Getting ready for Lettermo

I participated in the Month of Letters Challenge in 2012. It was a fun and intense time. I thought I would do again, but this year, I plan to pace myself a bit.

The Month of Letters challenge is quite simple-write and mail one letter per day for each day the post office is open in February. I think I wrote and sent over 40 letters last year! Head over to Month Of Lettersto sign up and check it out. You might make a few new friends and well, you will do your part to keep the wonderful tradition of sending mail alive!

I will be using a fountain pen again this year. My friend Joel, from St. Peter, Minnesota, kindly included the Month of Letters bookmark in his last letter. I've also included a few photos of mail I received in the last week or so. All fun and all personal.

I got mail!

I was away for a few days at a workshop and came home to find a letter from Angie at Mailbox Happiness and Becky at Leaving a Paper Trail . Both sent me wonderful letters in creative envelopes. Angie made her envelope and Becky used one of her new typewriters to compose her letter. I am fortunate to have such good penfriends!

Mangled Mail

Avert your eyes if you have a delicate constitution!

I just knew that I would get some mail this week as I sent several pen pal letters last week. I was not disappointed, but I never really expected to find this! The ominous clear plastic "WE CARE" bag surrounded the carcass of a fantastically penned letter from Joel.

Joel is my pen pal from St. Peter, Minnesota who I met this summer. He has wonderful penmanship and it's a shame that only 31 lines of a 4 page letter were complete.

I gingerly opened the bag and saw this:

I was able to fill in some of the gaps about what Joel wrote, so I am composing a reply. I'm not sure that he really left his wife on the shores of Lake Superior as she crooned to a raccoon, but maybe that's what happened!

I also received a letter from a new pen friend, John. He is an interesting guy and fortunately his letter was not mangled.

I'm still alive! and a notebook followup!

I am back! No seriously, I am, so my legion of follower can rejoice!

We are all moved into southern Colorado and have already completed 6 weeks of school. We are having a ball. We love the 4 day school week and 3 day weekend, every week!

So, over the past 7 months or so, I have been carrying a little pocket notebook. It is my faithful companion in my hip pocket. I have been using the Clairefontaine Basic staple bound notebook. I wondered how it would hold up to the abuse of my fanny sitting on it every day, being yanked out, scribbled on and unceremoniously shoved back into my hip pocket where it adds a most unsightly bulge to my skinny backside.

Well, I must say, I am very pleased with how this notebook is holding up. Here is a photo with a red notebook that I don't carry. You can see that it is in pretty pristine shape.

Now here is another picture with the one I carry every day in the center.

I really use every inch of this notebook. I take notes on only one side of the sheet at a time. When I finish that page - whatever I have recorded on it - generally some sort of to do list, I fold the page over and move on. Pages aren't folded until I have completed the actions listed.

I am now on lap 2 of this notebook, so it is flipped and I am writing on the blank pages. I think I will have about 2 more weeks on this book.

It has held up remarkably well. Sure the cover is getting tattered and it has sort of a roundish butt influenced profile, but it has been well worth the couple of dollars it cost last year.

Here is my next notebook. It is a simple little composition book that cost me exactly nothing because my darling wife gave it to me! I hope it holds up half as well.

On another note, I am back to writing to penpals. I will start taking pictures of mail as I receive it and hope to get back to blogging a little more regularly.
If you are one of my pen friends and you haven't received a letter in the last few days, drop me an email and I will sit right down and write you one!