New Penpal Mondays!

Is your letterbox a little light these days?
Wishing for a friend from whoknowswhere?

Well then, read on!

I want to implement something new here on SMA called New Penpal Mondays. Every Monday I will post a penpal ad from one of my lovely followers or readers. All you have to do is send me an e-mail at:   eveoftheworld@gmail.com with the following information:

Name:
Age:
E-Mail:
Location:
Blog/Site:
About You:

Small itty bitty tiny print:
* You have to be over the age of 13
* You have to want SNAIL MAIL pals (that is the purpose of this blog, after all!)
* Your about me has to be longer than just one or two sentances
* There's no limit as to how long (but try and be reasonable please)

So, to sum up - Every Monday I will be posting ONE (1) penpal ad. This means YOU will be featured on my blog for one day (don't you feel special? lol) and may get a few e-mails in response.

Tell us about you! Do you swap? Write short or long letters? Love skydiving and urban exploring? Anything at all!

Again, send requests to:   eveoftheworld@gmail.com   
Title it: SMA PENPAL AD

Updates and a great opportunity!

Hey everyone!

I'm sure by now you're wondering what's happened to me and my lovely little blog, so here's a bit of an update for you :)

I started a new medication to help not only with my depression, but my diagnosis of schizophrenia as well. Unfortunately the medication did not work out and I developed a severe "tremor" in my right hand, making it difficult to do much of anything. I'm now going back to my old medication for the holiday season and after that, we might try a new medication altogether.

You will notice the blog has changed as well - I want to brighten it up and make it fit my own personality a little bit more.

Also - if you're a follower of my blog and have your own blog or shop related to snail mail - POST A COMMENT HERE and let me know so that I can link to you or provide you with a square advertisement (for free!) on my blog.

The small print here really isn't that small - you've gotta be related to mail in some way - if you're an Etsy store that sells postage stamp art - that works for me. If you have a snail mail blog, that's perfect - shoot me a message or a comment and I'll put up your information here and we'll get some more people over to your blog or shop.

Hiatus

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am taking a bit of a hiatus from the blog for a while. My friend is going through some extreme stuff, my husband is working again and I find myself being very depressed. Updates have been few and far between, and I apologize to my readers for that.

Please continue to Follow me - I'm not gone forever, I just need a couple weeks to regroup and kick-start my butt.

Depression is a nasty nasty leech.

The Act of Selling Letters

Spurred by a very insightful post over at The Missive Maven, I wanted to comment on the act of selling letters (Maven had seen several on Etsy).

I don't know what drives people to offer something for money that you can get for free (and without a doubt more sincerely, love and friendship) throughout the internet on various website, zines, blogs and so on. You like mail art? Fine. Make a friend who likes it too and exchange original mail art with each other. I guess I just can't wrap my mind around something like that. I mean...I'm on a fixed income. I am on disability and I don't get a whole lot of money monthly, but it has never crossed my mind to sell "letters". Selling art, yes. Selling various crafts I've made, yes. But never selling friendship, which is what this act seems like to me.

I did, for a while, jump on the band wagon of asking for donations to buy stamps (due to my being on a fixed income), but I have since removed it. I don't get to send out much in the way of letters these days, but it seems to be a very sore topic these days, so its best I not have the link up - I didn't mean to offend anyone.

If you want a pen pal, while I may not be in the market - I can push you whole-heartedly in the direction of many people, websites, etc. that are looking to make friends via the mail and who want to [willingly and gladly] swap mail art and other lovely things. Don't pay for it. Make a true friend - I have faith in you!

If you want to see some amazing mail art - check out swap-bot and swap for it! Can't find a swap for it currently? Start your own. Take that first leap into checking out something you're interested in, without monetary compensation.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sandra E. Lambs "Write the Right Words" Review

I was approached (as many were) by the publicist of a new book by Sandra E. Lamb to review her new book “Write the Right Words” and was sent a free copy of the book. I was very excited to have been asked to participate as well as excited at the prospect of reading a new book based on sending snail mail, be it letters or greeting cards.

To be quite honest, though (and I was very unsure of how to approach this review), I was not a fan of the book. There are several reasons for this, which I shall go over throughout this review.

To begin, Sandra’s book was not really aimed at “me”. Different types and styles of books are aimed at different age groups, people with different hobbies, styles of life, income, etc. This book was obviously aimed at the sort of person who does not actively put pen to paper and send it through the postal mail service. This is a book aimed at those of you who have a hard time putting pen to paper, and those of you who only write to friends or family during special occasions (be they happy or sad) and who need a gentle push in the right direction when it comes down to what to say in those brief instances.

I have never been a fan of greeting cards as a whole - they are too short and very rarely is much care put into them. Sandra has tried to help her readers change that and describes (rather adeptly) how to take on those various situations which so many people try to avoid because they just don’t know what to say or how to say it. For me personally, I would rather sit down, make some stationery, write out a heartfelt letter, decorate it, design it, etc. and send it off with care.

If I was the sort of person who lived within mainstream society and attended many weddings, funerals, birthday parties, showers, and various other social engagements, then this book would be exactly what I would need. Her writing and ideas are very Hallmark inspired and I feel it would be a perfect book to pick up and just flip to the section of the book for the particular event that was going on that week and briefly skim through and write down your thoughts mixed with hers.  I do not, however, attend such events. My friends and family do not have birthday parties, through showers, etc and etc. I am comfortable enough in my own writing that if such an event occurred, I would not need a book to flip through to tell me what to say or think of that particular situation – but that is me in particular.

While I applaud Sandra for trying to get the average person back to the post office and away from “hotmail”, it is not a book I would recommend for my readers to go out and buy. I have more faith in you than that – we are not average people, you and I. We know how to put pen to paper and we already know our postmistress by name. However, for those of you who want to start small and are looking for that small push in the right direction, this book might be the ticket you’re looking for. Get away from e-mail and spend the time putting that lovely pen of yours to some beautiful paper and get writing! 

Disgusting Things in the Mail

Afternoon, everyone!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I received a rather disturbing message in my in box today. Apparently someone or someones are sending people used feminine products in the mail. Not only is it disgusting, it's dangerous and obviously rather offensive - but also illegal.

If you or someone you know has received something like this in the mail, talk to your local post office or e-mail them via their website. If you let the USPS or Canada Post (etc.) know, it's the first step to stopping it.

No one deserves to get that in the mail. Help stop mail crime by reporting these issues.

Been a busy little crafter

The last month or two I've been really rather out of it mentally - so as I posted about before, I've been doing a lot of reading, and now to mix things up, I've also been doing a lot of crafting.

^ I wanted something Oscar the Grouch related, so I painted a Sucrets tin that was holding various coins from other countries - so now they're being guarded by the Grouch ;)

^The above is a shelf I picked up from a garage sale for $1 and decided to fix up for my 11 year old brother-in-law who loves Stargate to showcase the clocks he collects. The following are the resulting changes:

^The sides feature chevrons from the Stargate itself - he really liked it!

^ I made antique labels for all my herbs in the kitchen - they turned out awesome!

^ Finally, I made a Bob-omb lamp from Super Mario (Nintendo) for my friend Jeff - it took quite a lot of work, but I love how it turned out and so did he :)