Amazing mail from Katri / Kanada!

 I got something amazing today!

I know I tend to find all of my incoming mail amazing, but seriously - if you found something like the above in your mailbox, wouldn't you be over the moon as well?

 Inside this oh so pretty decorated envelope (Oh my, Washi tape is so great - but did you see that stamp seal there on the back of the envelope? Yep, that's a seal made of a stamp!) I found another envelope with my name on it...

 which contained a small letter for me. But there were other envelopes as well. The following picture is a very bad one, but the light really isn't that good over here today. You can see two paper envelopes and two transparent envelopes, which I look forward to send :)

 There was another smaller envelope as well from Hello Kitty, but I didn't get a nonblurry picture from that one and the (green) tea as well - but those were also included :)

Then comes the stickers and labels and stars and dots and arrows awesomeness - I'm so looking forward to pepping up my mail with these!

Are you ready for more awesomeness? Look at this! I exclaimed my love for animal stamps often enough and I love stickers as well - and now I received animal stamps turned into stickers! Isn't this amazing? They are so beautiful!

 And I also got some some stickers made from an old book!

You surely can tell that I'm very excited for all of this :) If you want to receive something similar as amazing from Katri, I propose hopping over to her Etsy store where you can find upcylced stationery (from vintage maps! Bonus points!), postage stamp stickers (as well as address labels like the one she used on my letter) and cute notebooks among others. Oh, if I would have the money...

Alles Liebe,
Caddi


PS: Two more days to sign up for the advent calendar swap and the giveaway!

4 things sunday # 2

I'm taking part in Sallys 4 things challenge. Every Sunday I decide on 4 simple little goals I'd like to achieve in the coming week. I'm not talking about graduating university or buying a house. These are little challenges, challenges I really can accomplish and which will help me to make my life just a tad more organized.


Here are my 4 things for this week:

* Write a postcard to both my mum and dad.
* Plan at least one afternoon for my children's group.
* Prepare 5 days of the advent calendar I'm doing for the swap.
* Reorganize the kitchen shelves.


How did I do last week?

* Write four letters.  Check! I wrote even more, and I'm almost done with answering all the mail that has piled up during summer. I'm ready for more mail! :)
* Eat ten healthy things.   Check! Again, I ate even more healthy things than I thought I would :) By the way, "healthy things" for me means mostly apples and carrots :) Bonus points here, because I even got my boyfriend to eat some healthy things :)
* Work out twice.   Well.... I did work out once, I wanted to do so again this weekend but it was just way to cold. When it's cold I rather snuggle up in a blanket instead of working out. (On the other hand though, I don't really enjoy working out in summer either - do you notice something here? :) )
* Buy a new book.  I failed on this one. I bought lots of stationery supplies and small goodies, but I didn't decide on a book.



What are your goals for next week?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Outgoing mail of the weekend.

I have been working on my outgoing mail again the past few days and I managed to write three more letters :) So I have accomplished one of my goals from the last "4 things sunday".

These are the letters that will go out this week:

# 1 to Julie in the USA - she sent me an introduction postcard over the summer. I love the book of that little caterpillar! It's just too cute.

I had also received an introduction letter from LR over the summer, so I also got around to send her a letter. 

I love the stamp! I guess you all know by now that I love animal stamps, so an animal stamp with Bernhard Grzimek on it as well...

I had received a letter from my italian pal F. this week and I already replied to her as well. I used some stationery that I got from LR, thanks for that! She had sent me a goodie bag not long ago, so I decided to add some things for her as well - among these, some sweets...

 ... and another little present. I love to wrap things up with a button on top of it! I think it's just waaay to cute :)

Of course I'll have to pay more postage for that (3,45 € instead of 0,75€), but that also means I can add more stamps! F. is collecting stamps as well, so I hope she'll like this small collection - there are some of my favourite stamps among them, the two left in the top row and the one on the left in the bottom row - an advertisement poster from 1890 posted from the shipowning company Ballin who transported mail to the German islands.

Oh, and the stamp F. used on her letter (which she sent from England) was lovely as well - the queen in pink :) 

I hope you are all doing well! Did you already sign up for the giveaway and the advent calendar swap?

How do you wrap presents? Any neat ideas that are easy as well?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Outgoings still outnumber the incomings

I am still not really receiving much mail, but I'm okay with that - I'm still working on my last outgoings, also I know for sure that a letter is coming my way from Jennifer :)

I received an envelope from Shannon with the postcards I won over at her blog. Thank you so much!

I wrote three letters yesterday and the day before yesterday, so I am close to fulfilling my sunday goal this week - only one more letter to go!

The first letter is going to Sabrina here in Germany. As you can see I am already using the labels you can win over in my giveaway (well, of course not the ones you will be winning...) and I really like them.

The next letter is for Ely in Mexico. I just realized that the paper I used for the envelope looks a lot like christmas... well, I like christmas so that's alright. I'm so looking forward to the christmas calendar swap!

Last but not least, a letter for Shelby! Can you see that sticker on the envelope I got from her? Apparently her letter got into customs - in the harbour in Hamburg! I wonder why they didn't send it via airmail - but oh well. That also explains why the envelope took at least two weeks to arrive :)

 How are you guys doing? I hope everything is okay with all of you!


Alles Liebe and take care!

Caddi

4 things sunday

Is there anyone out there who is NOT a procrastinator? I thought so.

Well, I am a big one. So when I saw this idea on Vanessa's blog who got it from Sally's blog, I decided to join in.

The idea is to set four goals each sunday you would like to accomplish during the following week. Goals you can fulfill, so I'm not talking about big things - like finishing your studies or buying a house. Four goals that will make you think "Yes, I did something" at the end of the week.

So, my four goals for this week are:

* Write four letters.
* Eat ten healthy things.
* Work out twice.
* Buy a new book.


What are your goals for the next week? Leave a comment, I'd love to know!

Outgoing mail of the weekend

Hello all :)

This weekend I kept working on my outgoing mail and managed to finish four letters until now.

Two letters that already went out in fridays mail (yes, my weekend starts thursday night =D ) are now on their way to Michelle in the USA and to Dil in Sri Lanka.

I had received two letters from Alex while I was away and I loved reading through them. With some people you just connect SO incredibly fast, don't you think so as well? Just like in real life, where you have some friends you just get along a little bit better than with the other friends - that's also happening in penpal life. I bet you guys know who you are :)

I also managed to write a letter to Anna. I always wanted to try to make a transparent envelope - I'm not quite sure how I like it. Do you guys make transparent envelopes? How do you feel about receiving them?

Oh, and lastly, I wrote a postcard to my mother. My little brother will move out on monday, so this will be the first time for her not having a kid in the house for more than 24 years. Mixed feelings are normal I guess :)

I hope you are all doing well! Do you have a lovely autumn as well? Over here it's warm and sunny and I try to enjoy the last days of the year where you don't need a jacket outside...

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

PS: Don't forget to sign up for the swap and the giveaway!

Giveaway

Hello everybody! 

Today I went out shopping (we had to buy a new refrigerator as our old one broke down - after running more than 30 years without any problems, imagine that!) and found some awesome stationery goodies! I just had to buy them! I decided to share some of these, so I'll send one of you... 

Some stickers (yes, butterflies and stars make a perfect match!!)

a cute little booklet! I'll use mine as a way to log my outgoing and incoming mail (the other one I used until now will be full very soon! Couldn't have imagined that in february....)

Some labels you might use to label envelopes or to put them on christmas presents with the name of the person who receives it.

One of these outline-sticker (is that how you call them?) sheets, I haven't decided which one yet.

You have until November 1st to enter via the giveaway thingy you can see down there. Oh, and this giveaway is open worldwide of course :)
 
Alles Liebe,
Caddi

a Rafflecopter giveaway


PS: Don't forget to sign up for the swap!

Slow mail days...

I've had some slow mail days lately...

I didn't have much time to write letters, I had many meetings and classes and just LOADS to do... so I only finished and sent one letter, which should arrive the next week.

A letter going out to Lucas

I love this stamp, it's just SO bavarian! The Gäubodenvolksfest is the second biggest bavarian folk festival (after the Oktoberfest, of course, which is the biggest folk festival worldwide) and almost as old as the Oktoberfest - it's just two years younger! 

I also had an incoming postcard! This is actually the first piece of mail I received in more than a week now! 
It's a postcard from Penny in Brasil! I guess many of you already know that I love wild animal stamps, so it's not surprising that I also am a fan of postcards with wild animals! I'm especially known to love wild cats... 

Thank you so much Penny, I love the card!

Don't forget to sign up for the swap! I already bought stickers and other embellishments for the little "thanks-for-participating-somethings" I'll be sending out in December to the participants. I was lucky I was shopping alone, because I don't know if the boyfriend would have had the patience...

Take care and al the best!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Monday's mail

Just a quick post on the outgoing mail I sent today (well, to be more accurate, the mail I gave to my boyfriend and which he then took to the letterbox on his way to university). I'm still working on more mail to send the next days, I think I only got 11 or 12 letters left that still need replies!

These are letters for which I have taken waaay to long to write and send them. The four international letters are on their way to the USA (twice), the Philippines and Togo. I love the new stamp! I bought it on friday, when everything I wanted to buy were 20 stamps of the face value of 20 cents - nope, I went out there having bought stamps for more than 30 Euros. But if you'd see them all... oooh, I love them.

This is the stamp I used for the letter going out to my granny. She invited us to her 80th birthday and I wrote her to tell her that we'd love to come :) Do you send letters to your grandparents?

I didn't have any incoming today, it's been a week since I last received anything. I guess once my pen pals get their letters and start replying I will get everything in a day or two again - it will surely take some time for my mail rhythm to even out again.

That's it from me, don't forget to sign up for the swap and take care!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Advent Calendar Swap!

Hello dear readers! 

I know, I know, it's not even Halloween yet - but christmas is approaching fast! I'm already looking forward to it! 

There's a saying in German which says "Vorfreude ist die schönste Freude", which translates loosely to "Joy is always in the forecast". As a kid, this proved true for me with Advent Calendars. Every morning in December I would be allowed to open one little present, mostly chocolates of course, and the day I opened the last present, christmas had finally arrived! You can't imagine how many times I counted the little packages that were still there, the excitement rising when I counted fewer and fewer...

I wanted to share this feeling of joy and anticipation with you, my dear blog readers, through a swap which you can find here! Please fill out the form with as much information as you'd like to, it's easier to find little gifts for you if your christmas angel (can you spot that little one down there in the picture? That's our christmas angel. It even has a small bag which may be filled with mail, or candies or presents... but shhh, it's a secret!) knows more about you than just your name. You have time to sign up until the 31st of october and should send your calendar to your assigned partner latest November 17th, so that it'll arrive in time for December 1st.

Are you in?

I'm really looking forward to this and I hope you do as well :)

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Last year's Advent Calendars

Letters to Guam, Uganda, Turkey and Finland

How far do you guys live from your university / workplace?
I personally have to leave my apartment at 7.20 am (7.15 if I don't want to be in a hurry) to go to the first class, which starts at nine. I am quite sure actually that many of my penpals know that, because I usually write most of my letters during the train ride on my way to or back from university. Well, today I got up early to get to my first class... only to find out that it was cancelled. Duh! What a stupid waste of time. Of course the class after that was cancelled as well so I just went back home and did go aaaaall the way for nothing. What was the last situation you got mad because you did something for nothing?

Anyway, I still had the train ride to finish a letter - so now I have four letters which will go out tomorrow!

The four letters going out tomorrow - again, three of the envelopes are part of the awesome envelope-palooza I won over at Laura's blog.

This is the letter I got from Heidi in Finland and my reply to her. Isn't her writing paper just super cute? We are talking about differences between Finland and Germany, stereotypes, blog layouts and habits we used to have as a child.

Korina sent me a letter (in her amazing handwriting I drool about) accompanied by a few postcards from her travels of this summer. So, of course travels are topics in our letters, as well as school systems and stupid tests, learning languages and our homes.

She used lovely letter paper!

This is a first letter I got from Turkey and my reply to it, so we're still getting to know each other, talking about our families, hobbies, hometowns...

This is the last letter I finished today, it'll be on its way to Uganda tomorrow. We are chatting about chickens, local languages, boyfriends, my trip to the USA... just a bunch of stuff :)

I hope you are all having a good week so far and that you didn't waste a lot of time today like I did...

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Two giveaways that I wanted to share

Hello there,

if you like postcards and seashells as well, why don't you hop over to Shannon's blog and enter her first giveaway? All you need to do is follow her blog and leave a comment =)

There's also this amazing giveaway from a finnish blogger (Aniko), who is an avid flea-market shopper and writes awesomely good-written posts about things like her addiction / love to vintage buttons who "clink" and "tock"... Imagine that she has 5 kg of vintage buttons! 

Do you also plan on doing something for your karma by hosting a giveaway?
 
Alles Liebe,
Caddi

False penalties, Kenyan sunsets and passports.

Dear readers,

what do you talk about in your letters? 

Personally I really enjoy having penpals from so many different backgrounds, you just get to discuss so many more topics than if you would only write to people in the same situation like you are in right now.

I finally got to write some letters which will go out tomorrow. I might finish one or two more letters by tomorrow, but I also have to proofread about 100 pages until tomorrow for work, so I probably should do the latter first… Oh well.

But let me first show you the correspondence of this weekend…

Time was long overdue for me to send a postcard to my goddaughter again. We spent some lovely days in Berlin together and on her way back she had a hopefully interesting train journey. 

My dear friend F. is currently staying a few months in London. We are currently talking about her stay in the UK, my stay in the USA, the Niagara Falls, birthdays, seafood… She also sent me some yummy chocolate, neat stickers and bookmarks and even some stationery.

 

Rocio and I are as well talking about birthdays, holidays, castles and gardening. She is always using great stamps, don’t you think so as well? I used one of the envelopes I got from Laura L. for her letter.

Jennifer and I are talking about things as simple as the weather to family issues and daily life. I think many of you know her and her great talkative letters =)

Many of you know Bee as well and I took way too long to answer her colorful letter… Apart from our studies we talk about Prague, Berlin, music and skiing. Oh and you don’t really can see that well in the picture but she has an amazing handwriting.

Laura is having kind of a tough time right now, so I hope my letter will cheer her up a bit. If you are having some free time and a spare postcard and postage, why don't you send her something in the mail? I swear she's worth the stamp =) Her address is:

 Laura Harting

1501 East Gardner Lane

Apt 1122

Peoria Heights, IL 61616

USA

A new penpal! Actually, one from Germany :) That's always exciting, don't you think so as well? I fell in love with the envelope, it's so pretty, don't you think so as well? And you probably know that I absolutely love wild animal stamps... Anyway, Y. told me about some of her favourite books (who happen to be mine as well!) so of course I talked about that too and had to ask about her favourite character... other topics were pets and Great Britain =)

I went all oooooh about these sunsets and the other postcard as well - and N. didn't make it better by telling me just how beautiful Kenya is. I have wanted to visit Africa so bad for almost a decade by now, I have to make it happen some day in the next few years... Apart from beautiful Kenya we talk about Rome, exams, work, vacations and prejudices.

Another first letter, this time from Stephanie in the USA, so we're still in the process of getting to know each other.

After having written eight letters (I'm currently in the process of writing another one which will be sent to Turkey) I caught up at least a little bit, but of course there's still way to go - I hope I can write a similar amout of letters next week and the week after that as well. Still. classes start tomorrow for me and I might not be able to reply very fast in the next weeks - so please bare with me.

How did you start October? Did you have a nice few last days of late summer? In German, you call these last summer days of really nice weather in September "old hags weather"... Yes, we do cherish our grannies :)

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Still trying to catch up on letters...

I am still waaaaay behind on my letters, so my apologies to everyone who is waiting for a letter - they will come for sure! It's just a matter of time....

I will try to post (and send mail!) more often in the near future, the last week was 
a) super hectic (squeeze a few days with my goddaughter, family visits, a musical and a wedding in there)
and
b) spent without having access to the internet.

Now I'm back home to Saarbrücken (we got here yesterday at about 2 am - yay me having to get up to work early today!) and I will try to reply to as much mail as possible before classes start again next monday. I have to admit I feel - well, overwhelmed by the massive mail pile.

That's all for now!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi