Insufficient facts always invite danger, Captain

I promised more Star Trek postcards, so here you go.

I love these guys. The captions really enhance the kitsch factor of the images.

By the way, these are available from Chronicle Books.

Brown & Bronze, tied up with string

It's a brown paper envelope, tied up with string! The bronze accents are just gorgeous, but it's the little bit of glittery string that just puts it over the top. I wondered if this was handcrafted, but in fact it's made by Papyrus. This lovely item came to me from the gentleman behind Everyday Correspondence, and he blogged about it in much greater detail and timelier fashion than I did, so you should really see what he posted to have a proper look.

Tissue paper tragedy

This lovely handmade envelope came to me from the fine lady behind We Love Snail Mail, but unfortunately it didn't survive so well. What you see in the photos is not after opening, but the state in which it arrived in my mailbox.



The sender posted about this letter on her blog, and she referred to the envelope material as vellum. I would call it tissue paper, though, as it was exceedingly thin and felt just like... tissue paper. She included a heavy card that gave it stability from the inside, but the tissue paper envelope was ripped and torn at both ends, and unfortunately at least one page of the letter fell out in transit! I only got the last page with half a sentence and a signature. It could well be that this poor letter hit an especially nasty sorting machine at just the wrong angle, and any envelope could have been mangled. But this experience leads me to believe that envelopes made out of tissue paper may not survive a cross-country journey via the postal service.

I love the idea, though, and the cheery polka dot pattern.

We Love Snail Mail: another source for pen pals

There's another letter-writing website out there, but it exists specifically to connect other letter writers and provide pen pal connections. I already correspond with a number of members, and although I proceed with caution with anything really new and anything free, if you're looking for more pen pals yourself, you should check it out.

We Love Snail Mail

I just joined up in order to have a look around (heaven knows I don't need more pen pals!!) and it seems pretty cool. I've already complained vociferously to its powers that be about the required entry of your birthdate in order to join - but I've been told it's a required element of the pre-packaged software, so there's no way around it. I just lied about mine.

I haven't explored it much, but again, I'm not really seeking. If you're itching for more letters to write, I can vouch for quite a few of the existing members there that they are already loyal and dedicated pen pals, so go have a look. It's free!

Handmade condolence card

This lovely handmade condolence card came from a blog reader, now correspondent. It was really touching.

I am always impressed by handmade cards. You can't really see in this photo (how many times do I say that??) but the envelope is sort of opalescent.

A visiting bat - a real one!

This morning I found a surprise in our spare bedroom - an actual, real live bat hanging in the corner of a window-frame. I had to do a double-take at this, because I actually have a lot of fake bats hanging around the house. (Really, I do. Y'all know how fond I am of bats.) When it flicked its ear at me, I knew it was not a practical joke from my beloved husband, who occasionally moves my bats around.

I felt really sorry for the bat (and still do - he or she is still up there), and immediately removed the sleeping cat from the room and shut the doors. We opened the window and the screen to let it get out, but it's still hanging out there. It was full daylight when I discovered it, and bats do not like to fly during the day, so said beloved and I agreed to keep the doors closed and window open all day, turn on the light at night and hope the bat leaves of its own accord.



I KNOW this doesn't have anything to do with letter-writing, but you loyal readers know how much I love bats, and often post photos of drawings of them and various bat stationery, so I just had to share this odd story. I have friends who complain all the time about having bats in their apartment (and they usually freak out and swat at them with brooms or -- *shudder* -- tennis rackets), and it's never happened to me, until today. Best guess is that it came through the fireplace in the room next door, and somehow flapped around into that spare bedroom and couldn't figure out how to get out. We haven't disturbed it so don't know if it's wounded, but it doesn't appear to be. Biggest fear is that it was bothered by our cats. Of course we worry about rabies, but it doesn't appear to be rabid and is so far exhibiting completely normal bat behavior - i.e. sleeping and remaining still during the day. I am rather excited to see what happens at dusk, though - I would really love to watch it fly out the window.



Of course I took a million photos - most without flash because I didn't want to bother it.

Here is the whole set of photos if you want to have a look.

And read all kinds of cool bat facts at Bat Conservation International (BCI). Lucky little bat, to have stumbled into the home of a passionate BCI member. :-)

The mystery of an old photo postcard...

When cleaning out my grandfather's house after his death, I found an awful lot of very old antique postcards, many of them unused. A great bunch of them looked to come from the early 1900s (1906-1918 were the postmarks on similar postcards, which would make them older than my grandfather). The majority were "photo postcards." I suppose I need to research this trend (or possibly just pick the brain of the very knowledgeable Chris at Wild Postcards), but it seems that individuals had their printed photos made right into postcards... kind of like we do now. Anyway, my mom and I were left wondering, who are these people? Are we related to them? Most likely we will never know, though one wonders why Grandpa held on to them if he didn't know them somehow.

This mysterious woman with her Mona Lisa face was my favorite in the bunch. I sent it to my mom later, of course, so we could keep it in the family. I like her hat, I like her dress, I like her pose, but most of all I like the quiet, inscrutable look on her face.

I got my unicorn gmail sticker after all!

Remember when I was first excited about gmail stickers, and then when I received them I was totally disappointed? I lamented the lack of a unicorn sticker to any correspondent who could put up with it, for quite a while... because really, it was all about the unicorn.

One very kind correspondent actually GOT a unicorn sticker and didn't even want it, or she took pity on me, and she sent it to me! Hooray! I will keep her nameless for the kindness, lest she be mobbed, but it made my day. I mean, the unicorns are awesome, the rainbow is awesome - and even the little shell border for the address has a rainbow motif.



I gave it prime placement right at the front of my current letters log.

Thank you, unicorn fairy!