:: Etsy Love - Papered Thoughts ::

Back in March this year I was looking through my etsy activity and one of my friends had 'favourited' a super adorable packet of confetti that was labelled as a perfect pen pal gift. Well, colour me interested! I love things I can send my pen pals! I clicked through to the etsy store and that is where my obsession with Papered Thoughts began.

Papered Thoughts is the gorgeous etsy store run by Rin from the blog of the same name: Papered Thoughts. Rin is a creative genius and is always dreaming up the most adorable hand made items: from hand drawn stickers, to paint chip letter seals and confetti tape (it's just as awesome as it sounds).

I am in love with her hand-drawn stickers. I'm forever having an internal battle with myself: to use or not to use. I love them, but I didn't buy them to sit in my sticker box and feel unloved! Such a dilemma.

Papered Thoughts is a great place to go for creative, homemade items - including mail art envelopes! Rin's envelopes are amazing and she's selling some on her etsy store. My favourite is the Confetti Monster Envelope.

I think 2013 should be the year of the snail mail revolution! I urge you to sit down and put pen to paper and send something pretty to someone you love - maybe it's a postcard, maybe it's a thank you note. You never know what will come of it. Who doesn't love opening up their letter box and finding something gorgeous inside?

:: Package Pals ::

How good are blog swaps? I love signing up for them. There's the excitement of finding out who your partner is, and the fun of putting together the perfect package to send them. A little while ago I participated in Shannah's Package Pals Swap. This swap had no theme, instead we had to read our partners blog and figure out the perfect thing to send them. And, the best part was that my partner didn't know I was sending to them, just as I didn't know who was sending to me!

:: What I Received ::

The amazing stash above was put together for me by Emily from little dancing bears. Perfect right? Green sunglasses, stationery, stickers, gift tags, bows, fingerless gloves (very handy in this chilly weather we've been having, thank you!) - oh me, oh my! I was VERY spoilt! Thank you so much, Emily!

:: What I Sent ::

I sent the above to the gorgeous Sabrina of The Year the Pumpkins Arrived Late. I spent some time scouring her blog for some ideas and I found a very helpful '101 in 1001' post. I decided to theme a few of my gifts around helping her achieve a few of the 101 things on her list - send a message in a bottle (or three!), learn to knit, and finish a colouring in book. Sabrina is also a huge Diet Coke fan, so I sent her some Coke Lip Smackers (as close to Diet Coke as I could find), and she is also a fabulous pen pal, so I sent her some pretty pens, washi tape, and stickers. I also sent her some postcards (not pictured). You can read Sabrina's post about what I sent her here!

Thank you for putting such a fun swap together, Shannah!

:: 100 Followers Give Away! ::

Give away time! Yay!

A little while ago I hit 100 followers and I promised you a giveaway as a way of saying thank you, and here it is!

The lucky winner will receive some fun coloured fine tipped pens, a cute pair of earrings, a floaty coral flower hair pin, some confetti from Papered Thoughts, a cute sticker pack from Joey Design, some fun envelopes, a card pack so kindly donated from my gorgeous blog friend over at Lucent Imagery, a Napoleon Perdis compact (with three eyeshadows and two lip glosses inside), and a conversation hearts pencil case!

♥ The giveaway will end Friday 29th of June, 2012
♥ The giveaway is open internationally
♥ I will be selecting the winner using a random number generator

Mandatory Entry:
♥ Follow my blog and leave me a comment to let me know what your favourite piece of stationery is (I love stickers and washi tape!)

Extra Entry:
♥ Blog about this giveaway and leave me a separate comment with the link.

And that's it! Simple, right?

Good luck!

:: Snail Mail ::

Happy Diamond Jubilee everyone!

Down here in Australia we don't celebrate the Queen's birthday on or near her actual birthday, we celebrate it at different times of the year in different states. In Queensland it has always been celebrated around this time of the year, but as of this year that is changing. We have used this public holiday to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and in October we will celebrate her birthday with another public holiday. Next year, the public holiday will be in October and we will pretend the June public holiday never existed.

I'm not sure why we're doing this, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the fact that almost all of our public holidays are around the same time of the year and then we have a dry spell with no holidays from early June through to Christmas (except the royal show holiday - but only Brisbane gets that day off, not everyone in Queensland). With the new holiday in October, the year will be broken up a bit more - and this year we got lucky with an extra day off!

I have spent my long weekend at a craft fair (wait til you see what I got!), the movies, and in front of the heater dying quietly from the cold. I have also written a few postcards for Postcrossing. And speaking of snail mail ...

:: INCOMING ::

Glitter and spots from Alyssa

Pretty flowers from Ezgi

From a brand new penpal - Maria!

This colourful letter came with lots of gorgeous bits and pieces - stickers, pencils, etc - from Denise

A postcard from her holiday in Italy, from Astrid

Awesome 90s paper, from Jenn

An awesome 'Team Nana' tea bag embroidery hoop from Alyssa. Love!

:: OUTGOING ::

Some postcards for Maria

For Alyssa

For Ezgi

For Denise (notice how I like to match my pen colours to my paper?)

Decorating an envelope with washi tape, for Maria

More washi tape decorating - for Alyssa

Earlier today I was searching through Pinterest for stationery inspiration and I came across this blog - Mysterious Letters - have you heard of it? Basically, Lenka and Michael have decided to send a letter to everyone ... in the world. Check out the blog, it's awesome! I hope I receive a letter soon!

Have you ever sent a letter to a random address? If so, did they write back?

:: Snail Mail ::

I went trawling through my blog last night and realised the last time I did a snail mail post was last August. This is unacceptable! And so, I bring you, my snail mail comings and goings over the past few months ...

:: INCOMING ::

 

From the lovely Claire.

From my sunshine, Karina.

From the gorgeous Megan.

Amazing nail polish and cd surprise from Felicia!

Sparkles and confetti paper from Alyssa!

Loveliness from Astrid!

Postcards from Gracie, Astrid and April from Gracie's postcard swap!

More sparkles and fun from Alyssa!

Claire surprised me with some pencils! I love pencils!!

I adore the air mail stamp Felicia used - so cute!!

GLITTER!!! From Alyssa.

Pretty in pink - from Astrid.

Gorgeous letter, gorgeous postcards, and gorgeous art deco magazine! Love! From Claire.

:: OUTGOING ::

For Claire!

I can't remember who these were for. I feel terrible!

For the owl loving, Felicia!

For Megan!

For Diane!

Postcards for Astrid and April, for Gracie's postcard swap!

For Astrid - we became penpals after the postcard swap!

Another letter I can't remember the recipient of :(

A cute little bookmark for April!

Handmade gift tags and stickers for Ezgi!

A Christmas letter. Again, I've forgotten who I sent this for (it was so long ago!!)

For Alicia!

For Astrid!

For Claire!

For Ezgi!

Phew! And you all know where I'm headed now, right? Yep, straight to my craft room to write some more letters! Is there any better way to spend your weekend?