Category: Happy Mail

Wind and rain, wind and rain, and some happy mail to make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

This Brainscan Zine Pack came all the way from Portland Button Works. The pack came with Brainscan 21, 25, 26, 27 and 28, and it was like getting a basket of Easter eggs. They are all Brainscan, but they come in all different shapes, sizes and colours! It does my head in a little. 🙂

Yes, I’m showing the happy mail after I reviewed one of the zines (It Will Be Okay). Missmuffcake just so happened to have the awesome timing to have sent a zine so I received it right when I needed to read it.

I’ve been eyeing up The Stay At Home Girlfriend series for ages now, so I’m excited to finally have one. 🙂

As always, thank you so much to everyone who sends me mail. Happy mail makes me feel, well, happy – especially in the past few months where we seem to have some pretty bad luck happening!

Suuuuch a beautiful happy mail day. I love spring. My favourite season in the States was always autumn, but spring in Oz has completely won me over. It’s love.

Anyway. Sneaky, sneaky timing from my post box with goodies arriving this morning in time to sneak into this week’s happy mail. If this keeps up, I’ll have to start making happy mail videos. <3

First off, a cheeky postcard from my friend Dodgy, who is still on holiday. I tried to give him some money a few weeks ago before he left so he could pick up some postcards and trinkets for me. He laughed and refused. By the look of this postcard, I’m not going to live the whole ‘check the exchange rate’ thing anytime soon…

Woo! I have been enjoying Olivia’s Tumblr and Instagram for a while now and have been saving up to grab a few zines from her shop.

A huge thank you to Olivia for the option of sending overseas. It always takes me a while to save up, but I have a list of zinesters I want to buy things from. I was all ready to go (pre-Asimov emergency procedure) and was disappointed to find a few zinesters I had listed didn’t actually have the option of sending to Australia.

Don’t get me wrong – I know there are reasons. But definitely don’t assume that no one overseas will ever buy from you. (And no worries, I know I can contact the shop owners and ask.)

My first enamel piiiiiin! And zines! So awesome. If you follow my Instagram, you may have already seen the little birdie on the pin. It’s a magpie to commemorate my first (and, crossing fingers, only) concussion. (Yeah, a bird gave me a concussion. Love Australia!) SoberBob was awesomely generous and sent along a couple zines as well for my enjoyment. Love!

Zine Ninja and I are in a comic! Squeeeee!

Okay, this one takes a little explaining (and a few links). ComicProv is the brainbaby of Lady Beaver and Steve Waldinger. When you rock up, Lady Beaver draws a one-page comic based on you and the things you love (pizza, comics, zines, unicorns, rainbows, whatever you like). The thing is that she leaves the speech bubbles empty and then passes the comic over to Steve.

Neither has a clue about what the other has in mind! How funny and awesome is that?

They often do their comicprov thing at zine fests and whatnot, but you don’t have to be at an event in person to get a comic. (Hi, I’m in Australia, if you hadn’t picked that up before.) All you need is a photo of you and a couple of favourite things you’d like listed. (I’m still pretty gobsmacked how they managed to work in not only the things I listed that I love but also a couple things I joked about.

Depending on when you read this post and if you’re reading it on the blog, you might just see my selfie taken with the comic.

Definitely get in contact if you’re interested. At $10 (at the time I’m posting this) for a one-page comic featuring YOU, it’s definitely a steal. (Plus shipping if you can’t see them in person.)

Also in with the happy mail were a few of Steve’s web comics. Hahaha. I think I may have found someone who is just as punny as Wanderer…

Happy mail, everyone! May your week be beautiful and your post box full of fun mail.

This past week has been a very, very happy week (and some) for my post box, which made the less than great aspects of the week easier to bear.

It’s also brought to light that my mail tracking system is less than ideal. Idle Emma mentioned in passing how she tracks mail in one of her videos, and that’s really inspired me to shape up. Always room to improve!

On to the happy mail awesomeness.

Back before my dear Asimov had his medical emergency, I decided that I was finally in a good enough space to get something I’ve been after for ages… a Sticky Institute dog tag! Lo and behold, they sent it along with some zine-y goodness! <3

How cool is this? And it was only $3 AUD at their Big Cartel if you’d like to get one of your own.

Say hello to the mystery mail portion of this week’s happy mail! This Zine-O-Matic slice of absolute awesomeness arrived completely unexpectedly, and I have been dancing on sunshine since. Especially because I had no idea who’d sent it.

Zine-O-Matic is a zine subscription service that gives zines to your mailbox every month. It’s like Lootcrate for zine enthusiasts, and I absolutely adore the concept. So you can imagine the top level of fangirling I went to when I opened this envelope up.

Okay, so in the time between when I started this post and now, it’s come to light who sent this along. However, for a few days, I had the excited pleasure of having absolutely no idea who sent along this zines-and-stuff-filled envelope of delight. Made even more special by the fact that I’ve wanted to get Shit Talk and Slowquest in my hands for what feels like months now.

Squee!

This lovely is another piece of completely unexpected happy mail from Elizabeth at Tenderly Surrender. I totally felt like a toddler with something shiny when I took this out of the envelope because the aesthetics of it got me straight away. This isn’t the place to review, zines, though, so you’ll have to wait for my review to find out what I’m on about.

More zine awesomeness from the UK (now officially on my ‘places I really need to go’ list)! People who make zines like this, you have to tell me how you’re doing it. These look so amazing and clean cut! You all know I love all the zines, but I can certainly appreciate some to-the-edge printing and nice, nice paper. Wowza. And yay for mail art! I love it. I apologise for – because it is at a level I need to apologise for – not taking a picture of the art Misha did on the back of the envelope. So much fun.

Big Tight is just getting going with a site, so be sure to head over there and check it out.

Shiny! How could I not smile when seeing a shiny, reflective silver envelope in my post box? Billy certainly knows how to liven up a post box. Hahaha.

This beauty snuck in today, so I grabbed a shot outside to include in today’s post. Please excuse my fingers, but I had to hold the zine shut! Billy sends his zines bound but not folded to help save on postage (#protip), so this chunky little zine kept wanting to spring open. Woohoo! So much reading ahead.

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I am so utterly, utterly gobsmacked by the pure joy people have sent me in the post. Truly. I am so happy when I see things in the post, when I open them up, and even later on when I’m posting about them. This post has me all kinds of happy all over again, and I can’t stop smiling. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and have a beautiful week!

Today’s happy mail brought to you by…

My friend Dodgy is out of the country for a while having a holiday, and I’m crashing at his place for a few days. More on that later, though. On to happy mail!

I may have horrible response times (I haven’t forgotten you!), but I love getting letters as much as I love zines coming to my post box. This absolutely lovely letter from Chris Sitko really brightened my Monday.

Zine bundle! Zine community tip: If you love a zine and want to share it with your friends, but you don’t want to lose your copy, don’t be afraid to get in contact with the zine maker! I sent an email to Davida about getting extra copies of Meta Zine sent my way because it’s the kind of zine I want to give to my friends. And here they are!

This is technically happy mail from last week, and you might recognise it if you follow me on Instagram. I couldn’t help myself sharing it there, though, because it was so out of the blue!

Joe from Microcosm Publishing sent along his zine for the joy of it (and review, too, hehe). And he sent a sticker with it! Wooooo! I’m getting quite the collection of awesome stickers going. 😀

It’s been a wonderful week in mail, and I am feeling so lucky to know such awesome people. If you love zines and your mailbox is feeling a little lonely, shoot me your mailing address. I may not always have stamps, but when I do, I love sending out heaps of mail!

It’s all about completely unexpected mail this week!

I wouldn’t call myself a big Simpsons fan (I was never able to catch it much on TV), but I love this postcard. I love the colours, the artistic quality to it, and I love that Chris from New Jersey sent it just to say thanks for the zines I sent to him. So nice!

It got a little beat up on the way, but The Life and Times of Billy Roberts #76 made it safe and sound to Australia! Corridorgirl shared a picture of an earlier issue of this months back, and I loved the idea of a life newsletter that skips the envelope. Lo and behold, now I get to check it out!

I love such creativity and colour filling my post box. Thank you so much!

Happy mail!

You have to send mail to receive mail (is my general philosophy), so my post box has been a little quiet lately. However, I have been lucky enough to have received some awesome bits of happy mail recently.

This comes from a lovely new pen friend who discovered my profile on SendSomething. She also sent a little something for a friend of mine (Kim) who is dealing with cancer treatments at the moment. I love to see so much kindness still in the world, given how much we’re beaten over the head with how horrible humanity is.

I had no idea this was coming and have my wonderful friend, Fishspit, to thank for recommending this site to the wonderful Property Zine masterminds. I was impressed from the get go with this zine, and they sent a sticker and letter, too!

They have an open call for submissions happening right now, so be sure to check out https://www.facebook.com/propertymaterials

My absolute thanks to all mail senders! You truly make my days happy.

It’s been a big week for happy mail! I am so excited and so happy to receive such great mail from people outside Australia. I know postage stinks, so that makes it doubly heartfelt.

First up is a trade from PunkRawkDude on Tumblr.

I haven’t read the zine yet, but on glance through, I am impressed. There is some serious cut and paste goodness happening in here. Definitely check it out.

Next comes from my regular zine trade friend, Fishspit. He once again wins all things when it comes to envelope art.

There is all kinds of mail goodness happening in here. Zine, letter, tape, etc. Fishspit is awesome because, when he doesn’t have a zine of his own ready to go, he sends me zines made by his friends.

Tiny hamster! In a previous envelope, Fishspit sent me an adorable tiny (sea)green zine cat. And now he has a friend in the tiny hamster. So cute. They’re on my desk next to my tiny TARDIS.

As he so nicely put it, I’m a bit lost when it comes to music, so he’s taken it upon himself to educate me. This is the second mix tape he’s sent along for my education.

Last up comes a huge care package from none other than my sister-from-another-mister in the States, Black Wolf. She really outdid herself AND was kind enough to play courier so I could save on postage with some zines from Microcosm Publishing.

There’s not a lot out there that I love more than this moment when I start to see what goodies are in store…

Stuuuuff. Black Wolf definitely knows how to send a care package. She made this one a special birthday edition care package with some of my favourites – M&Ms! (Crispy forever.) There is a huge stack of zines as well as books courtesy of Microcosm Publishing being very generous to me as well as the John Truby book from Amazon. The little princess bags on the right are from my niece’s birthday. I can’t be there in person, but they make it so it’s like I was. <3

This pin! Oh, this pin. I cannot clearly express how much I love this pin.

As always with happy mail, I am feeling so grateful to everyone who is willing to trade with me, send me zines, send me other happy mail stuff. Postage costs are not easy to deal with, even inside Australia, so I hope you know how happy it makes me to see anything in my post box.

I told you I might need the reminder about doing a happy mail post. Haha.

Actually, things just got a little hectic, but now both Wanderer and Boggin are settled down with some medication that should see them right sooner rather than later. However, a friend is borrowing my light box, so I wasn’t going to take happy mail pictures until I at least had some halfway decent daylight.

On with it!

Woo! My first issue of Cometbus. I’ve heard/read a lot of good things about this zine, and, well, of course I had to get my hands on a copy. Someone on Instagram had checked out my zine wishlist and was happy to send one here to Oz for a trade.

Another person with spectacular handwriting, by the way. Did you all attend a workshop, or…?

Completely unexpected happy mail! This zine comes by way of the US and points to an aspect of the zine community that I haven’t really talked much about – sharing addresses. “I’m a friend of ___ who said you might want to trade.” Fantastic stuff. I love it.

I always send zines back, but the people who send me things like this don’t know that. It’s lovely to see that people are still willing to take chances on stuff like this. Plus, zines!

Many thanks to both senders for making my post box a lovely thing to open this past week.

Oh, there’s nothing like beautiful mail on a beautiful day to make me feel at peace with the world. <3

This arrival came from a group swap on Swap-Bot, which I’ve mentioned before. A group member just so happened to grant my wish of adorable mini-zines. And they’re meant to be coloured in as well! Here’s where I get so envious of those with artistic talent.

This lovely bit of mail comes all the way from Emma in Ireland, the very talented Emma of Puddle Side Musings!

I had the pleasure of sending Emma her very first zine, and she not only wrote me back but sent a gorgeous handmade notebook that I love. (No, you definitely can’t have too many notebooks!)

By the way, Emma has some of the nicest handwriting I’ve ever seen. I need to practice. 😛

I love mail. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that nearly enough this month.

Just kidding. I know I say it pretty much every other day, but it really makes me feel so awesome. It also makes me want to start making happy mail videos. ^_^

Anyway, on to the mail!

This is a lovely little birthday bundle from a friend at Swap-Bot. If you haven’t heard of the site and love mail, then definitely check it out. There are so many groups, swaps, and ways of finding new mail friends.

I knew I had some happy mail coming in from Fishspit, but I had no idea what I was in for! So much awesomeness – and my very first cassette recorded by someone else. (I am old enough to own cassettes, but no one has ever made me one before). That along with a nice long letter and… what’s that…

Isn’t he cute? He’s so tiny. A lovely little surprise to travel along with the zine goodness.

Of course, with Fishspit comes epic envelope art collages!

I will never fail to be impressed by Fishspit’s dedication to collage. I always know when something is from him. ^_^

And, just because, Green Cat is now on my desk next to my Mario 1up mushroom.

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful day. If you haven’t and would like some mail cheer, feel free to leave your mailing address in the comments. I’m doing some major destashing right now, so I have all sorts of things that I can send. ^_^ Seriously.