Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Old Newspaper Font

Although I'm respecting the results of the new banner font poll... I can't say that I'm terribly pleased with the results. The Old Newspaper font just doesn't enlarge well. I have done no editing to the font, I just used 50 pt Old Newspaper for the current banner. Thoughts? Should I just choose anew from Jane Austen and American Typewriter?

EDIT: Okay, I tried something new. I think it works MUCH better. This, I like. This will work.

Maison Orlhac Letter and Envelope

Although I am not French, do not speak French, have never been to France and rarely eat French food, I really wanted to write a France themed letter. So I did. I wrote, long overdue, to a pen pal on some laid paper printed with my Maison Orlhac vintage letterhead. Something about this particular letterhead and that particular paper makes them go very well together.

Then, I used some heavy paper that I purchased at the Paper Cult going-out-of-business sale a couple months ago to make an envelope. As you can see from the photographs, the paper is printed with a travel theme.



Then, to finish the whole thing off, I sealed the envelope with a sticker that came in a set of vintage travel icons purchased at the same Paper Cult sale as the paper for the envelope. If it's not obvious already, I had a very enjoyable time putting this letter together.

The refurbished Maison Orlhac letterhead is now available for download in the Vintage Letterhead Image Archive. Bon letter writing!

Vote on the New Banner Font!

At the top of the page, I have added a poll. Please cast your vote for one of the above five banner fonts. They are: 1. Jane Austen, 2. American Typewriter, 3. New Yorker, 4. Old Newspaper and 5. Warsaw Courier. The poll will close Friday at 12 PM EDT.

A million thanks.

Very truly yours,

James

Layout Tweak

As it would happen, late in the night, I stumbled upon the layout settings that I had been searching for ever since I began writing Everyday Correspondence. Not wanting to waste a minute of creative thought, I made a few changes to the fonts on the site.

My two objectives were to: 1. make the text around the site more uniform; and 2. make the text in posts more natural to read. To achieve these ends, I changed the header and sidebar title font to courier, in keeping with the vintage newspaper-type layout. In that same vein, I also changed the color scheme of the fonts from blues to greys. To improve post readability, I changed the font from a large Verdana to a more manageable 12 pt. Georgia. And, I also changed the post font to a dark grey, to keep the color scheme cohesive.

Do you like the changes? Any other suggestions to make the site easier to read/more thematically cohesive?

Very truly yours,

James

The perfect accent!

The other day, while I was writing a letter on some of the Woman in Black stationery that I bought from We've Got Paper, I realized that I had the perfect accent for the black and white themed stationery.

After digging out my glue gun and seal, I topped off the envelope with this seal. I got the silver imprint by first dabbing my seal on a silver ink pad before making the imprint in my faux wax. In addition to looking neat (or so I like to think) it also makes it easier to remove the seal from the faux wax without disrupting the image.

Editorial Note: I didn't realize until after I had posted this, but this entry is officially my 100th post on Everyday Correspondence, yay!

Non-Postage Stamps, aka "Cinderellas"

I've been getting into letterpress lately, and have begun following a number of press blogs. Today, I came across this blog entry about Cinderellas, also called poster stamps, or stamps for non-postage purposes. The author of the blog operates a Front Room Press, a hobby press run literally from the front room of his house, and has just finished fully restoring a vintage pin-hole perforator. His next venture, obviously, is to make his own stamps! I recommend taking a gander.

They're From Canada, Eh?

The "eh" is cliche, I know. But I just couldn't help myself.

So, I haven't written any letters in the last couple of weeks, but, I have purchased stationery during that time. When I was at We've Got Paper, posting for their giveaway, I made a purchase. And, that purchase arrived today!


In addition to my order, Julie from We've Got Paper threw in four vinyl stickers. Very neat. On top of that, she put some awesome stamps (she mailed from Canada) on the envelope to mail me the stationery!


Although I have no affiliation with We've Got Paper, if you like their products, you should take a gander at their Etsy shop. All their contact info can be conveniently found on their business card:

Market Watch: Stationery Giveaway!

Melissa over at We Love Snail Mail is having a stationery giveaway! From now until October 25, you can enter to receive one of two envelope and paper sets by commenting on the giveaway blog post.

While you're over there, I'd recommend taking a look around the site, and considering signing up as a member on the site. It's a great way to network and find other people who love creative snail mailing as much as you and I!

E.P. Cone Letterhead

I've purchased so much new stationery recently that I haven't written on any of my vintage letterhead in a while. But, in a recent note of congratulations, I wrote on this E.P. Cone letterhead. Unfortunately, I don't have any other information about the letterhead aside from the information contained in the image. E.P. Cone appears to have been a Nashville bookseller, stationer and general news dealer during the 1890s.

If you'd like to use this letterhead, it is now available in the Vintage Letterhead Image Archive.

Enjoy!

Market Watch: Stationery Giveaway Contest

I found this stationery giveaway at the We've Got Paper Etsy store via Jackie at Letter & Journals. The proprietor of the store sells her own designs, many of which I find to be just fantastic. If you're interested, hurry over, as you have until 11:59 PM (not sure which time zone) on October 13 to enter!

More Vintage Stamps from eBay

I won this whole sheet of bicentennial celebration stamps commemorating the importance of the printing press during the American Revolution. I'm not sure if I'll frame them... they're kind of awkward in dimension. They would fit in an 8.5" x 11" frame, but I would have to detach from the sheet two of my favorite squares:

I just get a kick out of that little postman. On top of all this, the company that I purchased the stamps from mailed them to me in an envelope with, you guessed it, awesome vintage stamps.


It's not too often that you see a $1 stamp, let alone a vintage one.

Intricate Wax Seal

This little nugget arrived in the post today from a pen pal. It's a wonderful specimen in that it made it through the postal system completely unscathed.

Cranford

To all of my fellow etiquette junkies, I strongly recommend watching the BBC miniseries Cranford, currently playing on many public television channels in the United States. I just finished watching the first episode on my local PBS affiliate, and I almost fell out of my chair with laughter at the delightfully dry English humour.

Described on the PBS website:

Welcome to Cranford, circa 1840...a rural English town where etiquette rules, undergirded by a healthy amount of gossip. Modernity is making a move in town as construction of a railway comes harrowingly close.

The series focuses on "Cranford's eclectic residents, among them Matty Jenkyns (Dame Judi Dench) her sister, the town's arbiter of etiquette, Deborah (Dame Eileen Atkins), and neighborhood busybody, Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton, known to many for playing Delores Umbridge in the fifth Harry Potter movie).

I took the utmost pleasure in watching the ladies of the town deal with the practical challenges of keeping to their customs of holding visiting hours, maintaining strict gender roles, and grappling with the new fashions of the day.

For these efforts, Cranford receives the Everyday Correspondence seal of approval.

Stellar Stamps

These out-of-this-world-stamps came to me on a piece of business mail! I couldn't believe what a class act this company was for using such great stamps.

Breaking News: Man Finishes Project

Ta-daa! In a rare feat, I actually finished a project that I only days ago planned out. I couldn't find a frame with a 2" x 4" window to tightly frame the stamps, nor could I find one with matting that did the same. So, I bought myself a $5 frame at Marshalls. I think the thickness of the frame substitutes for matting by drawing the eye inward toward the framed object. I'm not too wild about the frame by itself, but I think it looks kind of neat as a finished product.

Now, if only I could find a suitable place in the studio/office to hang it. Hm...

Back to School Letter

In the back to school spirit (albeit, a little bit late), I wrote to the Missive Maven in a throwback style. I used lined Rhodia paper, wrote in pencil, and decorated with a fair number of stickers. Lastly, I touched it off with a civil rights figures postage stamp, very school-like.

This was a really fun letter to put together, it felt like I was writing a note to pass in between classes.

Sunday Afternoon Post

It seems that Emily Post enjoyed herself a good wax seal just as much as I do. Although, she will frown upon a seal improperly affixed. She writes, "[i]f you use sealing wax, let us hope you are an adept at making an even and smoothly finished seal." Further, Emily recommends:

[c]hoose a plain-colored wax rather than one speckled with metal. With the sort of paper described for country houses, or for young people, or those living in studios or bungalows, gay sealing wax may be quite alluring, especially if it can be persuaded to pour smoothly like liquid, and not to look like a streaked and broken off slice of dough.

Recognizing that it may seem strange to both seal an envelope with glue as well as with wax, Emily acknowledges the development of envelope technologies and makes an argument steeped in economics to allow for an exception. She writes:

In days when envelopes were unknown, all letters had to be sealed, hence when envelopes were made, the idea obtained that it was improper to use both gum-arabic and wax. Strictly speaking this may be true, but since all envelopes have mucilage, it would be unreasonable to demand that those who like to use sealing wax have their envelopes made to order.

Who would have thought it? Emily Post: defender of personal expression, advocate of mail art.


This post is part of an ongoing series of posts highlighting the rules of etiquette as recorded in 1922 by Emily Post in her seminal text Etiquette.

New Office Decor

Given my recent printing mania, when I stumbled across these stamps, I knew I had to have them. I'm thinking of having them mounted and framed (already marked on my to do list as a DIY project) for hanging in my sometimes printing studio, aka my living room.

...I'm pretty excited about it.

What sort of things do you have hanging on the walls of your work space?

Update: Check out the finished product.

New Contest Winner

I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that it has been over 72 hours since the Rhodia notebook contest winners were announced and I haven't heard from Octoberchild. I hope he's just been away from the site because he's on some fantastic vacation. The good news is that, per the rules of the contest, that means that a new winner has been selected!

Drumroll...

Joy Fleming, you have been selected to receive the second Rhodia notebook in the Everyday Correspondence giveaway. Please contact me at james[at]everydaycorrespondence[dot]com with a mailing address to receive your prize.

A million thanks, again, to everyone who was eligible to enter the giveaway as a Google follower of Everyday Correspondence.

Sincerely,

James

Poll Closing Soon

Good morning all, this is just a gentle reminder that the Everyday Correspondence poll will be closing in 24 hours, at 10:00 AM EDT. If you haven't already, please vote and/or leave a comment about what you already like about the site and/or would like to see more/less of.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Pineapple Icon

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I used a pineapple as my personal icon. Shortly thereafter, I remembered to take a picture of it. And finally, I remembered to post it! Here is my pineapple, in all its glory.