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.

Tara: Incoming & Outgoing

A few weeks back I sent out the bottle I had picked up on my trip to Colorado Springs.  I sent it to Tara because I couldn't remember if I owed her a letter or not.  I figured that mailing her a bottle would make up for any pen pal faux pas I had committed.  She blogged about receiving it here.

I ended up decorating the back with a few random stickers.

These bottles are really cool, it's unfortunate that you can't just order them online.

As it turns out, I did owe Tara a letter, I just didn't know because I hadn't gotten to her letter in the "pile of mail to be replied to" yet.

She sent me this great transparent envelope and wrote to me using the stationery she made for the Letter Writing Social that she hosted.

So I wrote back to her, using the very same paper she had given me!  That's Mr. Zip, aka Zippy, who was created to encourage people to put zip codes on their outgoing mail.  Really interesting wiki on the origin of the zip code here.  I had no idea that zip code didn't exist until the 60's!