In January 2017, as I was looking thru Facebook I came across something that caught my attention……literally stopped my scroll.
It was a simple post in one of my makeup groups I follow from a girl asking if anyone could help her with a Valentine’s day present. She was requesting people from different states to write a note for her and take a picture of it and message it back to her.
I volunteered to help with Louisiana and thought, “wow, I HAVE GOT TO DO THIS FOR MY KIDS!” Some other women in the group stated that there were specific groups that help people with this. I quickly joined them and started trying to trade Louisiana for other states. I made MANY notes for people before I decided to quit trading and just start reaching out to people via Instagram or private Facebook messages for help. For me, this worked better because trading would regularly lead to disappointment due to people not returning their trades.
Once I started collecting it became an obsession! If you are the type of person who starts something and has to finish it, get ready because it is a long long process!!! I loved the notes people were sending and once I started getting them in I couldn’t stop trying to get more because I wanted their book to be memorable. After I collected all 50 states, I made a spreadsheet of all of the countries, islands, major landmarks and 7 wonders of the world to start working on. I knew this wouldn’t be an overnight project so I decided to set my goal to finish by Christmas.
Some have asked me why I collected so many places and what my point was with this whole project? First, every year I try and make my kids something handmade for Christmas to go along with their other presents. I, personally, love and treasure handmade gifts and I want them to always have something from me; to know that their mom took time out to make them something from my heart. Second, once I started making their book, I was able to connect with so many people and develop friendships! I love different cultures and learning about them. This book helped me to connect with people from all over the world. I never had one negative response! People from every race, religion, and part of the world were so eager to help me when they found out that it was a gift for my children. Last, this lets my kids see all of the beautiful places there are to travel!
Now for the hard work:
I used my Instagram to look up countries that I needed and would message people asking them for their help. You can see some of the places that I collected if you go to @reviewin_life .
I also used my personal Facebook to message people. One really neat thing about Facebook is that my very last country to collect was Macau. I was desperate to finish for Christmas and did a FB search and saw that Giancarlo Esposito was there for a movie premier. I messaged him asking if he would help me, not only did he help me but he went to the famous St. Paul’s church of Macau and was in the picture. For those who are not familiar with his work, he played Gus on the TV series Breaking Bad and also started as Jorge in the Maze Runner: The Death Cure.
In the following post, I will post Pictures of the different countries and landmarks I received. Enjoy!!!
Peace, Love and Blessings,
The Cajun Hippie Mama
The Cajun Hippie Mama 