pocket letters

Farming can sometimes seem like a lonely business. There's no Target on the corner, no Starbucks down the street, no mall down the road. 

It's just you, the land, the animals . . . and that random guy from the city who's actually trying to find your neighbor's house but turned onto the wrong gravel road and ended up in your lane instead.

But just because you see more cows than people on the average day and only go the grocery store once a week because it's 30-40 minutes away doesn't mean that you can't meet and make good friends.

Enter Instagram! 

Wait. That's a different post. 

{But seriously . . . I made a great friend through IG.} 

Ok, let's try this again. Here we go . . .

You can meet and make new friends through . . . pocket letters!

Pocket letters are kind of like the 21st century version of pen pal meets scrapbooker.

Full disclosure: I had a pen pal in third or fourth grade. Her name was Katie Poff. {Katie, if you're out there, I'm sorry I stopped writing back in middle school. I have no excuse. I grew up to be a writer though. Now isn't that ironic?} 

Pocket letters are a pretty simple concept. 

(1) Buy a package of baseball card sleeves. In the event you're in Walmart as you're reading this, they're somewhere between where Automotive ends and Toys start. (I tell you this so that the nice man who works at Wal-Mart won't give YOU the crazy look that says, "Why is a 30-year-old woman collecting baseball cards?")

(2) Fill each pocket with something fun: tea bags, paper clips, a magnet, scrapbooking supplies, a note from and about you, seeds for the garden and whatever other pretty things you're dying to use in your craft room. 

(3) Find someone who wants to swap letters. If you're an Instagram junkie, look up #pocketletterpals or #pocketletters to find someone who might be willing to swap. You can also go to Pocket Letter Pals and sign up to meet other scrapbookers turned pocket letter makers. 

(4) Fold up your letter. The great thing about using baseball card sleeves is that they fold up to fit in a regular business size envelope. If you're feeling especially creative, you can even decorate the envelope. Either way, slap a stamp on that puppy, sit back and wait for your pen pals to send you pocket letters too. 

(5) Start a binder of the letters you receive from your friends. There are groups of pen pals who swap recipes, coffee and tea, faith-based items and even stuff for folks who live in the country. Find your people, start swapping and hang on to what they send as fun reminders of your fellow crafters. 

It's just that easy! Put stuff in pockets. Boom. You're done. 

Even your kids can get in on the fun. {Although if they start cramming sleeves full of dead frogs and dandelion heads, you might reconsider.}

The very first gal who offered to swap with me is a 45-year old Christian homeschooling mom of three. I'm Christian, I was homeschooled, and I'd love one day to be a mom of three (or six). It makes swapping letters even more fun when it's folks you can identify with.

Interested in learning more about pocket letters and feeding your need to get tiny things in the mail? Check out some tips and ideas here, or just get started crafting your own. While we're not moral relativists here on the farm, I can say with great certainty that there's no wrong way to create one of these bad boys. 

So fill those pockets. Start your own pocket book of letters you've received from others. Spread a little snail mail love around. Meet someone new. 

Heck, you can even swap a letter with a farmer! Just be ready: We can't cram milk in those pockets, but we just may send you some pretty sweet cow pictures. And a pocket full of silage. Maybe even a cow patty. Or some corn kernels. 

Just don't say we didn't warn you. 

Are you interested in swapping pocket letters?