Snail mail: how to make mail pretty

More mail went into the postbox for you guys today. This is such a fun project for me, though I think I'll need to mix it up and do something different for the next post (I'm not sure what yet, time to do some thinking!). I've had a few people ask me how they're done, so here you go.

First, I wrap each parcel in brown paper, using several layers to be sure the book underneath doesn't show through, and making sure to tape all the edges and add extra tape to each corner, to protect it as it travels across the country and all around the world.

The pictures aren't stamps, I draw them (which is why some of the drawings are so wonky), taking inspiration from what I might know about the recipient or anything they've told me in the comments box, or else just choosing something from my world or imagination, as it takes my fancy. I'm clearly no artist but thankfully people seem to appreciate the effort and the novelty and forgive the lack of talent! I outline the drawings with black pen and sometimes use watercolour paints if I want to to add colour. I always go over the lettering in the addresses a couple of times after painting on the colour, to ensure it stands out for the postie.

When the paint is dry, I stamp the back with my address, created in this lovely design by Simple and Pretty. Then I wrap the parcel in string, and drip sealing wax over the place where the string crosses over to stop it from sliding around.

Wax is a tricky customer to use because it often catches alight, or drips (and sets) unevenly. My trick is to hold the wax stick upright, at about a 45 degree angle, rather than tilting it any lower. You just have to be patient and allow the wax to slowly drip down. It does eventually speed up with time. I let the wax drip in small circles, starting from the inside and working my way out, until it's the size I want. I blow out the wick while I'm still holding it over the mail, because it still has a couple of drips left in it and if I move it away too soon, drops fall elsewhere across the mail (or the table).

If you are using a wax seal (mine is an ornate letter N), wait about 10 or 20 seconds before pressing the seal into the middle of the wax. Then wait maybe another 20 seconds and lift it off in a peeling motion. Make sure you don't touch the wax or put anything on it for a few minutes after that, to be sure it has time to set hard.

These are the results from the latest batch. I hope the recipients enjoy them.

ps. You can see more pretty mail here pps. If you'd like me to send you my book Airmail in the post and make it look pretty, simply subscribe to this blog and fill out the form on the same page

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you're still keen to read Airmail, there's a list of stockists here.

The postcard project

Last week my dear friend Deb dropped in for a visit and she brought a little gift, this pack of 52 assorted miniature postcards. I love them! Now I am spoiled for choice as to what to do with them. What do you think?

I thought perhaps I could wrap them up in tiny envelopes and send them out as surprise mail to friends and bloggers I admire.

Or write little snippets of poetry on them and leave them behind in public places, like park benches, cafe tables and shop windows, for strangers to find.

Maybe I could send them out to you guys, in batches of five or six, with stamps and envelopes. And I'll ask you to leave them behind at different cafes or at the airport or anywhere else you go, with a note on each asking people to write something and post it back to me. That could be interesting, right?

I don't know, I'm sure you guys will have some creative ideas. Any suggestions as to how I can best use these beautiful, tiny postcards?

Letters of note

On Christmas Eve I wrote a tiny letter to Madeleine, tied it up with red ribbon, and slid it into a Christmas bauble with some glitter and coloured confetti. It was a very simple letter. I just told her some bits and pieces about her first Christmas, since she wouldn't remember it herself. Where we lived, how we would start the day, all our visits with family and friends. I told her about the friends who were coming for brunch, and how we would pick up her big sister from the airport at lunch time. I told her about how her five-year-old cousin Livvy had special clothes posted to us ahead of time so that Madeleine could wear them when we visited and the girls would have matching outfits. I told her about our tree and her presents. I told her how gloriously fat her little legs were, and how much she liked to laugh. I told her how much she was loved.

The bauble was decorated on the outside with a big M for Madeleine and 1 for her first Christmas. Each year, I'll make a new bauble, and write a new letter.

This morning at six o'clock while I was feeding Madeleine and flicking through the Internet on my iPhone, I discovered a stunning blog called Letters of Note, which curates and republishes funny, profound, touching and unusual letters written by famous people throughout the ages. Here is a letter written by journalist and diplomat Walter H. Page to his infant grandson, on the grandson's first Christmas. Page's letter is somewhat more witty and intelligent than mine to M, I must say.

Whenever you next have time on your hands, have a browse through this blog. But a word of caution: it is very, very addictive.

Snail mail: lovely letters

I've been spending some time during my Christmas break sending books and letters to you guys, the lovely subscribers to my blog, to say thank you. As you probably know, I like to draw pictures on the mail I send. These are a few of my latest favourites. If you want to see more, I've created an album on my Facebook page. If you'd like me to send some mail to you, you just need to subscribe to this blog and fill in the form on the same page. I'll send you a copy of my book Airmail in a lovely package.

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you're still keen to read Airmail, there's a list of stockists here.

Pigeon post

Good morning, how was your weekend? Mine was all about brunches and baby smiles, Christmas trees and coffee, a visit to the Big Design Market and a walk through the city. I thought this cute little film might work as an antidote if you're suffering from Mondayitis.

Airmail from Sabah Nicolas on Vimeo.

ps. You can still win a handy Target voucher OR a present from me on this post

Snail mail: pictures in the post

A little while ago I promised to post copies of my novella, Airmail, to anyone who subscribed to my blog, until the "party box" I have sitting in my home ran out. Lately I've been having all kinds of fun drawing little pictures on the book-packages before I send them out. Here's what I'm popping in the mail this week.

UPDATE 2017: Unfortunately I no longer have copies of this book to send out, but I do host other mail projects throughout the year. The best way to find out about these projects is to subscribe to my free email newsletter, which includes monthly mail-art templates, and the tips, projects and ideas around slow-living activities. 

If you're in the mood for even more letter-writing inspiration, I want to remind you about my letter-writing and mail-art e-course, "The Most Beautiful Letter You Have Ever Written." 

Over four weeks, I will guide you through multiple methods of making beautiful mail-art and creative, handmade stationery; teach you the art of writing and storytelling; help you forge personal connections in your letters and find pen-pals if you want them; and share time-management tips so even the busiest people can enjoy sending and receiving letters. There's also a host of downloadable resources, and access to my own private mail-art pen-pal group. Registrations are open right now, and you can find out more here. 

Let's talk about pen pals

A year ago or maybe a bit longer I picked up a book in a second-hand store. According to the pencil marks inside, I paid $10 for it. I had never heard of the book, and the only reason it caught my eye was because the cover was remarkably similar to that of my own book Airmail, which had just been published. The book was called 84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff. I thought at the time it was fiction, but it turned out to be so much more.

It was a book of letters, spanning 20 years, between Helene Hanff, a kind-hearted, sharp-witted, book-loving writer living in New York, and various members of staff (and in time their families) of Marks & Co Booksellers, a London dealer in rare out-of-print and antiquarian books.

"Dear Madam," the Marks & Co manager wrote to Helene on 25 October, 1949, "The three Hazlitt essays you want are contained in the Nonesuch Press edition of his Selected Essays and the Stevenson is found in Virginibus Puerisque. We are sending nice copies of both these by Book Post and we trust they will arrive safely in due course..." All very formal and proper.

Then on November 3, Helene replied:

"The books arrived safely, the Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my orange-crate bookshelves, I'm almost afraid to handle such soft vellum and heavy cream-colored pages... I never knew a book could be such a joy to the touch... A Britisher whose girl lives upstairs translated the £1/17/6 for me and says I owe you $5.30 for the two books. I hope he got it right... Will you please translate your prices hereafter? I don't add too well in plain American, I haven't a prayer of ever mastering bilingual arithmetic."

In a postscript she added, "I hope 'madam' doesn't mean over there what it does here."

And so a friendship was born.

A month later on 8 December 1949, still not even knowing the name of the person to whom she wrote, Helene sent a letter enclosing payment for another order, and added:

"Now then. Brian [British boy friend of Kay upstairs] told me you are all rationed to 2 ounces of meat per family per week and one egg per person per month and I am simply appalled. He has a catalogue from a British firm here which flies food from Denmark to his mother, so I am sending a small Christmas present to Marks & Co. I hope there will be enough to go round, he says the Charing Cross Road bookshops are 'all quite small.'"

What a thoughtful woman Helene must have been. Can you imagine? But wait, there's more. Turn the page: 9 December, 1949.

"CRISIS! I sent that package off. The chief item in it was a 6-pound ham, I figured you could take it to a butcher and get it sliced up so everybody would have some to take home. But I just noticed on your last invoice it says. 'B. Marks. M. Cohen.' Props. ARE THEY KOSHER? I could rush a tongue over. ADVISE PLEASE!"

Anyway, the book is adorable. Inspiring. Heartwarming. When it ended, somewhat abruptly and sadly, I discovered there was a second story in my little paperback. Called The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, this is Helene's diary from when, in 1971, she finally made it to London to set foot on the old streets she had longed walk all her life, and meet some of the friends she had made after 20 years of being pen pals.

If you love books, love snail mail, love friendship, try to find yourself a copy. You'll thank me.

Meanwhile, these photographs are from a package I received in the mail yesterday from my own pen pal, Astrid (of Etsy shop Flora Likes Soap), who lives in Germany. She writes to me about her life, her studies, her travels in Italy and Switzerland and Sweden, the books she loves, and how her family celebrates at various times of year. I love receiving these letters, and slowly getting to know Astrid as a person through her words and thoughtful gifts.

Do you have any pen pals? Tell me your snail mail stories!

Thinking of you

I sent two little "thinking of you" boxes to friends last week, inspired by this post on B for Bel. I do enjoy sending letters and packages to friends in the mail. We talk a lot about how email killed post, and say we long for the days of old-fashioned mail. But I'm starting to think that email may have actually saved post.

Once upon a time, letters were something almost depressing, consisting mostly of towering piles of paper bills. Now, most of those bills arrive via email. And in the mail, instead, we send and receive little surprises to and from friends! For me, it's like the removal of those bills from my letterbox created the emotional space to rediscover and really enjoy the mail process.

Here is another adorable mail project. Two friends post one wooden box back and forth to each other, each time filling it with little gifts and notes and ephemera. Isn't that a lovely idea?

More mail

Good morning, friend. I am in an excellent mood today, due to the fact that we had Em down to visit us this weekend, and we spent a beautiful two days during which we did very little indeed. But they were days full of love, and just right. I managed to find the time to finish wrapping some parcels for the post, including gifts from Madeleine for five of her cousins in Bendigo. As the littlest member of the family Madeleine is in considerable demand, and her cousins fight one another over who gets to cuddle and kiss her the most. This is something she does not appear to mind one bit.

The last time we went down for a visit, they all requested "Madeleine souvenirs." Each of them held her, one at a time, while I took photographs ("Use the big camera, not the iPhone"). And now I am posting them the results: mugs, t-shirts, playing cards, notepads and magnets, all with a photo of a cousin holding Madeleine on it.

(We sent a pack of the playing cards with Madeleine on the back of them to Nanna a while back. The kids love to play with them, and are particularly fond of the game they now call "Madeleine Snap").

I also had time to wrap and send another batch of free copies of Airmail to the lovely, lovely folk who subscribe to this blog. If you'd like a copy, there are still some left so you can go here for more information (this giveaway is open to people who have already subscribed as well as new subscribers).

How was your weekend? Busy? Relaxed? Existential? Tell me all about it...

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you’re still keen to read Airmail, there’s a list of stockists here.

*  *  *

And here's what you might have missed last week:

* This video is stunningly simple and beautiful * A rooftop vegetable patch in the city * The pop-up picnic action plan * Links R US

Spring giveaway

Dear friend,

This is the easiest giveaway you will ever enter, because you are guaranteed to win. I'm giving away a copy of my award-winning novella Airmail to everyone who subscribes to this blog. And if you've already subscribed, you can still get the freebie anyway.

Just go here for more details and to enter. I'll pop your free book in the post.

Tell all your friends! These ladies are dancing for joy.

Yours truly, Naomi xo

(image licensed under creative commons, from here)

UPDATE 5 July 2014: as of today I have run out of copies of Airmail to send you. However I would still love to send you something nice by snail-mail to say thank you for reading this blog, and I will still do my best to make it look pretty. If you have subscribed to this blog (or you want to), simply fill in your postal details on this page. And if you're still keen to read Airmail, there's a list of stockists here.