Stoneview » Letters and pens

Putting on the sorting hat

Julie — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:40:07 +0000

Envelope-making tutorial

Julie — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 12:26:53 +0000

I have been a busy bee this week making a new stack of envelopes from recycled old books. You can see the tutorial here.

I have circus envelopes, wild animal envelopes, snowman envelopes and Night Before Christmas envelopes. Filling those with letters should keep me out of trouble for a little while!

Owney the postal dog

Julie — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 12:14:40 +0000

When the Owney stamps came out, I bought two sheets so they would last me awhile. The fun stamps run out pretty quickly at my wee tiny post office. The back of the sheet tells the story of Owney and it seems a very fitting stamp for letters to pen pals and postcrossers. One of those correspondents recently visited the National Postal Museum and sent me the Owney postcard which arrived with the National Postal Museum Station postmark. She says the Owney exhibit is a little creepy because Owney was stuffed and he’s there on display but she also reckons it was common to stuff pets in the 1880′s and it wasn’t creepy at the time.

Good mail day!

Julie — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:09:27 +0000

Another close call

Julie — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 15:16:44 +0000

This letter made it all the way to my branch post office where it lost it’s address label. Thankfully Karen, my postmistress, knew it was probably a letter for me so she put it in my box. I think there must not be too many other folks getting handmade envelopes in their PO Boxes at my wee post office. It definitely pays to be friendly with your postmistress!

A pen in hand

Julie — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:01:49 +0000

Two new pens have found their way into my little collection. The top pen is a demonstrator Twsbi Diamond 530 with an F nib. It has a bit of weight to it and I took a few letters to break in but it writes beautifully now. The wider barrel means less hand fatigue for me and it has a fairly stiff nib. The bottom pen is a Pilot Cavalier with a fine nib and a converter. On the first fill the Cavalier was leaking pretty badly but I think I just didn’t assemble it tightly enough. When I rinse and changed ink colors I put the converter on more firmly and now all is well.

That was a close one!

Julie — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:55:51 +0000

One of my letters arrived with the entire backflap of the envelope torn off. Thankfully the letter inside was intact, if a bit mauled. It does make me wonder about those few pals I haven’t heard from. Perhaps some of my letters have been eaten by post office machinery along the way.

Minou

Julie — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:54:41 +0000

Gabby has a rough life doesn’t she?

I broke down and am changing from a rolodex to an actual factual address book. I feel so grown up. My pen pal addresses have been getting a little out of control, this should really help.

Pumpkin, it’s not just for pie

Julie — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:36:13 +0000

I love this time of year when the pie pumpkins are in the market. I’ve also been trying to make meatless meals more often because it’s not only better for me, it’s better for the environment.

Pumpkin Soup

1 sweet onion, diced

2 medium carrots, diced

3 ribs celery, diced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper

salt, pepper, and cayenne, to taste

4 cups chicken broth

pulp of a pie pumpkin that’s been baked until soft then mashed

pinch of cinnamon

1 can coconut milk

a sprinkle of parsley or cilantro for garnish

Saute onion, carrot and celery in butter and olive oil until soft. Stir in garlic and ginger and cook about 3 seconds longer then add remaining ingredients except coconut milk and simmer 20 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in coconut milk and top with garnish.

Gabby continues to sleep anywhere and everywhere. The bottom photo is my attempt to write a postcrosser’s name in Chinese characters at her request. I just hope it doesn’t say anything awful!

And now some of my own collection

Julie — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:21:48 +0000

I’ve been trying to build my postcard collection as I travel around so that I can fill specific requests when I send them out. Quite often I get requests for map cards so I usually buy multiples of those when I find them and occasionally I see recipe card requests. Folks as for multi-view or *not* multi-view, black and white, specific animals, royalty (no luck here with that!), celebrities, city specific cards and all sorts of other things. I found some great vintage reproductions in Salem last weekend and snagged another little stash of map cards. Gradually, I am building enough variety to be able to fill most requests.