The Joy of Penpalling and Just a Few Tidbits I Have Received...

 and some of the little things I am sending back.

A couple of months ago I answered a little advertisement I received when I bought some stationery from La Papierre on Etsy at the end of 2019 when I was going to encourage everyone in the family to start keeping in touch by letter.

Let me back up... I have always loved little letters, the ATC swaps and everything else I have done in the past decade probably stems from that love of handwritten notes that appear like magic in your mailbox. For me there is a balance between being drowned in stuff in an envelope and being gifted little bitty things. Almost always my favorites have been the little things I was allowed to share back out with messages or the little things with quotes that could become new art to be shared out by me.

So I started that rainbow journal project and included information about it to strangers on Postcrossing as well as in my bio information on the LEP group I joined. Quickly, Postcrossing is an amazing and HUGE group that sends postcards around the world to each other by random assignment, so you could send anywhere and receive from anywhere. It's fun and amazing and most people aren't so specific in their list of types of postcards that you feel stuck. (I'll be honest, I'm kind of an asshat and go off-request when they're so specific that they have like 2 particular types they want, and I'm new... so I can only guess the old-timers are the same way. Send something fun and write something friendly and let them cope and deal.) And the LEP - League of Extraordinary Penpals is an awesome group of people on Facebook behind a very minimal pay wall to prevent the assholes and trolls - I paid like $3 a month for a whole year.

I am filling these journals and have decided I'm not going to put penpal stuff in the journals anymore, just the postcards. I'll keep the letters in a set of disc journals and make them fun covers out of the little things I have gotten IN the letters in each disc journal. I'll share these once I know who my regular penpals will be... umm... 

Here are just a few of the piles of goodness I have received in my penpal letters

I'm telling you all of this to say THIS... there is something timeless to sending a letter or receiving one. Someone wrote in their own hand, and maybe did or maybe didn't source little bits and pieces of things to share with you. Sometimes this is only the lovely penmanship and delicate paper carefully penned with a fountain pen, and sometimes this is a ridiculously colorful painted piece of paper folded around a handful of sparkly fun confetti and stickers and goodies from their collection to yours.

All of the links will work, you can check into these groups. Postcrossing is cheap (except international postcard stamps are international letter stamps, so $1.30 each) and the LEP is only $36 for a whole year plus the cost of stamps and has monthly or quarterly prices as well. Remember, the money is actually ALL about the fact that it filters out the people who might harass and be immune to the rules of a group of hundreds of people who are protected by an expectation of kindness, acceptance and inclusion with really active monitors - so, you don't have to join and if having one place on Facebook to go where you're just a member and safe from the BS, then... come write letters with us.

And yes, for THIS group only I have gone back to Facebook. I ignore the rest and messages and tags. The cesspool of crap and whining and negativity that has become modern life in social media keeps me back and away from there. I didn't miss it and still don't and wont be back. My bookmark bar goes straight to the LEP and I leave again when I'm done there. :P Life is good on Instagram with highly curated content and follows and in my own world of letters, creativity and weekly calls with friends.