office supplies | kimberly ah

Feb 23 2015

Letter Month 2015 Week 3

During week three, I definitely slowed down a bit, but I don’t have that “burnt out” feeling that I’ve experienced in previous years. Something was written and sent every day (except Saturday’s package–I missed the drop off time because I had book club and didn’t get my act together in time!) The top picture shows Sunday, Monday and Tuesday’s mailings–Monday was a holiday so everything got sent on Tuesday. I found myself relying on postcards again, and I sent a thank you note, a note to a friend and a birthday gift. This week–the last week of Letter Month–I am planning to finish strong. I want to end on a high note and be all caught up in my letter ledger for March. I also want to visit two of my neighborhood blue boxes that I haven’t used yet. It has been incredibly cold, so I found myself relying on our lobby mailbox and using the ones that are near work and the grocery store (the only two reasons I’ve been leaving the house.)

My totals for the week:

2 cards
4 postcards
0 international
1 package
7 total mailings

How are you feeling about Letter Month?

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

Feb 16 2015

2 Comments

Letter Month, snail mail

Letter Month 2015 Week 2

We are at the halfway point in Letter Month! Last week’s mailings were all about Valentine’s Day. And, as much as I love sending out Valentines, I’m a little relieved that they are mostly sent out (I have a couple to send in this week’s mail) and I can go back to returning letters and sending postcards.

I didn’t do as well last week with visiting new mailboxes, only mailing out of the blue box in our neighborhood once, and the box by work once…the rest of the time, I relied on the box in our lobby. (What can I say, I hate the cold weather!) Today is a mail holiday (Presidents Day) so tomorrow, my goal is to send my Sunday, Monday & Tuesday mailings out of another box in our neighborhood. It will be good to get out of the house, right?

My totals for the week:

19 cards
0 postcards
1 international
0 packages
20 Total mailings

This week, my goal is to put away all of the pink and red stuff and respond to all of the letters I’ve received this month.

Cheers to more letters!

Tagged crafts, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Feb 13 2015

5 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, holidays, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail, vintage

Vintage Stamp Valentines

I’ve been making some handmade Valentines for pen pals and friends since January. Yet, somehow, I am not done. I get distracted too easily, and Presley joins me and naps on my supplies, which slows things down too.

I decided to make some cards that looked a little bit like envelopes (similar to my calling cards for ex Postal Facto last year.) I started with some 4-bar cards and added pink and red vintage (or Japanese) stamps and a variety of washi tapes. I typed the message “You put the stamp on my envelope, Valentine!” on labels or directly on the cards. The labeled ones kind of look more like envelopes, but hopefully the silly message kind of makes sense.

They were a lot of fun to make and I was happy to be able to spend out some of my vintage stamp collection…although now I feel compelled to build up my red and pink stash again!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope your mailbox is full of love this weekend!

Tagged celebrations, crafts, diy, holidays, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage, washi tape

Feb 10 2015

8 Comments

Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

Traveling Postcard Kit

I knew if I was going to keep up with Letter Month, I would have to keep a little mail kit in my bag. I decided to make things simple for myself: I would return proper letters at home but I would write quick, fun postcards when I was out and about. So far it’s working, as I’ve been able to write postcards while waiting for Naoto at the doctor, while waiting to meet friends for coffee, and while waiting for our food to come at a restaurant. If I didn’t carry a little kit, those postcards would have never happened. Inside the kit (which is really just the box that held my New Year cards) I have a handful of postcards, pens, stamps, my travel address book, my return address stamp and ink. I could probably drop some stickers or some washi tape in the box, too, but I really just want these postcards to be simple. Write a postcard, stamp it, and drop it in a blue box. Done!

Tagged mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail

Feb 08 2015

2 Comments

Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail, Valentine's Day

Happening Today: LWA Virtual Social

Happy Virtual Letter Social Day!! Although I won’t be able to participate in the video portion of the social (I hate it when work commitments get in the way of letter writing!) I will be finishing my Valentines and writing letters throughout the day (or as long as Presley stays off the table.)

Happy letter writing!

Tagged crafts, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Jan 28 2015

14 Comments

crafty adventures, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

Coming Up: Letter Month 2015

Letter Month* is right around the corner again! I’m dusting off my postal-themed rubber stamps, gathering my stash of postage, and sifting through my stationery. I will be all ready to reply to the stack of letters growing on my desk.

My goals this year are simple: write at least one letter a day for every day in February, respond to each letter I receive in a timely manner, spend out my stationery, sticker and vintage paper stashes, and to visit my neighborhood blue boxes as often as possible (inspired by my postal council work). For the actual goals of Letter Month, go here.

Are you participating in Letter Month?

*Also known as International Correspondence Writing Month or InCoWriMo

P.S. If you want to find the blue box in your neighborhood, go here. And, to see the other Letter Month posts from previous years, go here.

Stamps pictured above are from a variety of shops: Paper Source (all discontinued), Paper Pastries, Wit & Whistle, Kia Hing Fay (shop closed), Well-Appointed Desk and the Letter Writers Alliance. If you have a question about a particular stamp, let me know in the comments.

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

Jan 16 2015

1 Comment

in my library, Office Supplies, Our Pleasant Home Book Club

A Simple Tool for Book Club Readers

A long time ago, while reading Kathy’s blog, I learned about these neat little things called Book Darts. They are tiny, thin page markers made of metal that slide on and off the paper without leaving a mark. I know some people like to fold the edge of the page over or use little sticky note page flags. Those are fine options, too, but I usually get my books from the library so folding the edge is not an option and the sticky flags sometimes damage older paper. (Our book club reads so many old books that often, at least one of us is reading a crumbling copy from the library!) So far, I’ve never had a book dart hurt even the oldest books.

The most genius thing about them is that they can be used to point to the exact words on the page that you want. I often try to take notes while I am reading for book club so that I can remember what I want to talk about during our meetings. But sometimes, I’m so into a book that I don’t want to stop at take notes. Grabbing a dart and marking a passage is often enough for me to remember what I wanted to say.

(Of course, for longer notes or questions about the book, I keep a trusty notebook set aside for book club. This one was a gift from my pen pal, Cath.)

Do you have anything special you use for book club?

P.S. Sorry for the quiet this week. I am hosting book club tomorrow morning and I’ve been reading and rushing around cleaning up and finally putting Christmas away.

Tagged books, office supplies

Jan 12 2015

5 Comments

crafty adventures, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail

New Year’s Cards 2015

On January 1st, I spent the day catching up on all of my mail. I sent out a big stack of seventeen New Year’s cards and thank yous on the second.

For New Year cards, I sent three different versions–two different Japanese postcards and letterpressed greeting cards. We got the Japanese postcards at Mitsuwa again. Roughly translated, the fan one says “We humbly wish you a happy new year” and the bamboo one says “Thank you very much for all assistance rendered the previous year. We ask for your continuous guidance this year as well.” The little bamboo drawing on the bottom is a classic Japanese New Year symbol called a kadomatsu.

The greeting cards are from Saturn Press, a letterpress printing company in Maine. (They don’t have a website, but I found some information about them here, which I think is quite interesting.) The card features two juncos sitting on a branch and the quote by Rainer Maria Rilke, “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” I love everything Saturn Press does, but these are my favorites–from the birds to the simple phrase and the gorgeous paper stock with its deckled edge…these cards are dreamy. I put all of the cards in envelopes (even the postcards) and decorated them with washi tape, metallic stars, and old Japanese Woodblock Cavallini calendars. (I had several in my stash, so I picked out the wintry months to use. Cavallini uses artwork by Hasui Kawase, the same artist who was on our Christmas cards.)And to seal the deal, I got to use my shiny new Letter Writers Alliance member stamp. It feels good to start the year out with a stack of mail…let’s hope I can keep up the postal momentum!

Tagged crafts, holidays, Japan, letterpress, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Jan 03 2015

1 Comment

Christmas, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail, Zines

Merry Zinemas

I think out of all of my gifts, I liked my stocking gifts the best. (Well, that’s hard to say…but they are awesome!) I mentioned here that I like to ask for zines for Christmas. My stocking was stuffed with zines, socks, postcards and a stamp. Here’s what I got:

Cats in My Neighborhood zine

Collage & Art Journal IDEAS zine

Parcel Ghost Super-Supernatural zine pack

(I’ll talk more about zines in an upcoming post, but until then, I highly recommend all of these zines!)

Donuts socks: These socks are so cozy! I gave Naoto the Beer ones a few years ago. The sock bottoms are lined with terry, giving a little extra cushion. I’ve been padding around the house in these for a few days now. I may never take them off.

Letter Writers Alliance Official Seal Stamp: I love all of my LWA stamps and I’m so excited to have one with my member number on it. I’m ready to send more mail in 2015!

Victory Garden postcards: I’m excited to NOT hoard these!

So that was my stocking. Santa Naoto did a great job, as usual. One more Christmas post…and then we can put the holidays behind us!

P.S. Though some of the makers (of the zines & stamp) are friends and acquaintances, this post wasn’t sponsored by anyone but me. 🙂

Tagged Christmas, gardening, holidays, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, shopping, snail mail, zines

Jan 02 2015

2 Comments

Christmas, holidays, vintage

The Christmas Gifts 2014

I wish I could promise you this is the last Christmas post…almost!

For Christmas, Naoto surprised me with an Instax printer. If you don’t know, Instax are similar to Polaroids. You can buy an Instax camera, but I wanted the convenience of printing pictures from my phone so Naoto picked the printer for me. (As much fun as it sounds to have an Instax camera, I know I would never carry around an extra camera.) The printer links wirelessly with my iPhone and I can print tiny instant pictures wherever I want. The pictures are about the size of a credit card, perfect for memory keeping (ahem, scrapbooking) and mailing to friends. My first picture is of our Christmas Eve cocktails and I can’t wait to print some more. The printer is small, so it will be perfect to take on vacation so I can have some instant access to pictures of my food and drinks (heehee) to accent my travel journals. Naoto also got me this vintage table runner. I am in love with the one from our anniversary, and I imagine this one will be great to use in the spring. It coordinates nicely with my vintage dishes in the china cabinet. He also got us another pair of Blackhawks tickets…this year we are going on January 16! I can’t wait! I gave Naoto some practical gifts–snow boots and new jeans. (Un-pictured because snooooze!) I also gave him the shirt pictured above (which for the record, is less about the Chicago Bears than it is about Mike Ditka and the Superfans from the old SNL days. If you’d like to watch a Superfan clip, here it is…maybe it’s only funny if you’re from Illinois though?)I also got him a Resketch notebook and a ninja sticker for work. The Resketch notebook is really neat–it’s made from recycled papers like building plans and Braille sheets. There are also a few creative prompts mixed throughout the book. Naoto takes notes at work, so I thought it might be a fun gift. (Also, Shawn, the seller, was really super and I like to support super people with super ideas.) I bought both the t-shirt and the notebook at Show of Hands this fall. I found this rice cooker key chain at Renegade this summer. It’s from Mehoi, who has so many cute designs. I’m kind of regretting not getting him a pin instead because he’s already said the key chain is too nice to use.

I feel good about our gifts this year. Other than the snow boots, jeans and Instax, all of our gifts came from independent makers and sellers. Tomorrow I’ll share the stocking stuffers. Santa outdid himself with tiny treasures this year!

Tagged Christmas, holidays, office supplies, photography, shopping, vintage