Incoming mail 27.-31.1.

 Chinese New Year card from my Singaporean friend.

 I love this fatty horse :D

From a Japanese penpal. She sent me a red pocket, candy, a photograph, stickers and a letter.

Lastly, this packet arrived today. My Korean friend sent me a long letter, my favorite band's new album and cookies.

Calorie Balance cookies. Fruit and cheese flavors. They can be eaten as a substitute for a full meal. She told they're delicious when dipped with milk. I am yet to try them though. 

Giveaway winner!

Thank you everyone who participated in my giveaway! The winner has been chosen and this time the lucky one is 11. Pipo Pää! Congratulations! I'll email you shortly, please reply me as soon as possible :)

January Outgoing Mail

 I sent a Moomin card, Moomin stickers, Moomin priority labels and masking tape samples as a thank you to the Chinese girl who sent me the Chinese New Year FDC and stamp I showed a few entries back.

 To a pal in Taiwan. I made the envelope myself of a old Donald Duck magazine(we have a large box full of them!)

 To my Singaporean friend. I sent her a postcard in the envelope. The envelope is made by myself, I'm quite happy how it turned out to be:)

 The stamp I used. I simply love all the new stamps that were released this January and these teddy stamps are my favorites! I just couldn't help purchasing the new stamps when I saw them although I had promised myself to not to buy any!

This parcel didn't travel far, I sent it to Emma in Finland. I sent her the tea bags I wrote about in the entry a few days back. 

Received Christmas cards

I am quite late with this but I guess better late than never right? So here comes the Christmas cards I received this year. I totally did not expect to receive this many cards because I didn't participate in any Xmas card swaps on Swap-bot, like I did the previous year. My very lovely penpals and swap friends sent me these cards! I feel that the Xmas card is more personal and I appreciate it more if it is sent by my friend than a random swapper I don't even know. So I could say I am very pleased with my Christmas cards this(or actually already last) year >w<

Shaped card from China

 Happy New Year card + stamps from a Japanese penpal.

Happy New Year card from my Korean friend when she visited Japan.

Totoro in Christmas mood from China

From Finland!

Christmas card and stamp from the same Japanese pal as the previous New Year card.

I got this from my Taiwanese friend and it must be the most special card I received! This is the front side of the card.

This is how the card looks fully opened!

Inside. It's like an envelope but not envelope:D

Self-made card from a Brit living in Japan.

China

Another shaped card from China

Greeting card from Hong Kong.

Another greeting card from Hong Kong

From U.K.

This is a card I mailed to myself >w<

I sent it to myself because I wanted to receive the special Xmas postmark.

These two cards came in an envelope from the same Chinese girl.

From Singapore.

Again from China.

Teepussit etsivät juojaansa

Mulla on tämän verran kertynyt maailmalta teepusseja oman lipaston kätköön. Valitettavasti en pidä teestä sitten yhtään, monesti oon maistellut mulle lähetettyjä juomia, mutta viemäriinhän ne loppupelissä tulee kaadettua aina. Siivouksen lomassa ajattelin, että mitä turhaa mä näitä alan jemmaamaan, kun en tuu kuitenkaan ikinä juomaan niitä. Roskiinkaan ei viitsisi heittää, joten ajattelin kysäistä täällä blogin puolella josko täällä olisi joku teenjuoja joka haluaisi ottaa vastaan nämä? Teet ovat Alankomaista, Taiwanista ja Japanista ja siinä on niin vihreää- kuin mustaakin teetä. Olen saanut näitä viime kesän ja loppuvuoden aikana. Parissa pussissa lukee parasta ennen -päiväys(helmi- ja maaliskuussa), mutta muissa ei ole mitään merkintää. En tiedä miten nopsaan teet menevät huonoksi vai menevätkö ollenkaan, mutta luulen näiden olevan vielä ihan juotavissa? Lähettäisin nämä mielelläni jollekulle eteenpäin, joten jos kiinnostaa, niin voit lähettää minulle spostia: satsumaimo94[at]gmail.com. Lähettäisin nämä kaikki siis kerralla yhdelle henkilölle, enkä ala kovin mielelläni valikoimaan mitä lähetän ja mitä en, vaan kaikki lähtee samalla kerralla uuteen kotiin:)

Kiitos kaikille, jotka ottivat minuun yhteyttä! Nyt on teepusseille löydetty uusi koti!:)

Incoming mail 13-17.1.

Mail I received last week:

From a penpal in the US. 

The year of horse goodies from two of my swap partners in China and Hong Kong. The Chinese girl sent the First Day Cover, Horse stamp, Xmas card and masking tape samples. From HongKong I got that Horse card! 

Close picture of the card. I had to  tear the card open and inside it was the message!

Close picture of the Chinese Horse stamp.

A better picture of the cute Xmas card and masking tape samples she sent me >w<

 On Thursday I received all these from my penpal in Taiwan! 

 These must be the cutest donuts I've ever seen !! 

 Panda memo sheets.

Taiwanese Red Pockets. During Chinese New Year, parents give children red pockets that contains money!

Lastly a letter from my Finnish penpal :-) 

Two Letters

Two letters from two new penpals. I got to know them on Facebook. We love the same boy band so we started penpalling :) I've said I wouldn't swap as much as last year and I've even stopped writing with a couple of pals due to the increased postage(also most of the pals I dropped didn't write me frequently plus I didn't feel any kind of 'click' with them and the letters felt really one-sided- me being the more active and interested party. So I'd have dropped them sooner or later anyway (*T▽T*) )

I couldn't help but start to write with these two girls, cuz I don't have any friends who share the love for my fave group with me!

 First letter from my new Korean pal. I sent her quite a long first letter, so I was disappointed to get back only one paged letter. She didn't really tell me anything about herself and she mainly replied my questions and that's it. Her English is pretty good though, so I doubt language barrier is the problem with her..

From my new Hong Kongese penpal. She is over a decade older than me, but it didn't stop us from writing with each other! I sent her a long first letter and I was so very surprisingly pleased to get a long reply from her! Although the age gap between us is quite big, we have a lot in common and she's very nice :) 

How much does the age difference matter to you with your penpals? Do you only seek people who are around the same age as you, or would you care less about the other party's age? When I was younger(15-16) I only wanted to write with people the same age as me(14-18yrs old) But as years have passed, I noticed the age doesn't matter at all. If we have things in common and we 'click' why care about something so minor like age? Only thing I am a little wary sometimes is much younger people than me, though. Often a lot younger person is still in a very different stage of life than me, so it would be hard to understand each other. Plus younger people's English might not be as advanced yet. Ability to communicate well in English is very important to me what comes to penpals. I know my English is not perfect either but at least I can express myself and my feelings  comfortably and that's the most important thing. To go back to the original topic; I have two significantly older pals than me, one being the new pal from Hong Kong and the other is a Japanese woman- she's a house wife! 

Long Time No Postcrossing

Today I got an uncontrollable urge to send a few cards via Postcrossing! I've mentioned here on my blog more than once that I am not a big fan of Postcrossing as I always receive crappy cards there. But I guess after joining a Postcrossing group on FB yesterday I got a little of Postcrossing excitement back to me. Plus I've had so many private swaps with Asians and for now I wish to receive/send cards from/to other continents too!! So here I am, requesting new addresses and writing postcards. I also updated my profile information and put a tick in the "Check if you would like to (also) send and receive postcards to and from your own country" section. I feel kinda excited that I now have the change to send and receive cards from Finland too! Before I didn't like the thought of sending/receiving cards within Finland but now I can't wait it :)

 This card was a private swap and I sent it to a Chinese girl.

 This card is also going to China. I wrote her address in Chinese so I hope the card will reach her safe and sound :D She told in her profile that she likes cards with people and art so I thought this Ruudolf Koivu's card was suitable for her.

 To Czech Republic. She didn't told about her postcard preferences but she said "I want to receive hugs and kisses from all over the world" so I sent her the hugging teddies. 

 To Ukraine. Once again, she didn't really have any postcard wishes.

 To United States. He didn't have any wishes either but he wrote he likes nature so I picked him this snowy Finland card and attached in the card the Nuuksion Kansallispuisto stamp.

 To Ukraine and it was quite hard to pick a card for her. She wrote in her profile that she wants to receive mineral cards and history cards. I didn't have any cards that would suit her preferences, so I chose this card of a Russian lady. It was the closest to history I had :D On the back side of the card reads something in Russian and the year 1889. I guess the painting is from the year 1889. I have no idea whether the receiver will like my card choice or not:D

Lastly a picture of the mess I created in so little time :D Now I have 5 cards travelling out of 7. I think I'll send two more cards later \^0^/