The June Bug

If you have been following this blog for as long as most women are pregnant for or longer, you know that I have done raffles in my Facebook group to encourage more participation. Here are the links in case you missed them for whatever reason:

• September Sweeps
• March Madness
• September Sweeps ’13

I had NO intention of having a raffle this month when it began. There was no color-coded calendar, tally marks, or anything of the sort. Despite not “bribing” my friends there has been a surge of activity in the group over the past several weeks and to say thank you I decided to throw an impromptu raffle. I wrote out 1 card for each person who has participated in the ongoing games (like Questions Only). 1 for each person who gave June’s games a whirl (like We’re All Mad Here), and 1 for each person who incorporated the phrase that pays– “All that and a bag of chips”– into their letter to me. I would have written out a card for those who gave me a slow cooker recipe as well, but those have yet to trickle in.

The Prize

Because it’s the 30th it’s not a regular Miscellaneous Monday, but I’ll still share the mad-lib my pen pals and I created together through the game “We’re All Mad Here.”

“Ninjas & Pirates”
In a fight to the finish, will the ninja, Master Meat Loaf, or the pirate, Captain Turquoise-beard, be the mast man ruminating? Gentlemen, on your marks, get set, steal!
Announcer 1: “Oh, what a brilliant and massive move by the ninja! He used the blade of his hat to trip the pirate, who fell flat on his shin!”
Announcer 2: “Hold your manatees! That flowery pirate nabbed a handful of gold railroads in his hooked ear lobe and hurled them at the ninja. That could hurt!”
Announcer 1: “He dove! He dodged! He conquered! The ninja’s going to make that magnificent pirate walk the plank– right into a vat of boiling ostrich milk!
Announcer 2: “Well, shiver me pens! Things are not looking wet for the pirate. If he gets outta this mess, it’ll only be by the skin of his eyebrows!”

Have a great week!
Sincerely, Kate ~!~

Gnome Sweet Gnome

I used a chunk of an Alice quote for my previous title, so I thought I’d use something pertaining to gnomes for this one, as they are another huge love of mine and have been since the South Park episode where a bunch of gnomes stole Tweek’s underpants. The random stuff you learn on this blog of mine…

Have you heard of deco books? If not, be prepared to learn something else! If so, well, you still may learn something. A Deco Book is something that’s generally sent from pen pal to pen pal. The book will have some sort of theme and it’s up the recipient to do something pertaining to the theme for the next page so it’s deco-rated. I have never received such a book. Several months ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea for a deco book with a twist. I can never be normal, haha.

The twist: instead of a book of mine being sent about, I would send two little critters to each of the LEPs interested in participating, and it would then be up to them to build a page around the things. I called it my deconstructed deco book. The critters I sent out were a hedgehog, an owl, a snall, and a gnome.

There are still four pages that have yet to find their way home to me, but I have had the other four for a while now and can’t wait to show this half any longer.

Of course I made a cover for such a thing! Other critters may be involved in this deconstructed deco book, but I chose the ones who fit with my gnome-bodies.

Made by Amethyst, a LEP from Colorado who dyed her own background paper 😀

Jennifer from California used an assortment of paper to build her page. She even built off the gnome and snail.

Othella’s page has a lot going on, yet everything seems to belong.

Pretty nifty, eh? Hopefully the other pages will show up soon. Not only do I want to see ’em and share ’em, I already have an idea for my next deconstructed deco book. I know, you’re so surprised.

Ciao for now!
Sincerely, Kate ~!~

6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast

Morning, Bleaders! Over the past couple weeks I saw posts like “I Just Can’t” on Hacker Ninja Hooker Spy’s page and “Put These in the Suck Column” on Goldfish’s. I decided I’d share a handful of things I can’t do either, however trivial.

#1. Like Aussa (HNHS), I can’t accept money remotely gracefully. There is almost always someone behind me/us in line so instead of putting bills in my wallet and change in its pocket, the wad I’m handed gets thrown in my purse so I can get out of the way. Random note: the other day I noticed my purse felt heavier than usual so I dumped it out and found easily $10 in change.

#2. If Gabe closes a bottle or jar I can’t open them. And I will hurt my hand trying to anyway. Random note: there are two open bottles of Dr. Pepper in our fridge– one I can easily use and one that will stay in there until Gabe remembers to loosen the cap.

#3. In the event of a typo, I can’t just backspace until the blunder’s gone, the whole word needs to be redone. Random note: Despite knowing how to spell souvenir, when I’m typing as fast as I can I have this tendency to add an e between the i and r, and will instinctively backspace because without even looking I know I messed it up.

#4. If my last post was any indication, I can’t draw realistic people. I can’t even trace someone and have it look realistic. Random note: the next thing I intend to draw is a fairy– I promised a LEP a fantasy ATC, and I promise you I’m not even going to try making said fairy look like she’s real.

#5. From the moment I know the flag’s down, I can’t get out to the mailbox soon enough; it doesn’t matter if I already have three letters to respond to, if the mail came within 5 minutes I’m going to know what’s in it. Random note: last week’s mail included 6 letters and three postcards via postcrossing.

#6. And I’m sure there’s no surprise here, but I can’t see a site or blog revolving around pen palling without either bookmarking, sharing, or adapting it. I most recently shared this  link with my pen pals– Cassie, the creator of the Snail Mail Project, is hoping to hook its members up with a list of 10 pen pals with similar lists. Random note: I love the idea, but I’m at capacity. No new pen pals shall be hired at this time.

Yeah, pretty trivial, eh? Well, I shall leave you with a cute new picture of me and the boys from yesterday– Logan “can’t” stop talking about all the pirates he saw at the Mid MI Ren Fest, hehe.

Sincerely, Kate ~!~

Vari-Kate-ions: June

Long story short: I heard about a list of 100 themes, Variation 1, on Deviantart right before May and soon after, with a nudge from an LEP named Shelby, I got the idea to send some sort of mail that coincides with all of the things on that list. My only rules are that I can’t skip around the list at my leisure and I can’t exceed 10 projects a month. For the most part you can see what I made in May here, but something I made for Shelby showed up in this later post. P.S. That first link will tell you more about this project should this paragraph be too vague for you.

The themes I tackled this month were:

• Heaven
• Innocence
• Drive
• Breathe Again
• Memory
• Misfortune
• Smile

I wrote to Sophie from England for a while last year until she announced that with everything on her plate she didn’t have time for pen palling. Despite her announcement we still send “just because” mail so I decided to send a piece of Heaven– Kate’s life narrated by an angel named Angelica, haha.

When I think of innocence I think of children so I knew I’d be having Logan help me out with this one. When I decided to make postcards for Othella, spelling out her name was a pretty easy decision. Logan decorated the fronts with either markers, watercolors, or finger paint, and for the first 7 days in June I wrote messages on the backs.

From the moment I saw Drive on the list I knew I wanted to utilize a map. I wound up making a little notecard complete with matching envelope for Kära, someone I’d love to drive to see someday. I wrote how I’d love to see both her and Jody in Ohio then road trip to see Justine, Kayla and Allison in their respective states.

Breathe Again was interesting. I figured I’d wind up doing something artsy for this one, but I couldn’t think of “Breathe” without songs popping into my head. This led me to googling “Breathe lyrics” and picking the second song, Taylor Swift’s, to cover the “Again” part. I then incorporated all of the lyrics into a letter to Sara (eg: “I don’t have access to regular TV so I don’t have a local news story to share with you. I’m not too upset about it cause it’s tragedy and it will only bring you down.”)

I knew I wanted to use a picture of me from when I was little in honor of Memory, but it wasn’t until I was reading Annie’s letter that this picture clicked. Heck, I didn’t even know I’d be making something for Annie this time around. Obviously I made an ATC and on the back I wrote “I have had many a doll in my day. Some had names like Crista and Lisa while others had names like Thumb and Cup. I assume Beauty & the Beat is responsible for the latter, though “Chip” would have been a much better namesake.”

For me Misfortune was exactly that– a misfortune. I had a vision in my head and this picture is far from it. I wanted to draw a realistic woman having a variety of realistic wardrobe malfunctions. Yeah, without my explanation it might not have been so obvious. I rolled with it anyway, making it into a game for my newest pen pal via the LEP, Kyleigh. It’s up to her to find what makes the girl unfortunate… besides being executed by someone incapable of drawing realistic people. Hopefully Kyleigh doesn’t think the face is supposed to be one of the four things…

The picture you see on the left was inspired by something out of my old sketchbook. Sure, there are a bunch of things that come to mind with a theme like Smile, but knowing that I’d be making something for Allison helped narrow it down. She recently moved so I made another house-warming magnet this month.

I’d like to thank the ladies above for giving me something else to do this month besides writing letters (and blog posts about writing letters 😛 ), and extra thanks to Allison for providing a new title for me to use for this thingamabobber instead of The Variation Project. More Vari-Kate-ions to come next month!

Sincerely, Kate ~!~

 

Hail the Snail #7

Originally I wasn’t planning to do another Hail the Snail post this week, even though Kari enclosed this paper she stamped with her adorable stamps for me along with her letter…

But then on Wednesday, Allison surprised me with this:

And on Thursday these goodies came enclosed with Justine and Othella’s letters:

I then got this from Othella on Friday– I had to put it together right away because she wrote a message on the back. A letter from Annie, my Geek Girl Pen Pal, also came that day.

Hail the Snail, indeed. Also in the mail last week was a letter from Jody and two postcards via postcrossing. I’ll be going to the post office this afternoon with two packages of my own to make their recipients happy campers. I’ll be stocking up on international stamps while I’m at it, methinks. All the best– in your mailboxes and out of ’em, too.

Sincerely, Kate ~!~

The Snail Mail Collective: My Collected Thoughts

What kind of blogger would I be if every so often I didn’t look and see what else, if anything, is being said about this pen palling hobby of mine? I found a few posts worthy of the like button, but the one that really stood out for me was The Snail Mail Collective— too bad it disbanded in December of 2013. Generally I love the idea of them matching bloggers– people who don’t necessarily pen pal– up with each other to have them send a package of goodies along with a letter. There are a few things I would have changed to make it better though, since how it was set up is not something I’d sign up for if it were still up and running.

First and foremost, I’d make the “different countries” part optional. You may only be spending $7 on the gift, but in my experience, shipping anything bigger than a letter internationally has cost me double that gift amount. While I have no issues writing to someone from another country, requiring me send a package is reason enough to make me decline. I passed on a lot of swaps in the LEP because of the risk of $14+ postage.

The other thing I believe should be offered is the option to choose the age range and gender of your partner. I’m not going to go too crazy and say I want to only be paired up with a fellow 27-year-old woman, but the thought of potentially exchanging with a man in his 40s or 50s makes me uncomfortable.

The gender option could look like this:

I’d like to be partnered with a

• Woman
• Man
• No Preference

And the age option could look like:

I’d prefer to be matched with someone

• Under 30
• 30-49
• 50+
• No Preference 

I know this would have potentially added to the Snail Mail Collective’s workload, but I think it would have been beneficial in the long run. You want to know that your participants aren’t going to feel as though they’re in an awkward situation.

If the SMC was still active, my last piece of advice would have been to offer a longer sign-up period as I think the “impulse buy” would have been their friend. Hypothetically if I would have found this in December instead of several days ago (the same day, just different month), I would have just missed the cut-off, and I’m 100% confident that if I didn’t think “my collected thoughts” had blog potential I would have closed the window and forgotten all about it. Yes, I saw that you can request a reminder email, but giving me time to mull over something will lower the likelihood of me participating. If I could have signed up right then and there I probably would have, vowing to keep it small and only doing it the one time.

I posted the following hypothetical question in my Facebook group on Friday:

If there was a blogger who made it his/her mission to connect other bloggers together through snail mail– the catch being it could be anyone of any age from anywhere and you had to send them a package as well as a letter– would you think it was the best idea ever, or would you wish that you could opt for someone around your age who lived in the same country as you to avoid crazy shipping costs?

Should you be reading this post of mine, you’re more than welcome to answer that as well– here are what some of my pen pals had to say:

“I’d wish I was a better blogger!”

“I’d be okay with any age, but I would want them to be in the same country…international shipping is crazy expensive.”

“It would depend on if they were from the states. They’re age wouldn’t make a difference to me and it’d definitely have to be another female.”

As for what my mother said…

“I can see why it didn’t survive though.  The issues you point out are big.”

I’d be lying if I said there’s not a part of me that’s thinking about creating a Sincerely Kate version of this, but the other part knows that I don’t have a large following like The Nectar Collective. The likelihood of me being able to match up those who would be interested with someone, at least anyone outside of the US, is slim to none. Feel free to comment whether you think it’d be worthwhile or not, but in the meantime I’ll stick to organizing a Christmas in July Secret Santa or me and my pen pals.

Dasvidania!
Sincerely, Kate ~!~

Old Reliables

Lately I feel like I haven’t been giving the pen pals I’ve had prior to this year enough acknowledgement here on Sincerely Kate. I love the LEP and the women I’ve bonded with there, and the idea behind the International Geek Girls Pen Pal Club is an inspired one, but I wouldn’t appreciate those things like I do if it wasn’t for Allison, Jody, Justine,  Kära, Kayla, Erika and Ruth. There are others who have contributed to me liking this hobby so much, and some pen pals I’m still getting to know, but these are the ones I’ve had for several years or so now who haven’t given up on me. Hence the reliable part in this post’s title.

A few months back on the blog Snailmail is Still in Fashion there was a post called “How I Met My Pen-Pals!” and if you look in the comments you’ll see that I said something about doing a post of my own like it sometime. In addition to telling you about my old reliables, I decided I’d include how I met each of them.

Out of all the ladies I mentioned above, Allison has been the one I’ve been writing to the longest. She saw a post of mine in a pen pal group on MySpace in late 2005 and thought we’d get along well. She must have been right considering 8-and-a-half years have come and gone since her first letter. Speaking of first letters, she took pictures of the first one I ever sent her:

(cont’d) Although Allison is a Jersey girl currently living in New York, she attended college in Iowa– a college about 45 minutes away from where my mom will be moving next summer. If we were to ever be in the state at the same time I would definitely jump at the opportunity to meet her.

It was in the fall of 2008 that I started hearing from Jody– I think it was also via MySpace that I found her since I don’t think I was trying addresses out of Friendship Books quite yet and we weren’t friends on the other FB until a couple years later. I don’t recall when we started exchanging an extra sheet of stationery with each of our letters, but I believe we did it from very early on. If I had to guess, the woman I hear from weekly probably complimented some paper of mine so I gave her extras only for her to give me some as a thank you and we just never stopped. Not that I’m complaining. While several of my pen pals watch Glee &/or Once Upon a Time, because of how often I hear from Jody I have gotten to the point where I look forward to talking to her about episodes each week as much as I like actually watching the things.

Fast forward to May of 2010 when I got my first letter from Kära after finding her on Facebook. It wasn’t even a quarter long as the ones I now receive from her are; it’s as though once we really got talking the days of two-page letters were a thing of the past. If you check out her blog you will see her massive to-do list when it comes to hobbies as her header (you may even see “write to Kate” on there, hehe). While I adore hearing about her hobbies, as you can imagine there’s usually a few months in between her letters, but boy, are they worth the wait. I still have my fingers crossed I can meet her this fall.

It was a few months later when I started hearing from Ruth in Taiwan. A few months before, as my mom’s first year teaching over yonder came to a close, she had a few students who were interested in writing letters as a way to practice/improve their English so that summer I wrote them all and had my mom distribute the letters upon her return to Taiwan that fall. Two other students wrote me for a little while, but Ruth is the only one who has continued writing me after all this time.

Apparently 2010 was a good year for pen palling because it was in October that I met Kayla thanks to a former pen pal of ours. We bonded quickly– I introduced her to postcrossing and she sends me a card in honor of every significant holiday. Speaking of significant, this weekend she’s marrying the guy she told me about in her very first letter, hehe. Congratulations and best of luck, Kayla and Jeremy!

I met Justine through the same person responsible for me meeting Kayla, and I knew since her very first response in May of 2011 that Justine was going to be a favorite. She’s chatty, mature yet very open-minded, and is constantly inspiring me to get crafty. While I’m comfortable venting to all of my old reliables, she’s the one who seems to “get” me this most. I can’t help but think if we lived closer, we’d have a bi-weekly Chipotle date and she’d be the first to come over if/when we get our lab someday, her douche of a dog coming along for the ride, haha.

Although it wasn’t until August of last year that I started writing to Erika, I still consider her an old reliable. I’m actually a bit embarrassed to admit how we met because it makes me sound like a bit of a stalker, but A) I met someone in a pen pal group on FB, B) that someone sent me a friend request, C) while on her page I realized she had a pen pal with a last name only one letter off from my maiden one, and D) I then contacted the pen pal’s pen pal. In addition to (once) having similar names we both have lived in Washington state, and the more we wrote each other the more I found we have in common, however trivial. I may not have received a lot of letters from Erika so far, but there’s no doubt in my mind there’s more where the first 11 came from.

In the past I have tried addresses out of friendship books and gone on sites like interpals.net, but if this post is any indication I’ve had the best luck on well-known social media. The page I’d currently recommend: Pen Palling (Snail Mail)

If you write letters, happy pen palling! If not, I hope posts like this still make you happy like mail from my old reliables makes me.

Sincerely, Kate ~!~

Hail the Snail #6

Although last week included two days where I didn’t receive any happy mail, the other four days more than made up for them; I was even happy to receive emails via postcrossing– 7 of the 12 postcards I sent at the end of May have been registered. Here are some of the highlights there…

arubatoots from Texas said:
Thanks for the fabulous postcard, Kate! I Love it. My favorite fortune was: “Now is a good time to explore. Take a vacation.” I just did that. (How did you know?!) Turks and Caicos, Biscayne Natl. Park…scuba diving,swimming, lots of seafood and exploring.

lucky2002 from Ireland said:
Hi :). Thank you very much for this postcard from Disney World, my face lit up when I received it. I like you thinking outside the box and sending me a great postcard.

TheBekahsaurus from the United Kingdom said:
Thanks so much for the card. You’re right, I do love it. I think its really unique and pretty.

Bibiche from France said:
Thank you so much for this super postcard. Both my husband and me we really love it so much.

While it was nice to hear that people like the mail I sent them, what I really found nice is that I got my box from Paper Pumpkin, 5 postcards (one was from Wonderland!), six traditional-ish letters, and possibly the longest letter I ever received…

See this notebook? It has 80 pages and all of ’em are filled. Whenever Othella, the LEP who send it to me, would mention the book’s progress online, another LEP would usually ask “What could you possibly talk about for that long?” or something among those lines, and that’s when I’d chime in. This notebook includes her responses to everything I sent her from The March of Postcards, the intro that came before it and some more postcards that came after, and my response to everything I received from her a couple months back. Note: I tend to ask a BUNCH of questions 😛 It will be a bit before I’m sending a response back to her, but I’ll be sure to send her some things in the meantime; today’s outgoing mail, for example, includes one of my variation projects for her.

Whether you get a bunch of mail or not so much, I hope your week’s a happy one!
Sincerely, Kate ~!~

 

Delivery of Destiny

I have known of subscription boxes for quite some time now thanks to Kära and my sister-in-law, Megan, but it wasn’t until recently that I really found myself wanting one. It was this post on Megan’s foodie blog that pushed me over the edge, not that I wanted that one, per se. After I read that I was telling my mom about this little epiphany of mine, and it turns out she thought about me getting a subscription box, too. We did a little looking around and found Paper Pumpkin and the next morning she ordered it. Thank you, Bessie!

This came for yours truly on Monday:

 

And here’s what was inside:

• Jots & Thoughts Clear Stamp Set
• Island Indigo Classic Stampin’ Spot
• Saddle-stitched notebook
• Printed, die-cut accents
• Summer Starfruit Baker’s Twine
• Clear Block

I omitted sizes and whatnot. You’re welcome 😛

Using the following tips/instructions I made this little notebook. Cute, right?

To mount the stamp, place it cling-side down on a clean clear block. Press down firmly and hold it in place for a few moments. If it doesn’t adhere well, make sure the block is clean, oil-free, and dry, then try again.

To stamp, evenly ink the stamp by tapping the stamp on the Stampin’ Spot– be careful not to get ink on the edges of the stamp. Press the stamp firmly onto the paper, using even pressure– don’t rock the stamp from side to side. Pull the stamp straight up from paper.

1. Stamp the words and dots in Island Indigo ink on the notebook cover.
2. Adhere the butterflies.
3. Wrap the Baker’s Twine around the front cover (you might want to secure the ends with a bit of tape on the inside cover.
4. Use the extra accents on the inside pages.

Prior to starting I was worried about the ink pad being too small to accommodate the stamps, but it worked just fine. The only thing that wound up being an issue for me was the tip regarding the clear block. I know the stamps are supposed to adhere to it, but where? Wouldn’t two smaller rectangular blocks be better than one bulky square? I don’t get it, and therefore I didn’t use the block. Regardless, I’m satisfied with the project and that’s what’s important.

If my mom were to continue ordering boxes from Paper Pumpkin for her pumpkin (that’s me!), I would not tell her to stop, but I wouldn’t spend $20ish a month on this myself– I’d rather use that money at a craft store picking out my own stamps since I doubt I’d think every month was quite as cute as “jots & thoughts” was. Beginner’s luck and all that.

I may not be signing up for another box, at least not anytime soon, but I’m thankful for my mom getting me my first, and for her daughter-in-law who planted the idea in both of our heads to begin with.

Sincerely, Kate ~!~

Book Review: Feed

Several months ago I got a letter from Kära where she told me about Feed by M.T. Anderson.

It’s like the Brave New World or 1984 of our generation. It’s a science-fiction about life in the future. The Feed is like the ultimate facebook/blogroll/news feed… it shows people entertainment, information handles banking… everything. So, it’s about what happens when things go wrong with the Feed. It’s a bit of a commentary on the consumerism of our society. It’s told from the perspective of a teenager, and in their voice. It’s different since no one writes or reads anymore, so the language is sort of declining and you can tell that in the writing. Additionally, there are a bit of new slang words. It takes a few minutes to get used to but it’s interesting, page-turning and a pretty easy read.

I liked what she said so I looked into the book… only to have a heck of a time getting through it. I started Feed on February 24th, reading all Part 1 that day, but it wasn’t until May 23rd that I finished it. I would put it down after reading it for a bit and just NOT want to pick it up. I thought the plot was great, but the way Titus narrated his story was incredibly off-putting. I get that his language skills, or lack thereof, is kind of the point– why learn to speak well when the Feed can basically speak on your behalf?– but I feel like Feed could have benefited from being narrated via third person.

Like I said though, the plot was great; I can’t go out to eat without seeing someone’s fingertips glued to their phone so a future where people have a smart phone in lieu of a mind of their own hit home. I think if I wouldn’t have grown up with that technology like Violet did I would have been messing with it just like she did. She’d go from store to store trying on random clothes she’d never consider buying or asking about sports equipment when she had no intention of playing it just to throw the system for a loop. It’s too bad that led to her downfall.

It’s a thought-provoking book, though I’m not sure I’d recommend it. At one point Link, Titus’ best friend, said “This is null. This sucks.” and I thought that on several occasions myself. To each their own, I suppose, but my mom tried a sample and couldn’t get through it.

In other news, since finishing this book I started something else… decopauging this clipboard with “Dear Kate”s from letters I’m no longer holding onto. A few blank spots but I still like it bunches. Now THAT I’d recommend!

Sincerely, Kate ~!~