Letter Storage

Hello Mail Friends!

I already asked on Twitter but I am looking for all the feedback I can get.

How do you store the letters you have replied to?  Do you save them all?  Do you only save the extra special ones?  The ones from your closet pen friends?

I am curious because I am getting organized.

Also interested in hearing about your entire mail setups.

I am looking at getting this Ikea desk here.  Now that my brother has moved out I see no reason not to take over yet another space in my parents house.  I am sure they will be thrilled.  But I envision totes and baskets of mail supplies / old letters in the cubbies.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Wax Sealing: Yes or No or It Depends?

Hello Mail Friends!

So because of my Santa Mail situation, I've gotten into Wax Seals.  Does anyone else do this?  Or maybe have them in your collection of mail swag and forget to use them?

I ordered one that popped up in my Etsy feed, that is the one I am using on my Santa Mail right now, it's just the letter "S" {also could use for my own name, bonus}.  Link to the actual seal purchased here.

Then, like with all things, I jumped off the deep end a bit.  I decided when I received the seal in the mail that it wasn't quite fancy enough to be from Santa.

While searching for wax seal supplies I came across LetterSeals.com, where I decided the most efficient way to do two different color waxes to match the envelopes.  I bought the mini glue gun wax shown here because mini glue guns are cheap and I figured I could afford to buy a few and just have one gun dedicated to each color.  I was right, at Joann's Fabric a low-temp mini glue gun is $2.99, so I bought two.

The second website I came across was NostalgicImpressions.com.  From them I bought this pineapple seal.  Because obviously.  I also bought two of these metallic stamp pads because I wanted my Santa letter seals to be two colors to match the two colors on each envelope.  Lastly, I bought some gold flexible sealing wax.

Finally, I went on the hunt for a fancier, inexpensive letter "S", which I found on eBay here.   I have not receive this one yet.

So my first impressions {ha! pun!} are the following:  I love wax seals!  They are so fun!  I received my Etsy, LetterSeals and NostalgicImpressions orders really quickly.  The Etsy seal is smaller than what I was thinking, but I had never seen a real wax seal before so I didn't have a good concept.  The fancier "S" that is on it's way from Hong Kong is 1 inch so I think that is going to be a good size.

The glue gun wax is great.  Easy to use, literally just like a glue gun.  It takes about 1.5 pulls on the trigger to get a pile of wax big enough for my current "S".  The videos on the LetterSeals website with tips was very helpful.  They suggest putting the seal on a damp towel to keep it from sticking to the wax but I didn't because I had the ink instead.  The metallic ink keeps the seal from sticking, just like making the seal damp would.

The pineapple seal is great, just as I expected.  I am glad I love it, but I wish I could find the same one with a wooden handle.  I tried it with the gold wax with a wick.  The color of this wax will make you swoon.  I love it.  Clearly, using wax with a wick takes practice.  LetterSeals recommends newbies trace the seal so you can see how much wax you need, which I did.  I lit the wick and tipped it, at which point wax started dropping on to my envelope.  It was still on fire.  On my thank you note.  I promptly blew it out so my paper didn't catch fire, which splattered some wax on the back of the envelope.  I tried again, this time making sure the wax was dripping but not on fire.  I had the seal on a damp towel because I was not using any ink.  It totally worked.  

The glue gun wax was significantly easier, but the wick wax  has a much more luxurious texture.  I don't know that if I could get the same color in a gun if I would like it as much.

The pineapple seal will be placed in the hands of the USPS tomorrow, so we will see how it holds up.  The other seals are being mailed in protective envelope and will not be tested by the USPS machinery.

Green glue gun wax with gold metallic ink.

Cherry glue gun wax with silver metallic ink.

Classic gold sealing wax and pineapple seal.

Remember...

When I was a good pen pal who actually replied to letters?

Me neither, it was that long ago.  

I've got nothing but crappy excuses, caught up in my brother getting married, then a general funk and a stack of letters that were very overwhelming and not at all organized.

My other brother moved out and I have set up space in his old room just for my mail, so I will be getting back to it.  I apologize to all of my mail friends that I have been neglectful and disrespectful to.

Wanted to let you all know I am alive and getting into the swing of things.

I am selling my Santa Letters on Etsy for Christmas.  The shop is here.

Also, anyone watch the special called Letters to Mrs. Kennedy last night.  The Monday after Kennedy was assassinated 45,000 letters were received.  He was killed on the Friday prior.  

Isn't that just astounding?

Mail Quote of the Week

Correspondences are like small clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.  ~Sydney Smith

Mail Quote of the Week

Leters to absence can a voice impart, and lend a tongue when distance gags the heart.  ~ Horace Walpole

Mail Quote of the Week

We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverable for ourselves and for others.  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Mail Quote of the Week

Please write again soon.  Though my own life is filled with activity, letters encourage momentary escape into others lives and I come back to my own with greater contentment.  ~ Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

Mail Quote of the Week

In a man's letters his soul lies naked.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Mail Quote of the Week

To acknowledge the receipt of letters is always proper, to remove doubts of their miscarriage.  ~ George Washington

Mail Quote of the Week

In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people's lives.  ~ Anatole Broyard

Mail Quote of the Week

The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. ~ Walt Whitman

Mail Quote of the Week

Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow: immediately.  ~ Walt Whitman

Incoming... Pineapple Swag!

File this under "I can't believe this happened!"  A few weeks ago I received an email from someone who reads my blog.  Seriously, those people exist.  Anyway, said person indicated that they live in Hawaii, land of the Pineapple, and that if I would provide my address she would send me some Pineapple Stuff.

Voila!  My mailbox was bombed with an awesome envelope, which I will take a photo of soon, a lovely note and this super cool Pineapple Swag!

Best mail day this year!

Vanessa: Incoming & Outgoing

My friend Vanessa is a non-mail friend, but she sent me this card because she knows I love mail. It's very appropriate, we both love profanity :-)  We've been friend since high school.

I wrote her back with this card I had received as a birthday gift.  You may have seen this at Hallmark.  You buy the cards, then you pick a letter and you stick it on using a white foam square.  The result is a slightly raised letter in the center of the beautiful pattern.

Mail Quote of the Week

A letter is a Joy of Earth - it is denied the Gods.  ~ Emily Dickinson, 1885

Laura DH: Incoming & Outgoing

This is my second received and replied from Ms. Laura over at The Suburban Pen Pal.

I wrote her back with this awesome black square envelope I had picked up at a Staples a few years ago.  Inside is a silver card stock circle.

I used a set of metallic sharpie-type markers to draw a little winter scene on the back.  That pink one basically vomited on the paper when I opened it, I think that one is dead :-/  But that was the best I could do with the splotches.

Laura is doing amazing things with transparent bags-as-envelopes.  She blogged about my envelope post here.  I love the wax seal with her monogram.

And that is a stamp she made!

Emilie: Incoming

So, you know that moment when you're going through your photos and you realized that you forgot to photograph your response to a letter?

That's this moment right now.  Either that, or I just didn't reply.  Emilie will tell me when she sees this!

Emilie sent me Thanksgiving Mail, which I thought was awesome.  I loved how she used the self-adhesive stamp leftovers as decorations!  Totally stealing that idea.

She wrote me on this beautiful gilded fall paper.

Mail Quote of the Week

A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises.  One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Saturday Special: Blizzard Post Card Party

Saturday, February 9th, 2013, after spending the majority of the day shoveling out my house, I collapsed into bed and felt guilty.  I could do more laundry, I could clean my room, or I could work on some more mail.  I decided to get to the post cards I had been meaning to mail and put everything else off, since the mail didn't require me to be vertical.

This card went to my virtual friend Sara, of Box of Joy fame.  I bought all of the wolf post cards at the Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center during my visit to Auntie Pat in September.

This awesome card is going to my cousin Sam, who lives in Hawaii.  I got this at the Letter Writing Social I went to and I have been saving it specifically for her.  This is from HI: 30 Postcards from Chronicle Books.

This post card is going to Hailey and is one of two Grand Canyon cars that Boyfriend brought back from his trip to California.

Two of these went out, one for Hailey and one for Preston.  I bought this on my trip to Acadia National Park.  Saw those Porcupine Islands myself.

Sent Hailey and Preston each one of these as well.

This one went to Hailey.

Preston got the second Grand Canyon card.

This is another post card I scored at the Letter Writing Social.  I sent this to my Auntie Pat, who lives there.  I thought she would be amused.

This one went to Kathy.

This went to Preston.

Another card from the Social, I sent this to my Aunt Michelle.

I sent this to my friend Nick.

And below are some photos of the postage I used for the cards.

Caddi: Incoming & Outgoing

I am finally replying to Caddi, who had responded to a first letter from me back in August.  Caddi is located in Germany and has a mail blog here.

She blogged about my introductory letter here.

I love how she used Washi Tap to block off the addresses.

I wrote her back using the Letter Writers Alliance stationery that I got with my membership.  My intro letter to her was all sorts of scribbly, so I tried really hard to write neater this time!

Mail Quote of the Week

If you are in doubt whether to write a letter or not, don't.  And the advice applies to many doubts besides that of letter writing.  ~ Edward Bulwer Lytton

Saturday Special: "Vintage" Postage

So one day I was bored and got a little crazy on ebay buying postage.  It had never occurred to me to buy postage on ebay, but it was awesome.  Most of the stuff I bought was intended to use on the post cards for Preston & Hailey, but I use them on post cards for anyone because they are fun.  Now I have a watch list of postage I want to have, eventually, to use.  But I am making myself use ALL of the stuff I have first.

I bought these creepy looking ones specifically with Preston in mind.

I bought this just because I like sea mammals.  I haven't used any of them yet.

These, which I love, I got from the lovely Missive Maven by way of her Etsy shop, which I highly recommend.  I love that the little bottom stamps say "P.S. Write Soon."

I bought an entire sheet of these, which are worth 4 cents.  I'm not sure why I bought it but nothing looks vintage like a stamp with all words on it.

I bought these to use on stuff I mail to boyfriend, you'll note I haven't used a single one yet.

I have a lot of these Patriotic Quill stamps.  These are my most favorite stamp ever and they are now no longer available directly from the Beyond the Perf magazine.  So the hunt for my hoard is on.  I also love the weathervane set, so country and rustic looking.  {As a side note, the quill is the stamp I used on all of my requests to famous people to mail my brother.  They got one on my letter to them and I enclosed a stamp for them to use when they sent him a note, so it would literally cost nothing more than their time.}

This is another set I picked up specifically for Preston.  I broke that one in the corner out for my letter to Post Muse.

And how much fun were these fruit ones?  I love these!

I don't ever remember seeing these, but they came up as a suggested option during my ebay purchase binge and here they are.  I use these for my mail to Auntie Pat.

These I've had since they came out, I love polar bears, and I just have not used them up yet.

Another set I bought to put on the post cards for the kids.

I also love any form of flag stamp.

And how beautiful are these?

This next set of photos is another series that I had never seen or heard of, but they are great!  I don't care about the characters so much, but I love that these are postal themed scenes!  Again, I bought these specifically with the kids in mind, but they make me laugh so I am going to use them for whomever.

If you are looking for vintage postage to use, I suggest eBay, Etsy and a legendary stamp dealer that Missive Maven recently posted about.  I haven't personally purchased from him, but you really can't get a bigger endorsement than Missive Maven.