when my friend linda from a la mode posted about project letter writing earlier this month, i was super excited to join up. i used to write letters -- a lot! i had a couple penpals as a kid, and as i grew older i developed a total obsession with paper goods and stationery. i love it all, and have got quite a good collection. when a good friend of mine lived in korea for several years, she sent me so many awesome letter-writing sets, with cute paper + envelopes, stickers, and the like. i loved them so much i couldn't bring myself to use them! i lived in tofino for 6 months when i was 20. it was an amazing place, and i made a ton of friends, but missed my friends at home. i started writing letters again, and most of my friends wrote back. it was the perfect way to stay connected. i still have all those letters, as well the ones i received from my tofino friends in the years after i left town to come back home. reading them again brings back a lot of memories, and a lot of laughter. good times!
the problem is, i don't do it anymore. why is that? email is so easy, so convenient. when i write for too long my hand gets sore, and my writing becomes messier than i'd like. i never seem to make it to the mailbox. and now i text, more than even talking on the phone, for the most part!
it's time to reconnect, and get back to this simple art.
linda sent everyone who signed up for the project a hand-picked card to use for the letter. i received this adorable card from pistachio press, which happens to be a fave shop of mine. immediately, i knew who i would write to.
done! with two days to spare before the end of january, i wrote my letter. someone mentioned, in this day of texting and facebook and twitter, she finds it hard to think of something to write that would be worthy of a letter. i had that thought at first, too, until i realized it didn't really matter what i wrote. my friend will just be super excited to read my letter, so i just sat down and wrote what came to mind at that moment.
i was also pretty excited to use some washi tape to spruce up the envelope a little. now i have a proper excuse to buy many more rolls of pretty tape!
i can't wait for my friend to get her letter. it's been years since we wrote to each other regularly, and with us living in different cities again now and for the foreseeable future, i figured it was a good time to get the ball rolling again.
my favourite part of writing this letter was actually going back and reading some of the letters we'd written to one another in the past. i even found a little something i'd almost forgotten about, enclosed in one of her letters to me. i made a copy of it and tucked it inside, and i just know she's going to love it. i got a real kick out of some of the stuff we wrote about way back then! it helped me to realize that there doesn't need to be an occasion or something "big" to write about, but just everyday anecdotes and what i like to call "stream-of-consciousness ramblings" are perfect. it's more like a conversation that way, and that's just how i like it.
when was the last time you wrote a letter? maybe you'd like to join us in project letter writing -- it's the perfect way to get started again, and everything's always easier when you do it with a friend.