sandbook pen pals and swappers magazine, nov 2010, issue 1

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NOVEMBER ‘10 VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 1 SANDBOOK THE MAGAZINE PENPALS AND SWAPPERS FEATURES : Simplicity Embellished PenPalling & Letters Samantha’s Thoughts The Art of Nice and Neat FB’s Letter Insider Organized? World Traveller Lost PenPal Do’s & Dont’s

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Sandbook Net is a penpal and swappers site that produces a penpal magazine that is free of charge and availble for download on our official website. Find interesting tips about your snail mail correspondence, find new penpals, birthday twins; enjnoy our letter ideas and presentations of wonderful stationery shops. Be sure to check our issues monthly!

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Page 1: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

NOVEMBER ‘10VOLUME 1 • ISSUE 1

SANDBOOKTHE MAGAZINEPENPALS AND SWAPPERSFEATURES :• Simplicity Embellished• PenPalling & Letters• Samantha’s Thoughts• The Art of Nice and Neat FB’s

Letter Insider

Organized?World Traveller

Lost PenPal

Do’s & Dont’s

Page 2: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

AUTHORS

Cover: Gaya DesignsEditor: Sandbook NetGraphic Designer: Aspeia AlexievaIT administration: Jason DimitrovProduction Coordinator: Raia AlexievaJunior Associate: Milen MangarudovInformation is correct at press time.

CONTACT US

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER

Samia Oumohand, France

The Do’s and Don’ts in PenPalling

Samantha Stroy, USA

Samantha’s thoughts

Heather Carrabis, USA

How to keep organized

Tessa, Netherlands

Penpal Meetings

Gregory J. Lentz, USA

My Facebook Endeavors

Raia, Bulgaria

The art of nice and neat fbs

Miriam

World Traveller: An Authum in Israel Make sure that you stay informed for the latest news

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SandbookAdd us as a friend on Facebook http://facebook.com/sandbooknetAnd join our Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/SBNgroupAnd join our Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/SBNpageRead our blog at: sandbooknet.blogspot.comVisit us on our website: www.SandBook.Net

EDITORIAL

Page 3: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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2Editorial3 Sandbook Twitter4 In this Issue6 Letter Insider: The Good PenPal

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Letter Insider: The Introduction Letter 10 Letter Insider: How to

write a letter12 Letter Insider: The

Do’s and Don’t’s in PenPalling 14 Cover story: The Art of Nice and Neat FB’s

17 Scrapbooking / Birthday Twins

Nice and Neat FBs

Deciding on Penpalling

The Do’s & The Don’ts

Traveller: Israel

My Facebook Endeavors

PenPal Meetings

Connections

Relationship

Samantha’s Thoughts

To be organized

IN THIS ISSUE

18 Deciding on PenPalling – PenPalling&Letters20 True Life Stories: How someone become something

22 Relationship / Lost PenPal23 Bear for an Angel24 Facebook Discussions: How did you start penpalling?26 Facebook Discussions: Why do you penpal?28 My facebook endeavours30 World Traveller: The unique Autumn in the Holly Land32 Send a postcard33 How do you keep organized?34 PenPal of the Month Contest

36 PenPal and Swappers Ads 54 Groups Invites56 Samantha’s Thoughts59 Recipe60 PenPaling Connections 61 Bracelets62 FUN 63 Imagination Matters64 PenPal Meetings 65 Quiz results66 Letters are secrets between friends 70 Fashion71 La Papierre72 Cultural event: Halloween74 Q & A’s / Survey / Subscription76 Next Issue

Page 4: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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THE GOOD PENPAL

What to be careful about?- Penpals who keep on asking you one and the same question all over and over again, be

aware – he/she is not paying attention to you. DON’ BE juDGEMENTAl – we are different people, coming from various cultures and countries, so you should expect diversity in opinions and thoughts. Be tolerant towards other people’s opinions, cultures, understandings, believes.WRITE PERSONAl lETTERS - By showing interest in your penpal’s life you will also achieve

personalization of the letters.- DON”T under ANY circumstances send “form letters” (even if it is the first letter – you can still

make it very personal and intriguing). Form letters are pre typed letters (Drafts) of what’s up in

your life, which some BAD penpals use by changing the “Dear…………….”-lines. They do not

contain personal information, questions or answer to questions. No matter how “intelligent”

you might think your draft is, a penpal can always feel the depersonalization in those lines! So

never do it!

DON’T DRAG PEOPlE IN yOuR DRAMA!Sharing your experience and life is one thing and dragging your friend in your drama is totally

different. Don’t be the grumpy person who makes the letters full of drama! Writing letters is

a hobby with which we want to make our daily lives more fun and interesting. Drama has no

place here! You can always share your ups and downs, but let your penpal give you a sign if he/

she wants to read more about it.DON’T ASk FOR MONEy! Money are never enough for everyone! So don’t ask for money! You

don’t ask your friends for money, so don’t be a beggar in front of your penpals! Life is tough for

everyone! And if people want to donate money, they will use the proper channels (charities),

so don’t be a victim of your well-being and politeness. If you get such a letter – thro throw it

away and never respond back! Also if you have met this beggar on a site/blog/group - just

report them! Moderators can block their IP addresses.MAkE uP yOuR MIND, THINk OVER IT, THEN WRITE! There is truth in the saying “Think

before you speak” and it applies here as well – don’t change your mind every couple of days!

IF you write to someone, make sure you have the time and resources to sustain the friendship.

And if you do decide to stop penpalling with someone – don’t drag it out. THE BIG quESTION: HANDWRITTEN V.S TyPPED – is irrelevant if you have a good interac-

tion and make the letter personal while you type it. Remember even if you like handwritten

letters, give a chance to personal typed letters. Some people’s handwriting is

hard to read or others have disabilities and handwritten letters are simply not

an option for them! Don’t cross them off or you might miss a chance to make a

great friend!

LETTER INSIDER

DON’T BE A PENPAl COllECTOR! You should be able to interact and sustain a friendship with the penpal, not collect let-

ters from distant lands! The person is what’s important! Don’t send out lots of invites/

friendship requests/first letters. Take it one step of a time. You don’t want to end up with

too many penpals that you simply don’t recall! PenPal collectors will only write to you so

that they can brag that they have a penpal in your country or even worse wouldn’t write

you back (as they already have your first letter, in which they are mainly interested in!).INTERRACT WITH yOuR PENPAlS! It’s actually way easier than it sounds! What you should do?

-Answer questions: search for all of the questions that were asked in the letter that you

have received and make sure you answer them in your reply! No question is insignificant

if it is asked by your friend!- Ask questions in your own letters – this way your penpal will also have some guidelines

on which topics are interesting in. Therefore, this will ensure that won’t end up discuss

I bet that you have also thought about the topic. So I asked my Facebook Friends “What makes a penpal a bad one?” as it seemed to me at the time that it will be a lot easier to define what we all find “bad” in one’s behav-ior. For my surprise in between, we actually cheered up the topic and started pointing out what a good penpal should be. Here started talking about the qualities the good penpal should have. WRITE REGulARlyI can’t stress it enough – writing regularly is a must! If you don’t

have the time, then don’t start penpalling at all! Nobody likes to wait months for a letter! The main rule of thumb is don’t start pen-palling with someone new if you already have your hands full or you are way behind your mail. There are a lot of people out there who would love to write to that person! Write and be regular pen-pals with him/her.

lENGTH OF lETTERSIf you receive a long letter, it is only fair to write close to that amount or even more! There are no but(s) or maybe(s)!

ing boring topics. - Show interest in your penpal’s life – just like with your ordinary day-to-day friends – try to con-nect with them!

Page 5: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 yOuWrite 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!). quESTIONSAsk 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

concrete ones “Describe yourself in 3 words”, etc. ClOSING WORDSWhen 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.DATEYes, 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

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 AVOIDThose 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.

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!

THE INTRODUCTION LETTER

- 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.

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TOPICS TO DISCUSS

“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,

not only adjectives. Let’s look into the main components of the introduction letter.FAMIlyWhat 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).CITyWrite 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

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. OCCuPATIONWhat 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

LETTER INSIDER

The Introduction Letter

Page 6: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 lETTERThis 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.

In this way you will not only achieve interaction

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!”. SIGNATuRECheck 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!

Don’t forget to place questions for your penpal and most importantly answer the ques-tions that your penpal asked you!

TIPS AND TRICkSNow 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.ADDRESSWhen you are into penpalling for long time, you will get the chance

to read many different styles of handwritings. Often those hand-writings 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

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.DATENobody will get angry

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. MOODIf 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

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/jANEThat’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,

“Dates help people percept the friend-ship in a chrono-logical matter. “

HOW TO WRITE A LETTER LETTER INSIDER

Page 7: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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…

DO PAy ATTENTION to the look of your letter. You don’t necessarily

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 thing you can do to add some sparkle to your paper is to add pictures

(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.

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 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 two-way exchange. As for me, these last few years, one of the main topic of

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!

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.

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

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 mid-nineties and I’ve seen enough things to share a few tips about my passion for letter-writing.

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

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.

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?

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

THE DO’S AND DONT’S IN PENPALLING LETTER INSIDER

Page 8: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 rea-sonable size and weight as they are intercon-nected. Remind yourself about the endless times that you were fretting about heavy FBs that make the postage fee rise sky high. Acknowl-edge 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 “at-tractive” adjective, they should be easy to swap, doesn’t weight too much and of course be nice and neat.

NICE AND NEATNow that we had made the FBs’ size to fit into an envelope it’s time to at-tach the sheets of paper that will be used for ad-dress 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),

con-fetti (different sizes, shapes and col-ors), glitter pens, stickers (all types), cover sheets (or you can substitute them with wrapping pa-per and recycle it in that way), ribbons, decorative sticky tape, etc. You can make different combina-tions with the materials that you have – just take

some time to match them together.

GuIDElINESHowever, there are some guidelines that you should keep in mind when designing the out-look of your new FB’s:1. Don’t over decorate

FB’S: DEFINITIONFriendship 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

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

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.

FIGuRING OuT THE RIGHT MATERIAlSYou 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 recy-cle something). Actually anything will do the trick – labels from clothes, hard covers of stationary materials, hard-support-ing paper behind sheets

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

SIzEDespite of what you may have heard, size does matter. You should al-ways keep in mind the standard dimensions of an envelope. Your FB should prefer-ably 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

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.

yOu NEED:1. MATERIAlS2. DETERMINE THE SIzE3. DECORATE4. FOllOW THE GuIDElINES

5. FIll IN yOuR FB

THE ART OF NICE AND NEAT FB’S COVER STORY

Page 9: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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, USA5th November 1970, Tanya from USA 5th November 1979, Elizabeth, Trinidad&Tobago 9th November 1998, Lauren, UK9th November 1979, Jennifer, USA10th November 1971, Lisa from USA, 11th November 2008, Sandbook Net12th November 1975, Kerry Ellis-Ouimette, USA18th November 1962, Susan Dyer , USA19th November 1985, Rebecca Falz, Germany22nd November 1973, Maria from Greece26th November 1974, Sofie from Sweden27th November 1975, Deidre from CanadaMay you all have a wonderful day!

To join our birthday twin section you need to send us your birthday, name, country and email to [email protected] To contact any of our Birthday Twins just look it up on our site!

the first page – too much glitter can spoil a good work and too much stickers can deflect the attention.2. Match the colors care-fully 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, stick-ers and confetti from falling out and also in-crease the length of time for which your FB will be kept in its original state and quality. If you don’t have laminating ma-chine, or you are simply caught without it, you can use the old fashion way of wrapping the FB in see through bag-gie (plastic sheet) as I will show in the photos. Bent it around the edg-es, trim then use sticky tape to place the ends together. Another way, of achieving the same

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 mat-ter how you achieve the protective cover, it will be worth it. FB’s travel across countries, en-counter floods and hur-

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

That’s probably the easi-est 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 infor-mation. If you decide to make it for yourself write “For and By” before plac-ing 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 la-bels inside the cover and decorate it as well with glitter and stickers. Then the FB is ready to be sent.

BIRTHDAY TWINS SCRAPBOOKING

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.

COVER STORY

Page 10: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 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...

You will need time and dedication as any activity would need, will and wishes to write if you are not used to, patience, deciding which way to be in touch with a penpal is the one you prefer, what are you looking for in a penpal...

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.

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.

3. Plan how much time you have to do penpalling. Penpalling implies dedication and commitment. You are going to exchange your thoughts, experiences, ideas, dreams, hopes... and even private life with a

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?

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.

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.

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

RENPAllING & lETTERS:HTTP://PENPAllINGANDlETTERS.BlOGSPOT.COM

FIND PENPAllING & lETTERS ON FACEBOOk: HTTP://ON.FB.ME/PENPAllINGANDlETTERS

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!

Deciding on PenPalling - PenPalling&Letters

Page 11: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

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

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

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.

From Angel [email protected] Find Write wings on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/writewings

TRUE LIFE STORIES: How someone became something

Page 12: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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.comYou can find us also on our Facebook page http://on.fb.me/bearforangelOur email address: [email protected]

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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] and put in message about her,thanks for any help you can give. Marlene MillerSAMIA OuMOHAND, FRANCE [email protected] 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: [email protected] 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.

BEAR FOR ANGEL LOST PENPAL RELATIONSHIP

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.

Page 13: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

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

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

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

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

several times. He is more an old friend now. I love to write to all my penpals. It’s the best hobby! yonnie Stengel Smith, uSA

I had my first pen pal when I was 14. Through school, when I started taking German. Our teacher assigned pals for each of us to help us learn the language better. She stopped writing to be after 7 or 8letters. I didn’t start penpaling again until August of last year. But I missed it so much and am so very happy to be writing again! Penpaling is one of my favorite things to do and I just LOVE mail!:) Christina Nail, uSA

I have been pen palling since the early 1980’s and how I started was through Bon Jovi’s fan club called The Secret Society, oh wow I am surprised that I know that, lol. Anyways, I have been writing for over 20 years now and am always looking for pen pals ! :) Amy Stefanik, uSA

I had my first when I was 13 she was from Japan at the time I was taking Japanese & the teacher got us pen pals but that only lasted a few letters. Then when I was 16 a friend gave me a few of the pen pals she had as they weren’t writing as often as she liked. I am still pen pals with one of them today nearly 11 years later. Danielle Henderson, New zealand

I started back in 2003 by writing a lady I got an address from a crafts’ magazine. Even though, we lost touch for a few years, I recently found her and we are

writing again to each other. Maria Gerrald Robertson, uSA

I started at school (age14) and never stopped, but lost contact with my first pen pals. I still have my penpals of 20 years, one from Slovak Republic & one from South Africa. Miriam Gerst, Israel

I think I got my very first pen pal through school at age 9 but we lost touch quickly. Then, I got another pen pal shortly after that through Muppet Magazine, lol. Later on I would write to people I saw in the pen pal sections of Bop magazine, Teen Beat, Superteen, etc. and I’m still in contact with a few of those gals! After that I would get pals through FB’s and through other pals so a lot of the pals I wrote to and still write to all know each other somehow. I have had palling “breaks” throughout the years and just ended another (and hopefully my last) break. I have gotten in touch with a few old pals and we’re writing again which is great. :) I hope to find a few more pals in the near future. Charity Marie Ortiz, uSA

I started when I was 11,I found some addresses on the Barbie magazine. I never really stopped since then but I lost contact with my first pen pals! Mirja Colombari, Italy

I’ve been penpaling since I was 12. I started when I was on this website studentsoftheworld.com and I met this girl and she suggested we become penpals and we still are lol:) Britannia Mosely, uSA

HOW DID I START PENPALLING ? DISCUSSIONS

Page 14: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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Why do you penpal

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S a n d b o o k 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?

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 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

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

I love to experience what is between the lines..behind the words and whom I am writing too..it is indeed an adventure that gives pleasure in many ways :O). Birgitha Persson

Gives me a chance to meet other people around the world, love to receive letters through my mailbox & you can write more in a letter than you can ever write in an email. I also write to some prisoners & it gives them contact with the real world, as unlike most people, they do not have access to the Internet, so can’t send emails.Maria Defriez

I practice English and German through my correspondence as they are both foreign languages for me. I also get to experience different cultures, exchange souvenirs and enrich my day-to-day life. Anne, Finland

Makes me learn much about other cultures. Fanuel k Amanya

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 to see the things that we have in common and things that we do differently in our everyday lives. It’s a great chance to learn about another culture. I think you can learn things from your penpals. Also, I enjoy writing and receiving letters in the mail. jaimie Alliel, uSA

PenPalling is a form of meeting new people. It goes beyond the going out with friends to the local pub. It helps me see the world through different prospective, learn from a native speaker what’s it like to live in distant countries and discover how big and yet small our world can be. Feye Sheanz, Ireland

I think of my penpals like any other friends that I have. I enjoy opening my mailbox and discovering mail from countries that I have never visited. I love to daydream that one day I am going to make a trip around the world and finally meet in person most if not all of my penpals! That would be such an adventure! Elena, Greece

DISCUSSIONS

Page 15: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

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

“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!

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

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.

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

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

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...

Guest author:Gregory J Lentz., USA

My Facebook Endeavors

Page 16: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

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.

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 N T E R E S T I N G ? 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 [email protected]

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

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

international botanical n a m e i s ‘ u r g i n e a 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

WORLD TRAVELLER: ISRAEL IN AUTUMN

Page 17: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

Since this is a pen-palling magazine and we send letters and gifts to our friends anyways, why not cheer up a child for one day out of the year and make them feel special. Please take your time to read the instructions on the website to see how

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 interested to send something to these unfortunate children. Even if it is just a card, we can all afford a stamp, right?Thank you for reading!Guest Author: Samantha Stroy, USA

GuEST AuTHOR: HEATHER CARRABIS, uSA

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

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

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

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.

HOW DO YOU KEEP ORGANIZED?Send a postcard

Page 18: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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-friend-ship: 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....

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 h a n d - m a d e 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.

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

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 hand-crafted cards. That is why I asked her if I could order some cards from

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

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

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

l a n g u a g e s (which we have started doing some time back just for fun). Apart from t e a b a g s , earrings and sweet little gifts that we send each other, the e s s e n t i a l part is of course the fr iendship! In the world of emails, Fa c e b o o k , SMS, Skype, T w i t t e r , 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! :)

SuSanne Schulz, Germany, PenPal of the month october 2010“.... You receive a message from the Sandbook Net Team letting you know that you have been select-ed among the applicants

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

as a penpal of the month you may not have a clue neither about the web-site 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 happi-ness with all of you, the readers of SandbookNet‘s PenPal Magazine!”

tereSa WodehouSe,the czech rePublic, PenPal of the month october 2010“What a great surprise to find your email in my mailbox! And I am really excited to know that Susi and I were chosen as the “Penpals of the month” and will even get an award! I am really, really happy to know that Susi’s great friendship has been made public as she truly is

an angel of a friend! And: it’s Susi’s B-day this Thurs-day!!! so this is a great tim-ing, Raia!” That is how Teresa Wode-house from the Czech Re-public started her email to us. In the following ex-clusive interview with her as a Penpal of the month winner October 2010, she states: “I think this (the contest) is a great way to honor your friend/penpal - an easy way to put a smile on someone’s face! :)”.SO WHy ARE yOu WAITING FOR? GO ON OuR WEB-SITE WWW.SANDBOOk.NET AND lET A FRIEND kNOW HOW MuCH THEy REAlly MEAN TO yOu! READ THE FOllOWING ARTIClE FOR THE FRIEND-SHIP OF OuR WINNERS.

“I had no clue”

“I think this is a great way to hon-or your penpal”

PENPAL OF THE MONTH CONTEST Our PenPals of the month October 2010

Page 19: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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.

WHO CAN POST AN AD?Anyone can post an ad in search for swappers or penpals.

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.

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 [email protected]

SandBook.Net Team

PenPal & Swappers Ads

Page 20: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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SARISA,THAIlAND [email protected] am 31 years old and would like only snail-mail penpals, preferably female. My hobbies are watching movies, reading ( vampires, comedy, mys-tery), shopping, traveling and so on. Hand-writing letters preferred. Would like to share daily lifes, culture shocks, whatever talks and even discuss-ing how good single life is, lol.

ANNElIES, BElGIuM A N N E l I E S . T I E B E @GMAIl.COM I like crafts, reading, col-lecting empty teabags and stamps. I enjoy na-ture, photography and walking. I have 1 son, called Tiebe and he is 4 years old. Facebook: Annelies Wouters Write soon.

ROSSINA, NETHER-lANDS, [email protected] 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 deco-rated 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

age from anywhere in the world (female penpals only, I’m happily married, I’m sorry guys!). I’m look-ing for the kind of penpal who loves to write about anything. Fun stuff, but also the more serious s u b j e c t s , s o m e t h i n g about our countries, our habits and our cultures, our interests, news sub-jects, just anything that keeps you busy. And maybe sometimes we could even exchange some little gifts. Some of my interests are (of course) penpalling, shop-ping, 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 discotheque-way, 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 her-self, 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 every-thing cute and kawaii, and I must say that I am one big stationery ad-dict. Unfortunately bank account does not allow me to buy a lot of statio-nery (or maybe... that’s a

good thing, it keeps me from buying too much), but when I find cute sta-tionery on the internet or in a shop, I can’t stop star-ing 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 informa-tion for in our first let-ters. Getting interested? Please contact me at [email protected]!

S I N I / 2 7 / F I N l A N [email protected] am interested in psy-chology, another cul-tures and countries, sec-ond hand, vintage, street fashion, literature, every day philosophy, art, re-ligions, voluntary work, maps, human rights. My hobbies are adventurous travelling with a back-pack, playing with my little nephews and niece, being in nature, long chats, nice cafes, cook-ing, international proj-ects, some sports, swap-ping and crafts, classical music and reading good books. I am looking for penpals around my age with similar interests. World wide and friend-ship only. I can write in English or Finnish, but es-pecially I look for people who can write in Swed-ish, Estonian, German or Czech (though possibly I must answer you at first

in English, but I want to improve my skills in these languages). Also looking for pals for journal type project: to exchange il-lustrated 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 also swap little goodies like stationery, stickers, memo sheets, match-boxes, ATCs, inchies, used stamps, chocolade bars and little surprises. I look for honest and loyal swappers who are willing to send first (sorry, have had some bad experienc-es). Around 100 gr once in 1-2 months. World wide.

SARA /32/ [email protected] all of you fel-low snailmail long letter lovers! I’m a 32 years old happily married mum from Italy and I would like to find some more dedicated and sincere snail mail pen pals around my age that I can develop a friendship with and deeply get to know. Other mums are very welcome, especially considering I’m a mum as well and I’d love to share experiences and

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 put-ting 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), hik-ing, snowshoeing, cross country skiing, keeping fit in general, being out-doors, spending time with my husband and son, reading books both in Italian and in English language to improve it, photography, listen-ing to music, Take That, surfing the net, cooking, baking, creativity, crafts, travelling, Ireland, Swe-den, shopping, receiv-ing/collecting postcards, nature, gardening, or-chids, 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, drink-ing good red wine, Christmas markets, Win-nie the Pooh, Diddl writ-ing papers… Actually, my interests and pas-sions are sooooo many, I can’t name them all! If you think we could “click”

and therefore you may be interested in becom-ing snail mail pen pals, please send me a long e-mail to introduce your-self and I will forward you my mailing address. Please write more than just few lines so I can get a picture of who you re-ally 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 col-lect pen pals or writes the same letters to ev-eryone! 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 let-ters as well. And I look for friends who write long letters on a regu-lar 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 read-ing this ad!

VIRGINIE, GERMANy B O S I E O S C A R @ W E B.DE I’m 31 and very much into travelling, especially to Ireland, but also writ-ing, Indie - music, going to concerts, pubs etc. I have studied German

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.

ANNA OlDANI, ITAlyA N N A . A N N u C C I A @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 post-cards that are my great love and I love postcross-ing, too. Please contact me by e-mail: [email protected] or on facebook Anna Oldani.

TATjANA, GERMANyT AT j A N A _ 2 0 3 T P @HOTMAIl.COMMy name is Tatjana, I’m 27 years old and I live in the middle of Germany. I’m looking for female snail mail penpals around my age. I like reading, music, of course writing letters and I am interested in

learning about different countries and cultures. You can write me in Eng-lish, German or French. My email-address is [email protected]. I’m looking for-ward to your message, so that we can exchange our postal addresses and start writing letters.

CHARITy ORTIz, [email protected] all! I’m 35, from Southern California, USA and going to be a first-time 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

PenPal and Swappers Ads

Page 21: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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

jEREMIAH BENARD, 20, uGANDA, [email protected] would love to meet new friends from all over the world. Email me.

SANDRA luNDBERG, SWEDEN, [email protected] 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 lan-guages, history, paranor-mal and so much more that I can’t come up with now. I love The Vampire Diaries. I’ve seen the se-rie 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, Re-member me, American Pie, Pirates of the carib-bean (all 3), The fast and the furious movies and so on. TV SHOWS I LIKE Vampire Diaries, Viva la Bam, Jackass, True Blood,

Simpsons, SouthPark, Lost, Haunted houses, Miami ink.... Write me a mail if you’re interested in writing to me. Only snailmail after the e-mail. jANIS, 43, ENGlAND, [email protected] My name is Janis and I am 43. I am looking for penpals from all over the world. My hobbies include collecting post-cards, fridge magnets and cross stitch. I would also like to swap with people and swap post-cards, pretty paper pens stickers and anything else that will fit in an en-velope.

BERIT, 18, GERMANy [email protected], My name is Berit (18y.o.girl from Germa-ny). I still go to school to get my ABI, which is the German qualifica-tion to go to university. I speak German, English and some Spanish (I am still learning). My hob-bies are meeting my friends, writing mails/letters, judo, singing and lots of other funny things :) I would like to get to know some nice pen pals that don’t stop writing after the 2nd or 3rd letter/email. I would prefer writing emails first to get to know each oth-

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 coun-try to try to improve my Spanish, but everyone is welcome! So, come one and write to me! :-)

MICHElE HARDIN /33/ uSA, [email protected] am a SAHM of a 13 year old. I am happily married to John and we have been together for 9 years. I have many hobbies, including reading, writing, photography, the paranormal, gardening, collecting things, tattoos, computers, and many more. I want to make friends that will continue to write and will write about anything,their day, their family, their hobbies, etc. I promise that I will continue to write to you. I also like to swap things with my letters such as FBs, stickers, stationary, recipes, comics, whatever you want. Feel free to ask me anything.

jAMARA jONES, uSA j A M P A R A j u l I E T @GMAIl.COMHi everyone! My name is Jamara, or Mara for short, and I am 19. I’d love to have penpals

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!

ROBIN CuRRIE, 27, uSA, [email protected]. Looking for female pals in the USA any age is fine. I have lots of different interests and love getting to know new people.

RENATE PAlMER, 21yEARS OlD, ENGlAND C A N . I . T E l l .y O u . A . S T O R @H O T M A I l . C O MI am interested in pho-tography, swapping, animals - guinea pigs/

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.

kARA lAuzON, 34 yEARS OlD, CANADAk l l A u z O N 7 6 @yAHOO.CAMy name is kara Lauzon. I live in St. Catharines, On-tario, Canada. My email [email protected]. I am 34 yrs old and I am looking for pals around my age who are willing to write.

HAzEl, 29, ENGlAND H O R S E A D D I C T @BTINTERNET.COMHi, my name is Hazel and I am looking for new pen-pals all around the world. I am 29, my hobbies in-clude horses, dogs, card making, scrap booking, music, movies, TV, jour-nalling and writing let-ters. I would love to swap fb’s etc, but have not re-ally done swaps before. Write soon!

A N G G R A E N I WulANDARI, INDONESIA

[email protected] 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.

DONNA WAlk, 33, [email protected] I’m looking for fun long letter pals who love to swap sparkly and cute decos. I’m a 33 year old female who loves spend-ing time with my boy-friend, my family, my job at the daycare, photogra-phy, scrapbooking, hal-loween, bats, owls, hair dye, hello kitty, badtz maru, japan, kawaii, gliit-ter, stars, the 80’s, all 80’s cartoons, horror mov-ies, plastik/pvc, cherries, babies, facebook, domo kun, cpk, vintage, flea markets, pinkness, polka-dots, festivals,concerts, and loads more. I answer most.

NORMA TREVINO, uSA [email protected] Hi I am Norma Trevino from Wheeling WV. I am 43 married and mom to 3 spoiled cats and god mom to a little month and a half little boy. I enjoy reading, crafts, music, movies, thrift stores, animals, volunteer 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.t re v i n o 1 @ gm a i l . co m

TRACEy, SCOTlANDT R A C E _ W A T T 1 @HOTMAIl.COMHi Im looking for people who enjoy writing long letters and enjoy writ-ing regular. My name is Tracey and I am 26 from Aberdeen, Scotland. I am willing to write to people from all over theworld.

lISA OAkS, uTAH uSA [email protected] 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, haunt-ing, hiking, camping, writing, crafts. I am mar-ried with 3 boys and a boy due February 13, 2011.

HEIDI WEAND, uSA H j W E A N D 1 9 7 0 @yAHOO.COM Find me on facebook.

SAlly, 59, CANADA j O D y S P A l @xPlORNET.COM My search is for specific

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 au-thors 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 [email protected] Thank you all for reading this

NAOkO OISHI, [email protected] and interests: Music, movies, dogs, FB swapping, foreign languages, Spain and South Korea. New Pen Pals Wanted, especially from Europe and English-speaking countries. Write real soon!

AlISON, 43, ukM A l I N @ M A l I N .kAROO.CO.uk I am Alison, mum to 4 from Hull UK. Hobbies: writing letters travelling music

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reading TV computer family, UK and abroad, from 26 upwords.

lEANN, 30P E N PA l l I N G F O O l @AOl.COMHello my name is Leann Francis and I am 30 and a married mom of 2 boys. I currently work part to full time hours and am a full time college student and would like others to talk to. I also make and sell items such as stationary address labels and more. If interested in writing to me or even in items I sell or swap please email me for my address at [email protected] make n sell address labels stationary and more..WANT new Pals: I have a new pen pal news let-ter contact me for more info...My new pen pal website:h t t p : / / p e n p a l s f o r -e v e r a n d a l w a y s . w e t -p a i n t . c o m / ? u t m _source=Wetpaint&utm_medium=Email&utm_t e r m = A l e r t s & u t m _campaign=Social) Join my groups:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FunSwaps-N-Palz_ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TaggerGurl-sAlwaysList_ be sure you mention that you saw it on my email when joining hugs

LeannMy myspace: http://myspace.com/an-gelbabyann23http://public.fotki.com/angelbabyann23_ For sale items:http://public.fotki.com/t a g g e r g u r l / fo r - s a l e -items/_ My google account:_http://www.google.com/profiles/OneNOn-lyLeeLee_ My Tagged:_http://www.tagged.com/sweet_n_sassy_babe_

lISSA, 21, ENGlANDk A W A I I 1 9 8 9 @HOTMAIl.CO.uk I am 21 and female liv-ing in Brighton, England. I am looking for penpals who will stay in touch via email. I would also like penpals from Japan as I am learning Japanese and would like to make friends with some Japa-nese women. I am not interested in penpalling with men.

k E R R y B E A R 7 @yAHOO.COM kERRy EllIS-OuIMETTE, 34, uSAI am married to Jason since October 29th 2005Loves~ NKOTB~Jon & Twilights ~”Jasper” aka Jackson RathboneLoves~ reading, writing, pen pal letters, stories, po-ems, internet, scrapbook-

ing, card making, book-mark making, I love to play MPRPG~Runescape Collects~ stickers, sta-tionery, postcards, fair-ies, butterflies, dragon-flies, dopey, tweety bird , ty bean babies, wind chimes. I also collect ce-lebrity autographs!!Swaps~ f.b.‘s, f.s.‘s, post-cards, stickers, statio-nery. Favorite Authors~ R.L. Stine, Stephen King, Pa-tricia Cornwell, Stephe-nie 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.

CATHy W, 24, uSA [email protected] www.face-book.com/cathydolphin-lvrI’m 24 going on 25 in april, Im looking for New penpals, No men, sorry guys, in a committed re-lationship.

ROSE VAlENCIA, uSA R O S E V 4 4 8 @ G M A I l .COMMy interests, love to play on line game, I am a art-ist, love to write to my penpals love going on

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

CAROl [email protected] postcards, wind-chimes, magnets and stickers. Prefer pals near my age. Love the para-norma, history, reading, penpals, crafts. [email protected] also SwtBtrCup on Facebook. Swap postcards, FBs, etc. No inmates.

SANDy MARTIN, uk [email protected] am looking for high quality fb and deco swap-pers worldwide. if inter-ested email me. no men! or time waisters please! lESlEy GRIFFIN, uSAl j G R I F F 3 4 @G M A I l . C O MI AM LESLEY I WAS BORN IN BUGBROOKE I WAS A NURSE AND MAR-RIED TO SAMUEL I EN-JOY 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 ageI am looking for some

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new penpals i have got some i have written to for years and i have been penpalling long before the facebook and the in-ternet 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.

SulEIMAN, kENyA [email protected] hobbies are (sweem-ing, reading novel,football,basketball,beachwalk)

COllEEN, 45, uSA, [email protected] everyone!! My name is Colleen. I am 45 and from the USA. Love read-ing, 60s and 70s music, crafts, journals, myster-ies, cooking, old movies, hiking, stationary, any-thing celtic, fairies, pix-es, writing, penpalling, swapping fb’s/stickers/stationary. Male/Female welcome from all over the world. Email:

MARIA STEWART, uk S T E W A R T . C l A N @y A H O O . C O . u kFacebookID:Stewart ClanMy names Maria, I’m 46, married and from the UK. I’m looking for female

snail mail penpals, that aren’t going to disappear after the first couple of letters. I should mention I have to type my corre-spondence, due to arthri-tis ~ 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 Face-book :o) DAVE STEWART uk S T E W A R T . C l A N @y A H O O . C O . u k Facebook ID: Stewart ClanMy 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 correspon-dence, 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 Face-book :o)

kASSy DAVIS, 25, uSA

[email protected] Wanted: Penpals and Stamp Collectors.My name is Kassy Davis. Just turned 25. Single. Look me up on Face-book. You’ll know me when you see my weird toes. I started collecting stamps a few months ago, just started mak-ing FB’s, I trade stickers and travel brochures for stamps. Looking for penpals and stamps col-lectors from all over the world. You may contact me through Facebook or email me at: [email protected]

HEATHER CARRABIS /27/ MA, [email protected] 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.c a r r a b i s @ g m a i l . c o m Hope to hear from you.

MADDy RAy, ukM A D DyA N D j Ay 57 @H O T M A I l . C O M My hobbies and intrest are writting letters . cook-ing ,swapping fbs and recipes . listing to music. email [email protected]

SARA, 31, ITAlyS A R I u x @ l I B E R O. I TMy 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 lit-tle bit of german. I’d like new pen pals from all over the world near my age!

HEIDI, 41, AuSTRAlIA [email protected] Maier14 Westcombe PlaceRooty Hill NSW 2766AUSTRALIAHave been palling for over 15 years now. I am 41 years of age. Hobbies include travelling, writ-ing to pals, swapping FBS and Slams, collecting souvinor spoons, read-ing, listening to music, watching TV and Mov-ies 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. ESTElA EDO, SPAIN j j R O D A @ T E R R A . E SI 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.

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SANDy, AGE 35 [email protected] for penpals to snail mail and swap with, I enjoy gardening, Writ-ing 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 will-ing to write first letter. My email address is [email protected]

kARINA, 31, [email protected] name is Karina, i am from Canada. IM 31 years old married with 3 kids from 9 years to 2 months. I would like to have penpal from all over the world. I like cooking, photography, penpalling, horse riding, dolphing, twilight and many more. If you are in-terested drop me some line in my email [email protected]

VIV, 38, [email protected]. My name is Viv and I’m a 38 year old lady living near Florida, USA. My email address is: [email protected] I love music, travel, art, fashion, writing, mov-ies, gardening, cooking,

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 swap-per. I hope to hear from you. :)

STEFANIA / 30 / ITAly /[email protected] My hobbies are pen-palling, reading, listen-ing to music, collecting (postcards, fridge-mag-nets, coins, banknotes, stamps, phonecards.), travelling, taking photos. I love stationery, stick-ers, gelpens, decotapes, etc. and I like swapping with my pals. I’m looking for some sincere regular snail mail pals or swap-pers just around my age, no men or prisoners.

jOy WREEDE, 38, uSA, j Oy ly N N W R E E D E @AOl.COMI am a 38 yr old mom/wife of over 20 years. i have a great husband, 3 kids and 3 dogs. i am fully disabled and bed ridden and on oxygen most of the time. i am not one to want sympathy just epals to help pass the time. i love to read, listening to country music, being online, alot of tv shows in

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.

AMy, 41y.O., uSA, S T E F A N I k . A M y @COMCAST.NETMy name is Amy Stefanik and I am 41 years old. my hobbies include : walk-ing, pen palling, reading, scrapbooking, shopping, surfing the net, listen-ing to music, writing poetry, watching tv and dvd’s, traveling, hanging out with friends and so much more. I love to col-lect : unicorns, fairies, an-gels, teddy bears, web-kinz, pens, bookmarks, postcards, mangets, keychains and whatever else I find interesting. Feel free to ask me any-thing. :)

jEANIE SCHADE, 31, uSA, jEANIESCHADE@

y A H O O . C O M Hobbies: music, sports, movies, concerts, scrap-booking, penpalling, internet, computers, swapping, tv, travel-ing, tattoos, outdoors, tanning, and lots more. Swaps: fbs, crams, slams, stationary, stickers, post-cards, sticker bags, and label bags. Collects: frogs, candles and bean-ie babies Penpals: ages 20-40 usa and canada only, no prisoners

AMANDA OGuTu, AuSTRAlIA, 37 [email protected]’m a happily married Christian Mama with 4 precious children aged 18mths, 32mths, 14yrs and 18yrs. My inter-ests include baking and cooking, creating pixel graphics, reading, mu-sic (anything other than heavy metal, and I’m not into 50 cent, 2pac, etc.), gardening, spend-ing time with my family (they are my world), pa-per crafts, and writing to my penpals. I’m looking for female friends only, (no offence), someone who would like to swap recipes with me would be great :) but it’s not a requirement. I’m really looking forward to mak-ing some new friends, nothing beats the feel-ing of opening you mail box to find a letter from

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a friend ♥

TIONNA MOSlEy, 27, uSA, MzANGElkISS@y A H O O . C O MHello everyone, I’m Tion-na. I’m looking for pen-pals between the ages of 25-55.I am not mar-ried, no kids yet.(not ex-pecting) I want to write someone who has things in common with me. My hobbies are writing let-ters, sending small gifts, swapping, reading urban fiction, video games (the sims2,and xbox), bowl-ing, movies (Disney and any others), collecting DVDS, making address la-bels on my home PC, tex-ting, facebook, cooking, shopping, dancing, and anything fun. I am open minded and sincere. I pre-fer to hand write my let-ters but sometimes I type too. I love nature, animals, art, poetry, candles, body lotions, purses/bags, and decorating my apart-ment. I’ll tell you more if we become friends, hope to hear from you.

SANDRA, 48, S C O T l A N D S COT l A N D F O R M E @y A H O O . C O . u kHello. [email protected] I’m in Scotland, 48 years old and like all sorts of things from read-ing to travelling when I can. I’d love to hear from some female email or

snailmail friends from all over the world - particu-larly Iceland, India, Po-land and Nepal.

ANNA, 26, SWEDEN V E G E TA R I A N N A [email protected]. Hi! My name is Anna and I’m from a city named Malmö in Sweden. I’m 26 years old and I’m still studying. My interests are: theatre, travelling, reading book, writing let-ters, sing and sew. As for my education, I’ve been studying a long while know and also been working. For 3 years when I was around 19 years old I started to study theatre and it has been my favor-ite thing for a long time and it still is, but I haven’t got enough time for it now. At the moment I’m writing my thesis in li-brary and information science. I really enjoy travelling, I’ve been to In-dia, Japan, Egypt, Russia and almost every coun-try in Europe. I’ve been working at libraries, cafés and with mentally dys-function/disorder. I like making dresses on my sewing machine too :) I’m looking for pen pals in USA, Canada and Europe. I’m happy to receive let-ters from all the world, so don’t hesitate to write. If you’re an interesting per-son I’ll answer!

GAlINA FROM RuSSIA G A l P I k A - 2 0 0 7 @RAMBlER.RuI’m searching for friends around the world. My hobbies are collecting postcards stamps and little souvenirs like nice greeting from friends. I enjoy writing letters and doing swapping. I’m in-terested in traditions very much and I like travelling. I could write you a lot of interesting information about Russian lifestyle and will be waiting for your ideas about great post-crossing. Best wish-es Galina

lISA PORCHE, 40, uSAP I N k S T I T C H I N G S @y A H O O . C O M . Hi, my name is Lisa. I am 40yrs. old & a SAHM of 3 kids (‘90,’92,’99). I have been married for 11 1/2 yrs. I enjoy swapping Friendship Books, Label bags, postcards (from my home state & city), ATCs & sticker bags. I started swapping about 2 yrs. ago but stopped last year & then started up again about 4 months ago. NSW, NPW, A/M, USA Only, NO inmates/ No Men. lISA OVERDuIN, 40, CANADA, l I S A O V E R D u I N @HOTMAIl.COM 5PrickedFinger5.etsy.comI am looking for swappers

from all over the world. I mostly swap celebrity clippings. I have A-Z files on many of your favourite stars. My magazine col-lection goes as far back as 1983. Here is a list of things I collect:1- Stickers2- Stationery and Greet-ing Cards3- Madonna4- Gerard Butler5- Matt Passmore (actor from the tv show “The Glades”)6- Buttons7- Seed beads8- Cross-stitch patterns, magazines, books9- “The Outsiders” (mov-ie from 1983 starring C.Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon and Ralph Mac-chio)10-Jigsaw puzzles (100-300 pieces)11-Pink12-Carey Mulligan13-Ginnifer Goodwin14-Halle BerryPlease send me an E-mail with your list and we can start swapping!

kATHy MOSS, 59, uSA G k AT HyM O S S @ AT T.NETI am 59 and I live in USA. My hobbies are of course the computer; reading listing to music; doing search a words, penpal-ing scrapbooking and TV. I have a pet called Lou.

MAGAlIE (FRANCE), 26,

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M I O u z I C _ A D D I C T @HOTMAIl.FR I have tons of celeb/band stuff such as post-ers, 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 in-terested, send me a mes-sage 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 ten-nis 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 re-ally a lot on them, includ-ing cds, real photos and tapes. Ok, I hope some people are interested and that we can do some nice swaps. :)

ElENA, ROMANIA, 31, [email protected] friend ... half of your heart, The half who is

laughing with you, who is taking you in its arms when you cry, who sup-ports you when have problems, who is fight-ing 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 any-thing it can for you to see the right path in life. The half that although is in another body, is beat-ing in the same rhythm with your heart! This is a friend to me! More about me ... I love writing letters , I am do-ing 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 re-spect!

jOSH, 30, uSA, j C O W A N 1 1 0 0 @yAHOO.COMHello, my name is Josh Cowan. I am 30 years old and I have a good since of humor. I like snail mail better then email be-cause you can send little gifts with your letters. I am looking for male or female Penpals age 18-

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

lAuRA, 24, ukMy name is laura lou, im 24, from the uk and my email addy is [email protected]. I love writing, drawing, reading, listen-ing to music, penpalling, Harry Potter and many more.

MIRjAN DEkkER, 31 (32 ON NOVEMBER, 3 RD) THE NETHERlANDS [email protected] 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 have to be written from the heart! I have been into penpalling for a very long time now and it is

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 wom-an, 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 will-ing 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 pen-pals and start writing! Hugs Mir

BEATRIz, SPAIN BIRTH yEAR: [email protected] Hobbies: writing letters, reading,

music, playing piano, sports, animals, flowers, plants, nature, art, pho-tography, mythology, history, literature, cook-ing, ancient civilizations (Greece, Egypt, Rome), archaeology, historical/ancient buildings and sites, literature, land-scapes, architecture, the sea, the beach, walks in nature, astronomy, maps, tulips, snow, draw-ing and painting, arts & crafts, geography, post-cards, stamps, yoga, jog-ging, seashells, sunsets, sunny days, quotations, cinema, languages, trav-elling. I have a blog: Pen-palling & Letters http://penpallingandletters.blogspot.com

jESSICA l. HElMS, 23, IDAHO, uSA, [email protected] Hi everyone! I am look-ing for pals from every-where! I love writing and have been doing it for many years, and one to always write back. I want a pal who is look-ing for a long term pal. I love postcards, so if you are interested in post-cards. 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. Read-ing. 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 look-ing for scouting patches from all over. Scouting Patches from the Boy Scouts of American and similar groups from all over the world. I will-ing to swap anything of your interest. If you can help out I would really appreciate! Ciao!

kAREN MACDONAlD, 41, CANADA, [email protected] 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 some-what long letter pals who have similar inter-ests to mine. Some of mine include: reading, fishing, gardening, bird watching, animals, the outdoors, going shop-ping, crafting, (rubber stamping, scrapbook-ing, latch hook, plastic canvas, stamped cross stitch) to name some. I have some collections. They include postcards, rubber stamps, deco-rative hole punches, magazines, books, bookmarks, jewelry, and country decorating items. I am only look-ing to write to people in Canada and the U.S.A. due to high postage rates. Also ladies be-tween the ages of 30 to 50. If I sound like some-one you would enjoy writing...please drop me a line and start a friend-ship. Hope to hear from some of you soon.

SuNNy CHAuNCEy, 25, FlORIDA, [email protected]. I’m a Pisces. I’m married! I’m in my area’s orchestra, playing clari-net. I also played tenor sax. I crochet. I am learn-ing 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 ani-mals 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, An-gie Sage, Rick Riordan, and Sherrilyn Kenyon.... to name a few. I am ob-sessed with Superman. I collect anything and ev-erything 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: [email protected]

AMBER HAyES /19/

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uSA [email protected] 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, com-puter , friends and fam-ily. 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.

CHIAkI, jAPAN 28, [email protected]! I’m Chiaki, a 28-year-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 learn-ing 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!

lISA, uSA I M M O R M I N O @ AT T.NETI 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.

CRySTAl, 33, CANADA S M O k E y S l O V E @SyMPATICO.CACalling 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

j A I M I E / 2 5 / u S A /PyA R I1985@ G M A I l.

COMHello! 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!

HEIDI kARIN SøVIk 33, NORWAy [email protected] I’m looking for sincere fe-male 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, sta-tionary, stickers and also lot of other things. New

female regular swappers worldwide are also wel-come, 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.

ElIzABETH THOMAS, 31, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, [email protected] 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 wel-comed 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.

PAulA, 37, ENGlAND, P I N k l I O N E S S @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

me first on [email protected] for more information!

DANNy, 25, INDIA D A N y _ k A l l E R 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 prefer-ence for your language, country, color, or age. If you interested then please give me an email. I am working as Linux En-gineer at the same time student of Computer Ap-plications, living with par-ents and Sister in one of the most beautiful place in India called Kerala. in map, Southern end of In-dia 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 Ani-mals 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, Trav-elogues, Historical Inci-dents 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 pho-tography 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 friend-ship. I prefer Snail Mails because it gives us a real feeling of that friend-ship and also it would be more sincere than Emails, will be a great remem-brance 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 think-ing or opinions of mine in Penpalling, like Longtime and Sincere Friendships. Anybody who loves to know about India or any-thing related to India can mail me. I will help you by giving my best. I don’t ex-pect anything like money, marriage or any relation-ships so I can offer sin-cere 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 Per-sonal (important) mails from SPAMS or Advertise-ments.

RORy, 39, SOuTH AFRICA, [email protected] name is Rory Latimer. I am a 39 year old Male from South Africa. I en-joy 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.

NOEllE, 30, SPAINS A N z _ N O E l I A @HOTMAIl.COMMy 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 ex-change of English / Span-ish with me at:My blog:

http://noelia-aprendien-doingles.blogspot.com/Windows Live Group: http://blogaprendiendo-ingles.groups.live.com/Page Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AprendENGLISHTwitter: h t t p : / / t w i t t e r . c o m /aprendENGLISH

DONNA luEkEN, 49, CANADA, D O N N A . l u E k E N @yAHOO.CAMY 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 WRIT-ING LETTERS, COOKING, WALKING, WATCHING TV,LISTENING TO MUSIC. MY HOBBIES ARE DOING CRAFTS .

TRACEy lEWIS, 44, INDIANA [email protected] My hobbies and inter-ests are snail mail scrap-booking and journaling as well as making hand-made 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

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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.

AuRElIjA, lITHuANIA, A D A M A N T I N E . G D @GMAIl.COMI 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 speak-ing about school :P), psychological movies, middle ages, paranor-mal 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 Eng-lish, but it still fails some-times, so I’m sorry for the mistakes!

MARION NORRGåRD, 22yEARS, FINlAND, [email protected] I’m born and raised in the forests of Finland. My mother tongue is Swed-ish but I can also speak Finnish, English and Ger-man. I enjoy dancing, acting, singing, reading (mythology, religions, fantasy, folklore, psychol-ogy, true stories, horror), writing, clubbing, na-ture, animals. Love writ-ing letters and exchang-ing 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 open-minded 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!

WIlSON kISANGA [email protected], 30, zAMBIAI am Wilson, aged 30 from Zambia(Southern Africa). I am looking for female penpals(E-pals) of any age from anywhere

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

VAlENTINA PIREDDu (AkA TINETTA) ITAly - B.D. 03.03.86, AGE 24 TuRN ON25!!! [email protected] love swapping and pen-palling, especially with people that comes from outside Italy! I love for-eign languages and cul-tures, 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, draw-ing, decoupage, danc-ing, 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 sta-tionery (letter sets, let-ter paper, memopads, notepads, loose sheets).I like reading books! My fave writers are Nicho-las Sparks and Sophie Kinsella!I ‘ve started to read their books in Eng-lish and German :-S I’m also a volounterr in a col-ony of stray cats in Cagli-

ari. :)=^_^=

GREGORy lENTz (Gj.l E N T z 7 6 @ G M A I l .COM), 34, uSAI have joined your Opera-tion Bring Back the Blog, where I share my vari-ous interests of reality TVshows, books, current issues, the Facebook cul-ture, and a little random madness. I enjoy sharing my interests through Fa-cebook 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.imeander-ing.blogspot.com as well as through several Face-book pages: The Vicari-ous 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 Fic-tion 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 be-come a writer).

MARCI, 56, uSA, D R E S D E N D O l l 5 4 @yAHOO.COM My name is Marci Skin-ner. I am 56 years old with the mind of a 30 something. I live in Iowa, USA...the Midwest. My email address is [email protected] . I am Mom to a 22 y.o son...stepmom to three adult children...and fur Mom to 2 cats and a Siberian Husky. I love animals, real and ficticious...I love dragons as well as tigers and polar bears---buffalo and most wildlife.I love to read. My greatest problem is that I never want to get rid of a good book. I am a frequent visitor at our local library so that I have to return the books. I love to write. I still prac-tice the art of snail mail-ing and I love to create my own stationary and small cards using rub-ber stamps. I journal on a regular basis...have never gotten into blog-ging though...I prefer paper. Poetry has always been a love of mine and occasionally I will write for others but usually it is just a part of my journal.I believe that the world lacks color and joy with-out friends to share life with...My husband and

my son are my best friends but I have room for friends that want to maintain long-term rela-tionships and are willing to listen to my ups and downs without judg-ment. Looking forward to meet-ing a lot of terrific people through this venture.

AlISON HEPWORTH, uk [email protected] to 4 from hull uk. Hobbies are palling trav-elling music tv computer family, collecting post-cards, reading, going out for meal, drinks and cine-ma. I am looking for snail mail pals uk and abroad from 26.

lISA SABO, 26, CANADA, l I S A _ S A B O _ 2 0 0 5 @HOTMAIl.COMI am a mommy of a 6 yr old little girl, living on the island of Newfoundand. I am a big animal lover, especially pet rats and dogs. I currently have 11 pet rats and am an advocate for them. I promote them as the great pets they are, educate on proper care and dispel the myths. I also do rescue and foster rats in need.It is my passion. I am bisexual, vegetarian and very open minded. I have 7 tattoos & 7 piercings. I

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!

CHRISTINE HAll, 45, HAMPTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE C A B H A l l @H O T M A I l . C O MI 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.

DEBRA TATNEll, 46, uk [email protected] writing and receiving long letters, reading, collecting items,

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.

lEO PROByNS, 28, SIERRA lEONEl E O P R O B y N S @A C C O u N TA N T. C O MI’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. Re-ally, I must let you know that my interests are bur-ied deep down in snail mailing, friendship, fam-ily, traveling, camping, swimming, watching soc-cer and basketball, mov-ies, 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 embodi-ment of our souls that gives us security, warmth & comfort when we seem to be scared, lonely, jilt-ed and even Battered! That we can say what we think, write what we

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know, but can’t do with-out real friends (even though we might have some, but most seems to fade away.

GERTRuDE lIllIAN G E R T R u D E G G G @GMAIl.COM, SOuTH AFRICAHi 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!

ROCIO /29/ ARGENTINA DAVID.S H A W . I N T E N S E [email protected] 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. lOuISE MCEVOy, 38, SCOTlAND, [email protected] would love epal or snail pal very much. My email address is [email protected] 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

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,shopping,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. MARGO V. , 11-08-71 39, uNITED STATES [email protected] everyone my name is Margo I am 38 and looking for pen pals I love snail mailing. I have 3 girls lots of interests. I love shopping, Writing, making and collecting jewelry and much more

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

jENNIFER, 31, uSA E S 0 3 2 3 0 9 @V I R G I N I A.u S A.CO MHello my name is Jennifer, I will be 31 this Nov 9th . I am happy married, and have four children. I live in Virginia, USA. I love to write and email. Facebook, cafe mom, I love true blood, twilight, soap operas. I love mail that isn’t junk or bills lol. I love postcards, I am willing to send some myself since I live real close to DC. We just recently moved from Va beach, I love the ocean and shells. If your interested in emailing or even snail mail pals send me a email at [email protected]

MOSES OlINGA /32/ [email protected] there my name is Moses Olinga, 32 yrs of age, thanks for stopping by. I am interested in finding and keeping real Pen pals / friends. I enjoy bringing a smile to peoples faces, even in this place, life can be such a rat race. I love to learn and explore and to teach. I’m a practical man and enjoy fixing things and making improvements

myself. I can openly & comfortably carry on an intelligent conversation. I reside in Kampala, Uganda in the east Of Africa (Pearl of Africa). I enjoy Basketball, S w i m m i n g , S i n g i n g , D a n c i n g , Tr a v e l l i n g , C o o k i n g , C a m p i n g , R e a d i n g, Co m p u t e r s , movies etc. Email me: [email protected]

AlISA, 29, THE [email protected] name is Alisa and Iam looking for penpals all over the world. Let me introduce myself to you all. I am a 29 years old women and I live in village Annerveenschekanaal, that’s in The north of The Netherlands.I’m married with Richard and mother of 2 children. My hobbies are: writing letters, swap FB’s, playing the clarinet, music, animals, collecting everything from the animal giraffe, making jewellery’s. And much more.I’m working with mantally handicapt people. If you would like to know me better feel free to sent me a e-mail [email protected]. SAMIA OuMOHAND, 32, FRANCEs a m g u n s j o v i r o w @yahoo.com.

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: [email protected].

lISA, 37, uSA l I S A V A N T R E S S @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.:)

CHERRy, 33, ukS I lV E R C AT B A B I E S @AOl.COMI am a married mum to 6 Children, I love Soap Operas, Witting letters by hand, Swapping stuff

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.

NANCy lAWSON, 61, uSA, [email protected] 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.

SAMANTHA STROy 26 CAlIFORNIA, [email protected] I’m looking for long letter pals, who won’t stop writing after one letter. Someone easy to talkk to and share our daily lives with. I love writing, drawing, vampire novels, texting, etc. I’m a marries stay at home

mom of three. I am open-minded and I love a good co nve 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.

WENDy jOyNER, 35, uNITED STATES C H A k l I u k @ G M A I l .COMInterests: cats, 80’s music, foreign movies, city of Paris, weird and unique art, stickers, stationary, fairy tales, folk tales, anything supernatural. Write soon!

V E R O N I C A MATTlIN, 42, uSA [email protected] am a 42 year old female looking for pen pals from all over the world. I enjoy writting long letters, collecting on my favorite celebrites, cross stitching, cats/animals, collecting stuff on: cats, crosses, winnie the pooh, beanie babies, scapbooking, stickers, stationary,etc. I also enjoy swapping/trading from all over the world. send me your complete want/collection lists and

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...

VERONIkA, GERMANyV R O E S C R A P S @GOOGlEMAIl.COM I am Veronika from Germany, I´m looking for new PenPals from all over the world esp. from Sweden and Germany. I take any excess of n&n/HQ FBs only and Slams. I´m in need of n&n/HQ FBs, Slams and all kind of bags! Please no tatty and sloppy FBs and sheets. I also have a lot of normal FBs and Sheets to pass on. In return I would cute stationary, Hello Kitty Items and DecoTapes. A big „Thank You“ in advance. Please e-mail me first: [email protected]

MAlISA kARN /35/uSAM A l I S A . k A R N @G M A I l . C O MI am a home health aide.I am going to school to get my Associate Degree in Medical Billing and Coding. My hobbies are pen palling,chatting online, reading, camping and bowling.

PenPal & Swappers Ads

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CROCHET IN COMMONhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/crochet_in_common/

We love everything about crochet: ~Amigurumi – those lit-tle creatures made with adorable faces in single crochet~Squares – all sizes, all shapes, traditional gran-nies or not~Kitchen Items – pothold-ers, towel toppers, place-mats, and casserole cov-ers~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, challeng-es, swaps and whatever else we can think up! We have lots of fun with our love of Crochet In Com-mon! We have Long term Crochet-a-longs going on in here.....and this GOR-GEOUS afghan was done by our member/modera-tor, Barb...this was the 63 Heirloom Afghan.

C-R-A-F-T-Shttp://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/C-R-A-F-T-S

How many of us have thousands of links to craft patterns sitting un-organized in our favou-rite 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.

l-I-N-k-Shttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/L- I -N-K-S

How many times have you gone to your book-marks only to find that you can’t find ‘THAT’ link that you wanted. How much easier would it be to have all your links un-der one organized ‘roof’ look no further. We have

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

lIVE FOR lIFEhttp://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Live_for_Life

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 likemind-ed people passing on healthy recipes and good advice gleaned from reputable sources. Where possible we will always quote those sources be it internet, personal fam-ily doctors or personal experience. We do not claim that we’ll be able to make your illnesses go away, we do not promise that you will lose weight - that has a lot to do with YOU... but we do hope that the information and recipes on this group will help you become healthier and feel better within yourself. We have

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

MulTICulTuRAl SWAP SHOP http://uk.groups.y a h o o . c o m / g r o u p /MultiCultural_SwapShop

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 post-age).ANY item that can be posted that is in us-able condition. We oper-ate a ‘sold as described’ policy so if you are giving away a hand made sweat-er 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 hand-knit sweater in red. Large hole in side which can-not be repaired. Swap-ping/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

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

R-E-C-I-P-E-Shttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/R-E-C-I-P-E-S

The actual name of this group is Recipes Eat-ing Cooking Ingredients People & Extraordinary Sites (i.e. R-E-C-I-P-E-S) but Yahoo! wouldn’t let that fit! But the title just about says it all. It’s a site for recipes, links to reci-pes, links to sites, links to places to buy equip-ments and recipes, chef’s blogs, chef’s biographies, culinary hints and tips... it is or will be HERE!! Bon Appetite!!

RECyClING IS FuNhttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Recycling_is_Fun/

While we all know that we should recycle our rub-bish/junk etc and “Slim our bins” how many of us

actually do it? How many is it just ‘too much trou-ble’ for?? Well this is the group for you, for Recy-cling Queens and people who just need that bit of inspiration. We guaran-tee that before a month is out you will not be try-ing to stand on your bin to push down the rub-bish in it to get more in, we’ll even be showing you how to turn your trash into gifts! How’s that for being green, saving money and the environment in one fell sweep?!

WWFBDO - WORDWIDE FB&DECO ONlyhttp://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/WWFBDO

We swap ONLY FBs, De-cos, Slams. Occasion-ally 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 group for people who love FBs swapping & want to make, swap & send more!!

POSTCARD PAlShttp://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/PostcardPals

We are a fun group of people who love snail mail & also collect post-cards, friends & just about anything that you can send thru the mail! We have recently started doing a lot of FBs swaps! We don’t have many rules, any age, just keep the group clean, normal stuff no naughty stuff, no bad language, respect everyone & no discrimi-nation of any kind. All are welcome, grab a coffee and browse the group. PuRE POSTCARD PAlShttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pure_Post-card_Pals/

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

to join a few postcard swaps. Then this is the 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 like oversized, spelling games, Round Robins, but we promise ONLY postcards!! The only ex-ception to our rule is at Christmas when we might relent and have a Christmas card swap. So welcome to the wonder-ful world of postcards! Wait and see your collec-tion GROW!!! ISlAND OF SECRET SHAREShttp://tech.groups.ya-hoo.com/group/Island-ofsecretshares/

Here is place.. where ev-ery week you will get a buddy, and you will gath-er tags for them.During the week you can send in your tags to let your bud-die know who they had.18+ and please have pro-file filled out and please have fun .. getting taggys from your secret buddy.

Groups Invites by Paula Milburn

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

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 chil-dren ages 6, 4 and 2. So, yes at times I have my hands full. When I was asked to be a part of this magazine, I couldn’t pass it up. Writing is a passion of mine and at the age of fourteen, somehow I had lost my way in

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 ad-vice and we confided in each other. Even though we have lost contact over the past couple years, I will never forget her (Diana Sailmann from Germany, if you read this contact me, I really want to get our friendship started again).

Then over the years I have learned about dif-ferent types of penpals and a variety of things people look for in a per-son 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 mar-ried 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 num-ber 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 dif-ferent types of depres-sion 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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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 HAM1 C. GRATED CHEDDAR1/4 C. CHOPPED GREEN PEPPER2 C. COOkED RICE2 TBSP. MIlk1 CAN MuSHROOM OR CREAM OF CHICkEN SOuP1/8 C. ONIONMix all ingredients together. Bake in two quart casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees about 30 minutes.Prep time : 30 minCook time: 40 min

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 Spider-Woman 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 en-velopes that you decorate before you send, or en-velopes you receive that have artwork, kawaii col-laging, 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 pen-pal section if by chance you would want to be penpals. I am very dedi-cated 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 be-cause 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 favor-ite website due to divi-nation (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 is-sues, 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 some-thing 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 fu-ture articles. Have a nice November and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrates it. Un-til next time, Thank you for reading Samantha’s Thoughts. Contact au-thor at [email protected], www.facebook.com/angelba-by916

mail as soon as I woke up. I still feel excited when the mailman leaves mail in my mailbox. I have about 20 long let-ter 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. Ei-ther 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 pho-tographs sent to me of

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 intro-ductions 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 hon-estly 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 pen-pal, 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, Face-book, text messages and phone calls. Right now, I’m looking for long letter penpals. I find that penpals in oth-er countries write lon-ger 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 per-son is great to write to or why you didn’t “click” with someone. I am of-fering to do a Numerol-ogy reading for those who are interested in discovering if you and the person you are writ-ing the first letter to will be good friends or to not even write at all. Then again, it will help you know if the pen-pals 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(

SAMANTHA”S THOUGHTS: RECIPES

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Pen Pal BookC/O Kimberly Garigin3726 Green Pond RdGray Court, SC 29645One 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/sym-bols & 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 [email protected]

Penpals ‘nd Swappers magazinePenpals `nd Swappers is a new magazine for people who like to write letters and swapping, also for peo-ple who are looking for new penpals and swappers. In this magazine there are PenpalAdds and Swapper-Adds, all around writing letters and swapping and

many many more. How can I order it? Just send an e-mail to [email protected] with your name and e-mail address. You get your maga-zine by e-mail. How to get my PenpalAdd/Swapper-Add in the magazine? Please, send your PenpalAdd or SwapperAdd via e-mail to: [email protected] Please do not forget your address or e-mail address.

PenPal Directory and NewsletterHi! 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:Tracy Sanders, [email protected]

Yahoo Groups that you might want to join:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/strictlysnail http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crazy_pen_pals

BRACELETS

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 Tibet-an Charms, They Range, From Angels, Teddy’s, Shells, Turtles, Dolphins, Stars, Moon and suns, Love hearts.I start off with Some Elas-tic 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 Chil-dren’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 al-ways available; I always

try to make Bracelets to everyone’s favourite colours. I have all my

Crafts making for Brace-lets on a shelf unit near where I sit in the front room. I will add more Photo’s as I do more. I al-ways 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 Wed-ding Favours and many other occasions.I start off with some elastic cord measuring at least 9 Inches I select

at least 40 beads and 6 Charms, and a Tibetian 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

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 cor-rect 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 P l a c e i n s i d e of a plastic bag a s m a l l 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 ev-ery bracelet is up to my High standards of mak-ing them.This is my first try at writ-ing an article I hope that it has been helpful.SandyXrs, [email protected]

PENPALLING CONNECTIONS:

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ACROSS2. a circle of friends5. an errasable writing tool7. way of communication; symbol8. a viewcard9. crafting, scrapbooking11. the place where letters arrive14. a layout, a desgin, a vision16. your searching tool for new penpals17. a writing tool

DOWN1. a snail mail friend3. the month of Halloween is4. a person who is born in the same day as you6. something sweet10. a symbol of Halloween12. a relationship between two pals13. exchange of goods15. friendshipbook is abriviated to

FUN

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ACROSS2. community5. pensil7. letter8. postcard9. decoration11.mailbox14. template16. sandbooknet17.pen

DOWN1. penpal3. October4. birthday twin6. chocolate10. pumpkin12. friendship13. swap15. fb

PENPAL MEETINGS

by Tessa Rondberg, NetherlandsMeeting a penpal in real live can be tricky. What if there is no click when you see each other? Will you keep on writing with that penpal then? Is your penpal really the person who she writes she is?When three of my penpals wanted to meet, I wasn’t asking myself these questions and I wasn’t afraid that a meeting could be the end of the penpalling friendship. I thought it would be a wonderful experience and that it would lift up our penpalling to an other level. And I was correct.The first penpal I’ve met was one of my Dutch penpals. Her name is E. and

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 close to both of our hometowns. We toughed if we don’t have anything to talk about, we can talk about the movie. After the cinema we went out for some dinner. Out first meeting was nice and chatty. We had enough to talk about. From the first moment when we saw each other, it felt like if we had known each other for years instead of months! But on the other hand, that is no surprise. We wrote each other a letter every week for several months. Since the summer of 2009 we became good friends and now a day, we try to meet each other at least every two months! My second meeting with a penpals

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

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 pen-pal. 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 internation-al 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 tele-phone 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 pen-pal and told her the prob-lem. After one and a half hour delay I finally arrived in Gent. Luckily we recog-nized each other immedi-

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 talk-ed a lot. In fact, we just kept talking. There were no uncomfortable silenc-es! 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 pen-pal 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 writ-ing 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 meet-ing them have giving our penpalling friendship an extra dimension! I’m hap-py that I’ve found such a wonderful girls with who I write wonderful letters with and with who I can share everything!

QUIZ RESULTS

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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.COMFACEBOOk: HTTP://WWW.FACEBOOk.COM/SIMPlICITyEMBEllISHED

LETTERS ARE SECRETS BETWEEN FRIENDS - SIMPLICITY EMBELLISHED

Page 35: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 post-card enthusiasts in the least!).I received this beautiful letter from a new corre-spondent. 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 abso-lutely phenomenal.This was the front of the envelope (above). She used a piece of packing tape to preserve the ad-dress in case it got wet, which for those of us who have relied on USPS for anything have likely en-countered.Her penmanship was beautiful too. Something I think we all can try to aspire to, no?

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 fan-tastic Victorian-esque stickers and a feather. Feath-ers are my favorite. I love feathers. When I got mar-ried, 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 writ-ing 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.

Page 36: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 HISTORyThe word “jeans” comes from the French phrase bleu de Gênes, literally the blue of Genoa. RIVETED jEANSDry goods merchant Levi Strauss was sell-ing blue jeans under the “Levi’s” brand to the mining communities of California in the 1850s. One of Strauss’ custom-ers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co. wholesale house. Af-ter one of Davis’ custom-ers kept buying cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use cop-per 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 mon-ey 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-Open-ings,” on May 20, 1873.IN POPulAR CulTuRECopper rivets for rein-forcing pockets are a

characteristic feature of blue jeans. Initially, jeans were simply sturdy trousers worn by work-ers, especially in the factories during World War II. During this peri-od, 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 de-cades before they be-came a staple of fashion, jeans generally fit quite loosely, much like a pair of bib overalls without the bib. Indeed, until 1960, Levi Strauss de-nominated its flagship product “waist overalls” rather than “jeans”.After James Dean pop-ularized them in the movie Rebel Without a Cause, wearing jeans by teenagers and young adults became a symbol of youth rebellion dur-ing the 1950s. Because of this, they were some-times banned in the-aters, restaurants and schools.During the sixties the wearing of jeans be-came more acceptable, and by the seventies it had become general fashion in the US and all over the globe for casual wear.

FASHION

Find your stationery: www.lapapierre.com

Coming up Nov 2010

La papierre!

Page 37: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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Rebecka C., Sweden Rylee W., USA

LadybugRaia A., Bulgaria

Angel

Lisa. P, USA

Aia, Bulgaria Buccaneer Katey & Pete,USA

Cyndi Lauper

Gypsy & Reaper

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.

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!

Erica M., Mexico

CULTURAL EVENT: HALLOWEENTechnicolor Manga Chick

Gothic bride

Page 38: Sandbook Pen Pals and Swappers Magazine, Nov 2010, Issue 1

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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 ad-dress all those questions and more on this page. Hopefully by reading this you will have a clear-er idea about our magazine.

Who are You?The Sandbook.Net Team is be-hind this adventurous project. We started this idea quite impul-sively and as some of you already know from our status changes on Facebook - we are making the magazine as go. That gives us the unique opportunity to fully include you the readers of this magazine in the decision mak-ing - which section, articles and stories we should run or not. So yes, we don’t have a whole con-cept or a business plan behind the magazine, but we our enthu-siasm.

Why can’t you run my ad for 20 months?In our post we have offered to print the ads for 1-2 or 3 months. We have chosen such durations because:1) Our initial idea was to make three issues of the magazine and then decide whether or not we will continue doing the maga-zine. When we started promot-ing and collecting the ads, we re-

ally didn’t have a clue how many people will actually be interest-ed 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 increas-ing number of ads that are sim-ply copy-pasted from an issue to an issue - that will be boring, don’t you think? That’s why the 3 month limit is what we set out to be. After the 3 months are over, you can resubmit your ad - by then you might have a new hob-by, decide to edit your own, etc. We are not going to turn your ad down because we know you had posted previously with us. We only wish to bring a bit of diver-sity here and there in the coming issues.

Isn’t there an op-tion for a paper ver-sion?Yes, that’s one of our long term missions - becoming a paper magazine. But before we can make any plans for those future times, we want to estimate your interest towards such a paper magazine, the number of issues that we will need to have in stock and of course the price beyond which the magazine should not go over.If we move to become a paper magazine we will be printing it out in an Agency, not on at-

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

What can I do to help with the magazine?1) Promote us - tell your penpals and swappers about the maga-zine. 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 ques-tion 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 ad-dress and name) you will be in-cluded in the list from which we will draw a lucky winner who will take home our Survey Award. 4) Become a guest writer - Con-tact us with your idea of an ar-ticle. 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 im-age needs to be with a minimal resolution of 800x600.

Is the next issue free?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 ads. The more, the merrier!

How to subscribe for the following issue?Go to www.sandbook.net and then to Magazine section and then click “Subscribe”.

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.

Who can post an Ad?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 published2) 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 [email protected]

How will I receive the magazine?There are two options currently available:1) You can subscribe - log onto our website and fill 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 download the magazine. Whether or not we will attach the magazine to the email depends on its overall size.2) You can download the magazine from our web-site - we will keep a copy of it online so that you can download/read it any time.

How to become a guest writer?Again, get in touch with us and let us know the 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 pub-lished 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.

Make sure that you stay informed for the latest news Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SandbookAdd us as a friend on Facebook http://facebook.com/sandbooknetAnd join our Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/SBNgroupAnd join our Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/SBNpageRead our blog at: sandbooknet.blogspot.comVisit us on our website: www.SandBook.Net

Q & A: THE MAGAZINE & SURVEY SUBSCRIBE

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Samantha’s thoughtsRelationship AdviceLost PenPalsBirthday TwinsPenPal MeetingsPenpals & Swappers Ads

RecipesYou have spokenTravel guide

Simplicity EmbellishedPenPalling and LettersFashion & Fun PagesThe Postal Service

PenPal of the Month WinnersReady for the Holidays?Xmas and NYE SpecialMega Holiday Give Away

NEXT ISSUE

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CONTACT US

Make sure that you stay informed for the latest news Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SandbookAdd us as a friend on Facebook http://facebook.com/sandbooknetAnd join our Facebook Group: http://on.fb.me/SBNgroupAnd join our Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/SBNpageRead our blog at: sandbooknet.blogspot.comVisit us on our website: www.SandBook.Net