Post A-Z Challenge...erm...Post.

It's Wednesday, May 1st.  (ALREADY?!?! Wasn't it just the end of January like, last week?!)
I got about halfway through the A-Z Challenge on time and then all sorts of things got in the way.  I love you all, but I have a life outside of the laptop.  I'm only missing N, O, P, Q, S, T, V, W, X, and Y.  Most of these are drafts that are waiting on photos.  It's not as easy to keep within a theme as it first appears!  However, when I start a thing, I like to finish it.  So thanks to Blogger's schedule feature, I'll be retro-posting what I missed as I have time.

Keeping with a Snail Mail theme has been fun, though, and I hope it has made you smile!  Don't forget to check the archives for the missing letters very soon!  I'll be snapping photos this weekend and finishing up the drafts as soon as possible.

I'm off to get some replies written and mailed before I go to work.
Thanks for reading, my lovelies, thanks to all who visited me from the Challenge, and everyone write more letters!

LWA, Long Letters and the Library

I've already mentioned the Letter Writer's Alliance a few times here on TMP, but I couldn't pass up the chance to include them in my postal themed A-Z!!!

I've been a member since 13 September, 2011!

I got a letter from Donovan just last week and I LOVE her sense of humor!  I have to write back ASAP.  My time is pretty spliced at the moment, and if I'm to succeed at some of my major long term goals, I have to acknowledge that MOST of my time in an average day isn't my own, at least for a while.

But I am still making time for the things that matter to me.  I'm still working hard, knowing that while I will never be a perfect person, I can perfect some of the facets of my life to be better versions of themselves.  Things like... writing back in a timely manner, for example!

Are you an LWA member?  I've met a few pen pals via LetterMo who are!  If you are not, you should definitely consider it.  A lifetime membership costs less than a movie ticket.  Check out the blog HERE.

Now on to the second part: long letters.  Am I the only one who can't bring myself to send a postcard sometimes because there just isn't room to do the correspondence I want to convey enough justice?  Please tell me I'm not the only person who habitually, after filling up both sides of a blank card's inside, carries over to a second 7th or 8th page??  Granted, a lot of times my additional "pages" are cut down to the size of the card, so they aren't full sheets.  But still.

Of course, a logical train of thought would be that if I didn't let so much time elapse between letters, I wouldn't have so much to try and write about all in one sitting, and therefore the letter would be shorter than the paperback novels unauthorized autobiographies pleasantly lengthy epistles I end up penning and trying to process through the mail system within the 3 oz limit.  It may be that I'm just frugal with my stamp money.  After all, it's limited and strictly budgeted, so I try to get as much news and pieces of life to the recipient as the $0.46 allows!  Maybe that's the real reason about the "doesn't send postcards".  I'm more apt to send a blank postcard enclosed with a 3 page letter to a pen pal than to send the postcard by itself.

Anyway.
Here is a fantastic children's book that we love called "The Long, Long Letter."

It's very cute.  Go grab it at a library near you.  Don't know where your closest one is?  Use this handy Locator!  :)
The Dog River Library is one of my favorite places to write letters.  It's quiet (well, duh!), and a lot of times I use their copier to keep a copy of my outgoing (see my explanation of this in yesterday's post.) because it ends up being cheaper than having to continually buy new cartridges for my ink guzzling printer at home.  It's also a great place to write letters, because I'm an avid reader and a lot of my pen pals are too, so they are always asking what I've read recently or ask me to recommend favorite books.  Rather convenient to simply look in my bag at what I've just checked out or am returning! ;)

Source

Did you honestly think that I could go more than 5 blog posts without working in a reference to Jane Austen?  Silly goose!  Have a lovely combination of the "Keep Calm" motto and Mr. Darcy.  Yes, I know it, I spoil you rotten.  You're welcome. :)
Do you write short or long letters?  Do you love getting long letters?  Or not?  Why?
Comment away, dear readers!

Keeping It All Organized

Some of you have asked how I keep my past correspondence.  Well, I'll be honest with you, there is a LOT of it!!! Which is awesome!  But ... challenging... sometimes! :)
I keep a photocopy of my outgoing letters, because then it creates a complete conversation and I don't have to try to remember whether I told so-and-so such-and-such and repeat old stories or bore them to death.  I just skim the last 2 or 3 letters and continue the thread. :)  Who says people with poor memories can't find a system that works! It took a few trials and errors, but eventually I found one that I like.

I took advantage of a fantastic back-to-school sale at Office Depot last fall and got a mess of these:

Wilson Jones 3 ring binder in Bright Pink

And some of these:

And now I have this:

The tabs are removable, so when I have to change the letters,
it's really easy.  If things keep up like they have been, I'll end
up with a binder for each letter by the end of the summer!!!

I put the pen pal's name, and a general description
of their location.  Obviously for the USA, city and
then state.  For international it's a bit different,
but you get the idea.  The tabs change easily if I
have to update them due to people moving. :)

Of course, "organized" is a relative term, since I have this
pile and another one (not pictured) of replied letters to
file.  At least I can say I do have everything more or less
in one general location amongst my belongings! :)

How do you keep your letters, my readers?  Boxes?  Binders like mine?

Ink

Some of my absolute favorite inks (and ink pens) to write letters with.....

Excellent for historic character letters.

I don't own this inkwell yet, but I want one.

Good for writing and drawing.

The "Blue" is the one I use the most.  Hobby Lobby has
them for sale individually.  I like the "Teal" too. 

As with the one above, I don't actually own this
peacock glass inkwell.  But I want it. :)

Perhaps not "accurate" for historic character correspondence.
But sooo pretty. :)

Again, less practical- but so fun!!

Swirl click ball-point pens by The Write Dudes

Gelly Roll Stardust pens by Sakura

For dark papers.  I like to use this on a dark blue shimmer finished
cardstock that has been cut to the size of my card, when I need a
couple more "pages" for my letter.  I'm long winded. :)

Pretty and smooth gel ink in very bright colors.

Same as above, but slightly different feel.

I usually keep the pink one and give the
purple one to a friend.

What inks and pens are your favorites to write letters with, my Loves?

Delightful Desk Accessories

Letter writing stuff I would buy if I won the lottery.  This stuff is just made of awesome.

A desk I'd want, once I have my own house again:

Go HERE to see more images, including the inside!

Decadent Stationery:

Hand engraved peacock feather cards from Crane Stationers.
 I think I even featured them (or something very like them)
before on TMP, but they are so lovely, they deserve repeating!

Reproduction RMS Titanic stationery and matching envelopes!
You can get them here.

Pretty much the entire Josephine Wall collection from Leanin' Tree Stationers.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

I also found this fabulous Peacock Desk Set:

(Available at Sears and Michael's)

Confession: This post was kind of hard to come up with.  Totally phoning it in.  But tomorrow's is easy: all about Envelopes! :)

And Who Doesn't Love Fairies?!

I'm sick with the stomach flu today.  Since about 4 a.m. my insides have been having a terrible row with the rest of my body.  Ugh.  It's cooled off outside quite a lot and really feels like fall.  Overcast and rather windy this morning, so I've made tea and am getting caught up on all my letters and Bible study homework and then tonight after Cute Gremlins are asleep, and also tomorrow afternoon, I will be in the studio with my headphones on, sewing up a storm.

One of the soundtracks that runs through my iTunes at random is Peter Pan, the live action version from  2003 starring Jeremy Sumter (Peter) and Jason Isaacs (Hook).  This is my favorite scene from the film (and, consequently, my favorite track, composed by James Newton Howard).

What little girl in their childhood didn't want to be Wendy in Neverland, flying under a glowing moon and surrounded by fairies?  I know I always did! :)  This version of J.M. Barrie's classic story also has my favorite take on Tinkerbell.  Super expressive and beautiful.  Even if a little jaded by her jealousy.

52 Weeks of Mail: The Rest of Year 1

Well, I managed to mail off one thing a week for most weeks of the 52 Weeks of Mail Project this past year, with a couple of exceptions.  I didn't quite make the goal.  Still, it was a fantastic thing to be a part of and I have made oodles of new friends all around the world!  I have joined in for Round 2 and will be posting photos of incoming and outgoing mail goodies on Saturdays each week.

This is the only "personal" thing I'm able to blog about at the moment. Which is so unfair!  :(  Eventually, I'll catch you all up to speed on goings on, but for right now, I can't.  So this will have to fill in.  I hope you are inspired and uplifted by the photos, and if you want to join in on the fun, be sure to follow the link above to the 52 Weeks Facebook page.

Here are the photos that I took of things I sent between the end of June and the 1st of October.  I sent more than this, and received some beautiful mail too, but I didn't get photos of it. (I'll try harder to document this time around.)

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.

Dickens is still as popular as... well, the Dickens!

Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens, arguably the greatest fiction author of the mid 19th century.  Some of us were forced to read Dickens in school whether we liked it or not (most of my peers), but some of us not only read it willingly, SOME of us had voluntarily read it years before that and were re-reading them like letters from an old friend. (ME!!!)  Some of us also found out today that the phrase "like the Dickens" is of Shakespearean origin and has nothing to do with Charles Dickens whatsoever.  (Me again!  Who knew?)

I read and loved A Christmas Carol at the age of 9, after loving the "Mickey's Christmas Carol" movie  year after year until I learned to read fluently (hey, the exposure has to come from somewhere!).  I moved on from there to Oliver Twist around 10 or 11, and by the time we were collectively studying A Tale of Two Cities in high school, I'd already finished Nicholas Nickleby, The Old Curiosity Shop, David Copperfield, and Great Expectations.  (Yes, I was teased mercilessly by my peers for being a bookworm and an introvert.  Such is the social structure and pecking order of the public school system.)

Dickens has a way with the details of the scene that I love.  His minute descriptions draw me into England the way he saw it.  Every house, every carriage, every article of clothing is depicted to me in words that leave my mind's eye in no doubt as to the existence of every item and every action involved with them and the movement of the plot.  His characters are introduced in such a way as though you are sure you are in the room along side them all.

I have been a life long Dickens reader, although I did not read Little Dorrit, The Pickwick Papers, The Life of Our Lord, and A Child's History of England until I was in my 20s, the latter two appearing in my personal library in handsome hard back covers as a Christmas gift from my dad's mom.  Little Dorrit is perhaps my favorite curl-up-by-a-winter-fire read, excepting maybe David Copperfield.  

I will confess readily that Pickwick Papers was a HARD read, in that it had perhaps more to do with the differing social classes and customs and phrases of the day than any of his later works.  I got through it, but it was an arduous process that took several weeks (ages, in relation to my natural reading speed) and I was forever marking my place and having to Google something I didn't understand (Sam Weller's cockney speech, among others).  And although Pickwick Papers is praised for its accurate descriptions of the old coaching inns of England during that time*, not only have two full centuries passed and rendered such establishments a bit archaic, Georgia and its history bear so little resemblance to the England of Dickens' time, I have no reference point from which to understand the events of the plot which happen in the coaching inns, except what I learn about online and by asking my British friends who love and study the history of their own country.

On the whole, however, Dickens is beloved and cherished in our house, and many volumes of his work take their place on my bookshelf along side Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and various and sundry other favorite literary greats.

Also in my list of favorite things are several film versions of Dickens titles, produced by BBC and available either in their shop to order, or on Youtube if one doesn't mind the interruption of moving from one episode segment to the next.  They employ the top of my list of favorite British screen stars: Maggie Smith, Bob Hoskins, Daniel Radcliffe, Matthew Macfadyen, Alun Armstrong, Andy Serkis, and James Fleet (to name only a few).  Stellar writing combined with stellar acting performances = excellent entertainment for this grown up bookworm. :)

*taken from the first paragraph in the summary of Pickwick papers on Wikipedia article here.

Related links of interest:
Little Dorrit miniseries by BBC on Youtube, first part here.
Little Dorrit for purchase at BBC website here. Or on Amazon here.

David Copperfield miniseries by BBC on Youtube, first part here.
David Copperfield for purchase at BBC website here.  Or on Amazon here.

(Interesting note, both of these star Alun Armstrong in vastly different roles!)

My favorite versions of A Christmas Carol:
George C. Scott classic, on Youtube, first part here.  Buy at Amazon here.
A Muppet Christmas Carol, on Youtube first part here.  Buy at Amazon here
Jim Carey's version is too new to be on Youtube, but watch the trailer here. Buy at Amazon here.

I'm sure there are more great movie links, but that will have to keep you happy for now! ;)

Humbled

This morning as I checked my blogger dashboard, I saw the most amazing thing.
My page views counter has topped 30,000! 30,000!!!


Some other fun numbers:
My 4 year blogiversary is coming up in April, but I didn't do much with the blog at all for the first 3 of those.  The stats show a total of 234 posts (not including this one), with 189 of those belonging to 2011.  '08, '09 and '10 combined only total 34 posts.

February of 2011 saw me reach the 1,000 mark, with a handful of followers and only 10 posts so far for the year.  (I celebrated by publishing this post.)  The turning point in my writing came when I found the A-Z Challenge.  If you own a blog and have never done this challenge, PLEASE do it this year!!!  It is so much fun!!  I visited (and began following) a ton of other blogs that I would never have come across otherwise.  My own followers count tripled in only a couple of weeks and I finally began to feel like I had found my voice.  What I was writing and offering out to the world to read was in fact being read!  In less than half a year, I suddenly found myself surrounded by new friends and writing this post to thank you, my sweet, sweet readers, for coming back for return visits another 9,000 times!

Now it's been 6 months again, and I am awed beyond words (well, obviously not, as I'm 4 paragraphs into a thank you post!), grateful and so, so blessed to be thanking you for achieving 10,000 page views not once, but 3 times!  Wow.  Wow, wow, wow!  The blessings aren't limited to you popping by and saying "Hi!", either!  Some of you write to me using for real pen and paper too, and I love getting your letters in the mailbox! I also love reading your blogs about all the awesome mail you get, and sometimes seeing the mail I have sent to you in your posts and getting to know it reached you safely and brought you joy!  Blessings, blessings, blessings! :)

Thank you, thank you for 30,000 page views!  You are amazing! :)

PS- Don't forget to vote in my poll on the right sidebar over there. ------->
I am interested to know what posts you are enjoying and want to see more of.  Please take a look and cast your vote!  Thanks! :)

In Which I Overhaul The Way I Keep Track Of My Mail

Being the start of a new year, I wanted to revamp the way I was keeping track of the lovely mail I've been getting and sending.  Originally (that is, in October, at the start of the 52 Weeks of Mail project), I had printed a 2 columned sheet of paper that looks like this:

I discovered from using this method for about 10 weeks that I am a "batch sender", which is to say, I write around 8 or 10 letters over a period of a couple of days and then send them all out at once, rather than write one or two a day and stick them in the mailbox in the mornings, a few days in a row.  Although my post office is just 5 minutes down the road, it is actually past the interstate, so it's not really technically "on the way" when I am out and about.  So I have to fit it into my day to remember to get over there.  While this list does show what I'm sending and what I'm getting, the sending list is much longer than the getting list, since things take a while to arrive.  It was getting... messy and confusing, very quickly.

Then I read The Pen Thief's Post About Her Mail Log and I fell in love with her idea of making it more like a daily journal than a list.  (Go check it out and come back, I'll wait!)  She's right that a computer generated list conflicts with hand-written letters.  It just does.

I decided to give it a go.  I found this awesome peacock journal at Ross:

I don't really have a good sample page to photo yet, but so far it is working MUCH better than my other method.  Like The Pen Thief, I'm keeping track of the postage I'm spending so I can see what my hobby is running per year.  (I'll tell you this- so far it is waaay cheaper than Civil War Reenacting!  The gasoline!!!)

I also organized my actual mail.  I got an accordion file and put the senders in alphabetical order by last name.  I copy all of my letters before they go in the envelope so that I have both sides of the conversation and don't end up repeating myself.  All of the letters to and from one person are paper clipped together.  Right now it looks like this:

It's getting pretty full (Thank you!!!), so I'll have to go through and bundle some of the earliest ones and archive them in a storage box pretty soon.

I also have gotten so into making my own envelopes and such, that I have gone through all of my old boxes of art supplies and pulled out anything that can be used for letter writing:

STICKERS!!!!

A lettering guide for envelope addressing
and a rainbow of pens for coloring and embellishing!

Remember that I worked my way through my college and early married years at Michael's, with a lovely employee discount!  Remember also that even now, I work at Hobby Lobby, which also comes with a lovely employee discount and coupons as well!  Over the course of the last 12 years, the MANY bits and bobs that are leftover from other projects are showing up as very useful for mail art! :) :) :)

Lots and lots and lots of papers for making envelopes! :) 

This pad of beautiful pages was procured at a 40% off sale.
Half the pages have glitter!  All are gorgeous, with or sans glitter.

This is my FAV out of the pack.  I love old sailing ships! :)

I also got this guy around Christmastime, to keep watch over my shoulder as I write.  He's not much good lighting by himself, but combined with other task lighting, he serves as a wonderful little muse. :)

What have you treated the Letter Writer in you to, lately? :)