Letter Writing Revolution - Because opening your mailbox should be fun!

While the concept of letter writing is not new by any means, my idea for a Letter Writing Revolution is. Brand new, in fact. I literally just thought of it. I knew I needed to write a post about it before it got pushed to the backburner!

A friend of mine recently posted on her Facebook that she's looking to write more letters to friends. I responded and got a lovely card in the mail shortly after. It was so exciting to find a hand written letter in the mailbox just for me! I also had been wanting to write letters to my sister-in-law for fun and while  writing those two letters today, the idea came to me.

So today, Tuesday, October 8, 2013 I am issuing into effect, my very own Letter Writing Revolution and I want all of YOU to join me! 

I had tons of pen pals as a kid (thanks Tiger Beat magazine!) and loved it. It was so cool to write to a girl my age over in Spain, Italy or California. My mom had pen pals when she was a kid too so it was cool to take on the same hobby. As I grew older, the letters eventually stopped. Busier school and social lives I'm sure were the causes but also, the internet. Instant messaging (AIM anyone?) took over. Especially if you were cool enough to have a screen name like xXxGothGirlxXx. 

IMs made way for chat rooms and eventually LiveJournal and Xanga. From those spawned MySpace and now we have Facebook. Not to mention 50 other social media sites that no one has time for. 

Now don't get me wrong, I think Facebook and other social media can be an incredible tool! It can connect long lost friends or family members or reconnect old high school friends. It's especially a valuable tool for bloggers like myself. 

Yet, Facebook has a down side. It has us more connected than ever before and somehow completely disconnected. Rather than call someone and see how they've been, you can simply "like" their status about a new job or a delicious lunch. 

I think we need to REALLY reconnect with people by handwriting letters to them. 

Let's do this together and start a Letter Writing Revolution! 

I don't want to bog this down with "rules" but if you'd like to join me on this, comment below. To make this awesome, feel free to share across the internet! Yes, we're going to use social media to our advantage! It's quick and effective. Share this post through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, or Google+...or all of the above. Let's make this a big, beautiful movement. Use the hashtag (oh boy I hate hashtags but let's do this!) #LetterWritingRevolution to help organize our progress! 

I'm going to share on my personal Facebook page with my friends and family to find more people to write to. I'm open to write to anyone! New friends, old friends, strangers, family members, bloggers, soldiers, children and people all across the globe! 

Feel free to write postcards instead. Start small if you have to. I also encourage you to get involved with PostCrossing! It's an awesome organization that basically keeps track of postcard penpals. I wrote a little about it here. 

What are you waiting for? Dust off the envelopes, grab a pen and start writing! Let's make this so huge and fabulous that the USPS is taken by surprise! 

May your hand not cramp until the 2nd page (or paragraph. I know, it's been a while). 

So tell me, who will you write to first? Who do you think will write back? 

Till next time,

Catherine

Good Mail Day

Such a nice sight to see when I opened my little mailbox today!  Two new postcards from Postcrossing and a full size freebie of Hill's Science Diet Veggie Chips dog treats!

I love freebies and when I signed up for this I didn't expect a full sized bag! Science Diet treats aren't cheap! Needless to say, the pups love them! Sweet potatoes and carrots are two of their favorite veggies! I'm not sure where I first heard about the giveaway but it was probably either Hip2Save or FabuLESSlyFrugal. 

My Postcrossing postcards were from Germany and China. So cool! I need to send more soon. If you're not familiar with it, Postcrossing is kind of like simplified pen pals. Remember back when you were 11 and had a pen pal in Montana that you found in the Tiger Beat magazine? Don't lie...you did. 

My postcard from Germany. The sender lives along the Rhine River in a small town. The postcard is of old Berlin.

This odd postcard is from China. The sender wrote that I have three wishes from the lamp of God. The "lamp of God" kind of scares me a bit!! I'm not sure what's worse, it's lips or it's "tail" or it's gigantic belly button. Why on earth is it holding an umbrella with it's proper pinky out? So many questions. 

Anyways.

Postcrossing is just sending postcards but you register them online and you can see a visual map of where your cards have gone, and where ones you have received have come from. It's really cool! You should check it out! Plus, you can specify whether or not you'd like to continue communicating and become pen pals with your postcard sender/recipient. So far I have sent 5 postcards, received 3 and am continuing correspondance with my first postcard recipient from Germany! It's really cool, I'm enjoying it so far!

Did you ever have pen pals? Where was the furthest your letters traveled? I used to have pen pals in Italy and Spain! I also had ones in the United States as well. 

Till next time,

Catherine