^ 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.



^ So many beautiful views; Something is DEFINITELY misspelled on this caravan park sign.



^ The back of a peacock at Cataract Gorge; a Launceston neighbourhood cat who C took a shining to.


^ Amazing lavender fields at Bridestowe.

^ via wish to peace.

Aloha,
Long time no blogs! C and I have a 3-hour train journey home from Sydney later today, and after painfully lugging my four bags through the streets of Redfern yesterday I'm really wishing I'd brought a whole lot less stuff. We got back to Sydney on Tuesday, leaving Launceston at 6am, and making a connecting flight from Melbourne to Sydney. I fell asleep on the second flight and woke up going 'Where the hell am I?' and realised I was 6000 metres above the ground. I am not enjoying having returned to sickly hot New South Wales weather. I miss you Launceston and I hope to return to you again soon. Last night my friend Paige, C and I went to the Annandale Hotel to see my favourite band, Why?, and they certainly delivered. We got there really early and could see Yoni, the lead singer, sitting in the bistro eating his dinner. C kept telling us we should go over and talk to him, but Paige and I couldn't think of what we'd say so we decided to just watch him. They were thoroughly enjoyable and totally surpassed my (already high) expectations. I am really looking forward to getting back to my bed, the cats, my mail and the mundanities of being home. During this holiday I have slept on some of the most uncomfortable beds ever.

Bits:
♡ Gorgeous hand-calligraphed envelope seals from K is for Calligraphy (via Letter Writers Alliance);


♡ Postcups! You write your message on them with a special pen and then put it in the oven to seal it;


♡ The Johnson Banks Post Office self sealing aerogramme letters, so cute!;


♡ French foot long mallows, aaaamazing (via Incredible Things);


♡ (via)


♡ Amazing wall adornments from Da Da Da Studio;


♡ Awhh, pleaaaaase... 12 Months of Colour Daily Planner;


♡ Incredible desk sets from Elum Designs, expensive, but full of amazing things;


♡ Yann Tiersen, one of my favourite musicians, playing on 6 iPhones (via swissmiss);


I have almost 900 items in my Google Reader waiting to be read when I get home, eep!

^ link.


Obviously not much time to post of late, but as soon as I return to hot, hot Newcastle on Thursday, regular posts will resume. I just wanted to show you a cute little cupcakery we found today while we were rushing around the sprawling mall of sunny (then rainy, then sunny, then rainy) Hobart.



We got back from Hobart today where we camped, wandered around Port Arthur historical site for a day, drove around one of the most beautiful coast lines ever and stayed with our friend Mel's parents. When we get back to New South Wales on Tuesday we're staying in Sydney for a few days to see friends and watch my favourite band Why? perform at the Annandale Hotel (tickets very kindly donated to me by my friend Jade). I have about 600 items waiting for me in my Google Reader and I'm feeling totally out of sync with the internet world (which isn't all bad of course). Still considering a move to Tasmania, but also looking forward to getting back to my comfy bed and our cats and my mail!

Here's some outgoing mail I found a little bit of time to write this week;


^ A cow postcard I picked up at Ashgrove cheese farm; three postcards from a postcard book I picked up in Launceston this week called 'If You Don't Love Books, You're Going To Love This Book' by SomeEcards, some of the postcards actually make me laugh out loud; and my last little Tassie devil postcard sent to a very worthy recipient.

I'm currently watching an awful movie on SBS starring Billie Piper, using up all of the tissues in C's parents' house on my (always) runny nose and wishing the bed in the spare room would spontaneously become comfortable and not crippling!

Only two blogs in a week, how miserable! This update will probably be photo heavy and I will go on and on about how lovely Tasmania is.

Here's me with my friend again. This has basically been my uniform while I've been down here. The weather here allows for a lot of layers which I enjoy. Even on 'hot' days here you don't sweat and can wear a jacket and it's still comfortable. Lovely!

Handmade knitted hat C bought in a tiny country town we visited
Vintage green jacket with customised teapot buttons found in opshop five years ago
Hand me down Sportsgirl jeans from my mum, folded over at the bottom because I have very short legs
Red check Betts ankle boots
Dangerfield scarf
Black T.

^ Tiny Bianca with Launceston Post Office. I'm fairly sure it's been used continuously as a post office since it first opened. I haven't posted anything there yet.

^ Tiny Bianca with town hall. This building looks amazing. It's hard to pick a favourite building in this city as every single building is immaculate, very very old and extremely well taken care of (unlike any building in Newcastle).

^ We stopped in a tiny little town called Latrobe on our travels the other day and this place caught my eye. Interesting shop name.

^ Yesterday we stopped at two sets of markets and as we were sitting down eating our lunch we saw this van with an interesting numberplate. I can remember when Obama first got elected and Australia totally had Obama-fever.

^ I found a great deal of old postal paraphernalia at Evandale markets, but only picked up a bundle of things. These old postcards were about ten cents each. There were lots and lots of collectible envelopes with first edition stamps on them, but I didn't trust myself to get too many as I'd probably want to cut them up or repurpose them.

^ C bought this box of post themed rubber stamps for me at the markets. I've seen these in a shop in Newcastle for $60, but we picked them up for $20. They make me squeal how much I love them, ahaha. As soon as I got back to C's parents I stamped them all over everything.

^ Other markets finds; cheap organic tea, a gorgeous red silk kimono style jacket, a canvas bag that says 'Holiday Knitting Bag' which I am going to turn into my holiday mail bag (I'll have to find an appropriate patch to stick on it), two cute match book pads and a handbag I'm still deciding whether I like or not that I got free.

Yesterday we also did a little tour of an old estate called Clarendon House and made a visit to the magestic Cataract Gorge. Definitely somewhere I'd like to go again, I wish I'd taken more photos. Last week's trip to the honey factory, chocolate factory and cheese factory all in one day was wonderful.

I've been picking up a few postcards everywhere I go and here are a few things I've found so far;

^ The die-cut wombat and Tasmanian devil postcards are definitely my favourites (bottom). I picked up the lovely writing paper (left hand side) at a little information centre in a town called Deloraine. The two cow postcards came from the cheese factory we visited. They gave the life size (plaster?) cows to primary schools all around the area to paint and now all of the cows stand around the cheese factory property. Those two were my favourites. The yellow one was actually stolen from the property and they've never been able to find it. We're going to visit some of the lavender farms pictured on those postcards this week too.

^ Here is the Tassie devil postcard biting C's finger before we put him in the post box. C said it actually hurt. The postcard is so small I could only just write a paragraph. I hope his recipient likes him!

Houses to rent in this area (and in Tasmania in general) are ridiculously, irresistibly cheap. For the price we pay for our tiny little house in one of the 'bad suburbs' of Newcastle, we could live in a gorgeous, well maintained four bedroom house with a huge yard. Oh to dream.

^ This house is advertised for rent, and only around the corner from where we're staying and I have totally fallen in love with it. C's parents nearly bought it when it was for sale last year and they said it is amazing inside. I can't get enough of that red door. $250 per week and right near the university and the bus stop, WANT! I'm trying to convince Sophie to move to Launceston and live with me in it! I'm letting my imagination run wild with how lovely it would be to live in Launceston. The listing for the house is here, have a peek if you like :P

^ At C's parents.

On Saturday we went to meet up with a guy C met last time he was here and he basically listened to us go on and on about how beautiful Tasmania is (he's lived here all his life). He said we've been "bitten by the Tas bug", C made a joke that "now we'll have to go to the hospital again".

Entirely irrelevant to anything, I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but back in June when I first bought my Macbook, a week into owning it one of our cats knocked a cup of hot chocolate on it and it screwed up the screen. As it is very expensive to fix and having a slightly impaired screen doesn't really bother me too much I haven't done anything about it, but I just thought I'd put a picture up and show you what it looks like, haha. It's basically like having a big see-through mushroom cloud on your screen;

We're going camping this week in Hobart (the South city of Tasmania) so no internet for me! Today we're going for a 'historical walk around Launceston'. Hope you're having a lovely start to your week :)