Unexpected Gifts

Look at their faces!

Unexpected Gifts

"Then there’s the unexpected luggage video by Spanair, above. On December 24, passengers flying from Barcelona to Las Palmas found beautifully wrapped gifts, with their names on them, coming through the luggage conveyor belt. It might have been just a marketing tactic, but it did make a lot of people smile."

Now, I know that receiving a letter isn't at the same level as finding a beautifully wrapped gift with your name on it on the airport conveyor belt, but my dream is that many people will be receiving an unexpected gift in the mail during our March Letter-Writing Month.

I believe that there will be smiles of pleasure when our friends open their mailbox and--surprise!--discover a letter with their name handwritten on the envelope. A gift of words...

And today is the last day of February!

Tomorrow is the day we've been working toward and preparing for.

I plan to spend my afternoon wrapping up some details--adding a few names to my list and getting the addresses, finishing some handmade stationery I started, and savoring the anticipation of what we are going to accomplish in the next 31 days!

I will be back later today with some pictures of my stationery (you'll be surprised by at least one of them) and to announce my personal letter-writing goals for March. I hope you will set your own personal goals; you might even be willing to share them along with me on this blog!

So, here we are, ready to hit the road road running.

With just pen, paper, & a stamp.

If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.

Finding Time to Write Letters

An address-tag

I love this simple creative touch:

. I can do this!

And I can do it fast!

This easy Map Tutorial teaches how to make a map card & envelope.

Fun!

I have to confess that as I have been creating my goals for letter-writing month, I've become a bit concerned about whether I will actually be able to find the time to write all the letters I dream of writing. I have been getting organized. I have purchased stationery and stamps. I have had fun creating some hand-crafted cards. But will I be able to find the time on a daily basis to actually write the letters?

I found this article (click here to read it) and thought most of the points were practical and could help me find time to send notes to people I love: 15 Ways to Find an Hour a Day of Extra Time by Jeff Cobb

 
To find an extra hour a day, Cobb suggests trying--for a 30-day period--to steal pockets of time from other areas of our life.

A thirty day period! Why that's just one day short of the month of March!

An extra hour a day! Think what we could accomplish in our letter-writing adventure with an extra hour a day!

Some of the ideas he offers for reclaiming minutes and hours a day:

• Drop the television.
• Cut back on non-essential Internet.
• Get up earlier.
• Cut back on email.
• Cut back on shopping.
• Go on a news diet.
• Minimize housework/yardwork.
• Cut out non-essential reading. .
• *Minimize recreation.

So, there ya go.

An extra hour a day...along with...

...paper

...pen...

& a stamp.

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This is What I Call FUN!

Kandice Boyce Wadsworth, the patient, gracious owner of this delightful shop, clearly has the same love affair with paper that I do.

fbgpapergoods@gmail.com

 

Most of you know that I am currently in Austin, Texas, visiting my daughter and her family. Yesterday they took us on a road trip to Fredericksburg; as we drove into town we passed a store with a sign Paper Goods. Every person in our two cars immediately knew that this was the place Mom/Grandma would want to visit.

Why?

Because I LOVE PAPER!

Just look at these pictures. What you can't tell is that I am practically hyperventilating. [Brown paper bag, please.] I was surrounded by paper goods of all sorts; I was a kid in a candy shop. I asked my husband for X number of dollars, and I would not allow myself to go over this amount--though I have to admit that I was thinking that Valentines Day was the next day, Mother's Day was coming in May, and my birthday is in August...

In the February 2 post--Goal-Setting: Hype or Hurrah?--I talked about adding the Fun Factor and Focus Factor to help me achieve the goals I set for myself. For me, in my March Letter-Writing Month--this is the Fun Factor: finding or creating stationery from delicious papers and hand-crafted art.

Now, that's what I call fun!

In addition, as I bought the paper yesterday, I pictured people who would be blessed by opening their mailboxes to see a tangerine or chocolate-brown envelope with my name in silver ink in the upper left-hand corner.

All that may sound stressful to you, but, for me, this is one of the fun factors in this adventure. I encourage you to find yours.

And now on to the focus factor. We can use February Prep Month to start making a list and gathering the addresses of people we want to write. (No time for this in March! Instead, next month we want to write, write, write!)

Think outside the box; perhaps these will spark some ideas for you.

1. Senior citizens who are sitting alone looking out their windows

2. Those who are grieving a loss

3. Someone who has faithfully provided a service for you

--your beautician

--a waitress at your favorite restaurant

--the woman who never loses your clothes at the dry cleaners

--a teacher who made learning calculus fun

--a pastor or Sunday School teacher who impacted your life

--a neighbor who used to make chocolate chip cookies for you when you were a child

--an aunt who faithfully sent you a birthday card when you were little with a crisp dollar bill enclosed

--a librarian who knew you loved Harry Potter and had the latest edition waiting for you

--the hospice worker who was so kind to your mother during her last days

--a childhood friend you haven’t had contact with since you watched The Brady Bunch together.

--someone who babysat you when you were young and didn’t berate you for crying when your mother left

--your grandchildren who bless you every time you’re with them

--your mailman who drops lovely letters in your mail box in rain, sleet, or gloom of night (OK, your bills too, but that’s not the mailman’s fault).

Now it's your turn. Do you have other ideas of people we could write or send thank-you notes to? We'd love to hear from you. Add a comment below, and help us as we focus this month on creating our list.

So that once March comes, all we'll need is pen, paper, & a stamp.

If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.

 

It's Starting to Feel Good

Click here to see more pictures with ideas for adding touches of beauty to your

organized desk.

How are you doing getting organized? As February inches its way toward March, I encourage you to think through what works best for you as far as a place to write. Are you the type who works best sitting at an organized desk? in Starbucks with an iced caramel latte next to you? standing at your kitchen counter with your children playing at your feet?

In addition, be sure that you have your tools gathered and in one place--your lovely stationery, your favorite pens, the addresses of those you plan to write, and the stamps you have carefully chosen during February Prep Month.

It's starting to feel good, isn't it?

People will occasionally say to me, "Nancy, you're so organized!" And my sad response is, "Actually, I am dreadfully disorganized; that's why I have to be organized."

Some of you who are reading this post are so naturally organized that all this talk about February Prep Month seems ludicrous. And others, like me, need to be very deliberate about "getting our acts together." Otherwise, I will lose precious time next month trying to figure out when, where and who to write at the same time that I am trying to find the beautiful cards I bought on Etsy and those fun stamps I made a special trip to the post office for.

I am addicted to post-it notes!
 frecklednest.typepad.com

Clothespins come in a close second to post-its

And then there are clip boards!

If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.

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And the bell tolls...

Image Credit

You might enjoy reading this thought-provoking article Bell tolls for the U.S. Mail, as we know it in USA TODAY

It's no surprise to most of us that the USPS is in trouble and that the local post office, as we have known it, is fading from view.

This article by Rick Hampson reads in part:

"The most predictably disappointing part of David Gerber's day is when he opens his mailbox.

This is what the Postal Service calls "the mail moment," when we collect, sort and open our mail. For generations, this moment has bound us together as people and a nation.

"It's when we learned what Grandma sent us, who wanted to be our valentine, where we'd gotten into school, whether we'd be drafted. It's when we heard who had been born and who had died, and whether the check really was in the mail."

I especially enjoyed the visual image Hampson created when he wrote: "Each household's mail moment has its rules and rituals — who opens what, whether it's left on the kitchen counter or hall table. It's when someone calls, "Anything good in the mail?" The answer, usually, has been yes."

Can't you just see it? Can't you just hear it?  I never thought about it before, but our family does have a mail ritual. Bet yours does too.

The thought-provoking part of Hampson's article comes when he then writes: "Americans say they love to receive mail, yet send less and less of it."

Oh, won't the USPS be surprised during the month of March, because we're about to change that!

So keep checking in--I will continue to send tips during February Prep Month on getting our desks and stationery organized, on making lists of people we want to bless with a handwritten letter, on ways to track those we have written and ways to find time to add this to already busy days.

Then we'll all be ready to go on March 1, with just pen, paper, and a stamp.

Oh, by the way, I haven't completely given up on creating handmade stationery. I have a couple of easy techniques up my sleeve to share in the days to come. Stay tuned...

If you would like to join me in making March Letter-Writing Month, just subscribe by email and you won't miss a pen stroke.

February Prep Month Continues

VintageThank You Notes

It's time to plan your stationery!

I love paper and scissors and glue and stickers, so one cold January evening I got out my boxes and bins of crisp scrapbooking paper along with a mountain of tools and accessories. I spent an entire evening trying to create something similar to the lovely Vintage Thank You Notes pictured above. The entire evening resulted in one slightly pathetic bless-my-heart-at-least-I-tried thank-you card.

One.

After an entire evening.

I decided then and there that, as much as I love paper and scissors, I'd rather spend my time writing notes than creating them. So--I got on Etsy (I enjoy supporting small businesses) and. boy, did I have fun spending some Christmas money!

In addition to the vintage cards above, here are some of the cards I ordered--with their links to Etsy:

Dahlia Thank You Notes

Personalized Note Cards

Snail Mail

 

Lined Stationery

A Bicycle Full of Flowers

Aged to Perfection

If you plan to order any stationery for Letter-Writing Month, be sure to order in time to receive them by March 1.

So you'll be ready to go with just pen, paper, and a stamp.

Goal-Setting: Hype or Hurrah?

Great idea for storing your letter-writing supplies.

Click here: Tight for space?

I ran my own business for almost 20 years, so it won't surprise you to hear that I read lots of books on setting goals. I have to confess, however, that I still haven't figured out if goal-setting is all that it is hyped to be.

Actually, I'm a pretty good goal-setter. Any time I have an excuse to sit down with a pen and paper I'm a happy woman.

So, yay for goal setting.

In my latest too-cute--to--resist notebook.

With my latest I-think-I-have-found-my-favorite-pen-of-all-time.

The problem for me comes with doing the necessary work to achieve the goals that I wrote with such enthusiasm between sips of a steaming cup of joe.

Research, however, does show that setting goals on paper greatly increases the chances of actually achieving the goals. Brett Blair, in How to Set Goals and Stick to Them, says: "It became clear to me, with tons of evidence, that people who set specific goals and write them down are dramatically more likely to achieve their goals and be high performers." http://www.fordyceletter.com/2010/09/07/how-to-set-goals-and-stick-to-them/

Well, there ya go.

I think a key for me in actually achieving the Hurrah! is to add the fun-factor and the focus-factor. If I have a passion for the project I'm setting the goals for and then add focus and fun--hey, I'm on the road to the Hurrah!

So, yes, I have to agree that goal-setting isn't just hype.

It can indeed be a powerful source of motivation.

Which will then lead to the Hurrah!

All of this to say, February is the month to set your goals. Stretch yourself, but be realistic--don’t set yourself up for disappointment. 

["Disappointment is so disappointing."--Nancy G. Hill. You can quote me on that.] 

If you already write several letters a week, decide how many more you can write now that you’re all motivated and getting organized. If writing even one letter a week is going to be a challenge, then don’t set a goal of writing a letter a day.

So pull out your latest too-cute-to-resist notebook--or whatever system works for you--and write your goals for the number of letters you'd like to write each day/week during the month of March.

I'll be back to share my own goals with you.

BTW--it's COLD and RAINY in Austin. Small frowny face...:-(

It's February!

You can find some great ideas here to get you started on our February prep month:

Organizing Stationery

I  just turned the page on my calendar from January 2012 to February 2012! I've been waiting for this day, and it's finally here!

February is our prep month. Prep, as we all know, is a one-syllable word used in place of a four- syllable word in order to save us the time and effort involved in saying prep-a-ra-tion. I actually appreciate the shortened version because it offers less risk of making typos; in addition, it will come in handy during February because we're going to be using this word a lot.

[By the way, I can be thankful we aren't using the word preparatorily. There would be a whole slew of opportunities for typos in that word!]

We often hear the word prep: college prep, class prep, meal prep, prep school, prep for surgery. In each case, the prep stands for planning and preparing for an event.

Our big event is March Letter-Writing Month!

In the February issue of All You magazine, an article called "Get more done in less time", reads: A study of office workers determined that when employees were distracted from a task, it took an average of 25 minutes for them to return to it, if they managed to do so at all.

And here I am, Mrs. Don't-Distract-Me-Or-It-Will-Take-Me-25-Minutes-To-Return-To-It-If-I-Manage-to-Do-So-At-All. That's why I need a prep month.

To get organized.

So I won't get distracted.

So in March I can actually just grab a pen, some paper and a stamp.

 

And the winners are...

I know you probably couldn't sleep last night wondering if your name was drawn for the cute-as-a-button postcards. I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

The two winners are

Ta Dah!

Redthread and Linda!

I will have to send these via snail mail, so please send me your addresses today at likeachampion99@yahoo.com and I'll get them in the mail before we leave for Texas tomorrow.

Thanks for all who participated--we will be having more little incentives along the way.

I'll be back today with another post to start getting us organized so we'll be ready in March with just pen, paper & a stamp.