Winner Announced

Lucky #11 won the Pen, Poodles and Ink giveaway. Congratulations, Marji, who left her comment on 3/8/12. Please email me your mailing address by Sunday, March 25 and I will get your package off to you!

Thanks to everyone who entered, tweeted and did facebook updates! I surely do appreciate your interest and taking the time to promote this contest. If you're one of the 18 people who left a comment and you'd like a postcard, just email me your address and tell me which card you'd like.

L&J Postcard

 

A Minnesota Postcard (not necessarily this one)

Choice A) L&Jpostcard
Choice B) Minnesota postcard

Poodles, Pen and Ink

Letters & Journals is having a giveaway! One lucky winner will win this bottle of ink (blue black), Tsunami pen (and refill) from Richard at My Ink Pen and a set of 8 poodle cards and stickers from Poodle & Cat (formerly Haley's Handmades).

One winner will be selected on Sun. March 18. Here are the rules:

1. Contest is open to all and ends at midnight on Sat. March 17.

2. Leave a comment. Be sure to include your name or email so I can identify you/announce you in the blog post. The winner will have one week to notify me of their mailing address. If you want to be proactive, you can email me your mailing address here and be done with it.

3. You can have one comment (entry) for each mention in your blog, Tweet, Facebook or other social networking promotion you do. Just include the link to each update with your comment. Remember that each comment should be separate, so if you do a Twitter mention and a facebook mention they would be two comments = two entries.

4. Thank you!

Letter from Warren Buffett

I've made a goal in 2012 to send thank-you cards and notes of appreciation to people and businesses I admire. Writing these is my way of spreading kindness and joy.

Sometimes they write back. Just ask Pen Pal from Northeastern Colorado who wrote a blog last Oct about receiving a response from the author Clive Cussler.

Like Warren Buffett. For many years I have admired Mr. Buffett for his practicality, his business sense and his money savvy as well as his down-to-earth personality (from what I've read). I also happen to agree with many of his political opinions. So I wrote a brief thank you note, googled his business address and sent the note to him. A month or so later, I received this response.

"Jackie- Thanks for your note. It made my day. Best wishes, Warren E. Buffett."

Who have you written to recently?

Letter Links Feb. 11

It's amazing how much time can be spent going from one awesome blog to the next reading and sharing what's going on in various little corners of the world! In my most recent wanderings, I found these fun, creative and inspiring blog posts.

Inaugural Rhodia Journal Swap by Julie at Whatever
Seeing Red by Pamela at Cappuccino and Art Journal
Writing on the Wall by Cheryl at Cheryl's Excellent Adventures
Week 4 of Weekly Doodles by Mark at Diary Doodle Books
Lost Crates February 2012 by Diane at Pocket Blonde
(Most of) My Notebook Collection by Economy Pens

Like many, I need to monitor my time online so that I don't spend hours at a time living vicariously through others. Because what is the point of that? 

Mail Call

In recent days I've had the joy of getting some fun and original mail. There is no doubt that receiving mail- both expected and unexpected- is one of life's simple pleasures. If you're up for a challenge this February, you may want to consider The Month of Letters Challenge.

I love books and reading and bookstores A LOT! So imagine my delight when I received the above postcard from Rift Vegan. I even joined my first book club (online) and for January we read "The Sense of an 
Ending" by Julian Barnes.  Next up is "Bento's Sketchbook" by John Berger.

This Edward Gorey postcard came from Emilie from Winnie's Girl blog. She had been a recipient when I mailed my Gorey postcards last year and wanted to return the favor.

 

Finally, this lovely "J" collage comes from Limner. It arrived in a clear package that was also nicely decorated, but I didn't take a photo. On the back of the J is a beautifully handwritten letter. What a wonderful idea and keepsake. The photo doesn't do it justice, but even the quarter inch sides of the J block has writing and quotes on it. Unfortunately, the scanner couldn't capture that and the camera is acting up (granted, this could be ignorance of a changed setting on my part.)

Letter Links Jan 15

This is the first Letter Links of 2012! Lots of fun and interesting places to check out.

Share Your Canceled Stamps by 365 Letters
Equation for Fun (re-purposing junk mail) by Just Letter Rip
To Do List in Wall Street Journal by To Do List
Welcome to 2012 by Julie at Whatever
The Language of Stamps by the Benevolent Postcard Society
Review: Levenger Bomber Jacket Unifier (Desk Organizer) by Note Booker, Esquire
Cool Libraries from Around the World by Weekly Roundup

Enjoy!

Lovely Mail to Brighten My Day

I have been fortunate to receive some unique and unexpected mail in the last few weeks. Back in December I received this lovely piece of mail from Pamela at Cappuccino & Art Journal. Pamela is such a talented and dedicated mail artist and I just love looking at her blog and seeing all of the mail eye candy that she posts. I will save for another post just what was in this artfully created envelope.

This unique Christmas card came in an envelope made of vellum. I received this in early December and plan to reuse the front of the holiday card next year as a holiday postcard.

Last, but not least, the most unique mail item of all. This letter has a unique postmark from St. George's School and was sent by Ilona, aka, the Missive Maven. Ilona explained that the school had one day to use this commemorative postmark which was created in honor of the school's 100 anniversary.

And there you have it. Some recent highlights of my mail box. Naturally each of these senders should be on the look out for something in return.