I'm home!

I'm back from vacation, refreshed and relaxed, and have finished reading a week's worth of mail. I wrote a bunch of postcards on our cabin porch when I had some down time, and this adorable baby red squirrel kept hopping around me as I did so. Those of you that receive a postcard that references the squirrel, now you can see the culprit.



The cats were very happy to see us, and as usual, Soda claimed my suitcase as hers as soon as I walked in the door. (See the little brown mouse with pink ears on the floor to the left of the suitcase? That's hers, too.) Now I'm all unpacked, and I've finished the mountains of laundry, and my etsy shop is fully re-opened... but I've got house guests coming tomorrow, so diving into mail wholeheartedly will have to wait a little longer.

Vacation is coming...

I'll be heading off for my annual summer nature getaway soon, and my etsy shop will go on vacation with me. I plan to close the shop sometime early afternoon on Friday, July 13, and the shop will probably be closed about a week or so. Don't worry if you don't see blog posts, I'm just off gallavanting in the woods. (Cross your fingers for good weather for me?)

I'm back

I'm back! Vacation was awesome. More mail posts soon.

As for now, I've returned from the mountains to mountains of laundry at home, so... hope everyone has had a lovely time, and now I shall read all the mail I received this week while my laundry machines whir.

Into the woods, part 3

Once again I am heading off into the woods for a nature vacation. I'll be away from mail all this week, but I'll most likely be writing a few postcards from the beautiful deck pictured above. I hope the weather is good!



If the weather isn't good, I'll be writing postcards from a more sheltered location, but still atmospheric. (If the weather's REALLY not good, there will be a toasty fire in that giant fireplace!)



And this old wooden mailbox is where I'll be mailing those nature vacation postcards. I may or may not be able to do posts and approve comments in my absence - that depends on a spotty internet connection - but I shall return to my mailbox and blog, hopefully refreshed and revived, next week.

Happy summer!

Postal Amsterdam

I took quite a few postal and letter-writing related photos while in Amsterdam, of course, and I can't resist sharing them with you because I got such a kick out of them. I love anything mail-related, and it's always interesting to see how it works in different countries.



Here's the desk where I sent postcards. I sent out 20; that's all I could afford on my trip budget!



And here's a bright red mailbox, similar to the one where my postcards went out. This shiny one didn't have any graffiti, but a lot of the mailboxes did.



I came across this more antique-style mailbox in the Vondelpark.



Can any of my Dutch readers translate this? It was on a lot of mail slots. Some said Nee / Nee. I know yes and no, but I'm not sure what the rest refers to. Flyers and junk mail, perhaps?

UPDATE: Thank you to Henderica, for her translation!

The Nee/Nee or Ja/Nee stickers are :
first bit just No if you don't want advertising folders or non addressed mail
The second bit Yes or No is usually for if you want local free newspapers

Just a cute silver snail I had to photograph...



This is the very cool 2-story stationery store where I bought the Eclat D'Ors paper I blogged about yesterday. I should have taken a picture of the stairs - sooo narrow! Such is Amsterdam.



The stationery store also had an awesome display on writing...



...with all kinds of vintage paper stuff.

Hope you enjoy!

First thing I bought in Amsterdam? Paper!

My Amsterdam trip was amazing, as I knew it would be... but it was probably even more amazing than I figured. Where to begin? Our hotel room was unbelievable. (We got a great deal, we thought it was a great deal before we even saw the room, and then when I saw the room, I practically fainted - nicest hotel room I've ever stayed in in my life. We had our own FLOOR. No one next to us, and we were on the top.) The weather was perfect: low 50s, and it didn't rain a single day. I didn't get any blisters. We walked miles and miles every day, drank great beer, had quality time with an old friend, and just got everything we wanted and needed out of the vacation.




But back to business, for this blog post. Can you guess what the VERY FIRST THING I bought in Amsterdam was? Paper, of course! We stumbled upon an excellent stationery store (I'm sorry, I don't remember where it was or what it was called), and it was my beloved who pointed out this paper.



Made by G. Lalo, the Eclat D'Ors paper has little flecks of gold in it. I've heard tell it's great for fountain pens - what from G. Lalo isn't? - but it isn't available in the USA, so of course I HAD to buy a pack!



I haven't used it yet, but I'll be sure to let you know what I think.

Going away for a bit

In case you wandered by my etsy shop and wondered why it was on vacation... it's because I'm on vacation! I'll be away for about a week, and will have only minimal access to email. (Yay!) I will surely fall behind even further on mail, being away from the mailbox and letter-writing habits for a week... but I'll be sending a few postcards off from Amsterdam while I'm there.

Back home with mail (and cats)

I had a lovely vacation, and now it's good to be home. Instead of photographing my awaiting mail pile (34 items received in the week I was away: 16 postcards, 18 letters), I thought this view of Soda asleep on my received postcards was even better. Of course she was very possessive of both me and my mail.

I've now read it all, and will share honestly that I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed with mail. On my vacation, I reconnected with the joy of reading... I am always a reader, but I haven't given myself permission to sit down with a book during the day lately, because there are always letters waiting. (The exception is reading in bed... I can't fall asleep unless I've been reading for a while first.) Well, I need to handle my packing, moving and general stress right now, and reading has been a great escape. So I'm going to continue to write as much as I can, while still enjoying the task... and ask my blog readers to understand. Yes, I probably got your letter. Yes, it is probably sitting in my needs-response pile, which is very well over 100 items now. (Please, I'm not even going to count it again.) I will respond as I am able, and my turnaround time seems to average -- eek, average -- about 3 months. This sucks for you and it sucks for me, but it's the way I've gotta cope right now. My letter pile is huge and I am not going to make it go away completely, so I'm just going to enjoy each letter as it comes and goes, and try to be zen about it. Thanks for understanding... and I hope you are having a Good Mail July.

Into the woods, part 2

Once again I am heading off into the woods for a nature vacation. I'll be away from mail all next week, but I'll most likely be writing a few postcards from the beautiful deck pictured above. I hope the weather is good! I may or may not be able to do posts and approve comments in my absence, that remains to be seen - but I shall rejoin the mailing world, hopefully refreshed and revived, the following week.

Happy summer!

Home again, home again, hippity hop

Hello gentle readers,
No photo now, just a tired note to say I have returned from a wonderful escape into nature. I don't have any pictures of my letter pile, but I do have a count: 37 pieces of personal correspondence awaited me today upon my return. I think about 8 or so were postcards, the rest letters. I've just read them all, in my leisure hours after unpacking. The letter-stream will resume tomorrow (though I did send out 20 postcards & 1 letter while I was in a cabin by a lake), and I'll be back with regular photo-posts tomorrow, too.
Thanks for all your comments while I was away, and your continued loyal readership!

Into the woods

Dear readers, it is time for me to disappear for a little while.

I will be happily ensconced in the wilderness, away from my mailbox (sad) and away from the internet (happy). I am not going to turn off comments, you'll just have to wait until I get back to internet-land for me to approve them (and ergo for them to appear). If I am really organized today, I'll get some posts set up to happen automatically in my absence, but please don't be alarmed by my lack of response, either to comments here on this site or to snail mail letters. I'm going to have a bit of a backlog again! Thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, go write a letter!