Sixty-three Euros and ninety-five cents.

I had a bad mail week so far. So what do you do when you have that feeling? I like to go and buy stamps. And before showing you two pieces of mail, I would like to show you those stamps I bought...

Spring stamps

Fall stamps

more fun stamps...

more spring stamps

lighthouses on stamps

summer stamps

I love stamps in sets like these. There are different reasons - first, you get to have many different stamps and don't end up using always the same. Second, there is a card with explanations for each stamp, so you get to learn who created it, when it was created and why and something about the image on the stamp. Third, I love looking at them! But, the downside is, it is really hard to open and use them - I want to keep them all for myself haha. I think I need to tell the people who are sending me mail from Germany to use those stamp sets too, so that I can have an easier heart when sending them. Do you also have a hard time sending your stamps out?
The stamps are all together worth 63,95 € - I think they should last like one or two months.


Next, the only other incoming mail I had this week after the letter from L.: A card from my dad. My grandma always makes those cards, but I think my dad made that one.

Today I will be sending this letter out - it's going to one of my bestest friends, who sadly lives very far away from me - more or less 10.000 kms. So, who of you knows why I picked those colours to make the address invisible? The first one to tell me will receive a postcard from St.-Martin, France (if I do have your address) where I'll be going next week - well, actually tomorrow. It's time for me to learn skiing (again - I already learned it once, but that was three years ago, so I probably will be a total beginner once again)! So, that's also why this post probably will be my last post for a week - but I am still keeping my hopes up, so in case I receive mail today, I'll be posting pictures of my incoming mail, of course :)

Oh, I almost forgot - I did "send" another piece of mail - a small letter to my boyfriend

Front

Back

The picture shows the Seeschloss Ort, a castle in Austria. Isn't it pretty?

I hope all of you are well!
Alles Liebe,
Caddi

And stationery it was!

So, this is my outgoing mail of the last days. I forgot to take a front picture of this butterfly envelope - I think butterflies are so pretty! This one is flying to Canada.

Butterflies on their way

I did take a front picture of this one, but I'll just show you the back of it - I had that little Matroschka-envelope made and had planned to put it inside - but forgot. So, now it's not really a Matroschka-envelope, but kind of... (how do you call the Matroschka-dolls in English?)

It is on it's way now to Jennifer in the UK.

Matroschka-envelope

Next the only letter I got yesterday - the first letter from L. from Germany. I already replied but didn't have my camera with me, so I cannot post a picture here. If you are wondering right now where I might write my letters, now that university has started again I guess I'll be writing many of my letters in the train again. I usually pick up any mail that is in my P.O.Box in the morning before catching the train to my university. And why not use those 90 minutes, right?

For today, I only have one outgoing postcard until now - this one is going to my dad in Berlin once again. I wanted to tell him about some grades I got yesterday - quite good ones actually :)

Pine on the shore of the Kullen peninsula, Sweden

The postcard is from a postcard-calendar I got which shows beautiful views of the Baltic Sea.


And last but not least - I guess you all remember me saying that I cannot find any stationery here in Germany. So when I got the letter from L., whom I met through the Letternet, I remembered something - there is an option on the Letternet page to "create" your own stationery. Basically you have some pictures which are ready to be put on a paper to be printed out, but anyways. As I was early to university and have a printer which can print in color in one of my offices there (haha - yes I got two of them! (But have to share both of them)) I did print some out. If you would like to have a try, here's the link.

Stationery

 I actually also checked and did find some more of the magazines with the elephant on it - yet that so many of you expressed to like it. So now I have like 5 more elephants at hand :)


I hope your days have been good! Have you ever used a service like the stationery-service from the Letternet?


Alles Liebe, 
Caddi

Incoming Mail!

I feel like a broken gramophone record with all of my blog posts having either the title "Incoming Mail" or "Outgoing Mail" and my blogposts starting with "Hello everyone!". I'll have to figure something out to change that. Do you guys have the same problem?


Anyways, here's the incoming mail I found today when going to the post office.


First, there were two postcards. One was an official postcrossing card and it was sent from China.

postcrossing card from China

I usually don't show the content of the mail I receive, but here's once again why I am not so fond of postcrossing anymore - I would like to get to know something about the world and the people who live on it by those postcards I receive and not only receive a random postcard with 10 to 15 words on it. I usually try to fill my postcards to the last bit and I aks everybody in my profile to please write something on the card, even proposing some topics. Yes I did like the stamps and the postcard is okay, too, but that's not what I am looking for. I'll rather have plain boring envelopes with plain boring stamps on it but containing something wonderful - your thoughts and words and the time you spent on writing them down - from anyone of you than the fanciest stamp from - let's say - Tibet. (Don't get me wrong, I love the colorful envelopes and wonderful stamps you use, but you get what I want to say, right?) I know that postcrossing is mostly about postcards and not about the text, so I think I'll just have to step back a little and concentrate more on letters.

postcrossing card from China

Still, there are people on postcrossing I appreciate more - like the user who sent me this RAS-postcard. I mentioned that I liked it once and there it was! Waiting for me in my P.O. Box.

RAS-Postcard

Today, I also received some letters!
First, this letter from Olivia. I am so looking forward to sending her my reply because I'll use one of the toilet envelopes I made :) hehe. I won't show it on here though because I don't want Olivia to know what she'll receive before she get's it.

Letter from Olivia

I also received this letter from Jennifer at Snail Mail, and life's tiny details. I already saw the letter on her blog yesterday and was already jumping with excitement knowing that I'd be receiving a letter soon - and today it was here!

Letter from Jennifer

Lovely stationery!

 Look at the lovely stationery she used for her letter! Doesn't it look just fabulous? I love it! Where did you get it, Jen?

The last letter I received today was a letter from a friend I know ... well, I'd say for my whole life, but it actually is my whole life minus three years. She is my goddaughters mother (you know, the girl who always get's the "Where's Wally?"-postcards) and I like to call her my sister because we actually grew up together. However, it always is a joy to receive something from her!

Letter from my Sis

I already finished my reply for her and wish I could see her face when receiving the envelope I'll send it in. This was the front page of a magazine and as soon as I saw it, I thought of her. What do you think? (I named the pictures "front" and "back" but there's not really a front and a back...)

"Front"

"Back"

Well, that's it for today! I am working on the replies for Jennifer and Olivia and I hope to hear from all of you soon again :)
I hope you guys had and are having a wonderful weekend!


Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Some more outgoing

I have some more mail to go out. Hopefully they'll all arrive safe and fast!


First, here's my reply to M. She is in love with Paris, so I thought "Wait... you do have an old Paris Calendar you bought when you were there for your weekend-trip a few years ago... Why not use it to make envelopes for her?"* So this is what she'll get:

Front

Back

Yes, that's glitter on that envelope again - did I mention that I have lots and lots of glitter? I think maybe 9 or 10 colours. 


So, that was the last letter I needed to reply to. Now I have sent replies out to all letters I got and will just have to wait for them to arrive!


I also got some postcards ready. First, there's one going out to my dad in Berlin, wishing him a great weekend.

Boats to Berlin

Seeds

He also got some seeds to bring life to his balcony. I am currently sending out those seeds to everyone who gets a letter from me, so Marlies also got some of those in her letter. Everyone? No, not everyone. Just to those who live in Europe. I am sorry, but it's forbidden to send any plant products to the US, so you'll have to get your own seeds :)


 And yes, you saw that right, there's another Where's-Wally-Postcard back there!

I love this one, there's so much to discover! I absolutely fell in love with it when I discovered

the flower pots!

a wheelbarrow racer (and yes, that's Wally there!),

a bullfrog,

and some frog ladies.

 But there are also meanies!

Those kids who want to steal apples,

cheaters,

haha. And just the usual trick-player!

I could look at those postcards for ages. I believe that those books are secretly made for adults and not for kids.

Well, that's all for now. 
Take care and

alles Liebe,
Caddi


*By the way, I also have a calendar which shows "Toilets of the World" - would you be offended to receive an envelope with a toilet (a rather fancy one)? I think that they are funny, but I don't want to offend anyone. I think I'll make the envelopes and then show them on here so that you get an impression...

Outgoing of tomorrow

Well, I don't have a lot to post, yet that yesterday I didn't get any mail and today I didn't go to check my P.O. Box. But, I did finish my first two replies to the letters of yesterday so I can show you those. I will send them out tomorrow (or, if I am lazy, thursday in the morning). After posting this, I'll write the next ones.


These two are going to A. in the Czech Republic and to Steph in California.

Letter to A.

Letter to Steph

Stephanie sent me her letter on Hello Kitty stationery, so I decided to use some of the Hello Kitty stuff I still have back from 2005 (well, that's very long, right?). I then just made the "envelope" out of the last letter page - so don't rip it all up or you'll tear the letter apart, Steph!


How are you guys doing? I hope all is well! 


Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Incoming of the last week

Hello everybody!

I am back from my holidays - I spent a wonderful week in Turkey with my mom, we went to see some old towns (like dating 2000 to 4000 years back), even swam in the Mediterranean Sea (even though it was a bit cold) and had a lot of fun. And food. And sun. I also bought (and sent) some postcards, so Olivia, Laura and Steph, do have a lookout for one of those :)

Postcards from Turkey

When I came home yesterday, I had some mail waiting for me! Yay! A total of 8 postcards and 5 letters. Lucky me!

Incoming of the last week - 5 letters, 8 postcards

I wanted to photograph the letters before opening them, so this picture is a bit dark (as I came home at like 9 pm due to a train delay). You can see two letters from Laura, one letter from Steph, one from M. from the Netherlands and one from A. from the Czech Republic.

Letters from Laura, Steph, M., and A.

These are the letters from Laura. It took me a while to figure out how to open the smaller one, but in the end, all was fine.

Letters from Laura

The next one is the pink craziness from Steph. She wrote me a lovely letter and included a Valentine! A rather late one, but still the only one I got (don't you worry about my relationship you guys, this day is just not that celebrated here in Germany...). Thank you!

Letter from Stephanie

 This is the letter from A., from the Czech Republic.

Letter from A.

And lastly, this is the letter from M., from the Netherlands. She is so creative, I admire her :) Do you remember the last envelope she made?

Letter from M.

I am already working on the replies to all of those letters!


I hope all of you had a good day and a great week! I will now check all of your blogs to see what I missed. And I am already excited to see if I got something in my PO Box today!


Alles Liebe,
Caddi

A chicken traveling to Olivia, a Caddi traveling to Turkey.

Hello everybody!

I hope you have been doing great! Today it got really warm here, like 17 °C (well, it’s march so I suppose that the weather thought it had to show us that spring is on its way) and I went out and met a friend and had some ice cream… and some postcards :)

Here’s what I sent today:

A short letter to Olivia in the USA. I think it’s due to the typewriter that I feel like a kid again and therefore draw that picture :) hehe. (That's one of the flower stamps I am missing for my flower stamps collection by the way :) )

Short letter to Olivia

And three postcards, two postcrossing cards to Germany and China and the card for the German winner of the month.

Two postcrossing cards and the postcard for the German WOTM

I got two postcards today, one was a postcrossing postcard from France and the other one is from Milano in Italy. Three friends of mine spent a week there and thought of me :) 

Milano, Italy

Postcrossing card from France

I don’t know if you knew this already, but I am going to Berlin tomorrow and will go to Turkey for a week together with my mom. I am already looking forward to it (and I hope I’ll have some mail waiting for me when I come back :) ). But, I still have to prepare my bags, so that’s what I’m going to do now. I hope you’ll have a great week!

Alles Liebe,

Caddi