Spacecat: The Case of the Empty Envelope

I recently received this phenomenal handmade envelope from Allison Anne, a mail enthusiast with whom I connected via Twitter. We'd exchanged a couple of postcards, and she sent me a letter... but alas, I only received the envelope! It appears the letter fell out en route somehow.

The envelope is so spectacular that I had to share it with you. She tells the full story on her blog, and we both blame the tape used to seal the edges. It wasn't too sticky, and on one edge the tape had come unstuck, giving the letter an escape route as it was squeezed through the mail sorting machines... or so we surmise. (I had to secure it with transparent tape for this photo.)



I'm sure it was a spectacular letter - how could it not be, transported by such a space cat? - and I'm so sorry to miss it, but nevertheless, I am delighted by this excellent envelope.

Mike says I don't write often enough

Yesterday I received another great Postcrossing postcard, and laughed out loud at what Mike wrote. Turns out he was already a regular reader of my blog when he was assigned to send me a Postcrossing postcard, and he tells me I don't write blog posts often enough. I think he's right.

I'm trying! I have a goal of at least 5 posts per month. I failed in January, but I'll manage (and maybe exceed?) that for February.

On my Postcrossing profile, I invite senders to share a beloved pet story. I really enjoyed Mike's story about how their cat Tiger came into their lives.

Cat with cherry blossoms postcard

Here is another delgihtful Postcrossing surprise: a fantastic cat among cherry blossoms postcard from Japan. It is hard to appreciate the loveliness of this card in a photo, because the postcard has textures; some of the cherry blossoms are raised in a textured, hard-tissue-paper-like fashion, as is the chop seal near the bottom by the kitty, and some of the blossoms are gold foil. That doesn't show up so well in this photo, but you can get a better sense of it on the JP-640891 Postcrossing postcard page, where the sender uploaded the photo of the postcard before she sent it.



I don't usually post the backs of postcards, but this one was so adorable I had to share.

Behold:

• a Hello Kitty airmail stamp
• a drawing of her fluffy dog Moko
• cat, bird, and mushroom stickers
• cat washi tape

Yay Postcrossing surprises!

LWA Virtual Mail Social all day today: Sunday, February 8!

Today's the day! Today's the day! All day today - Sunday, February 8, whatever the 24 hours of Sunday are for you, wherever you are - the Letter Writers Alliance is having a Virtual Mail Social.

In celebration, I'll be writing mail much of the day today!

You can play along by using the hashtag #LWAsocial on Twitter and Instagram. The main event is a Live video social and chat at 4pm EST / 3pm Central time. This is their second such event - the first was in December, and I was utterly tickled by how delightful it was: great, great fun. I really enjoy the camaraderie of seeing all the tweets and photos from other letter lovers writing mail at the same time, and it inspires me to write, too. So I'm participating already, and encourage anyone else who is interested to join the fun.

Love this #postcard from the National Postal Museum #npm

A photo posted by Missive Maven (@missivemaven) on Feb 7, 2015 at 10:06am PST

Also built into the video social will be a chat window, and the instagram feed for #LWAsocial. I had been toying with the idea of joining instagram for a while now, and this was the final push I needed. So yesterday I joined up, and now you can find me on instagram as missivemaven. There's sure to be much mail and many cats in my instagram feed. And I'll be posting lots of photos of my #LWAsocial mail there.

Happy #LWAsocial day! Join the fun! Write more letters! And maybe I'll see you at the LWA Virtual Social at 4pm EST today.

Another virtual Letter Writers Alliance social tomorrow: Sunday, February 8

I haven't been blogging or tooling around on the letter-writing internet world lately, so I'm a little late to the party on this news, but nevertheless I'm SUPER excited to share that there will be another Letter Writers Alliance Virtual Social tomorrow - Sunday, February 8, 2015. The social will happen all day, and the live video with chat will be at 4pm EST (3pm US Central time), a time the LWA founder/goddesses have settled upon as a window when the majority of their global members will be awake. I'm thrilled with the time - not only am I awake then, but I tend to be in the letter mood in the late afternoon hours as well. I shall endeavor to participate throughout the day - lately Sunday is my best letter-writing day in any case! - and join in for the video and chat if I can.

They held their first live video social in December, and you can watch the archived video from that event; my blog post for that was filled with eager anticipation, and I assure you, it did not disappoint. It was even more fun than I imagined, if that is possible.

Looks like they have moved from sharing photos on Twitter to sharing them on Instagram, so I guess maybe this is the push I finally need to join Instagram. Sigh. More social media.

But! Social media is a wonderful platform for bringing together epistolary enthusiasts. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend of good mail.

February: a big month for mail

Clearly I have come in under par so far for my resolution to write more blog posts in 2015, but at least I have been spending my time actually writing mail. I hope that's a fair excuse for lagging behind in the practice of blogging about mail. January was a hugely productive writing month for me, and I enjoyed every letter and postcard.

And fans of mail have a fine month in February! There are two letter-a-day type challenges this month: A Month of Letters, aka "LetterMo," and International Correspondence Writing Month, aka "InCoWriMo." While I don't participate officially in either of these (I write as much as I can, all the time, and most months average more than one piece of mail per day anyway), I know lots of folks who really enjoy them, and I think they're a fine way to get anyone to engage more deeply with mail. If you tend to like shorter projects, or like to challenge yourself with daily goals, maybe one of these might be a fun thing to try. Also, if you're looking for pen pals, both of these are a great way to pick up new ones. There is even a page of addresses from letter-seekers on the InCoWriMo site.

Happy February mailing, everyone!