Lack of inspiration & two incoming letters

Hii!

At times I find it really hard to come up with something to write here. This is one of those times. 

The school day was normal. Busy, but normal. It's only been like two weeks since I came back from Russia and I'm already feeling the biggest urge to get abroad. So nothing's changed. :D 

Only thing that has changed is that I've received these two beauties and they made me super happy!

The letter with many stamps on (I mean, look at them. How pretty!) is from my new penpal Sara from Malaysia and the other is from Shine, China. :)

The stamps on Shine's letter are also really nice:

 And the letter overall is amazing!

And so is this one from Sara!

Thanks! :)

I haven't written much lately, I've just been waiting for an inspiration.. Hopefully I'll feel like writing again very soon :D

Incoming from Turkey, Sri Lanka, Germany, U.S.A...

Hii!

I just wanted to say that I'm really happy about receiving all the nice comments from you, you're the best! :) I think I'll keep on writing mostly in English because that's the language everyone will understand (I hope!), even though I'm not perfect at it and even though many of my readers are from Finland. :D

I already posted this following picture on Instagram earlier this week and now it's time to post it here with other and more detailed pictures!

A flower themed chain card ready to continue the journey:

A pretty letter with a tea bag from Sue, Sri Lanka:

A cute letter from Tabby, California:

A really nice swap from Gülin, Turkey:

 (and also a letter from Daria.. I don't know what I was thinking when I took this picture because everything's so mixed up in here, sorry! >_<)

And here's the actual "letter" part of the letter I got from Daria, Germany:

Thank you!

I've already either sent or started writing a response to these! Can't wait to show you  what I've been crafting on :)

Mail before Christmas

Christmas is now over and I thought of coming here to show you some of the mail I sent and received before the holidays! :)

A little Christmas present to Daria, Germany (I loved putting these together! <3) :

A letter to Tabby, USA:

And a letter to Haruka, Japan:

See you soon with the mail sent and received after Christmas! :)

Mail Week #49

Happy independence day of Finland! I'm so proud of my country and proud to be a Finn. ♥

Here's all mail of this week!

Letters I sent to Poland and Hong Kong (the last ones that aren't Christmas and/or winter themed) :

To Chloe, HK (I wrote it already more than a week ago xD) :

And to Martyna, Poland:

Mail I received from Japan, U.S.A and China:

From Shine, China:

From Jadey, California:

From Haruka, Japan:

Thank you so much! ♥

Mail Week 47 (2/3) - Outgoing ❄

Here's the part two of this week's mail! 

Here are two things I've sent out this week (more in the part 3 haha :D) :

First a Coin Swap to the Netherlands, I sent three Finnish euro coins ↴ 

And I also sent an Instagram swap to Gülin in Turkey (Bursa♥) ↴

I sent her a lot of different envelopes & other stationary, chewing gum, tea and some tape which you can't really see because stupid me >_< (Gülin: I had to change the glitter to a flatter one because it was a bit too thick, I hope you don't mind ♥)

The stamps (I don't know what I was thinking when I put the left one like that haha) :) ↴

Ps. It's snowing also in my village now! I can't decide whether I like it or not. I like snow because it might make it look brighter and prettier outside BUT if the snow isn't going to last for long (which I'm sure it doesn't), there's gonna be slush. And a lot of it. And sleet. But let's just hope that's not gonna happen soon! :D Has it already snowed in your country/town? ❄

Mail & Camp

Hello! I'm back with new pictures! I just came back from Nurmes where I was volunteering at an International camp.. I've been in a rush for the last 1,5 months but now I'm settling down again. And I've got plenty pictures and stories for you guys! I'll write you another part of my Turkey exchange very soon, I just wanted to talk about these newer things first :)

So, yes, I was at the camp. It was amazing experience and I learned a lot more about myself. It turned out very well even though I wasn't really feeling like going there at first.. The bus trip was so long and I felt like I would have preferred staying home with my friends and family since I'd just came back to Finland. But I'm happy I went there! Now I'm just happily at home again :D

I had these two cuties waiting for me when I came back home and I was thrilled to see them! ↴

This one is from Kinga, Poland. I hadn't heard from her for months so I was sooo surprised and happy to receive that letter!! She sent me a postcard and some interesting-sounding sweet chili tea along the letter :)

And this baby is from Jade, California! You guys have no idea how happy I was to see that letter waiting for me :D She also sent me some stickers that I just noticed I had unfortunately left out of the picture.. I don't know how that happened xD And that postcard is from Hawaii <3

Thank you both! 

SPSH Swap 2015 - outgoing to Italy!

Yey I'm so excited to write you about something cool I participated in about three weeks ago; the Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt hosted by Fab from Snail Mail Love blog!! 

According to Fab, SPSH is "a swap aimed two connect to strangers via mail by having them randomly paired, and exchanging a package full of wonders!". This was my first time joining the swap and I really love the idea! :)

Even though I'm still waiting for my own parcel to arrive (soon, I hope!!), I wanted to show you what I got for my partner, Barbara from Italy! Below you can see everything I sent her in small packagings. 

 We had to pick five items from this list to find/craft + a gift:

• the City Explorer's Kit: take a day off and collect little things of your city for your partner. Can include, but not limited to: maps, flowers & leaves, postcards, tiny souvenirs, photos, interesting newspaper clippings & pamphlets, etc  - just don't grab a bunch of random junk within arm's reach, put some effort in it; 
• Something that represent you: for example - are you an artist? Send your partner a little painting. Do you love to knit? Send your partner a hat.. and so on;
• A mix CD with your favorite tunes. (Pro Tip: create a cover for it);
• the Postal Freak's Kit: Can include, but not limited to: postal goodies such as address labels, used stamps, envelopes, stationery, a mail art kit etc.
• the Bad Day Survival Kit: assemble a kit of nice things that may help your partner to feel better when they're having a bad day. (Ideas: your favorite candy, a poem/story, bubble bath, a list of  happy songs/movies etc);
• Something quirky;
• Something with - your partner's - monogram on it;
• Something oddly shaped;
• Something old fashioned;
• Something to read;

• + a gift for your partner!
• 
  

As soon as I saw the list I had a lot of ideas what to do, totally inspired! :D

The first thing I picked from the list was this, 'the Postal Freak's Kit'. I included some cardstocks, envelopes, papers, tags...

...and this small bag/envelope filled with stickers, used stamps, priority labels etc ^^

 For 'something quirky' I decided to send something Finnish and sweet; Angry Birds treats (2 lollipops + liquorice)! Maybe not the quirkiest thing ever but ohwell, at least my partner liked them which counts the most, right?

I loved to put this one together! It's 'the Bad Day Survival Kit' where I put some candies, Finnish chocolate (who wouldn't need some chocolate on a bad day?), Moomin tea, perfume...Oh, and a list of cheerful (Finnish) songs!

For 'the City Explorer's Kit' I found some brochures and maps from multiple cities instead of just one. And added a few photos (they look strange in this picture because of the lightning) :)

And for the gift I decided to send Barbara a bit of Finnish design! 

Now I'll continue looking forward to my SPSH incoming mail... Can't wait! :)

To China & Austria

Yey I'm finally on holiday and I can focus on the blog a bit more!! :)

So I think it's already safe to post these two letters here because I sent them out about two weeks ago... Hopefully they're already received . :)

This first letter is an intro letter to my new Austrian penpal, Lisa ^^

(Side note: It's been very sunny in here for a few days and that's why I wanted to edit the picture a bit more spring-ish than those other pictures because I edited them on different days.. xD)

And this one is to Shine, China! I sent her some Finnish stamps, a movie ticket and a brochure from Turku Cathedral which I recently visited :)

Happy week for you all, hopefully it's full of mail!!!

Giveaway prize from Thailand and a letter! :)

Osallistuin vuoden lopussa ihanaan arvontaan Lilyn blogissa ja yllätyksekseni voitin! Söpö paketti Thaimaasta saapui meidän postiin perjantaina ja mun oli pakko hakea se heti sieltä. Paikallinen posti on aika pieni ja tiskillä seisoessaan näkee kaikki paketit, jotka siellä on odottamassa hakijaansa. Katselin paketteja sillä välin, kun odotin vuoroani ja huomasin tuon puna-ruskean paketin ja ajattelin, että "Tuon on pakko olla mulle!" - ja niinhän se olikin. :D Kiitos paljon, Lily!! Paketista löytyi tosi paljon kaikkea ihanaa. jotka listaan postaukseen englanniksi. :)

I took a part of an amazing giveaway (here) in the end of December and surprisingly I won! This lovely package from Thailand arrived to our post office on Friday and of course I had to get it from there immediately. :D

It's my first time receiving something from Thailand and obviously I was super excited (still am, though). I really like those stamps (even though the ink of the post marks have smudged and it's hard to see for example that yellow-ish stamp)! :)

I got bunch of cool things and instead of filming all of them in one single pile I decided to take pictures of them in smaller groups or pairs. :) Firstly the box included these two snacks: Seaweed snack with a small bag of popcorn and octopus chips. I have to say that the package of that seaweed snack is just too adorable, I can't handle it!! I wish we had more packagings like that in Finland :D

Then there were Wasabi Coated Green Peas, Plum flavoured candy and Tom Yum Kung Pretz (spicy shrimp flavour). I already tasted those hard plum candies and they were actually really good, so tasty! And I think the packaging is also very pretty. ^^

Two adorable notebooks (Stitch and Rilakkuma), Frozen stickers, magnet and a card! 

And last but definitely not least, Fisherman's Friend (mandarin flavoured!), four Dilmah tea bags, lovely airmail envelopes, cute decoration tape (I must be very unusual person but it's my first time seeing that kind of tape - and I love it!) and Durian milk candies. Those candies are so cool! I was warned to 'eat and open them at my own risk' which obviously made me really curious haha. :D I haven't tried them yet but I surely will - soon! 

I 100% love everything! I wasn't expecting to get that much stuff so thanks again, Lily! :)

On the same day I received this pinkish letter from Daria, Germany! It included origami papers, stickers, tapes... Danke! ^^

To Russia / Venäjälle ^_^

Aloha! Unfortunately I don't have much time to write at the moment, but I try to do this as quickly as I can. :D 

So this is a letter I sent to Olga, Russia. I think I sent it out about a week ago, even though I've written it two weeks ago or so. 

I sent her 'Olet ihana' (= you are lovely, I think it's strange how it's translated as 'sweetheart' :O) tea bag. ^^

Sorry for such a short post, I'll see you soon with a new post and new mail! ^_^