Sneezes Today: 55

^ A gorgeous photo by Roddyjen.

Upon arriving home on Thursday afternoon, C and I both rushed inside (leaving our suitcases at the front door), he to greet the cats, and me to inspect the mail haul. I was hoping there'd be a couple of things when I returned, but it was totally overwhelming. I think I had tears in my eyes at one point, haha. I felt rather sad that I didn't have a camera on hand to photograph it all (we borrowed C's parents' in Tasmania) - my sister had arranged it quite beautifully. I don't know when I'll get around to scanning it all - I should probably spend my time trying to reply to it all in the next month! I just checked and I have 20+ letters to write.

One of the most amazing things I received was a little Christmas wrapped gift box full of the most lovely things from a pen pal, Wendy from Ohio. She gave me so many lovely things, some of my favourites would have to be - a penguin necklace (my favourite animal), a bundle of awesome postcards, a fountain pen and some ink cartridges (I haven't stopped using it since I got it) and a miniature decorated mail box with my name on it. Opening it was overwhelming! Here's the front of the box and a cute Christmas card she included;

Another very special mention goes to Faiza from Canada for a gorgeous package of beautiful earrings. Here's the beautifully decorated envelope they came in;

Here are a couple (a lot) of scans I made, hopefully I can scan the rest later on. Thank you so much if you sent me a letter or postcard in the last few weeks. It was amazing to come home to so many wonderful things;

^ from Linsey in Oklahoma.

^ An adorable swap-bot cat postcard from Missive Maven.

^ A great pc from Tejal from All My Hues in New Jersey

^ from Carla in California.

^ An amazing envelope from Sirpa in Finland.

^ A great letter from Mary in Kentucky.

^ A lovely fabric postcrossing postcard from Taiwan.

^ A great envelope and gorgeous card from Lauren in Florida.

^ A lovely little letter from Sarah in South Australia.

^ A sweet letter from Melody from Rolismail from Washington.

^ A fabulously decorated envelope from Linsey.

Gorgeous stuff huh? :)

Some outgoing this week too;

^ Sent to my grandma (from the bundle of postcards from Wendy).

^ Both from a fresh set of stationery that arrived while I was away, C bought it as a gift for me for Christmas. It's from the Kathy Olivas Stationery Set from Dark Horse. I'm going to run out of it already!

^ Hand-decorated envie for the lovely Chandlerguera.

C and I just spent our afternoon rearranging our loungeroom, unpacking and cleaning and now the house feels good. Tonight we're going to watch 500 Days Of Summer (C has been wanting to watch it for forever, he's so cute) and some Six Feet Under and eat a whole tub of frozen yoghurt and then our friend Ash is staying the night. Hope you're having a lovely weekend so far :) And now, just to make this post even more picture heavy, here are some left over photos from our Launceston trip;

^ Mine and C's feet at the water at the caravan park in Port Arthur;

^ A magic place.

^ Upon arriving at Port Arthur historical site you're given a playing card with an image on it that corresponds to the recount of the life of a convict downstairs. I bought a pack of the cards and C bought the corresponding book.