Delving into WreckThisGirl's Mailbox - now, who said writing letters were boring?
Please meet Fab, or better known as WreckThisGirl (twitter @WreckThisGirl), a 22 years old, freelance illustrator and snail mail enthusiast from the South of Italy.
I’ve been following Fab for almost two months on Instagram from being immediately attracted by her passion and enthusiasm for writing letters (yes, old school snail mail). Fab clearly demonstrates a fascination for old school correspondences and foreign culture – if you’re on Instagram, please do check out her amazing photographs; you’re bound to be inspired —>> statigr.am/wreckthisgirl
We’re really pleased to have Fab signed up to Phase Two of the Travelling Notebook’s Project which kicks off this month, and I managed to liaise with Fab via emails and twitter to find out more about where all this passion for creative writing came from. Here goes….
Fab informs me that being really shy, she’s always preferred putting her thoughts on paper rather than expressing herself verbally, and started penpaling with people around the world 10 years ago. In the beginning Fab says she only a couple of penpals – “when I found out it was a possible to make genuine friends from around the world through writing and exchanging letters, it immediately became the perfect hobby for me!” – she tells us. “Then I began started looking for more people who shared the same interests in writing and messages through post, and found new friends from joining Tumblr in 2011.”
Fab gets in touch and corresponds with creative-types; individuals who shares a common interest as herself, this not only helps her to build new friendships but to also engage and swap creative projects and ideas with one another too.
Fab tells us that some of her most memorable creative writing projects from the past years have been “Wreck This Journal pages swap” (a creative journal by Keri Smith that inspired herself as an artist and for her online alias; WreckThisGirl) in which her partner and Fab would decorate a page of their journal and send it to each other. The “Traveling Notebook Project” (a different project to the one set up with myself and @oh_gosh/Emma) was also another project Fab felt connected with – this project involved sending a blank notebook to 6 different creatives around Europe and then each were given 5 pages to express themselves however they liked (the final project’s pages can be seen here <<— it’s amazing guys!). Lastly, another project Fab has enjoyed cooking up is her own recent writing project, the “Secret Penpal Scavenger Hunt“, which is, in Fab’s own words “a secret round robin to challenge yourself in finding/crafting 5 objects from a secret list and hopefully find a new penpal”
It clearly seems Fab never stops too! (and I though I was a workaholic!?) – when she isn’t freelancing, she also designs whimsical letter sets which she shares on her own colourful blog every Friday, or will sell these via an exclusive monthly printables newsletter service.
Baking up sweet Italian happiness….
As you can imagine, all this creative writing and having a full-time freelancing career surely Fab chillaxes too, right? Some of Fab’s simple pleasures involves a cup of tea and warm slice of apple pie to keep herself refueled, and enjoys dabbling in a bit of Italian cooking and baking! and if she’s feeling particularly creative (or if her sweet tooth gets a lil out of control), will also bake fruit tarts and biscotti.
If Fab’s not in the mood for baking, she can literally go anywhere in Italy to enjoy a good pizza. She informs us that a good 60% of the restaurants here (in Fab’s home city) will have pizza on their food menu, food-wise Italians are really attached to their roots, and it’s only lately that they are starting to make their appearance in more ethnic restaurants, especially Japanese. Italians are really family oriented when it comes to food she says, and often prefer to have an old school home cooked meal rather than going out to eat, which is usually preferred for only dates or special occasions.
Food Glorious Food….
In addition to all this global writing, I managed to ask Fab what were some of her favourite Italian foods from her home country of Italy. She tells us that if you’re curious about Italian food, some recipes we should absolutely take the time to find out and appreciate if we’re in town are; for savoury types “pasta carbonara” – spaghetti with an egg and bacon sauce, “pasta cacio e pepe” made with a typical cheese and (loads of) pepper, and “polenta” – a dish made out of yellow cornmeal often dressed with sausages and tomato sauce. Fab also shares with us that if we’re in the mood for something sweet (that’s definitely me, then!), then we should try “babà“, “sfogliatella” or “cannoli” all which are desserts typically from Fab’s region and Southern Italy.
A big thank you to Fab for being part of our first Travelling Notebooks Star! we are huge fans of your work, so thank very much for taking time out of your super busy schedule to speak to us! – Missie Cindz :)
{Photos by Fab as shared on her Instagram page}
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What is a ‘Travelling Notebooks Star’ I hear you ask?
These are interviews where we try to catch up with some of the real unsung talented writers, doodlers or chefs and bakers worldwide which we believe do things that are worth sharing. Each of them have also signed up to the Travelling Notebooks Project so if you haven’t seen their pages featured yet, you will do somewhere along the project.
This same post is also shared on the Travelling Notebooks blog.
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