Like A Mini Christmas :D!!

Look how many packets were waiting for me last Friday when I got home after spending the whole week at my school dorm!

10 packets/letters for me! Definitely a great mail day *u*

(My whole family were wondering those packets, and 3/4 family members sent me text messages during the week: "you have got loads of mail!!" xD)

Let's take a closer look on some of the things~

4 of the packets contained clothes, so I won't be showing them here.

My first card ever from Ohio!! It's also my very first card that I received through Postcrossing ^_^ 

I don't know whether anyone remembers, but I wrote about my first card to Taiwan previously and how it hadn't arrived although it had been such a long time. Well, finally the girl who I sent the card to, registered my card and apologized for being late.  I'm relieved that the card did not get lost during the journey and I'm glad she liked my card I picked for her. 

3 new post stamps from The United States :)

those Hello Kitty stickers I got from Hello Kitty #8 -swap ^_^

10 rolls of Rilakkuma deco-tape =D Okay, I did not intent to buy them but I couldn't resist the cheap prize! 

Lastly, I got those super cute I♥Miffy inks >w< I bought them on Ebay!

WTF!!! Finnish Post Officials!

Okay so I'm rather pissed off at the moment... 

I got this message from my dad:

"---and just wondering why you have sent some letter for Norway from X address(my school dormitory) to Y(my home)...?"

Yeah, that's right! I seriously can't trust the post officials of the town where I'm studying in. This is not the first time when they've messed up with my packages. They're often unfriendly, and unprofessional. I, who are just a regular customer, knows better how to do the job than the actual workers. 

I was wondering how the hell were they able to mix up the addresses and send my letter to the neighbor city, instead to Norway, to the neighbor country... my dad suggested I hadn't written the addresses clearly enough but what do you girls think about this?:

I wrote my penpal's address clearly on the front side. I even decorated the borders of the address with Norwegian flag stickers and wrote "AIR MAIL". Then, the post officer has printed the white postal sticker on the front side too. 

On the back side I wrote my own address in the small area at the bottom of the envelope. I clearly wrote "FROM." 

Although I did all this, the letter did not get to travel more than 50 km. The white postal sticker is always attached on the front side of the envelope, so it should indicate that the address that is below it, is the address where the letter should be sent to, right?! 

Also, the postage can't be a problem, I've sent more heavier letters than this with lesser money. And the post officer weighed the letter at the post office, too.

I just can't come up with any reasons as to why my letter never got to Norway. Do you think my envelope & the addresses are somehow complex? 

I WASTED 1,20 EUROS ON THIS , IT IS A BIG MONEY FOR A STUDENT LIKE ME. I'D HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BUY 5 PACKETS OF NOODLES WITH THAT MONEY! 

this is for you who decided to keep my letter inside the borders of Finland instead of sending it to Norway:  (￣^￣) 凸  (￣^￣) 凸  (￣^￣) 凸

Now I'm trying my luck and re-sending my letter. I made a little changes though; I wrote with big font on the front side "VASTAANOTTAJA"(the receiver) and on the back side next to my address "LÄHETTÄJÄ"(the sender). Just in case if someone is unintelligent and doesn't understand such simple English words as "From." and "To." 

I am now going to send some feedback to the Finnish Post from an unsatisfied customer!

The End. 

Project Postcard~☆

I have set two snail mail themed 'goals' for myself ^-^

(Well maybe these two goals of mine are not exactly "goals", this is more like a list that I upload always when I happen to receive a card from somewhere, it's nice to keep track of the places I get a card from. I am not trying to hoard cards like a crazy maniac =D)

1) I want to collect a state post card from every single state of the United States! 

Search a certain state faster by clicking CTRL F.

1. Alabama  thank you Chandra!

2. Alaska

3. Arizona

4. Arkansas

5. Colorado

6. Connecticut

7. Delaware

8. South Carolina

9. South Dakota

10. Florida

11. Georgia

12. Hawaii 

13. Idaho

14. Illinois 

15. Indiana

16. Iowa 

17. California thank you Jade!

18. Kansas

19.  Kentucky

20. Louisiana thank you Chandra!

21. West Virginia

22. Maine

23. Maryland

24. Massachusetts

25. Michigan

26. Minnesota

27. Missisippi

28. Missouri

29. Montana

30. Nebraska

31. Nevada

32. New Hampshire

33. New Jersey

34. New Mexico

35. New York

36.  Ohio

37. Oklahoma

38. Oregon

39. Pennsylvania

40. North Carolina

41. North Dakota

42. Rhode Island

43. Tennessee

44. Texas

45. Utah

46. Vermont

47. Virginia

48. Washington

49. Wisconsin

50. Wyoming 

8/50 achieved. List last updated 8, June 2013

Collecting started 24, August 2012

I'm not sure whether I missed some states or if there are too much of them =D Please correct me if I have any mistake. I think it will take LOTS of time to collect a card from the every singe state, but with time, I'm sure I am able to do it. :D

Second goal is:

2) collect a card from (almost) every singe country!

Yeah.. I'm sure it'll take hella lot time and effort to receive a card from every single country in the world xD 

And I don't even expect to receive a card from all over this planet cuz I know it's impossible. 

I believe this is going to be a life long project but so what. When my friends go abroad, I'll ask them to send a postcard for me, and when I go to abroad, I'll send a card for myself too haha!  I'm pretty sure I'll receive some awesome cards on Postcrossing as well :)

 I just like postcards so much and I like to watch them since I can see new places & things through them!! 

Search a certain country faster by clicking CTRL F.

List of the countries:

1. Afganistan

2. Netherlands

3. Albania

4. Algeria

5. Andorra

6. Angola

7. Antigua ja Barbuda

8. Arabiemiirikunnat / Arab Emirates

9. Argentiina

10. Armenia

11. Australia

12. Azerbaizan

13. Bahama

14. Bahrain

15. Bangladesh

16. Barbados

17. Belgium

18. Benin

19. Bolivia

20. Bosnia ja Hertsegovina

21. Botswana

22. Brasilia

23. Brunei

24. Bulgaria

25. Burkina Faso

26. Burundi

27. Chile thank you Carla!

28. Costa Rica

29. Djibouti

30. Dominica

31. Dominikaaninen tasavalta

32. Ecuador

33. Egypt / Egypti

34. El Salvador

35. Eritrea

36. Espanja / Spain 

37. South Africa

38. North Korea

39. Etiopia

40. Fidzi

41. Filippiinit / Philippines  thank you Katrina!

42. Gabon

43. Gambia

44. Georgia

45. Ghana

46. Grenada

47. Grölanti / Greenland 

48. Guatemala

49. Guinea

50. Guinea-Bissau

51. Guyana

52. Haiti

53. Honduras

54. Indonesia

55. Intia / India

56. Irak

57. Iran

58. Irlanti / Ireland

59. Islanti / Iceland

60. Israel

61. Italia / Italy

62. Itä-Timor

63. Itävalta / Austria

64. Jamaica

65. Japani / Japan thank you Erika!

66. Jemen

67. Jordania

68. Kamboza

69. Kamerun

70. Canada

71. Kap Verde

72. Kazakstan

73. Kenia

74. Keski-Afrikan tasavalta

75. China

76. Kirgisia

77. Kiribati

78. Kolumbia

79. Komorit

80. Kongon tasavalta 

81. Kosovo

82. Laos

83. Latvia

84. Lesotho

85. Libanon

86. Liberia

87. Libya

88. Liechtenstein

89. Liettua

90. Luxemburg

91. Madagaskar

92. Makedonia

93. Malawi

94. Malediivit

95. Malaysia / Malesia thank you Aarti!

96. Mali

97. Malta

98. Morocco

99. Marhallinsaaret

100. Mauritania

101. Mauritius

102. Mexico

103. Mikronesia

104. Moldova

105. Monaco

106. Mongolia

107. Montenegro

108. Mosambik

109. Myanmar

110. Namibia

111. Nauru

112. Nepal

113. Nicaragua

114. Niger

115. Nigeria

116. Norway

117. Ivory Coast / Norsunluurannikko

118. Oman

119. Pakistan

120. Palau

121. Palestine / Palestiina

122. Panama

123. Papua Uusi-Guinea

124. Paraguay

125. Peru

126. South Korea

127. Portugal Thank you Ana Isabel Morais!

128. Poland / Puola thank you Julia!

129. Päiväntasaajan Guinea

130. Qatar

131. France

132. Romania

133. Ruanda

134. Sweden

135. Saint Kitts ja Nevis

136. Saint Lucia

137. Saint Vincent ja Grenadiinit

138. Germany

139. Salomonsaaret

140. Sambia

141. Samoa

142. San Marino

143. Sao Tome ja Principe

144. Saudi-Arabia

145. Senegal

146. Serbia

147. Seychellit

148. Sierra Leone

149. Singapore thank you Katrina!

150. Slovakia

151. Slovenia

152. Somalia

153. Sri Lanka

154. Sudan

155. Finland

156. Suriname

157. Switzerland / Sveitsi

158. Swazimaa

159. Syria / Syyria

160. Tadzikistan

161. Taiwan

162. Tansania

163. Denmark

164. Thailand

165. Togo

166. Tonga

167. Trinidad ja Tobago

168. Tsad

167. Tsekki

168. Tunisia 

169. Turkey

170. Turkmenistan

171. Tuvalu

172. Uganda

173.  Hungarian / Ukraina

174. Unkari

175. Uruguay

176. New Zealand

177. Uzbekistan

178.  Belarus / Valko-Venäjä

179. Vanuatu

180. Vatikaanivaltio / Vatican City

181. Venezuela

182. Russia

183. Vietnam

184. Estonia

185. United Kingdom thank you Rosa!

186. United States

187. Zimbabwe

36/187 achieved. List last updated 6, July 2013

Collecting started 24, August 2012

If you want to help me to achieve my goals and send me a card, please leave a comment or mail me at satsumaimo94[at]gmail[dot]com

In exchange I'll send you a card from Finland ^0^!!

Self-made envelopes

I sent this for my penpal Emily last week. The paper is from a very old Russian novel book. =D I tried to make the envelope look like "vintage" or somehow old style. 

And this one is for Hayes in Hong Kong. I cut the picture off magazine. It is paradise-themed envelope!!=D

A mysterious packet =D

Today when I woke up, this envelope was waiting for me. I had no idea why it had arrived to me ! 

When I opened the envelope, there were this bag:

(the bag itself should have rang some bells, but no.)

I thought it's for the Hello Kitty-swap because I saw a piece of Hello Kitty inside the bag.

But it wasn't for the HK swap... 

My second thought was "it must be for the Snail Mail Kit that I joined recently!" <--- But it couldn't be possible because the partners were assigned only few days ago!

This is what were inside of the bag:

Letter paper, envelopes, stickers, memo sheets.... Sooo much nice cute stuff >w<

Then I saw this note. The packet was the Kawaii Lucky Bag that Moni promised to send me!!=D 

Actually she told me a few days before the packet arrived, that she had sent it, but I didn't remember it anymore(maybe because it was morning so I was still half asleep :D) 

Anyway, I like the Lucky Bag alot, thank you Moni! 

(it is supposed to look like Hello Kitty =D)

This is my Hello Kitty-lucky bag that I promised to send for Christine. I'll send it as soon as possible! Honestly her address was too hard to write, I re-wrote it like three times until all the letters were in the right places =D

Lucky Bag: the idea of LB is to offer several items(eg. Hello Kitty, kawaii, teabags, snail mail kit,,,..) and the person who wants one of them, will tag you and you'll send her the items in a bag, and then she will offer something to someone else and so on! :) 

Monday incoming mail + postcard~

I was at my friend's place from Friday to Monday and today when I finally returned home, there were super nice letters waiting for me >w<

Three letters!! 

The blue envelope is from Australia, and it contains a lot of stickers since it is for the  "Not Your Normal Sticker Swap".

She also sent me as a extra some Artist Trading Card stuff :)

Also, this was my first time to receive letter from Australia and so I got my first Australian stamp too!

Second letter is from my penpal Emily from U.S.A. Look at her beautiful envelope :) (It's the one in the middle)

She also sent me two post cards!! I love them thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis much xD Thank you so much, Emily !

They are old style! And they became my second favorite post cards immediately. My very favorite post card is this one:

It is a traditional Chinese Happy New Year-card that I received from Hong Kong from my penpal a couple of years ago. 

Anyway, the last letter is from my Norwegian penpal Ann. She did not send a traditional letter on paper, but a card!

Some letters and postcards

These arrived at the beginning of August. From Katy from U.S.A and from Corinna from Germany. It was first time ever to receive post from Germany and I was so happy :) The letter came to me because I joined "Send a Letter to Receive Letter" -swap. 

cute picture that Katy had drew on the backside of the envelope :3

Some stamps:

That stamp was on an envelope that arrived from The States, but the stamp says "Belgique" I suppose it means Belgium? 

And this the card I sent to Germany because of Postcrossing. 

haha isn't it cool?! xD 

I think I've mentioned earlier that I sent my first card to Taiwan. It has been 27 days when I received the address, and the card has been travelling at least 25 days(because I couldn't send the postcard immediately after requesting the address). I'm a bit worried whether the card has arrived to Taiwan safely?? I checked the profile of the girl I sent the card to, and it seems that she hasn't logged in for a while(she was last seen 27 days ago -- the day I got her address) Maybe she has forgotten about Postcrossing and thus hasn't registered my card yet? I'm very sad ! So I requested another address because I also want to receive a postcard haha~! I hope my card will find its way to the right place this time, and it will be registered soon :) Fortunately Germany is not far away so maybe my card will arrive only in few days!!=) 

Recently made + received Artist Trading Cards

So I've been trying to practice making ATCs and this is the result:

The card on left is The king of Joseon (I have a little obsession of Joseon/Korean history and this is the result :D)

The card on right is a Japanese dragon (I did not draw it myself, I only colored it  and added bling bling on the edges -u-)

And  this is Hello Kitty card. I used blue nail polish for the background and the Hello Kitty itself is a tattoo! However the card looks too empty, I don't know what I should add, any tips?

This is for Newbie and non artist ATC -swap. I am not sure whether this card is good enough...I tried to make "old-style flower", as a background I used my self-made old-looking paper, flower made of news paper. maybe it looks too simple and weird-looking... :( Fortunately it is an ATC swap for newbies so I don't have to worry too much that my partner is expecting too much of me, or will be angry for not receiving a masterpiece. 

In the photo is what my own partner sent for me; an adorable ATC and as an extra some beautiful papers ^_^

From Swap to Swap

Recently I've joined some swaps ! 

This is for Not your normal sticker swap, which I'm currently hosting ^_^

I got a lil bit excited and covered the whole envelope with stickers =D 

Btw, I'm so happy that my first ever swap was 6th popular on Swap-pot!!!!!

wohoo!! 

Hosting it has been so much fun for me, and I'll re-host it again later this or next month.

*Now moving onto another swap ---->*

This is for Asian Junk -swap. The idea of this swap was to send some Asian related pictures, stamps, texts, candy wraps,,,etc. 

I made the envelope myself. Used a sushi-related article that I found on a magazine. It would have been even better if the text were in Japanese instead of Finnish, but nevertheless I like the colors. I covered it with sticky backed plastic because the magazine paper itself was pretty flimsy, and I was afraid it would be ruined during the journey to its destination. Knowing me I almost ruined the whole envelope with the contact paper, but in the end it turned out ok. =)

The last one is for Hello Kitty swap. I made also this envelope by myself ^0^ 

I still must buy one final thing for the swap so I couldn't seal the envelope yet. 

Sticker Bags

Today I received sticker bags for Sticker Bags -swap. 

Got four sticker bags.

And so much stickers :D The stickers aren't really to my liking, but I'll take out & put in some stickers and pass the bags on shortly.

Well this was my first time to receive sticker bags, and it was also my first time to make sticker bags myself. The bags I received were very simple; the makers had just taken a plain envelope, written her address etc, put some stickers and sent it. On the other hand, I didn't know the bags can be that 'boring' looking thus I spent a lot of time making my own bags and I put in some of my best stickers. So I won't lie and say I wasn't a little disappointed in these bags. But I won't blame Terrie who sent the bags for me cuz she hadn't made the bags. :) It was still nice to receive them and I'm looking forward to getting(and making) more them in the future!

incoming and outgoing mail + a cool Samsung campaign!!

Last week I sent this letter to HongKong. The envelope is special because I fold it myself ^0^ I think it turned out pretty good considering it was my first time trying to make that kind of origami :)

And then there are two letters to U.S. One to my penpal Emily and another one is for ATC swap :) I already sent the letter to Emily, but the letter for the swap I couldn't sent yet since I ran out of money D:  Recently I've joined quite many swaps and already bought stuff for them(and for myself lol) happily, but this week I noticed that I did not remember to save money for the postage!! *stupid* Fortunately I'll have a pay day soon ^0^

Today I got my very first letter from Norway from Ann!! I was amazed it arrived to Finland only in two days!

The stamp :)

She also sent me some very beautiful photos of Norway that she has taken herself. I was so glad to receive them because I love to see pictures from other countries, not only those typical tourist pictures :) 

My reply to Ann. Can't sent it before 10th due to money problems lol. 

These are cards that I sent for free HERE to my family members and for myself. The meme card for my brother, the landscape cards for my parents(I took the pictures last year in Turkey) and the handsome(xD) boy for myself  (*´▽｀*) He is my favorite character from my favorite drama :'D I also sent another card for my youngest brother, but for some reason it did not arrive at the same time with those cards. 

I recommend to send cards through that site, it is an Olympics campaign of Samsung to send cards for free to friends. You don't have to own a Samsung phone to use the program! It is very nice! It's open until 31th of August!