office supplies | kimberly ah

Mar 02 2016

Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

Letter Month, The End.

Month of Letters, Letter Month, mailing from West Loop, Sawada Coffee, blue box, USPS How did your Letter Month go? I have to admit, I crawled towards the finish line. Not making and sending a bunch of Valentines really messed with my mojo for this project. And I’ve been feeling very boring lately, even though I’ve been busy this month, so letters aren’t coming easily. Meh. Thanks to everyone who sent me mail this month! You guys were the light at the end of the tunnel because I wanted to make sure I responded to all of the mail I received in February (as the original Letter Month rules suggest.)

I tried to take a picture of my hand “feeding a mailbox” each day so please enjoy some of my favorite shots from the month. letter month, feed your mailbox

Good things:

I sent a few packages this month and it’s been fun to play with stamp combinations and mail art on tiny boxes.
I did mail at least one item for every day of February. I missed one day completely (but made up for it the following day by writing two letters.)
I am all caught up on my mail pile!
I enjoyed clicking on the #lettermo hashtag on Instagram to see what other people were doing throughout the month.
A package I sent to Danielle weighed 12.9 ounces, a mere 0.1 ounce under the 13 ounce weight limit for mailing a package from a blue box. It was a mail miracle!

My totals for the month:

19 letters/cards
9 postcards
3 international letters/postcards
3 packages
34 total mailings

Aaaaaaand off to mail my first card for March.

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

Feb 17 2016

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crafty adventures, Elvis, Letter Month, Office Supplies, Oh Presley!, snail mail, Valentine's Day, vintage

Don’t Be Cruel Valentines

I only made a few Valentines this year. (I got behind in planning as usual.) I made a few Elvis Presley Valentines and a few MY Presley Valentines. For the Elvis ones, I started with my usual heart cards and stamped them with some hearts. Then I used my vintage DYMO label maker for the words “Don’t be cruel.” I added an Elvis sticker. (Ah, that gold lamé suit is fantastic, right?) On the back, I wrote “Be mine.” (Get it? Don’t be cruel, be mine?) Easy and kind of cheesy…perfect.
For my Presley-the-cat fan friends, I made cards using A2 cards and some pictures of Presley hanging out with Yeti holding our special Presley patch. I added “Presley loves you” with my DYMO on some and “P *heart* Y” with Thickers on others.They were fun to make and, even though some will be late, I suppose a little message of love is well received all month long, right?

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

Feb 01 2016

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Letter Month, snail mail

Month of Letters 2016

Are your pens and piles of stationery all ready for another Month of Letters? I have my first two letters ready to go to the neighborhood blue box this morning and a pile of letters that need replies.

Last year, I had a pile of goals set along with Letter Month, but this year, I just want to keep it simple: mail something every day and try to mail it from a neighborhood blue box (instead of being a lazy hermit and mailing from my building’s box.) I’m also going to try to start my day with letter writing to see if I can start a new habit around here. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ll be sharing my daily outgoing mail on Instagram for now.

Are you participating? Do you have specific goals in mind?

Tagged mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Jan 26 2016

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In My Mailbox, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail

Mail Totals for 2015

2016 mail so far, How is January almost over? Before we move too far into 2016, and before we get into Letter Month, I wanted to share my mail totals for 2015. Last year was the first year I’ve kept track of what I sent and how much I spent on postage.

daily mail tracking Each day I write on my daily calendar page what I sent out and how much the postage cost. On this particular day, I sent out three letters, four international postcards (for a postcard swap I participated in), and one U.S. postcard. tracking mail sent each month Throughout the month, I tally up the total number of U.S. letters, international mail (letters and postcards cost the same, so I lumped them into the same category), U.S. postcards, and packages I sent that month. tracking mail sent each month, tracking mail spending Then, at the end of the month, I total up the number of pieces sent and the cost for the month and write it on the monthly page of my calendar.

My totals for 2015:

$231.41*

U.S. Letters: 213

International (Postcards & Letters): 31

U.S. Postcards: 63

Packages: 9

Letters & Postcards Sent from Japan: 26

Total Mail: 342

Not too shabby, right? My best month was December (no surprise) with fifty-six, but February wasn’t far behind with fifty-one. And September was the worst with a piddly FIVE pieces of mail leaving my mailbox. Womp, womp!

This week, I’m trying to respond to all of the mail I’ve received since the start of 2016 (some is pictured at the top) so I can start Letter Month on a clean slate. Wish me luck!

How’s your mailbox so far this year?

*This total does not include the cost of postage of mail sent from Japan.

Tagged mail art, office supplies, snail mail, washi tape

Jan 15 2016

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celebrations, Christmas, cocktails, crafty adventures, holidays, Merry & Bright, Our Pleasant Home Book Club, Peggy's Parties

Book Club Christmas Tea 2015

book club christmas tea 2015 One last thing about the holidays…

Last month, Peggy hosted our third annual Book Club Christmas Tea. As usual, it was a festive event with everyone contributing something tasty. I made this Japanese egg salad, which was delicious. (I take no credit…it’s just a good recipe!) I am not a fan of curry usually, but I really did love this egg salad. Book Club Christmas Tea 2015 3 In addition to the egg salad, we had ham salad, cucumber sandwiches, and chicken salad served in little bread boats, lemon cranberry scones and English toffee scones served with lemon curd, cream and cranberry butter, grape salad, toffee pudding, plum cake, and Christmas cookies. (I think that’s everything!) Book Club Christmas Tea 2015 4, cranberry pepper shrub with prosecco I also made this shrub to serve with prosecco. I’d never made a shrub before, so I was a little bit worried, but it turned out really tasty. (Though next time I will crush the peppercorns a bit more because it was lacking the peppery bite.) Book Club Christmas Tea, placecards, Yellow Owl Workshop Placecard stamp And, because I think every party needs a little paper element, I made these simple place cards out of some red cardstock, my Yellow Owl Workshop stamp embossed in white, and some Jolee’s holly stickers. Book Club Christmas Tea 2015 2 Peggy’s tables were delightfully decorated, as always. We read The Bird’s Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. It was a perfect read for December when everyone is busy. (Last year, we attempted an Austen novel and hardly anyone finished.) Most of us finished it in one relaxing afternoon while sitting by our trees. And though it was only eighty pages and maybe more of a tale for children, we found so much to talk about, even comparing it to The Dead. I recommend it if you’re looking for a sweet tale to read this December.

So much work goes into planning this thing–especially by Peggy since she decorates, sets the tables, and cleans up after we all leave!–but it is so worth it. We are already talking about things to add for next Christmas!

(And with that, I think I may be done talking about the holidays…for now!)

Tagged adventures, celebrations, cocktails, crafts, decorating, food, holidays, office supplies, rubber stamp

Jan 13 2016

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crafty adventures, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail

2016 New Year’s Postcards

After buying Japanese New Year cards (nengajo) for the past two years, I decided to try making my own for 2016. They were pretty simple…so simple that I made a stack of fifty! So far, I’ve sent out about half of those. I started with some A2 Paper Bag flat cards as my base. Last summer, I picked up a traditional nengajo stamp at a (yet-to-be-blogged-about) stamp shop in Kyoto and I was happy to get to use it for these cards. I embossed the Japanese characters and then added my Greetings from Illinois, LWA member, and a giant 2016 in blue, red, and gold inks. I added a quick message to each card. On the front side, I added a strip of Japanese patterned washi tape and a label. It feels good to start off the year with good mail momentum!

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

Jan 09 2016

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Christmas, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail

All I Want For Christmas 2015

Naoto spoiled me rotten this Christmas. The big gift was a trip to San Francisco to see our friends who moved there last year. He gave me a little Carry-On Cocktail Kit for the flight. It made me laugh and I can’t wait to crack it open once we are on our way.

He went to the Field Notes HQ during their open house and snagged the long-retired Traveling Salesman and Cold Horizon 3-packs for my stocking and gave me a box to hold my ever growing Field Notes collection. In other paper-y gifts, he gave me two sets of postcards from Craftgasm, two envelope pins from Paper Pastries, and from Jet Pens, a bottle of J. Herbin anniversary ink, a pencil sharpener, a white Decorese pen, a mint Kaweco Sport, and (unpictured) some Tomoe River paper, a new Frixion stamp, and a converter so I can actually use that fancy ink in my new Kaweco.

Yay for gifts that can be used up…except for the Field Notes, which will go into the “collection”.

Did you get anything fun for Christmas?

P.S. I didn’t get my usual zines in my stocking this year because I didn’t submit my wishlist early enough…so I ordered some as a New Years gift to myself! I’ll report on those soon!

Tagged Christmas, holidays, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Dec 01 2015

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celebrations, crafty adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail, Thanksgiving, thrifted, vintage

Thanksgiving Mail

I finally finished my Thanksgiving invitation…about three hours before Thanksgiving. I wasn’t feeling very inspired in November but I really wanted the invitation to include the vellum ledger paper and vintage Avery metallic tape I bought on Instagram. (Note: Vintage paper sales on Instagram are very addictive. And fun.)

I always try to add a quote to our Thanksgiving invitations. (Here’s a list of some favorites.) “Give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way” is a Native America saying and I love how optimistic it is. I typed it out on a leaf that I cut from patterned paper and layered it with some other leaves from my stash. I added a strip of the vellum and a bit of the tape and a Japanese stamp. Done, right? Well, no. I had to make a mess of things and try to stamp the year on the top with my giant number stamp. But I didn’t press down hard enough and the numbers were messed up so I had to write over the numbers…anyway…I’m trying not to dwell on the numbers…or the fact that I handed the invitation to my parents when they walked in the door on Thanksgiving Day…I did send some other Thanksgiving mail. A few weeks ago I attended the LWA letter social at my library and there were some vintage books available for mail art. I had too much fun choosing images for mail art. And when I didn’t use vintage paper, I had fun using postage stamps and turkey stickers to jazz things up. (That Write More Letters postcard is from Craftgasm. I added the turkey.) And now…holiday card season begins. Once I finish decorating, that is.

Have you started your cards yet?

Tagged celebrations, crafts, holidays, mail art, office supplies, parents, rubber stamp, snail mail, Thanksgiving, thrifting, vintage, washi tape

Nov 04 2015

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Halloween, In My Mailbox, snail mail

KimBOOly HAUNTSegawa’s Mailbox

My mailbox was filled with a steady stream of Halloween mail last month. Margaret sent the package above, adorned with all of the fabulous spooky stamps of the post office’s history! Inside, there was a Halloween card and a tiny wooden casket filled with candy. I LOVE the creative use of the wax seals! Margaret wrote a blog post about creating the little candy caskets. Such a fun postal treat! I’m going to use the little casket in my Halloween decorating next year and I’m hoarding the envelope too. Sarah sent this fun see-through candy corn postcard. It was laminated into the postcard size, like the corn was floating. Yuki sent this amazing Japan Post Halloween postcard. These seasonal cards are coveted by me and many other Japan Post lovers…I screamed with delight when I saw it in my mailbox! Yuki sent the postcard in an envelope, but still used vintage stamps with special postmarks on the postcard. I’m sure the postcard will make a reappearance next year in my Halloween decorating. It’s too good to file away with my other mail. And, above are the other sweet, charming, funny Halloween cards I received. Danielle, who sent me two Halloween cards, addressed them in the BEST way! KimBOOOly Adami- HAUNTSegawa and KimberlEEK! ADOOMi-HAUNTED HOUSEegawa made me laugh for days. And that Parcel Ghost sticker–so good!

Thanks to everyone for making it a great mail month! Anyone else receive anything spooky in your mailbox?

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

Oct 30 2015

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crafty adventures, Halloween, Office Supplies, snail mail

Halloween Mail

I’m behind on my Halloween mail because I got sick this week and I was down for the count for a few days. But, earlier this month, I got a jump start on sending some festive mail out to a couple of cat lady pen pals. I had these glow-in-the-dark cat buttons from La Familia Green that I wanted to send in a slightly more creative way than just sticking them in a plain envelope. I was inspired by the peek I had of my Presley patch from Margaret, so I decided to use a cellophane envelope instead. I used washi tape to attach the button to the card and wrote my note. I tried to place the buttons on the middle of the card, where the machine wouldn’t be canceling the stamp or printing the bar code on the bottom. I stuck it all in the cellophane envelope with an address label and added postage. Since the envelope was lumpy, I added the extra twenty-one cents. I also used a cellophane bag to attempt to protect the googly-eye “bra” on my mail art to Kathy. Thanks to a Halloween mail art party with Donovan, I’ve have a huge stack of Halloween envelopes to work through. Now that I’m feeling better, more spooky mail will be written. Better late than never, I guess.