Pen Pal Post – Nat in Australia

I received another letter from Nat!! I absolutely love the time and care she puts in to her letters. I recently started following her on Instagram, and she posts a lot of photos of her stationery and the amazing letters she sends out. Mine was no exception!

First let’s talk about the envelope! Love the stamp with Will & Kate! I also love the embellishments!! The koala is adorable, and frankly, I’m surprised it made it through the mail with the embellishments still attached!

When I opened the letter, I first saw the huge “Dear Melanie” and the PUG STICKER!!! I have written about my pug Carley, and post photos on Instagram all the time, so I thought it was so sweet she included a pug sticker! In the mini envelope marked “Surprise Inside” there were also a few doggie stickers, with a pug included!! There’s a glare on it in the image unfortunately, but I promise that it’s cute!

She also threw in a postcard from the RSPCA of a dog called Peaches. Nat said on the back that she “hosted a high tea for the RSPCA cupcake fundraiser to help raise money.” How neat!

On the back of the mail tag, she wrote a few questions for me to answer in my next letter. I can’t wait to write Nat back!!

Pen Pal Post – Nat

I got another letter from Nat in Australia!! This time she sent along stickers and a lovely stamp showing the visit of Prince William, Kate, and George in Australia. Loved it all!

I love the cute stickers and can’t wait to use them! She asked me a few questions in this letter such as “Do you have instagram?” and “What do you do for work?” I replied in my letter and told her about some of the fun things I’ve done recently.

I also sent with my letter a postcard of the library in the town I grew up in. There aren’t too many postcards of my hometown, but I wanted to send her one that I did have! Can’t wait to hear back from Nat!!

What To Write To Your Penpal

I have a few penpals that I love writing with. We seem to write about our daily life and fun things we do. But sometimes, I get stumped with what to write. I may have had a boring week with nothing to write about.

I found these articles on Uncustomary Art that lists “50 Things To Tell Your Penpal” and then a followup with 50 more! Here are the links with the great suggestions:

50 Things To Tell Your Penpal

50 More Things To Tell Your Penpal

Hopefully these topics will help you in your letters! Enjoy!

Pen Pal Post – Rita

I got another letter from Rita! A few days after I got her letter, I received a birthday card from her! I was so touched that she sent me a birthday card! I will have to be sure to remember to send her something on her birthday! In her letter that she sent, she included some photos and a postcard.

She sent me the postcard of a Rembrandt painting as well as a photo of herself posing by that painting. For some reason I thought Rembrandt was from Germany, so when I found out he was born in the Netherlands, it made sense since Rita lives in the Netherlands.

She also included a photo of her new car! She just passed her driver’s test, which people in her country can take beginning at age 18. She didn’t explain why, but for whatever reason, she didn’t get her license until she was 24. In America, we get our license at age 16, and that’s exactly when I got mine! I really liked Rita’s car! I loved that it’s lime green. I don’t see many lime green cars where I live.

As always, Rita made the envelope. I love seeing what kind of envelope and paper she uses! So far, it’s been different each time. Rita is the one pen pal I’ve had the most correspondence with so far. I don’t know if this is due to delays with my other pen pals, or just that mail travels pretty quickly and easily from USA to the Netherlands. Either way, I enjoy writing with Rita quite a lot!

Letter from Lotte [Goodies Included!]

Lotte is my penpal from Belgium and recently I received another letter from her with some goodies inside!

In her last letter, she had to type it because of an issue with her finger. I can’t remember exactly what she did, but it was painful to write at the time. So in this letter, I got to see her lovely handwriting! She also included some cute paper, stickers, and a little card of an animal that I’m not familiar with. There’s a description on the back of the card, but it’s in French. After putting it into Google Translate, I found out it is a Flying Squirrel.

When I wrote Lotte back, I decided to write a little bit about my travels (or lack thereof). I included this map with dots where I’ve been.

I also wrote about the Fourth of July, which I thought she might find interesting. It wasn’t that long ago and it’s a big deal here in the USA, of course. I finished the letter and decorated the envelope!

Fun fun! I’m also including a few goodies that will be a surprise to Lotte since she sent me some goodies. Hopefully she enjoys them!

First Letter from Natalie

Natalie sent me a message on Postcrossing wanting to know if I wanted to be pen pals. She felt like we had similar interests and it might be fun. I agreed and recently received my first letter from her!

She told me a lot of her interests, which include dogs, nature, books, movies, documentaries, genealogy, and spending time with her family and dogs. I also love these things!

She sent with her letter a postcard of he Kookaburra, which was adorable! On the back of the postcard it says,

The Kookaburras belong to the family of the Kingfishers and are native to Australia and New Guinea, but only the Australian one is famous for its unmistakable laughing call. They feed on insects, snakes, frogs and other small animals.

Natalie wrote about the laughing of the Kookaburra and that when she was younger, her friends used to say “The Kookaburra is laughing at you!” whenever they heard one’s call.

Also included with the letter and postcard was a teabag of Australian Afternoon Tea! I was so excited when I saw she included this in my package! It was delicious!

I have already written her back and plan to include a little something like she did for me. Her birthday passed while the letter was in transit, so I am hoping to get something special to send her for a belated birthday gift. I am really looking forward to this correspondence!

Photos from Rita

I received another letter from my pen pal in the Netherlands, Rita! In my last letter to her, I sent a few photos of me, my husband, and Carley the pug. She appreciated the photos and sent a few of her own with her letter!

The photos shows Rita and her boyfriend, a sunset view from their rental home, and the rental home itself. The stationery she used was also festive! I loved the rental home! It’s so colorful! My house is just a boring gray color.

We both expressed how neat it is to be able to see who we are writing with. Although the mystery of pen-friendship is nice, it’s also neat to be able to visualize who you are writing with.

She wrote about her successful job interview she recently had. I am so happy she got her job at the day care center! She also told me about her mom’s birthday and how they want to see a musical as well as went shopping.

She talked a little about the World Cup. The Netherlands is kicking butt and USA is not. When I wrote her back, I said that maybe by some miracle our countries would play each other, but that is doubtful.

She finished her letter expressing her hopes to pass her driver’s test. I asked her when folks get their licenses over there because here it’s 16. It seems that one must be 19 years old to drive if I am understanding correctly. I’ll find out for sure when Rita writes me back though! She must have just waited a little longer to get her license. I have friends who did the same here, but I got mine right away!

Looking forward to more letters with Rita!

First Letter from Rita

I received my first correspondence from Rita in the Netherlands! I sent her my first letter on the 2nd of May. I remember this date because it was the day before we took our pug Carley to have surgery. I was a frantic mess that day and wrote about it in the letter. Rita asked about Carley in her reply, which is so thoughtful. In the letter I sent back, I included a self-printed photo of Carley right after her surgery, as well as a few showing how well she has recovered. I hope she enjoys them!

I loved the envelope, which may or may not have been homemade. I really couldn’t tell, but it was so festive! Her stationery was also fun and colorful.

When I sent her my first letter, I included a postcard of an elephant. I think I read on her bio that she liked elephants, and she really appreciated it! In return, she sent me a postcard of a cartoon whale with the text “There She Blows!” I thought this was so adorable, and my husband loved the googly eye on the whale.

I think I will enjoy writing with Rita.

First Letter From Lotte

I received my first letter from my new penpal, Lotte! She is from Belgium and I sent off my first letter to her a few weeks ago around the 1st of May. I was surprised to have received her letter already! It was dated the 24th of  May and I received it on the 3rd of June!

I am looking forward to writing with Lotte. Not only will the letters come swiftly, she seems like a fun person. She likes fantasy, and I have found fantasy books to be one of my favorite genres as of late. So we should have fun things to write about as far as that goes.

She is only four years younger than me, and I always like to think of myself as young at heart, so I think we will get along in our maturity level.

My Peacock Stationery

She wrote that she loves stationery and I am jealous of her ability to find some! I wrote her first letter on ripped notebook pages and the second on a template I printed from the internet. I am hoping to find really nice letter writing paper somewhere that isn’t going to cost me an arm and a leg. Until I find something great, I suppose I’ll keep printing templates. The one I found was nice, though. It was a peacock design.

Watch out for more correspondence from Lotte and others!