Mailbox Contest Winners

Announcing the mailbox contest winners from the Sept/Oct newsletter. There were four prizes given away and each recipient selected the prize package they wanted to win when they mailed their entry. There were about 5 entries for each prize selection so I sorted the mail into A, B, C and D piles and selected one winner from each. Also, as I mentioned in the newsletter, if entries contained a photo or drawing of a post office box, then that person received an extra entry for the added effort.

Package A (ephemera) was won by Phyllis from CA. Here is the envelope Phyllis used and below is a photo of Phyllis's mailbox which happens to be

a mailbox slot in her garage door. She explains in her letter her experience of getting wet mail when it rains as well as having to get out of her car in the driveway to retrieve the mail each day so as not to run over it, which she has done.

Prize Package B (Pencil box with pens/pencils) was won by Pamela in CA with this decorated postcard. Pamela excels in mail art as many of you might recognize from her website, Cappuccino and Art Journal.

Here is the front of Pamela's card. Love all of that mailbox goodness!

Prize package C (Surprise goodies include journal, note cards, stamps, stationery, etc) goes to Kelly in IL. Love her telegram postcard!

Finally, Package D (set of cat rubberstamps) goes to Barbara, aka, CatBookMom. Creatively, Barbara used rubberstamps in the postcard she sent in. Aren't the snail and cats adorable? Nicely done!

I'll post photos of the prizes later this week when I prepare them to be mailed.

In the meantime, here is a sampling of some of the other mail themed entries that were submitted. Oh what fun my mailbox had in Oct and Nov!

Letter Links for Oct 1

Finding joy by surfing the internet and encountering interesting blog posts on endearing subjects.

Handwritten Letters are Nostalgic Yet Rare by Amy Abbot at Courier Press
Snail Mail Social by Annie at Curbside Treasure
Stacks by Cappucino and Art Journal
What Five Living People Should be on the New Postage Stamps by the New York Times
Send the Love: Show Support for Postal Workers by Missive Maven

Planning a Visit to the National Postal Museum

We are planning a trip to DC in September and we have it on our itinerary to visit the National Postal Museum. I've been reading some interesting blog posts about it and am very excited to spend a good half day there- meeting other interested folks, seeing the history of the postal service, getting story ideas, taking pictures. 

 

James at Everyday Correspondence has a great 3-part blog post on the National Postal Museum.

Pushing the Envelope is the blog of the National Postal Museum.

British Postal Museum has a blog 

The Traveling Wheelchair's post on the museum.

All My Hues has a July 2010 post with pictures

Have any of you been there? Do you have recommendations of what to see and do there?

Letters & Journals Magazine

Letters & Journals magazine will be a quarterly print magazine containing features and departments related to the art and appreciation of letter writing and journal keeping. The magazine will be perfect bound (meaning it has a spine) and have slightly heavier stock paper than the normal monthly magazines. All of the ads in the magazine will be for stores and products related to the niche industry of the pen and paper enthusiast- our core audience.

In order to find the advertisers related to our niche, we need to build a database of names and addresses of potential subscribers. To do this we will be launching www.LettersandJournals.com in May 2010 offering unique and interesting content as well as links to other articles that we find in our internet travels. We will also send out a weekly e-newsletter with engaging and relevant content.

 To give you a taste of some of the morsels that will be featured in the magazine, here are some sample article ideas:

A Stationery Lover's Guide to Paris (NYC, San Fran, London, Paris, you get the picture)
How do you start a Stationery Business? A Look at some people who did
Exotic Postmarks: Postcards from Around the World
Highlights of people's journals (famous and otherwise)
Pen Pal Corner- Who are these people? How do you find one of your own?
Samples of different journals you can keep (nature, travel, art, goals, daily, baby, etc)
Fan Mail- Do Movie Stars/Musicians/Athletes/etc Still Get it? Let's Take a Look
Dead Letter Office- Old, found letters and postcards
The Writing Area- Photos of readers and famous desks and writing areas
Fun with day planners and notebooks- Finding or Creating one of your own
Mindmaps, doodles, to-do lists, other lists

For ideas suggested by other readers, you can read the comments at this post. This is just some of what will be featured on the website and in the magazine.