How to send happy mail

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a big fan of handwritten letters arriving in the post. So given my love of happy mail, you can imagine how excited I was to take part in Capture By Lucy‘s Springtime Surprise Project.

The lovely Lucy, who is a photographer and blogger, put the call out for people to take part in this gift exchange a couple of months ago. You had to give a bit of info about yourself to help your partner choose your surprise, then Lucy paired everyone up for the swap.

The present budget was five english pounds (sorry my keyboard doesn’t do sterling!)  and Lucy posted lots of inspiration on her Instagram for gift ideas.

I was lucky enough to be partnered with Marian, who runs Araminta Flowers, in South-East England.

Marian said she was a nature lover, who liked to laugh, and loved words and sunshine. So I collected a little parcel of Sydney sunshine for her, which included a cute wombat bookmark, some illustrated post-it notes, Aussie teabags and chocolates, and some flowery photos I snapped on Alex’s Fuji Instax camera. (I will post a photo of my parcel next time.)

Anyway, this morning, my parcel from Marian arrived all the way from the UK! Cue massive excitement! Isn’t it all just gorgeous? You can tell Marian knows her colours!

There were all sorts of beautiful things inside too. Marian totally spoilt me! Ted had great fun helping me unwrap the presents this morning. He kept asking me: “what’s inside?” as I tore into yet another surprise. It was like Christmas morning.

We found so many gifts: a beautiful floral jug, a gorgeous heart decoration made of tiny bells, some burlap ‘lovely’ bunting, pretty tea-themed notecards, and perhaps my favourite – a set of tiny leaf and flower stamps. So sweet!

Oh and there was chocolate too! Look at those chocolate cupcake cake decorations!

I was totally blown away by Marian’s parcel. Thank you so much! She tells me that she enjoyed her surprise too, which I was thrilled to hear.

It’s quite nerve-wracking putting something like this together for a complete stranger, especially as you only have a few clues about their likes and dislikes. But it was totally worth it – what a great experience!

If you’d like to send and receive your own little parcel of happy mail, check out the Capture by Lucy blog for more details about the next swap, which will be the Summer Surprise Project. (Lucy is in the UK, but the project is international. You can say if you are happy to post a parcel overseas.)

And if you have a second, search the #springtimesurpriseproject on Instagram. The internet gets a bad rap much of the time – but it can be such a force for good! So many connections, so much kindness and so much pretty, thanks to this project!

Have you done a present swap like this? Have you got any advice for finding thoughtful presents? And I’d love to hear any tips you have on wrapping presents. I am useless!