Just a little electronic note that some pen pal matches will be delayed while Kathy is away on her honeymoon. She won't be gone long and she did do a ton of matches before she left. Please be patient. Part of the fun of mail is the wait. No, really, I mean that.
P.S. Awesome photo is from Shorpy, and was sent to us by my pen pal Terry! Thanks Terry! Shorpy has piles and piles of great pictures from yesteryear if you're into that sort of thing.
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On April 14th, the Letter Writers Alliance reached 2,500 members! Donovan and I both thought we were the only one who cared about letter writing anymore until we met each other and started the Alliance. Now we have over 2,500 card carrying letter writers proving that letters are still awesome.
While I am on the topic of awesome mail, although we send you all thank you notes back, I would like to publicly express just how important your thank you letters are to us. The LWA is something Donovan and I do in our "spare" time and we keep at it because we love it and truly believe letter writers around the world need to know there are other like-minded folks out there. We are working at making the sense of the LWA Community stronger between members, because you all are quite amazing people. We see that everyday with the awesome letters you send us. Thank you for sending us these notes and thank you for making the LWA awesome.
-Kathy & Donovan
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RSVP #8 is now up for purchase on the member site.
Members log in to grab one up for yourself.
This series' theme is Stamp Collecting.
There are only 10 sets available. SOLD OUT!
For those who do not know what R.S.V.P. is: The Royal Society of Venturesome Parcels program is a themed mailing over four weeks, one package each week. Each weekly package has secret items in them for your postal enjoyment. The last series sold out in a few hours. This particular set is very dear to Donovan's heart and we both look forward to sharing her stamp collecting love with you.
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Our latest Royal Society of Venturesome Parcels project is going on sale at 7PM CST on Wednesday, April 11th. The theme is....
For those who do not know what R.S.V.P. is: The Royal Society of Venturesome Parcels program is a themed mailing over four weeks, one package each week. Each weekly package has secret items in them for your postal enjoyment. The last series sold out in a few hours. This particular set is very dear to my heart and I look forward to sharing my stamp collecting love with you.
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I try not to be that person. You know the one- the person who has a bad experience somewhere and creates a Yelp profile just to whine about it; the unashamed "squeaky wheel" consumerist complainer. I do my best to be understanding, to be patient, to be supportive.
But sometimes, sometimes I have had a drink or two and I'm really excited to, say, use some new printed tape that I just picked out. I make a lot of mail art, and I've been around a washi tape roll or twelve. I know how to "operate" tape. Imagine my increasing frustration as my new tape just keeps ripping into unusable little shreds instead of neatly lifting from the roll. I was so dissapointed that I tweeted about it. {This is the exciting stuff that happens on my Twitter feed; see what you're missing?} Then, to make myself feel better, I wrote a note to the company.
The company we're talking about is Cavallini & Co. They make beautiful, quality things. I've always enjoyed my purchases from them in the past. Perhaps that's part of why I was so upset about this tape catastrophe. It's the hallmark of a great company that, when they received my note, they contacted me and apologized. There had been some glue issues with the manufacturing, but they'd gotten them fixed and would I like some replacement tape? That's excellent customer service in action. Other companies, take note.
However, I'm upset with myself. I didn't write Cavallini a letter to tell them just how great I think they are; no, I waited until I had a "I think you're great, but..." letter to send. That's unacceptable. I am going to make an effort to write at least once a month to a company that I think is doing a good job. I'd suggest everyone do so. Let's not just send more mail; let's send more positive mail.
In that spirit, I'm going to do a little tape giveaway, courtesy of Cavallini. To enter, leave a comment with a company you think is doing a great job. You don't have to write them a letter to enter, but just give them a little shout out. I'll randomly pick a winner on Friday the 16th at 9AM. **CLOSED** Our winner is commentor #6: Thequietscribe AKA Sam R.Thanks to Cavallini for the tape and thanks to you for reading. And, yes, I did send them a thank you note.
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Donovan & I have been working hard on the Community aspect of the Letter Writers Alliance. We know that members want to know who they share their badge with, so we have been creating a "Our Community" section in the member site.
This section is still in the works, so until it is ready, I thought you all would be interested in an infographic about who makes the Letter Writers Alliance community. Hope you like it! - Kathy
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We recently asked you all to participate in a decorated envelope, or "cover" in philatellic terms, contest to celebrate that we had reached 2000 members. The gallery was put up on Flickr for voting and they were all great, but it's, you know, a contest; so the winner was determined by the number of unique comments left on the photo. Super-scientific processes over here at Headquarters, you guys. I have carefully ennumerated all of the comments and determined that our grand prize winner is:
Second Place:
Our grand prize winner will recieve an LWA felt award and a collection of Cavallini printed tape, all to know how awesome they are at making neat things and to make new neat things. Our runner up will also recieve some Cavallini tape! Yay for multiple prizes. Yay for contests. Yay for mail art. Yay for eveyone who participated. I hope it was enjoyable for everyone and that we can do it again sometime.
P.S. I have a mail story to tell you about this Cavallini tape...
P.P.S. Don't forget to write some letters with us Saturday for your chance to win issue 12 of Uppercase!
Sat., March 3rd • 3pm - 6pm
Read/Write Library
914 N. California | Chicago, IL 60622
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Because of our love for all things pigeon, we will be giving away the current issue of Uppercase magazine this weekend at our Letter Social!
What do you have to do for a chance to win the current issue? Show-up this Saturday and write a letter with us. Here is the info:
Sat., March 3rd • 3pm - 6pm
Read/Write Library
914 N. California | Chicago, IL 60622
Donovan & I have also been spending some photoshoot time with new LWA items that will be released soon. Here is a sneak peek:
Hope to see you at the social!
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We received some fantastic entries to our cover contest and they are all up on Flickr. Please leave a comment on Flickr on your favorite- one comment per person, per piece please. That means you can vote for more than one, but don't vote more than once for each one. I don't think they've been up long enough for a good vote; so I'm extending the voting through the end of the month. There will be a GRAND PRIZE and two LESS GRAND BUT STILL GOOD PRIZES. Oh, and some are back and front pictures. If you comment on both pictures, it will only count as one vote, to be fair.
Got it? Great! Go vote!
-Donovan
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L.W.A. Member and maker of awesome stuff inspired by postal ephemera, Sugene, contacted me about doing a little giveaway for members for Valentines. Simply leave a comment here with your favorite Valentine memory to be entered to win this fantastic Valentine collage pack from her Etsy shop, All This is Mine.
We'll pick a random winner on the 14th. **The winner was commentor number 14, Carter!** But wait, there's more. Sugene is also offering a discount code in her shop through the end of the month. It's LWAGIFT and is good for 10% off. Plus, any order in her shop before the 10th of February will be entered into another raffle for some vintage postage stamps.
She just keeps uping the awesome! We'll have a little more from Sugene later on too. She's got an eye for the postal in our world.
-Donovan
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Letter Socials:
TBA
Host your own Social!
Tips on how right here.
Then email us to add your social to the LWA calendar.
Copy and paste the code to add the LWA button to your website or blog.
