Eclipse postmarks

For those of you in the USA or nearby regions - did you get to see the eclipse? It was amazing! I was up in Maine, far from the "path of totality," where we only got a 56% eclipse, but it was still fantastic. My favorite part was how it got cooler, the light got weird, and all the birds and crickets started singing their evening songs. Coooool!

And even cooler, from a postal perspective, you can still get a special eclipse postmark! Of course I learned about this from the fabulous Letter Writers Alliance. I haven't gotten one myself yet but I'm going to send off for one of these babies ASAP. Here are the details, via the LWA:

Total Eclipse Postmarks

Don't wait too long, though, it's only good for a few more weeks.

U.S. Postcard stamp rate increase to 35 cents on May 31

Well, this came out of nowhere (I do pay attention to these things!):

The postcard stamp rate for domestic postcards in the USA will increase from 34 cents to 35 cents on May 31, 2015.

Thank you, Letter Writers Alliance, for alerting me to this surprise change! Read all about it on the LWA blog. Essentially only metered mail (and eww, ick, who uses that for fun mail?) and postcard stamps will increase in price. I searched for new 35-cent postcard stamps but haven't found any yet, so I sense this change went through pretty quickly. Well, add on some 1-cent stamps to those USA postcards, and cross your fingers that the new postcard stamp design will be as awesome as the current hummingbirds.

UPDATE: thanks so much to FinnBadger for alerting me to some more information about the new stamps: New US stamps planned for new rates. Very interesting concept: postcard stamps will now be "Forever" at the postcard rate, as will additional ounce stamps. I am still undecided as to how I feel about this. Thoughts, anyone?

LWA Virtual Mail Social all day today: Sunday, February 8!

Today's the day! Today's the day! All day today - Sunday, February 8, whatever the 24 hours of Sunday are for you, wherever you are - the Letter Writers Alliance is having a Virtual Mail Social.

In celebration, I'll be writing mail much of the day today!

You can play along by using the hashtag #LWAsocial on Twitter and Instagram. The main event is a Live video social and chat at 4pm EST / 3pm Central time. This is their second such event - the first was in December, and I was utterly tickled by how delightful it was: great, great fun. I really enjoy the camaraderie of seeing all the tweets and photos from other letter lovers writing mail at the same time, and it inspires me to write, too. So I'm participating already, and encourage anyone else who is interested to join the fun.

Love this #postcard from the National Postal Museum #npm

A photo posted by Missive Maven (@missivemaven) on Feb 7, 2015 at 10:06am PST

Also built into the video social will be a chat window, and the instagram feed for #LWAsocial. I had been toying with the idea of joining instagram for a while now, and this was the final push I needed. So yesterday I joined up, and now you can find me on instagram as missivemaven. There's sure to be much mail and many cats in my instagram feed. And I'll be posting lots of photos of my #LWAsocial mail there.

Happy #LWAsocial day! Join the fun! Write more letters! And maybe I'll see you at the LWA Virtual Social at 4pm EST today.

Another virtual Letter Writers Alliance social tomorrow: Sunday, February 8

I haven't been blogging or tooling around on the letter-writing internet world lately, so I'm a little late to the party on this news, but nevertheless I'm SUPER excited to share that there will be another Letter Writers Alliance Virtual Social tomorrow - Sunday, February 8, 2015. The social will happen all day, and the live video with chat will be at 4pm EST (3pm US Central time), a time the LWA founder/goddesses have settled upon as a window when the majority of their global members will be awake. I'm thrilled with the time - not only am I awake then, but I tend to be in the letter mood in the late afternoon hours as well. I shall endeavor to participate throughout the day - lately Sunday is my best letter-writing day in any case! - and join in for the video and chat if I can.

They held their first live video social in December, and you can watch the archived video from that event; my blog post for that was filled with eager anticipation, and I assure you, it did not disappoint. It was even more fun than I imagined, if that is possible.

Looks like they have moved from sharing photos on Twitter to sharing them on Instagram, so I guess maybe this is the push I finally need to join Instagram. Sigh. More social media.

But! Social media is a wonderful platform for bringing together epistolary enthusiasts. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend of good mail.

Letter Writers Alliance Live Video Social on Dec. 13

I just found out about this wonderful virtual Letter-Writing Social TOMORROW - Saturday, December 13 - via the Letter Writers Alliance.



Watch the handy video above, read about it on the LWA blog, and participate on Twitter with the hashtag #LWASocial all day long tomorrow, Saturday, December 13.

I am a HUGE fan of the Letter Writers Alliance, and a super-huge fan of their virtual letter-writing socials, where anyone in the world can participate via Twitter. It is inspiring to see others sharing community, writing letters (and occasionally tweeting fun photos of mail), and this will have a cool added live video component where Donovan and Kathy, LWA founders and powerhouses, will be answering live Twitter questions and writing mail. And they'll be doing it from their super-cool mail-marvelous LWA studio space with a portable fireplace! (I'm really into that. I long for a letter-writing studio of my own... especially with a fireplace.) For those of you who are into that sort of thing (and I realize this is the vast majority of my readership, just minus me), they'll be writing their holiday cards during the event - and I suspect this is a prime time for a lot of others to be sharing in similar epistolary enjoyment.

I'll be participating via Twitter - I'll take some breaks for yoga and kitten time, but otherwise this is a GREAT excuse to make tomorrow a dedicated mail day. I hope to see you there tomorrow, and share in the mail love!

Letter Writers Alliance Social Sunday

The fantastic Letter Writers Alliance Social Sunday is happening right now! Participate in letter-writing all over the world today, and join in the virtual social by posting with the hashtag #lwasocial on Twitter or Flickr. When my kittens are sleeping, I'm joining in - writing, Tweeting, and posting photos of letters (and kittens with letters).

Another great idea from the Letter Writers Alliance - if you join in the social, do say hi to me on Twitter!

New postage rates for 2014

For my USA readers: postage rates changed on January 26, 2014. Yes, I am a month late announcing this news here on Ye Olde Blogge, but I hope this fabulous graphic makes it worth the wait. Thank you to Donovan of the Letter Writers Alliance for sharing this lovely image detailing the new rates, and for making it Creative Commons licensed so we can all share the love; you can see her full post here.

Here's the breakdown of the new rates, for sending letters and postcards:

Postcards within USA – 34 cents

Letters within USA (up to 1 oz.) – 49 cents*

Letters within USA (1-2 oz.) – 70 cents

Letters additional ounces – 21 cents

International letters and postcards – $1.15

*Oddly enough, metered letters are 48 cents instead of 49 cents. But isn't a stamp prettier than that ugly meter label, and worth another penny?

Fabulous mail to kick off 2014

Already 2014 is a fine mail year. I've spent a good chunk of my free time writing, and have received some spectacular mail in return.

Above, a handmade gocco postcard from the fabulous Carroll, whose mail art and artwork always just astounds me. This postcard is going up on my bulletin board right above my writing desk! Have a look at her own photo of this artwork, which she sketched from her ink storage shelf.



Next up, brilliant bat mail from Donovan of the Letter Writers Alliance. Wow, does she ever know me, and is she generous, or what? It's a light wooden bat ornament, which is probably also going to somehow fly from my writing desk bulletin board. It came beautifully and soundly packaged, and I was able to preserve that loveliness with some fancy fingerwork with my special craft knife, which I had to use to open it. I love mail challenges!



Finally, I have acquired a new pen pal. Normally my pen pal roster is closed, but the 3-year-old 4-and-a-half-year-old son of my dear first cousin wrote to me. He actually wrote me FIRST, out of the blue, and I haven't even seen this fine young fellow in more than a year. So of course I wrote back, and he's now written me a couple of times, most speedily - and he always mentions cats (which just wins me over even further). Here is one of his annotated illustrations from his latest missive.

And now... off to write some letters!

New postage rates for 2013

New U.S. postage rates, effective today! My favorite visual reference for the new rates comes from The Letter Writers Alliance, seen in the handy chart above.

For domestic letters and postcards, the rate changes are miniscule - one cent up each. International is a bit steeper, up to $1.10 for letters (up to one ounce, of course) and postcards alike, with no discounts for Canada and Mexico as there have been in the past.

I am perhaps not as well-versed in the package increases as I should be, though I do know that first class international packages are now going to cost quite a bit more. It's worth it. We still have a world-class postal service and I think they deserve to be paid fairly for their good work.

There are some great new stamps coming out, including the new circular international first class stamp, but my post office is unlikely to have any of them any time soon. The postal workers at the counter said they often don't get new rate change stamps for months, because for some reason they're supposed to USE UP the old ones that they have? I recall having to wait ages last year for the $1.05 stamps to be available for purchase at my post office, so I just went ahead and ordered a bunch of the new release stamps online. Can't wait until they show up in my mailbox...

Happy mailing!

I made the Letter Writers Alliance blog!

Well, color me tickled - I just happened to be bopping around to my favorite letter writing blogs, and saw a big old photo of me heading off a recent post on the fabulous Letter Writers Alliance (LWA) website. The post, Photos in front of mailboxes, came out yesterday, and touts a "call to arms" for LWA members to take photos of themselves in front of mailboxes. I love that idea. They used the photo of myself on my recent Postcards from Amsterdam post, which of course is not my favorite photo of myself, per se (I swear, my smile doesn't always look quite that cheesy), but I love that I'm wearing the LWA member bag.

I would certainly be tickled to see photos of other letter writers in front of mailboxes - who doesn't love a good mailbox photo? - and this is a great time for me to plug the Letter Writers Alliance as a fabulous organization. I didn't know they featured me on the post, so this is not one of those you-blog-me-and-I'll-blog-you tradeoffs that I find somewhat tiresome, though in the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I am a proud member of the LWA and have been for years.

Membership in the Letter Writers Alliance is very reasonably priced (I recommend getting the fine member stationery which comes with a free membership), and it is good for a lifetime so you never have to renew. The have all kinds of great little perks, like free goodies and downloads, and I just love the idea of supporting an official letter-writing organization of such quality and style.

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.

By the way, Soda likes Halloween mail, too

Back in October, Soda was exceedingly helpful with Halloween mail.



She was particularly fond of all the goodies in the Halloween RSVP packages from the Letter Writers Alliance.

The amazing cat pouch letter

The fabulous Donovan of the Letter Writers Alliance has outdone herself again with breathtakingly cool mail. She sent one of her latest letters to me in this sweet little cat pouch!



I can't believe it arrived so unblemished, postally perfect. Even the postmarks are carefully done.



She knows her mailing rules; to avoid any issues with a dangling zipper, she sewed the zipper pull into the zipper itself! It was very easy to open with one snip of the scissors.



Inside, the letter awaits...



...and even the inner presentation is awesome, with the letter tied up with red and white string.

Lest I focus too much on the packaging, I must say the contents were up to her usual stellar standards, with it being one of the loveliest letters I've received this season. Some people think this blog is only about mail art and the way mail looks, but I just keep the contents of letters private. Our postal conversation is between us, but let's just say Donovan's letters read just as beautifully as they look.

I received this quite a while ago, and I had to follow my own rule of not blogging about the letter until I had responded... but I finally put a long letter of my own in the mail to Donovan, so I'm excited to share this pulchritudinous postal tidbit with you all. Surely this kitty pouch is an honorary member of the Feline Postal Brigade!

Even my coffee is official...

You may know I'm a member and big supporter of the Letter Writers Alliance. (I've had a couple of links to them here on my blog for ages.) It's a fine organization, and they have great merch, too!

Some of their lovely items are available to anyone, but of course their coolest stuff is behind a members-only login. Such is the case with this lovely mug which I recently purchased. I love the logo, and of course it's hand-crafted by a small company (Circa Ceramics), but it's also a really great coffee mug. It holds tons of liquid and has become my preferred daily caffeine delivery method.

I have no affiliation with the LWA other than being a happy member, and if you love letter-writing I'd encourage you to join - and moreover, if you're already a member and you're looking for a great mug that proclaims your epistolary devotion, I highly recommend this one.

Paper elephants, all in a line

This fine letter, with its own special Letter Writers Alliance postmark, came to me from Donovan, one of the LWA mavens herself.



She often indulges me with bats.



The stationery has to be one of the most charmingly re-purposed examples I've seen: it's a line of paper elephants, connected by a string. Very fun to read and open!

Telegraphic message

Another gem from the trusty LWA headmistress in Chicago.



I think the envelope was made of a topographic map. The green sparkly star stickers contrast nicely with the postman in the corner.



Incidentally, I am SO taken with this postman. He made me squee. It is a cutout, but did it come from a rubber stamp? I would love to know.



More vintage squee-able goodness: the first page was typed on an official "telegraphic message" form. CONFIDENTIAL!



I got a chuckle out of the "return letter overdue" classification. Official business, US Government, March 15, 1957. Love it!

Post Office on ice

No letter photos today, but I just had to share with you this wonderful post I just read on the Letter Writers Alliance blog: Ice Shanty Post Office! Yes, folks, in the hinterlands of suburban Minneapolis, there is an ice shanty post office on a frozen lake. Of course it's sort of an art project, but that kind of makes it even cooler, no?

As for me, work is busy busy busy. I am just now relaxing into free time (and yeah, it's 10pm here), and I'm only just now about to read the letters I received in the mail today, let alone write any. My apologies for the sparse posts... it's just gonna be insane for me until March, so please bear with me and all my delinquent posts and overdue letters.

Border harmony

I am so charmed by this envelope/stamp combination, from Donovan of the Letter Writers Alliance. Josephine Baker of Vintage Black Cinema stamps, meet air mail border! Harmony ensues.



And she's got the LWA seal with its Latin imperative embossed on the back, with an official good mail day sticker.

**sigh**

Postal happiness.

Contains valuable document

This is made from an envelope template PDF download available to members of the Letter Writers Alliance. I used a translucent blue vellum-type paper, printed from my trusty laser printer. Glue stick wouldn't hold the flaps closed properly, so of course I used glitter glue. A dragon sticker guards the contents.



I stamped the back of the letter, inside the envelope, so it would show through the vellum paper. The owl says "A note for you."