Once folded open, a booklet full of gold classy fancyness with a  really nice letter (turns out we are the same age!)

A golden garland. What's not to love about a garland!

Gold confetti and gold washi taped party toppers!

And some more incoming mail last week.

A thank you card from Majella with whom I was connected to the adventsmail swap thing.

After carefully dewashitaping the card, this is what was underneath.

Although I liked it more when I took all the washi tape of. The undressed version.

From Inge arrived the big white envelope on the picture above the birds. Inside these lovely wrapped parcels and a small letter. This parcel consisted of 6 brown envelopes full of washi tape and stamps! Really cool!

Inside the brown envelopes were small goodies, most paper goodies. I liked this one the best.

This is what was all inside them all! Check out the lovely shiny magnets in the little white bag on the bottom right.

In the rolled up parcel was this cute poster.

This is the first time that I've blogged about all the incoming mail in one blog. I'm not sure I like it yet. Feels that I'm not doing justice to all the lovely mail. But heck, at least I'm trying something different. Feedback welcome!

Outgoing: The white edition

I've made a totally white mail for Marja. Thought that would be a fun thing to do! I had so much fun hoarding through my stuff! I am a hoarder, a total chaos hoarder. I collect way to much, always think I can use something for something. And as it turns out, I have used a lot of something for something. In this case, a lot of white something! It's hard to see on the picture, but all the white stuff turned out a different kind of white! I was surprised by that aswell!

A letter written with milk, as you iron it with a hot iron the words will appear. At least, that was what supposed to happen. Marja emailed me that it didn't quite work, some words appeared, some didn't. Bugger! I had tried it at home and it did work, but maybe my enthusiasm was catching on onto the iron. I'm such a bad housewife that I never touch the damn thing, well okay, for ironing Hama beads for the kids. So I can imagine that my iron was glooming with joy at that moment! The white letter is on the top left by the way. Try it sometime, so much fun! My friends and I used to write letters to each other when we were young while playing to be a secret agent. I'm going to learn that to my kids some day. I remember having hours of fun with this!

Embossed paper with a floral pattern. I would love to own my own embossing machine some day, it's on my wishlist.

Old fashioned handcrafted paper from linen with a watermark of the dutch lion. It's such beautiful paper, it's has a special feel to it. I bought it at the Openlucht museum (open air museum). Our family love that museum! Me and my boyfriend love it because it's full of old dutch buildings and trades, the kids love it because they can catch a ride on the old-fashioned tram (and the vintage candy store of course). There is this farm where they make this kind of paper like they used to, of linen. Such a time consuming process but with all the attention that goes into it, it makes the paper kinda special.

Three small glassine bags with white buttons, paperclips and bows I once got from a friend of my mum.

Outgoing: Mail to Zalifa, the Snailmail Collective

This mail went out to Zalifa. We were paired for the November Snailmail Collective. Sadly this brilliant initiative from "the nectarcollective" has ended. It was so amazing to meet amazing people from around the globe!
Well, Zalifa lives in Singapore and is quite a busybody. She is an accountant but loves to organise events, I suck at organising events, I really do, but Zalifa seems very good at it! Theme of that month was: what are you grateful for. So we emailed a bit about our lives and the theme, turned out we were both grateful for all the little things in life and that we would love to do more of what we love doing. She went backpacking in Japan, and I guess she still is at this moment. So I think it's safe to post what I have sent her.

This is what I've send. A notebook to use for lists,or as a traveljournal, for little notes or a diary. Some Wellness tea, stickers and pagemagnets in clock style, a magnet, a card with a tulip, travel label sticky notes, a vintage card from Paris and a letter in a handmade envelope.

The magnet had this really cool saying on it which summed up our emailing a bit! Maybe I've should have kept it for myself to remind me of this simple but yet brilliant quote.

I've made the envie from a page from an old book with my cool new stamps on it! I just love stamps, can't help myself.

I've wrapped everything in kraft paper. Unwrapping is just part of the fun! Well I think anyway. Hope Zalifa likes it all.

Inspiration: New year resolutions (and a small give away)

Happy new year to you all!!!!!!!
After a bit of a break from blogging I'm back to blog business! Blogging has giving me so much this past year, I've met some really great people through this! But it's also very time consuming. Time I rather use for making mail for instance.So I've decided, while I was on my little blog break, to make some resolutions for 2014.

• First of all I would love to have a really cool blog design, but I know nothing (really nothing, it's all gobbledygook to me) about HTML codes, so this year I'm trying to have a go at this. 
• I also want to take my blogging to the next level (if there is one), blogging 2.0. But I'm not even sure what I mean by that by the way. I'm thinking of doing some tutorials or give aways. But then again, I'm also not sure about that either. What I do know is, that I'm not going to write blogs about all the mail I'm receiving anymore. I will still be writing blogs about what I've sent, don't worry, but maybe do a once a week blog about incoming mail or something, it's just to time consuming otherwise.
• I'm going back to do some journalling! I've just didn't manage to have time last year, and it actually really bothers me that I didn't! It's so balancing to do some journalling. It gives me grip on daily life while it passes so quickly. And also a place to use all this really cool ephemera I've collected these past months.
• I want to learn calligraphy. Well, I want to try it at least. On Instagram I see these really cool calligraphers with beautiful handwritten letters. My handwriting is really bad, I'm always trying to write as fast as I think, and that makes my writing, well, sloppy. Sometimes I have a hard time trying to read what I've written myself.
• I want to do more papercrafting! A lot more! Recycle and upcycle paper. Sometimes I just get tons of ideas from packaging and stuff!
• I going to finish my studio! We are getting there, finally! 2014 will be the year where I will be crafting in my studio instead of trying to find a bit of space in our computer room. 
• I really do want to write more long letters. That is the core of snailmail, and I feel that I have been getting away from that a bit. I love being really crafty, that's just what I love doing, but sometimes I just didn't put enough effort into a letter. So I'm going to turn this around this year, or at least, I'm going to try.

A lot of resolutions I guess, but then again, I have a whole year to try. 

I've managed to send off some new years mail to some special people, with little sparklers inside the envelope. To Marieke I've send a Chinese themed mail with this really cool Chinese calender.

I've got one for myself aswell! Actually, my boyfriend got them from his job where they order a lot of chinese. I think it's such a funky calender! And the good news is, I've got one left! So if you are interested, leave a nice comment and maybe I will be sending it to you.
Also, if you can give me a bit of feedback on my blog, please leave a comment!

Happy mail!

My final happy mail from Leuke Post arrived. It was such a pleasure and joy to receive them. They were all really really wonderful! Exactly my taste! A bit of papercraft, vintage, arty, drawings and prints and lovely lovely paper. Check out these cool stamps aswell. What's not to love about this!

I found this inside the envelope, perfectly styled paperstuff.

Janien from Leuke Post has made a really cool sort of vintage sewing pattern mail with a print on them. So very beautiful!

There was also a small sewn together envelope. I had to cut it to see what was inside!

Thsi was inside! A really funny vintage thread holder!

Incoming: Advent mail from Mischa (the contents)

This was my second advent mail, this was a total surprise from Mischa! And even more unpacking fun every day. It was almost like a birthday this month, but then everyday of this month! What a joy it all was!

This was all inside, ribbon, a notebook, stamps, beads, hangers, buttons, a home made stamp, a sheet of music, stickers, pictures, a seashell, tea, labels and some vintage pictures.

The sheet of music can be used for making an envelope or some small bags, or a card or whatever I can think of! The wooden Santa hanger now hangs on my kitchen door!

This seashell is so freaking lovely! Mischa has glued some glitter on it, Like!

Beads! Love beads!

This handmade Christmas tree stamp is so lovely! Definitely gonna use that next year!

Really nice vintage pictures!

Incoming: Adventmail from Jolanda (the contents)

After a whole month of unpacking advent envelopes from Jolanda, this is what was all inside! After my first disappointment of the wrapping of the whole advent mail, there were some nice surprises inside! Stickers, masking tape, labels, pegs, craft stuff, some beauty things, a hanger, a bracelet, magnets, a card, a pencil, a pen and a keychain light.

My favourite was this Christmas card, normally I'm not into the 3D cards, but this one is really nice!

This shiny metal hanger is now on the knob of my old closet, looks really cute!

These funky red Christmas pegs are still on the same Tulip vase as I put them on to make this picture :-)

A bracelet with a coin on it.

Two tea lights covered with masking tape. Really easy but really cheerful!

A really nice hanger, it says: made with love.

A label, my daughters favorite by the way

And some beautystuff. A lip balm, a face mask and body butter. I'm not much of a beauty person, only use moisturiser, and sometimes some bodylotion, but will definitely use the body butter in wintery cold days.