fun fact friday.

Did you know:

The longest rural delivery route is Route 081 in Mangum, OK. The carrier travels 187.6 miles daily and delivers to 240 boxes.

-US Postal Service

custom wine label.

Do you plan on giving a bottle of wine for a gift?

What a great way to do just that and personalize it!
Custom Wine Bottle Labels!

I just added a Valentine's Day Label to my etsy shop. Only $2.50!

Would you like one created for another occasion or holiday? I can do just that for you!

stamps: ferns & the star-spangled banner

Image from: uspsstamps.com

Ferns is a series of five new stamps from the U.S. Postal Service celebrating the beauty-and popularity-of ferns.

The fern is a favorite with gardeners and florists. Ferns range from tony moss-like plants to giants as tall as trees. The ferns featured on the stamps are five of the approximately 380 different species found in North America. 

The Ferns stamp was released on January 27, 2014. These stamps are being issued at the one-ounce First-Class Mail® rate in self-adhesive coils of 3,000 and 10.000.

You can read more about the Ferns stamp here.

Image from: uspsstamps.com

The Star-Spangled banner has been a treasured icon ever since Francis Scott Key celebrated the of an American flag still flying over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812.

This stamp commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Star-Bangled Banner with a photograph of the flag that flies over Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore. This flag is a replica of the one that inspired Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" after Fort McHenry withstood the British attack of September 13-14, 1814.

The Star-Spangled Banner stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp.

You can read more about The Star-Spangled stamp here.

snow day.

The past two weeks we have gotten snow on Tuesday night! I caught the mailman in action last week!

Sadly, last night we got to much snow and it kept the mailman away. Our city shuts down when it snows, so 11 inches of snow is a disaster!

I hope everyone is staying warm!

sent with love.

I have been slow writing letters back lately. I need to get my act together. But here are some that I have sent out recently!

I sent a letter to a friend from College with a bunch of pictures I found while going through some things that I haven't talked to in a while, my friend Jenn in Chicago, and one of my new pen pals Tiffany! 

I saw envelopes decorated using wash tape and decided to get crafty with some of mine on this batch of letters. What do you think?

And I sent out a lovely birthday card to my friend Yuko in Japan! She got me a bunch of these adorable roller stickers and I used them to make her envelope look really happy for her birthday! I hope she likes it and it makes her smile on her special day!

I hope these letters find you well ladies!

fun fact friday.

Did you know:

The shortest rural delivery route is Route 007 in Moody, Al. The carrier travels 2.1 miles daily and delivers to 286 boxes.

-US Postal Service

stamp prices increase.

Have you stocked up on your forever stamps?

This sunday, the price of postage for a standard letter is rising from 46¢ up to 49¢!

Image from: www.arrl.org

Want to avoid having to pay that new price for a while, order your stamps online or go to your local post office before Sunday the 26th to get your forever stamps at 46¢ each.

I don't know about you, but I will be ordering several sheets of stamps this weekend!

stamps: cut paper heart

Image from: uspsstamps.com

The Cut Paper Heart stamp adds another romantic entry to the beautiful Love stamp series.

This fanciful stamp takes its inspiration from the folk traditions of papercutting. The stamp art is reminiscent of liebesbriefe - ornately cut and painted love letters that are a form of scherenschnitte, the papercutting tradition brought to America in the 18th and 19th centuries by German immigrants. Not intended only for February 14, these early precursors to valentines carried declarations of love and sometimes proposals of marriage. The stamp art is a stunning digital interpretation of these traditional love-letter decorations. 

Like the liebesbriege, the Cut Paper Heart stamps are not just for use on Valentine's Day, but say "love" all year round.

Designed by art director Antonio Alcalá, the stamp features an illustration by Q. Cassetti.

The Cut Paper Heart stamps is being issued as a Forever® stamp.

You can read more about the Cut Paper Heart stamp here.

"Or don't you like to write letters. I do because it's such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you've done something."

-Ernest Hemingway

sent with love.

I am finally getting caught up on all of my letter writing. Here are some of the letters I sent out this week!

Getting to use some of my global stamps I got for Christmas to two of my international Penpals! Yuko in Japan and Helen in the United Kingdom.

A letter to my new penpal Lynsey!

And letters to Lisa and Dawn!

I hope all of these letters find you well ladies! xo

received with love.

I received two letters in one day this week! I love when that happens.

A letter from my friend Jenn in Chicago!

A letter from my new penpal Tiffany!

Be looking for letters in your mailboxes soon ladies! xo

mail tag.

Have you heard of mail tag? Do you participate in mail tag with your penpals?
I read about it on Papered Thoughts and thought it was such a neat idea and wanted to start participating in it with my penpals. I know I get stumped with things to ask, so I thought it would be a good idea to do a post that included some ideas.

Mail tag is an exchange of postal correspondence between two people. One person mails requests to their penpal, who then answers those and sends back their own mail tag. Ask as few or as many things in each request that you want!

Don't know where to start? Here are some ideas to get you started!

• What is your favorite quote?

• What would your last meal be?

• What is your current nail polish color?

• What are four things on your bucket list?

• What is in your purse?

• If you could have dinner with any five people, who would they be?

• What is your first job?

• What is your favorite book?

• What is your favorite childhood memory?

• Summer or Winter?

• Do you believe in ghosts?

• Who inspires you?

• A list of things that make you feel cozy?

• A receipt.

• A business card.

• Two things you were grateful for this week

• Favorite Game (Board, Card, Etc.)

• The meaning of your name.

• What is your favorite go to junk food?

• What is your favorite drink?

• What is your favorite recipe?


Here is a handy cheat sheet from Goodnight Little Spoon if you are looking for even more inspiration!

tag, you're it!

stamps: year of the horse

Image from uspsstamps.com

Year of the Horse stamps is the seventh stamp in the Celebrating Lunar New Year series. The Year of the Horse begins on January 31, 2014 and ends on February 18, 2015.

Across many cultures, in the United States as elsewhere, the Lunar New Year is celebrated in various ways, often with parades and parties. Firecrackers are traditionally used to scare off the evil spirits and welcome this time of renewed hope for the future.

Combining artwork by Kam Mak with two elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps - Clarence Lee's intricate paper-cut design of a horse and the Chinese character for "Horse," drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun - art director Ethel Kessler has created a culturally rich stamp design that celebrates the diversity of the American experience.

The Year of the Horse stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp in sheets of 12.

You can read more about the Year of the Horse stamp here.

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call."

-Liz Carpenter

custom rubber stamps.

Do you like to use rubber stamps for your mail art or decorating your letters?

Casey Rubber Stamps is a great shop in NYC where you can find any stamp you can think of... and if they don't have what you are looking for, he will create a custom stamp just for you!

I ordered a custom stamp online and was beyond pleased with it!

Also, take a look at these postal themed stamps he has in his catalog too!

If you are ever in NYC I suggest visiting his shop or if you can't make it to the store you can always shop online!

Casey Rubber Stamps

322 East 11th Street

(Between 1st & 2nd Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Website: caseyrubberstamps.com

Email: squirrelcasey@yahoo.com

2014 stamp preview.

Another year is ahead of us and more great stamps will be released this year. I wanted to share a little preview of the stamps that will be issued in 2014. Which stamp will be your favorite this year?

Year of the Horse-Forever® Stamp

Image from: uspsstamps.com

Hummingbird-33¢ Postcard Stamp

Cut Paper Heart-Forever® Stamp

The Star-Spangled Banner-Forever® Stamp

Image from: uspsstamps.com

Winter Flowers-Forever® Stamp