Cutest postcard ever

Yesterday I got the best postcard in a long while - I had some of these blank prestamped postcards and passed them on to my goddaughter this summer because they aren't really of a use to me and I thought she might like them.

And here's what I found in my PO Box yesterday - so cute :)

I hope you're all doing well!

Postcards from around the World # 6 - Czech Republic

Just a quick update with another postcard I got in October - my mother went to Prague for a weekend and remembered to send me a postcard :)

I haven't been yet which is a shame, because it is said to be a very beautiful (yet touristy of course) city, but who knows, maybe I'll get a chance to visit the city and country in the next year. It's an odd feeling to know that there are still a few neighbouring countries of Germany which I haven't seen.

I also loved the stamp and the clear postage mark!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Happy Diwali!

I got a letter from Amit on Wednesday. If you know Amit, you also know that he uses amazing stamps. I love these! Aren't they incredibly pretty?

Amit sent me a card wishin me a happy Diwali. Diwali is the Festival of Lights celebrated across India and apparently a very colourful festival, Amit told me he was already looking for clay lamps when he was writing the letter. I'm so happy that the card reached me on time.

Did you learn anything interesting from through the mail lately? I never heard of this festival before and loved learning about it.

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 5 - Greece

Today I got a postcard from a close friend - the lucky girl spent a few days in Greece!

It has been almost ten years since I have been in Greece (wait, maybe even longer!) and I have to admit, I was a bit jealous when I heard about her plans - but I love that she got to go on a holiday, she deserves it! She did enjoy the greek sun, the beach, the ocean - they also went to see Athen and Patras though!

I love the stereotypical white and blue houses of Greece, I love the colour combination.

The stamp is fantastic as well!

This card made me want to go on holidays SO bad! Well, next year there's another chance for some travels...

Where will your next journey take you?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

I did it!

Unbelievable but true - I used up a roll of Washi tape :)

That's good news, because usually I'm quite a stationery hoarder and have problems using things up - anyone else still having letter sets from a decade ago?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 4 - Ireland

Yet another postcard I got from a family member - though a more distant one this time! My cousin spent about a month in Ireland this summer, at first travelling with a friend, then travelling solo, later I think she worked a bit as well and she just came back a few days ago. Lucky her! Apparently she had loads of fun and a lot of stuff to do - she told me she went to sit in the garden of a monastery to write postcards, because she didn't have a quiet minute to do so beforehand.

Have you ever been to Ireland?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Fast and pretty mail from Russia!

On Friday I got a letter from Maria in Russia - I had written her in early spring and had asked if spring already arrived in Russia by the time she got the letter, but it travelled a long time, so now that she responded, she already told me about the late summer and the early fall. She expressed the fear that her letter might take very long to arrive as well, and included a tea to warm up while reading her letter in November, but this time the letter was really fast! The postage stamps have the date of September 12th, and I got it on September 20th, so only around a week for a letter from Russia! I won't complain about that though :)

The letter was really pretty, it featured many stamps - among them, this beauty! Isn't it lovely? It was issued almost ten years ago, so I guess I'm lucky that I got to see it :) Thanks for choosing such great stamps Maria, I love them! Keep doing so ;-)

Another detail of the letter: This airmail sticker, which says "Luftpost" ("airmail" in German) - I love it!

Did you receive any outstanding mail in the last time? And why was it outstanding?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 3 - Cape Verde

Do you want to hear about yet another immediate family member who never forgets to send a postcard when on a trip?

My older brother and his girlfriend went to Boa Vista for two weeks this summer and sent me this postcard, which took about five to six weeks to get here! Boa Vista is one of the islands of Cape Verde, located in the central Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred kilometers off the coast of western Africa. He tells that the landscape seems like that of a desert, with lots of sand and dunes. Quite warm as well. 

My brother knows that I collect stamps, so he bought an extra stamp to bring it home for me as a small souvenir :)

Have you ever been to an island country like the one of Cape Verde?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 2 - Austria

Last week I talked about my mother sending me things in the mail - I have to be fair here, my father does so as well! He went to Austria in the end of August and knows me well enough to remember to send me a postcard whenever he's on a trip. He also sends me a small package every month or so - usually with a small book, sometimes a scarf - I guess you really can say that my parents are great in sending mail every now and then!

Anyway, he was in Salzburg and went to the opera at night - which seems to be a thing in Austria. The Mirabellgarten is the park of the Palace Mirabell, which was built in 1606 by Prince-Archbishop for his mistress. He also managed to elevate her and her (their?) 15 children to hereditary peerage. The Palace as well as the gardens are part of the UNESCO world heritage of the historic centre of Salzburg.

Do you keep in touch with your family through the mail?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 1 - Denmark

Recently I was rummaging around in a box of old trinkets looking for something that had to be in there - I came across old letters, photos, pressed flowers, tickets and also a few postcards.
I am quite happy to say that I can always count on my mother to send me something in the mail - be it a quick postcard or a care package.
As some of you know, I spent quite some time abroad during my youth - and I happened to come across a postcard I got while in Chile. My mother wrote a message on maybe half of the postcard, the rest is filled with signatures from my parents, two sets of aunts and uncles, my grandparents as well as five cousins, three of whom were younger than 7 I believe - which caused quite big signatures as you can imagine. I love that I have a signed postcard of all of them!
They were celebrating a birthday in Denmark, on an island where I spent some summers of my childhood as well. Aren't postcards a great way to bring back memories?

A family postcard

I love these stamps!

Do you still have postcards which date a few years back? And how long to you plan to keep them for?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Malaysian air mail labels

I got this lovely envelope last week for a swap on swap-bot - I already loved how it looked on the outside! An envelope decorated with tape, various stamps and a clear postage mark, a pretty airmail label and my address written in a fancy way? My mailbox was happy!

Inside the sender included nice words on a very cute notecard, the airmail labels the swap called for (I love these so much! I'm going to have a hard time using them I think - aren't they amazing?) as well as some used stamps and washi tape samples for me to enjoy!

Some swappers on swap-bot really do send amazing mail :)
Have a fantastic September everybody!

A Productive Weekend! - Also: Stats of the Month - June 2013

 Well, mailwise at least... :)

 I sent one postcard to an old family friend who will have surgery in a week,

 another postcard to my goddaughter (I had already sent her mother a letter on Thursday - of course I don't have a picture of that one...)

 A letter to Michelle in Idadho,

 Oh, here are the stamps I used so far :) I really really like the one with the elk and the lighthouse one is great as always.

 A postcard to a friend, I haven't heard from her in a bit so I basically said hi and asked her to call me.

 A letter to Yana in Utah

 and a letter to a penpal here in Germany,

and lastly, a letter to Yanill in Florida - I will send that one out on Tuesday, as soon as partners are assigned in a swap-bot swap.

How have you been this weekend? Have you been productive?

Oh, and also, it's the end of June! So here are my stats of this month! :)

I finally received more mail again! I had 22 incoming letters, 3 incoming postcards and 2 incoming packages - yay! I haven't been to my PO-Box since Thursday, so I might even have gotten more :)

I sent out 24 letters and 9 postcards (counting the ones I finished this weekend) as well as 3 packages.

I spent a total of 26,33 € on postage, so on average 0,73 € per mailed item.

How much mail did you receive and send this month?

Oh, and one last thing: I bet you have already read elsewhere about this whole bloglovin' thing? Good, then I don't have to write this down here...

All the best for you!
Caddi

Some mail

Dear readers,
well, that didn't go too well with the challenge - I already had photographed so many stamps, but then never got around to prepare the posts to go online. Anyway! I wanted to show you guys some of the mail I got in the last days, as I realized I hadn't posted here in about two weeks. I just took pictures of the mail I was having close, so there might be a few letters not pictured here of course. I'm also more often writing letters on the way now and have gotten used to always carry a few stamps and envelopes, but since I usually don't carry my camera, I'm of course not able to take pictures of the mail I send.

So, have a look at some of the mail I got in the past weeks...

 A cute thank you card from Tári in France! Thank you!

 A lovely letter from Yana in the USA.

I love craft paper! This was a reply from a swap on swap-bot. I loved the stamp!

Today I got a cute letter from Penny in Brazil! We agreed to swap some priority labels :) Is there anyone else out there willing to send me some airmail / priority labels from their country in exchange for German ones? Please leave a comment or get in touch, I will get back to you :)

 A surprise package from my father, who thought of me when he saw a book and thus decided to send it to me :)

 A letter from a German penpal. Isn't the stamp great? It's the German EUROPA-one for this year. Tári also used this years EUROPA-stamp on her letter by the way :)

 A letter from Michelle. The envelope looks so cool!

 Plain envelopes sometimes contain the greatest letters - I'm always happy receiving letters from old friends!

 I got this letter for a penpal swap on swap-bot and immediately thought "I have seen this paper somewhere already!"... Later I realized I had bought sticky notes of the same design when I was in the USA last summer :)

 A long letter from one of my German penpals. We share book and washi tape addictions :)


Oh, and did I mention my boyfriend being the best? Last week I got flowers...

 ...as well as a small surprise gift because I'm having a hard time at university currently. Love him!

Well, that's all from me for now.

Remember, I'd love to swap airmail labels with you!

All the best and take care,
Caddi

P.S. Postage Stamps Scavenger Hunt - Days 8 - 9

If you are a member of the Postal Society like me and read the newsletter, you'll know about this instagram challenge (which I'm making into a blog challenge...).

I can already see some who are going to be hard but I'll try it anyway. Are you joining in as well? I'd love to see what you come up with, just leave a link below and I'll make sure to check it out!

Well, I missed yesterday, so there are two stamps today...

Day 8: Nature

and Day 9: Red

I like both of them very much, even though I have to admit that I prefer the stamp of the linden. The tree is at least 700 years old, some sources say 1000 years, and has been a natural monument since 1971. It has an astonishing calibre of almost three metres and a circumference of more or less 9 meters. I think old trees are so beautiful :) Do you have stamps with trees on them?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

P.S. Stamps Scavenger Hunt - Day 7

If you are a member of the Postal Society like me and read the newsletter, you'll know about this instagram challenge (which I'm making into a blog challenge...).

I can already see some who are going to be hard but I'll try it anyway. Are you joining in as well? I'd love to see what you come up with, just leave a link below and I'll make sure to check it out!

Today is the seventh day of the challenge, so the theme is "person".

Georg Elser was a German opposed to the Nazism and tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939 with a bomb in a beer hall, but while the bomb exploded on time, Hitler had left early to catch a train.
Elser was caught and held imprisoned in concentration camps until 1945, when he was shot a few weeks before the war was over.

I was thinking about taking this stamp as a black and white one because it only has some small red parts, but it's impossible to not notice them in my opinion, so I'll have to find another one for that day and decided to show this stamp today.

All the best and take care!

Alles Liebe,

Caddi

P.S. Stamps Scavenger Hunt - Day 6

If you are a member of the Postal Society like me and read the newsletter, you'll know about this instagram challenge (which I'm making into a blog challenge...).

I can already see some who are going to be hard (I have never seen a map on a stamp...) but I'll try it anyway. Are you joining in as well? I'd love to see what you come up with, just leave a link below and I'll make sure to check it out!

Today is the sixth day of the challenge, so the theme is "building".

And here's the stamp! I really like it. It depicts the Cathedral of Berlin. This stamps is only a few years old and I have seen it a few times (not that often though, because the denomination is not one you use often). I really like it, it's one of the prettiest church stamps in my collection :)

All the best and take care!

P.S. Stamps Scavenger Hunt - Day 5

If you are a member of the Postal Society like me and read the newsletter, you'll know about this instagram challenge (which I'm making into a blog challenge...).

I can already see some who are going to be hard (I have never seen a map on a stamp...) but I'll try it anyway. Are you joining in as well? I'd love to see what you come up with, just leave a link below and I'll make sure to check it out!

Today is the fifth day of the challenge, so the theme is "blue".

And here's the stamp! I really like it.

All the best and take care!