Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1 by Sandbook Net

VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 1

NOVEMBER ‘10

SANDBOOK PENPALS AND SWAPPERS

THE MAGAZINE

FEATURES : • Simplicity Embellished • PenPalling & Letters • Samantha’s Thoughts • The Art of Nice and Neat FB’s

Do’s & Dont’s

Organized?

Lost PenPal

World Traveller

Letter Insider

AUTHORS Samia Oumohand, France

How to keep organized

Gregory J. Lentz, USA

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Raia, Bulgaria

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The art of nice and neat fbs

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Miriam World Traveller: An Authum in Israel

Cover: Gaya Designs Editor: Sandbook Net Graphic Designer: Aspeia Alexieva IT administration: Jason Dimitrov Production Coordinator: Raia Alexieva Junior Associate: Milen Mangarudov Information is correct at press time.

W W W . D E S I G N F R E E B I E S . O R G

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My Facebook Endeavors

V I S I T

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Penpal Meetings

F R E E B I E S :

Tessa, Netherlands

D E S I G N

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Heather Carrabis, USA

G R A P H I C

Samantha’s thoughts

Hello everyone! On behalf of Sandbook Net Team, I would like to welcome you to our first issue of “PenPal Sandbook”! Sit back, relax and start flipping through the pages of this magazine. We had worked really hard to promote, collect and design these pages and we feel that we managed to exceed the limitations of time and resources, and to make a colorful and interesting magazine. At least we hope so! Make sure you give us feedback, tips and ideas on how we can further improve it. We relied a lot on the opinions of our Facebook Friends to decide on the materials that are published here and also consulted them on regular bases when we started developing it. We hope that you will feel this magazine as much YOURS as it is OURS. Granted, there were hardships along the way of producing this magazine, but we managed to navigate through them and we can now proudly present our first issue on SandbookNet 2nd Birthday! So raise your glasses and let’s toast for our brand new magazine. We hope to see your articles, stories and opinions on the pages of the magazine really soon! Thank you all for your support and love towards the greatest hobby in the world: PenPalling! From the Editor

M O R E

Samantha Stroy, USA

F O R

The Do’s and Don’ts in PenPalling

EDITORIAL

CONTACT US Make sure that you stay informed for the latest news Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandbook Add us as a friend on Facebook http://facebook.com/sandbooknet And join our Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/SBNgroup And join our Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/SBNpage Read our blog at: sandbooknet.blogspot.com Visit us on our website: www.SandBook.Net

IN THIS ISSUE To be organized 18 Deciding on PenPalling – PenPalling&Letters 20 True Life Stories: How someone become something

Nice and Neat FBs

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Samantha’s Thoughts Connections 4

My Facebook Endeavors

Relationship

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Do’s and Don’t’s in PenPalling 14 Cover story: The Art of Nice and Neat FB’s 17 Scrapbooking / Birthday Twins

The Do’s & The Don’ts

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Traveller: Israel

22 Relationship / Lost PenPal 23 Bear for an Angel 24 Facebook Discussions: How did you start penpalling? 26 Facebook Discussions: Why do you penpal? 28 My facebook endeavours 30 World Traveller: The unique Autumn in the Holly Land 32 Send a postcard 33 How do you keep organized? 34 PenPal of the Month Contest

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PenPal Meetings

36 PenPal and Swappers Ads 54 Groups Invites 56 Samantha’s Thoughts 59 Recipe 60 PenPaling Connections 61 Bracelets 62 FUN 63 Imagination Matters 64 PenPal Meetings 65 Quiz results 66 Letters are secrets between friends 70 Fashion 71 La Papierre 72 Cultural event: Halloween 74 Q & A’s / Survey / Subscription 76 Next Issue

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Letter Insider: The Introduction Letter 10 Letter Insider: How to write a letter 12 Letter Insider: The

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Deciding on Penpalling

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2Editorial 3 Sandbook Twitter 4 In this Issue 6 Letter Insider: The Good PenPal

LETTER INSIDER

W w hile he riti I th lp ng wa bu this s th go e d od iff t ar in k w e an re on ticle ing d nc de I c a a e r o b ba be w uld out d tw ha n’ pe ee t i t n n s pa a l?

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What to be carefu l about? - Penpals who ke ep on asking yo u one and the sa aware – he/she is me question all not paying attent over and over ag ion to you. ain, be Don’ be judgementa l – we are differen cultures and coun t people, coming tries, so you shou from various ld expect diversi thoughts. Be tole ty in rant towards othe opinions and r people’s opinio ns, cultures, und erstandings, belie Write persona ves. l letters - By showing interest personalization of in your penpal’s the letters. life you will also - DON”T under A achieve NY circumstance s send “form letter make it very perso s” (even if it is the nal and intriguing first letter – you ca ). Form letters are your life, which so n still pre typed letters me BAD penpals (Drafts) of what’s use by changing contain persona up in th e “Dear………… l information, que ….”-lines. They d stions or answer you might think o not to questions. No your draft is, a pen matter how “intel pal can always fe never do it! lig ent” el the depersona lization in those lines! So Don’t drag peop le in your drama Sharing your exp ! erience and life is on e thing and dragg different. Don’t b ing your friend in e the grumpy per your drama is tota son who makes a hobby with whi th lly e letters full of d ch we want to m ra m ake our daily lives a! Writing letters place here! You ca is m or n always share yo e fun and interest ur ups and downs ing. Drama has no she wants to read , but let your pen more about it. pal give you a sign if he/ Don’t ask for money! Money are never enough don’t ask your frie for everyone! So nds for money, so don’t ask for mon don’t be a begga everyone! And if ey! You r in front of your people want to d penpals! Life is to onate money, th so don’t be a vict ug h for ey will use the p im of your well-b roper channels (c eing and politene away and never harities), ss. If you get such respond back! A a letter – thro th lso if you have m report them! Mod row it et this beggar on erators can block a site/blog/grou their IP addresses p - just . Make up your mind, think over before you speak” it, then write ! There is truth in and it applies he re as well – don’t the saying “Think IF you write to so ch an meone, make su ge your mind ev re er yo y couple of days! u have the time an And if you do dec ide to stop penp d resources to su alling with someo stain the friendsh ip. ne – don’t drag it ou t. The big question : handwritten tion and make th v.s typped – is e letter personal irrelevant if you ha w hile you type it. Re ve a good interac letters, give a chan member even if yo ce u lik to e handwritten personal typed le hard to read or ot tters. Some peop he le’s handwriting rs have disabilities is and handwritten an option for them le ! tt D ers are simply no on ’t cross them off gr t or you might mis eat friend! s a chance to mak ea

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I bet that you have also tho ught about th asked my Face e topic. So I book Friends “W hat makes a pe one?” as it see npal a bad med to me at the time that it easier to defin will be a lot e what we all find “bad” in o ior. For my surp n e’s behavrise in betwee n, we actually the topic and cheered up started pointin g out what a g should be. He o od penpal re started talk ing about the good penpal sh q u alities the ould have. Write regu larly I can’t stress it enough – writing regula have the tim rly is a must! e, then don’t If you don’t start penpall wait months in g at all! Nobo for a letter! Th dy likes to e m palling with someone new ain rule of thumb is don’t start penif you already you are way have your ha behind your n mail. There a ds full or who would lo re a lot of pe ve to write to o p le o th ut there at person! Wri pals with him te and be reg /her. Don’t be a ular penpenpal col lector! You should be able to intera ct and sustain ters from dista a friendship w nt lands! The ith the penpa person is wha friendship req l, not collect le t’s important! uests/first lett tD on’t send out e rs. Take it one too many pen lots of invites/ step of a time pals that you . You don’t wa simply don’t re that they can nt to end up w call! PenPal co brag that they ith ll ectors will on have a penpa you back (as th ly write to you l in your coun ey already ha so try or even wo ve your first le rse wouldn’t w tter, in which ri te th ey are mainly Interract with in te re st e d in y our penpal !). It’s actually w s! ay easier than it sounds! Wh -Answer quest at you should ions: search fo do? r all of the qu have received estions that w and make sure ere asked in th you answer th if it is asked b e letter that y em in your rep y your friend! ou ly! No questio - Ask question n is insignifica s in your own nt letters – this w on which top ay your penpa ics are interest l will also have ing in. Therefo some guidelin re, this will en es sure that won ’t end up discu ss ing boring topic s. - Show interest in your penpal ’s Length life – just like w it h your ordinary of l etters If you r day-to-day frien ec ds – try to con only fa eive a long le nect with them! tter, it is ir to w rite clo amoun se to t t or eve hat n more! T no but( s) or ma here are ybe(s)!

THE GOOD PENPAL

LETTER INSIDER

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maps on his/her speed dial – try to explain where in this world your life begun. For instance, I often write that I am from Bulgaria, which is a small country in the South–East of Europe. Then when I write about my homeplace, I mention that it is just couple of kilometers away from Bulgaria’s south border with Greece and that I love sun bathing at the White Sea (Aegean Sea) as the border is open for visitors (EU countries). So from here, even if you had no clue where Bulgaria is you will get an idea about my corner of the world. occupation What do you do for a living? What exactly you study/work? What do you deal in your daily life? No matter what you study or do for a living, don’t assume that your penpal will

Ready? Now get your mojo working by turning on the music player with the tracks that you enjoy or even light some aroma scented candles – whatever works for you. The point is that you feel cozy and relaxed. Now you are completely ready to start writing your introduction letter. Keep in mind that the more letters that you write, the better they will become. It’s all about the practice. Don’t be disappointed if after writing pages of the letter, you still feel that it is not good enough and that you are missing something. In the end, putting your heart and soul in a paper is not easy and your penpal will appreciate you for the unique person that you truly are!

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not only adjectives. Let’s look into the main components of the introduction letter. Family What is easier to write about than family?! I’d say nothing. Start with your parents, move through your siblings, annoying and not so annoying cousins and finish with your love life. That way your penpal will get the idea about the most important people in your life. Write names and ages (not that you will expect your penpal to remember all that, but he/she will have the general idea). City Write about each of the cities/ towns you lived in. Write a bit about their history. Don’t expect your penpal to be proficient in geography or to have Google

choose to put it – make sure you remember to do so. You may want to add your location or your mood status in the closing as well. Topics to AVOID Those are religion and politics. There are many people who are very open-minded, but while you write the first letter you simply have no clue about that. So best peace of advice is not to engage in such discussions. Remember that nothing good will come off if you start writing the introduction letter under pressure. So relax. Take a deep breath, hold it and then slowly exhale. You will feel how the rush of adrenaline will slowly disappear once you repeat this simple but yet very useful exercise.

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“Break the ice” As “Introduction letters” is the first article in the first issue of our magazine, I thought that there will be no better time or place to start talking about penpaling. First letters are either something you are good at or they are simply dreadful. I think that anyone can write a first letter which is intriguing and bubbly. There is no special formula or magic towards it. I will only share my way of writing introduction letters and show you how you can “break the ice”. One of the best introductions letters that I have ever read sounded like my penpal was not only introducing herself to me, but also showing me the dynamic of her life. So best piece of advice is use verbs to express action,

concrete ones “Describe yourself in 3 words”, etc. Closing words When it comes to closing words of the letter everyone has their “trade” mark. I usually end telling my penpals to ask me anything that they want. Write it only if you mean it though. You may choose however to use the more “neutral” closing “That’s all for now, I hope to hear news from you real soon”. Then choose between “Yours”, “Sincerely”, “Take care” or “Hugs” before your sign. DAte Yes, date it! Dates are really important so that we can establish a time line. Don’t skip the dates! You can either write the date on top of the letter or after your signature – no matter where you

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The Introduction Letter

know exactly what you deal with. Try to write about it and show your penpal your interest in it, your passion for it and also at times your hatred for it (as we know that both school and jobs are dreadful at times!). About you Write something that characterizes you as a person. Try to think about yourself and figure out the few things that are specific for you interests/ likes/dislikes. Don’t be afraid to even say show your flaws. For example, in my first letters I tend to write about my likes “candles, castles, knights in shining armor, chocolate, red wine, day dreaming, sculpturing”. I don’t mind telling my penpals from the start that I often jump from topic to topic – maybe that’s why my letters get a bit interactive (or so I would like to think about them!). Questions Ask questions to your penpal – that way not only will you steer them in the direction that you would want the conversation to go, but you will also let the penpal know that you are really interested in writing with them. Questions may vary, from the creative “What will you do, if….” to a more

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THE INTRODUCTION LETTER

topics to discuss - family (parents, siblings, your marital status - city (where you were born/grew up/ study/ work now) - school/ University (what do you do for a living, what exactly you study/work, what do you deal in your daily life) - birthday/hobbies/interests - write something that characterizes you as a person – don’t be afraid to even say show your flaws - questions for your penpal. 9

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In this way you will not only achieve interaction

Don’t forget to place questions for your penpal and most importantly answer the questions that your penpal asked you! with your penpal, but you will also ensure the foundations of a great friendship. closing words They can vary greatly upon the person/ situation, but I tend to enjoy those endings that

show a little bit more about what your penpals plans are. For example you can write “I have to go now so that I can catch the post office before it closes down” or “Wow, it’s already midnight, I am off to bed”, or “I have to go take care of ..(the activity that you are going to do once you stop writing the letter). . Take care and write soon!”. Signature Check if you have already placed the time, date and location in the letter. If you hadn’t, then here’s the place for you to do so. Following these little

tips you will manage to write interesting and interactive letters. Letters that both your penpal and you will enjoy. Finally, don’t forget to use cute stationary. Or if you prefer to show how creative you are, simply pick a blank white paper and show your own style. Place stickers, decorate with clipping, draw or write smiley faces all the way through the letter. So off you go and be creative! In the end, no matter what you do, make sure that you have fun! Happy Penpalling! 11

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glitter pens, etc), make sure you mention it. You like it when people give you a feedback on the gifts you make, so make sure you do the same for your penpals! BODY of letter This will be the place where you write the real message that you want your letter to carry. Write what’s going on around you, but do not place the events in the diary style as that is very boring. Instead of noting on facts, express in words how the events made you feel, instead of only time-stamping them.

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if you date a letter and then send it through the post on a later stage. So make sure you will place a date either on top of the letter or at its end. Moreover it helps people organize their mail. Mood If you want to make a letter creative, draw a clock then place a semi column and write the actual time. You can also choose to draw a little picture of the weather (cloud, sun, cloud and sun, raining cloud, snowflakes) – you don’t have to be an artist to quickly sketch the appropriate image. You

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“Dates help people percept the friendship in a chronological matter. “

can even place a music note and write the music you are listening to while writing your letter reply. If you want to get even more personal, you can also place a detailed location: “in living room”, “bedroom”, etc. This way the letter will be very personal and it will allow your penpal to connect with you while, he/she develop an idea in what setting you wrote the letter. Dear John/Jane That’s standard but you can come up with different ways to greet your penpal “Dearest…” or “Helloooooo....!!!” can bring up some difference in a long term penpal correspondence. Start of the letter “How are you? Thank you for the letter…” That’s how I often start my letters. The first paragraph is to establish a rapport with your friend – that you indeed got their letter and that you are not using those annoying “drafts”that are somewhat personalized afterwards. Your pen pal is a special person in your life, and there is no place for copy-paste in any friendship. Remember to thank your penpal for his/ hers letter, or if they had included something in it (fridge magnet, stickers, stationary, postcards,

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the envelope. Moreover, keep in mind that your letter is going to travel, sometimes even half way across the world and it may encounter bad weather and handling. What if water gets onto the envelope and smudges away some of the letters of the address? You will be thankful if your penpal took some time to write this vital piece of information once again. Date Nobody will get angry

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TIPS AND TRICKS Now that we have discussed what to write in introduction letters, let’s talk about the structure of each letter. We will focus on some of the main sections that each letter should have. Address When you are into penpalling for long time, you will get the chance

to read many different styles of handwritings. Often those handwritings are not as easy to actually read as people might think. In such situations, you start wondering if this is “u” or “n”, is this part of the “c” or a really weird symbol. The same also applies to typed letters, which contain some fonts that are hard to read. Some fonts are simply too cursive and unclear with such situation. The only solution is to compare the address with another sample that you have. Where will you get it from? Of course, from

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER

LETTER INSIDER

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Of course there are many more advices we could share about penfriendship… And talking about this article, I would love to read your own Dos and Don’ts. So write back to SandbookNet and include the name of this article as subject followed by your ideas for Don’t and Do’s. Guest author: Samia Oumohand, France

DO consider your exchange of letter as a conversation, not a diary. Yes, that’s my motto! I mean that when you write in your diary, you just let your feelings out but you don’t expect an opinion on them: it’s a one-way thing. Whereas in a conversation, it’s a twoway exchange. As for me, these last few years, one of the main topic of

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Yes, each penfriend is an individual, so DON’T write form letters. Ah, we didn’t have that problem before copiers and computers came in the way. When you handwrite your letters, it’s rare that you write twice the same letter… But people who type their letter can generally be separated in two groups: the great penpals who still make you feel unique and the others who make you feel… suspicious. In my penpal experience, I remember a time when my penpal and I were writing to the same girl. However we quickly had a strange

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In the same kind of ideas, DON’T collect penpals! Some people have enough time to have a lot of penpals: good for them ;-) However, there are still people who are into a sort of competition and sacrifice the quality of friendships to the quantity of penpals. Once again, it’s all about remembering that there’s a person behind

each letter, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be consider as a number, would you?

DON’T accept too many new penpals at a time. The risk is that you can quickly find yourself with more penpals than you can handle. I made that error at a time, and because of that, I was taking much more time to write back and what had to happen did happen. I lost some of my favorite penpals because I imagine they were fed up that I wasn’t writing in regular manner.

Do remember that your penpals have a life. Of course, it’s normal to want to hear about your pals regularly! But give them a chance if they’re late sometimes. There are people who work, go to school, are retired or don’t have to work… different lifestyles, different schedules! Not to mention that there are all those things in life: sickness, exhaustion, break-up or family issues… Many things that could prevent the best penpal from writing back in a timely manner.

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time when the post office is full. Then in her next letter, she replied angrily that she was upset I didn’t use nice stamps, and in conclusion she insisted on that again… no need to say my next letter was the last: I told her that since she was more interested in my stamps that in me, I didn’t want to be her pal anymore.

my letters was my love life. And I can honestly say that some of my penpals really, really helped me by sharing their opinion and advice. There is nothing like the feeling that a penfriend becomes a real friend!

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DO consider having penpals if you’re interested in others. It’s a very basic advice but sometimes people forget about it. I’ve known a few people who wanted penpals just for the sake of it: they didn’t seem to care much about the persons behind the letters. As if the only thing they enjoyed in this activity was to say to their friends: “Hey I receive letters from the whole world!”. In my case, I painfully remember a lady, who was a stamps collector. In her first letter, she asked me to use only nice stamps. I replied to her, saying that I couldn’t always do that because sometimes the post office officer would use printed labels instead, because it saves

(from magazines or your own pictures/photos): both people who chose to handwrite or type a letter can do this little trick! Oh, and of course, if you handwrite, make sure your handwriting is readable. You can’t expect someone who can’t read your letter to answer it.

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need to buy beautiful stationery: those can be pretty expensive! But if you handwrite your letter, just use a nice, clean sheet. If you type your letter, you may already know that several stationeries can be added or downloaded. The worst example I ever had? A former penpal just tore the envelope I had sent her and scribbled one sentence on the back: “Hello, I’m happy because my hockey team won. Write soon”. No kidding! One DO pay attention to thing you can do to add the look of your letter. some sparkle to your You don’t necessarily paper is to add pictures feeling that we were receiving exactly the same letters. We didn’t even have to compare them, because a few weeks later, I received “a” letter from this girl… In fact there were several letters for several of her pals in my envie (envelope): she didn’t even pay attention to that! And of course when I compared my letter to the others I had received, they were all the same. I can tell you it’s not the best feeling…

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First of all, a little explanation about the title of this article. Don’t worry I don’t claim that I’m the best penpal around (far from that!), nor that my golden rules are the only ones that are worth following. That being said, I’ve been penpalling since the midnineties and I’ve seen enough things to share a few tips about my passion for letter-writing.

THE DO’s and Dont’s in PenPalling

the Art of nice and neat fb’s

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Figuring out the right materials You need cardboard (or any type of hard cover sheet of paper). It can be specifically bought for the purpose of making FBs or you can do it my way (and recycle something). Actually anything will do the trick – labels from clothes, hard covers of stationary materials, hard-supporting paper behind sheets

Size Despite of what you may have heard, size does matter. You should always keep in mind the standard dimensions of an envelope. Your FB should preferably fit in it. If it doesn’t – then you risk someone out there to fold it for you in two. Which is so not cool! Another point that you should consider is weight. The rule of the

thumb is that your FB should neither be too large or heavy, nor too small that people can hardly fit their address labels. So keep it to a reasonable size and weight as they are interconnected. Remind yourself about the endless times that you were fretting about heavy FBs that make the postage fee rise sky high. Acknowledge your attempts to keep certain heavy and big swaps domestic or in worse case within the same continent, since you know that overseas shipping makes your

heart skip a beat!!! For your FB’s to earn the “attractive” adjective, they should be easy to swap, doesn’t weight too much and of course be nice and neat. Nice and Neat Now that we had made the FBs’ size to fit into an envelope it’s time to attach the sheets of paper that will be used for address labels. Next you are ready to use your creativity and supplies to pimp up the style of your FB’s. I often use glitter (in a glitter glue type or in powder),

You need 1. Materia: ls 2. Determine 3. Decorate the si ze 4. Fol low the 5. Fill in you guidelines r FB

confetti (different sizes, shapes and colors), glitter pens, stickers (all types), cover sheets (or you can substitute them with wrapping paper and recycle it in that way), ribbons, decorative sticky tape, etc. You can make different combinations with the materials that you have – just take

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of stickers, boxes from different paints/chocolates/etc. The main thing is that if the paper is already pre-colored, you can use it right away and start decorating it.

that the people after you may choose to write to you, or you can choose to write an introduction letter to one of the people/addresses before you.

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where it had traveled. Every single person who signs a FB places their address and additional short information that they want to share with potential penpals and swappers, before passing the booklet. The idea behind the FB’s is

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FB’s: definition Friendship books are little books that contain address of penpals and are passed between friends in order to find new ones. FB’s come in any size and shape and present big fun to take a look at

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Cute Friendshipbooks or otherwise known as nice and neat Friendshipbooks (n&n FB’s) or high quality FB are the topic of our Video Tutorial which can find at our website www. sandbook.net. This article will show you step by step the process of making FBs. I like to reuse materials when I am making my Fbs. It’s not like I can’t run to the store, which is right across the street from where I live, to buy the materials. I do it for the thrill of giving something the chance of second life. I often find myself proud of the final Fb, especially when the main ingredients for it came out of random stuff, that most likely everyone throws away on weekly basis. Financially it’s beneficial, but I do it for a rather inspiriting motive – if I can make a nice and neat FB out of scrap material, then it was really worth my time and energy.

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COVER STORY

some time to match them together. Guidelines However, there are some guidelines that you should keep in mind when designing the outlook of your new FB’s: 1. Don’t over decorate 15

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That’s probably the easiest part of the process of creating an FB. You write “Friendship Book” and then place a Tag “Made for:” and write the contact information of the person for whom you made the FB (the owner of the FB). Then write“Made BY”and write your own contact information. If you decide to make it for yourself write “For and By” before placing your address. Don’t forget to write a note at the back “Home? Full back to.... *name of the owner of the FB*”. You can place the address labels inside the cover and decorate it as well with glitter and stickers. Then the FB is ready to be sent.

Special Free Event! Birthday Twins! What’s more cool than finding someone who shares the same birthday date with you? No matter how far away you live from one another an instant connection is made. On one and the same day, you party together to celebrate Your own Special Day! Sandbook.Net had run a Page for birthday twins for its beginning. Now in the anniversary of our 2nd year online, we want to spread the love and celebrations to all of the penpals that are born in this very special month for us. From the Team of Sandbook.Net I would like to say a very Happy Birthday to: 3rd November 1979, Jenna Geissle, USA 5th November 1970, Tanya from USA 5th November 1979, Elizabeth, Trinidad&Tobago 9th November 1998, Lauren, UK 9th November 1979, Jennifer, USA 10th November 1971, Lisa from USA, 11th November 2008, Sandbook Net 12th November 1975, Kerry Ellis-Ouimette, USA 18th November 1962, Susan Dyer , USA 19th November 1985, Rebecca Falz, Germany 22nd November 1973, Maria from Greece 26th November 1974, Sofie from Sweden 27th November 1975, Deidre from Canada May you all have a wonderful day!

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ricanes and can easily be spoiled by handling over their duration of time (it takes approximately 3-5 years for a medium sized FB to return home to their owner). So you have to prepare your FB for the world, out there. Fill in your Fb

My scrapbooking experience is based on my desire to make creative letters and entries in FB’s & Decos. In order to write this article I signed up for free scrapbooking lessons at www.scrapbook.com which is one of the leading websites that deals with scrapbooking. For the purpose of this column I will start with some general tips and slowly work our way to more elaborate projects. I will be also posting different videos on our site and blog so that you will not only read about different projects but also be able to see them. Every scrapbook entry can be done in different ways, using different materials. But there are always these elements when you start designing the entry: 1) title 2) background 3) journal entry 4) photos. There are different ways to match one and the same materials to achieve different outlooks of what your final product will look like. We made these templates to illustrate to you that concept. In the following issues, I will be showing you creative ways to match glitter, paint, paper, clothing pieces, ribbons, feathers and buttons.

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effect is to use a big size scotch tape (sticky tape) across the FB’s cover (that is if its size allows such handling). No matter how you achieve the protective cover, it will be worth it. FB’s travel across countries, encounter floods and hur-

Birthday Twins

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the first page – too much glitter can spoil a good work and too much stickers can deflect the attention. 2. Match the colors carefully so that the overall appearance is nice. 3. For your FB to become a nice and neat one, you will need a cover. It will protect the glitter, stickers and confetti from falling out and also increase the length of time for which your FB will be kept in its original state and quality. If you don’t have laminating machine, or you are simply caught without it, you can use the old fashion way of wrapping the FB in see through baggie (plastic sheet) as I will show in the photos. Bent it around the edges, trim then use sticky tape to place the ends together. Another way, of achieving the same

Scrapbooking

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COVER STORY

To join our birthday twin section you need to send us your birthday, name, country and email to fun@sandbook.net To contact any of our Birthday Twins just look it up on our site!

Deciding on PenPalling - PenPalling&Letters friend far away who has feelings. Therefore, make sure about the free time you have to write and stay in touch with your penfriends. Wouldn’t it be sad to stop writing to a nice penfriend because you don’t have the time to do it anymore?

Find more interesting articles at http://penpallingandletters.blogspot.com

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PenPalling and Letters is a blog dedicated to correspondence. You can find many interesting articles there together with polls, so feel free to voice out your opinion. There is also a section with interesting links that you can follow and learn more about the wonderful hobby of penpalling!

Find PenPalling & Letters on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/penpallingandletters

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5. Make sure about your wishes of swapping stuff or not. Some penpals do like exchanging little items together with their letters (postcards, transportation tickets, stickers...) from time to time. Other people do heavy swaps of everything and anything frequently. Therefore speak about it before a misunderstanding occurs.

Renpalling & Letters: http://penpallingandletters.blogspot. com

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1. Think about which way to stay in touch with a penpal fits you the best. My favourite one are letters, but some people prefer e-mail, messenger systems, Skype, social networks, penpalling websites, SMS... It depends on each individual and what this person prefers. Remember that letter writing requires buying paper, pen, envelopes and stamps to send the letters. If you prefer e-mailing or messenger systems... you will need an Internet connection.

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3. Plan how much time you have to do penpalling. You will need time and dedication as any activity Penpalling implies dedication and commitment. You would need, will and wishes to write if you are not are going to exchange your thoughts, experiences, used to, patience, deciding which way to be in touch ideas, dreams, hopes... and even private life with a with a penpal is the one you prefer, what are you looking for in a penpal...

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2. Think about what you are looking for in penpalling and in a penpal. Try to find and get in touch with someone who is similar to you or that have similar penpalling ideas. Decide in which part of the world you would like to have a penpal, which age, gender... your pal should be, in which language you would like to correspond, if you would like to talk about hobbies and interests you are already into and you like or maybe getting to know someone who has completely different likings and who is willing to introduce you in something totally different but new and interesting for you.

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To start writing a letter you just need pen and paper, plus and envelope, plus stamps... Isn’t it easy? However, you also need to figure out what you exactly wish to achieve when penpalling, which are your expectations when writing letters and what you are looking for in these future penfriendships...

4. Before start writing, discuss thoroughly with your future pals what you are looking for when penpalling and what you aren’t. Discuss if you prefer handwritten or typed letters and if you agree in the more convenient way for both of you. Mention about the length of letters you are used to write. Some people is disappointed when receiving very short missives. Others find that long letters don’t suit them. So discuss and talk about it to make things clear before getting disappointed later on. Also discuss about the frequency you plan to write and send letters. Some people want to receive letters every month, other people prefer one very long, meaningful letter every several months... Are you using stationery or you don’t like it? Even if this is not a key point when writing letters in my opinion, some people is addicted to write on cute paper. However, remember that many others don’t have access to those cute papers for whatever reason. You have to value and weigh the friendship. In the end you will see that the written words are the most important part of the letter, not the papers where those were written. Do you like asking and answering questions? Make sure your pal does as well. If you don’t like one-sided letters and you are looking for continuous interaction and conversation with your pal don’t be afraid to tell what you are exactly looking for and expecting.

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Have you been thinking for a while to get involved into penpalling? Would you like to write letters to people all over the world but you still need to be given the last push? Are you wondering how to get started?

to a friend of the foster family. I was there for 6 months and the man hit me. I was kick out and put in a hospital for 3 months with no family to call. I went to a boarding care. I asked someone if they will help me to move out in to my own place that was it. She asked if I had any money I told her $ 500 in my bank account and that I had $ 2,000 from a show for college. That was it. But I needed to get out from my foster mother. I used my college money to move in to my first apt in 2003 in San Bernardion. I was

to get my story told through my artwork and tell more people about child abuse awareness. Little by little I got my story told and heard by people. I sold about 8 pieces of my artwork and opened my own penpal group on September 27, 2010, called Write Wing, since I love to write my penpals.

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there for a year. Then I moved to Escondido and stayed there for 2 years. Eventually, I moved again to San Diego. I got my first job at Vons in 2005 and I worked hard. I was also babysitting, doing house cleaning to make more money. I started doing artwork for fun just for me and sold my first art piece in 2008. I got more inspired into art. I want

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My real name is Rose Valencia but everybody calls me Angel. Why? Hear I go. I will start my story from when I was abused as a child for 11years from age 2 until I turned 12 years old when I got kicked out of my first foster home. I had no money at that time just what I had in my room. That was it. I was told that I was going to be sent

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TRUE LIFE STORIES: How someone became something

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From Angel rosev448@gmail.com Find Write wings on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/writewings 21

Do you have a problem or need advise? Help is on the way. No problem is too big or small. You can discuss you husband/boyfriend/significant other, friend, mother, child, neighbor, or anyone else if they are a problem and you need guidance how to handle them. You can ask confidentially with confidence. Your privacy will be respected. Viv is a licensed psychologist and Davina can give a young perspective and opinion. How to contact us? Log onto www.SandBook.net and click on the Magazine Button. The menu will drop and you will see the form to contact our column. Using the site as a medium your privacy will be protected as the mailing system and the SandbookNet Team will forward your messages to us.

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RELATIONSHIP

LOST PENPAL

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Have you lost a penpal? Yes?! then this is the section for you. Place your story about your Lost penpal and we’d all try to help you out. Marlene Miller, Ohio, USA marlene159@zoominternet.net Hello, my name is Marlene Miller, 55 and I am in Ohio in United States, have an favor ask, am looking for friend I wrote to about 8 yr s or so ago, we lost touch, when she divorced, her name was Jennie Smith she lived in Australia, has son and daughter, grown now. We wrote and taped letters regular. We were doing email then lost my computer( blew up) and lost contact as well as her address as never had it when she moved. Anyone able to help, please email me at marlene159@zoominternet.net and put in message about her,thanks for any help you can give. Marlene Miller Samia Oumohand, France samgunsjovirow@yahoo.com Hi all! I’m looking for my former penpal Jerry Lynn Daniels. She was a huge fan of French supermodel Laetitia Casta and is from the USA (from Tennessee, if I’m not wrong). If you know her, please let me know at: samgunsjovirow@ yahoo.com Beverly Kuttler Rampero, USA (via Facebook) I’m trying to find a good friend of mine. Her name is Aimee Plunkett. We have been writing for about 17 years. She use to live in Tracy, California but then moved away to another state and I lost her new address. I haven’t heard from her since. Tammy Albertson Dupont, USA (via Facebook) I have been looking for a friend of mine who I lost contact with along time ago and I really miss her. Her name is Kim Bear and she lived in Texas. I would love to get back in touch with her. Her maiden name was Heiliman. Jules Muni (via Facebook) My penpal of 15 years Jacqueline Mcinnus who last known lived in Kingston, Jamaica. I hope that I will be able to get back in touch with her.

Hi there! This is the non-profit organization Bear for an Angel! We fund personalized teddy bears for families who have had a miscarriage, still birth, neonatal death or cot death, we rely on fund raising & donations to do this. We also sell memorial items including, birth scrolls, bracelets & lots more. Bear for an Angel can also do personalized memorial bears for funeral’s or any other loss available to purchase. The non-profit organization Bear for an Angel was set up by Michelle Dayson, mother of two angel babies lost to miscarriage. She wants everyone to have a nice memory of their babies, sadly gone too soon. Contact us: Check our website www.bearforanangel.weebly.com You can find us also on our Facebook page http://on.fb.me/bearforangel Our email address: bearforanangel@googlemail.com

discussions

HOW DID I START PENPALLING ?

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I was 12 years old and my friend sue had started writing to this girl and she said her cousin wanted to write to someone too! I said sure why not. That was over 30 years ago. I still write to my penal Peter in Australia! I’ve met him

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I started penpalling years ago when I firstly started learning English. I was 6-7 years old and I needed a way to practice the language. I found my first penpal via the magazine Mickey Mouse, which had a penpal section. I started penpalling with a girl from Lithuania, and although we lost contact, I got introduced to the world of Friendshipbooks (FBs) and I managed to find a lot of new penpals. PenPalling is my hobby ever since! Raia, Bulgaria

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I have been penpalling off and on since 2003. I just decided to look into it one day online and at one point I was penpalling 350 people from all over the world. Rebecca Sampson Falzarano, USA

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I started penpalling at school, we each had our own & had to write in French, that was my very first one. Rachel Anna Mitchell, UK

several times. He is more an old writing again to each other. friend now. I love to write to all Maria Gerrald Robertson, USA my penpals. It’s the best hobby! Yonnie Stengel Smith, USA I started at school (age14) and never stopped, but lost contact I had my first pen pal when I was with my first pen pals. I still have 14. Through school, when I started my penpals of 20 years, one from taking German. Our teacher Slovak Republic & one from South assigned pals for each of us to Africa. Miriam Gerst, Israel help us learn the language better. She stopped writing to be after 7 I think I got my very first pen pal or 8letters. I didn’t start penpaling through school at age 9 but we again until August of last year. lost touch quickly. Then, I got But I missed it so much and am another pen pal shortly after that so very happy to be writing again! through Muppet Magazine, lol. Penpaling is one of my favorite Later on I would write to people I things to do and I just LOVE mail!:) saw in the pen pal sections of Bop Christina Nail, USA magazine, Teen Beat, Superteen, etc. and I’m still in contact with I have been pen palling since the a few of those gals! After that I early 1980’s and how I started was would get pals through FB’s and through Bon Jovi’s fan club called through other pals so a lot of the The Secret Society, oh wow I am pals I wrote to and still write to all surprised that I know that, lol. know each other somehow. I have Anyways, I have been writing for had palling “breaks” throughout over 20 years now and am always the years and just ended another looking for pen pals ! :) Amy (and hopefully my last) break. I Stefanik, USA have gotten in touch with a few old pals and we’re writing again I had my first when I was 13 she which is great. :) I hope to find a was from Japan at the time I was few more pals in the near future. taking Japanese & the teacher Charity Marie Ortiz, USA got us pen pals but that only lasted a few letters. Then when I started when I was 11,I found I was 16 a friend gave me a few some addresses on the Barbie of the pen pals she had as they magazine. I never really stopped weren’t writing as often as she since then but I lost contact liked. I am still pen pals with one with my first pen pals! Mirja of them today nearly 11 years Colombari, Italy later. Danielle Henderson, New Zealand I’ve been penpaling since I was 12. I started when I was on this I started back in 2003 by writing website studentsoftheworld. a lady I got an address from a com and I met this girl and she crafts’ magazine. Even though, suggested we become penpals we lost touch for a few years, I and we still are lol:) Britannia recently found her and we are Mosely, USA

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I started pen palling in 1999 when I was in junior high. Our geography teacher had us fill out some questions to get us each a pen pal. From then on I began finding penpals all over the world. Penpals come and go but some left a print on my memory. Some I will miss but apparently they had gotten busy with their lives. I hope the best for all who find penpals. Lisa Oaks, USA

discussions Why do you penpal

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Sandbook Net Status Message on Facebook: “A friend of mine asked me “Why do you penpal?”, I was stunned from the question and I replied that it gave me the chance to travel around the world and meet new people and cultures. But it is a lot more than that! So the question is, why do you penpal?

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To get to know people in other countries and learn how they live. To get friends for life. And no, writing e-mails doesn’t give me the same satisfaction as sitting down with nice stationery and a good pen. And, seeing other people’s hand-writing makes it all more real. Rebecka Carlsson, Sweden

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My fiance asks this all the time. With penpals I have a chance to be friends with people who would normally be my friend. When he says but u never know that person 100% I say I know the person that writes the letters even if they don’t be them self 100% hope that makes sense. I like to hope my penpals are true to themselves but of not it don’t matter x Emma Cole I love to meet new people, letters are more personnel touch, emails ok for catch up, i put more information in my letters. Alison Hepworth

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I love to write old fashioned letters! And have made some wonderful friends around the world. Kari Conroy, USA Give me a chance to make new friends learn about all different parts of the world plus it’s nice to get mail beside bills. Julie Stephens, Australia

Why do I have friends? ;) Would be the same question :D! I love to write, I love to exchange stuff and I love the people behind the letters! :) Fabienne Fries, Germany

I get asked that a lot. I enjoy meeting people from all over the world. I love to know about other people in other countries that are around my age. It’s interesting I love to experience what is to see the things that we have in between the lines..behind the common and things that we do words and whom I am writing differently in our everyday lives. too..it is indeed an adventure that It’s a great chance to learn about gives pleasure in many ways :O). another culture. I think you can Birgitha Persson learn things from your penpals. Also, I enjoy writing and receiving Gives me a chance to meet other letters in the mail. Jaimie Alliel, people around the world, love USA to receive letters through my mailbox & you can write more in PenPalling is a form of meeting new a letter than you can ever write people. It goes beyond the going in an email. I also write to some out with friends to the local pub. prisoners & it gives them contact It helps me see the world through with the real world, as unlike most different prospective, learn from a people, they do not have access to native speaker what’s it like to live the Internet, so can’t send emails. in distant countries and discover Maria Defriez how big and yet small our world can be. Feye Sheanz, Ireland I practice English and German through my correspondence as I think of my penpals like any other they are both foreign languages friends that I have. I enjoy opening for me. I also get to experience my mailbox and discovering mail different cultures, exchange from countries that I have never souvenirs and enrich my day-to- visited. I love to daydream that day life. Anne, Finland one day I am going to make a trip around the world and finally meet Makes me learn much about other in person most if not all of my cultures. Fanuel K Amanya penpals! That would be such an adventure! Elena, Greece

My Facebook Endeavors

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and promote some goodwill. It is my hope that through this project I could earn a living reporting on all things cultural, volunteering where I may, to be an ambassador for peace and tolerance among our varied world cultures. Perhaps one day the Vicarious Vagabond Project could become an organization to help fund other *Vagabonds *to travel and continue to spread the education and understanding we need in this world to make it a better place...

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members who will share the idea, and through social networking via Facebook, garner the interest and support required to take that first worldly journey. As a *Vicarious Vagabond *it is my goal to be able to fund an initial year long journey around the world, through support from the page, having forged an invested community on Facebook who would vicariously experience all the world has to offer as I post pictures, video, and articles of all things cultural. I want to have people involved in all ways, to educate

I have an interest in world cultures, histories, and current worldly issues, so I thought to combine all of this and with Facebook as a center piece, I created The Vicarious Vagabond Project on Facebook to try and realize this endeavor. The “Project” is first and foremost a means to connect Facebook members in the spirit of cultural tolerance and education. One day, I hope to travel the world, and share the world with those who cannot through my Facebook Page. I hope to gain a million

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Groups. I do love fan fiction; it is a culture of expanding upon the concepts of fan’s favorite movies, books, or comics. I personally like science fiction and fantasy genres like Battlestar Galactica or George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. I do have an interest in becoming a “real” writer; I would love to be published one day, but I would also be happy to make a living selling my ideas as a ghostwriter. I have an autobiography in the works, through WeBook (http://www.facebook. c o m / W E b o o k . community) , a resource/ group I discovered on Facebook. I hope to catch the interest of an agent through the WeBook site once my manuscript is complete. I also have been working on a compilation of

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“Friendship Room” on Facebook, where she promotes the culture of online social networking via Facebook, by providing a page to make new friends and share your lives and interests with others on Facebook. So I created my own page of Facebook: “Fan Fiction on Facebook w/ G.J. Lentz” to share my fan “fix” with others. I have an open invitation to all who like to write fan fiction of any genre, or for those who just like to read them. I have long had a passion for writing; I have joined many different writing groups all over the internet, from PBeM (play by email, a sort of role-playing fan fiction concept), to various fan fiction genre groups on places like Yahoo!

fantasy short stories based in a realm of my own creation called Theara (pronounced Terra). My baby though “write-now”, is a complex time-travel piece based on an element of String Theory with inspirations from the novel and also released as a movie Timeline, and the TV show Fringe. I decided to create a “professional” writing page on Facebook to share my journey and the processes of writing and becoming published. Titling it after myself, G.J Lentz, share my ideas and research/inspirational elements of creating characters, plots, and story themes, my aspirations and frustrations, and the process of trying to get published. “The Vicarious Vagabond Project” Another project of mine involves my love of photography, my interest of being a writer, and the desire to travel the world. I thought one day, in the frustrations of daily life, how great it would be were it I could just pack a bag and just go...anywhere...but to report back via Facebook, posting pictures, video, and blog notes about my travels and experiences.

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is the owner/founder of this social network.) I started using Facebook to reconnect with friends from the past, and family who I have not seen and live far away...I have used it to share my ”likes” and to pass time with fun applications like Farmville and Social City...but they grew tiring and mundane for me. Instead, I have recently started a few pages on Facebook to devote more time to my interests, and to share them with friends, family, and to broaden my online social network. I first started getting involved with Facebook communities through a Facebook friend, Anna, who is from the U.K. She started a postcard swapping page, “I Love Postcards”, where I have been sharing postcards and pen paling with new friends from all over the world. I also joined her

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I, like 500+ Million others, am a “Facebooker”. I have many, varied and evolving interests, that I like to share with the world, and I do so through Facebook. I have yet to see the movie, The Social Network but it looks pretty interesting. I know who the “Zuck” is, but have never really had much of an interest in researching him or the history of this wonderful concept we know as Facebook. (Editor’’s note: the guest author is referring to the movie “The Social Network” which is presenting how the concept of Facebook was born, developed and produced to the size and variety that we now know it. The author refers to Mark Zuckerberg, known as “Zuck”, who

Guest author: Gregory J Lentz., USA 29

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“guests”. On its head and under its neck, there is a black big stain. It looks like the bird has a little hat and an apron, ready for a traditional meal. The yellow flower in this page is called Helmonit because the yellow colour part of the egg is

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international botanical nameis‘urginea maritima‘. The pink flower is called here ‘Sitvanit HaYoreh‘(international name: colchicum steveni) because Autumn in Hebrew, our language is Stav, and the first rain is calld Yoreh . This bird ‘Nahali’eli‘ (wagtail or motacilla) is one of our favourite

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feed or rest for a while, before continuing their journey to the south. Of course, in the Spring season we’ll see them again, on their way back, from the south to the north. The ‘tall‘ flower is called here ‘Hatsav‘. Because of its height, it can’t be missed and so we see it immediately and know that Autumn is here. Its

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The season Autumn in Israel is a little different from the ‘typical‘ Autumn that is seen in Europe or in the U.S.A.. The Autumn in the Holy Land - the land of Israel is not about the yellow, orange, red and brown changing colours of leaves in ‘ Fall ‘. It’s more about the special flowers, that when appearing, simply tell us “Autumn is here”. It is also about the thousands of birds that are passing by on their way from the north (Europe, Russia) to the south (Africa) escaping the freezing temperatures of Winter there. Some of the birds ‘decide ‘ to stay in Israel, during the Winter, others just stop to

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World Traveler will be taking you on a trip Across the world. In Every issue of our Magazine, a Different Country will Be featured seen through the eyes of a native PenPal. Sounds I nteresting ? Contact us right away so that you can be the next author to speak about their country. This is the perfect way to travel - no annoying visas, no travel expenses, no packing and unpacking. Welcome to Israel, the Holly Land. Miriam, Israel miriamgerst@walla.com

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WORLD TRAVELLER: ISRAEL IN AUTUMN

called helmon. Its international botanical name is sternbergia clansiana. The white flower above the Helmonit is called Havatzelet Hahof (pancratium maritimum) I think that this is the flower mentioned in the Bible in the book ‘ Song Of Songs ‘ as a symbol of the beloved woman. Then there is again the tall Hatsav and to its right side its ‘ more ellegant cousin ‘… (white flowers) Hof is a shore in Hebrew and this flower is seen now all along the sea shores of The Mediterranean Sea. Soon the real autumn flowers will appear. 30

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HOW DO YOU KEEP ORGANIZED?

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you can brighten up a child’s life. I can honestly say I do this once a year, I send 5 cards and a small gift to a child, so I think sharing this with everyone would be appropriate. I have children myself and if it were reversed in a situation and my kids were hurt and I couldn’t afford even a card for my children, I would hope someone would cheer up my children with just a simple Merry Christmas Card or Happy Holidays! To make it interesting I usually send a few Christmas doodles on the card, and I include a sheet of stickers or a small coloring book and crayons. It means a big deal to me for anyone who is Since this is a pen-palling magazine and we send interested to send something to these unfortunate letters and gifts to our friends anyways, why not children. Even if it is just a card, we can all afford a cheer up a child for one day out of the year and stamp, right? make them feel special. Please take your time to Thank you for reading! read the instructions on the website to see how Guest Author: Samantha Stroy, USA

reply I have one available. There is nothing worse than not being home and finishing a letter and you can’t mail it because you don’t have a letter. Wait yes there is! NO STAMPS!!!! Before the letters get filed I write on top of the first page as to who mailed the letter. This is in case I can’t get to filing right away once I toss the envelope. I think using file folders is the easiest way to keep all my letters in one spot. I haven’t decided what I will do when my draw get to full. I will cross that path when it comes. My latest way of keeping addresses and my mailed and received dates is index cards. Person’s info and notes to myself on the front and the dates in the back. I find this to be the easiest way (so far) to keep them with me and I can also keep the names in order when I get new pals. I have a few bags that I keep my pen pal possessions in it. I don’t have one spot that I do my writing. That varies, it’s usually when I can find the time and have the space to do it. I write: at home (all over the house), at work, while babysitting, at my brother’s, while camping. Basically if I can find a place to write I will.

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I would like to recommend a website to help those less fortunate receive Christmas cards and gifts. These kids are in a hospital and are very sick and what joy you can bring to their life with just one Christmas card or a gift that their parents can’t afford. Some of the kids don’t have parents. This website has truly touched my heart and I hope it does to you too. All it takes is a Card to brighten up a little kid’s eyes and see the smile on their face come Christmas Day! If you are interested please visit: http://www.postpals.co.uk/news.php

Do you ever look at your pen pal possessions and wonder: “Why can’t this be a little more organized?” “I know I had more paper, now where is it?” “Crap! I can’t remember if I replied to so-and-so.” “Crap! What did I do with that letter that came in yesterday?” Maybe Suzie Smith or John McGee asked: “Did you get my letter?” ,“Do you know when you mailed my letter?” Well I hope that by the end of this article you will have a few ideas if not e-mail me and I can

talking about?” I kept ALL letters in a 5 inch binder. In order as to how I got them in. They were in alphabetical order (thanks to those tabs) Then September the binder was getting too small none of the letters were fitting in it anymore. So I had to change how I kept organized. I decided to go to file folders. I also decided at this point to stop keeping a copy of the letters I sent out (it was just getting to be way to much work to be THAT organized). At this point I also started to keep track of when I received and mailed letters. I ended up using the same notebook from the addresses and next to the person’s name I made 2 columns. One for received and one for mailed. Since then I have changed this a little bit. I still keep the file folders. They are filed by first name in alphabetical order and the most recent letter goes in the front of the folder. On the tab I write the person’s name and also the country that they are from. When I get a letter in I write on the envelope as to when it came in, so I can remember who to reply to first. Then it goes to the back of the pile. I also put an envelope with it so when I go to

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gUEST aUTHOR: Heather Carrabis, USA

help. Since I have O.C.D. tendencies I’m always thinking of new and better ways to keep organized and not lose what little mind I have left. Hehe. I also ask my pen pals how they keep organized. There are so many different ways to do it! When I first started pen palling it was around June or July 2009. I couldn’t think of ONE decent way to get organized. At first I just wrote all the names and addresses in a notebook. At this point I wasn’t keeping track as to when I mailed or received a letter. I kept a copy of my outgoing letters (never know when the post office will lose the letter or when someone will say “OMG! I know! I felt the same way!” and you’re sitting there going “What on earth are they

PENPAL OF THE MONTH CONTEST

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of the packs in which Susi sent the invitations got “lost” at the post and arrived only after about 1.5 months! That was a real adrenalin bit in the wedding preparations! By that time Susi started making more of them to make up for the lost

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(for October 2010 there were 31 different nominations) and you have won....” Being nominated

date. Susi’s great talent is in artful card-making. Anyone who has received her B-day or Christmas card must agree. She is really a master of handcrafted cards. That is why I asked her if I could order some cards from

ones...and those lost ones appeared after she sent the newly made! So I ended up with 150 pieces! Crazy! :) I invited a whole world. :) Sadly, Susi couldn’t come to the wedding as she had to work (and yes, we live in different countries). :( Writing with Susi is a great pleasure for me, her letters are long, sweet, funny...and we also write in a mix of several languages (which we have started doing some time back just for fun). Apart from teabags, earrings and sweet little gifts that we send each other, the essential part is of course the friendship! In the world of emails, Fa c e b o o k , SMS, Skype, Twitter, Myspace and all the other virtual ways of keeping in touch, the art of a pen and paper is hard to find (as we all well know). Finding a person to share this “art” with is great - but to find a real friend in this way is really a blessing! Thank you! :)

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“I had no clue”

an angel of a friend! And: it’s Susi’s B-day this Thursday!!! so this is a great timing, Raia!” That is how Teresa Wodehouse from the Czech Republic started her email to us. In the following exclusive interview with her as a Penpal of the month winner October 2010, Teresa Wodehouse, she states: “I think this the Czech Republic, (the contest) is a great PenPal of the month way to honor your friend/ penpal - an easy way to October 2010 “What a great surprise put a smile on someone’s to find your email in my face! :)”. mailbox! And I am really So why are you waiting excited to know that Susi for? Go on our weband I were chosen as the site www.sandbook. “Penpals of the month” net and let a friend and will even get an know how much they award! I am really, really really mean to you! happy to know that Susi’s read the following great friendship has been article for the friendmade public as she truly is ship of our winners.

her as my wedding invitations. Susi agreed in a heartbeat, refusing to take any money for that (I tried to make up for it with gifts, but still!). Those invitations were really the best! My friends from all over the world have been stunned and expressed how wonderful those cards were! A little adventure that no one really knows is that most

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“.... You receive a message from the Sandbook Net Team letting you know that you have been selected among the applicants

“I think this is a great way to honor your penpal”

Despite our seemingly different lifestyles, we click instantly. The sense of humour, the way of being thoughtful of each other and sharing everything in our letters makes our friendship very strong. When we chat on Skype, it is so hard to stop, we keep chatting away as if we have known each other (personally) for ages. Yet, we have never met till

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Susanne Schulz, Germany, PenPal of the month October 2010

as a penpal of the month you may not have a clue neither about the website itself, nor about the contest. That is how I felt completely puzzled that I have won something that I had no clue that I was running for. The email that I received went on about how this was not a scam and that my friend Teresa had nominated me! I was flattered, honored and happy about the award - stationary! Yeah!!! :) You can never have enough of those, can you? The correspondence that followed was mainly to establish my snail mail address to receive the goodies and of course to fill out the questionary about my PenPal of the Month Page! Moreover, I got to share my happiness with all of you, the readers of SandbookNet‘s PenPal Magazine!”

When I come to think of it, I do not know who was the first one to write. However, I remember that a German girl living in France and a Czech girl living in The Netherlands started being penpals in 2003. Susi has been a great friend to me many years and I do not think of her as a penpal, but as a friend. Her letters, always nicely decorated from the envelope to the last page, have been bringing a smile on my face anytime I find it in my mailbox. I can say that our daily lives are rather different in many ways: Susi likes to relax at home after work with letters, making her amazing hand-made cards, listening to music, drinking tea and taking care/spoiling her guinea pig Chouquette (hugs to the little princess through this article :)). On the other hand, I enjoy being out a lot, hanging out with my friends in tearooms, hiking at the weekends... basically lots of social and outdoor activity.

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It all starts with a quick filling out of a blank that’s offered on the website and your nomination is done in no time. “Hi Sandbook team! I would love to nominate my dear Susi for the Penpal of the Month Award. Let me share some of the interesting and I think unique points of our penpal-friendship: Susi and I have been penpalling since about 6 years. Our friendship has grown tremendously since then. When we started penpalling, we were both living in a county different than where we came from. We don’t only write cute snail mail letters, but also write sms daily for good morning and to tell any news. Susi and I write to each other in 4 different languages (English, French, German, Spanish) mixing them in the sentences randomly in every single letter. Susi is a master of stationeries and hand-made cards for any occasion. I recently got married, and she was so wonderful as to make 150 wedding invitations for our wedding!!! 150 hand-made cards with a design that we had discussed. :) Plus, she also sent a monetary gift for our wedding (she is seriously a crazy pallie). Susi and I have never ever met, nor spoken to each other on the phone! and yet we have such a strong friendship! She truly deserves the award of the month!!!” Then you visit more of the pages, read the blog and go on with your daily life until one day....

Our PenPals of the month October 2010

PenPal & Swappers Ads

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SandBook.Net Team

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What is the policy on Commersial Ads? Commercial Ads are paid ads for products or service that is not classified as a penpal or a swapper ad or an add from a small business that provides supplies for correspondence (stationary, address labels). Such ads are going to be negotiated with the respective companies. For more information email magazine@sandbook.net

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Our Ad Policy: 1) We are not a dating site/community - write appropriate ads to have them published. 2) No inmates - we have kid members in our community! Don’t refer neither our website nor our magazine to inmates. 3) No money requests - such ad will result in your permanent ban from our community. 4) Snail mail addresses - we are not going to publish any snail mail addresses. We don’t want others to abuse the addresses that are published here. So you are going to be in charge of sending your home addresses to friends. We will only publish your email address. 5) Religious, racial or discriminative materials would not be tolerated. 6) Any form of abusive or rude language is forbidden and will result in your permanent ban from our community.

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Who can post an Ad? Anyone can post an ad in search for swappers or penpals.

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How to place an ad in the magazine? Go to www.sandbook.net and go to the Magazine section. Then simply click “Place an Ad” and you will have to fill out the form that loads on your computer screen. Don’t forget to give us feedback on what you think about the magazine so far.

PenPal and Swappers Ads

Tatjana, Germany tat j ana _ 2 0 3 tp @ Virginie, Germany hotmail.com bosieoscar @ web. My name is Tatjana, I’m 27 de years old and I live in the I’m 31 and very much middle of Germany. I’m into travelling, especially looking for female snail to Ireland, but also writ- mail penpals around my ing, Indie - music, going age. I like reading, music, to concerts, pubs etc. I of course writing letters have studied German and I am interested in

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Charity Ortiz, USA suchabigdreamer@ yahoo.com Hello all! I’m 35, from Southern California, USA and going to be a firsttime single mommy in early March. I’d love to hear from new moms or moms-to-be (esp. single moms), ages 25 and up, in the U.S.A. only who write long letters regularly, want long-term friendship, are friendly, positive, open, honest, who like to swap nice Mom FB’s (will gladly take your excess), stickers, and other fun things that fit into an envelope, who I have at least a few things in common with & don’t mind typed letters. I have MANY interests such as reading, writing, animals, movies, music, Sanrio, GOD, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, the entertainment industry, psychology, anything Disney, learning to cook and bake, scented candles & tarts, and more. Please send me

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Anna Oldani, Italy anna . ann u ccia @ gmail.com Hello everyone! I’m Anna, 29 y/o from Italy... I’m searching new friends near my age all over the world... I love snailmail...I love foreign languages and foreign cultures... I like to share cultures but also to talk about daily life.. I think it’s the best way to know each other and becoming friends and in the same time learning how people can live at the other side of the world... I also swap postcards and FBs with my letters. I collect postcards that are my great love and I love postcrossing, too. Please contact me by e-mail: anna.annuccia@gmail.com or on facebook Anna Oldani.

learning about different countries and cultures. You can write me in English, German or French. My email-address is tatjana_203tp@hotmail. com. I’m looking forward to your message, so that we can exchange our postal addresses and start writing letters.

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and English literature, so I have a passion for books and reading. I am interested to get to know new people, no matter where they are from nor how old they are.

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and therefore you may be interested in becoming snail mail pen pals, please send me a long e-mail to introduce yourself and I will forward you my mailing address. Please write more than just few lines so I can get a picture of who you really are! :) I would prefer you write the first letter, but it’s not a demand, so just let me know what you are comfortable with! Please note that I’m not looking for someone who just wants to collect pen pals or writes the same letters to everyone! I’ll accept typed letters, though, because when I’m really busy I love to take advantage of technology and tend to often type my letters as well. And I look for friends who write long letters on a regular basis, not someone you hear from every 5-6 months! Please, no men, no romance, no money requests, no spammers! Please no religious mail. Thanks a million for reading this ad!

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hear your stories about motherhood! But it isn’t a must... I’ll be happy to write to all people I judge interesting enough!! :) I love writing very very long chatty letters putting lots of passion and creativity in it, running (I managed to run my first marathon in November 2007 and would like to train for another one in the near future), hiking, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, keeping fit in general, being outdoors, spending time with my husband and son, reading books both in Italian and in English language to improve it, photography, listening to music, Take That, surfing the net, cooking, baking, creativity, crafts, travelling, Ireland, Sweden, shopping, receiving/collecting postcards, nature, gardening, orchids, learning foreign languages and getting to know other cultures, documentaries about history, animals (I have a “Calico” cat), watching soccer matches, long conversations with my friends, dancing, drinking good red wine, Christmas markets, Winnie the Pooh, Diddl writing papers… Actually, my interests and passions are sooooo many, I can’t name them all! If you think we could “click”

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in English, but I want to improve my skills in these languages). Also looking for pals for journal type project: to exchange illustrated letters telling our life feelings and so on with or without a few words. Ideal is if you like swapping too. I am looking also for a few new swappers. I swap nice and neat fb’s, slams, decos, label and goodie bags, sometimes lyrics. If you are interested I can S ini / 2 7 / F in l and also swap little goodies shaoy@luukku.com like stationery, stickers, I am interested in psy- memo sheets, matchchology, another cul- boxes, ATCs, inchies, tures and countries, sec- used stamps, chocolade ond hand, vintage, street bars and little surprises. I fashion, literature, every look for honest and loyal day philosophy, art, re- swappers who are willing ligions, voluntary work, to send first (sorry, have maps, human rights. My had some bad experienchobbies are adventurous es). Around 100 gr once in travelling with a back- 1-2 months. World wide. pack, playing with my little nephews and niece, Sara /32/ Italy being in nature, long villatwins@libero.it chats, nice cafes, cook- Greetings all of you feling, international proj- low snailmail long letter ects, some sports, swap- lovers! ping and crafts, classical I’m a 32 years old happily music and reading good married mum from Italy books. I am looking for and I would like to find penpals around my age some more dedicated with similar interests. and sincere snail mail pen World wide and friend- pals around my age that I ship only. I can write in can develop a friendship English or Finnish, but es- with and deeply get to pecially I look for people know. Other mums are who can write in Swed- very welcome, especially ish, Estonian, German or considering I’m a mum Czech (though possibly I as well and I’d love to must answer you at first share experiences and

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Rossina, Netherlands, nijntje_pluisss@hotmail.com Hi y’all, Isn’t it nice to find a nice, fat envelope in your mailbox? And when you open it, you’ll find a chatty, long and decorated letter. Love it? Me too! My name is Rosina, I’m 29 years old an I live in the Netherlands. I’m the kind of person who loves to write nice, decorated en chatty letters, and for that reason I’m looking for penpals around my

good thing, it keeps me from buying too much), but when I find cute stationery on the internet or in a shop, I can’t stop staring at it... I want it, want it, WANT IT! Well I could tell a really long story about me, but I think it’s better to save some information for in our first letters. Getting interested? Please contact me at nijntje_pluisss@hotmail. com!

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Annelies, Belgium anne l ies . tiebe @ gmail.com I like crafts, reading, collecting empty teabags and stamps. I enjoy nature, photography and walking. I have 1 son, called Tiebe and he is 4 years old. Facebook: Annelies Wouters Write soon.

age from anywhere in the world (female penpals only, I’m happily married, I’m sorry guys!). I’m looking for the kind of penpal who loves to write about anything. Fun stuff, but also the more serious subjects,something about our countries, our habits and our cultures, our interests, news subjects, just anything that keeps you busy. And maybe sometimes we could even exchange some little gifts. Some of my interests are (of course) penpalling, shopping, surfing the internet, traveling and making daytrips, photography, reading.... As you can see, I’m quite a calm person, I don’t go out very often. Well, I don’t go out very often in a discothequeway, I mean. I really do love to go out to a nice and cozy restaurant or the cinema. I’m the kind of person who is sometimes quite insecure about herself, and for that reason I don’t have lots of friends. I think for me, that’s why penpalling is a better way to make contact to people and to build up a friendship. I love everything cute and kawaii, and I must say that I am one big stationery addict. Unfortunately bank account does not allow me to buy a lot of stationery (or maybe... that’s a

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Sarisa,Thailand ellie356@gmail.com I am 31 years old and would like only snailmail penpals, preferably female. My hobbies are watching movies, reading ( vampires, comedy, mystery), shopping, traveling and so on. Hand-writing letters preferred. Would like to share daily lifes, culture shocks, whatever talks and even discussing how good single life is, lol.

PenPal & Swappers Ads an email or message me on Facebook and tell me a little about yourself if interested. Hope to hear from you soon! Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/ CharityMarie www . sandboo k . net at news l atest the chec k it ?

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Heidi Weand, USA h j weand 1 9 7 0 @ yahoo.com Find me on facebook.

Lisa Oaks, Utah USA yin_stressed_out@ yahoo.com My name is Lisa Oaks. I live in Utah USA. I would love female pals from all over the world between ages of 18 and 30. I am into: paranormal, haunting, hiking, camping, writing, crafts. I am married with 3 boys and a boy due February 13, 2011.

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Tracey, Scotland trace _ watt 1 @ hotmail.com Hi Im looking for people who enjoy writing long letters and enjoy writing regular. My name is Tracey and I am 26 from Aberdeen, Scotland. I am willing to write to people from all over theworld.

pals. I am looking for women aged mid 60’s to mid 70’s. If you were born on June 22, 1941, I would love to hear from you. I am a counted cross stitch addict. I always have two books on the go and my favorite authors are Archer Mayor and Jodi Picoulet.I have been a school bus driver for 32 years, but after this school year I am being forced to retire because of my age. I am involved with the school as an in school mentor with Big Brothers and Big Sisters. I am a divorced Mother to three brilliant children, all in their 40’s, and I have 4 awesome grandchildren. If I interest you, then drop me a line. My e-mail address is jodyspal@xplornet.com Thank you all for reading this

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Donna Walk, 33, USA DonnaGWalk@aol.com I’m looking for fun long letter pals who love to swap sparkly and cute decos. I’m a 33 year old Kara Lauzon, 34 female who loves spendyears old, Canada ing time with my boyk l l a u z on 7 6 @ friend, my family, my job yahoo.ca at the daycare, photograMy name is kara Lauzon. I phy, scrapbooking, hallive in St. Catharines, On- loween, bats, owls, hair tario, Canada. My email dye, hello kitty, badtz ikllauzon76@yahoo.ca. maru, japan, kawaii, gliitI am 34 yrs old and I am ter, stars, the 80’s, all 80’s looking for pals around cartoons, horror movmy age who are willing ies, plastik/pvc, cherries, to write. babies, facebook, domo kun, cpk, vintage, flea Hazel, 29, England markets, pinkness, polkahorseaddict @ dots, festivals,concerts, and loads more. I answer btinternet.com Hi, my name is Hazel and most. I am looking for new penpals all around the world. Norma Trevino, USA I am 29, my hobbies in- normababy.trevino1@ clude horses, dogs, card gmail.com making, scrap booking, Hi I am Norma Trevino music, movies, TV, jour- from Wheeling WV. I am nalling and writing let- 43 married and mom to ters. I would love to swap 3 spoiled cats and god fb’s etc, but have not re- mom to a little month ally done swaps before. and a half little boy. I Write soon! enjoy reading, crafts, music, movies, thrift A nggraeni stores, animals, volunteer Wulandari, Indonesia work, making labels and

stationery, the outdoors, cooking, baking, the holidays, being creative, friendship, my family and just tons more. I am looking for sincere pen pals and swappers of stationery and stickers. Email me at: normababy. trevino1@gmail.com

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Renate Palmer, 21years old, England can . i . te l l . y o u . a . stor @ hotmai l . com I am interested in photography, swapping, animals - guinea pigs/

x_sam_cool_keren@ yahoo.com Hi. I’m Wulan, 19.y.o. I love nature photography, drawing, and gardening. Now, I’m in university. Age, gender, religion, etc doesn’t matter for me, so let’s be penpals.

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Robin Currie, 27, USA, Swapfanatic@ yahoo.com. Looking for female pals in the USA any age is fine. I have lots of different interests and love getting to know new people.

dogs, psychology, travel, charity and volunteering, cooking and exercise, I have lived on my own since I turned 17 and have been to college to study to be a counsellor, I am now volunteering before looking for a job. I’m not very girly but far from a tom boy, I love the countries Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Russia and France. I walk dogs for the elderly.

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Sandra Lundberg, Sweden, dont. trust.anyone@live. se I’m 21 year old girl from Sweden and I am looking for pen pals from all over the world. But especially from England, Germany, Japan and New Zealand. Around 17-25 years old. My interests: Obviously writing and reading but also movies, other languages, history, paranormal and so much more that I can’t come up with now. I love The Vampire Diaries. I’ve seen the serie and I’ve started to read the books. I’m on book 3 right know and on season 2. MOVIES I LIKE The Twilight saga, Paranormal activity, Remember me, American Pie, Pirates of the caribbean (all 3), The fast and the furious movies and so on. TV SHOWS I LIKE Vampire Diaries, Viva la Bam, Jackass, True Blood,

from all over the world! I’m fairly easy to get along with, and I’m also realistic (life isn’t a box of bliss). For a pessimist, I’m pretty optimistic! :D Anyways, I’m 19 and one of 8 siblings. I like people of all backgrounds and sexual orientations. I want a penpal I can write to, opposed to e-mail. Of course we’d start off with e-mail, but then it’d be snail mail! Hmm, my interests are: writing, reading, poetry, drawing, lolita and gothic fashion, hair dye (my hair’s currently blue and black), and I like: learning languages, rock music, K-pop, Asian drama, movies, dark literature. I like writing stories and would love to become a novelist someday! If I peak your interests, feel free to contact me!

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Jeremiah Benard, 20, Uganda, jeremiah. benard@yahoo.com I would love to meet new friends from all over the world. Email me.

er and later we can write letters ;) You should be around my age and also like to write much. I would prefer to get to know somone from a Spanish speaking country to try to improve my Janis, 43, England, Spanish, but everyone is janis1966@live.co.uk welcome! So, come one My name is Janis and I and write to me! :-) am 43. I am looking for penpals from all over Michele Hardin /33/ milyha2010@ the world. My hobbies USA, include collecting post- yahoo.com cards, fridge magnets I am a SAHM of a 13 year and cross stitch. I would old. I am happily married also like to swap with to John and we have people and swap post- been together for 9 years. cards, pretty paper pens I have many hobbies, stickers and anything including reading, else that will fit in an en- writing, photography, the velope. paranormal, gardening, collecting things, Berit, 18, Germany tattoos, computers, berit-ziermann@web. and many more. I want de to make friends that Hello, My name is Berit will continue to write (18y.o.girl from Germa- and will write about ny). I still go to school anything,their day, their to get my ABI, which is family, their hobbies, the German qualifica- etc. I promise that I will tion to go to university. continue to write to you. I speak German, English I also like to swap things and some Spanish (I am with my letters such as still learning). My hob- FBs, stickers, stationary, bies are meeting my recipes, comics, whatever friends, writing mails/ you want. Feel free to ask letters, judo, singing me anything. and lots of other funny things :) I would like to Jamara Jones, uSa get to know some nice Jampara j u l iet @ pen pals that don’t stop gmail.com writing after the 2nd or Hi everyone! My name 3rd letter/email. I would is Jamara, or Mara for prefer writing emails first short, and I am 19. I’d to get to know each oth- love to have penpals Simpsons, SouthPark, Lost, Haunted houses, Miami ink.... Write me a mail if you’re interested in writing to me. Only snailmail after the email.

Naoko Oishi, Japan daichki@yahoo.com Hobbies and interests: Music, movies, dogs, FB swapping, foreign languages, Spain and South Korea. New Pen Pals Wanted, especially from Europe and Englishspeaking countries. Write real soon!

Alison, 43, UK ma l in @ ma l in . Sally, 59, Canada karoo.co.uk j od y spa l @ I am Alison, mum to 4 from xplornet.com Hull UK. Hobbies: writing My search is for specific letters travelling music 41

PenPal & Swappers Ads reading TV computer family, UK and abroad, from 26 upwords.

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Kassy Davis, 25, USA

Maddy Ray, UK maddyand j ay 57 @ hotmai l . com My hobbies and intrest are writting letters . cooking ,swapping fbs and recipes . listing to music. email maddyandjay57@ hotmail.com

Heidi, 41, Australia heidima@optusnet. com.au Heidi Maier 14 Westcombe Place Rooty Hill NSW 2766 AUSTRALIA Have been palling for over 15 years now. I am 41 years of age. Hobbies include travelling, writing to pals, swapping FBS and Slams, collecting souvinor spoons, reading, listening to music, watching TV and Movies and lots more. Would love more pals from any state in the USA, Japan, Hong Kong, Ireland, Scotland and Moscow. Will answer all who write. Prefer snail mail.

Maria Stewart, UK stewart . c l an @ y ahoo . co . u k FacebookID:Stewart Clan My names Maria, I’m 46, married and from the UK. I’m looking for female

Heather Carrabis /27/ MA, USA heather.carrabis@ gmail.com Hello, my name is Heather Carrabis. I’m 27 from Worcester, MA (USA). I enjoy reading, writing, watching TV & movies, walking and many more. I enjoy swapping, FB’s, slams, deco’s, label bags etc. E-mail is heather. carrabis@gmail.com Hope to hear from you.

Sara, 31, Italy sari u x @ l ibero. it My name is Sara, I’ m 31, married, no children. I’ve 3 cats and 1 dog. I’m from Italy and I speak English, french, spanish and a little bit of german. I’d like new pen pals from all over the world near my age!

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Lesley Griffin, USA l j griff 3 4 @ gmai l . com I AM LESLEY I WAS BORN IN BUGBROOKE I WAS A NURSE AND MARRIED TO SAMUEL I ENJOY WRITTING LETTERS AND CHATTING ON FACEBOOK AND HAVE MET SOME GOOD AND WONDERFUL FRIENDS ON HERE. I ALSO ENJOY PHOTOGRAPHIC WORK AS YOU WILL SEE BY MY PROFILE my hobbies are writing and computer works driving and i am married -53 years of age I am looking for some

Colleen, 45, USA, pob905@yahoo.com Hi everyone!! My name is Colleen. I am 45 and from the USA. Love reading, 60s and 70s music, crafts, journals, mysteries, cooking, old movies, hiking, stationary, anything celtic, fairies, pixes, writing, penpalling, swapping fb’s/stickers/ stationary. Male/Female welcome from all over the world. Email:

Dave Stewart UK stewart . c l an @ y ahoo . co . u k Facebook ID: Stewart Clan My names Dave, I’m 46, married and from the UK. I’m looking for male snail mail penpals, that aren’t going to disappear after the first couple of letters. I should mention I have to type my correspondence, due to arthritis ~ I hope this wouldn’t be a problem :o) Some of my interests include football, miliataria, rugby, travel and loads more :o) If you feel you’d like to embark on a life long friendship, please feel free to drop me an email and/or send me a message and add me as a friend on Facebook :o)

kassy_davis@yahoo.com Wanted: Penpals and Stamp Collectors. My name is Kassy Davis. Just turned 25. Single. Look me up on Facebook. You’ll know me when you see my weird toes. I started collecting stamps a few months ago, just started making FB’s, I trade stickers and travel brochures for stamps. Looking for penpals and stamps collectors from all over the world. You may contact me through Facebook or email me at: kassy_davis@yahoo.com

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sandy martin, UK sandy90@live.co.uk I am looking for high quality fb and deco swappers worldwide. if interested email me. no men! or time waisters please!

Suleiman, Kenya Mwatajiris@yahoo. com My hobbies are (sweeming, reading novel,footb all,basketball,beachwalk)

snail mail penpals, that aren’t going to disappear after the first couple of letters. I should mention I have to type my correspondence, due to arthritis ~ I hope this wouldn’t be a problem :o) Some of my interests include animals, arts & crafts, reading, travel and loads more :o)If you feel you’d like to embark on a life long friendship, please feel free to drop me an email and/or send me a message and add me as a friend on Facebook :o)

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Rose Valencia, USA rosev 4 4 8 @ gmai l . com My interests, love to play on line game, I am a artist, love to write to my penpals love going on

Carol McNatt SwtBtrCup@aol.com Collect postcards, windchimes, magnets and stickers. Prefer pals near my age. Love the paranorma, history, reading, penpals, crafts. SwtBtrCup@aol.com also SwtBtrCup on Facebook. Swap postcards, FBs, etc. No inmates.

new penpals i have got some i have written to for years and i have been penpalling long before the facebook and the internet were ever heard of i was 12 at the time and i remember sitting in my bedroom writing letters on what would be at the time the old typewritter well would love to get some new penpals love lesley and thanks for all you are doing.

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Cathy W, 24, USA Cathydolphinlvr@ gmail.com Facebook www.facebook.com/cathydolphinlvr I’m 24 going on 25 in april, Im looking for New penpals, No men, sorry guys, in a committed relationship.

my space/facebook,love to chat,i have a lot of interests. Hobbies love walking, bakeing, love the beach like alot lol

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ing, card making, bookmark making, I love to play MPRPG~Runescape Collects~ stickers, stationery, postcards, fairies, butterflies, dragonflies, dopey, tweety bird , ty bean babies, wind chimes. I also collect celebrity autographs!! Swaps~ f.b.‘s, f.s.‘s, postcards, stickers, stationery. Favorite Authors~ R.L. Stine, Stephen King, Patricia Cornwell, Stephenie Meyer, Kim Harrison, V.C. Andrews to name a few. I also run a facebook group for twilight fans into pen palling called “TwiPals”. Looking for pen pals in~ Europe, South America, Asia, & Hawaii. Will not respond to anyone from Africa.

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Leann My myspace: http://myspace.com/angelbabyann23 Leann, 30 http://public.fotki.com/ P en Pa l l ing F oo l @ angelbabyann23_ aol.com For sale items: Hello my name is Leann http://public.fotki.com/ Francis and I am 30 and a t a g g e r g u r l / f o r - s a l e married mom of 2 boys. I items/_ currently work part to full My google account: time hours and am a full _http://w w w.google. time college student and com/profiles/OneNOnwould like others to talk lyLeeLee_ to. I also make and sell My Tagged: items such as stationary _http://w w w.tagged. address labels and more. com/sweet_n_sassy_ If interested in writing to babe_ me or even in items I sell or swap please email me Lissa, 21, England for my address at _Pen- k awaii 1 9 8 9 @ peallingfool@aol.com hotmail.co.uk I make n sell address I am 21 and female livlabels stationary and ing in Brighton, England. more.. I am looking for penpals WANT new Pals: I have who will stay in touch via a new pen pal news let- email. I would also like ter contact me for more penpals from Japan as info... I am learning Japanese My new pen pal website: and would like to make h t t p : / / p e n p a l s f o r - friends with some Japae v e r a n d a l w a y s . w e t - nese women. I am not p a i n t . c o m / ? u t m _ interested in penpalling source=Wetpaint&utm_ with men. medium=Email&utm_ t e r m = A l e r t s & u t m _ k err y bear 7 @ campaign=Social) yahoo.com Kerry Join my groups: Ellis-Ouimette, 34, http://groups.yahoo. USA com/group/FunSwaps- I am married to Jason N-Palz_ since October 29th 2005 http://groups.yahoo. Loves~ NKOTB~Jon & com/group/TaggerGurl- Twilights ~”Jasper” aka sAlwaysList_ Jackson Rathbone be sure you mention Loves~ reading, writing, that you saw it on my pen pal letters, stories, poemail when joining hugs ems, internet, scrapbook-

Estela Edo, Spain j j roda @ terra . es I swap labelbags and FBs. I am always searching for new swappers. I collect viewcards (postcards). You can contact me on my facebook (search for my name or email there) as well as via email. 43

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Kathy Moss, 59, USA g k athymoss @ att. net I am 59 and I live in USA. My hobbies are of course the computer; reading listing to music; doing search a words, penpaling scrapbooking and TV. I have a pet called Lou.

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from all over the world. I mostly swap celebrity clippings. I have A-Z files on many of your favourite stars. My magazine collection goes as far back as 1983. Here is a list of things I collect: 1- Stickers 2- Stationery and Greeting Cards 3- Madonna 4- Gerard Butler 5- Matt Passmore (actor from the tv show “The Glades”) 6- Buttons 7- Seed beads 8- Cross-stitch patterns, magazines, books 9- “The Outsiders” (movie from 1983 starring C.Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon and Ralph Macchio) 10-Jigsaw puzzles (100300 pieces) 11-Pink 12-Carey Mulligan 13-Ginnifer Goodwin 14-Halle Berry Please send me an E-mail with your list and we can start swapping!

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Amanda Ogutu, Karina, 31, Canada Australia, 37 karinafioremarcil@ cuties@y7mail.com hotmail.com I’m a happily married My name is Karina, i Christian Mama with 4 am from Canada. IM 31 Amy, 41y.o., USA, precious children aged years old married with stefani k . am y @ 18mths, 32mths, 14yrs 3 kids from 9 years to comcast.net and 18yrs. My inter2 months. I would like My name is Amy Stefanik ests include baking and to have penpal from and I am 41 years old. my cooking, creating pixel all over the world. I like hobbies include : walk- graphics, reading, mucooking, photography, ing, pen palling, reading, sic (anything other than penpalling, horse riding, scrapbooking, shopping, heavy metal, and I’m dolphing, twilight and surfing the net, listen- not into 50 cent, 2pac, many more. If you are ining to music, writing etc.), gardening, spendterested drop me some Joy wreede, 38, USA, poetry, watching tv and ing time with my family line in my email karin- j oy ly nnwreede @ dvd’s, traveling, hanging (they are my world), paafioremarcil@hotmail. aol.com out with friends and so per crafts, and writing to com I am a 38 yr old mom/wife much more. I love to col- my penpals. I’m looking of over 20 years. i have lect : unicorns, fairies, an- for female friends only, Viv, 38, USA a great husband, 3 kids gels, teddy bears, web- (no offence), someone viv_rush@yahoo.com and 3 dogs. i am fully kinz, pens, bookmarks, who would like to swap Hello. My name is Viv disabled and bed ridden postcards, mangets, recipes with me would and I’m a 38 year old and on oxygen most of keychains and whatever be great :) but it’s not a lady living near Florida, the time. i am not one to else I find interesting. requirement. I’m really USA. My email address want sympathy just epals Feel free to ask me any- looking forward to makis: viv_rush@yahoo.com to help pass the time. i thing. :) ing some new friends, I love music, travel, art, love to read, listening nothing beats the feelfashion, writing, mov- to country music, being jeanie schade, 31, ing of opening you mail ies, gardening, cooking, online, alot of tv shows in usa, jeanieschade@ box to find a letter from

snailmail friends from all Galina from Russia over the world - particu- ga l pi k a - 2 0 0 7 @ Tionna Mosley, 27, larly Iceland, India, Po- rambler.ru USA, mzangelkiss@ land and Nepal. I’m searching for friends y ahoo . com around the world. My Hello everyone, I’m Tion- Anna, 26, Sweden hobbies are collecting na. I’m looking for pen- vegetarianna 83 @ postcards stamps and pals between the ages hotmail.com. little souvenirs like nice of 25-55.I am not mar- Hi! My name is Anna and greeting from friends. I ried, no kids yet.(not ex- I’m from a city named enjoy writing letters and pecting) I want to write Malmö in Sweden. I’m doing swapping. I’m insomeone who has things 26 years old and I’m still terested in traditions very in common with me. My studying. My interests much and I like travelling. hobbies are writing let- are: theatre, travelling, I could write you a lot of ters, sending small gifts, reading book, writing let- interesting information swapping, reading urban ters, sing and sew. As for about Russian lifestyle fiction, video games (the my education, I’ve been and will be waiting for sims2,and xbox), bowl- studying a long while your ideas about great ing, movies (Disney and know and also been post-crossing. Best wishany others), collecting working. For 3 years when es Galina DVDS, making address la- I was around 19 years old bels on my home PC, tex- I started to study theatre Lisa Porche, 40, USA ting, facebook, cooking, and it has been my favor- pin k stitchings @ shopping, dancing, and ite thing for a long time y ahoo . com . anything fun. I am open and it still is, but I haven’t Hi, my name is Lisa. I am minded and sincere. I pre- got enough time for it 40yrs. old & a SAHM of 3 fer to hand write my let- now. At the moment I’m kids (‘90,’92,’99). I have ters but sometimes I type writing my thesis in li- been married for 11 1/2 too. I love nature, animals, brary and information yrs. I enjoy swapping art, poetry, candles, body science. I really enjoy Friendship Books, Label lotions, purses/bags, and travelling, I’ve been to In- bags, postcards (from my decorating my apart- dia, Japan, Egypt, Russia home state & city), ATCs ment. I’ll tell you more if and almost every coun- & sticker bags. I started we become friends, hope try in Europe. I’ve been swapping about 2 yrs. to hear from you. working at libraries, cafés ago but stopped last year and with mentally dys- & then started up again Sandra, 48, function/disorder. I like about 4 months ago. S cot l and making dresses on my NSW, NPW, A/M, USA Only, scot l andforme @ sewing machine too :) I’m NO inmates/ No Men. y ahoo . co . u k looking for pen pals in Hello. scotlandforme@ya- USA, Canada and Europe. Lisa Overduin, hoo.co.uk I’m in Scotland, I’m happy to receive let- 40, Canada, 48 years old and like all ters from all the world, so l isaoverd u in @ sorts of things from read- don’t hesitate to write. If hotmail.com ing to travelling when I you’re an interesting per- 5PrickedFinger5.etsy. can. I’d love to hear from son I’ll answer! com some female email or I am looking for swappers a friend ♥

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y ahoo . com Hobbies: music, sports, movies, concerts, scrapbooking, penpalling, internet, computers, swapping, tv, traveling, tattoos, outdoors, tanning, and lots more. Swaps: fbs, crams, slams, stationary, stickers, postcards, sticker bags, and label bags. Collects: frogs, candles and beanie babies Penpals: ages 20-40 usa and canada only, no prisoners

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Stefania / 30 / Italy / stebovio@tin.it My hobbies are penpalling, reading, listening to music, collecting (postcards, fridge-magnets, coins, banknotes, stamps, phonecards.), travelling, taking photos. I love stationery, stickers, gelpens, decotapes, etc. and I like swapping with my pals. I’m looking for some sincere regular snail mail pals or swappers just around my age, no men or prisoners.

the evening, and much more. I collect several things which include: angels, bookmarks, candles, dolphins, teddy bears, white tigers and wolves. I am not one to talk about politics or religion. I would prefer female epals only who are possibly married or has kids so we have something in common. I am really laid back and rather easy to get along with as most say. Feel free to ask me anything which you would like I am rather open about my health and many other issues.

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magazines, animals, and more. I swap postcards, regular and nice and neat friendship books, and occassionally stamps, stationery or stickers. I’m seeking sincere ladies to write to in postal mail who are also looking for friendship. I am a loyal friend and honest swapper. I hope to hear from you. :)

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Sandy, Age 35 sandyxrs@talktalk. net Looking for penpals to snail mail and swap with, I enjoy gardening, Writing and Getting letters. I enjoy card making and Book mark making I am into crafts. I am disabled as I am half Blind. But I write with pen except for the bad days when I used computer. I am willing to write first letter. My email address is sandyxrs@talktalk.net

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Sunny Chauncey, 25, Florida, USA HisTechnoAngel@yahoo.com Hello. I’m a Pisces. I’m married! I’m in my area’s orchestra, playing clarinet. I also played tenor sax. I crochet. I am learning knitting and how to spin (fiber into yarn). I got into ATCs (art-

ist trading cards) and I ADORE making (and receiving!) them :). I am doing my first altered/ chunky book. I love animals and have owned many over the course of my life. I have a little boy, who is currently 3 and SO much fun. I love everything to do with Ireland. I love history. I love horror and comedy movies. I watch quite a bit of TV... too many shows I follow to name, but here’s a few: The Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, Family Guy, Futurama, White Collar, Psych, Burn Notice, Modern Family, The Office, and many more lol. I play games on my Playstation 3 and on the computer. I love playing games -it is just a fun thing to do. I am a book fanatic. I like Anne Rice, Phillipa Gregory, Laurell K Hamilton, Angie Sage, Rick Riordan, and Sherrilyn Kenyon.... to name a few. I am obsessed with Superman. I collect anything and everything on Superman! I love old movies. Gene Kelly, Tony Curtis, and Cary Grant would have been all over my walls. I love vintage- vintage ads, pictures, postcards, books, etc. Email me at: HisTechnoAngel@yahoo.com

Karen MacDonald, 41, Canada, shoprgal@live.ca Hi everyone! My name is Karen and I am from Canada. I have been pen-palling for many years and enjoy it very much. I am 41 years old

and live on my own with my son who is 15. I am looking for somewhat long letter pals who have similar interests to mine. Some of mine include: reading, fishing, gardening, bird watching, animals, the outdoors, going shopping, crafting, (rubber stamping, scrapbooking, latch hook, plastic canvas, stamped cross stitch) to name some. I have some collections. They include postcards, rubber stamps, decorative hole punches, magazines, books, bookmarks, jewelry, and country decorating items. I am only looking to write to people in Canada and the U.S.A. due to high postage rates. Also ladies between the ages of 30 to 50. If I sound like someone you would enjoy writing...please drop me a line and start a friendship. Hope to hear from some of you soon.

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Jessica L. Helms, 23, Idaho, USA, helmzie21@gmail. com Hi everyone! I am looking for pals from everywhere! I love writing and have been doing it for many years, and one to always write back. I want a pal who is looking for a long term pal. I love postcards, so if you are interested in postcards. I have been trying to get one from every country! I have many, but I am very interested in the adventure I find ahead with getting as many cards as possible. I also enjoy movies. I have

many so always looking for a movie fanatic to discuss movies. Reading. I pretty much just read Nicholas Sparks. I collect coins, and bank notes, so if you are one of those I would love to help that way as well. I am getting so many countries, and I guess by writing brought the love of collecting cards and currency to my attention. I do swap friendship books. I don’t like tons at a time but enough to swap. I am a pen pal that works hard to stay in touch, and looking for people who have the same interest. I am open minded! I am just looking for fun, and learn about countries and other part of the world! I am also looking for scouting patches from all over. Scouting Patches from the Boy Scouts of American and similar groups from all over the world. I willing to swap anything of your interest. If you can help out I would really appreciate! Ciao!

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Mirjan Dekker, 31 (32 on november, 3 rd) The Netherlands mirs78@gmail.com Hello long-letter pals! I am a 31 years old Dutch woman looking for a few new female (snailmail) penpals around my age (from 20-35 years old) from all over the world. I love to write on cute stationery as it’s great to receive cute and fat mail:-) And because I have loads of cute stationery lying here that I think I will use this collection for many years from now on. I am looking for someone who will try to write on a regular basis (around once a month for example) and your letters have to contain at least 5-6 (both sides) A5 pages and up. They Beatriz, Spain have to be written from Birth year: 1980. the heart! I have been penpallingandletters@ into penpalling for a very gmail.com Hobbies: long time now and it is writing letters, reading,

music, playing piano, sports, animals, flowers, plants, nature, art, photography, mythology, history, literature, cooking, ancient civilizations (Greece, Egypt, Rome), archaeology, historical/ ancient buildings and sites, literature, landscapes, architecture, the sea, the beach, walks in nature, astronomy, maps, tulips, snow, drawing and painting, arts & crafts, geography, postcards, stamps, yoga, jogging, seashells, sunsets, sunny days, quotations, cinema, languages, travelling. I have a blog: Penpalling & Letters http:// penpallingandletters. blogspot.com

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Laura, 24, UK My name is laura lou, im 24, from the uk and my email addy is loobylou_2007@hotmail.co.uk. I love writing, drawing, reading, listening to music, penpalling, Harry Potter and many more.

really fun to do. I might be a bit picky but I have met different kinds of pals in the penpalling world. I have got such nice friends now even there’s a distance between us. I also love to exchange cute stuff like stationery or stickers and it would be great if you loved it too! But that is not a must as long your letters are long and personal. Besides penpalling, I also like travelling, going out, reading books, making cards, shopping, cute stationery, watching TV, doing fun stuff with my dear friends, listening to some great music and much more. I love my cats! I am a real cat woman, I always talk to them, hehe;) I see them as my kids. If you are a female around my age from all over the world that likes cute stationery and willing to write on a regular basis, please write me an e-mail with a long introduction of yourself! Dutchies are welcome as well :-) Can’t wait to find some new sincere penpals and start writing! Hugs Mir

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Josh, 30, USA, j cowan 1 1 0 0 @ yahoo.com Hello, my name is Josh Cowan. I am 30 years old and I have a good since of humor. I like snail mail Elena, Romania, better then email be31, tilli_trotter@ cause you can send little hotmail.com gifts with your letters. I ...a friend ... half of your am looking for male or heart, The half who is female Penpals age 18-

41 who can make me laugh or smile. My hobbies include making my own greeting cards.

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laughing with you, who is taking you in its arms when you cry, who supports you when have problems, who is fighting with you when you’re wrong or you’re about to make a mistake. The half who is crying with you when you are in trouble ,who sais huray when you are successful. The half who is doing anything it can for you to see the right path in life. The half that although is in another body, is beating in the same rhythm with your heart! This is a friend to me! More about me ... I love writing letters , I am doing this for more than 17 years now , and even if i found over the years many types of people, I still believe in humans, and still want to know countries, customs, lives...friends! Friends have been for me like the air I breath ... and all I want from them is respect!

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mio u z ic _ addict @ hotmail.fr I have tons of celeb/ band stuff such as posters, magazine articles and even cds for some that I want to get rid of. I have stuff on Boyzone, a lot on Britney Spears, tons of stuff on Hanson (more than 100 posters, cds, video tapes, real pictures and tons other, as I used to be a huge fan of them) also on 30 Seconds to Mars, Spice Girls, Madonna and a lot of others... If you are interested, send me a message and I will tell you if I have stuff on your fave celebrity/bands. I would like to have in exchange stuff on Nine Inch Nails, on some tennis players (especially on Richard Gasquet), Killing Joke and other post-punk bands, Emilie Autumn etc. If you have nothing on them, you can send me stationery instead. I am also willing to sell them, especially on Hanson as I have really a lot on them, including cds, real photos and tapes. Ok, I hope some people are interested and that we can do some nice swaps. :)

Hayes /19/ 47

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Noelle, 30, SPain san z _ noe l ia @ hotmail.com My name is Noelle, I’m thirty years old. I’m Spanish and I want Practise with you. I can write in English for my practice and after translate to Spanish for you. I’d like to meet people from around the world and all cultures and customs. They tell me their experiences, and I mine it. I love reading, cross stitch, music, hanging out with friends and if not, stay home with my boyfriend watching a good movie. I also love to spend time learning English and share with the world through my blog. If you want to know, write me. I hope read you soon. You can practice the exchange of English / Spanish with me at: My blog:

Donna Lueken, 49, Canada, donna . l u e k en @ yahoo.ca MY NAME IS DONNA, I AM 49 YEARS OLD. I WORK AT THE HOSPITAL AS an ENVIROMENTAL SERVICE WORKER, I BEEN THERE FOR 5 YEARS NOW. I HAVE ONE DAUGHTER SHE IS 29 YEARS OLD.I ALSO HAVE ONE GRANDDAUGHTER SHE IS 7 YEARS OLD AND IS IN GRADE 2. SOME OF MY INTERESTS ARE WRITING LETTERS, COOKING, WALKING, WATCHING TV,LISTENING TO MUSIC. MY HOBBIES ARE DOING CRAFTS .

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Rory, 39, South Africa, latimerj@ telkomsa.net My name is Rory Latimer. I am a 39 year old Male from South Africa. I enjoy writing letters and getting to know people. All I ask for is friendship from around the world. Please contact me and I will send you my snail mail address.

http://noelia-aprendiendoingles.blogspot.com/ Windows Live Group: http://blogaprendiendoingles.groups.live.com/ Page Facebook: http://www.facebook. com/AprendENGLISH Twitter: h t t p : / / t w i t t e r. c o m / aprendENGLISH

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Paula, 37, England, pin k l ioness @ googlemail.com I’m Paula Milburn, 37 years old. I live with my husband in the North East of England. I like collecting postcards and thimbles. Can write in English, German or French, read lots of other languages. I’m learning Afrikaans at the moment. If you’d like to be penpals email

Danny, 25, India dan y _ k a l l er y @ yahoo.co.in Hi, I am Dany from India. Male 25yrs, searching for some Long time Penpals from all over the world. I don’t have any preference for your language, country, color, or age. If you interested then please give me an email. I am working as Linux Engineer at the same time student of Computer Applications, living with parents and Sister in one of the most beautiful place in India called Kerala. in map, Southern end of India covered with Arabian Sea. Kerala is one of the famous Tourist places in India Called God’s own Country because of its natural Beauty. Hobbies: Most of my free times I will watch TV or Movies. I really love Animals and I have a Dog, Cat and some birds. I like to read IT related Subjects because it’s a part of my life and profession. Other topics are History, Travelogues, Historical Incidents or about Legends. I like to watch sports in TV, especially Cricket and Soccer. I would like to be a Wildlife or nature Photographer. I love photography very much. I

like to hear about other countries, culture, nature, festivals or celebrations, people and life. I would love to meet people from other countries. That will help me to learn lots of things about them or that country. Penpal Requests: Looking for only longtime friendship. I prefer Snail Mails because it gives us a real feeling of that friendship and also it would be more sincere than Emails, will be a great remembrance for us till the end of life. I am not a Penpal Collector or I don’t need many people but I only need that person who is having the same thinking or opinions of mine in Penpalling, like Longtime and Sincere Friendships. Anybody who loves to know about India or anything related to India can mail me. I will help you by giving my best. I don’t expect anything like money, marriage or any relationships so I can offer sincere longtime friendship from my side. If you found anything common in me or if you think that I will become a good friend of yours then don’t hesitate to mail me. Please add “Penpals” as Subject to your mail. I can easily find all my Personal (important) mails from SPAMS or Advertisements.

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Jaimie / 2 5 / U S A / pyari1985@ gmai l.

Heidi Karin Søvik 33, Norway o-rensoe@ online.no I’m looking for sincere female penpals worldwide from 30 years old and up to 100, who can write often and regularly. I am happily married, no kids, but we have two small dogs. I love our dogs, scrapbooking, a little gardening, camping in our caravan, Facebook, internet etc. I also love collecting and swapping postcards, stationary, stickers and also lot of other things. New

Elizabeth Thomas, 31, Trinidad And Tobago, lizzyt55@ yahoo.com Extroverted introvert who is addicted to cheesy romance novels and country music, with a witty sense of humour and a tad bit sassy. I am looking for like-minded penpals. All are welcomed whether snail or email pals. Trades FB’s, recipes, romance novels in e-books format, music in mp3 format, stickers, poems, short stories and coins.

me first on pinklioness@ googlemail.com for more information!

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Crystal, 33, Canada smo k e y s l ove @ sympatico.ca Calling all snail mail penpals. Hello there. I’m a 33 year old female from Brockville Ontario Canada. I’m looking for some long letter pals who enjoy writing. I have 2 children and a bunch of pets. I love animals, travelling, swimming, soap operas, country music, going for walks, spending time with my family and just having fun. I’m hoping to meet some chatty pals who always have something to write about. I don’t mind signing Fbs but please no slams. Look forward to hearing from you soon. Hugs

female regular swappers worldwide are also welcome, but no men, i can also send stamps back, just ask about any kind of swapping. My nickname on swapbot is hkso and I use the same nick name for postcrossing. Email pals and Facebook pals are also welcome.

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Lisa, USA immormino @ att. net I am a married mother to a 5 yr old daughter. I like penpaling, reading books, being on the internet. It will take me awhile to write back to you but I will write you. I am really busy with my daughter and work. I love camping, scrapbooking, Harry Potter, Twilight collecting postcards and keychains.

com Hello! My name is Jaimie, I am a girl, and I live in Florida, USA. I am looking for some International snail mail pen-pals. It does not matter where you are from. I am looking for someone around my age. I also like to swap post cards and currency (bank notes and coins). My hobbies besides pen-paling include: photography, shopping, music, movies, the beach, traveling, and hanging out with friends. I am currently a student. I’m going to school to become a cultural anthropologist. I also work in manufacturing. If you would like to be my pen-pal, then send me an email. Hope to hear from you soon!

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Chiaki, Japan 28, c_crystals@yahoo. co.jp Hello! I’m Chiaki, a 28year-old female from Japan. I’m looking for female snail pal from all over the world to talk about many things through letters! I like travelling, playing with cats, laughing, sleeping... I also like exchanging postcards, so please tell me if you want to talk over the cards! It would be nice if you are learning Japanese, having interests in Japan! But it’s OK if you don’t know about Japan well, you’ll know about it talking with me!!! I’m waiting for

your message!

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USA amber1991_13@ yahoo.com Hey there!! I am Amber (also know as) Kiva. I am 19 years old and I would like to make friends with anyone!!! I like boys, shopping, TV. , track, basketball, reading, computer , friends and family. I live in the USA and I can speak English but I am learning Japanese. But I will talk to anyone because I love to make new friends and learn about new things . If you want to talk to me just say hi or something. I like to SWAP so if you are into that I can swap too!! I also like to write poems, stories, and things.

Tracey Lewis, 44, Indiana USA alwaysmessinup2001@ yahoo.com My hobbies and interests are snail mail scrapbooking and journaling as well as making handmade crafts. I’ve been penpaling since I was 12 and for the past 19 years it was also a way for me to tell of how I dealt 49

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Debra Tatnell, 46, UK now_what@ btinternet.com Hobbies writing and receiving long letters, reading, collecting items,

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Leo Probyns, 28, Sierra Leone l eoprob y ns @ acco u ntant. com I’m Leo Probyns, 28. I came from a small family of two. I am a friendly guy who believes that true and real friendship has got a modest role to play in our personal lives. Really, I must let you know that my interests are buried deep down in snail mailing, friendship, family, traveling, camping, swimming, watching soccer and basketball, movies, reading and cooking. But on the contrary, I hate lies and delays as they are both procrastinating, and as such, could not in any way help build up a good friendship. I also hate people who pose or pretend to be whom they’re not. I simply like simple people. Personally, I think true friends are the embodiment of our souls that gives us security, warmth & comfort when we seem to be scared, lonely, jilted and even Battered! That we can say what we think, write what we

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Hall, Christine 45, Hampton, New Hampshire cabha l l @ hotmai l . co m I am a unemployed, divorced empty nester. I have cyclothymia... which is a mild type of bipolar. I would like penpals and postcard swappers. I also swap stickers and friendship books. I like movies, writing,photography, animals, walking, hiking, geocashing, facebook, crafts,nature, postcard, stickers, crafting supplies, day trips, traveling, friends, etc.

animals, cats, spending time with family and friends, old buildings, countryside, seaside, etc. I live in England near the sea with my husband and two cats. I love writing to people. Females only.

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have many interests, but will save them for snail mail. I am looking for open minded and sincere penpals who won’t stop writing after 1-2 letters and who are up for discussing everything and anything...preferably with similar interests as me, but will give anyone a chance. At this point I am only looking for pals in the USA and Canada due to postage. Hope to hear from great people soon!

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my son are my best friends but I have room for friends that want to Marci, 56, USA, maintain long-term reladresdendo l l 5 4 @ tionships and are willing yahoo.com to listen to my ups and My name is Marci Skin- downs without judgner. I am 56 years old ment. with the mind of a 30 Looking forward to meetsomething. I live in Iowa, ing a lot of terrific people USA...the Midwest. My through this venture. email address is dresdendoll54@yahoo.com . I am Alison Hepworth, Mom to a 22 y.o son... UK malin@malin. stepmom to three adult karoo.co.uk children...and fur Mom Mum to 4 from hull uk. to 2 cats and a Siberian Hobbies are palling travHusky. I love animals, elling music tv computer real and ficticious...I love family, collecting postdragons as well as tigers cards, reading, going out and polar bears---buffalo for meal, drinks and cineand most wildlife. ma. I am looking for snail I love to read. My greatest mail pals uk and abroad problem is that I never from 26. want to get rid of a good book. I am a frequent Lisa Sabo, 26, visitor at our local library Canada, so that I have to return l isa _ sabo _ 2 0 0 5 @ the books. hotmail.com I love to write. I still prac- I am a mommy of a 6 yr tice the art of snail mail- old little girl, living on the ing and I love to create island of Newfoundand. my own stationary and I am a big animal lover, small cards using rub- especially pet rats and ber stamps. I journal on dogs. I currently have a regular basis...have 11 pet rats and am an never gotten into blog- advocate for them. I ging though...I prefer promote them as the paper. Poetry has always great pets they are, been a love of mine and educate on proper care occasionally I will write and dispel the myths. I for others but usually it is also do rescue and foster just a part of my journal. rats in need.It is my I believe that the world passion. I am bisexual, lacks color and joy with- vegetarian and very out friends to share life open minded. I have 7 with...My husband and tattoos & 7 piercings. I

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Gregory Lentz (gj. l ent z 7 6 @ gmai l . com), 34, USA I have joined your Operation Bring Back the Blog, where I share my various interests of reality TVshows, books, current issues, the Facebook culture, and a little random madness. I enjoy sharing my interests through Facebook and making new friends and connections. One of my passions is swapping postcards and making pen pals from all over via Facebook by swapping postcards. I started this on my friend Anna’s Facebook page, I Love Postcards. I share my interests through my own blog: http://www.imeandering.blogspot.com as well as through several Facebook pages: The Vicarious Vagabond Project on Facebook (a world travel project I have created to generate interest and support in my desire to travel the world, educate others via Facebook, and promote tolerance of world cultures), Fan Fiction on Facebook w/ G.J. Lentz (a page dedicated to sharing the culture and love of fan fiction), and my own personal page, The Works of...G.J. Lentz (where I share my experiences and the pro-

cesses of trying to become a writer).

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Wilson Kisanga kisanga9@gmail. com, 30, Zambia I am Wilson, aged 30 from Zambia(Southern Africa). I am looking for female penpals(E-pals) of any age from anywhere

Valentina Pireddu (aka Tinetta) Italy - b.d. 03.03.86, age 24 turn on25!!! tinettadesign@ tiscali.it I love swapping and penpalling, especially with people that comes from outside Italy! I love foreign languages and cultures, in fact this is my 1st year at university, foreign languages (English and German!!!), so I’d like to have more friends from UK/Ireland and Germany, to improve my language I’m totally crazy for cats, manga,anime, Asia, drawing, decoupage, dancing, painting on stones. I swap fbs (of any kind), labelbags, slams, bags, postcards, stationery & sugar packets. I’m also a address labels maker. I collect full sugar packets from all over the world, postcards and stationery (letter sets, letter paper, memopads, notepads, loose sheets).I like reading books! My fave writers are Nicholas Sparks and Sophie Kinsella!I ‘ve started to read their books in English and German :-S I’m also a volounterr in a colony of stray cats in Cagli-

ari. :)=^_^=

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Marion Norrgård, 22years, Finland, silvermarion@ hotmail.com I’m born and raised in the forests of Finland. My mother tongue is Swedish but I can also speak Finnish, English and German. I enjoy dancing, acting, singing, reading (mythology, religions, fantasy, folklore, psychology, true stories, horror), writing, clubbing, nature, animals. Love writing letters and exchanging postcards. I listen to all kind of music from techno to death metal to classical to hip hop. It just need a good rhythm or good lyrics. I’m openminded and wanna learn about the world and the humans living in it. I am hoping to have, or had, a penpal in every country of the world! Take Care everybody!

across the globe. I like reading, writing, listening to music and swimming. Anybody interested can contact me via email.

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Aurelija, Lithuania, adamantine . gd @ gmail.com I am 15y.o and quite friendly but shy. I’d like to have a friend who I could talk about anything with. I’m interested in music, books, writing/receiving postcards and letters, science (though I’m not good at it if we’re speaking about school :P), psychological movies, middle ages, paranormal stuff, dreams, LOTS OF RANDOM STUFF. I’m this girl who’s interested in everything. XD I play basketball, volleyball and table tennis, I write sto-

ries. I want a friend and I don’t really care where you are from. Also I think I’m quite good at English, but it still fails sometimes, so I’m sorry for the mistakes!

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with the abduction of my son who I only knew the first 6 months of his life. Through my journey and writings we have now found each other and he will also become one whom I will write to because he’s 14 hours from me. We haven’t met face to face yet but we are working at when we both can. Not only can penpaling bring us close to others we don’t know in person, it helps to let others know that we are all friends/family and may have what another may be needing. It led me to my son and even though it took 19 years it was also the prayers and help of pals who kept me from giving up.

PenPal & Swappers Ads know, but can’t do without real friends (even though we might have some, but most seems to fade away.

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Veronika, Germany V roe S craps @ googlemail.com I am Veronika from Germany, I´m looking for new PenPals from all Wendy Joyner, over the world esp. from 35, United states Sweden and Germany. cha k l i u k @ gmai l . I take any excess of n&n/ HQ FBs only and Slams. com Interests: cats, 80’s music, I´m in need of n&n/HQ foreign movies, city of FBs, Slams and all kind of Paris, weird and unique bags! art, stickers, stationary, Please no tatty and fairy tales, folk tales, sloppy FBs and sheets. I anything supernatural. also have a lot of normal FBs and Sheets to pass Write soon! on. In return I would cute veronica stationary, Hello Kitty mattlin, 42, USA Items and DecoTapes. veronica.mattlin@ A big „Thank You“ in advance. gmail.com I am a 42 year old female Please e-mail me first: looking for pen pals VroeScraps@googlemail. from all over the world. com I enjoy writting long /35/ letters, collecting on Malisa Karn my favorite celebrites, USA cross stitching, cats/ ma l isa . k arn @ animals, collecting stuff gmai l . com on: cats, crosses, winnie I am a home health aide.I the pooh, beanie babies, am going to school to scapbooking, stickers, get my Associate Degree stationary,etc. I also in Medical Billing and enjoy swapping/trading Coding. My hobbies are palling,chatting from all over the world. pen send me your complete online, reading, camping want/collection lists and and bowling.

Samantha Stroy 26 California, USA xoxoxowithlove@ yahoo.com I’m looking for long letter pals, who won’t stop Cherry, 33, UK writing after one letter. S i lvercatbabies @ Someone easy to talkk aol.com to and share our daily I am a married mum to lives with. I love writing, 6 Children, I love Soap drawing, vampire Operas, Witting letters novels, texting, etc. I’m by hand, Swapping stuff a marries stay at home

I’ll send you mine. Would perfer long letters and long term friendship worldwide! No men please, only females as I’m happily married. looking foward to hearing from you soon...

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Nancy Lawson, 61, USA, crapbookmom07@ hotmail.com Hi I am a grandmother of 5 and have 3 adult children, happily married ( no men to respond Please) I am not working right now. Do also have 3 step-children. Like to do scrapbook, crafts of all kinds, enjoy pen-pals . Have done genealogy, like to read, listen to music, also garden a bit. Love animals and nature. Enjoy watching movies and some T.V. I collect postcards, salt and pepper shakers, and teddy bears. Also have a collection of frogs,some that go outside. Would love to write women of all ages all over the world.

mom of three. I am openminded and I love a good c o nv e r s a t i o n . LO V E S : Starbucks and tea. I swap anything and EVERYTHING that fits in an evelope. I swap books, stationary, FBs, Slams, stickers, etc. I am always looking for clippings of celeberties, words, quotes, etc. Hope to meet some great friends that will last for a lifetime.

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Lisa, 37, USA l isavantress @ gmail.com Hello my name is Lisa Van Tress, i am 37 years old from Holland Michigan. I have two children and married. I am seeking penpals from all over the world. I just started to penpal couple of weeks ago. No males please as I am married. I like to swap postcards, stickers, and friendship books. I am going to make one of my own to soon. I enjoy reading, bike riding, going to the lake etc.:)

including Fb’s and Label Bags. I am looking for Snailmail Penpals from UK only, Females over 18yrs old please. Write to me if interested.

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I’m a 32 y.o French woman looking for penpals and swappers worldwide! I like long-letter pals, am very curious about other way of life, open-minded and I’m into music, movies, fashion, crafts, travels. I swap Fbs, decos, slams and lyrics mainly. I’m also looking for people to swap celebrity stuff with (send me your wish list and I’ll send mine back). If you’re interested, feel free to email me at: samgunsjovirow@yahoo. com.

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Louise Mcevoy, 38, Scotland, Uk duranduranfan1980@ hotmail.com I would love epal or snail pal very much. My email address is duranduranfan1980@ hotmail.com My hobbies are penpalling,i have penpalled for over 20 odd years and still write too my very 1st penpal who I havve know for 7 years now she a very

myself. I can openly & comfortably carry on an intelligent conversation. I reside in Kampala, Uganda in the east Of Jennifer, 31, USA Africa (Pearl of Africa). es 0 3 2 3 0 9 @ I enjoy Basketball, V irginia.U S A.com S w i m m i n g , S i n g i n g , Hello my name is D a n c i n g , Tr a v e l l i n g , Jennifer, I will be 31 this C o o k i n g , C a m p i n g , Nov 9th . I am happy R e a d i n g, C o m p u t e r s , married, and have four movies etc. Email me: children. I live in Virginia, mosecho1@yahoo.com USA. I love to write and email. Facebook, cafe Alisa, 29, The mom, I love true blood, Netherlands twilight, soap operas. aevaneck@hotmail.com I love mail that isn’t My name is Alisa and junk or bills lol. I love Iam looking for penpals postcards, I am willing to all over the world. Let me send some myself since introduce myself to you I live real close to DC. all. I am a 29 years old We just recently moved women and I live in village from Va beach, I love the Annerveenschekanaal, ocean and shells. If your that’s in The north of The interested in emailing or Netherlands. even snail mail pals send I’m married with me a email at es032309@ Richard and mother of Virginia.USA.com 2 children. My hobbies are: writing letters, Moses Olinga swap FB’s, playing the /32/ Uganda clarinet, music, animals, mosecho1@yahoo.com collecting everything Hi there my name is from the animal giraffe, Moses Olinga, 32 yrs of making jewellery’s. And Margo V. , 11-08-71 age, thanks for stopping much more. 39, United states by. I am interested in I’m working with margosug@yahoo. finding and keeping mantally handicapt com real Pen pals / friends. I people. If you would like Hi everyone my name enjoy bringing a smile to know me better feel is Margo I am 38 and to peoples faces, even in free to sent me a e-mail looking for pen pals I this place, life can be such aevaneck@hotmail.com. love snail mailing. I have a rat race. I love to learn 3 girls lots of interests. I and explore and to teach. Samia Oumohand, love shopping, Writing, I’m a practical man and 32, France making and collecting enjoy fixing things and s a m g u n s j o v i r o w @ jewelry and much more making improvements yahoo.com.

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Rocio /29/ Argentina david. shaw . intense . world@gmail.com I’m Rocio, female. My hobbies are: cine, read, music, origami 3d, paint shop pro, pepals. I love to collect dvds, postcards and bookmarks. Also love to swap fbs. Always looking for pepals! I do speak/write in English and Spanish.

hope to hear from you. Margo In New York. Disthedistance.com and blog.disthedistance.com

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gertrude lillian gertr u deggg @ gmail.com, South Africa Hi im looking for female friends around the world my name is Gertrude i live in South africa searching for friends between age 32 to 40. Write soon!

dear friend too me.i love reading esp the twilight novels I am a huge twilight fan(GO TEAM EDWARD) lol. Music iam a big fans of the 80s esp duran duran,i also am a huge boyzone fan have seen them live about 8 times over the years and have also met them few times,take that,kings of leon,alexander burke,lot of others i like any kind of music really,I also love travelling,cinema,s hopping,collecting and swapping stationary and stickers.chatting on msn/ texting. I am engaged too fantastic man who ive know for nearly 2 years. were getting married next may(2011)really exciting. I will reply too any penpals worldwide. Sorry no male pals or pals in Africian counties, prison mail either would love penpals in any countries especially Canada, Japan, Spain. I hope too hear from you soon.

Groups Invites by Paula Milburn

Have you ever joined a group to swap postcards and then found that the group does recipes and household tips and swaps everything including the kitchen sink?? And all you wanted was somewhere

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Here is place.. where every week you will get a buddy, and you will gather tags for them.During the week you can send in your tags to let your buddie know who they had. 18+ and please have profile filled out and please have fun .. getting taggys from your secret buddy. 55

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Recycling is Fun http://groups.yahoo. com/group/Recycling_ is_Fun/ We swap ONLY FBs, Decos, Slams. Occasionally at festive times we might extend to sending a greetings card. We’ll encourage members to send birthday cards too. In general our group is exactly what it says. A While we all know that we group for people who should recycle our rub- love FBs swapping & bish/junk etc and “Slim want to make, swap & our bins” how many of us send more!!

This is a group to get rid of everything you have cluttering up your home. You may swap, sell (as you would at a garage/yard sale)or giveaway (usually for the price of the postage).ANY item that can be posted that is in usable condition. We operate a ‘sold as described’ policy so if you are giving away a hand made sweater for example that has a hole in it and cannot be salvaged for wearing but the yarn is still good then say it: ‘Large Men’s handknit sweater in red. Large hole in side which cannot be repaired. Swapping/selling for yarn only, must be about 1000gms of yarn here! Will swap for.....’ The name of the group is NOT indicative that we are a swap group in the conventional sense i.e. postcards, thimbles

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You’ve made the first step to living longer.... taking a step towards trying to eat healthier! We stress that we are NOT professionals - if in doubt PLEASE contact your physician. We are just a group of likeminded people passing on healthy recipes and good advice gleaned from L-I-N-K-S reputable sources. Where http://groups.yahoo. possible we will always co m / gro u p / L- I - N - K- S quote those sources be it internet, personal family doctors or personal experience. We do not claim that we’ll be able to make your illnesses go How many times have away, we do not promise you gone to your book- that you will lose weight marks only to find that - that has a lot to do with you can’t find ‘THAT’ link YOU... but we do hope that you wanted. How that the information and much easier would it be recipes on this group to have all your links un- will help you become der one organized ‘roof’ healthier and feel better look no further. We have within yourself. We have

How many of us have thousands of links to craft patterns sitting unorganized in our favourite bookmarks list?! Well now you can get them organized and know where they are always!! Please try to keep to the categories, if you aren’t sure where it should go stick it in the ‘Unsorted’ & we’ll sort them. Please note this is ONLY for CRAFT links - these can be patterns, places to buy supplies, groups, pattern sites.

Postcard Pals to join a few postcard http://uk.groups.yahoo. swaps. Then this is the com/group/PostcardPals group for you. We deal in 100% POSTCARDS. There will be organized swaps every month both regular ones of UNESCO or Maps, States etc... you know the ones everyone wants and some fun ones We are a fun group of like oversized, spelling people who love snail games, Round Robins, mail & also collect post- but we promise ONLY cards, friends & just postcards!! The only exabout anything that you ception to our rule is can send thru the mail! at Christmas when we We have recently started might relent and have a doing a lot of FBs swaps! Christmas card swap. So We don’t have many welcome to the wonderrules, any age, just keep ful world of postcards! the group clean, normal Wait and see your collecstuff no naughty stuff, no tion GROW!!! bad language, respect everyone & no discrimi- ISLAND OF SECRET nation of any kind. All are SHARES welcome, grab a coffee http://tech.groups.yaand browse the group. hoo.com/group/Islandofsecretshares/ PURE POSTCARD PALS http://groups.yahoo. com/group/Pure_Postcard_Pals/

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MultiCultural Swap Shop http://uk.groups. yahoo.com/group/ MultiCultural_SwapShop

actually do it? How many is it just ‘too much trouble’ for?? Well this is the group for you, for Recycling Queens and people R-E-C-I-P-E-S who just need that bit of http://groups.yahoo. inspiration. We guarancom/group/R-E-C-I-P-E-S tee that before a month is out you will not be trying to stand on your bin to push down the rubbish in it to get more in, we’ll even be showing you how to turn your trash into gifts! How’s The actual name of this that for being green, group is Recipes Eat- saving money and the ing Cooking Ingredients environment in one fell People & Extraordinary sweep?! Sites (i.e. R-E-C-I-P-E-S) but Yahoo! wouldn’t let WWFBDO - Wordwide that fit! But the title just FB&Deco ONLY about says it all. It’s a site http://uk.groups.yahoo. for recipes, links to reci- com/group/WWFBDO pes, links to sites, links to places to buy equipments and recipes, chef’s blogs, chef’s biographies, culinary hints and tips... it is or will be HERE!! Bon Appetite!!

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Live for Life http://uk.groups.yahoo. com/group/Live_for_Life

and crafts. However if you make crafts then you are welcome to sell NEW stuff on here just made.

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sections also for those unfortunate enough to suffer from dietary intolerances, these are aimed only as suggestions.

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We love everything about crochet: ~Amigurumi – those little creatures made with adorable faces in single crochet ~Squares – all sizes, all shapes, traditional grannies or not ~Kitchen Items – potholders, towel toppers, placemats, and casserole covers ~Doilies – vintage or new, thread lovers are welcome here ~Wearables -- shawls, jewelry, scarves, hats, slippers, socks, sweaters, totebags, etc. And anything else we can take a hook to! We will have patterns, games, crochet-alongs, challenges, swaps and whatever else we can think up! We have lots of fun with our love of Crochet In Common! We have Long term Crochet-a-longs going on in here.....and this GORGEOUS afghan was done by our member/moderator, Barb...this was the 63 Heirloom Afghan.

links to everything here, except recipes & crafts. If you want gifts, tv guides, electronic goods - this is the place to find them!!

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CROCHET IN COMMON C-R-A-F-T-S http://groups.yahoo. http://uk.groups.yahoo. com/group/crochet_in_ com/group/C-R-A-F-T-S common/

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SAMANTHA’S THOUGHTS: A MOTHER, A PENPAL AND A WRITER

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Then over the years I have learned about different types of penpals and a variety of things people look for in a person to write to. People have become picky and yes, I admit, I have to. In the beginning I wrote anyone who wrote me. At the age of 16, a married couple (age was never an issue to whom I wrote to) wrote me from Canada and asked me

to send them a picture of my feet. Yes, you read that right. It was a fetish they had. I never wrote them back as I didn’t feel right about it. I still have that letter. LOL. Overall, I have been penpalling for 13 years. That number makes me feel old. Then my nanna (my grandmother) told me when I was old enough to write at age 4, I would write to my friends in

Reno, Nevada when my summer’s ended and we kept in touch, so I guess I never realized that it was considered penpalling, to me it was just keeping in contact with friends that have grown to be my sisters. From being a teenager looking for penpals around my age to finding penpals now that I am a mom so we’d have that in common has changed a lot of who

I look for to correspond with. Penpalling has really changed my life. For a long time I had a few different types of depression that I dealt with for many years. Being able to write out my feelings and talk to someone who understood how I felt across the other side of the world made me feel happy and excited to wake up and check my

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high school. So, I was put on Independent Studies which was a way I could catch up with my studies and get the credits I needed to graduate. That was 6 years ago. I met my first penpal in a Yahoo Group online when my mom first got me the internet. She was the same age as me but she lived in Germany. We had so much in common and we swapped FB’s (friendship books). Our letters got very long over time. We would talk about daily activities to problems that needed advice and we confided in each other. Even though we have lost contact over the past couple years, I will When I was asked to be a part of this magazine, I never forget her (Diana Sailmann from Germany, if couldn’t pass it up. Writing is a passion of mine and you read this contact me, I really want to get our at the age of fourteen, somehow I had lost my way in friendship started again).

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Welcome to my little corner in the world I call Samantha’s Thoughts. My name is Samantha, 26 years old, Sagittarius. I am married to my childhood love for 6 years, together for 12 years. Our families grew up together. We have three wonderful children ages 6, 4 and 2. So, yes at times I have my hands full.

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SAMANTHA”S THOUGHTS:

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mail as soon as I woke up. I still feel excited when the mailman leaves mail in my mailbox. I have about 20 long letter penpals. We write anywhere between 10 and 20 pages to each other about everything in life. Then, I have a few penpals that like to swap friendship books with, a 2 page letter, or a few that prefer to email back and forth. Either way the friendships I have made over the years until the present time has really help me see the world in a way I could never in a million years be able to afford to go to these places. I have learned different languages with words and helped others learn English better. I have seen the world through postcards, actual photographs sent to me of 58

my penpals and their families and towns they live in. Penpal is more than just a word. There is a lot of respect, joy and passion behind it. When you get passed the introductions and actually get to the actual letters and share your life with them and they share their lives with you, the word Penpal is changed to Friendship. I can honestly say that the people I have met that we still write each other have become more than just a letter, envelope and a stamp to mail to a penpal, they have become my confidants and best friends. Those are hard to come by. Some people don’t write back after a few letters and they just don’t have time or just don’t write anymore. Yes, I have

had quite a few just disappear and now we talk on Facebook. I do have a selected number of friends that we write regularly and keep in touch via emails, Facebook, text messages and phone calls. Right now, I’m looking for long letter penpals. I find that penpals in other countries write longer letters then those in the USA. My personal opinion is that people in other countries seem to love to know what it like in the US, as we want to know what it’s like in their country. I do have a few long letter penpals in the US also. I want to clarify that :)

What to expect next time here on my pages? Numerology Read-

ings: For the last 14years, I have been studying and doing Numerology readings. It sounds interesting, right? I can help you understand why a person is great to write to or why you didn’t “click” with someone. I am offering to do a Numerology reading for those who are interested in discovering if you and the person you are writing the first letter to will be good friends or to not even write at all. Then again, it will help you know if the penpals you have and are good friendships, if you are compatible or not to continue writing or to make the decision to find another penpal. For this I will need YOUR BIRTHDAY (month, day, and year) and YOUR PENPAL’S BIRTHDAY(

month, day, and year). I don’t need a name of your penpal, but I do need a name if you are the one interested in the reading. Now, you don’t have to use your real name, just your REAL birthday. You can call yourself SpiderWoman if you want, and only you will know when you read the response in the magazine the answer to your question is for you. Decorated envelopes: I would also love to see envelopes that you decorate before you send, or envelopes you receive that have artwork, kawaii collaging, etc. You can send the images to my email address, and we’d publish the best ones here (don’t forget to leave us your name, state/country). PenPal Zone: I do have an ad placed in the penpal section if by chance you would want to be penpals. I am very dedicated to each and every one that writes me and /or swaps with me. I am also interested in reading how you got started in penpalling. Please share your experiences with me good or bad, (please do not include names if it’s a bad experience because we don’t want to offend anyone or hurt their feelings.) If I get any responses I will publish a few at a time.

Sites, blogs, online stores: You can also send me links to a favorite website due to divination (fortune telling), penpalling store you run, forums, etc. Also, I am looking for people who run a penpalling type of online store or blog to contact me if you would like to be interviewed and promote your website as well as help us promote our magazine. Feedback & ideas: If you have any ideas you want to see in my pages here in the coming issues, or if you want to give me feedback on my articles, please feel free to contact me. If any ideas or thought of yours about these pages get published, you will be given the credit for. Let me know if there’s something else that you would you like to see in future issues of this column. Well, here is where I end this article. I hope I did good enough for those to enjoy and want to read my thoughts and future articles. Have a nice November and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrates it. Until next time, Thank you for reading Samantha’s Thoughts. Contact author at itsapenpalworld@ gmail.com, www.facebook.com/angelbaby916

This section will view recipes send by you, our readers. Soon we will be able to cook some really interesting and very diverse dishes coming from all the corners of the world. Robin Trostel from the USA submitted this nice and easy recipe that she came to know through AllRecipes.com. Hello, everyone! Here’s a quick and easy recipe that my family loves in the cooler weather. It’s really good, too! HAM AND CHEESE CASSEROLE 2 c. cooked ham 1 c. grated cheddar 1/4 c. chopped green pepper 2 c. cooked rice 2 tbsp. milk 1 can mushroom or cream of chicken soup 1/8 c. onion Mix all ingredients together. Bake in two quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes. Prep time : 30 min Cook time: 40 min

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beads on usually 2 or 3 depending on how big the Bracelet needs to be, It all depends on how long the Bracelet needs to be to how many beads are Placed in between the Charms, I always to try to make it even. I always try to make sure that the Charms are

spaced out correctly on the Bracelet as I don’t want it to look uneven in any way! After I get the bracelet to the correct size I then tie place the Barrel on and tie the ends of the elastic off. This is what the bracelet would like on the wrist. I make sure that the Brace let is s a f e a n d sealed, I then Place inside of a plastic bag a small o n e , Then usually wrap the bracelet up in some nice paper, If I am told who and what occasion and place a nice homemade tag on the present. I like to think that when The bracelet is received it arrives in the perfect condition it left me in! And you can see the love and attention that has gone into the making of the bracelet. I try to make sure that every bracelet is up to my High standards of making them. This is my first try at writing an article I hope that it has been helpful. SandyXrs, sandyxrs@talktalk.net

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try to make Bracelets at least 40 beads and 6 to everyone’s favourite Charms, and a Tibetian colours. I have all my Barrel to seal the Brace-

let, I make sure that I have set and laid all the beads out as I keep them in containers. I look for what I have been asked to make in more ways that one. I make sure that the beads are ready, I tie one end of the elastic off, And start by putting the

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PenPal Directory and Newsletter Hi! I am Tracy. I sell stationery address and stickers. I also have a penpal Directory and a newsletter. Take a look at my links if interested. My new thing is making a catalog of all my designs: http://tracyscreationsstationary.shutterfly.com/ http://addresslabels4sale.shutterfly.com/ For more information contact: Penpals ‘nd Swappers magazine Penpals `nd Swappers is a new magazine for people Tracy Sanders, tracylynnsanders38@yahoo.com who like to write letters and swapping, also for people who are looking for new penpals and swappers. Yahoo Groups that you might want to join: In this magazine there are PenpalAdds and Swapper- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/strictlysnail Adds, all around writing letters and swapping and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crazy_pen_pals

Crafts making for Bracelets on a shelf unit near where I sit in the front room. I will add more Photo’s as I do more. I always use the best beads going I try to buy good quality beads as I want the bracelets to last a long time. Every Bracelet is sealed with a Tibetan Barrel to hole the ends in place. These Bracelets make good Birthday, Valentine, Christmas Gifts as Wedding Favours and many other occasions. I start off with some elastic cord measuring at least 9 Inches I select

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many many more. How can I order it? Just send an email to penpalsandswappers@googlemail.com with your name and e-mail address. You get your magazine by e-mail. How to get my PenpalAdd/SwapperAdd in the magazine? Please, send your PenpalAdd or SwapperAdd via e-mail to: penpalsandswappers@ googlemail.com Please do not forget your address or e-mail address.

Hi Everyone! I make Charm/ Bead Bracelets. I have been getting a stock together for the last year or two. I have all colours that Range from Pink to Black. I also always put 6 Charms on the Charm Bracelets, All my Charms are Tibetan Charms, They Range, From Angels, Teddy’s, Shells, Turtles, Dolphins, Stars, Moon and suns, Love hearts. I start off with Some Elastic cord, It Ranges from 0.5 to 1inch Thickness depending on the Beads; I use Spacer Beads on some of the Bracelets. This is 2 Pictures of Children’s Charm Bracelets that I made for a Friends wedding as Gifts I have also made some Charm Bracelets with Beads, I can make most colour’s up! These are always available; I always

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Pen Pal Book C/O Kimberly Garigin 3726 Green Pond Rd Gray Court, SC 29645 One issue is $12 black or $18 color. Subscription for 4 issues is $20 black or $25 color. Its like buying two and getting two FREE. Comes out Jan. Apr. Jul. & Oct. I take Cash, checks & Money orders in my name. It is non-profit!! Pen Pal ads to be put in is FREE starting with Jan 2011. Business ads r 5 cents per word/symbols & count your name & address. Add $2 more for Canada or $4 more for Over seas. I use quick print to see the darker print its $4 per issue or $16 for 4 issues. No Inmates!!! For more information contact: Kimberly at vandine69@yahoo.com

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PenPalling Connections:

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ACROSS 2. a circle of friends 5. an errasable writing tool 7. way of communication; symbol 8. a viewcard 9. crafting, scrapbooking 11. the place where letters arrive 14. a layout, a desgin, a vision 16. your searching tool for new penpals 17. a writing tool

DOWN 1. a snail mail friend 3. the month of Halloween is 4. a person who is born in the same day as you 6. something sweet 10. a symbol of Halloween 12. a relationship between two pals 13. exchange of goods 15. friendshipbook is abriviated to

by Tessa Rondberg, Netherlands

Across 2. community 5. pensil 7. letter 8. postcard 9. decoration 11.mailbox 14. template 16. sandbooknet 17.pen

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ately! The first thing we did was having a lunch and after that my penpal gave me a tour through Gent. It was nice. We talked a lot. In fact, we just kept talking. There were no uncomfortable silences! After the city walk, we went to her house, because the next day I would go the museum where my penpal works. It was strange: to stay with someone I hardly knew. We only knew each other through the long letters we had written. We only knew each other for a couple of months, but it felt like if we had known each other for years! The next day we went to the museum where my penpal works. That was nice. After the museum visit I went back home. It may sound strange: to stay with a person that you barely know, only through letters. But from the first moment we started writing it felt like finding a old friend back. As you can read, I had very good experience with meeting my penpals and still write with them. I consider my penpals as good friends. And meeting them have giving our penpalling friendship an extra dimension! I’m happy that I’ve found such a wonderful girls with who I write wonderful letters with and with who I can share everything!

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was no reason to be nervous. We recognized each other immediately. From that moment, we kept on talking and talking. The language wasn’t a problem at all and we had enough to talk about. Eight months after our first meeting we met again. And just like the first time we kept on talking and talking! A couple of months ago, I’ve met my Belgium penpal. This meeting was a very special one. I went to her hometown and it took me a very long time to get there because of troubles with trains. I had to take the international train to Belgium, but that train was canceled! The next international train would leave a hour later with the result that I would arrive one hour later. So I tried to call my penpal, but the mobile number that I had wasn’t correct. Thanks to the Internet I found the telephone number from her house and I called that number. The mother of my penpal answered the phone and she was really surprised that I called her. I explained who I was (she knew that I was coming to visit) and why I called. Finally I reached my penpal and told her the problem. After one and a half hour delay I finally arrived in Gent. Luckily we recognized each other immedi-

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was with S., one of my German penpals. We met for the first time in the fall of 2009. Meeting her was really exciting: we had never spoken before on the phone (before I met my Dutch penpal, we had spoken on the phone before). We only had sent a letter every month, some e-mails and a couple of text messages. And of course the language: she doesn’t speak much Dutch and I’m not very good in speaking German. So we had to speak English. S. lives close to the border, so we met in Enschede, a big Dutch city close to her hometown. For me it was a 3,5 hour journey. I was really nervous the whole journey: would we recognize each other? Will the language be a problem? What if we don’t have a thing to say to the other? There

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she lives only 30 kilometers from my hometown. The first time we met, in the summer of 2009, we assembled at a cinema in Rotterdam, a city Meeting a penpal in real live can be close to both of our hometowns. We tricky. What if there is no click when toughed if we don’t have anything you see each other? Will you keep to talk about, we can talk about the on writing with that penpal then? Is movie. After the cinema we went out your penpal really the person who for some dinner. Out first meeting was nice and chatty. We had enough she writes she is? When three of my penpals wanted to talk about. From the first moment to meet, I wasn’t asking myself these when we saw each other, it felt like if questions and I wasn’t afraid that a we had known each other for years meeting could be the end of the instead of months! But on the other penpalling friendship. I thought it hand, that is no surprise. We wrote would be a wonderful experience each other a letter every week for and that it would lift up our several months. Since the summer penpalling to an other level. And I of 2009 we became good friends and now a day, we try to meet each was correct. The first penpal I’ve met was one of other at least every two months! my Dutch penpals. Her name is E. and My second meeting with a penpals

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PENPAL MEETINGS

Down 1. penpal 3. October 4. birthday twin 6. chocolate 10. pumpkin 12. friendship 13. swap 15. fb 65

- SIMPLICITY EMBELLISHED

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LETTERS ARE SECRETS BETWEEN FRIENDS

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Simplicity Embellished is a prominent letter-writing blog curated by Cole Imperi. Featuring articles on letter writing, home & garden, cooking & recipes and health, Simplicity Embellished is an online haven for those who appreciate epistolary delights. Website: http://www.simplicityembellished.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SimplicityEmbellished 66

And I had the pleasure of reading four full pages. How lucky am I? She’s inspired me to have a go at rubber stamps. I loved how she used various stamps but used a really unique ink color- hot pink. I am currently searching for letter-related rubber stamps and then I’ll put them to work. They really livened up this letter and made it all the more special. And you know what else she included? Some fantastic Victorian-esque stickers and a feather. Feathers are my favorite. I love feathers. When I got married, I had a bouquet made of feathers instead of the more traditional flower bouquet. THAT’S how much I love feathers. Has this letter inspired you? It sure inspired me. And it reminded me why I treasure the art of letter writing so much. Because you end up with things like this. Things I store away in my hollowed out books to refer to sometime in the future. Things I know my future children will enjoy reading through on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Things I know are there from my friends so far away.

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At least, that’s what I believe. The friendships you develop among pen pals, and what I mean by that is people you exchange more than just a postcard with one time, is really special. When you take time to write several pages out to a pen pal far and away, you are sending a little piece of yourself. It’s more of an investment than, say, an email. Or even just a postcard. (not to knock postcard enthusiasts in the least!). I received this beautiful letter from a new correspondent. She wrote her first letter out on vellum paper and used Noodler’s Black Ink. The stamps she used throughout to embellish the letter were done in a bright, hot pink ink which looked absolutely phenomenal. This was the front of the envelope (above). She used a piece of packing tape to preserve the address in case it got wet, which for those of us who have relied on USPS for anything have likely encountered. Her penmanship was beautiful too. Something I think we all can try to aspire to, no?

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Find your stationery: www.lapapierre.com Coming up Nov 2010

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characteristic feature of blue jeans. Initially, jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by workers, especially in the factories during World War II. During this period, men’s jeans had the zipper down the front, whereas women’s jeans had the zipper down the right side. By the 1960s, both men’s and women’s jeans had the zipper down the front. Historic photographs indicate that in the decades before they became a staple of fashion, jeans generally fit quite loosely, much like a pair of bib overalls without the bib. Indeed, until 1960, Levi Strauss denominated its flagship product “waist overalls” rather than “jeans”. After James Dean popularized them in the movie Rebel Without a Cause, wearing jeans by teenagers and young adults became a symbol of youth rebellion during the 1950s. Because of this, they were sometimes banned in theaters, restaurants and schools. During the sixties the wearing of jeans became more acceptable, and by the seventies it had become general fashion in the US and all over the globe for casual wear.

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If there is fabric beloved and recognized all over the world that would definitely be the jeans! They never get old. A bit of history The word “jeans” comes from the French phrase bleu de Gênes, literally the blue of Genoa. Riveted jeans Dry goods merchant Levi Strauss was selling blue jeans under the “Levi’s” brand to the mining communities of California in the 1850s. One of Strauss’ customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co. wholesale house. After one of Davis’ customers kept buying cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of strain, such as on the pocket corners and at the top of the button fly. Davis did not have the required money to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Strauss suggesting that they both go into business together. After Strauss accepted Davis’s offer, the two men received U.S. Patent 139,121, for an “Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings,” on May 20, 1873. In popular culture Copper rivets for reinforcing pockets are a

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CULTURAL EVENT: HALLOWEEN Tech nicolo r Ma nga C hick

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Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is an annual holiday observed on

October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints’ Day, but is today largely a celebration. Common Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack- o’-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunt ed attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.

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Erica M., Mexico

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Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, the occult, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include ghosts, witches, skeletons, zombies, vampires, werewolves, demons, bats, spiders, and black cats. Black and orange are the traditional Halloween colors and represent the darkness of night and the color of bonfires, autumn leaves, and jack-o’-lanterns. Take a look at how people celebrated Halloween around the globe!

Q & A: THE MAGAZINE & SURVEY

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Anyone can post an ad that is in agreement to our policies: 1) we are not a dating site/community - write appropriate ads to have them published 2) no inmates - we have kids that are members in our community! 3) money requests - such ad will result in your permanent ban from our community.

What is the policy on commercial Ads?

Commercial Ads are paid ads for products or service that is not classified as a penpal or a swapper ad or an add from a small business that provides supplies for correspondence (stationary, address labels). Such ads are going to be reviewed and negotiated with the respective companies. For more information email magazine@sandbook.net

Make sure that you stay informed for the latest news Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Sandbook Add us as a friend on Facebook http://facebook.com/sandbooknet And join our Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/SBNgroup And join our Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/SBNpage Read our blog at: sandbooknet.blogspot.com Visit us on our website: www.SandBook.Net

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Who can post an Ad?

name of the topic that you want to write about. If it is not already taken, we’d give you the go ahead to write it. We are doing that simply to ensure that we don’t have one and the same stories printed under variation of names. The deadline for all articles is the end of the month (Nov 30th, 2010). Any articles submitted after the deadline with be either published in the next issue (December one) or will be left for the one after it (January 2011 one). It’s done simply to ensure we have enough time to design your pages so that they will have the look that we all will enjoy. Thank you for your understanding.

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How to become a guest writer?

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How to place an ad in the magazine?

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How to subscribe for the following issue?

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Yes, that’s one of our long term missions - becoming a paper magazine. But before we can make any plans for those future In our post we have offered to times, we want to estimate your print the ads for 1-2 or 3 months. interest towards such a paper We have chosen such durations magazine, the number of issues because: that we will need to have in stock 1) Our initial idea was to make and of course the price beyond three issues of the magazine and which the magazine should not then decide whether or not we go over. will continue doing the maga- If we move to become a paper zine. When we started promot- magazine we will be printing ing and collecting the ads, we re- it out in an Agency, not on at-

1) Promote us - tell your penpals and swappers about the magazine. 2) Give us feedback - either on our website www.sandbook.net or through Facebook/Twitter. 3) Fill out our survey and help us decide the fate of the magazine. You can find the survey in question on the magazine section at our website. The survey will be active until Dec 11, 2010 when issue 2 will come out. You can submit the survey anonymously or if you decide to leave us a way to contact you back (email address and name) you will be included in the list from which we will draw a lucky winner who will take home our Survey Award. 4) Become a guest writer - Contact us with your idea of an article. We need to make sure that the topic is still not taken by someone else. We don’t want to print out articles with similar content. Deadline of all articles is the 30th of each month. If we receive the article after that date - your article is going to be run in the next issue. If you decide to send any pictures with your article, you will need to have the rights to that image and the image needs to be with a minimal resolution of 800x600.

How will I receive the magazine?

Yes! So go ahead and tell all of your penpals and swappers about it. Promote the magazine so we can choose from various penpals and swappers There are two options currently available: 1) You can subscribe - log onto our website and fill ads. The more, the merrier! out the subscription form which will ask you for you name and email address. They will not be released to any third parties. When the magazine is released you will receive it either as an attachment or as a link to our secure website location where you can Go to www.sandbook.net and then to download the magazine. Whether or not we will Magazine section and then click “Subscribe”. attach the magazine to the email depends on its overall size. 2) You can download the magazine from our website - we will keep a copy of it online so that you can download/read it any time. Go to www.sandbook.net and go to the Magazine section. Then simply click “Place an Ad” and you will have to fill out the form that loads on your computer screen. Don’t forget to give us feedback on what you think about the magazine so far. Again, get in touch with us and let us know the

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Why can’t you run my ad for 20 months?

Isn’t there an option for a paper version?

What can I do to help with the magazine?

Is the next issue free?

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Who are You?

home-printer. We want to be printed on stylish paper with true colors, not a faded blackand-white paper magazine.

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ally didn’t have a clue how many people will actually be interested in reading such a magazine. Hence why, we wanted to have a test-drive period to see how we can handle doing a magazine. So yes, your feedback on it matters! 2) 3 months is a long time for an ad to circulate. We don’t want to have a progressively increasing number of ads that are simply copy-pasted from an issue to an issue - that will be boring, The Sandbook.Net Team is be- don’t you think? That’s why the 3 hind this adventurous project. month limit is what we set out to We started this idea quite impul- be. After the 3 months are over, sively and as some of you already you can resubmit your ad - by know from our status changes then you might have a new hobon Facebook - we are making the by, decide to edit your own, etc. magazine as go. That gives us We are not going to turn your ad the unique opportunity to fully down because we know you had include you the readers of this posted previously with us. We magazine in the decision mak- only wish to bring a bit of divering - which section, articles and sity here and there in the coming stories we should run or not. So issues. yes, we don’t have a whole concept or a business plan behind the magazine, but we our enthusiasm. We have received numerous questions about our magazine whether or not we are going to do it on paper or keep it strictly digital. How come it’s free? How long we can run it? We will address all those questions and more on this page. Hopefully by reading this you will have a clearer idea about our magazine.

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