Tag: Mailings 2012

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120122.html
Entry #1 on this page (tagged: mailings, january)

Last december I signed up for Amnesty International's Write for Rights. I took on two different cases and wrote a total of five letters: two letters of protest to government officials and three handmade notes of encouragement.

It felt good, trying to conquer evil with some letter writing. I wanted to continue, so I signed up for the Urgent Action Network.

It's a little bit different from the Write for Rights project. They get new cases every day, I don't know how many hundreds there are to choose from... whereas the Writeathon only focused on 15. When you join the Urgent Action Network, you can choose how often they send you email alerts. I signed up for one a week; they usually come at the end of the week and I have been working on them over the weekend.

The other difference is that the Network does not provide you with prepared sample letters that you can print out. The Urgent Action case sheet gives you information on the situation and tells you who to write and what to ask for, but the letter writing is all yours.

My first Urgent Action was actually an email petition that I just had to sign. But the next two actions were for snail mail letters of protest.

It does take a while to read through the case sheet and then figure out what I want to say in my letter. The letter is sent to several different people in the country's government, and a copy is sent to their embassy in Washington DC.

So, in the end I have a handful of letters to send out. And a sense of having done something good in the world.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120129.html
Entry #2 on this page (tagged: mailings, january)

A postcard I made was featured at Letters and Journals! *grins* It's the top one with the quote.

Jackie also links to a fun mail challenge... A Month of Letters, hosted by Mary Robinette Kowal.

The challenge is to send out at least one peice of mail every day the post runs in February.

ha. It's actually surprisingly easy to write a few postcards every evening. But I have not gotten back into the habit since the chaos of the holidays. So a month long challenge is just what I need!

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120205.html
Entry #3 on this page (tagged: mailings, february)

I've been sick with a head cold for a good long while -- 10 days and counting -- and I'm rather angry at germs at this point in time.

It feels like I have been sick forever and I probably have some kind of chronic sinus thing that will give me a brain infection that's going to make me suffer miserably before I die next week. But I do have a couple things to report, so I definitely want to make a blog post before I die.

(Yes, I'm kidding.)

I have put one or two postcards in the mail every day.

This weekend, I wrote a list of all the mail I need to work on. It's a good size list, and I'm definitely not up to the challenge yet. I'm hoping I will feel better soon? and there will be a mail explosion!

I was very happy to get my stamp order in the mail yesterday... a bunch of 1¢, 2¢, 3¢ and 4¢ stamps to help me with my over abundance of old stamps (the price of stamps in the USA went up on 22 jan).

I'm also in love with the new Bonsai Stamps (Bonsai Stamp Story). They are just beautiful! And I foresee a new over-abundance... fortunately these are Forever Stamps, so buying a lot is actually a good budget choice. Right?!! ;)

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120224.html
Entry #4 on this page (tagged: mailings, february, art)

Yay, I'm alive again!

Nevermind that I've been away for so long... Here are the projects that I'm curently working on.

∞  Letter Mo! From the outside, it's going great; I have sent out mail every single day and have plans to continue the daily mailings into March and beyond.

Problem is, I am still procrastinating my letter writing. And let me tell you, sending out 60+ bits of mail and still procrastinating certain letter writing projects takes real talent!

Ha. I am hopelessly behind on family letters and with my pen pals. And I haven't caught up with my monthly postcards.

This weekend is Do Or Die! I can't possibly get it all done in one weekend, but I'm going to make a dent.

The nice thing about LetterMo is that I have hit a rhythm by writing a couple postcards or notecards every evening. I make this big stack of postcards on the weekends, and then I slowly go thru them during the week. Very satisfying.

∞  Letter Love 101, by Joanne Sharpe Oh my gosh. I ran into this online class last weekend and just fell in love with the teacher and her style. I want all her colourful calligraphy and lettering styles to be mine!

Plus, the teacher is very gung-ho about Copic markers! Oh my gosh. :)

so, yeah. I think this class is going to be great for me!

∞  Photography I have not taken one real picture with my camera this year. Zero. And that is just not right! I need to get out there and take some pictures!

Hopefully. Soon.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120303.html
Entry #5 on this page (tagged: mailings, march)

The Month of Letters is over. I am so glad that I participated. I sent out at least a postcard every day, and after the last weekend of february, I put 13 letters and notecards in the mail on monday morning! yay mail!

I rewarded my enthusiasm with a couple gifts for myself...

Some stationery which makes me happy and a coffee mug from the US Post. :)

I took a single day off from mailing (March 2nd) but this morning I am back at it! heh: I go through all this self doubt because I mailed a lot of stuff in february, I got out all my "january" postcards and then some... but I am just now designing my "february" postcard, and I will have to mail Even More if I want to get caught up with a "march" postcard.

And so the self doubt. Such a big project! Maybe I should just quit! I will never catch up!

But I love sending out my postcards. Showing people my photography and telling them about the picture I took. And imagining the happy surprise when someone opens their mailbox and finds some real mail.

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120325.html
Entry #6 on this page (tagged: mailings, march)

∞  Rhino the guinea pig Rhino has been with us for two weeks now, and everyone is still trying to adjust! I've discovered that Rhino is Not a morning person. Well, I'm not either, but I still want to spend 10 or 15 minutes with him before I go to the day job. eh: no big deal, we can keep it low key and have breakfast (a carrot) in bed! :)

∞  LetterMo Continued In february I took on the challenge to send mail every day; I had fun with the challenge and got into the very good habit of writing postcards every evening. So far in March, I have missed four mailing days. But, I think I'll be sending out more total mail! Yay mail!

∞  Lettering Classes I am pretty sure that Joanne Sharpe is evil. She has a second class:
Whimspriations: "ARTFUL ALPHABETS"

And I'm only on lesson 5 of her first class! *laughs* Yet another thing that I will never catch up with.

∞  Amnesty International Urgent Action Letter Writing This weekend I had two Actions to type up letters for. And, more importantly, one of the actions included an address to send a message of solidarity to! This is the first one that I've gotten which was not entirely "Letters of Protest" so I'm especially interested in it.

Here is the blog post about it:
Nuclear Power Plant Protesters Charged With Sedition
This is in India, and the protesters have been threatened, arrested and assaulted. And their village has been cut off by the police and paramilitaries who are blocking goods and people coming into, and out of, the village.

I'm going to send a hand made card to one of the protesters!

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120331.html
Entry #7 on this page (tagged: mailings, march)

And now I'm ready to focus on something else!

Ha! I am not giving up on my postcards and protest letters... I just want to add something new and different to my life.

Thusly, I am going to do a daily blog post month for April.

Usually when I start a blog posting month, I feel like I have tons to say. Which is why I want to do the month of blogging! But this time, I'm not sure what I have to say.

Guess I'll figure it out as I go along!

Or maybe there will be a lot of Photo-Only posts. :)

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120415.html
Entry #8 on this page (tagged: mailings, april)

I decided to make today a homebody day -- even tho it's warm and not raining and I could put another dent into the garden... But my poor introverted self needs to recover from the shock that was Saturday Market! ha.

Good thing, too. I glanced at some of my postcard projects, and I have quite a few deadlines looming! So I am printing postcards today, which I'll work on and send out through the week.

∞  Most important is the GoodReads postcard exchange that I host. Today was the sign-up deadline, and I assigned partners for everyone and sent out addresses to all the players. This is a special round, and I'm sending out postcards to all the participants, and all the past members as well!

Yay Mail! 13 postcards. I haven't decided on the photo yet, but it'll be from the same batch as my March Postcard... So I'm not going to reveal the photo here yet.

∞  Yeah: I am still sending out March Postcards! This is another project, but it does not have a deadline. Altho, at some point embarrassment will provide a deadline, say if I'm still sending out spring postcards in november. heh.

∞  Send a PC #1, a Swap-Bot exchange for three postcards. I decided to send an old one:

We planted this aster plant in our community garden in 2010, and it bloomed like crazy all autumn! This is one of my favorite photos of it.

∞  Serial PC Swappers - Week #58... PIGS This was a swap from the first week of april, but one of the postcards I sent, got returned to me because the address got ripped up. ack!

I love all of my photos and memories from my 2010 trip to Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary, a vegan sanctuary in Colorado. This is Sunshine, isn't she wonderful?!

∞  Serial PC Swappers - Week #60... And this is the current weekly swap. A vegan friend of mine runs the Serial PC swaps. I don't sign-up for all of them, but they are always good and fun. I've got all new partners for this one, so I think I'll send out my March postcard.

∞  Photo Bookmark: April, Blue... Yeah, photo bookmarks are a different format! 2 inches by 7 inches... whoa! It's hard to figure out what will look decent in these dimensions! I've still got next weekend to work on this one, and I'm taking the extra time because I am stretching myself a little and I want my bookmarks to be lovely! ha. something blue:

∞  and then, too, I have a bunch of returns I need to send. (never enough time, need vacation!)

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2012/20120421.html
Entry #9 on this page (tagged: mailings, april)

Sometimes I just need to hide in the house all day!

I put a couple postcards in the mail this morning. (yeah, still working on the March postcards.) Finished reading the Pern book, Dragon's Kin, and paged through the next one, Dragonsblood.

I spent an inordinate amount of time organizing this weeks incoming mail. I got a lot of mail this week, for whatever reason.

For the monthly exchanges that I'm in, I scan in the PCs and keep the files in a separate directory on my computer: that way I can see at a glance if someone isn't sending. For the Swap-Bot postcards, I need to go to the website and acknowledge everything that I've rcvd. For any other mail, I need to note the mail that needs a reply. That particular list is growing...

∞  The 52 Letter Project: Thoughts on Letter Writing

Ha, this post about not being able to send reply mail right away resonated with me! Currently, the oldest mail I need to respond to is from 22 March. *shakes head* I go through phases with mail responses... One time I actually got to the point where I responded to a note the very next day!! ha, that was an anomaly; usually I'm about a month behind, I think six or seven weeks has been my worst response time.

This evening I was thinking about watching some videos... I am still on Lesson 5 at the Letter Love 101 calligraphy class. And I've not even started on the March Strathmore Online Workshop (this one is free, check it out!)

But, then again, I've discovered Avatar: The Last Airbender... it's free on Amazon Prime. The story line is pretty good, plus it's got great creatures.

Static8 > Journal > Tag: Mailings

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