Combo theme: Someone in _________ loves you & Of all the fish in the sea, I choose you

This will be care package #7...
If you just want to see simple pictures, here are the links to the pins of these packages: pin: fish in the sea care package and pin: someone in ____________ loves you

The theme for this is borrowed from the following pins: beach theme care package from milso pin_beach and milso theme care package pin_fish and Someone in ________ loves you.

THE OUTSIDE:
So, in my pin-research (yes, when I want to research anything DIY, I take straight to pinterest) I came across a ton of ideas for care packages! Lots of the ideas were themes which sound super fun! So far, the last 5 haven't been themes (unless you count the b-day package I sent) so I am going to give the theme idea a try!

It will be my first themed care package! I was a bit stumped on the theme. I am hoping to send it out this week and that it will arrive there at the beginning of September. I thought about doing a fall theme but I want to save that for a bit later...Not that it really "feels like fall" here in HI but then again, I'm from California and we don't exactly get the "fall colors" so much. OK, enough about that...

                                         This is the bottom of the box. I didn't know what to put on the bottom and then I saw this beautiful paper. I think the theme of it is fitting. :)

This took careful planning. I wanted it to look beautiful and I don't have perfect penmanship so I printed off the words I wanted. I then traced over them in pen (think the regular cheap pens that you can press hard on the paper to make an indentation) So, cover the box with the paper you're writing on, then print out the word you want to write. Trace over the word in pen, then remove the printer paper, trace over the indents you've made on the box with sharpie, and voila! You have beautiful handwriting that looks like a font!

 THE INSIDE:



The best method of decorating the inside of a care package is hands down to cut open the box! I really like using scrapbook paper. I of course stole this idea from a pinner on pinterest as well....It's close to half of a page for each flap section. Note that when the box is laid out flat, each of the 4 panels are basically divided horizontally in thirds. I would highly suggest that you get an extra piece for each part that you're doing because it doesn't always end up the right proportion of a page left or if you're like me, you might make a mistake cutting. It just saves yet another trip to the craft store.

Also, stock up on stickers! They really come in handy (I cannot draw at all!) Plus, they help you personalize and can fill up any extra space. I tend to use 1-2 packages of stickers (they're usually meant for scrap booking) but I'm still looking for more economical ways to get stickers.

 I did the "sand" first and then used blue paper to make the ocean. I got cute ocean critter stickers to put in the ocean and some border type stickers to put on the "sand."

Just in case of getting sick...You can also take off the lid so you can leave a secret note inside (I did.)

I just did this lettering free-hand. It's not perfect but I think he'll like it.

 This is a set of accordion style envelopes. They are taped together. I didn't want the envelope part to show so I taped blank cards (essentially flat pieces of paper) over the top of the envelopes. They just have little notes in them.



This is a card I made. The one that I modeled it after used a tiny clothespin but I couldn't find the tiny clothespin I know I have laying around here...

I got mail!

It arrived today! The package for Christine and I from Lisa and Tony!

Inside I found a little package for me! It included shorts from Guam and letters he had written to me. Since he liked the open whens I gave him/have been sending him, he decided to write some for me! That is so unbelievably sweet and thoughtful! He also included a post card. It was of a brown tree snake (they are super invasive in Guam).

I also got letters in the mail, too! :) Everyone loves mail and mail from your hubbalicious overseas is that much more exciting!








So, if you're the one away, make sure you send mail home! It's really important! We love it! So, get out your pen and paper! (Maybe even get some cute stationary/note cards when you're in port) and write to us! They told him it was free but apparently it's not so fork over the dough to send a letter home once in awhile. Also, if yours sends you a care package, send a thank you to him or her! I'm talking a real, handwritten thank you that you mail separately. Emailing him or her to tell them thank you for caring is not enough! Remember your manners. This is one thing I am pretty old-fashioned about. I don't care if you hate your handwriting! Your milso will not care! He or she will be so excited to see your writing. It's just another way to "be there" when you can't "be" there!

Sometimes Care Packages Don't Make it to the Port in Time and totems

So, go figure, they changed the schedule again...So I scrambled and rushed to get a package in the mail...Not soon enough. I sent it on August 8 and the last tracking update says it arrived at USPS facility FPO, AP on August 12 but the ship has already left port and he never got this box. It's okay. There wasn't anything homemade in it so it's not like it will spoil.

 OK, so I didn't realize I was supposed to send him with a stuffy he could take around with him and sometimes take pictures of it in places to send to me. Haha! Some of his friends who have kids were sent with stuffies to do this with. I've also seen info on others' blogs calling these totems. He was telling me about it and then I got him one (this cute little baby malasada (click here to find out the amazingness behind malasadas)). I took her around a few places on the island and snapped some pictures.

Maybe I should have written, "Aloha"                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       I also invested in stamps. (I got them at walmart). Anything that looks like a really great drawing in black...is probably a stamp.

 This is a box we used to use to send each other packages last year. I started the plane when I found it as a die cut in some of my scrapbooking supplies. Under the question mark is the outline of California with a heart near Chico (where i lived last year). I was going to draw in his ship on a card placed over the CA but then, I had to send this box faster than expected so I just drew a question mark which is true because it's not like I know where the package is going.



There are secret messages under where the stars are. I wrote him a note on the outside (I put it in an envelope that tells him there are secret messages on the outside of the package. I didn't tell him that the stars make the locations of secret messages. I just put a star sticker near the note I made about there being secret messages on the outside of the package. Also, here's my trademark whale. I didn't have time to come up with a punny statement including the word whale, so I just drew one real quick.

Hey guys! Write us letters too

So, Tony is great. He will message me/email me every time that he can. Sometimes the internet goes down or gets turned off for secrecy so obviously that's beyond his control. Often, he will write me an email from his account when the internet is out because it will get sent when they connect back to the network.

That is amazing and I'm grateful he does that all on his own and I don't have to ask or bug him about communicating with me. It wouldn't be as special if it was forced.

But...call me old-fashioned...I like to receive actual mail (as in snail mail...)

So, we had kind of a big convo about how I am writing him letters and he wasn't writing me any. To be fair, he hadn't gotten a single letter I sent yet. To be fair, I sent him a letter the day he left. Yeah (he literally got those a month later...) Except one of the ones I sent got stamped backwards (I wrote my return address on the back) and came back home to me instead of going to him. Ever seen that?

But because he and I value communication and can talk about anything and everything, it was only a conversation. One thing I've learned in relationships (significant others or anyone else) and life is that if you want something from someone, let them know. It's not fair to assume the other person knows what you're thinking just because you think it's about something obvious.

His reason for not sending me/writing letters was simple and completely logical: He talked to me more often (every day) via email and he was even getting a package of souvenirs from the ports he'd been to together to send. I just told him that I would really love it if he'd hand write me a letter. That was all it took. Now...he's been writing a lot of letters and I think he just had the chance to send me a few...so I'll be like the above meme...waiting.