50 States Postcard Exchange - COMPLETE!!!

WHOO-HOO!

WE ARE DONE! FINISHED! COMPLETE! PAU! OWARI! FINITO!

YES! You read that right! We have collected postcards from all 50 states (well, 49 - we didn't ask for one from our home state), Washington D.C. as well as one from Italy! In all we have collected 80 postcards! The last few postcards were tough....but lo and behold friends and even complete strangers came to our rescue. THANK YOU!

Another person would like to thank you as well:

She's normally not so shy....and she doesn't really talk in monotone..... :)

I'm still in a bit of disbelief that we attempted this project and completed it! The whole process took about six months and most of the soliciting of postcards was done online via Blogger, Facebook and my mom's groups. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about doing something similar to GO FOR IT! Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

There are so many people to thank! If you sent us a postcard (or two or three) or asked your friends and family to help, we thank you!!!

By the way - if you sent us a postcard (and included your return address) but have yet to receive a postcard from us please let me know. You can leave a comment here or send me an email at SHARKritzler@aol.com . While I tried to stay on top of what was received, sent, uploaded, etc. there were still moments in time were things got a little hectic. We certainly don't want to overlook anyone that helped us with this GINORMOUS project! Oklahoma & South Dakota - we recently received yours and a return one is on the way!

So what's next? Well, Kailani said she now wants to collect one from all the countries of the world! *Sigh* I think we'll put that idea on the back burner for now!

Thanks again! :)

One. More. Postcard.

SOUTH DAKOTA!!!

Looking for a South Dakota postcard to complete our 50 States Postcard Exchange! Anyone?

In my last postcard update I mentioned that we needed four more postcards: Delaware, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Dakota. Since then we have received all but South Dakota! Thank you so much to those of you that sent them in! We were also lucky to receive additional postcards from Indiana, Oregon, Nebraska and Arizona. If you provided your return address Kailani will be sending you a postcard in return (she is working on them as I write up this post!)

Just one more! Who can help?

Many many thanks again to those of you that have contributed to this project!

Thank you Nebraska.....

....for the super cool postcard! :)

We only need FOUR more postcards to complete our 50 state postcard exchange! Can you help? We still need:

1. Delaware
2. Mississippi
3. Oklahoma
4. South Dakota

Thanks everyone!

Delaware, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma & South Dakota - HELP!

Life got a little busy with all the party planning and sewing but now I'm back to recruit for a few more postcards to complete our 50 States Postcard Exchange!

We still need postcards from:

1) Delaware
2) Mississippi
3) Nebraska*
4) Oklahoma
5) South Dakota

Can you help wrap up our project? If you can please send me an email at SHARKritzler@aol.com and I'll send you our mailing address. Thanks again to all that have already sent one! Much mahalo to you! :)

*Nebraska - I'm almost 100% positive that we received a postcard from Nebraska but I think the little monster might have gotten hold of it before I was able to do anything with it. I am going to attempt to tear the house apart and look for it again!

Postcard Exchange Update!

WOW! We are almost half way there! As of today we have a total of 37 postcards from 24 of the 50 states including Washintgon D.C.! (The numbers don't quite add up because we have received multiple postcards from some states.)

Thank you to all of you that have participated! If you have sent any postcards in the last two weeks please forgive me as we have gotten a little bit behind in responding. (Minnesota and Alaska - yours are on their way! Thanks for your patience!)

Right now we are still seeking postcards from:

1. Arizona
2. Arkansas
3. Colorado
4. Connecticut
5. Delaware
6. Indiana
7. Iowa
8. Kentucky
9. Maine
10. Maryland
11. Massachussetts
12. Michigan
13. Mississippi
14. Montana
15. Nebraska
16. Nevada
17. New Mexico
18. New York
19. North Carolina
20. North Dakota
21. Ohio
22. Oklahoma
23. Oregon
24. South Carolina
25. South Dakota
26. Utah

Can you help us out? Or know of someone in one of these states that can? Please send them our way! :)

For your viewing pleasure I have created a Photobucket slideshow of the postcards we have received. It is also on my sidebar. Can you find yours in there?

Postcard Exchange Update!

(Still need to connect the postcards to the state with some yarn...)

I wanted to take a moment to post about the status of our postcard exchange!

As of today we have received postcards from 12 of the 50 states (well, 49!) We have received multiple from California, Washington and Pennsylvania and that's great! You send us one we will send one to you in return! I have been working on a slide show to show each of the postcards received but have been having problems with it. Hopefully I can get the kinks out soon!

So what do we do with the posctards? After Kailani receives a postcard she:

1) Reads the postcard;

2) Writes a return postcard;

3) Fills out a state worksheet which includes the following info:

• Locate the state on a map;


• What is capital?


• What is the state nickname?


• What is the state bird?


• What is the state flower?


• What is the postal abbreviation?

3) I then have her do a worksheet from a book I purchased from Sam's Club called, "The Complete Book of Maps and Geography". It's chocked full of information but the pages are simple and quick to do.

4) While I haven't implemented it yet I found a great website called "Kidzone" that has coloring pages of each of the 50 states that includes the state bird and the state flower (as well as other things) that you can download and print. EdHelper also has activity sheets for each of the 50 states.

So what are my thoughts so far about the exchange?

LOADS OF FUN! Kailani gets so excited when a postcard comes in the mail and I swear she studies everything about it! Not only is she learning about the other states but she is also learning more about her home state of Hawaii as well. For each postcard she sends out I have asked her to write one fact about Hawaii.

I think the pros of doing this exchange outweigh the cons but there have been a few disappointments. The biggest con I have found is sending out a postcard and not getting one in return. The solution? For anyone planning on doing an exchange like this one I would encourage you to not send a postcard until one is received. I realize that people get busy and some just plain forget but it's disappointing if you're already sent one and am expecting one in return.

Also - while this is not a "con" I thought I would mention it - some people do not provide a return address when sending their postcard. It could be for several different reasons - simply forgetting; not enough room on the postcard; or some people just want to participate in the exchange by sending a postcard but want nothing in return. Like I said, not necessarily a "con" but I thought I was worth mentioning.

Anyways! We are still looking for postcards from 38 more states! I also want to welcome you to participate if you live outside of the United States! We will happily send you one in return! Let me know if you're interested! Thanks!

We Have Sunflowers!

Remember back in June when I tried growing some sunflowers? Little buds had started to form before we left North Carolina but now they are in full bloom! Thanks to my father for taking a couple of pictures and sending them to share! Here is a picture update:

Day one: Wet the seeds.

Week one: We see sprouts!

Week two: Time to take them out and plant them!

We picked a spot:

This is what it looked like before we put it into the ground:

Week 5: You can clearly see three plants growing!

Week 9: A flower is forming!

Week 10 - We have a flower!

Week 11: We have MANY sunflowers!

Of course the little buggers were a bit camera shy and decided to face towards the fence rather than the camera.....

I'm not sure which variety of sunflowers each of these are - while we labeled them in the glove I forgot to label them when we planted them into the ground. Whoops! That's okay. I am just tickled to death that this experiment worked! From beginning to end the entire process took approximately 2.5 months. It was well worth the wait!

Please see my original post for more details or head over to JesseKate Designs where the idea originated!