Letterbox romance (link pack)

My fingers are cramping up! I have been writing letters. With, you know, my whole hands, rather than just my fingertips. I have been slipping the letters into envelopes. Then I have been making little pencil drawings on the envelopes, with the addresses, and tracing over them with black pen and painting them and highlighting them with the black pen again. My hands really are cramping, but it's worth it. Tomorrow I will pop my letters and decorated envelopes into the post for more of you lovely folks.

Ah, snail mail. Maybe instead of worrying about email killing the post (after all, video never did actually kill the radio star), we should celebrate it. Let's leave the speedy deliverance of bills and business to the digital world, and reclaim our letterboxes for something lovely, and handmade.

And as if you needed them (surely you don't!), here are 11 links to get you excited about writing and pen pals and the romance of the post.

* What a beautiful initiative. People in Switzerland can buy stickers for their mailboxes to display which household goods they are willing to lend to their neighbours

* One day I want to put together a sunshine basket to post to a friend

* Beautiful handmade ink stamps of your artwork or handwriting

* In this initiative, people write "love letters" and leave them in public places for strangers to find. Here is a response from someone who found a love letter

* How cute is this tiny, mobile printing press!

* Do you send thank-you notes? I thought this article in the New York Times was interesting

* Dress up your digital world with snail mail art

* Our mail gets dumped all over the house (except the pretty mail sent to me!). I love this mailbox organiser from the MoMA store!

* Writers and their typewriters. Love this print!

* My new blog crush! The Postcard Swap is full of handmade postcards sent around the world

* Would you try this? Cristina Vanko wrote only handwritten messages to her friends (no texts, no emails) for seven days