Write me a Letter

There are four things that I love getting in the mail. They are:

1)A new Netflix DVD

2) Books from Paperback Swap

2) My Martha Stewart magazine

3)A hand written card or letter

The Netflix DVDs are a weekly bright spot. And I usually get a book every week too. The Martha Stewart magazine is rarer, only once a month so I'm pretty stoked when I see it peeking out from under a mound of bills. But my all time FAVORITE thing to receive is a letter. No one writes letters anymore. I feel so special when I get one and I am positively glowing all day. The fact that someone took the time to hand write a note for my eyes only makes me feel very loved indeed.

I came across a blog called The Letter Writing Revolution. The purpose of the "movement" is to revive the lost art of letter writing and encourage us to take up a pen and paper, sit down and just write. I love the idea. I used to write letters all the time. I've saved every real letter I've ever gotten from the love poems Hubby used to write to the quick handwritten note from Dad upon graduating high school. They are precious to me, and I treat them as such. 

I was so excited at the prospect of letter writing I couldn't wait to get started. But who would I write to that would actually write back? I asked a couple of fellow bloggers if they would care to pen pals and lo and behold, they jumped at the idea! I now have a pen pal in Canada and one in Australia. I look forward to getting to know these women through their letters and hope to form lifelong friendships with them both. 

Half the fun of writing and receiving letters is finding pretty paper on which to write them. Shallow, I know, but pretty paper makes letters so much more interesting than lined notebook paper (which is what I had to use for my first letters to my pen pals. May they forgive me.) Being the eco-conscious girl that I am, I decided that I would make my own paper out of the mountain of junk mail I receive each week. The kids were happy to help. First, we tore our paper into pieces.

Then we soaked the bits in warm water over night. The next day, I got out the blender and my homemade deckle (fancy word for paper frame) and we were ready to roll.

We made paper slurry by adding a couple of handfuls of the soaked paper to a blender half filled with warm water and blending until the mixture resembled paper soup. I also added some rosemary from the garden for texture and fragrance. I'll spare you the step by step but long story short, I couldn't get the blasted paper off the frame. I got one sad little sheet of paper from the whole experience and ended up composting the rest of my slurry. There must be something wrong with the way I made my deckle. Creative scissoring managed to make my wee piece of recycled paper look like something usable, though I'm not really sure what I'd use it for. It's too small for a letter....perhaps a little note card.

Not to be discouraged, I did a quick internet search (seriously, what would I do without the internet?) and found a plethora of eco-friendly paper options. I decided on one from a company called PooPoo Paper. It's made out of elephant poop. How's that for sustainable? They also offer paper made from the droppings of pandas, horses and cows. No, it doesn't smell. That's the first thing I did when it arrived: one big sniff. Nada. Armed with my interesting paper I am willing able to write up a storm!

On a slightly unrelated note, I'll be road tripping for the next week or so with my family so my posts will be sporadic if at all. I hope to find some quirky postcards to send to my pen pals on my travels. Just imagining the smile on their faces when they see something other than bills and junk in their mailboxes will keep me writing. Who will you write a letter to?