Tuesday, January 31, 2012

P&L: 1/30 and #14: Finish my hockey spreadsheet

I received a postcard and a letter today.

Postcard from Hawaii! Just last night I was telling my husband how much I wanted a postcard from Hawaii, but hadn't yet found anybody from there to swap with. And then this arrived today as an official Postcrossing card.

I also received a letter from Kristel, my pen pal in Belgium.


My postcard wall now:




I spent $25 today sending packages out to six different countries. I was expecting it to cost quite a bit more since I was sending out so much. The last time I had to mail something to another country, I took it to FedEx and was told that it would cost around $130 if I went through them. The nice lady at the FedEx office offered to process the package as a USPS package instead, which ended up costing only $10. Uhh yeah, I'd much rather spend $10 rather than $130!


#14: Finish my hockey spreadsheet

Since 2010, I've been working on collecting NHL pucks. Every time I go to a game, a buy the competition puck that features my team (GO BLUES!) vs whichever team they're playing that night. I also collect a puck for each holiday. My collection so far:


I keep track of all the teams, when they're playing, and if I have a puck on a spreadsheet. Still to come for the 2011-2012 season: Bruins (Feb 22) and Ducks (Mar 8)

Monday, January 30, 2012

P&L: 1/30... and a 101 in 1001 update!

Firstly...



I reached my goal weight! All that dieting and exercising has paid off. Now it's all maintenance from here on. I had put on a bit of pudge after marrying last September and got concerned about having a belly while wearing a bikini this summer. Yes, I admit, my goal to get healthy was purely based on a shallow reason! :) It was definitely worth it! Even my husband has noticed that I can carry heavy items much easier and that I no longer get winded walking up the stairs in our apartment.


I've also decided to edit one of my goals in the 101 in 1001 project. Originally for #15 I had "See 10 classic movies I've never seen". Problem is, I hate classic movies. They bore me to tears. And the point of the project is to accomplish things that are do-able. I came to realize that this wasn't. So I've decided to edit it to make it more to my liking. There are several Disney movies that I either haven't seen and have always wanted to and others that I know I've seen but don't remember. So I'm changing that goal to "See 10 Disney movies I've never seen/don't remember". Much more manageable!


Now for postcards and letters. I received two postcards and one letter today.

From a Postcrosser in Singapore:


From my postcard pal Anna in Poland. So many of the cats on these postcards remind me of my Roscoe!


A letter from my Polish pen pal Weronika. I just love her stationery!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Postcards: 1/23 - 1/28

I had a very rough week this week, so I haven't been updating. I lost my puppy on Tuesday. I take solace in the fact that she was 17 and was very much loved the entirety of her life. Kisses for my baby girl.

Suzi: 1994-2012






In the meantime, I received 21 postcards last week.

January 23:


Washington/Japan:


Washington/Finland/Germany:




January 24:


California/Taiwan/Italy:




January 25:


Both from Michigan:




January 26:


Both from Belarus:




January 27:


Finland/Ukraine/Singapore:
(The Finnish dog card is a list of all the ways a dog is better than a man. My husband didn't like that card much!)




January 28:


Portland/Wisconsin/Seattle:


Italy/Holland/Canada:

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Postcards: 1/20 & 1/21

I've been participating in a lot of tags on Postcrossing lately, which has meant I've been getting lots of mail! PC's tagging has proved to be very addicting! There are several topics, such as the Disney tag, Close Your Eyes tag, USA to Europe tag, etc. Basically you "tag" the person before you and you send them a postcard based on whatever the topic is. Then someone else will "tag" you and send you a card. Most of the cards I've received in the past few days have been from tags.

January 20:

I received this one from Dawn, who I met over at TheKnot.com when I was planning my wedding. Thank you Dawn!

Lori from California sent this adorable photo of her dog.

Natasha from Belgium tagged me in the Disney Request tag. One of my requests was Aladdin!

Maija from Finland tagged me in the Churches tag. She got this postcard when she vacationed in Scotland last year.

This is one comes from Ohio and is from the Marilyn Monroe tag. I'm thinking it's from her early years. I think she looks much better natural!


January 21:

Marlous from Holland sent this as an official Postcrossing card.

Sunny from Illinois traveled through Iowa on her way to Nebraska and picked up this postcard. I think Illinois can compete with Iowa when it comes to being "The Tall Corn State"!

Jeanne from Australia sent this neat photo her photographer friend took. Pretty talented!

I participated in an Eyes Closed tag, which is pretty self-explanatory. Tag someone, close your eyes, pull a postcard out of your pile, and send it to the person you tagged. Katie from Reno sent me this strange card. Judging from the caption on the back, it's from a cartoon. That's the interesting thing about this type of tag... you never know what you're going to get!

This hockey-themed card comes from Tam in British Columbia, Canada. It was part of the Boring Card tag. I happen to like the card, since I'm such a big hockey fan! She was even kind enough to include a Vancouver Canucks sticker on the back. My husband wasn't very pleased with that, since this is a strictly St. Louis Blues household! :)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Postcards and letters: 1/17 - 1/19

I've been sick for the past few days and have been a little too drugged out to keep up with my blogging. I'm finally feeling better so figured I'd update. :)


From January 17:
I received this funny postcard through Postcrossing from Alena in the Czech Republic. The kitty in the photos looks just like Roscoe!


From January 18:
My pen pal Tiago from Portugal sent me a letter!



January 19:
Today I received a package from Finland and a postcard. This postcard comes from Emily in Michigan:

I had gotten in touch with Laura from Finland through Postcrossing and discovered that we both love hockey. I sent her the puck on the right since she's a Minnesota Wild fan. The puck on the left comes from the latest game I went to, that I'm adding to my collection for the 1001 in 101 project.

In return, Laura sent me the following puck and postcard. She took the photo on the postcard herself, of her favorite Finnish hockey team. The words on the puck mean "Hockey for everyone - 80 years" from when the Finnish Ice Hockey Association turned 80 years old.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Postcards: 1/14

I received three postcards today from fellow Post Crossers!

Shira in the Netherlands sent me this one, along with a recipe for apple pie. It's given me some ideas for future dinner parties!

Sabrina from Germany sent me this card. She's vacationing on the Canary Islands, so I'm assuming the photo is of a windmill there. Wish I could be vacationing somewhere tropical right now!

I received my very first postcard from Lithuania. Daiva sent a photo of her cat, who looks just like my Roscoe. What a sweet little face! According to Google Translator, the words on the front mean "the cutest greetings". That's very true!



I am now up to twelve pen pals! That's a little more than I'm comfortable with, but I'm hoping because of the distance the letters have to travel, I'll have time to write to each in a timely manner. Countries I currently need to mail to are Germany, India, China, Russia, France, and England. It's a good thing this is a three day weekend with no mail on Monday! That'll give me enough time to get caught up!


My postcard wall so far: