Character Post

During the LetterMo challenge, the participants could earn different "achievement badges".  If you ventured to a new postbox drop-off location, for example, or sent a birthday or valentine greeting, you'd get to display your achievement for the rest of the LetterMo community to admire/envy/mirror with their own.

 One such achievement that I couldn't stand to NOT earn was the "Austen Style" badge.  This puppy could only be earned if you emulated Jane Austen herself and broke out the parchment, quill, ink bottle and wax seal, finally sending the letter folded up as its own envelope.  Bonus points if you wrote it in early 19th C language/subject matter.  I sent out a few- three, to be precise- but none of them as Lucy Jane or in 19th C character.  I just couldn't break into the time travel for some reason.  (Where's a Tardis when you really need one?  I ask you.)  But my usual vocabulary/style of writing leans to the old fashioned as a habit, so they really weren't that bad.

One of the three was replied to, in Regency character!  How could I not answer it back in kind*??  Finally, with her help, I had unlocked whatever the previous thing was that had blocked my writer's imagination.  Using this fantastic resource on my hometown area in the late 1700s/early 1800s, I was able to flesh out Lucy Jane more than I have ever done, and really develop her backstory and history.  It was marvelous fun to blend historical fact with fiction!  My creative brain, rather starved for that sort of exercise and entertainment of late, just bloomed with one scene and timeline possibility after another until I think I may have enough to write a novel if I get it all down on paper. (NaNoWriMo, anyone?!)  I always told myself I would never be a writer.  I'm a terrible liar to myself.  I'm not saying it will get published or make it to the NY Best Seller list, but who says it has to?  I'm enjoying it. :)

Here are a couple of photos of my "Austen Style" offerings.  I can't wait for Charlotte's next letter!

Have you ever sent a letter as a character? I'd love to hear about it!

*Although I have been SUPER busy lately and have not updated the website and/or blog in a few months, most of you know that I have a creative outlet under a pseudonym/character called Lucy Jane.  If you are new here, follow the link to see "her" wares. :)

Backlog

When life has practiced its pitching arm and starts slinging things at you, one after the other (not all bad!  A lot of it good!), and when a whole community of wonderful people are sending you lovely letters to fill up the mailbox... this happens! :)

I've had a rotten cold the last 2 days because of the pollen, so that has also kept me from attacking the backlog stack with alacrity.  But never fear!  I'll get caught up hopefully by the end of the week! :)
How do you handle your letters when you get behind?

Addresses

Happy First Day of the A-Z! :)

I'm going to start my Snail Mail themed challenge off with a few words about mailing addresses- how I have gotten them from pen pals, how I handle my own, etc.

Internet Databases
First, the LetterMo event in February was just spectacular!  I made so many new friends, reconnected with old ones, and generally had a ball.  By participating in LetterMo and logging into the forums as a member, I could find pages and pages of biographies with addresses of people to write to.  The rules are the same as any other social setting: only post your personal info if you are comfortable with people seeing it and using it to write to you.  Some participants didn't want to post their stuff for the world to see, so we had the option of sending them a friend request and private message first to introduce ourselves.

LetterMo introduced me to the use of a site called Postable.  It's completely secure and encrypted.  You send a link which takes whomever to a short form.  They fill in the info and TA DAA!  Now you can send out Christmas cards, graduation/wedding/birthday/your cat's baptism/Marvel comic book reading party/whatever invitations with ease!  I really love mine and it has been super useful.

Another online tool I have used to meet pen pals is a site called Maarten's Snail Mail Pen Pals Online.  I found it around 2 years ago.  Again, people can list their info if they want to, or they can ask that prospective pen pals email them personally for it first.  I have sent and received some of the most fantastic letters to people from this site.  You can search for pen pals by age, gender, country or state.  The site is updated every few weeks with new and current listings.

Street Address VS P.O. Box
I've been pondering whether I should change over to a Post Office Box for all of my letter writing, instead of my street address.  There is added security in a P.O. Box, as people can't just Google Map it and start knocking on your front door one day.  But to the rest of the world who hopefully aren't weirdo stalkers live really far away, I think a street address is like a little snapshot of you and your corner of the globe and is therefore more fun than a P.O. Box.  I don't know.  I DO know that I tend to over-think things way too often, and this is probably one of those times/things, but I just can't seem to make up my mind.  What's your opinion, fellow bloggers?  To P.O. Box, or not to P.O. Box??

Posting Photos (especially concerning other people's addresses)
One thing that has come up often in discussion among those of us who not only Snail Mail, but then Blog about said snail mailing, is that if you are going to post photos of your incoming and outgoing mail, even if you care nothing about hiding your own address for privacy, for Pete's sake, hide the other person's info!  Some of us cover over the addresses with a scrap of paper, others take the photo before adding the info, and still others use image editing software to cover the addresses.  I do the last one, like so:

Other Fun Address Stuff
Two of the longest street names in the world:
Bolderwood Arboretum Ornamental Drive, in the UK
Northeast Kentucky Industrial Parkway, in Kentucky, US

Arguably the longest town name in the world:
Llanfairpwllgwynllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, in Wales

Two "longest place names" of the world (as found here):
Tetaumatawhakatangihangakouauaotamateaurehaeaturipukapihimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuaakitanarahu, a hill in New Zealand

Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit, the official (native) full name of Bangkok

Whether your address is an Avenue, Street, Boulevard, Road, Route, Drive or anything in between, I think it's simply amazing that a letter gets from one place in the world, to the intended recipient- very often on the other side of this planet we call home!  I'm not even sure what's the furthest away I have gotten a letter from.  Probably Australia.  But I've received some from China and Hungary too!  What's the furthest away you've ever gotten mail from, readers?

A Swinging St. Patrick's Day Weekend

It's been a great St. Patrick's Day weekend over here!

I spent Friday night in the company of many, many friends, tearing up the dance floor at the monthly GA Tech swing dance!!!  I danced from 8-Midnight and then some of us went to the local Steak N Shake until around 2 ish.  I crashed in bed at around 2:45, with sore feet, aching muscles and a huge grin on my face.  That's the most social fun I've had in a while and I am so looking forward to next month's shindig! :) :) :)

I clean up rather cutely! Though, this pic was taken
before I stopped by to see a friend at a salon and
wound up getting a bangs trim and curls done! :)

Here's a short video- I didn't take many photos or movies CAUSE I WAS DANCING! :)

Yesterday, Mum and I ran general errands around town and then went and got our nails done.  A rare treat for me, that I thank her for!  I took this photo of my "dressed up for St. Patrick's Day" self whilst waiting for her to get done with her mani-pedi:

Green shirt and green nails (Kiwi Kiss by Salon Perfect),
 plus the shamrock necklace that the Bestie gave me for Christmas!
No chance I was getting pinched! LOL

Then we met up with some friends at the Douglasville Irish Bred Pub.  I'm completely temperance.  I don't drink anything alcoholic whatsoever.  But their food is wonderful!  I had the Blarney Burger and sweet potato fries.

Source

There were Celtic dancers doing Riverdance type musical stampeding. (I can't imagine what it sounded like downstairs!  It's a historic building, so I'm fairly certain it may have seemed like the ceiling was going to cave in!) Sorry, I wasn't able to get a photo of the dancers.  Too many people in the way and they were jumping around so much, the camera couldn't focus. Oh, and there was also this guy:

So grainy- but better than no photo at all, I suppose!

We stuck around until around 9 ish and then headed home so I could write a few reply letters (the backlog is stacking up! I also still need to finish taking photos of the incoming for the Flikr albums). After Friday's shenanigans, it was a good idea (however boring) to go to bed at a decent hour.

Today has thus far been spent quietly, catching up on the blogs I read; writing letters, posts, and to-do lists for the coming week; and getting my game plan down for making the most out of the hours that will compose tomorrow.  Because I have a metric ton of stuff to do that must get done if all of my other plans are to ever happen.  (This is what procrastination does to you, kids.)  I have one of those B12 energy shot drinks on hand if I end up needing it, but I'm hoping to be able to get the right amount of sleep tonight so that I won't have to open it.  Kind of nice to have a back up plan, though.  Those dust bunnies better live it up now.  They'll be obliterated in the morning. :)

I hope you have had a marvelous Green Weekend, my dears!  Don't forget about the giveaway happening on Friday!  See you soon!

52 Weeks of Mail: Weeks 21 and 22

I know I missed posting another 52 Weeks batch on time (again), but I didn't want to retro-post it in case it got covered over in the blog feeds and you missed seeing the awesomeness that waltzed into (and out of) my mailbox over the last fortnight.

Week 21- Incoming:

Gorgeous postcard from Tish in TX, and what is this arrived from airmail?...

AMAZING package from Rin in Australia!!!  Rin writes the blog Papered Thoughts

Red card and striped envie with awesome stamps is from Mavis in China,
long envie and blue paper is from Randi T. over at My Happy Mailbox,
and pink envie and peacock card is from Darice M. in FL (a fellow
Lettermo-er and peacock lover.)

Week 21 outgoing:  None.  Yes, I missed a week entirely.  But I kind of made up for it in Week 22...

Week 22's outgoing:

3 bird envies going out to fellow Lettermo-ers, plus my
booth fee for the Hydrangea Festival in June, and a donation
to the PVA.  They send me the prettiest return addy labels.

4 more Lettermo bird envies!  Well, the top one is a resend,
because the lovely USPS ripped the addy off of it the
first time out.  They ruin the prettiest mail art sometimes. :(

Week 22 incoming:
Only one this week, but it was a doozie that made me so happy!  Check out this peacock perfection from Rose L. (also a Lettermo-er):

She also used an encoder and wrote a quote for me to decipher!  So cool!  I'm working on a reply. :)

I hope you've been getting lots of good things in your post box!  I'm off to write more letters!

52 Weeks of Mail: Week 20

ALREADY?!  Flying by fast! :)

Here is the fantabulous mail I got this week:

Letters from Kendall C of Happy Little Mailboxes (Look
at the peacock feather goodness!), and Cathy in OH.

Fantastic letter and postcard from Vanessa in Germany.
Visit her blog, Vanessa's 52 Weeks of Mail.  Middle letter
is from Donovan of the LWA.  London postcard came from
fellow Month of Letters challenger Mary in the UK.  I've been
working on a letter to her and it will go out on Monday!

And here is what I sent:

A long reply was sent to Hilda C. in MS.  After not being able to get an
outer envelope for it for a week or more, I finally got Svenja's off to her
in Germany.  Krista E. got all kinds of fun glitter alphabet stickers on hers.
The bird envies are to fellow Month of Letters writers: Val F. (Day 8),
Eleri H. (Day 9), Melissa T. (Day 10), Hannah D. (Day 11), Melanie W.
(Day 12), Laura O. (Day 13).

Hannah D. writes the blog A Lost Seamstress and loves to
sew/knit/embroider/all that stuff, like I do.
So I used a split stitch in red floss on a piece of off white felt
 to embroider her name and address.  It was fun to make and I hope it makes her smile!  I also paired it with a scarlet tanager because red is her favorite color. :)

My dear friend Taylor in Jasper, GA is working hard on her senior year of
her undergrad.  Over the last 6 months, I've been saving up little things
 that I found that I knew she would love.  I didn't see her at Christmas and
her birthday is in the spring, so I figured I would split the difference and
send this lot now. She got a box of salt water taffy, some otter paper dolls
and the first installment of a story I wrote about them.
I also got her a mini clip-on otter.  (She's in love with otters and I happily
feed her addiction.)  Notecards aren't complete without a dip pen and ink
to write on them with, and the pen isn't complete without a seal and sealing
wax, and some stamps to send them. :)  Also included was a blank journal,
and an Avon airmail envelope pouch, like the one I gave away here a
few weeks ago.

Taylor's box, all packaged and ready to go.

Lettermo-ers Rose L. (Day 14) and Flora A. (Day 15) were mailed out to this week.

While out shopping with my mom on Friday, I found these beauties and could not pass them up:

Yay, peacocks! :)

My friend Cayla in TX often gets cards with Chickadees on them from me.
Loved finding these!

As it is Week 20 of the 52 Weeks of Mail challenge, I thought it would be fun to count up what I've sent and received so far.  It looks like (if my records are right) I mailed out 105 items through the USPS, and received 72 in!  WOW!!!  That's more mail than I normally got in an entire year not too long ago! And we've only been going for 4 months!  I LOVE sending mail.  And I LOVE getting it! :)  I don't know how much has been spent on postage the entire time of the 52 weeks project, because I didn't start recording that until January, in my new mail log.  But so far this year I've spent $50.27.  Considering that just ONE reenactment would cost us around $100-$200 to attend, and we attended 6-8 events per year, this is a MUCH less expensive hobby!!!  And more lasting, as I'm forging relationships with other human beings and can re-read the letters over and over again whenever I like.  Totally worth my $50 bucks so far! :)

What about you?  Do you have any idea what kind of send/receive numbers you are sitting at currently? What about the postage?  How much have you happily shelled out for stamps?  Isn't it a completely worthy cause? :) :)

52 Weeks of Mail: Week 19

A stellar mail week!  I sent out and received some awesome stuff!

Valentine's Day fell within this week, and while in all other ways it was the worst one of my life bar none, it was made to suck a little less when I went to the mailbox and MR. DARCY WAS IN IT!  No, seriously!  Look!

School friend Carrie drew this for me!!! :)
Also arrived was a wonderful letter from Katie M. in PA.

The week brought other mailbox goodness:

A reply from Mary Robinette Kowal, who is responsible for the
Month of Letters Challenge.  A reply from Olivia C, just down
the road in Hiram.  Wonderful letter in a stitched envie from Suvoni.
 Pretty, pretty letter from fellow MOL participant Rose L. 

Mail from KY!  Thanks, Laura! :)  Fellow MOL participant.

Here is what I sent:

Letters to a Penpal in the UK, and Rin over at Papered Thoughts.

To a penpal in OH, MOL (official) Day 7.

52 Weeks of Mail: Week 18

It has been buzzing at the mailbox!  Here is what got sent out:

Valentine to TX, and MOL Day 5 to one of my favorite
radio DJs on The Joy FM's "Prevenings" show

Reply to a penpal in Iowa

Valentine for a high school friend

While I wish I could mail out every day for MOL, I
really can't.  The idea, though, is to WRITE a letter
every day, which I do, and then make it to the mailbox
at least once, if not twice a week.  I can do that, and I
think it still counts for the challenge.  MOL Day 6 goes
out to a fellow MOL challenger in Australia.

And here is the fabulous mail that arrived:

All 3 are fellow MOL challengers: Flora A. in SC, Jim B. in the UK, and
Melanie W. in NY

Melanie is a fellow JASNA member and sent this decadent
Jane Austen card. Love, love, love! :)  For more on JASNA,
check out the link in my "Stuff I'm Involved In" page above.

I am so fortunate!  (And now rather behind in my replies. O_o)  Off I go to create mail.  Keep writing more letters!

Mail!!! 52 WOM 15, 16 &17, plus Month of Letters News

This post is shamefully past due, as are my library books that should have been returned on Monday. Hmm.  Anyway...

The truth of the matter is that while letters have been faithfully going out and coming in, I haven't actually had much time to photo them.  So here is the recent stack of outgoing that I photo'ed all ready and together (before some went out and some were delayed and some didn't get photo'ed at all).

From top: Insurance information form (I'm just grateful to have any,
so I won't complain!); clear envie with pink flowers going to Vanessa
in Germany; pretty calendar envie going to Snail Mail Fan in Canada;
glittery and beribboned pretty envie going to Svenja in Germany
(in a bigger envie, as I found out the PO sorters will snag on the ribbon. :(
Rather it get there safely than in ruins!);
SQUIRREL! to Laura in the UK.  Read Laura's blog here.; small but
highly decorated blue envie to Su in Ireland.  Wish you could
see more of it, but I don't show addresses unless the person lists theirs
on their website.  See Su's beautiful blog here.; one of my beloved
peacock cards goes to Olivia who lives just about 30 minutes or so from me.
I found her blog link through the
  Save the US Postal Service by Writing More Letters Facebook page.;
 last but certainly not least, a cheeky little chickadee takes greetings
and news to one of my favorite pen pals and bloggers, Misty, The Pen Thief.

Here is what has come in over the last 3 weeks:

2 wonderful publications: The Victorian Trading Co. catalogue, and the USA
Philatelic catalogue from the USPS! :) Guess what some future posts will be on!
Also in my mailbox was a postcard about postcards from Kendall C. of Happy
Little Mailboxes; a wonderful, thick envie with pretty collage on it from a new
pen pal in MS; a reply letter from one I sent to France in October.  She moves around
a lot for her job, so it takes a while for her to get mail and send a reply.  But it was
worth the wait and I'll be writing her a long reply this week!; a pen pal in the UK
sent the cute puppy in the rain card; I got a lovely reply letter from pen pal Emily
in MI; pen pal Krista in CT sent me some Twinings tea (FAV!) and some tea stickers. :)

Remember my earlier post on the Month of Letters Challenge?
I had 2 calendars of backyard birds that I wanted to turn into envelopes.  I decided to use these specifically for the challenge, because 12+12=24 and there are 24 days in the challenge!  Perfect!
Here are all 24 made:

Here are my two favorites:

A Blue Jay and a Cedar Waxwing. Love those!

It was pouring down rain the first day of the challenge and I had a cold so bad the second day I couldn't move.  So I had to make the first mailing a "one day that week" trip, but the point is to write a letter a day, which I did.  So it still counts. :)  Here are the first 3 days:

Sent to 2 people I found on the challenge
website and the red-headed guy in the middle
goes to Randi of My Happy Mailbox.

And Cute Gremlin #4's chubby little hands, holding Day 4's at the Post Office yesterday:

To none other than Donovan B., the founder of the LWA. :)

That's pretty much everything up to this point.  I'm replying to letters as fast as I can, and I'm having so much fun!  Right now I'm off to clean the house, after which I have plans to take Cute Gremlins to the park to play while I bring along my stationery and keep writing. :)

(PS- I took the library books back yesterday after the Post Office.) :)

Caving To Peer Pressure (But in a good way!)

I know I'm behind on posting pics from weeks 15 and 16 of the 52 Weeks of Mail project.  Sorry about that, and I'll try to get those done by tomorrow afternoon.

But I wanted to share another (sort of offshoot/simultaneous) challenge that I'm participating in.  Because, really, I was doing it anyway.  This just gave it an official name. :P :)

I had already seen news of this challenge around the internet; the 52 Weeks of Mail facebook page mentioned it, as did Save the U.S. Postal Service by Writing More Letters, and, of course, more than a few fellow epistolary blog friends.  At first, I didn't give it much thought because I'm already getting geared up to do the A to Z Blogging Challenge in April.  The way my days seem to be flying by recently, that's like... the day after tomorrow!

I was finally won over to participate in the Month of Letters challenge by fellow blogger and letter writer Becky who sent me the sweetest email.  I have to give Laura of Daily Dodo a huge shout out here, because she was the darling friend who gave my blog link to Becky in a comment.  Thanks, Laura!!

If you want to participate by sending out a letter a day (minus Sundays and one postal holiday) in February, you can sign up HERE.

See you at the mailbox!!!