New Stationery

I recently discovered some of the great stationery (new and vintage) for sale on Etsy and may have gone overboard.  

First up is Paper Ink Press, which is currently having a great sale.  I ordered one of the letterpress grab bags and this is what I got:

grab bag cards

great colors! 

Needless to say, I just went back to order two more!

Also from that shop was these cute cards with foxes on them: 

Next is some lovely vintage stationery from Pratt and Austin, purchased from The Barn Owl's Collectibles.  

Looking through my closet a few months ago I found some great Pratt and Austin stationery that was given to me when I was younger.  I searched online but can't find any new stuff (hence ordering the vintage set I found on Etsy).  Did they go out of business??

And last but not least, a few goodies from Creative Moxie Studio.  Fun and reasonably priced!

This reminds me that I don't actually know the birthdays of many of my pen pals.  If you're reading this, let me know in your next letter!!

I hope you're as excited to receive these beauties as I am to send them!

~Anne

Incoming, Week of May 21st

Another week, another batch of great mail to share with you.

Monday is a holiday here (Memorial Day) so I'll have extra time to catch up on my letters this weekend.  It's always a bummer when we have to go another day without mail delivery, but usually that just means my mailbox will be extra full on Tuesday!

~Anne

Postcrossing Stats

Happy Friday, everyone!

After pondering the high number of postcards I've sent and received from the Netherlands, I decided to look up some stats on postcrossers from around the world.  Turns out it's not a fluke.  There are lots of postcrossers in the Netherlands (especially when considering the size of the country).  Of course it didn't surprise me that populous countries like Russia and China would have a high number of users.

Postcrossing Users Geographical Distribution

What impressed me more though was the number of postcards sent by members from different countries.  Over a million sent by postcrossers in four countries:

United States              1,496,169

Finland                       1,333,770

Germany                    1,265,100

Netherlands                1,129,798

I won't bore you with any more numbers.  (Can you tell I'm a math person?)  In other news, I got my first postcard from Asia (Malaysia) this week!

~Anne

Postcrossing News

This weekend a few of my postcrossing postcards reached their destination, which means I can now send 6 cards out at once!

I sent out my first postcard to Asia (China).

Here are some of the stamps I've gotten so far:

Netherlands

Netherlands

Netherlands

The Philippines

Poland

Is it just me or are there lots of postcrossers in the Netherlands?




































Still no postcards to/from Africa or South America - has anyone sent/received postcards from there?


~Anne

Incoming, Week of May 14th

So much great mail this week!


Friday was a pretty stressful day, but seeing my mail when I got home lifted my spirits :)

A letter from Marian (note the very cute paper she typed the letter on):

And a letter plus other beautiful things from a new mail art pal Barbara in Massachusetts:

Earlier in the week I got a letter from my friend Caitlin from college.  She sent me lots of beautiful stationery!

More mail from earlier in the week:

(On the right is a card my pen pal Stephanie made - she said she was worried it looked like it was for a baby shower, but I think it's adorable!!)



Thank you to everyone who sends me mail and/or reads this blog.  It brings me great happiness.

~Anne

Incoming, Week of May 7th

Lots of great mail this week!


I got a postcrossing postcard from Estonia - look at the stamp!












More mail:

Also letters from Stephanie and Marian.  I think I'm going to start making envelopes like the one Marian sent me -out of old magazines - I have piles of them and it would be good to do something with them instead of tossing them.

Have a great week everyone!


~Anne

Thirty Days of Creativity

Has anyone done 30 Days of Creativity?  Here's what they say:

30 Days of Creativity is a global social initiative encouraging people to create stuff (anything) every day for 30 days in June.  2012 is our 3rd year.  We hope you make it a big one.

Unfortunately I'm not very good at remembering to post pictures of my outgoing mail (oops!) so I'm not sure how well I'd do with documenting my creative endeavors every day for a month. But it sounds intriguing.  Anyone done this before?

They list 30 reasons to participate here. 

My thanks to Discover paper for letting me know about this great idea!

~Anne

Week of April 30th, 2012

Wonderful mail this week!



Mail, Part 1:

Mail, Part 2:

USPS: Systems at Work

To all of my fellow mail lovers, USPS put out this video showing how our precious mail gets to us every day.  I didn't think it was possible to love the post office more than I already did, but now I have a new level of appreciation!  (Thanks to Lovely Handwritten Notes for posting!)

Update on the great mail I got this week coming soon :)

~Anne