3 more sleeps to go for InCoWriMo-2019

February is almost here, woo hoo, the shortest month on Earth. Why am I looking forward to February? Well, it is a month of handwriting letters every day. For those wanting to use typewriters, manual clunky thunky things, then the project for you is A Month of Letters (handwritten letters also allowed there).  The basic premise is to write a letter every (postal) day. This can be to family, to friends, to strangers (both sites have addresses available to send to), a mixture.  

To write a letter, I first need some ink, I mean, drink - a nice cup of tea.

A little longer and it'll be ready for milk. I like my loose-leaf tea. This duck tea-infuser is one of the better ones.

Also needed is a pen and paper. It doesn't have to be plain paper. It doesn't have to be airmail paper for international mail. The jolly envelope was part of a letter writing set from Paperchase.

Who to write to? If I have a letter I want to reply to that moment, I will do. I have ongoing correspondence with penfriends, some even from 4 or 5 years back through the old InCoWriMo site. The February projects can lead to long term / committed penfriendships, but not every letter will lead on to years of penfriendship. 

What if I wanted to write to someone new, I could look at the incowrimo-2019 address book. The list is long, and I could go scrolling up and down, stopping at random, and pick an address on screen. Or, I could look for countries or keywords in the address. CTRL+F is your friend. Last year, I chose some addresses with trees of some sort in them. I haven't decided what I'll search for this time. Also, I may pick a few people from the comments they have left on the website.

Once the letter is written, and addressed. I'll need stamps. These Game of Thrones stamps came out in January 2018 and I used some of them during February last year. For international mail, other stamps were needed in addition to these 1st class stamps.

I've skipped what to write in the letter. That is a subject up to you, but what I've gleaned from experience, and from others is that it should be written with genuine interest in the person you are sending to, perhaps with stories, anecdotes, and is a conversation you are having with the person you are writing to. 

InCoWriMo-2019 preparation in progress.

 Although I still have a few letters to reply to, February means I will be on a letter writing binge so I need to prepare.

• My pens have been cleaned (mostly) and inked. 
• I have sorted out various writing papers I think I want to use up, also restocking my letter writing-travel-kit. 
• I have selected some decorative tapes and stickers to carry about with me too.
• I live in a touristy area and so raided the attractions leaflets, mostly produced for last year, so I could cut out the maps. I'll include one in some of my surprise letters, well, that is the plan.
• I need to find my glue roller so I can affix the aforementioned maps to the letter paper when needed.
• I have postage stamps to hand. I must go in search of Airmail labels.

I think that is about it for now. Is there anything I am missing? I will leave picking who to write to for later as people are still signing up, and signing up closes at the end of January for InCoWriMo-2019. https://incowrimo-2019.org/ and http://lettermo.com/

It is 2019! Where does the time go?

A question asked elsewhere was how many letters did you write in 2018? I didn't actually count but I reckon over 300 letters. I did however keep a record of when letters/postcards came in, and when I posted mail too so I could tot the numbers up. I did not mind the question though. 

I did used to give monthly stats but stopped because it may not be fair to say, "Look at me, look how many letters I write, look how much money I have spent on postage stamps, look how many penpals I have got!" Besides, perhaps I do not want to admit/realise how much money I spend on postage (or even how much stationery I bought last year - at least most of it was in the sales)! One of my penpals has over 150 other penfriends. Some might say that she is a penpal collector, and how can her letters be unique? Her letters are unique, and the ones to me are written just for me.

I could say how many different people I have written to in the past year, but I won't do that. With the likes of Facebook and the possibility of showing others how many "friends" you have on there, and Twitter & Instagram with followers, penpalling is not a popularity contest. It doesn't matter how many penpals you or I have. For me, it is the quality of the letter, the connection that I find is more important than quantity / popularity. For personal reference, though, it may be informative. 

What I might do when February has started & finished for 2019, is to count up the number of surprise letters received and sent through InCoWriMo-2019.

'Tis the season

December has arrived, and Christmas cards have been coming in the mail. I have also been sending cards too, still more than a few yet to write and post. I am having some trouble finding Christmas cards I actually want to send. I still have some from previous years and I was able to buy more this year, but the problems I have are:

1) Many of the cards I come across are square. Not a problem for postage within the UK, but the smaller square cards suitable for posting domestically, fall foul of the minimum sizing for international mail.

I had posted in this blog in December 2016  about this, after I had sent a small square card out internationally.

The US has a non-machinable surcharge for square items of mail. I did wonder if Royal Mail would go down that route, but so far, they haven't....

2) Many cards also have glitter on. After the big fuss of Sir David Attenborough's nature series showing the amount of plastic in the ocean and killing off some creatures - even poisoning milk and killing little baby sea mammals.

Not all of the cards have glitter, and my camera hasn't made it easy for you to tell which cards here have glitter.

The designs look nice and I have bought glittery cards in the past before Blue Planet II. I still like the way glitter shines in the light and it would be very hard for me not to go Ooo about it. However, when buying new cards, I think I can restrain myself from getting glittery ones now.

3) Some of the sentiments inside are not what I want. I need both the wishes for Christmas and for the New Year. However, some just have Christmas wishes in. I do also like Season's Greetings as that can mean time-appropriate greetings. Although it can be a bit strange to send a winter scene to someone in the southern hemisphere. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to one and all. 

Ooops, gone down the wax seal rabbit hole

This year, I have been using wax seals more often than less to put the finishing touches to my outgoing post. These are just a selection.

 The one above and below are of the Ironbridge. 

I have a few more wax seals on order, and have also received a few new ones not yet used. In addition, I have ordered different colours of wax to use. 

Yesterday was World Letter Writing Day

Yesterday, 1st September, was World Letter Writing Day. Did I participate? Did I write letters? The answers - NO! I do not need a special day to write letters. I write letters most days of the week, so gave myself a day off. I do though participate in a February letter writing project as a means to reach out to new people.

Letter writing is relaxing, calms the brain, but also allows me to think about the person I am writing to, and craft measured replies. I'm pretty sure at some point in our lives, we've all opened our mouths and said something without thinking. I know I have done and could well have ruined friendships if I hadn't realised straight away what I had said. Letters also allow me to communicate with someone while they are otherwise busy (work, chores, enjoying entertainment or socialising) or are asleep. Sending email would also allow for this but the ping (or other sound notification) on a mobile phone can be distracting at inconvenient moments. I found email social correspondence too demanding. "I know you have read my email, why haven't you replied?" was one follow up after not replying the same day. 

I write or start a lot of letters out in public, in cafes. I even take with me some washi tape and a means to cut it to size.

Although I have more than enough stationery to last a lifetime, I do look for more stationery. I couldn't resist this set, Emily's Cats originally sold at WHSmith, found in a charity shop for £1. The box had never been opened. 

Follow up on last post.

Since my last post about used stamp re-usage, the person still didn't stop. She blocked me in July after she put an image of yet another used stamp being used for postage. I have had a friend send me screenshots.

This was posted in mid July. I have no idea why she uses By Air Mail labels on her mail from Northern Ireland to England or Wales. For a different but used Mr Men stamp (shown in last post), she said that it was brand new! 

My friend shared with me a screenshot of another re-used used stamp image after I was blocked from seeing this person's post. I don't know what the "No it was a sticker that got stuck by mistake" comment means but was it an excuse/explanation for the mark on the right on the potato stamp? That mark is a postmark. She must think we were born yesterday.