snail mail | kimberly ah

Oct 09 2015

My Heart Belongs to Presley…and Mail

Margaret sent me the best mail last month–a Presley patch in a Midori Kraft Window Envelope adorned with an Elvis sticker!! She hit all of my favorite things!! Margaret loooooves Presley. (Presley loves Margaret, too!) Margaret said she couldn’t resist getting this custom patch from Tuesday Bassen (Link is to a similar one because the “My Heart Belongs to” version was a limited edition, see Margaret’s comment below.) at the Whurl & Friends Shop ‘n Pop. I love this patch! Think of the possibilities! You could get your own pet’s name, or your partner’s name, or your favorite snack. (“My Heart Belongs to Hot Dogs.”) Perhaps mail lovers need a “My Heart Belongs to Letters” or “My Heart Belongs to the USPS.” And in true Margaret fashion, the patch came in the sweetest package. She addressed it on the flap side so that the patch could be seen clearly through the window. The label is letterpressed with the turquoise design and Margaret hand-stamped my name. Thin washi tape sealed it all up. I was delighted to find it in my mailbox. Thanks, Margaret.

P.S. Did you know today is World Post Day?

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

Oct 07 2015

7 Comments

adventures, crafty adventures

Renegade Recap 2015

Our trip to Renegade happened by accident this year. It fell on a busy weekend and I had kind of resigned myself that we weren’t going. But Naoto and I had a coffee date with one of his coworkers (and fellow cocktail enthusiast) and since we were in the neighborhood, I bribed Naoto with a beer and a promise that I was only going to go to a couple of booths. I broke my promise because Renegade didn’t offer vendor maps this year (Annoying!) so I had to go through the whole fair to find the people I wanted to see. Darn! Hasegawa Happy Hour at Renegade But it was a gorgeous weather day and we had a mini happy hour, so I made it worth his while. I’ve been following Eling from Migration Goods on Instagram for as long as I can remember. It’s so weird following someone for a long time and then meeting them in person for the first time after feeling like you “know” them through the internet. But, it was so great to meet in person and put a voice and personality with those pictures of her fun products and Daisy the Dog. I just love Eling’s style and of course, I love her Sasquatch and Yeti lines! I got a few postcard sets (bears and tomatoes, pictured at the top) and the sweet Big Foot holding “Presley” ornament that will go on our Christmas tree but hang out all year long, too. The detail on her felt goods is so amazing…tiny stitches, tiny pieces…seriously I want to know how Eling has the patience to sew a grumpy brow on Big Foot? I’ve been shopping with La Familia Green for years…since Mollie was selling Gocco-printed cards and VHS cover journals. Now she has a huge card line (two of the three cards I bought are on the top left corner in the top picture), great wrapping paper (the cat paper in the background of today’s pictures is LFG!), and quirky buttons (like Chicago weather man, Tom Skilling above). I’m obsessed with the weather and will stop my day to watch summer storm or winter blizzard weather coverage, so I had to have the Tom Skilling button. I’m going to wear Tom on my winter coat to remind myself not to kill the messenger when it’s 30 below in March. I picked up some mail-themed stickers from le petit elephant, Genevieve Santos. I’m going to try not to be hoard-y with them…now I’m wishing I had bought two sheets… Her illustrations are just so sweet and I love that she has some sweet pen pal themed options (like these sweet rubber stamps!) I happened upon Arthur’s Plaid Pants by accident, drawn in by a Golden Girls sighting. I couldn’t resist the thank you cards and the magnets (which are now hanging out on my Ikea RÅSCOG bar cart). I love her quirky drawings and Midwest focus. And last but not least, I picked up a few buttons from Nerfect, our Berwyn “neighbor” to the south. Abe is a gift, but the others are going on my bag.

There were a few other sellers I wanted to see at Renegade but we somehow missed them. I didn’t have the energy to go back through the crowds to hunt for them. This is where a fair map (and maybe better booth signage?) would have been helpful. The good news is, Show of Hands is coming up in November and maybe I can get some Christmas shopping done there.

Any good craft fairs happening around you?

Tagged adventures, crafts, shopping, snail mail

Sep 08 2015

3 Comments

snail mail, vintage

Family Brooches

On Saturday I got a little box in the mail from Sharon. When we were there last year visiting Grandpa, she noticed that I was wearing vintage brooches, so she decided to send me a few that had belonged to my great grandmother, Blanche Litton. There’s a silver and purple pin with a matching ring, two gold leaf pins, a silver filigree pin, and–most likely the oldest, and for sure my favorite–a two-toned blue stone pin. I think the purple pin and ring will look great with my all black and grey winter wardrobe and I’m looking forward to wearing the gold leaves this fall. I’ve already worn the silver pin and the blue one will be going on my work cardigan today.

I am so grateful to Sharon for sending these along.

Tagged snail mail, vintage

Sep 03 2015

3 Comments

celebrations, Forest Park, Oak Park, Postal Consumer Advisory Council, snail mail

Oak Park Post Office Turns 80

Last Saturday the Oak Park Post Office held a celebration to mark the 80th anniversary of the building. I have to admit I was a little nervous about the whole thing after our last advisory council meeting, but man, did they ever pull it off! It was really fun to see people smiling at the post office and to hear of people’s interest in the building. Because the newspaper didn’t help publicize the event (this was the only article I could find online), most people were confused about the snacks and the extra people milling around. Once we told them, they seemed really excited and thankful to have such a beautiful building in the community. Oak Parkers love their architecture! The post office put out a lovely spread. There were donuts, cupcakes, cookies, and coffee and fresh fruit, mini sandwiches, meatballs, and chicken salad…I wasn’t expecting so much variety! Fellow council member, Dea, and I worked at the popcorn machine handing out freshly popped bags of popcorn to customers. We even made deliveries to the ever-growing passport line and those customers seemed excited to have a little something to eat during their waits.

The Postmaster, Phil Crawford, gave tours of the building, sharing the history of the building giving us a peek at the second floor offices and the sorting room. (I’ll share more about that soon.)And, much to my delight, there was a special postmark!! Phil gave the council members a pre-stamped envelope with the postmark (shown above). I sent a dozen postcards out to some of my penpals and bought some fantastic new stamps. It was a great day at the Oak Park Post Office!

Tagged adventures, celebrations, forest park, mail art, rubber stamp, snail mail

Aug 27 2015

5 Comments

adventures, Japan 2015, Kyoto

Kyoto, Part 1: Yasaka Shrine + Kiyomizu Temple

Yes, I am still posting about our three month old trip to Japan…

In between the Ramen Museum and the baseball game, Naoto and I took a bullet train to Kyoto. We’ve both traveled to Kyoto before–me for work in 2008 and him for a vacation in 1988–so we had done a lot of the touristy must-sees before. But we decided to do them all again, because, well, you can’t go to Kyoto and just eat and shop at the craft stores. (More on those later.) I really love Kyoto. It’s older, smaller, and much quieter than Tokyo. It felt like a nice break from the crushes of people and cars and trains in Tokyo. But, it was also a little bit weird. I felt like I was in a town of fellow tourists. I know that there are millions of tourists in Tokyo, but they must be drowned out by the sheer number of Japanese people living there. Or we don’t do enough touristy things in Tokyo? On our first day, we knocked out some major tourist attractions. We went to Gion, the “Geisha District” of Kyoto and saw the Yasaka Shrine. (See the top two pictures…not a lot to say because “you’ve seen one shrine, you’ve seen them all”.) The we started the long, uphill stroll to the Kiyomizu Temple, which offers amazing views of Kyoto. On the way up to the temple there are hundreds of little shops offering souvenirs and snacks (including cucumbers-on-a-stick!) and waving school children to keep you entertained. Oh, and tourists dressed in full kimono-wear are a common sighting all over Kyoto. For about $35 you can rent a kimono and have your hair and make-up done. (You couldn’t pay me $35 to walk around in a hot kimono and wooden flip flops.) Selfie sticks were everywhere in Kyoto and several times we wished we had one. So many cut-off heads in our Kyoto pictures! At the end of the walk down from the Temple there is the Otowa waterfall. According to legend, if you make a wish and sip the water, your wish will come true. I did this when I visited in 2008 and my wish did come true. I sort of regret not waiting in line to make a new wish with Naoto. On the way back, we stopped at a little stand and shared a melon kakigori (shave ice–a must-eat when you are in Japan in the summer!). It was so refreshing on such a hot day! As we were leaving the Temple, we happened upon a mobile post office!! (Now you know why I was so excited for the possibilities of a mobile post office here at home!) They were selling stamps and summer edition postcards and offering a special Kiyomizu Temple postmark! I had to write the postcards right then and there in order to get the fancy postmark, so I could only write a few since we were hot, tired, and hungry. But what wonderful serendipity to happen upon the Japan Post!

Tagged adventures, I *heart* Japan, Japan, snail mail

Aug 21 2015

USPS Consumer Advisory Council Meeting 11

On Wednesday I attended our August meeting of the USPS Consumer Advisory Council. We spent most of the meeting recapping the Oak Park Farmers Market and planning for the 80th anniversary celebration next weekend.

The mobile post office made over $500 at the Farmers Market during its four hour stay! That was with the challenge of not being able to take credit cards (thanks to a broken generator and no access to power.) One of the concerns with the mobile post office was that it might hurt the business at the regular post office, but the main post office maintained its sales numbers. Because of this success, the USPS is planning to do more farmers markets and bring the mobile post office into the shopping areas of Oak Park, too. I suggested selling those stamped postcards and having a table for postcard writing near the mobile post office. It would be so great to see a mini letter social at the farmers market!

Plans are rolling along for the 80th anniversary celebration. Press releases were sent to the local newspapers, though none have been printed or posted online yet. I’ve posted it below. The event will be happening next Saturday, August 29th from 10AM-2PM. There will be tours of the post office, including the second floor and the sorting room. (The committee got a tour of the sorting room a few months ago and it was fascinating to see how the mail and packages are sorted.) And there will be a display of old pictures from the ground breaking to the finished building. And…there will be a special postmark!! Woohoo! (I’m hoping to have a stack of mail ready to go!) If you live in the area, please come!

Tagged adventures, forest park, mail art, snail mail

Aug 03 2015

1 Comment

adventures, Forest Park, Oak Park, In My Neighborhood, Postal Consumer Advisory Council, snail mail

A Day at the Market

The mobile post office made it to the Oak Park Farmers Market! Hallelujah!

We got to the market around 10:45am and there were a couple of people in line ahead of us. I was excited to buy a few sheets each of the Summer Harvest stamps and the Coastal Birds postcard stamps, but their credit card machine was “down” and they were out of the postcard stamps. Since I was saving my cash for the farmers market, I only bought one sheet of the Summer Harvest stamps. So, what could have been a $40+ sale ended up being less than $10. (Bummer…) But on a high note, Orlando was working and he’s our old favorite from our Oak Park Post Office days, so it was good to catch up with him. Clearly the USPS made a good decision to have their cheeriest employee working at the market!

There was no special postmark, but they had a table with coloring books for kids and a free bubble mailer for participating in a survey about your experience at the window. I’m interested to hear how the post office fared financially because future participation will depend on Saturday’s sales. I’ll report back when we have our next council meeting in a couple of weeks. After we got our postage stamps, we hopped in the donut line for the famous farmers market donuts, bought a load of Mirai corn, and went home. (And of course, both the donuts and the corn were out of this world!)

Tagged adventures, forest park, snail mail, summer

Jul 27 2015

4 Comments

crafty adventures, Japan 2015, Office Supplies

Sakura Ballsign Knock Pens

Every time I step into Loft, my second favorite stationery & more store in Japan, I head directly for the pen displays. I stand there, section by section, trying out all of the different pens, different colors, different styles. This time, I was shopping for a new pen that I could use for letter writing. (My reliance on the Frixion pens has gotten risky for letter writing since some of the ink disappeared on the way to Tacoma, Washington recently.) So I was shopping for something a little bit more permanent. I found and fell in love with these Ballsign Knock gel pens. They come in a few different varieties, but I ended up getting a pack of the metallic ones that can write on dark and light paper, a pack of the shimmery ones that glitter in the light, and a single neon one. My favorites are the metallic ones. I love pens that write on dark papers, and I was excited to have some that went beyond the normal white, gold, and silver options in my arsenal. I love the metallic gold (it’s almost a white gold), green, blue, purple, and pink colors, but sadly, they don’t show up as strong colors on black paper. (It’s hard to tell from the picture, but they read more silver metallic on the black paper.) I think part of the reason is the colors aren’t very dark to begin with and that they have a 0.6mm point. (I like a thinner point on my pens, but I’m also not sure that this style comes in other sizes.) I still love the way that they write and the way that they look on dark paper so I’m pleased with my purchase. (Plus I have these other Ballsign gel pens in my pen stash and their true colors show up perfectly on dark papers. I’ll be sharing more about them in a future blog post.) The glittery ones are a lot of fun, but only show on lighter papers. I purchased the 0.8mm points in these (again, I think that was all Loft offered) and the thickness is perfect for showing off the shimmer of the ink (the box calls them lamé). The colors are very opaque and the ink flows really well. These will be fun for addressing envelopes and making mail art. I almost bought a box of the neon pens, but I decided that I should leave some pens for the other people. So I just bought the red one. (Neon is out of style now anyway, right?) But I like the width of the neon red pen and there was a tiny bit of skipping at first, but it got better as I used it a bit. It’s hard to tell from my picture, but the ink really pops off the page.

Sakura also offers a pastel version that can be used on dark papers and a regular ol’ gel ink version (in a 0.4mm point). All in all, I’m really happy with these pens. They are nice and slim and comfortable to hold. Time will tell if they are good workhorses for letter writing and list-making. I’ll have to put my precious Frixion pens away to find out.

Tagged crafts, I *heart* Japan, Japan, mail art, office supplies, snail mail

Jul 24 2015

3 Comments

Forest Park, Oak Park, Postal Consumer Advisory Council, snail mail

USPS Consumer Advisory Council Meeting 10

At last…our July council meeting!

We started the meeting with a follow-up report about the Freedom of Information Act request about our council. The USPS provided the meeting minutes of all of our meetings but redacted all member’s names. The USPS also declined the person the right to attend one of our meetings since meetings are only open to current council members.

The next order of business was a discussion about the mobile Post Office visiting the Oak Park Farmers Market. The Postmaster determined that July 25 was too close for him, so he decided to push things back to August 1. Again, this was disappointing since we’ve been talking about the farmers market for months. I wondered if it would actually happen. Since the meeting, I’ve received confirmation that the mobile Post Office will be at the Oak Park Farmers Market on August 1! I am hoping to get more details (timing, whether or not there will be a special postmark, services) and I will share more information then.

We moved onto the big topic of the meeting–planning for the 80th Anniversary celebration. It will be held on Saturday, August 29 from 10am-2pm. We discussed contacting the historical society to see if someone there could create and host tours of the building that day and to see if they had more old pictures of the building through the years. Two members had already reached out to the local newspapers, but more media attention was planned. Council members volunteered to attend and help with refreshments and greeting people on the day of the event. The post office decided, in spite of our offers to help, most of the planning would be done by the post office. (Honestly…this makes me a little bit nervous. Considering how poorly the planning of the other two (smaller) events has gone, I hope they get on the ball and create a really great celebration.)

We got more updates about the facilities issues at the River Forest Post Office.

An order was put in for repaving and striping the lot to make the handicap spaces more clear.
There is also funding approved for a new roof for the building in 2016.
Funding has been approved for more maintenance staff in the Oak Park post offices, which will benefit River Forest since they share.
As far as the Oak Park Post Office is concerned, the building’s exterior (the bricks and the brass) will be professionally cleaned thanks to private donations. (For those of you who have no idea what the post office looks like, I promise to have pictures soon…it’s really a beautiful building!)

Nationally, a lot of changes happened in the past few weeks. Apparently the new Postmaster General has made some personnel changes and cuts at the top. The USPS is trying to save money on management to relieve money and resources for delivery and sales. Sadly, some people lost their jobs or got moved around, but the postal employees at our meeting seemed to feel this was a step in the right direction to improve operations in the long run. Customers will benefit from the changes and improvements and hopefully that will increase sales in the future.

New delivery vehicles are coming soon. The vehicles will be tall enough for mail carriers to stand up inside and there will be a skylight so carriers can see the mail and parcels better. All of these changes are driven by the huge increase in package delivery, the future of the USPS.

A USPS marketing manager was scheduled to visit the Oak Park Post Office on Friday (July 17) to observe the service counter and to look at the post office from the customer’s eyes. This conversation brought up a suggestion that signage at the post office is sometimes lacking. For instance, it’s difficult to know (unless you do it all the time) what forms you need to fill out for each service you need. The signage is not helpful. The USPS app is not really helpful. And we reiterated our frustration that the cost of a first class stamp is very difficult to find anywhere on the USPS website.

Last month, all USPS employees attended a “Deliver the Brand” training. There is a huge focus on customer service right now. I would love to hear from you whether or not you have noticed a change in your local post office.

Tagged forest park, mail art, snail mail

Jul 23 2015

1 Comment

Forest Park, Oak Park, Postal Consumer Advisory Council, snail mail

USPS Consumer Advisory Council Meeting 9

Our June Post Office Consumer Advisory Council meeting was…interesting. Phil (the Postmaster) was not in attendance but his manager, Jackie, was, so we sort of rehashed a few things from the previous meeting in order to clarify some concerns better.

The meeting started with the announcement that someone filed a Freedom of Information Act request about our group. This person is a former postal employee who now travels around filing FOIA requests about the post office in his role as a self-appointed USPS watchdog (my words). My fellow council members and I were concerned whether or not our names would be given to this person, so the post office promised to follow up with more information at our next meeting.*

We talked about the Passport Fair again. Apparently this is the “year of the passport” and more fairs will be scheduled. Council members who did receive postcards about May’s Passport Fair mentioned that the type was very small and there were spelling errors on the cards.

We talked about the 80th Anniversary celebration again. Saturday, August 29 was confirmed as the date for the celebration. Jackie said she would approve small giveaways like coloring books for kids. And she thought there would be a small budget for refreshments. A few members mentioned they would reach out to the local newspapers to give them a heads up about the event.

Bob, our co-chair, offered to contact the Oak Park village newsletter to ask them to put something out about dog bites and mail carriers. The post office said they would give him an official “blurb” for the newsletter.

The (Oak Park, River Forest, Forest Park) carriers have new scanners that are connected by satellite so if you get text alerts for your Amazon packages, you will get your text even faster letting you know your Prime package has arrived.

We confirmed that July 25th would be the date for the mobile post office’s visit to the Oak Park Farmers Market.

We learned that all postal employees would be attending a “Deliver the Brand” customer service training.

We reiterated the shabby state of the River Forest Post Office grounds.

At the end of the meeting, we discussed the effectiveness of our group. According to Jackie, who manages a number of post offices in Chicagoland and Northern Illinois, Oak Park has recovered from its initial challenges much better than other “troubled post offices” that she manages.

It is still to be determined if our council appointments would end after one year. (If so, August would be our final meeting.)

I’ll be back tomorrow with our July meeting notes and then next week, we can get on with our lives and talk more about Japan, okay?

*I’m obviously blogging publicly about the advisory council, so I don’t have any expectations of privacy in that sense…but my name handed to this guy on a government document feels a little bit invasive. And my fellow council members don’t blog about our work, so they certainly deserve a level of privacy.

P.S. The guy in the middle of the stamp reminds me of John the Mailman.

Tagged forest park, mail art, snail mail