Killing Time with Another TLWR Giveaway

I have had a really great post written and sitting in my drafts for several days now. Why? As I mentioned, I went on my 3rd field trip last Thursday and because it involves Canada Post, I felt it was only appropriate to send the draft to one of the powers-that-be to give his seal of approval before posting it online. Turns out, he is a very busy man so I am patiently waiting to receive an email from him to let me know that the information is accurate and represents Canada Post in a positive light. In the meantime, I am throwing up these silly posts in an attempt to kill time while I wait.

I came upon another blog, "I Love Letters", that I am enjoying. This blog comes out of rural Australia and is easy to read and follow and has a very warm "feel" to it. 'Kaz' posts her address and welcomes letters. She promises to write back so if you feel like sending a letter to Australia, she's the one to send it to. I also came upon"A Postcard A Day." In her words: "I'm one of those people who has led a nomadic existence, and so did my parents. My father started collecting postcards as a way to continue this life at least in spirit when his wandering days were over. I'm continuing the collection and posting at least one, chosen more or less at random, each day." It's like taking a mini virtual vacation to places and times you may never have visited had it not been for this blog. Not only can you visit exotic places all over the world, many of the postcards are from long ago and due to the research that goes into each post, you feel like a time traveller. This is especially great for those of us who are home bound due to careers, commitments and children.

So, while I wait, why not have another awesome GIVEAWAY? No matter where you are in the world, you can win this GIVEAWAY. This time, TLWR is giving away a  Letter Writing Kit. Not only will you receive a package with all things you need for letter writing but a part of the gift will be personalized stationery courtesy of Inky Design of Ottawa, ON, Canada. To be eligible, you must be a follower of The Letter Writing Revolution blog and then all you have to do is leave a comment below to enter. Comment once per day if you wish until Wednesday, October 20th when the winner will be randomly selected and announced. I recently received personalized stationery from Inky Design and it is beautiful and classy! The winner will email me their address and before long you will receive a gift of all things stationery! This GIVEAWAY will be mailed to you wherever you may be.

On a final note, I recently made a decision to take a sabbatical from Facebook. I have never been into Twitter but I have found Facebook has slowly started to take control over my time. Reminds me of the way I used to have the odd cigarette and before long I was a pack-a-day smoker. I created a profile on Facebook about three years ago and now it is a habit that I check into several times per day. Gotta know if Karen P. is happy/sad/constipated/hungover, etc.or whether or not Janet L. is eating a bagel/bored or on her way to work. Seriously. When I actually thought about it, I realized that aside from the cool links and photos, I really waste a heck of a lot of time on there. I know, I know, I really could control my urges more and only allow myself 30-minutes per day on Facebook but I am an all-or-nothing kind of a gal and so I decided to just have a leave of absence and go "cold turkey" just as I did with my smoking habit 12 years ago. So far, so good. It's been 48 hours and aside from a handful of panicked comments, I haven't received any FB messages and I feel free. I have also accomplished a lot in the last couple of days as I am not getting distracted and losing pockets of time on Facebook. My sister said something to the effect of, "It will be interesting to see who your "friends" are when you're not so easily accessible on Facebook."

Sorry...couldn't resist.

I guess it's the false sense of connection that I get from Facebook and the weirdness I feel when I run into someone who I haven't seen in two years and they ask me about something I did a month ago. When I look at them with that twisted/confused look, they reply, "Oh, I read it on Facebook." That creeps me out and I think I want to return to real connection like phone calls and handwritten letters. This cartoon  was posted in the comments at Good Mail Day. Made me laugh.

One last thing..........
The other day, I asked a friend (during a chat on, you guessed it,  Facebook) for his snail mail address as I wanted to send a birthday invitation to his son for our daughter's birthday. A few minutes later, I received an email from him with his email address in the body of the message. Huh? I replied and explained that I needed his street address and postal code as I wanted to mail an invitation. His reply, "Oh! Weird. Paper. I remember that. We'll have to find our mailbox!"

Yep, time for a revolution. A Letter Writing Revolution.

Stationary Stationery

I just received a phone call from a man who knows everything there is to know about stationary. He is an expert in all things paper and makes his living selling paper products (i.e. writing paper, envelopes, ink, pens, cards, etc.) at a very cool store in Ottawa (watch for a special feature in an upcoming blog post). I am telling you, this guy knows his stuff. After hearing about TLWR, he checked out the blog.

Although we are planning to meet up in early September to talk about all things paper, I was surprised to get a call from him out of the blue this evening. He had something he wanted to share with me but feared appearing snobbish and hesitated to tell me some very important information. Here it is:

Stationary is actually Stationery........

That's right folks, when referring to paper and envelopes, the correct spelling ends with "ery" as opposed to "ary." Why is this so important? Well, in case you haven't read every single post on this blog, I have likely written this word incorrectly, oh, about 500 times!!!! I depend on my sisters to be the first readers to proofread each new post and even they didn't catch this. Better still, a dear friend who owns a custom invitation/stationery business also didn't know this. In fact, the paper guy estimates that probably 90% of the population spells this word the wrong way when referring to letter writing paper and envelopes. The "other" spelling  with the "ary" refers to something that isn't moving. I suppose then technically, stationery is stationary.......

Now I must embark on the task of reading through every single blog post since June 16th and make these corrections. One of my pet peeves is reading obvious spelling errors and grammatical flaws in blogs (in anything for that matter). I am so grateful that this was brought to my attention and I will now undo 30 years of incorrectly spelling this word and start spelling stationary as stationery.

Here's an easy way to remember:

When something is standing still, it’s stationary. That piece of paper you write a letter on is stationery. Let the “E” in “stationery” remind you of “envelope" or the "ER" in stationery remind you of the "papER."

Watch for a guest post coming soon!

TLWR News of the Week

Friday has arrived in a flash and I want to share with all of you some of the cool things happening at The Letter Writing Revolution headquarters.

First off, I have been pumping out letters like a mad woman in the last couple of weeks and there are more to write today. Keep an eye on your mailboxes and you, too, will find a letter from me.....if you are a part of the Challenge. Secondly, I have not only been writing letters but receiving them as well which is like waking a dormant part of myself. I walk to our post office and get this joyful feeling when I spy an envelope that isn't a bill or junk mail. As TLWR grows, so does the number of letters I receive. It is a great bonus of being head of a revolution like this one.

The third highlight of the week was when I received an email from a blog follower who happened to come across my blog through various links. She requested a letter from me as a part of the challenge. She is following from Kentucky, USA. Very cool that the revolution is reaching places beyond my friends and relatives home addresses :-)

The fourth highlight of the week was when I checked my Blog Stats last night and discovered that in this week alone, this blog has been viewed from all over Canada and the U.S.A but also viewed from far away places like the Netherlands, Germany, Vietnam, Afghanistan and India. How awesome is that??? Maybe "my" soldier that I wrote to did receive my letter and is now checking out the blog.

And finally, last but not least, I arrived home yesterday to an email from Jen over at Pen and Prosper urging me to check out her blog post. She had chosen four bookmark-worthy blogs and TLWR was one of them! I am pretty thrilled about that as it is a huge compliment to have my blog admired by someone I have only met recently online AND to have this blog exposed to more people. Every little bit helps the revolution to grow. Thanks, Jen!

Oh, wait......one more highlight of the week........my mom just showed up with a little gift for me of a roll of Canadian stamps (60 of them!!) to help out with my letter writing. Thanks, mom!!

On that note, wherever you may be, have a wonderful weekend and find some time to write at least one letter to make someone's day! And as always, if you haven't become a follower, please do so and please also share this blog with your friends and family. Who knows? Maybe they will be inspired to write YOU a letter.