Bat night

This gorgeous letterpress bat card came in from a blog-reader-turned-correspondent, and of course it made my day.

It was quite a coincidence seeing what company made it, because I had just bought some stationery from my favorite store in Harvard Square from the same company. Clearly I'm a fan of their designs.



MOST unfortunately, I was unable to find any website for Saturn Press, so I can't find a way to buy these online. Oh well.

Giveaway: J. Herbin scented fountain pen ink samples

UPDATE: Congratulations to Krandall, the winner of the ink!



My second fabulous giveaway this week is for J. Herbin scented fountain pen ink samples. Included here are red/rose scent, orange/orange scent, blue/lavender scent, and purple/violet scent. (The original set comes with a green/apple scent, but I don't have that one here.) They are the small 10ml sample size bottles.



I don't have samples, but you can look at these ink reviews to see the colors of the inks:
Orange
Blue
Red
Purple

The scents of these inks are too strong and chemical for me. I prefer natural essential oils, and these just give me a headache. So if you're chemical-sensitive, or don't like strong fragrances, I'd advise against using these. The colors are very nice, but I just can't deal with the scent. I hope they go to someone else who enjoys them.

THE INEVITABLE RULES

1. HOW: To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post. One comment/entry per person, please.

2. WHO: No anonymous comments will be approved. You need a blogger profile to enter this giveaway (simply because I need to know who you are - I'm not going to count through "anonymous #7"), and if you don't have a blogger profile yet, just make one. It's fast, easy and free, doesn't require a blog, and I think only requires a valid email address. Also, your profile with email address MUST be viewable, or you must provide a valid email address in your comment. If your name is drawn as the winner, and I don't have or can't access an email address for you, I'll choose another winner. (Don't be an Indigo.)

3. WHERE: No location restrictions this time. I'm going to open this one up to anyone, anywhere in the world. We'll see how that goes.

4. WHEN: The deadline for comments/entries is 11:59pm (Eastern Standard/NYC time) on Sunday, June 13. I will choose and announce the random winner on Monday, June 14.

EDIT 7 June: Please read rule #2 carefully, folks. I've just deleted a bunch of entries because there was no contact info. Either 1) you know I already correspond with you so you're absolutely certain I know how to contact you; 2) you have an email address or a blog of your own accessible on your blogger profile, which I am allowed to view; or 3) you leave an email address in your comment. If your comment/entry doesn't fall into one of those categories, I'm deleting it before I do the selection, lest it throw the numbers off for the random number generator when I do the final pick. Lastly, keep your eyes peeled for this magical phrase after you submit your comment/entry: "Comments will be visible after blog owner approval." If you miss that and comment twice, or three times, or more, I'll delete duplicates.


Good luck!

Giveaway: nostalgia package

UPDATE: Congratulations to Mary Has Sound! She won this giveaway.



My beloved just cleaned out some old drawers, and was about to throw away this "Nostalgia package" that someone had given him as a gift, years and years ago. We're both trying to glean our possessions a bit, and I don't know exactly what I'd do with it, either... except that it's full of cool and vintage things! So, another blog giveaway is born. Not part of the package, but I'm throwing it in anyway, is a Peppermint Smencil, a "gourmet scented pencil" made from 100% recycled newspapers.



The nostalgia package (Contents: Great Old Stuff!) contains a domino, an empty brown glass bottle, two watches, some ribbons, a silver plastic catcher figurine, a pack of cards with a McCarthy button, old hair curlers, more pens and pencils, old labels and paper ephemera, and more!



I thought the old paper ephemera might be of most interest to my readers, so I arrayed that all out in the above photo. The greeting cards are unused, but the postcards have both been sent.

THE INEVITABLE RULES

1. HOW: To enter the giveaway, leave a comment on this post. One comment/entry per person, please.

2. WHO: No anonymous comments will be approved. You need a blogger profile to enter this giveaway (simply because I need to know who you are - I'm not going to count through "anonymous #7"), and if you don't have a blogger profile yet, just make one. It's fast, easy and free, doesn't require a blog, and I think only requires a valid email address. Also, your profile/email address MUST be viewable, or you must provide a valid email address in your comment. If your name is drawn as the winner, and I don't have or can't access an email address for you, I'll choose another winner. (Don't be an Indigo.)

3. WHERE: I'm going to be a little loose with the location restriction, in an unorthodox way. Anyone from the USA may enter. If you are in a foreign country, you may enter IF we already correspond (Sirpa, Bianca, Zoë, etc...). If you live outside the USA and we have not corresponded, you are not eligible to win this one.

4. WHEN: The deadline for comments/entries is 11:59pm (Eastern Standard/NYC time) on Sunday, June 13. I will choose and announce the random winner on Monday, June 14.

Good luck!

The amazing waterlogged letter, which actually arrived!

I was so very surprised when I pulled this out of my mailbox - amazed that it actually arrived! The water damaged must have happened to this one en route, not caused by me. You can make out the address if you look reeeeeeeally closely at it. I wonder if this ink had some kind of a waterproof component to it?



The rubber stamp on the back of the envelope didn't fare so well, either...



... and the letter was all blurred into itself on the wet side.

But it arrived!

Pelikan postcard

This came from a fountain pen postcard correspondent. I love the meta factor, of course - and Pelikan is a famous maker of fountain pens and ink.

Homophone peeve

I've almost posted about this a million times, and this morning I'm just going to fire it off: the misuse of stationary absolutely drives me batty!

I know, it's one little letter, but I just gotta say it.

stationery
   /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛri/ [stey-shuh-ner-ee]
–noun
1. writing paper.
2. writing materials, as pens, pencils, paper, and envelopes.


stationary
   /ˈsteɪʃəˌnɛri/ [stey-shuh-ner-ee]
–adjective
1. standing still; not moving.
2. having a fixed position; not movable.
3. established in one place; not itinerant or migratory.
4. remaining in the same condition or state; not changing: "The market price has remained stationary for a week."

(Definitions and pronunciations courtesy of dictionary.com)

Here's a fun pun:
"No matter how you push the envelope, it's still stationery."
But maybe that is even more confusing for some people.

OK, that's my rant for the day... I'll leave you on a positive note, related to this homophone peeve: PostMuse is doing a very fun giveaway of a tote bag with both of these words defined.

Update: Thanks to reader JP in CA for pointing out this fun post on the Crane blog. True 'nuff, people in the business should know how to spell their own product!

Stripped + Frankenfurter

These most excellent handmade envelopes came holding successive letters from the fabulous GirlZootZilla. Stripped! Love it! Gimmicky, but it works.



GirlZootZilla did her own blog post about making envelopes... if that's the pile she achieved in an hour, she's a lot more productive than I am in that timeframe!



Saving the best for last...



Don't dream it, be it!

!!!

For those of you who aren't familiar with this iconic character, that's Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter in the cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." Gaaaaaah! Too incredible.

May stats

Okay, I'm still keeping up the outgoing mail stats...

Letters
38

Postcards
40

Total out
78

I wasn't quite as productive as in April. I'm hoping June will be a banner month! Oh wait, but I'll be away for a week of it... *sigh*

April stats