patience made | letter writing kits

when i read about the craft it forward challenge, i knew exactly what i wanted to make. i put these letter writing kits together in a haphazard manner using my new sewing machine and lots of school glue. i also had those beautiful papers i've been wanting to use and they seemed to suit the nature of this project. the table of contents will tell you all that's inside and i've photographed some of the pages. my favourite are the "embellishments" and "washi tape" pages. now, this may spoil the surprise for those of you that signed up for my craft it forward...but since i forgot to write a note or something in the package, i thought this might solve a bit of the mystery for you - i hope you enjoy!!

p.s. don't forget to check out the $1 writing paper sale before it's over! happy letter writing week!

introduction about letter writing

table of contents

embellishments and washi tape for envelope decoration

an address book and envelopes

another example of embellishments and tape in a different colour scheme

free canadian postage + address labels and envelope seals

canadian mailing rates and a note about mail art

creators | printable calendars

lately i've been feeling a distinct ache in my heart. when i was in high school and university i used a daily planner. agenda, datebook, calendar - call it whatever you like but we were inseparable! and in fact i plan to post images here one day of my high school agendas. they don't just contain my math homework but also stickers, quizzes, daily thoughts, cartoons and notes from every friend i had - like little time capsules! but since buying an iphone a few years ago, it's made having a planner entirely redundant. and so i had to choose! guess who won?

but my husband and i have been keeping a fridge calendar in the past six months. it's a great way to keep track of appointments and to share our schedule with each other (we have jobs that don't start and end at the same time every day). it's a pretty basic printable calendar and it occured to me that there might be something better out there! 

and there is - etsy of course! i like the ones below, i just have to decide which!

my muse comes and goes calendar

bubbo calendar

flapper doodle calendar

sacred and profane calendar

art | paula baader

i think i literally spent ten minutes decided which pieces by paula baader to share with you today. she has one collection on saatchi online with a very cool abstract "joan miro" vibe but there was also these circle images. and you know what? they just made me downright happy.

musings | observation+love (a valentines gift idea)

there's one gift that i have always wanted from my partner. and like most people, since i want it so bad - i give him various versions of it. it's the most heartfelt, unique and thoughtful gift i can think of.

are you curious yet?

image via

around this time six years ago when i was in university, i made a collection of folded miniature red origami stars. you know the kind - you make them with one long strip of paper and write secret messages inside. i made about sixty and inside, on each strip of paper was a reason i love him. some big things, other's small details. i presented them to him in a jar on valentines day and he opened one a day for two months. doesn't that sound awesome? to wake up each day and get to see a reason your partner loves you (at the time we lived an hour apart so it worked even better). i mean come on - that's a great gift!

you can put pen to paper and write out as many as you can. or, you can take more time - over a period of about month or so write down a thought in your notebook or smartphone whenever you think "i love when..." or "i love how..." (start now for valentines day!) things like "i love how kind you are" is good, but a better example would be "i love how polite you are to cashiers at fast food restaurants" or "i love when you offer to make me hot chocolate every evening." (real life examples of why i love my husband, yay!). because isn't it the specifics that we really want to hear? we all want to know why someone feels about us the way they do and if it's more precise, it's easier to know why they choose to be with you (and not someone else is is also kind). i think deep down, we all just really want someone to know us and our little quirks (good and bad).

so again, here's a video. and as it recommends, you should make the strips a bit smaller...it's actually easier when the paper is tighter together. have fun and let me know how it goes.

*crossing my fingers that i receive this for v-day. anyone wanna send this link to my husband??

universal letter writing week

happy letter writing week!

no seriously, it's a thing.

last year i celebrated in a big way by collaborating with kate of scathingly brilliant. we used her awesome flapper doodle images of woman playing telephone and using typewriters - on my stationery. this year i have something equally as brilliant...if perhaps a little more low key (and obvious!)

lined writing paper! and to encourage you to send a letter to a loved one or friend - i'm bringing back the very successful $1 writing paper sale!

for the duration of universal letter writing week, all writing paper in my shop is half off!

shop writing paper now

p.s. stay tuned for something new and awesome i'm working on - inspired by letter writing week and my handmade creation for craft it forward! (see last post)

patience made | craft it forward

creator | frankie magazine

this is a love letter. you know how important letters and words are to me, so i don't write love letters to just anyone. but frankie deserves every beautiful adjective i can contrive.

when i was younger i used to read magazines like ym and seventeen. as i got older i delved into more "mature" material such as cosmopolitan and even maxim. i was always an avid reader of fiction novels and yet when it came to my magazine collection i followed the crowd and picked up the same thing as everyone else. i see now that those magazines are cluttered with mindless junk - suggestions for over-priced make up, faaaar too much advertising, "embarrassing moments" and always one shoddy effort at a "real story" somewhere near the back pages.

goodness me there is a lot of quotations/implications in this post so far.

what i'm trying to say that is i have discovered frankie. and therefore i have discovered that magazines can be interesting, inspiring, creative and emotionally touching. they can have unique, beautiful photographs and well written odes to life, love and art. and hey, it doesn't hurt that each issue comes with a beautiful goody (art! calendars! wrapping paper!)

it's heartbreaking really, that frankie is written and printed in australia*, making it difficult to find here in canada (and the states too?). i'm usually two months behind the current issue but find myself immensely excited to read each and every one i can get my hands on. i read slowly and try to make the deliciousness last as long as possible. if i could, and if the shipping was not so disturbingly high, i would purchase as many back issues as i could.

the most difficult part about reading frankie? deciding whether to save each issue in pristine condition...or to cut out all of the beautiful images and patterns and use them for mail art!!

*a special shout-out to my other australian love - yen magazine. it's easier to find so look for it!

art | tidying up art

over the holiday i watched a bunch of ted talks. i was beyond delighted when swiss comedian/artist/photographer ursus wehrli began tidying up art during his talk. the fact that i was drawn to this idea of tidying up art was very interesting to me. in general, the things i don't appreciate about fashion, decor and design....i love in art. for example, colour, clutter and asymmetricality* are things that i hate in real life but love to see in artwork. that's one of the reasons i am so drawn to modern and contemporary art. and yet, when wehrli starting decluttering artworks and piling up the resultant pieces based on size and colour...my heart suddenly felt at ease.

what i just said is true...but i feel obligated to note that this is more for comedic value rather than a real proposal (right ursus??). i tried to find some images but couldn't and figured i would just let this hilarious video/swiss man do the talking!

* spell check is insisting that this is not a word but i think it fits perfectly.

musings | texting vs. notes

when i was younger, specifically when i was a youth, we wrote notes to each other in class. and not only did we write them, we folded them into complex shapes and wrote cryptic messages on them like "FYEO" and "WBASAP." truly - note writing was a whole...production! it passed the time, and made us feel wiley beneath the teacher's watchful eye (they'll never know what we're doing...they'll never be able to unfold this contraption or decode "FYEO").

so i thought...since i make writing paper and envelopes for one person to write notes to another...wouldn't it be cute to have stationery with all those acronyms on them? except when i went looking for them online all i could find was today's acronyms for text messaging. sites that cater to parents wanting to understand their child's world. and it occurred to me that of course girls don't do note writing nowadays. i mean, i don't know the rules of cellphones in high school but why would you write a note when you could just text your girlfriend? and apparently, although there are only a small handful, these acronyms below are the last vestige of days gone by.

tell me which ones you remember, which ones you like best and which you think would look great on envelopes and writing paper!

FYEO
for your eyes only

AFK
away from the keyboard (this one isn't vintage, i just thought it would be ironic)

ASAP
as soon as possible

CNP
continue in the next post (again, irony - because post is one of those that became a tech word but is also a pun for the mail/post)

CWYL
chat with you later

DQMOT
don’t quote me on this

DTC
darn the (this) computer (not irony...just straight up honesty!)

F2F
face to face

GTTU
good talking to you

IRMFI
i reply merely for information

KIT
keep in touch

LAK
love and kisses

MWBRL
more will be revealed later

SWAK
sealed with a kiss

TMI
too much information

TOY
thinking of you

TTYL
talk to you later

TWMA
till we meet again

WBS
write back soon

suggestions:

TTFN
ta ta for now!

LYLAS
love ya like a sister

snail mail | vintage books, florals + belle & boo!

i've been having so much fun with my new "toys"! and by toys, i mean papers, tapes and embellishments. using some floral and vintage style papers, i created the pieces below. i hope they make both the post people and the receivers happy. they should arrive just after all the pretty holiday shipments have ended!

with all of my long distance holiday gifts, i included my note on one of these beautiful winter themed belle & boo postcards. i am so in love with this belle & boo stationery that i just bought some more in their etsy shop!