snail mail | kimberly ah

Jul 04 2018

celebrations, GalaxieSafari, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail, summer manifesto, vintage

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans! (To everyone else, happy Wednesday!)

I’m spending today catching up on some mail (and topping it off with the patriotic postage above!) and going to a BBQ at the community garden. Naoto is making an all-American supper tonight (hot dogs, corn on the cob and baked beans) before we go see fireworks. (Or it might rain, so maybe no BBQ or fireworks…time will tell.)

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about last month’s Golden Girls Gala.

P.S. Naoto was not as excited as I was that this postage ensemble accidentally added up to fifty cents…

Tagged celebrations, crafts, holidays, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Jun 21 2018

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cocktails, gardening, homemaking, Office Supplies, snail mail, summer manifesto, Wine

Cocktail: The Garden Party

This spring has been such a mix of weather. We’ve had everything from melt-your-make-up-off hot and humid to almost fall-like, crisp and cool. Today for Summer Solstice, it’s chilly with a deluge. Last week, we had a couple perfect nights and I was able to sit outside and write letters while the sun was setting. It was a dream evening alone.

Earlier in the day, we harvested our first lavender of the summer, so I decided to celebrate by making up a cocktail. I used some of my dried lavender from last summer to make a lavender simple syrup and mixed it with lemon, Cocchi Americano, and prosecco to make a refreshing, not-too-boozy drink. Cocchi Americano is a little bit bitter, thanks to the quinine, so the cocktail isn’t super sweet. It’s also low in alcohol, so this is the perfect drink for the afternoon (or if you need to keep your head about you while you write thank you notes!)

Lavender Simple Syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 Tablespoons dried lavender

In a pan on the stove, dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add dried lavender. Steep for 30 minutes and strain into a container. Refrigerate until chilled.

The Garden Party

2 oz Cocchi Americano Bianco (the white version)

1 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 oz lavender syrup

prosecco, to taste

Add the Cocchi, lemon juice, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until fully chilled. Strain into a coupe and top off with a bit of prosecco (or another sparkling wine.) Top with a sprig of fresh lavender. Enjoy on your lanai while writing letters, or at an actual garden party with friends.

Tagged cocktails, food, garden, gardening, homemaking, mail art, snail mail, vintage

Jun 15 2018

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Office Supplies, snail mail

New Letter Ledger

Ahhhh! Paper & Type recently released the latest Letter Ledger and it’s soooo good! I bought it even though I still have a lot of pages left in my old letter ledger. I can’t wait to move to the new one! It comes in four colors, champagne, rose, ochre, and grey. Of course I chose the grey. There are so many details…I love the deeply blind embossed and letterpressed cover. It feels special and luxurious. I was thinking I would paste some of my favorite vintage postage stamps on the cover, but right now I’m appreciating the simplicity of it. There are so many wonderful letter writing quotes. And there is a place to write down the cost of postage. (I always forget postcard and international rates. Now that I’m using more vintage postage instead of Forever stamps, this comes in handy.) The front cover is also folded over to make a little pocket to store letters or stationery for your next missive. The set-up is slightly different from version 2.0 and 1.0. The sent/received column is together now and there is one section to write down topics. I really like the tiny, unassigned column on the left. I use it to document whether I sent a letter, a card, a postcard, or a package. (If you use the Letter Ledger, I’d love to hear how you utilize that column.) And the back cover opens up to reveal a place to write down your pen pal’s addresses and birthdays. I don’t currently send birthday cards to all of my pen pals, but it’s something I’m working on. Some months, I’m really on top of holidays and birthdays…other months, I’m so behind. (I haven’t sent my Father’s Day card yet!)I’m still in the middle of my Letter Ledger 2.0, so I can’t use the new version yet. But I’m filling it up fast because lately, I’m SO on top of my mail stack! It’s a very happy feeling to get a reply out within a few days of receiving mail.

Off to finish Little Women for book club tomorrow. Have a good weekend!

P.S. This is not a sponsored post. I just love this little letter writing tool!

Tagged letterpress, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

May 03 2018

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adventures, Office Supplies, snail mail, Write On

Write On Achieved

If it weren’t for the generosity of others and the need to write many thank you notes, I’m not sure I would have made it. But many thank you notes and almost everyone in my reply stack have been sent and I achieved thirty letters in thirty days…not that I wrote one per day or anything…I feel like I’ve lost the art of letter writing. My pen pal from New Zealand was visiting last week and we had many conversations about mail and our hang-ups about it. Here are mine: I always feel like I have to write several pages, especially if my pen pal has written a lot. Then I get overwhelmed and I don’t write anything. Or I stress that the envelope needs to be really decorated and maybe I’m not feeling so crafty. So I don’t do anything. Or I feel like a postcard isn’t enough, especially if I owe someone a letter. So I don’t send anything. (Even though I have a really big collection of fun postcards.) The other thing we talked about is that we have enough stationery and office supplies that we will never be able to use all of it before we die. Pretty morbid, yes, but also how depressing if I am not the person who gets to use up my amazing selection of Japanese stationery! And mt washi tape! And pretty notebooks! And vintage postage stamps!So…as always, I’m going to continue working on spending out. And I’m going to work on sending more postcards and small notes. So far this month, I’ve already sent a few postcards to friends so, maybe I’m on a roll!

How was your Write On experience?

P.S. If you have any questions about stationery, washi tape, stamps…let me know! I’ve sourced everything on Instagram (where all of these pictures originally appeared) but I’m happy to answer questions here too! 🙂

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

Apr 19 2018

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celebrations, cocktails, snail mail, Write On

Letters & Libations: Mr. Zip Cocktail

He’s always “on thyme!”

This is the cocktail we served at the Letters & Libations birthday party. I think it was a hit, based on the amount of gin consumed at the party. (We only served this cocktail and also beer and wine.) Naoto is the kind of bartender who tops off your cocktail when you’re not looking, though. The Mr. Zip is a simple gin gimlet, with a bit of a twist. We swapped out the lime juice for lemon and we added a hint of thyme to the simple syrup.

Thyme Simple Syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Handful of fresh thyme sprigs

In a pan on the stove, dissolve sugar in water. Once sugar is completely dissolved, remove from heat and add thyme sprigs. Steep for 30 minutes and strain into a container. Chill before using. The simple syrup will last up to a week in the refrigerator. This makes enough syrup for five cocktails. (You can adjust the amounts based on the size of your party, but the basic recipe is the same: equal parts sugar and water, and a handful of thyme.)

Mr. Zip Cocktail

2 oz gin

3/4 oz thyme simple syrup

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Add all ingredients to cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake, shake, shake. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with a sprig of fresh thyme. Enjoy with friends, preferably while writing letters.

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, mail art, snail mail

Apr 17 2018

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in my library, In My Mailbox, Mail Reads, snail mail, vintage, Write On

Mail Reads: The Post Office Book, Mail and How It Moves

The Post Office Book: Mail and How It Moves was a gift from my pen pals in Wisconsin, Angela and Penny! It is a fun little paperback they found at a bookstore and sent to me last year. It’s super cute drawings really get into the nitty gritty of how mail gets from one mailbox to another. It was written in the 80s, but I think the illustrations are timeless, though things are a little more high tech now. It starts with a little history of early “mail.” And then they jump into “modern mail.” I like how it shows different types of mailboxes: mail slots, apartment mailboxes, rural mailboxes, and PO boxes. It’s fun to see how automated things were in the eighties compared to the older books from the fifties and sixties. And I think things are even more automated now. Based on my post office visit a few years ago, my understanding is that humans are only sorting things at the very end of the mail journey as letter carriers are sorting for their own routes.

Have you seen any other good kids books about the post office?

Tagged books, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage

Apr 13 2018

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snail mail, Sweet Tooth, Tea, Write On

Mail More Chocolate

Happy Weekend! Do you have any plans? I am going to my friend Jackie’s art opening on Sunday at Oak Park Public Library and spending the rest of the weekend getting ready for my own craft show next weekend. I’m a terrible procrastinator so it’s going to take some discipline for me to start this early. I have a couple of new Mother’s Day card ideas that I’d like to make for the show so, I need to start making them if it’s going to happen!

In other, mail-related news: I got a stack of mail themed chocolate bars for my birthday from my friend James. (He’s always on-theme!) The stamps and cancellations on the wrappers make them a perfect letter writing treat to send to a pen pal or a snack for a letter writing party. The candy bars are made by Chocolove in Boulder, Colorado and it looks like almost all of their bars have a little mail theme. Cute, right?

Have a relaxing weekend! See you on Monday!

P.S. This is not a sponsored post. 🙂

Tagged food, mail art, snail mail

Apr 11 2018

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in my library, Mail Reads, snail mail, vintage, Write On

Mail Reads: Mr. Zip and the U.S. Mail

I’ve added to my collection of books about mail! Mr. Zip and the U.S. Mail is another book designed to teach kids about the U.S. postal system. Someone posted it on Instagram last year and I found it on Amazon through a used book dealer for $5. It’s an old school library book in excellent condition. I’m no reading level expert, but it feels like it was written for a younger audience than this book that I wrote about a few years ago. It was written in 1964 by Jene Barr and it follows Mr. Zip, a letter carrier, through the mail delivery system. (I really wish we still had small letter boxes on posts like the one next to the traditional blue box! Can you still send a baby chick in the mail? Jimmy is mailing a thank you note to his Uncle Mike for sending him a stamp book. It’s so funny that we think of mail as “slow” nowadays when it was considered fast back then. But this is a pretty fun predictor: someday maybe we’ll be sending chocolates and letters to our friends on the moon!

P.S. Another old book about letter writing…this one is for grown-ups!

Tagged books, holidays, mail art, snail mail

Apr 09 2018

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celebrations, Office Supplies, snail mail, Write On

Letters & Libations Invitation

When Naoto told me his party idea, my only request (besides meatballs and a signature cocktail) was that he send paper invitations to the party. I love a paper invitation and I’m almost never organized enough to send one. When I saw this moving announcement, I decided to play around to see if we could turn it into an invitation and we could! Naoto took care of the rest. We decided to add two times to the invitation in case people didn’t want to write letters, but almost everyone came during the “letter writing” time anyway so it wasn’t an issue.

Naoto added a festive picture of Presley to the back (because I wouldn’t let him use one of me!) with a little note. I kept an invitation for my “scrapbook” which is really just a pile of ephemera in a drawer waiting to become something…I love a paper invitation.

Tagged celebrations, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Apr 06 2018

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celebrations, cocktails, Office Supplies, snail mail, Write On

Letters & Libations Stationery

As I mentioned the other day, Naoto had special Letters & Libations stationery made especially for the party. He knew that Donovan sometimes makes special stationery for the Letter Writers Alliance letter writing socials so he commissioned her to draw something that incorporated letter writing and cocktails. He met with Donovan to chat about the plan and she came up with a few designs. Because he knew I would probably want to use the stationery beyond the party, he let me choose which one I liked best. This was the winner…a perfect cocktail coupe with a stack of mail ready to go. I love that the top letter has a little paper airplane on it and it’s addressed to me from the LWA. (But that detail is small enough so others could use the stationery without it being weird.) Donovan formatted the image so two sheets of stationery fit on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. Naoto had them printed at the UPS store, where fifty copies cost $5. (He brought his own paper, Superfine White from Paper Source from my stash at home. I love Superfine papers…almost anything–fountain pens, gel pens, felt pens, pencils–writes nicely on it.)

I now have a nice leftover stash of my own personal stationery and the ability to print more. I’m so excited to write some letters on it this week! (By the way, I’m staying on top of my letter writing this week…how about you?)

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, diy, mail art, office supplies, snail mail