Postcards from around the World # 14 - Austria II

Another postcard from Austria - not one from a skiing trip like the last one, but from a hiking trip instead.

My mother went on a week-long hiking trip, crossing the Alps from Austria to Italy, and sent me this postcard from in between when staying a night at the Hanauer Hütte. They had had pouring rain that day and heat on the day before.

Are you a hiker? I'm not sure I could manage a trip like this... I do like to hike, but I also like to have days for resting in between :)

The stamp was the same stamp that was also used on the other postcard from Austria, but the postage mark is a city name and not an old boring "letter center" and the Hütte stamped the postcard as well :)

Alles Liebe!
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 13 - Australia

Remember when I said we couldn't go skiing with my boyfriends family this year because we had our own trip booked and planned? Instead of standing on a mountain in Austria, we decided to go snorkelling in Australia :) Can't believe this is already four months ago....

We have the habit of sending ourselves a postcard from when we are travelling - but it's always a surprise to one of us :) This time my boyfriend told me not to worry about "our" postcard and I was very happy to find this in my mailbox when we got back.

We spent two weeks in Coral Bay in Western Australia and loved it (duh, otherwise we wouldn't have spent two weeks there....). We didn't get to see a whale shark, but we did get to see turtles - so great!

The stamp is very cute in my opinion :) My boyfriend even saw one of those when we were in Victoria! I opted out of that hike though, so I didn't get to see it. But since we saw soooo many other animals, I'm not too sad. Have you seen the things that are depicted on the stamps you use to send mail?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 12 - Costa Rica

Maybe you can remember that we went to Costa Rica last year? Well, my older brother got inspired and this year he and his girlfriend went there as well for a few weeks!

We met beforehand to talk about what to see and where to go and gave them our guidebook, look at pictures and just generally talk about travelling.

This, however, prompted my brother to keep his postcard very short - just saying "Costa Rica is great! Well, you know the rest ;-)"
I still loved the postcard though and thought it to be funny :)

They didn't find real stamps, so they used this mailing label - can you see the two different dates? They sent the postcard in early March, which is what the label says, and it got stamped again in mid-April - more than a month later! I wonder what the did with the postcard in the meantime...

Alles Liebe,

Caddi

Mail via the Postal Society

Today I received not one, but two pieces of mail from members of the Postal Society - a neat penpal club I joined (again!). Are you part of any penpal clubs?

The first piece of mail was this pretty piece sent by Julia from Poland.

I was her partner in the July swap with the topic of a summer themed mail art envelope, she told me that mandalas really remind her of holidays - and actually, when I read that, I remembered that back when I was a kid and we went to Italy with another family, their daugther and I would spend hours listening to audiobooks (TKKG to be exact) and drawing mandalas. How did you spend your summer holidays as a child?

I really like the stamps Julia used as well!

 Next was this pretty polkadot envelope from Arielle in the Philippines. Doesn't it look lovely?

She sent me a short note, two cute envelopes for me to use and a teacupcard by papemelroti, a stationery shop from the Philippines I adore.

Once again, I love the stamp - but I always love the stamps from the Philippines, so it's not too hard to please me when it comes to that :)

Have you gotten nice mail lately?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Catching up - Outgoing mail part 1

Before getting back on track with the regular mail updates, I guess I'll have to play catch-up a little... so expect a few posts about mail of the past few months. I'll make the cut at three months back, so I'll start with these letters I sent in late April.

 A letter to Din in the Philippines, who had sent me a lovely first letter.

 A letter to Fede in the UK, one of my longest long-term-pals currently :)

 A letter to Emma in Australia, who sent me a very nice mix-CD via sendsomething.

Okay, this one is not really a letter - it's the German version of the wreck this journal which I sent to Mira, as I completed a task and now it's her turn to complete a task and send it back to me :) (Anyone else doing this journal? Do you do it with a partner as a mail project by any chance?)

 A letter to Jennifer in the UK - always such a joy to hear back from her!

And lastly, a letter to Shelby Anne in the USA - I always worry when sending red envelopes about them coming back because they would actually require extra postage - shhh, don't tell!

Alles Liebe!
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 11 - Malaysia

This postcard arrived today in my mailbox as part of a swap-bot-swap I took part in. It was sent from Ipoh in Malaysia on a very hot day apparently - 37°C and sunshine!

The postcard shows the ancient way of freshly caught fish being transported to the market in Kuala Terengganu - I love that in the photo you can see how it's still early in the morning and you could just imagine the fisherman coming back from their trip to the sea a few minutes earlier and now the fish is being rushed to the market where people will soon buy it to prepare their meals... Nowadays, the sender told me, fishes are mostly transported via trucks.

These are the stamps the sender used - I love stamps with animals, so the bird one is just perfect and the other one is very pretty too :)

Alles Liebe!
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 10 - Austria

From looking at this postcard, you will obviously know that it was received a while back... July is not really the time to send a postcard depicting a "Winter Paradise".

My boyfriends family goes skiing / snowboarding each year, but this year we couldn't go with them, as we were travelling ourselves during that time. So they opted to send us a postcard instead.

After reading the postcard we figured it was the right choice - they said that yes, the sky was as blue as in the photos, but that there was very little snow. The bits that were left on the slopes was either muddy or iced - so not really that enjoyable. Hopefully next year we'll manage to go with them and hopefully we'll have better snow then :) Do you enjoy skiing?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 9 - France

I am a bit jealous of all the trips the aunt and uncle of my boyfriend take - this postcard is from their most recent one, when they went to Corsica, a french Island in the Mediterranean Sea for a few days. Looking at this postcard makes me want to take a trip to the ocean immediately.

The stamps is one of the classic France-stamps.

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

How do you keep track of your mail?

Are you a snailmailer? Do you keep track of your mail? And if you do so, how do you do it?

When I started snailmailing again a few years back, I quickly realized I needed a way to keep track of my mailings. So I did the most basic thing - I grabbed a little notebook and jotted down the letters, postcards and packages I sent and received. I also wrote down how much money I spent on postage, as I was interested to know how much I'd be spending (now I believe it's better not to know... I want to enjoy this hobby without realizing what I'm spending :) )

However, I was not very consistent with keeping the journal up to date and often grouped dates together. When I sent a letter, I ticked the name of the receiver in the "IN"-section - but I often forgot that as well.


Later on I started stamping the dates of receiving and sending on the envelopes.

I didn't really like that however and didn't do it very often - while I then did know whether or not I replied to the letter I had in my hands, I like the letters the way I receive them and rather want to keep them the way my pals intended them to be, and not leave any marks on them myself.

Last month, I switched to a list, one for the incoming mail and one for the outgoing mail. You can put in the date, the sender / recipient, the contents of the mail and when you sent / received a reply. I do like this "mail register" (you can find the printable here), but we'll see how long I'll stick with it.

I'm also only keeping track of the personal mail in this list - no swaps or tags to be seen here :)

So tell me - how do you keep track of your incoming / outgoing mail?

Alles Liebe!
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 8 - The Netherlands

I got this card back in March from my little brother (who lives in the Netherlands) and my father (who went to visit him). They took a daytrip to Amsterdam and thought of me and my love for postcards - I'm a lucky girl :)

I love how you can see bikes on the postcard...

as well as on the stamp :)

The Netherlands sure are a bicylce-country! Quick story about that - in May my brother parked his bike somewhere where he wasn't supposed to park it - and they towed his bike! Just like other countries would tow your car. He had to pay a fee to be allowed to collect his bike :) Have you ever had your bike (or car) towed?

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Postcards from around the World # 7 - India

Yesterday I received this lovely postcard from India. It depicts the Hawa Mahal in Jaipur, also called the "Palace of the Wind". It was built in 1799 for women in the royal family, so that they could see the ceremonial processions on the street, but were in turn not visible to anybody while sitting behind the small windows. The building is five storeys high and built in pink sandstone. There are literally hundreds of screened windows and small balconies.

 I have never seen a building like this before (have you?) and loved learning about it!

The stamp shows J.R.D. Tata, the first licensed pilot of India and also founder of the first commercial airline in India.

Thanks Ankita for sending me this postcard!

Great letter from Ireland

Do you check your PO-Box every day? I usually do so when going to university, since it's located about 1,5 kms away close to the train station, so I'm not getting my mail every day. Whenever my boyfriend has classes but I don't, he'll go and check my mail for me.
Today when he came home, he told me I had received a beautiful letter - and indeed it is!

Look at the pretty handwriting / calligraphy she used to write my address!

Also - aren't the Europa stamps fantastic?

And lastly - it's not a secret that I love airmail-labels from foreign countries!

Such a perfect piece of mail!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Outgoing - two postcards and a short letter

Three outgoings of the past days - two postcards (to India and the US) and a short letter to my dearest cousin.

I just bought the notecards I used for her letter yesterday - love them!

I hope you are all doing good and are looking forward to a fantastic weekend - over here we're supposed to get more than 30°C, so that's great!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi

Flower doodle on an envelope

Do you often doodle on your envelopes? Yesterday we finished listening to an audiobook that was extremely long and I had some fun doodling these blue flowers on a pink envelope - I just had to add the stamp already :)

Alles Liebe!
Caddi

(As you probably noticed, I'm not that much of a regular blogger any longer - but oh well, at least I'm still a regular letter writer :) )

Dear Alex - Philippines

A letter sent to my dear friend Alex in the Philippines today.

I used an envelope of a giveaway I won a while back (thanks again! I already used all the writing paper and now only have one envelope left of the three), which I love because of the airmail border. Isn't anything airmail just fantastic? The priority label I used is from Austria.

The letter I wrote plus the letter and Christmas card I got from her. I just love her handwriting!

Arent't the stamps from the Philippines great? I think I already mentioned a few times that I just love stamps with animals and especially underwater creatures on them - and these are SO pretty! (And I'm SO looking forward to snorkeling in Australia!)

What kind of images do you like on stamps?

Alles Liebe,

Caddi

I'm still active!

in the mailworld... just not that much in the blogging world :)

I'm still a bit behind on replying though, but only five letters now and I hope to get these out soon. I will have to get them out in the next three weeks though, because I won't be able to mail anything from early March to mid-April - were going on another holiday! If anyone has great tips for the Melbourne region or the West Coast of Australia, please do share them :) I'm willing to take advice on everything. I'd also love recommendations for road-trip-music!

I haven't taken many pictures of mail the past weeks and months, so sadly I don't have any to share. I did start a new mail project with a friend though, we are sending a Wreck this journal back and forth every two weeks and it's exciting to see what she comes up with :) I should get that again soon, so I will try to take a few pictures of that book. So far it's great fun!

I hope you're all doing good and had a fantastic 2014 so far!

Alles Liebe,
Caddi