When I was about 11 or 12 I had a Penpal in the US, near Chicago, and we sent some lovely letters to each other over a few years. I even travelled to the States for a week and stayed with her family, attending the local school for a few days (which was really interesting seeing the schooling system in the States, and trying out things like Dodgeball and such like), and visiting Chicago itself for a day trip. It still is a fond memory of mine.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about Penpalling again. It might be because lately I’ve seen a lot of interesting social media posts about penpalling – complete with beautifully designed and created letters and envelopes – and I know in myself it would be lovely to receive something like that. I received some postcards with my latest issue of The Simple Things magazine, and decided… hey, I have friends I don’t see very often now that I’m in Devon, why not send them each one of these postcards?

And so the thought grew to… hey, why can’t I do this with my friends all the time?

Of course, these days you don’t have to stick with penpalling with your friends (although i think this is a good way to start, and don’t we all like to receive good things through the post), but you can apply on various sites nowadays to become a Penpal with someone across the other side of the world.

I’m personally a bit wary of the websites, so for the time being I’m mainly sticking with people I know in real life, but there are also people on Instagram who do this too, sending personalised letters out to others. You can buy these sorts of things on Etsy, and other similar sites. I even ordered a personalised NaNoWriMo letter from a lovely shop called New Leaf and Company, which, considering I’m going to take part in the National Novel Writing Month without a story in mind at the moment, that letter could be the push I need to get cracking on some ideas (but that’s another post).

I’d recommend if you are interested in Penpalling, to ask your friends first and see how that goes first. You can make your own cards if you are creative, or just send a letter. It can be as arty, fancy, and creative as you want, or you could choose a favourite inspirational postcard from your local stationery shop. You could even create your own postcard if you’re into design, using your own photos too! The sky’s the limit in terms of creativity here, but the idea is to exchange letters and sometimes a letter is all it takes to make someone feel special.

As always, keeping it kandid.

Kate x