#postoffice

Hello stationary friends (assuming you are not on a bus or train). Let’s talk stationery.

I love writing letters and postcards to my friends. I always have. 

It’s a cheap, fun hobby where I can write by hand little messages to let others know I’m thinking of them.

Letters don’t have to be fancy. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on stationery or a fountain pen or vintage stamps to send meaningful, heartfelt letters. Postcards are often super cheap (less than a dollar in most places) or you can use printer paper or lined looseleaf if your handwriting gets a bit wandery on blank paper. I have hoarded postcards from every random place I’ve traveled (including highway rest stops in the middle of Maine) and have dozens at this point. My favorite pen for a long time was one I found under my desk in a high school classroom. And stamps for postcards are cheaper than normal stamps, but all in all, stamps are probably the most expensive part of correspondence. For a while, I kept all my writing supplies in a wax paper envelope from the post office that my stamps came in, and upgraded to an empty chocolate box when my collection started growing. I repeat: Not. Expensive.

That being said, I have also slowly started accumulating stationery and pens, both for correspondence and for bullet journaling, according to my style of letter-sending. I buy things here and there as they show up on sale or when I want to splurge a little. I also pool resources, sharing washi tape and pens with my sister in exchange for stickers from her truly enormous collection. Getting some friends together and having a mailing party can be the best way to try out sealing wax or brush pens before buying them yourself!

Here are some places with stationery I really love. I often find them in bookshops and museum stores, as well as stationery chains like Paper Source or Papyrus, but you can also find them at big chain stores Barnes & Noble and Anthropologie, which are both starting to branch out more into paper goods.

https://riflepaperco.com/stationery/stationery-sets

^ fancy boxed writing sets, which I have a weakness for

http://www.mrboddington.com/boxed-notecards

^ whimsical, sweet cards for familiar pen pals or the (inner) kids in your life

https://www.sugarbooandco.com/accents/paper-office/notepads/

^ very #aesthetic writing pads with cute quotes on them

https://www.chroniclebooks.com/collections/letters-to-my

^ haven’t tried these yet, but I see them everywhere and they look like a good solution if you want to write letters but don’t know what to write

I’m not so fussy about pens, and prefer ballpoint for envelopes and postcards, as I know they won’t smudge if the mail gets wet. Fountain pens are a rabbit hole I haven’t fallen down yet, and frankly, I think nice handwriting will shine through, whatever pen you use.

Here is my favorite website for learning good penmanship, or just a new style if you want to branch out: https://loopsandtails.com/

I also don’t decorate my envelopes a lot. I really like pretty, functional things and am not so much into embellishment. I’ll do some washi tape or a sticker, and a wax seal occasionally, and write out the address nicely. However, I don’t have the patience to do a lot of extra doodling, and collecting scraps of paper and ephemera for decorating with honestly stresses me out. 

I don’t know where to buy vintage stamps, but the post office has a bunch of cool ones that rotate out depending on the season and the clerks are often really chill with letting me sift through them to pick ones I like. Go at a slow time if you’re planning to do that, though, as the post office line can get pretty long. They only have one (or two?) styles of postcard stamps, and one or two styles of international stamps. I like to carry postcard stamps with me in my bag so I can mail letters from wherever when I’m out and about. I actually keep them in the back pocket of my bullet journal and have a couple pages in the front of the journal which act as my address book. 

So get out there and start writing!

December 19