celebrations | kimberly ah

Apr 04 2018

celebrations, crafty adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail, thrifted, vintage, Write On

Letters & Libations Party Decorations

Naoto was a little worried about party decorations so I told him I’d handle it. I love making garlands and I already had a bunch of supplies leftover from last year’s Write On Party.

I just strung a bunch of airmail envelopes from the ceiling and then made a garland with First Day Covers and old postcards from my vintage paper drawer. And for the “centerpiece” I made a giant paper airplane based on this Oh Happy Day tutorial. I just used eco white roll wrap from Paper Source and drew lines with a pink and blue Sharpie. Then I used this tutorial to fold the plane. I haven’t folded a paper airplane since grade school so I needed a little refresher course.

Presley was impressed.

Naoto made a kraft paper tablecloth for me with “post office” written in several languages and he even drew the Japan Post mascot for me! We scattered some airmail envelopes on the table with the stationery and called it done. Simple but on-theme. Presley enjoyed pushing the mail truck off the table. She doesn’t like being left out of the letter writing fun.

Simple, and at the end of the day, everything is reusable (especially for National Card & Letter Writing Month happening now!) and recyclable!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, crafts, decorating, diy, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Apr 02 2018

3 Comments

celebrations, snail mail, some stuff about me, Write On

Letters & Libations

For my birthday this year, Naoto threw me a Letters & Libations party, complete with a theme cocktail, letter writing, and lots of friends. It was so fun and a perfect beginning to a new decade. My only regret is that we didn’t get more good pictures… So, about the cake…we got it at our local bakery, Kay’s. When Naoto ordered it, he asked if they could do red and blue (airmail colors!) and draw an envelope on the cake. Simple, right? I mean, and envelope is a rectangle with a triangle inside. (Even I can draw an envelope and I’m terrible at drawing!) They said they couldn’t do an envelope but they could do a pencil and a notebook so he figured close enough…well…that’s what we got. Funny, right? It still tasted delicious. Birthday cakes are my favorite…nothing fancy, just white cake with buttercream frosting.

When Naoto sent out the invitations, a few people wondered what a letter writing party was. I was feeling a little nervous about making my non-letter-writing friends write letters, but it all worked out in the end and almost everyone wrote a letter! I even had some Mr. Rogers stamps on hand for people to use and Naoto had some special stationery made for me. (I’ll share that soon!) I was so happy to see tables of friends writing letters and drinking cocktails at my dining room table. It was really the best birthday gift ever. (Confession: I didn’t write a letter!) We ate Freddy’s meatballs (pretty much a party standard around here) and Lou Malnati’s pizza and salad, cheeses, chips and salsa, and Karen made her famous pimento. Naoto turned my desk into a bar and mixed up a signature cocktail for us…I’ll share that soon, too.

My heart is full, and I’m well-stocked for National Letter Writing Month.

Tagged adventures, celebrations, cocktails, mail art, snail mail

Apr 01 2018

1 Comment

celebrations, holidays, snail mail, thrifted, Write On

Happy Easter, Happy Spring

Happy Easter (if you celebrate) and Happy April! It’s still quite cold here in Chicago, which is the norm for early spring. We’re still working out our Easter menu, but I have my spring cocktail napkins all ready to go.

(Vintage card purchased from the Forest Park Emporium. One seller there has the best old paper treats. Bunny paper is Japanese washi from my stash.)

Tagged celebrations, holidays, snail mail, thrifting, vintage

Mar 31 2018

4 Comments

celebrations, In My Mailbox, Office Supplies, snail mail, Write On

Write On 2018

Tomorrow is April and National Letter Writing Month and the beginning of another Write On challenge! I like Write On a bit better than Letter Month because it’s more removed from Christmas card season and the expectation is looser–write 30 letters during the month of April. I’m hoping to actually finish this challenge after my failure in February. As usual, I have a nice stack of letters that need a reply, some thank yous to finish, and a drawer full of stationery. I ordered the Write On party pack again and I’m planning to have a little letter writing gathering or two this month. One of my pen pals is flying in from New Zealand so there will definitely be some letter writing time planned around her visit. Here on the blog, I’m hoping to post mostly mail related things, too. I’ve been saving some things for the most wonderful time of the year!

Are you participating in the challenge? I love the kits (pictured above) this year! Those little mailboxes are perfection.

Tagged adventures, celebrations, holidays, letterpress, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Mar 28 2018

2 Comments

celebrations, Office Supplies, snail mail

Letter Writing Themed Birthday Gifts

My birthday was last Saturday and Naoto threw me the most wonderful party and gave me such thoughtful gifts. I’ll share more about the party next week. It was a theme party -of course- and it will be the perfect thing to share during National Letter Writing Month.

I’ve had these airmail pillow covers on my wishlist forever. I’d almost forgotten about them until I unwrapped them on Saturday. They are screen printed on natural canvas and you can find them in the Two Hands Two Crowns Etsy shop. I was so excited to stuff my down pillow inserts into them and put them out on the couch for the party. I asked Naoto if he cares that I gave our living room a mail theme and he doesn’t care, so maybe there will be more mail additions in the future. My other gifts were these cute Japan Post stamps from NicoNeco Zakkaya. The little guy is the Japan Post mascot and I love how he’s inside a stamp shape. (I couldn’t find these exact stamps in their shop right now, but they have so many lovely stamps and other things!) I’m looking forward to writing my thank you notes tonight and using my new stamps. As usual, I’m behind on my letter writing, just in time for another Write On challenge! (But I’m hoping to get my thank yous out before Sunday–yikes!)

Tagged celebrations, crafts, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, shopping, snail mail

Mar 21 2018

From Our Herd to Yours…

Last month, I did a custom order of buffalo themed thank you notes for a soon-to-be-mom’s baby shower. I didn’t have any buffalo postage stamps, but I did have this 1960 World Forestry Congress stamp that features a buffalo, a deer, and a hiker. It was fun working on something new. Sometimes I see working with stamps and typewriters as a limitation…I’m limited in the designs I can come up with because vintage stamp designs are somewhat limited. I can’t really use a bunch of neon in my card designs (oh, how I love neon!) because there aren’t neon stamps, or neon typewriter ribbons for that matter. I can’t do a cat card because there aren’t many vintage cat stamps (readily available…I do have some with a cat and a dog though.) But limitations lead to creativity, so I’m trying to expand my bad dad jokes and puns and see how many cards I can come up with in my own style.

Tagged adventures, celebrations, crafts, diy, forest park, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Mar 19 2018

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celebrations

Happy Birthday, Dadami!

Happy Birthday to my cute Dad! Here’s a picture of us from a long time ago (my college years?) when we had summer tans. Cheers to many more! xo

Tagged celebrations, parents

Mar 10 2018

Forest Park St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Last weekend, Naoto and I walked in the Forest Park St. Patrick’s Day parade with our respective groups, the Diversity Commission for him and the Community Garden for me. The Diversity Commission had a banner and handed out stickers and the garden had our usual float and we handed out seeds. Anise hyssop was the seed of choice this year. People were really excited to get the seeds. Some people were a little too excited, like the drunk lady who grabbed my bucket and demanded seeds. Apparently all parade swag is good swag. It was a really beautiful day. I’ve walked in the parade three times now and have been very lucky with the weather. Oh and I got to meet this sweet dog.

If you’re local, you can find the extra seeds we didn’t hand out at the Forest Park Public Library. Or you could come to the Seed Swap Sunday afternoon!

Tagged celebrations, forest park, garden, gardening, holidays

Mar 08 2018

International Women’s Day

Happy International Women’s Day! I’m celebrating by writing letters to some of my favorite women and having a little feminist card special in my Galaxie Safari shop. Do you have any favorite quote about or by women? Mine are:

“Women and cats will do as they please.” –Robert Heinlein

“In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.” –Margaret Thatcher

“Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere.” –Mae West

“A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less.” –Susan B. Anthony

Tagged celebrations, crafts, feminism, International Women's Day, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Feb 20 2018

3 Comments

adventures, celebrations, crafty adventures, Olympics

Olympics Fever

My blogging and letter writing has fallen by the wayside thanks to the Olympics. No regrets though. These games are so much fun and the Adami-Hasegawa medal count competition is as close as it’s ever been (USA 12, Japan 10 as of this morning.)

I always throw a mini Olympics party, but this year the Olympics crept up on me and I didn’t have enough time to plan appropriately or come up with a theme cocktail. Party or no party I love decorating above our TV for the Olympics. Every year, I break out my flag banner and in 2016 I added an Olympic torch. (My guest room closet is pretty much the party prop room. I can’t save everything, but some things are small enough and took enough time to create that I figure they should be reused. If you ever need a sakura branch or some giant cacti, please give me a call.) This year I made some Olympic rings to hang. They’re a little small, but now that I’ve made them, I think I can probably work out a giant version for Tokyo 2020.

Karen came over for the Opening Ceremonies and we made a very simple menu: Korean beef tacos and Korean coffee brownies. (Disclaimer: these are probably not authentic foods.) Karen made the coffee brownies and I made these Korean beef tacos topped with this cabbage slaw and they were so good.
Do you have a favorite Olympic event? I used to think mine was ice skating, but now I think it’s pretty much whatever is happening right now.