I Wrote a book!

Celebrating the release of my new book, A Letter A Week, with my family ~ January 8, 2022

A Letter A Week is a 104-page journal book that allows you to log 52 handwritten letters that you write throughout a year. There are tips and ideas on who and what to write.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org. I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Below are other retailers you can order the book from.

For a signed author copy or to order wholesale, please email me at julie@aletteraweek.com.

Who is this book for?

• People who enjoy writing letters
• People who write once in a while and would like to be more consistent
• People who would like a yearlong challenge
• The person who needs to unplug from electronics more often
• Those who know people in their life that would benefit from reading a letter
• The person who rarely picks up a pen and would like to connect to more people

The book will also:

• Improve connections with people without email or texts
• Be mindful while thinking of others
• Show how important the recipient is to the sender
• Share gratitude towards others
• Have a keepsake to treasure for years

Order your copy today and get ready for a year of writing handwritten letters!

GIVEAWAY!

Check out my Instagram page for random stamp and other merchandise giveaways!

Thank you for supporting A Letter A Week!

My first magazine feature

I attended Westmont College and was contacted by the editor of their magazine because they wanted to write and a short article about my passion for handwritten letters.  At the time after talking to some friends I thought about starting a local letter bundle project and so I purchased the domain, letterbundles.com.   After a few months and mentioning it in the interview, I gave it a lot of thought and decided to not reinvent the wheel, even though I was thinking of writing letters locally in Southern California where I live.  Again, after much thought, I would rather people support other great organizations that are already established and that I have personally supported.   So, if you read the Westmont article and especially liked the last paragraph, click here to write letters for The World Needs More Love Letters.

Here are some other ones you might enjoy, too:

Girls Love Mail is an organization that writes to newly diagnosed cancer patients.

Letters of Love was started by a teenage boy!  It’s a great way to write to seniors who may be in need of a friendly letter.

And, here is one of my favorite organizations, where they list a few more letter writing sites.

 

Thanks for all your support and though I’m not very active with the blog and Instagram these days, especially after reading this book and then this book …

Lastly, if you are in need of high-quality stationery you can support me and click here 🙂 It will help my stamp fund for when I speak to classes and leave them with stationery and a stamp!

At a recent school presentation about why handwritten letters are still important!

A 5th-grade student writing a letter to a relative after hearing my talk.

 

April is National Letter Writing Month!

Here we go!  Get out some pens, cards, and stationery!   Who are you going to write this month?  I’m doing the #30lettersin30dayschallenge with #write_on!   Even if you don’t do all 30 days, how wonderful to think of others and surprise them with a letter.  Let me know who you will the lucky people are that will receive letters from you!   I’m going to think outside the box a bit.  Stay tuned!

1,000 views! Thanks for watching my TEDx talk!

Thank you all who have watched my TEDxCamarillo talk about the gift and power of handwritten letters!  It has been fun getting letters, reading comments about how the talk inspired people to write and hearing stories about how it triggered memories about special letters from you!   National Letter Writing Month is right around the corner.  I’ll write more about that next time!

You’ll want in on this deal …

This is why I love Embossed Graphics Stationery:  For the month of January, you can get TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE  (or if you prefer the word BOGO) of note cards, folded notes, letter sheets or gift enclosures.

These are the current correspondence cards that I’m using. They are perfect for a thank you thinking of you or a short letter.

Why A Letter A Week?

A Letter A Week was created to inspire myself and others to write someone at least once a week.  The possibilities are endless of who we can write.

Though many consider it a lost art, I will forever write as long as I’m able.  There’s a simple yet, most personal connection with one’s own writing, sealing an envelope and dropping the letter in a mailbox.  Once a letter leaves us it is up to the receiver to let the gift of the letter carry on.

Some friends drone on to me about how there’s no need to write when we have instant communication through texting and social media.  I don’t care.  It’s classy, it’s timeless, and many still enjoy receiving a handwritten letter.

I’ll be updating this site regularly as I will speaking at Tedx Camarillo about letter writing next month.  Until then, grab some personalized stationery and let me know who you write!

~Julie

A letter a week on Instagram

I’ve decided to just have an Instagram account for all things letter writing for now.  When my book is ready I’ll definitely be back on this site as the name of the book is … A letter a week.

So, if you are reading this please jump over to Instagram and follow me at @aletteraweek.

April 1 started the #write_on 30 letters in 30 days challenge so I encourage you to dive in–even if it’s only a letter or two.

Writeoncampaign.com is full of ideas on who you can write to over the month.

Happy National Letter Writing Month and I’ll see you over on Instagram.

-Julie

Do you save cards and letters?

Long time no blog!

Here are photos of my bulletin board before and after from this afternoon.  I enjoy having them up on my board to remind me of the wonderful friends and family I have and those who like to keep in touch through written correspondence.   Every couple months I take down cards that I put up and put in a file.  At the end of the year I’ll go back through them and either toss them or hang on to them.  All mood driven.  I’m a big fan of  The Minimalists, but believe you can still have the memory of something even though you no longer have the tangible item (sorry mom, I tossed the peacock glass Christmas display thingy you made for me years ago–but see, I still remember it).  😉

        

I went to Europe last month and enjoyed sending postcards from the Netherlands and Belgium.  One afternoon friends had to wait for me to go to the post office to get stamps.  They couldn’t believe how much I spent on postage, but I figure if I didn’t spend it on that it would have been for some meaningless souvenir…Here is a photo of my postcard and stamps.  The other photo is from the post office where I think the USPS could increase revenues if they had a number system like they did in Belgium.  So, I picked # 301.  When I looked up at the screen it was #290 so I perused through the stationery racks and supplies they had there.  Let’s just say I purchased more than just postcard stamps.

Of course I thought the stamps were lovely.  In Belgium they were beautiful butterflies and in the Netherlands they were of bikes, cows and tulips.    I know I returned home before these arrived, but it’s still fun for me to send to friends and relatives.

Happy June!  I’ll be posting more soon.   Until then, I’m just wondering–do you purchase postcards when you travel?  Do you save cards and letters?  Regardless, I hope you find time to write someone even if it’s just to say hello.

Who I am writing today …

After reading Roxanne’s blog, A More Creative Me a few days ago, I wondered what my “vision” for this blog was.  Is it really letters just because (I know I shouldn’t use just like I do, but too bad because I’m not an English major and I’m not trying to win an award blogging) or is it to keep an ongoing record of who I write to and why?  Who knows where the vision or direction of my blog will go this year, I am open to letting it unfold however it may, all letter writing related of course.

A thank you card is in order today for the wonderful Sarah from the concierge’s desk at the hotel where we stayed who so kind to not only put flower petals on our bed, but also arranged for this lovely display to be in our room upon arrival.   Loved it!  We had a wonderful time (minus the Green Bay Packer loss) and are blessed to be able to take little getaways as much as we do.

So, I’m in the gift shop and had to (!) purchase some cards.  Remember my last post where I said it was nice to get a pack of cards at Target for $3.00?  Well, these are on the higher end of the scale at $6.00 a piece. What can I say other than I am a visual and tactile girl.  The photo below does not do justice to the thick quality cardstock and letterpress indentations. Feeling these cards makes them worth $6.00.  I have only been to Orlando briefly, but if I’m ever near that part of Florida again, I’d love a tour of Rifle Paper Company if they would allow me.    I have seen letterpress machines and could have spent all day at Oblation papers in Portland, Oregon when we went there last year.  Do you have favorite letterpress stationer?  There’s yet another future blog post!

Also, last week I wrote about sharing articles with you that I’ve kept on my phone and wanted to share a one today.

I took the postcard from the resort and wrote to Tom Purcell thanking him for his article titled, On Handwritten Letters.  I like researching online and aside from spending an additional half hour looking for a physical address for him, I was able to read more of his articles that weren’t letter writing related, but it’s cool to learn about others.  I know I’ve written this before, as he may never get my postcard, but I enjoyed taking the time to let him know he had an engaged reader out here in cyberspace. The best thing about his article to me was, “Still, I miss getting handwritten letters in the mail.” And, that my readers is why I believe it is a nice gesture to still write on paper with one’s own writing.

Here is another postcard that was in the room.  They also provided a flat note card and envelope that was on the desk.  Any hotel that still provides stationery for its guests will get a repeat customer out of me!  I always keep a couple first class and postcard stamps in my wallet for occasions just like this!

I wish you a good rest of the week.  I’m off to purchase some of these beautiful stamps online as you know what fun holiday is coming up in a few weeks!

 

Football letters in the news …

When I read something online that is stationery or letter writing related I thought I’d start sharing them here on my blog instead of letting them pile up on my iPhone.  Here is a screenshot of articles I kept that I will discuss this week and hope one of them touches you in some way.

Because I am a big sports fan, not a huge Peyton Manning fan, this was a nice story.  His ranking definitely has gone up.  After yesterday I guess I will say, “Good luck next season, but Go Packers!”  Sports are more than what the athlete does on the field.  I can’t imagine the requests professional athletes receive, but this one is of course special because Kristen Patterson wrote a letter.  That is one aspect of letter writing is that you don’t know who will read it or how the recipient will be touched by it.   When I googled to get the link to post this article I saw another article about Manning that I liked even better!  Thanks to his mother for instilling the handwritten note writer in him.  Yeah!

The moral of the first story though:  Always put a return address label on your envelopes.  I currently have six different return address labels and stampers.  I’d show you them, but then my home address would be on the internet and not sure my husband would like that.  I have thought about getting a post office box, and after reading Sincerely Kate’s blog a few days ago, she finally purchased one, so I may too, even though I’m not a true pen paler.

If you don’t have a return address label I recommend Artistic Checks for fast and simple ones.  They are under $10 for 250 and they have a variety of designs.  I have simple clear labels with black ink.  I also have two self-inking stamps from PSA Essentials.  My personal calligrapher designed a return label for me where I can print out labels from  standard Avery Labels, good ol’ 5160.

While on the subject of football and because I have less than three hours until the College National Championship begins, Go Oregon! (Did I say I am a big sports fan?) here is another handwritten note article that I came across where the video sums up why I love it! How cool that this 6th grade boy from Oklahoma wrote to all 32 NLF teams and so far has only heard back from one.  What I admire most is how the owner of the team, in his own writing, took the time to write this young boy who will surely save the letter and helmet for years to come.

Have you ever written to a large organization and heard back?  I wrote to President Clinton years ago (again, showing my age) when I was a middle school teacher asking him to visit our science class since he would be in the Los Angeles area.  I did receive a letter back, but some intern said he had to decline due to his busy schedule and it wasn’t handwritten.  I’ll have to look for that one.   Have a great rest of Universal Letter Writing Week!