of paper and post

These are the letters & parcels sitting upstairs waiting to be mailed this week. I think there are 3 packages and 8 letters...


In the past I have been gently accused of being "obsessed with mailing things". Like all... obsessions (if you will)... it's not really that simple. The layers of every infatuation are many - why do you really like the things you do? what draws you to a particular hobby as opposed to another? Perhaps it says a lot about you as a person (or maybe not). I do send out A LOT of mail. The post is picked up at your door here and I estimate that I send out about 2 to 3 pieces of mail every week. I have friends and relatives in South Africa, Scotland, Australia and England, and Canada. Whew!

When my parents moved to Ottawa from the UK, it was too expensive to make phone calls. There was no home computer for emailing, and certainly not a webcam. I grew up watching my mother sit down and write letters to her brothers and sister and my grandparents, on those blue airmail letter writing sheets, the kind that weigh practically nothing. And all my relatives wrote back, so the mail was greeted each day with the distinct possibility of something more than bills, a reasonable likelihood that there would be a letter for you. My mother would read these out loud to us when we were younger, and then started leaving them out in the front hall for us to read when we got home from school. Each of my aunts has their own writing style, and I can blindly identify the author of a Smith letter any day.

I don't know how old I was when I began writing letters myself. My first memories are of thank you letters for my Christmas and birthday presents. If my grandmother sent me money, I wrote to tell her what I bought with it. I soon joined my mom with writing to my cousins and my grandmother. My cousin Christie and I only started emailing each other a couple of years ago, but still send letters for the fun of it. And the days of blue airmail paper are long gone... I am a stationary junkie now. There's nothing like quality paper and a gorgeous colour...

To be clear though, my enthusiasm is not with "mailing things", not at all. My love of letter writing lies with the receiving end of the process. Getting a letter in the mail is a simple, but pure, joy. I love getting mail and I will save a letter from a friend until I have a cup of tea and a quiet moment to truly enjoy it. The paper they chose, their penmanship, all say something about them, when or where they wrote it... I love those little details. And the time they took to handwrite the note, when no doubt rationally it would have been quicker to call or email, that's a gift in itself in these fast times. To me it's the ultimate in good manners (in the case of thank-you's) and the best way to show someone you care.

A kind note on beautiful paper that someone took the time to write out by hand... What a special little surprise in your mailbox on an ordinary day... now that's what I love about sending you a letter - the surprise and that smile on your face.

For anyone interested in looking at some great stationary, there are some great stores in Minneapolis and online... These are my current favourites...

Crane's
Papique
Elum Designs
Kate's Paperie