Garden news, or, How is July almost over?

The summer is flying by! I have definitely been writing lots of mail, but admittedly I have been spending more time in my garden. I can only garden in the summer, so I try to live it up and maximize my outdoor gardening time during every available moment.



The weather has been truly gorgeous, and I have had many available moments to have my hands in the dirt! Since I haven't posted in a while (again), I wanted to share with you photos of where and how I've been spending most of my time.



I am a sucker for color, and I'm all about the flowers! (Alex does the veggies, and I do the flowers. Though he does a few flowers here and there, and I do no veggies. But we have a nice little team thing going.)

I've also been posting to instagram a lot lately, so if you want to have a look at my photos there, have a look at my MissiveMaven instagram pix.



I've been writing a lot more mail but not photographing much of it, but here's a nice picture I arranged earlier in the summer.

How is your summer going? Are you having a good mail summer?

Of postcards, music, and blog neglect

Nothing new here: grad school is still taking up most of my time and energy. I love it. I spent 5 hours straight yesterday transcribing Miles Davis and Eric Dolphy solos (and was happy as a clam, despite - or perhaps because of - the extremely challenging nature of the work) for a class assignment. That would have been letter time, but... work first.

I have been sending a lot of postcards, though, both to friends and pen pals, and via Postcrossing. My 10 year anniversary with Postcrossing came and went last month (how is it April already??). I feel like a real old hand now.

I've got some other big things I'm juggling in my personal life right now, both joyful and very difficult, that are taking up a lot of time and emotional energy. I feel awful that I've neglected my beloved blog, but I thank the longtime readers for hanging in there and understanding. April is gonna be all kinds of crazy. Come mid-May, things will open up in my life again... and I hope for a summer of much letter-writing and blogging.

Holiday mail: Fa la la humbug

That's me with a Japanese postbox in Portland, Maine this month. Alex and I took a little day trip to Maine, and we stopped in Portland; I couldn't resist running across the street to check out that red postbox. (It was given to Portland in 1989 from its Japanese sister city of Shingawa, but I have no idea why.) And then I asked him to photograph me with it.

Yes, grad school ate my life, and I haven't been blogging or writing much mail, but now that I'm on break between semesters, I've been digging back into mail as much as I'm able. It's been a great way to unwind, and although I'm still not doing as much of it as I'd like, it's great to return for a while!



I've also greatly surprised myself (and many others) by an urge to send a few holiday cards again. I know, weird for me, huh? In years past I have even posted about why I don't do holiday cards, but this year I was really feeling like less of a scrooge. I think it is because I lived and worked in a place for 7 years where I was required to attend religious ceremonies against my faith, and attending multiple Christmas services against my will was part of that. It was, frankly, a traumatic experience. I think it has taken me this long to "heal" from that (it was 3 years ago, going backwards, when we lived in Newport, RI), and finally I can approach the holidays without quite so much bitterness. And I found it was a time I just wanted to say hello, and send warm greetings, just short notes to let folks know I was thinking about them. I've written over 60 so far, and because they're holiday cards (New Year's can last well into January!), I'm continuing to write them, and enjoying the process.

Happy mailing, and happy endings to 2015!

Missive Maven round-up: 2014 in review

Happy 2015, readers and letter writers! A lot of momentous stuff happened in Missive-Maven-land in 2014. I just had fun perusing through some old blog posts, and thought I'd share some of the year's highlights here. (The photo above shows some of the mail I wrote for the Letter Writers Alliance virtual social on December 13, which was an absolute blast!)



One of the most exciting events of 2014 was personal in our family, but I blogged about it a fair bit: the January 2014 publication of "Revolutionary," my best beloved Alex Myers' first novel. It is "a fascinating retelling of the story of America’s first female soldier, Deborah Samson Gannett, who ran away from home in 1782, successfully disguised herself as a man, and fought valiantly in the Revolutionary War." The novel does have a significant epistolary element, so it does fit into the letter-writing theme of my blog! After the release of the novel, Alex did quite a bit of speaking and book touring, and in a later blog post, I gave an update on some excellent press and thanked you all for your support. On another note, "Revolutionary" will be released in paperback later this month, on January 20, 2015.



There was much heartbreak in the summer of 2014, when we lost our deeply beloved 17-year-old cats, Soda and Magic, within roughly two weeks of each other.

In Memory of Soda: April 1997 - July 7, 2014

In Memory of Magic: March 1997 - July 25, 2014

The move from Rhode Island to DC was a very difficult one for them, but they lived good lives of joy and mostly good health, and I'm so thankful for all the years we shared.



We could not live without cats, and later that summer we adopted two kittens who we named Oberon and Stella. They brought us much joy in our grief, and it has been sweet beyond words to watch them grow up. The photo above was taken on New Year's Eve 2014, where Stella and Oberon and I spent a lot of time hanging out on the couch together. (Truthfully, Stella and Oberon spend a lot of time hanging out on the couch together in general, with or without me.) They are now 9 months old, but still very much acting like kittens!



And now back to more blog-appropriate news. I completed a project I'd been meaning to do for a long time: adding a page to my blog called Stationery Sources. I'm often asked where I buy my stationery, and this page lists links to all my favorite vendors, and each link has a little blurb about why I like their wares.



Another wonderful mail milestone in 2014: I finally went to a mail social! I wrote a huge blog post about The October Mail Social Club at the National Postal Museum, which took place on World Post Day! These Mail Social Club events are coordinated by Melissa of Craftgasm (pictured above, showing us how to make handmade envelopes), and she does a really fine job with these events. I hope to attend at least one more in 2015! If you are able to attend one of them, held monthly at the National Postal Museum, I highly recommend it.



Also in the department of "blog posts I meant to write for ages," I shared a post called Habits: How I keep my letter log, about my system for recording incoming and outgoing mail. That's one of my more popular posts, and I'm glad letter-writers have enjoyed reading it.



And finally, a round-up of some of my favorite posts of 2014:

Fabulous mail to kick off 2014

Legal tender sender

Postcard signed by Inge Löök

3D Dinosaur Stamp from South Africa

Essay by Alex Myers on Salon.com this week

Postcrossing stamp from Belarus

Meeting a pen pal + mobile Letterpress

Mozart stamp from the Czech Republic

October 11 is National Coming Out Day

Who's excited for Halloween?!?

Russian Rainbow Circus Stamp

Best Hanukkah Card EVER

Happy New Year, in a Russian winter postcard

One of my resolutions for 2015: more blog posts! My blogging was a bit more sparse than I'd like in 2014, and I hope to be more regular in 2015. Thanks to all my readers for your continued readership and comments, and Happy New Year!

Writing, not blogging

Settling into a new life is busy, yes, but I've been taking time to write instead of to blog. My apologies to blog readers for neglecting my beloved blog, but here are some photos of the fruits of all my letter-writing last weekend. My beloved and I were both feeling a little under the weather, so we just hunkered down at home and I wrote mail for much of the day on Saturday and Sunday. It was lovely. And now this week I've had a lot more mail to show for it!



I always like to add photos with blog posts whenever possible, but I have to confess that after having been a loyal and devoted Flickr user since 2005, I utterly loathe what Flickr has become with this latest redesign. I've been avoiding it because it leaves an icky taste in my mouth now. So that makes me want to avoid blogging with photos, which is no good, either. I am seriously considering leaving Flickr, even though I have thousands upon thousands of photos there. Are there any other Flickr users who have felt compelled to do so, and have found a decent photo site alternative?

I'm all moved!

Greetings from Washington, DC! We are all safely moved, and if not completely settled, we are happily settling in. My stationery is (mostly) unpacked, and my writing desk is nearly set up, and my etsy shop is once again open for business.

There are a lot of things to do and to learn with a move - where is the best grocery store? Gotta get that new driver's license, etc - so I'm still pretty busy, but I hope to be more of a presence and back into more regular blogging (and letter-writing!) soon. If anyone has any recommendations for interesting activities for letter-writers in Washington, DC, do let me know!

In other news, I just had my 1000th Postcrossing postcard registered - it was US-2259464 to Germany - so I'm pretty excited about that big milestone, too.

Outgoing February 4: a prolific mail weekend

I am at the end of a special long weekend - I actually had 4 days off from work in a row!! This, during my busiest season, is particularly exciting. On Sunday, I went on a big mail extravaganza, and finally not only had a nice pile of outgoing mail to photograph, but actually remembered to photograph it, too. In here are personal letters, personal postcards, Postcrossing postcards - even my dreaded "tourist" postcards (but a lot of Postcrossers love 'em, so I keep 'em on hand).



I was pretty decorative with stamp choice along with stickers - and you can see that I FINALLY received my new Global Forever stamps, too. Yay.

To everyone, a good mail day!

Send a postcard, help save a post office

We've all heard about countless post office closures across the country... thanks to the fabulous PostMuse (and her excellent tweets) I've just discovered a way to help save one little post office from possible closure! It doesn't hurt that said post office, above, is quite tiny and adorable.

Do read the full saga of the post office in Rupert, VT. All the details are there. The skinny, though, is that this post office has had its hours cut and may face closure soon. There are two things that can help: revenue, which can only be generated on site at the post office, and VOLUME. So Jave Davies, the woman behind this postcard idea, decided that she'd increase the volume by sending out a plea for postcards to her P.O. box there -- AND she'l send 200 original art postcards in response to the first 200 postcards she receives.

Here's the info, from her blog post:

YOU send her an art postcard. It can be original handmade, or a photocopy of something you've made. Print your name and address clearly on the card.

Mail to: Jane Davies, PO Box 45, Rupert, VT 05768

She will send YOU a postcard, handmade. "I don't promise it will be something you want to frame, but it will be original." She will send postcards to the first 200 respondents.

She will post ALL the postcards she receives on her blog. On each card she will indicate the name of its creator and the place from whence it came. If the volume is overwhelming, she'll open a separate blog just for the cards. "If nobody sends me a card, I will be sad and our post mistress will be out of a good time, and eventually a job."

Here's my little postcard offering, heading out in tomorrow's mail. I had fun edging it with gold washi tape.

I don't post every mail art call that comes my way, but I think the idea of saving a post office through a flood of postcards is a pretty exciting one, and I hope that you'll consider sending one. Also, if you've ever wanted to see your postcard on a blog, she's promised to post them all, so that's pretty cool, too!

And how cool is it to know that you're helping to save a post office, one postcard at a time?

Last mail art of 2012

A postcrosser who received one of my postcards asked me if I did any mail art. It occurred to me that I haven't posted about anything I've sent in absolute ages. It's long overdue! I had a tough fall for letter-writing, and my sent stats have been fairly paltry until December, when I really tried to plunge in again as best I could.

I wrote and decorated this letter on December 31, 2012. I had so much fun breaking out my washi tape, stickers, rubber stamps, postage stamps, and all the fixings... they had sat gathering dust for quite a while. My cats Soda and Memo (of blessed memory) adorn the photo stamps, and in fact that stamp of Memo with the fur wig is the last one I had.



The back of the envelope isn't quite so busy, just some red and black and of course a fine Red Tango cat sticker.



Happy New Year! My best wishes to all blog readers and postal enthusiasts for a fantastic mail year in 2013.

Show and mail? Snow and mail!

Last spring some folks at the National Postal Museum started a groovy Twitter hashtag, #showandmail. The concept was similar to "show and tell:" show us what you've mailed! I love seeing photos of mail, and it was a fun way to see quickly what other folks were sending and receiving. (Especially cool for those who don't have a mail blog to be able to share an instantaneous photo.) I did a blog post about it back in April when I first got into it, and all my posts that I subsequently tweeted about are tagged with #showandmail here on my blog. It was really hot Twitter hashtag for a while, but it's sort of died off lately.

The Letter Writers Alliance did a nice post recently about Show and Mail, with the intent of reviving that hashtag and mail show-and-tell. For an explanation, the LWA Management articulated it better than I could:

Why should we do this? Well, firstly, it will get us to write more letters. Secondly, it will inspire others to write more mail. Whenever I see a show and mail I get an itch to write someone. Why not spread that feeling to others?

I've been writing mail today, and our long-awaited snowstorm has finally arrived... so I thought I'd contribute a Show and Mail in the form of Snow and Mail. (Yes, I love puns, and I'm not ashamed.)



Of course, Soda had to help.

The lovely Keep Calm and Send Postcards postcard is from MaxAndCoPost on etsy, and they have some other fine mail-related postcards in their shop. It's a great sentiment for any day, but especially a day like today when many of us on the east coast are getting quite a good bit of snow.



Soda and I intend to snuggle up and enjoy it.

Whatever your weather, if you're writing mail, pop a photo up on Twitter and use that great #showandmail hashtag, so we postal voyeurs can enjoy and be inspired. And thanks to the Letter Writers Alliance for the reminder!

Alpaca Mail, or, a Llama letter

I don't blog about kawaii stationery very often, because in truth I'm very fussy about what kawaii I like, but I think this Q-Lia Notumotu Alpaca Llama Letter set is pretty darn awesome. I mean, fuzzy wagging alpaca butts? How can one resist?



You can see this went to a friend at camp. I think a Llama letter makes some fine camp mail.

4th of July was a good mail day...

...for outgoing mail, I mean! This is all the mail from yesterday that is about to head off to the post office right now. Yay mail!

If you look closely, you'll see a glimpse of one of my NEW POSTCARD DESIGNS (can you tell I am excited?) that will debut in my etsy shop either later today or tomorrow.



Here's a closer look at all the stamps. I had fun putting those Star Wars stamps on the Star Wars postcard.

Happy summer mailing, everyone!

Hello darling!

I took this photo of a glittery rose sticker on the back of a pink envelope with a scalloped flap (from the French Kitty Breakfast at Tiffany's correspondence set) just because I liked the way it looked.

And I hoped it would be a very cheery thing for the recipient to pull out of her mailbox.

Red, white, and blue

I thought some good old red, white, and blue was in order for the season.

This is a letter I wrote last night on some vintage Wessel "envo-letters" stationery. It is WWII era, dates around the same time as the V-mails, but notes in packaging that it can be sent anywhere, not just to and from U.S. troops (as was the intent for V-mail.)



And yes, I do use the stickers I sell in my shop for my own correspondence, too.

To all my American readers, have a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Shark Mail!

A while back I had a little conversation on Twitter about shark mail. It turns out that Laura of PleaseDeliverTo had blog visitors from the search term "shark letters," and so did I. We both thought this was very odd. PostMuse of the Orphaned Postcard Project also rang in.

If you are thinking what we were thinking, this seemed a perfect opportunity for a little whimsical mail art. So, I sent Laura some shark mail. Front of postcard with teeth (dripping blood - hey, folks, for freehand drawing, this is pretty darn good for me) shown above. Since my artwork may not be the clearest, I had to designate it shark mail on the side.



On the back, my theme was "let's give 'em something for their search!" So here is some real shark mail. (See the sparkly sticker? That's an orca, or a killer whale. It's not a shark, but it's the closest sort of sticker I had. This is the first time in my life I was wishing for some shark stickers.)

I was counting on my own blog post for this occasion, and possibly more - and indeed, Laura noted the postcard in one of her blog posts. (And indeed, I've received word that more sharks may be on the way. Sharks ahoy!)



But it doesn't end there! PostMuse sent me a Shark Mail postcard, too - and wow, can she draw a creepy/comical shark well, or what? Look out, mail carriers - shark infested mailboxes!

On the back of her card, she reminisced about the old Saturday Night Live skit with a shark knocking on doors. I remember that one. Ha.

Anyhoo, this exchange embodies the fun and whimsical spirit of my favorite sort of mail art. And whoever was googling shark letters can now find fruit for their labors.

Space-age hip Shag postcard

I mailed this fine Shag (aka Josh Agle) postcard today to a Postcrosser in the USA. I've kvelled about my love of Shag's artwork many times in this blog. This comes from the Shag Postcard book made by Chronicle Books. I love their happy hip dancing. They make it look like jamming out in spacesuits is a lot of fun.

Postcrossing to the #1 USA Postcrosser

Yesterday I was assigned to send a postcard to the #1 poscrosser in the USA (at least right now), motherbrando. She has sent nearly 4000 postcards in her 6 years on Postcrossing. (I've also been on Postcrossing for more than 6 years, but I've only sent a little more than 700!) Gulp. She has a very full profile and seems like an interesting person. I chose a books/reading postcard shown above: "Lesebuebchen" (little boy reading) by Martina Hoffmann, from bizarrverlag.com, though I purchased mine in a bookstore somewhere. I hope she enjoys the postcard!

Kirk and Spock as Lone Ranger and Tonto

I sent this postcard to a Postcrosser in the Netherlands who is a Trekkie (i.e. someone who loves Star Trek). I wrote that I don't know whether I'm knowledgeable and dedicated enough to call myself a Trekkie, but I am certainly a Star Trek fan.

This fun parody postcard shows Captain Kirk and Spock in garb that I think is meant to spoof the Lone Ranger and Tonto, and there is a bit of a romantic tension going on, don't you think?

The work is "Besame Mucho," oil on wood from 2005 by Isabel Samaras, from the fantastic "On Tender Hooks" postcard book via Chronicle Books, home of so many fine postcard collections.

Women Working

This is one of my favorite black and white photos I've sent on Postcrossing lately: US-1292659 to Amanda37 in the Netherlands.

The postcard is available from Syracuse Cultural Workers, and the photo was taken in 1976 by Ellen Shub, in the now-defunct New Words Bookstore in Cambridge, MA. I am especially attached to this postcard because I was a frequent visitor to New Words Bookstore in the 1990s, and it was a fine place indeed.

scritch scritch CHOMP

Here's one of my favorite postcards from The Cutest Sneeze in the World postcard set from Chronicle Books, with artwork by Jeffrey Brown. My cat Soda definitely likes to try to chew pens like this occasionally. I sent this one as Postcrossing US-1385297 to Finland recently.

On an unrelated note, just a quick apology for being so absent this month. I've not been blogging much, nor have I been reading others' blogs, and I've only barely shown up on Twitter here or there. It's my busiest time at work, and I've got my head down until early March. I haven't even had much time for letter writing, though I've managed a few postcards. I'm missing my mail hobby quite a lot, but I'll return to it soon. There is light at the end of the tunnel after a couple more weeks...