Vintage stationery spotlight: Laff Letters

Tonight I'll share a few views of some of my favorite vintage stationery (a la eBay): the WWII-era Laff Letters.



As the box says, "letter and envelope in one," so pretty much a postalette or fold-and-mail concept.



The back of each design has a joke that tends to be racist or sexist or both... I guess they are a product of their time.



I love the return address space in this "bulletin from" design, and the "atoms for peace" vintage stamp is one of my favorites.



I sent the above "last minute news" design to my late grandfather about a year ago - I tried to use a WWII/veterans theme in the stamps, or at least stamps that made sense for his lifetime.

She's batty

A dear friend sent me this wonderful bat card from She's Batty Designs. You know I love that name! The skull-embossed paper was really fun, and of course the sparklebat was my favorite part.



Groovy logo.



It came in a black envelope.

Love it.

In case you missed the first cat postcard swap...

My first Cat Postcard Swap on Swap-Bot was such a hit that I've immediately started two more. (I know, some of you must be sick of hearing about this...) This time, by popular demand, I separated it into two swaps: one USA only swap for those of you that live in the USA and don't want to pay international postage, and one International swap open to any country. If you're in the USA and want to join both, go for it!

For both the International and the USA-only swaps, the deadline to sign up is next Sunday, November 29. I'll assign partners Monday, November 30, and postcards must be sent by Monday, December 7. Each swap has two partners, and the rules are the same as last time - you need to write something about a cat or cats on the back of the postcard.

Thanks to all my blog readers who joined up the last one. If you enjoyed it, go for more! If you're like me, you have a LOT of cat postcards lurking in your stash...

A word on "holiday" cards, or, why I don't do Christmas

Because I've already gotten a couple of "holiday" cards (can you believe it??!? so early) and one query from a young writer about pen pal Christmas gifts, I feel it's most timely to reiterate this on me blog.

I'm Jewish.

I don't do Christmas.

At all.

In any way, shape or form.

No, we don't have a Hannukkah bush, or any other such substitution. And Hanukkah isn't even a major Jewish holiday, it's just kind of become the Christmas substitute in our modern culture. (My family lights candles on Hanukkah, but we don't believe in the obligatory gift-giving that's been tacked on to the holiday in a Christmas imitation. If you do the Hanukkah-gift routine, more power to you, but it's not my thing.)

I will never tell someone not to send me a card with any good wishes or warm sentiments. If you feel compelled to put my name on your holiday card list, by all means, knock yourself out. But please don't be offended when I don't send a card back. I don't do holiday cards, of any sort. If you write an actual letter with the card, then of course I will respond to the letter. But if you're tight on postage, or making decisions on who does or doesn't get a holiday card from you this year - by all means, cross me off the list!

And please know that anything heavily religious will just kind of creep me out.

Thanks for bearing with me through this pre-emptive rant.

Long handmade envelope + ostrich

Here's another fantastic handmade envelope from a blog reader. I like the floral background with the address name right at the bottom in a skinny strip. It arrived totally intact, though I got another handmade envelope in the mail today, also made from the pages of a magazine, that was not at all intact. One never knows if magazine pages will survive the mail or not, I suppose. Anyhoo, I am totally in love with this ostrich sticker!



My favorite part of the back is the quote: "the future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." I know I've heard this before, but I'm not sure who said it. I bet one of my readers will know.

Cat Postcard swap - go!

It's finally time! I've been talking about this Swap-bot Cat postcard swap for quite a while now, and now it's game on! I just assigned partners for the swap. Thanks to all my blog readers who are participating! The final tally is 72 participants sending cat postcards to each other.

I figured this had a pretty high chance of happening, but I'm kind of tickled that one of my two partners is one of my own pen pals. Tee hee. She'll get an extra special cat postcard.

Have fun!

Last day to sign up for Swap-bot Cat Postcard swap!

Okay, so tomorrow is really the last day, but I doubt I'll be doing much blog posting between now and then, so better early than late.

To recap...I'm hosting a Cat Postcard Swap on Swap-Bot. There's a little more info in a recent blog post, too, but the last day to sign up for the swap is TOMORROW (Friday), November 20. I'll assign partners on Saturday, November 21, sometime in the morning or early afternoon, and then the mailing deadline is the following Saturday, November 28.

The front of the postcard must include a cat or cats as its prominent focus. Also - equally important - on the back you must write a little bit about a cat or cats. You can write about your cat or cats you own now, ones you owned before or grew up with, copy a short poem about a cat, or talk about the awesome cat that hangs out in your favorite bookstore. Any cat-related prose will do! I'm just looking to "double" the cat theme, and also ensure that no one gets a postcard with no writing on it.

I hope you'll join up - lots of kitty postcards pawing through the mail should be great fun!

I am exceedingly excited that this is one of the top 10 swaps on swap-bot right now - as I write this, it's at #3. Since it's been in the top 10, numbers have risen dramatically - wow! Way cool.

Goat eats mail

Here is a simple little envelope on which I used a few of my favorite rubber stamps.

I adore the mail-eating goat, and of course that's an Edward Gorey bat.



Below the awesomeness of a disembodied hand holding a placard, that's a moo.com sticker featuring my cat Soda in a box.

I've gotta keep it simple on posting for a while, folks, and I apologize for missing a post yesterday. I didn't even read my mail yesterday until midnight - no joke. And now I'm dead tired, and it's my busy season which sees me dead tired a lot of the time. So thanks for your patience with fewer entries, and hang in there with me for a while!