Fountain pen artwork

So, after all these posts about pens... how about a letter with a drawing of a pen? This came to me from a LEX reader after I listed an ad, "do you use fountain pens?" I am LEX 12447 but I blurred out her name and LEX number. Pretty fabulous drawing of a pretty fabulous pen - I was impressed and delighted to receive this one.

The Letter Exchange (LEX) listing deadline reminder

This very cute postcard came in the mail last week to remind me that the listing deadline for The Letter Exchange (LEX) is right around the corner on August 15. I love how fun and personal this organization is, from the spider hanging down by the mailbox to the text of the postcard (which you can view large, or I'll type it out at the end of this post).

If you're thinking of joining LEX, this is a good time to do it. I am fairly certain the listing deadline is one of a postmark, so you can turn in your Listing Form right along with your subscription, and as long as they're postmarked August 15, your listing will make it into the autumn issue, which mails around October 15. I know, I know, it's kind of a long wait - but it's snail mail! That's what it's all about!

Postcard text:
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her tuffet,
Writing her listings for LEX.
Along came a spider,
And sat down beside her,
And asked if it could borrow her pen and perhaps a sheet of stationery and said it would be ever so grateful if she could spare an envelope (but it had its own stamp) so it wouldn't miss the August 15 deadline for sending in its listings and its letters about interesting postal experiences and short-term correspondences and other letter-related topics so it would get lots of mail and be the envy of all the other arachnids and insects.

EDIT on 8/6: I forgot to mention other option, which I should have mentioned in the post: you can buy a back issue and still write to listings to have them forwarded, you just don't get a member number and therefore can't have the free forwarding service work for YOU. Single issues are $9, and of course there's no deadline for that. I actually got a letter recently from someone who did this.

Green Owl from Red Tango

One of my new favorites from the Dark Horse Comics stationery line is the Red Tango stationery set. Each designed page is a different color theme, all with kind of cute retro-type images. The cat is wonderful, too, but this green owl has to be my favorite. Maybe it's because I'm a child of the 70s, and this reminds me so much of the decorative arts from my childhood.

Fountain pen users who are wondering - it's fairly good FP paper. The coated colors make some inks play more nicely on it than others. With some pens there is bleedthrough, with others, not. My Parker 51 loaded with Waterman Black is always a safe bet on any Dark Horse papers, and that combo never bleeds through or feathers.



This went out to a LEXer (a person from The Letter Exchange, that is) who responded to my listing in the winter issue.

For anyone out there who's reading this and is a LEX member, I'm #12447. Someday (soon, really.... yeah...) I will dedicate a post to just how cool LEX is. (In the meantime, read a bit more about it here.) I'm kind of waiting to see how many more people I actually do get letters from, since I've only got one regular correspondent from that venue - but it seems like a wonderful resource so far. More to come.