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!
kimberly ah
kimberly at home
Tag Archives: mail art
Letter Month 2015 Week 1
I’m off to a good start with Letter Month! I’ve written at least one thing each day and I’ve fed four mailboxes in my neighborhood–one by work, the snorkel box at the River Forest Post Office, the one at the corner near my apartment, and the one in the West Suburban Hospital (not really in my neighborhood). Feeding the blue boxes has helped me get out and walk around in the winter wonderland and has kept me on the lookout for more area boxes that I hadn’t noticed before. I’m glad I added that as part of my personal Letter Month challenge!
My totals for the week:
- 3 letters/cards
- 3 postcards
- 2 international
- 2 packages
- 10 Total mailings
How are you doing with Letter Month/InCoWriMo? Remember it’s all about the effort and not the perfection! Just send a letter!
P.S. The “Bless the USPS” postcard is from Eggagogo–perfect for Letter Month! (Not sponsored, just a fan!)
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!
Easy Printmaking For Kids (& Adults)
Last week, I quickly shared about my thrift store find, Tomie dePaola’s Things to Make and Do for Valentine’s Day. When I got to this printmaking craft, I was really excited because I’ve done something like this before. I think it’s a really fun project–for kids and adults–and a good introduction to block printing without investing in a ton of materials.
Here are the instructions starring Tomie’s cute kids and cuter cat:
A few notes:
- I know styrofoam is a horrible thing for the environment and a few cities in the U.S. are banning the use of styrofoam take-out containers. Think of this as re-purposing something evil. I got my styrofoam trays with fish and vegetables at Mitsuwa.
- I used a brayer because I already had one on hand from a printmaking class, but a rolling pin works just fine and may be even better for kids since it’s bigger and easier to handle.
- The book suggests poster paints. I used Martha Stewart craft paint because I had some already. It worked fine, but it did dry quickly. So, I tried oil-based printmaking ink, which I also had. It worked perfectly but I would highly suggest you don’t use it if you are working with kids. It’s messy, permanent and dries so slowly.
I made my “block” by tracing the outline of the Japanese character for “friend”. I flipped it around and traced it onto my styrofoam with a sharp pencil. I went over the outline a couple of times to make a deep enough channel to get a clean outline. If I had pressed too lightly, the outline would not be as clear.
My prints are imperfect, but that’s okay. It takes some practice to get the right amount of ink on the styrofoam–I need some more practice! And, if this oil-based ink ever dries, I will cut them apart into little cards and send them out as Valentines.
If you try this project, I’d love to hear about it! Happy Valentine making!
USPS Consumer Advisory Council Meeting 5
At our January Council Meeting, we continued to discuss the customer service surveys. (Some may say we were beating a dead horse with our continued belaboring, but others found the information useful.)
Postmaster Crawford was back in attendance and he brought some statistics regarding the surveys. Survey responses increased from 16 in the October report to 71 in the January report. This makes sense because so many more people are frequenting the post office during the holidays. The only negative responses on the surveys were related to the clerk’s attitude. Other questions include clerk’s knowledge, wait times and staffing. Postmaster Crawford said he was open to hanging signage in the post office to inform customers of the surveys, but needs to stay within the standard prescribed by the USPS.
Oak Park will be one of the first on the list to receive new vehicles and new scanners. The new vehicles will be better equipped to handle the large amount of packages the USPS will handle. The new scanners will have GPS to aid in delivery patterns.
Now that the holiday rush is over, the Postmaster needs to schedule a meeting with the village of Oak Park to discuss the education and enforcement of the snow removal ordinances. Suggestions from the Council included a note in the VOP Newsletter, a mention during Village board meetings and a piece on the local TV station. Members also suggested that the post office reach out to residents by hosting a booth during A Day in Our Village (a community event during the summer) and having an information table at the Farmers Market (which runs May-November).
We were reminded that as council members, it is our jobs to help to educate the public about the USPS. So here’s my PSA: Please keep your walks and stairs clear of snow and ice to help make your letter carrier’s job a little bit easier. And if you have elderly neighbors, give them a hand with clearing their walks and stairs. Your letter carrier will thank you for it.
Even though–at the time of the meeting–our area had not seen a large amount of snow or severely cold weather, Postmaster Crawford said he felt very confident that this season would be much better than last season* because of increased staffing and training. We had a huge snowfall on Sunday, 17+ inches and blizzard conditions. My building did not receive mail on Monday but delivery resumed on Tuesday.
That’s all we were able to cover since we spent such a large portion of the meeting discussing the surveys. Hopefully next month will be more productive.
As always, if you have any questions or feedback, I’d love to hear it!
*Last season’s mail delivery issues, chronicled here, were the catalyst for starting the council.
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.
USPS Consumer Advisory Council Meetings 3 + 4
Once again, I am behind on my reporting for the USPS Consumer Advisory Council! I decided to combine the last two meetings of 2014 and I will recap our latest meeting next week. (To see the other Advisory Council notes, go here.)
During our November meeting, the Post Master went through line by line and addressed the committee’s concerns:
- It was announced this month that Megan Brennan would be named the first female Postmaster General.
- We asked for a suggestion box in all post offices so customers could anonymously leave complaints, suggestions or compliments for the Post Master.
- We suggested that the Post Master’s office door be open when he is available so that customers know they can approach him. (But the Post Master also wants customers to know that they can always ask for a supervisor in each post office.)
- We all agreed that more communication and enforcement needs to come from the villages in regards to keeping sidewalks clear of snow and ice. The Post Master is going to set up a meeting with the village to share these concerns and to discuss communication and enforcement strategies.
- Even though it is something that every counter window associate should be doing, we all agreed that no one ever points out the customer satisfaction survey at the bottom of the receipt. The USPS feels the survey is important, even though the rate of return is low…all supervisors should be proactive with counter employees, reminding them it’s part of their jobs to mention and circle the survey information.
- A council member shared a story of a friend who went to the Oak Park Main Post Office to renew her passport. Even though she went during the stated passport hours, no one at the counter would help her because “the passport person was not there yet.” The Post Master stated that everyone who works at the post office counter is trained and able to do passports. If this ever happens again, ask for a supervisor.
- 1st Class mail is shrinking, but thanks to the new contract with Amazon, package delivery is way up. (But sadly, the eventual goal of Amazon is to have their own package delivery system.)
- We brought up the USPS website and its problems. 1) You have to go very deep in the website to find out how much a regular first class stamp it worth and how much it costs to send a letter internationally. (I totally agreed with this complaint. When I can’t remember, I go to the Letter Writers Alliance website for this information because it’s so much easier!) 2) Getting from the shopping cart back to browsing the stamps is very tedious. Actually navigating the whole site can be tedious. 3) Vacation holds often don’t sync properly with the local post offices and holds are missed or messed up.
- Mailbox placement: committee members would like to see more drive-up “snorkel boxes” around Oak Park. The USPS uses a density test to determine which boxes are necessary. Mailboxes are taken out of service if they don’t generate mail. (Tip: If you like your neighborhood blue box, use it!!)
- Some blue boxes are looking shabby, will need to be overhauled in the spring.
- Lack of parking around the Oak Park Main Post Office is an urban issue…sadly there is nothing the USPS can do about lack of convenient street parking.
- Window clerk customer service issues are being dealt with.
- Letter carrier cell phone usage issues are being dealt with.
In December, the Post Master was ill, so our regular meeting business was put on hold. A regional postal manager led the meeting.
- Suggestion boxes were installed in River Forest and OP South Station. The OP Main was delayed because it is a historic building so finding a useful place for the suggestion box that didn’t involve hammering into marble has been a challenge.
- The Oak Park Post Office was an Amazon hub for Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park, Schiller Park, and Franklin Park Sunday deliveries.
- The USPS is getting new scanners that will have GPS to help with package delivery and routing.
- The mail trucks will also be replaced with a delivery vehicle that will be better for accommodating package delivery.
- One of the biggest challenges of the post office right now is getting counter clerks to see themselves not as a government entity but as customer service associates.
- One of the other business challenges of the USPS is the requirement from Congress that the USPS pre-fund their healthcare 75 years in advance.
- Retail managers have been told to remind clerks to point out the surveys at the bottom of the receipts. Our homework for the month is to visit a local post office and to see if this is happening. The post office will share some survey results in January.
- Relay boxes (the green ones that sit in our neighborhoods) are for mail carriers with foot routes (routes with no mail trucks) so they can pick up their next batch of mail.
- Blue boxes can only be picked up after the posted time(s) and must be picked up every day. There are bar codes inside each box that must be scanned during pick up. If a box is missed, the regional supervisor gets a notification and someone has to go out and clear the box. (I’ve always wondered about this.)
I bolded a few things that were big takeaways for me. As I sit on this committee, I’m realizing how small things add up when it comes to customer satisfaction and how slowwwwwly things are going to change. I guess I just need to remember that even though the USPS survives without government money, it is still a government entity and therefore, is subject to a lot of red tape. And, our committee is here to help improve the Oak Park, River Forest and Forest Park post offices, so focusing on that makes things feel a little more manageable.
How is your post office doing during these cold winter months? If you’re on the East Coast, have you gotten your mail during the big blizzard?
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!
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:
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. 🙂
Mail From the North Pole
My first holiday card of the year came from the North Pole!!
My pen pal Ryan must be the most organized holiday card sender ever because not only was his card the first card to arrive in my mailbox, but he sent his to North Pole, Alaska for the special North Pole postmark. As I sit with my holiday cards spread out on the floor, still stuck in the M’s of my address book, I am envious of Ryan’s accomplishment. But extremely happy to be on the receiving end of such a fun mail surprise!
How are your holiday cards coming along?
Update: Here’s an older Letter Writers Alliance blog post with all of the holiday postmark cities. If you are interested in doing this (next year? or as belated wishes this year?) I would contact the PO of interest to make sure it is something they are still doing. And…if you want to get a head start for Valentine’s Day, the LWA has another list for that.
kimberly ah 