Japanese spring postbox postcard

The lovely mail goddess Catwrangler recently took a trip to Japan, and I just got this wonderful spring postbox postcard from her. I love any postcards that have postal themes and/or show mailboxes, and I've been enamored of these Japanese postbox seasons postcards since I first saw them on Postcrossing. I have a summer one hanging above my writing desk already, and I was just thrilled to get this spring postcard, which will soon hang right next to it.



Of course she used a gorgeous stamp, and it got a really fine postmark. I had to take photos of both the postmark, and...



...a closeup of the gorgeous cherry blossoms stamp.

Thanks, Anna - you made my day!

Letter Writing Socials on April 28

If you live in Chicago or Washington, DC, you are in luck - there are letter writing socials coming up this Saturday in both those fine cities.

LWA Letter Writing Social in Chicago
In Chicago, the Letter Writers Alliance is hosting a social at Read/Write Library from 2-5pm. "Bring your address book and favorite pen. Well-behaved children are welcome with a parent or guardian." You need to RSVP for this one, as there is a limit of 20 attendees, and right now they're about half filled up.


National Postal Museum Letter Writing Social in Washington, DC
In Washington, DC, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum is hosting a Letter Writing Social, too. The National Postal Museum event is from 12-3pm, free, and open to the public. No RSVP necessary, just stop on by! What they say about the event:

Amaze a friend by sending an artfully handwritten, paper-based message instead of the usual tweet or text. They might just write you back!
One-of-a-kind stationery, unique postcards, pretty paper, ink stamps, retro airmail labels, cancelled stamps, a somewhat functional typewriter, and mailable supplies are provided in this veritable letter-writing lounge. Postage stamps available for purchase in the museum's Stamp Store.

Again, both events take place this Saturday, April 28.

Lovely stamp image design above by Melissa Esposito of Craftgasm.

What exactly happens when you send a letter to the L.W.A. P.O. Box

Longtime Missive Maven readers may recall that I am a very enthusiastic member of the Letter Writers Alliance. If you're a letter enthusiast, you really should check them out. They are the most enthusiastic / classiest epistolary cheerleaders I know.

One member of the dynamic duo, Donovan Beeson, has an incredible hand-drawn/hand-lettered blog called The Intangible Blog: "nothing not created by me, by hand, or by inky device." It is always worth checking out, and chock-full of interesting letter-writing information, mail ephemera, etc, but one of her recent entries is among the most charming ever: "What EXACTLY happens when you send a letter to the L.W.A. P.O. Box". It explains the process of fetching the L.W.A. correspondence, how it gets read and sorted, and each step has a lovely illustration. (If you need to see it larger than in the blog entry, click the illustration and then click it again in a new window to enlarge it. I admit I often have to do this.) I guarantee you'll love it.

Show and Mail

There's a fun new hashtag on Twitter, started by the National Postal Museum tweeters, called #ShowAndMail. The idea is a sort of postal "show and tell" to share one's daily mail, sent and received. I forgot to photograph my outgoing mail today before it started its journey, but here's what I received today. Typical for a Monday, it's a fun assortment.



I got a very fun assortment of foreign postage stamps, mostly from Postcrossing postcards.



I am most taken with these Dutch stamps - the meta mail-looking stamp in the upper right corner, and the one on the bottom with what looks like a leaf gnome surrounded by birds -- that one looks to be an older, maybe vintage stamp.

If you want to see some fun mail that's being sent and received, I highly recommend taking a look at the #ShowAndMail items; there are a lot of philepistolists (those obsessed with mail - thank you, Craftgasm, for coining that fine word) who tweet about mail and postal-related items regularly. Oh, and of course, I do a lot of mail tweeting, and you can follow me on Twitter, too.

What did you get in your mailbox today?

{Edit/Persnickety luddite clarification: I don't text. None of my tweeting is done on my phone. Did you know you can do Twitter all through the internet? That's what I do. I'll play with Twitter when I'm online only.}

Postman sticker: we have a winner!

We have a winner!



Thanks so much to everyone who rang in on my request for feedback on two different Postman sticker designs. I heard from folks in blog comments, on Twitter, on Flickr, and in personal emails, and I appreciate everyone's opinions.



Formerly known as "Design 2," the guy without the obvious text was the very big winner, and he's now for sale in my etsy shop:

Postman stickers, set of 8


For those two of you who preferred the version with text, and the few kind souls who liked both, I may sell them separately soon, and I will definitely put together a combo pack because I have a couple of other random sizes floating around, too. You were all so helpful in making this decision, especially the suggestion of the combo pack, which honestly would never have occurred to me.

So now my sticker selection includes two options:

Postman stickers, set of 8
To Get a Letter, Write a Letter stickers, set of 8

I would never have even started selling stickers without feedback from readers and etsy customers (many of whom got "preview" versions of the stickers as freebie extras with orders, before I was ready to sell them), so thank you, thank you again!
Now, it's time to go write a letter...

Postman sticker design: which do you prefer?

Dear blog readers, I need your help! I have two different designs of new postman stickers I will soon be selling in my etsy shop, and I really need feedback on which design folks prefer.



Above is design 1. It is a longer shot of the postman, and shows only his torso and includes the ornate "Postman" script in red on the top.



And here we have design 2. It is a closer crop on our friendly postman, but no words.



Incidentally, both are exactly the same size, though one of them has the stickers set a little closer together. Don't let that sway your decision - I'm only lookin for which sticker design people like better. Would you comment or convo me on etsy and let me know which design you prefer? Thanks in advance for your feedback, I really appreciate it!

Milestone: 700th Postcrossing postcard

Sorry no photos to go with this quick post, but I'm really excited that my 700th Postcrossing postcard was just registered - US-1613538 to Belgium.

Wow. I don't know why that seems like such a fun milestone to me, but it does.

It's time for that Passover/Easter reminder again...

It's that time again!

Because my casual blog readers may not remember, or may not have paid close attention to my repeated references to the pervasiveness of Christian holidays and how so many folks just assume everyone celebrates them (and yes, this is a link to a Christmas post, but the sentiments remain the same for Easter):

I'm Jewish.

Not only do I not celebrate Christmas, I don't celebrate Easter, either. That is generally a Jewish kinda thing, although everyone makes their own decisions about how to handle these mainstreamed holidays.

Please, don't wish me Happy Easter. It will only just kinda piss me off.

If you want to wish me Happy Spring, rock on! I welcome the vernal beauty and floral awakenings of the season. Happy Spring to you, too - may your realm be showing more greenery and less chill than mine right now.

It's April and I'm not Foolin',
Your Jewish letter blogger