Happy Mail Day

Despite all the bad news on Swap-Bot (bullies and flakers) I still love it because there are still a lot of great swappers. 

Last week, I received these (on the same day).

From USA, love all the bits and pieces.

From Finland, an even bigger package. I never thought flat package swap can be so much goodies!

Aaaa... What happy mail day.

And last week, I bought these over the website. Our local postal office don't have such nice stamps because they only have definitives stamps, so I have to get these on the website. And I end up spending $196 just on stamps. 

I love putting lots and lots of stamps on my mail. :)

Daisy ATC

It has been some times since I draw and paint. And last night I made this for a Swap-Bot ATC swap, theme was, obviously 'Daisy'.

I like how it turned out. Simple and soft. And I tore off the pages from Pride & Prejudice that I am not ever going to read. 

Whipping Day

Taking a day off, did some groceries and pick up something for a friend from a nearby bakery. Couldn't resist myself when I walk into a bakery shop, it's exactly like a craft shop. As I wander around exploring the shop, I saw this Savoiardi biscuit fingers and I fired up google on my phone for easy tiramisu recipe. And started to pick up my ingredients. You don't a lot of complicated ingredient and also don't to bake (I don't have oven yet), just chill in the fridge and we will get this romantically delicious pick-me-up. And today I will try to whip up my own tiramisu. No coffee liquor thou, and I'm going to add extra expresso. 

Will post some more pictures when I'm done. 

Done and sitting in the fridge. It's quite easy but I didn't make enough coffee so I have to make a few rounds of coffee. I'm dying to know how it tastes.

It's a success. Virgin tiramisu, I bet with liquor will be better. 

Will definitely make this during parties. 

Recipe from Gorden Ramsey's easy tiramisu recipe. Worth a try, it's really easy and it was my first attempt.

http://www.thegordonramsayblog.com/recipes/gordon-ramsays-easy-tiramisu/

 

Mail boxes

This is where I always mail my stuff. I threw in 4-5 pieces of pretty mail every week. Highest record being 11 mails altogether. Yes, this year I have been a good snailmailer, but not a good blogger.

Postal rate has gone up crazily last week. But nothing will stop me from writing and writing and writing. 

Because it always... ALWAYS made my day when I came home to a pile of these. ❤ 

Stamped It

I am home for Chinese New Year, 1 week holiday starting today. And it's time to dig my old stuff hiding in my old bedroom. It's always a surprise what I can find. It's a good thing that I am a collector since I was a kid and now I am having such a good time reminiscing my chilhood/teens memory and hobbies.

And look what I found this time.

RUBBER STAMPS!!!!

It's not a large collection, probably about 20 pieces of them (some mounted on wood, some unmounted) and this is just part of it. I bought most of the stamps, and a few are swap item from penpals and swappers. Some stamps are hardly use and some still NEW!
And obviously I am fan of butterfly stamps. :p

Today, I gave them a very good purpose of being beautiful rubber stamps and started to stamp them on envelopes.

so, is this what you call mail art? :)

Road Trip

3/Feb : Me and BF went on a short road trip to Genting Highland, the only mountain resort with a theme park and casino in Malaysia.The last time I was here was 3 years go. It's only a 45mins drive.

It's 14 degree C here, it was so misty and windy. Definitely too cold for my liking. I was forcing a smile there. :/

round and round we go

BF went out to watch football, I was alone in hotel room. but it's ok, I brought some stationery, postcards and letter to write. But before I can finish a letter he went back to the hotel room with sulky face, apparently couldn't find any nice spot to watch football.

I never thought I will buy anything here because everything is super expensive (especially food), but Tangs is having their warehouse sales here and everything is 70% off. And Vincci is also having sales, so well...2 pairs of shoes are going home with me.

And then I found this cute gift shop, with a lot of super adorable little trinkets and stuff, so some cute Rilakkuma magnets for my pen pal and a set of cute rubber stamps are following me back home too.

A Handmade Morning and Good Mail Night

It has been a productive handmade morning. Started my day with a cup of coffee as usual, check on Postcrossing and scroll on Instagram pictures, and then made these cards this morning and send them out for Postcrossing Round Robin. It's fun to cut, arrange and paste. I always enjoyed collage art (but I am not into scrapbooking).

And tonight I need to finish my Travelling Notebook and send it out this week. It has been overdue for too long. >_<

handmade cards, off they go

It's good to be productive in the morning, felt energetic and went to shop, processed a hell lot of online orders (both local and Etsy) and came home really late. I will be home alone for 4 days (BF on business trip) and just now when I checked my mailbox, I was greeted with a lot of magical smiles and glitters and confetti. 10 postcards, 1 letter from Weronica (Sweden) and 4 bank letters (boo). How I hope everyday is like today. Well, I just have to send out more :)

 a good mail day

Postcrossing Round Robin

This is to keep track all the Round Robin that I joined at Postcrossing Forum

Dec 2012
Art RR (Group 320) : Sent
Many Theme RR (Group 816) : Sent
Art RR (Group 311) : Sent
Travelling Notebook RR (Group 3)


Jan 2013
January Alternative RR : Sent 15/Jan
New Asia Meets World (Group 131) : Sent 21/Jan 
Art RR (Group 317) : Sent 21/Jan
Art RR (Group 318) : Sent 21/Jan
Asia Vs Asia RR (Group 35) : Sent 21/Jan
Slavic Country RR (Group 210) : Sent 21/Jan
Handmade RR (Group 99) : Sent 29/Jan
France Vs Other Country RR (Group 356) : Sent 4/Feb
10X10 New RR (Group 96) : Sent 4/Feb

Feb 2013

February Alternative RR : Sent all 6/Feb
Handmade RR (Group 87) : Sent 8/Feb
Art RR (Group 305)
Pen Pal RR (Group 198)
Handmade Postcard RR (Group 100)
Handmade Postcard RR (Group 102)
Many Theme RR (Group 932)

No Mail Day

It has been two days without mail. There is a lot of national holiday lately, yesterday and next Monday. I thought Mr. Postman will bring me something but empty mailbox. :( There will be no mail for me until next Tuesday. Hopefully by then it will accumulate a lot of surprises for me.

The Snail Mail Project

Clockwise from left: Outgoing mail(handmade envelopes), new postcards I bought for postcrossing and a happy mail from The Netherland.

One of the thing I want to accomplish in 2013 is to relive my old hobby, which is snail mailing. Since Dec 2012, I have been looking for (and found) penpals in the world wide web. I thought this will be a forgotten hobby, buts surprisingly, many are still very active in the age old snail mail. I wrote more than 10 introductory first letters out to snail mailer I followed on Instagram, and also made some pen pal call out thread in Postcrossing, and sign up on Interpals. And one month passed, finally, other than postcards, my mailbox is swarming with really sweet and entertaining letters. To my BF, this seems like very childish and old school way of 'networking' when we have Facebook and Twitter, but in fact, it is the social media that inspired me to get back on the snail mailing bandwagon. I was surfing Instagram for inspiring pictures (an Instagram addict I am), and I found a bunch of snail mail related pictures. Search for #penpal or #snailmail and you will be greeted into the beautiful and colourful world of snail mailing.

When I was much younger, I was an avid snail mailer, digging stationery shops for beautiful letter pads and stickersheets for my own collection and also for my penpals. When I was back at my hometown 2 months ago, I dug out a lot of treasures. I spent hours ogling at them cuties.

a small part of my collection, most of them bought from Living Cabin and Diddl letterpad from my Germany pen pal, Janni.

Back in those days, there is not much 3D of puffy stickers. and stickersheets are soooo cheap. 80sens for a long strip of cute stickers. And now, I visited a few stationery/book shops and there is not much variety and a lot of puffy stickers which is very expensive, RM3.90 for a sheet with not many pieces in it. And Living Cabin has become so boring and nothing cute to explore anymore.

And my proud stamp collection. I have HUGE collection, 15 large albums and 3 boxes of unsorted stamps.

Today is national holiday, I can't wait for tomorrow to check on the mailbox again! ^_^

Celebrating

Decoration at my shop (I'm proud with my ribbon rack behind)

Here in Malaysia, all the Chinese are in the mood of Lunar New Year celebration (which is on 10 and 11th of February) and my branches in my shop blooms with pink plum flowers (I did a 2 minutes Google search for the name of this flower). I didn't do much with Chinese decoration in my shop because I not into red and I think Chinese New Year songs are too loud. The shop next door keep blasting CNY songs (well, better than them keep looping the Gangnam song over and over again). I am happy and couldn't wait for the holiday to come, even though I celebrate Chinese New Year every year, but the mood is too loud and funky for my liking. I am more into Chrismasy feeling, Michael Buble and Diana Krall Christmas songs playing all day long. I hope someone can make jazzy Chinese New Year song, is there any?