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!

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

Updating the Address Book

It’s always strange to me how I decide to clean out things on the first of a month.  I’ve been needing to do this for years, but yesterday I updated my old school address book.  I have an online one too, but there is just something about flipping through the pages reading names of my closest family members and friends who I correspond on a regular basis.  It pained me to take this picture as it did have my 83 year old Aunt Ruby’s name and address there, but she passed away last year.  I knew if I erased hers there would be others. The act of physically erasing the names was a sad one for me.  I ended up erasing four names of friends and family members who have left this world in the last few years.  I still keep a post-it note inside for my friend who has four children where she lost her battle with cancer in 2011.  I want to stay in touch with her children, so even though their mom’s address is erased, they are not.  The post it note has their ages and birth days on it.

I don’t remember when I finally switched over to using a pencil instead of a pen.  What a concept to have an address book with crossed out names to names with current addresses in pencil that is much cleaner, but I suppose that’s all up to one’s preference. I do recall when I finally threw the old one out.  It  was like an old friend.  Of course the new one wasn’t like the old one and took time to get used to not seeing all the crossed out pen entries.

Do you have an address book online or physical one?   Open it up and write to someone this week!

 

 

 

November: A letter a day

Last year on Facebook I remember scrolling through reading what friends were thankful for. Not discounting their health or family members, sunsets and pets, but I thought about being thankful to behind the scenes people, businesses I patronize and individuals I really don’t know but appreciate that we may interact with whether it be one time or someone I’ve have known for years.
I decided to write a thank you note to them.

Below is a partial list from last year. Some days I wrote more than one and others where as situations came up where I couldn’t wait to get home to write one.

I don’t think I’ll post who I write to daily, but when I do, I’ll share the reason behind why I’m taking the time to write the individual or organization.

As I’ve been typing this I’ve thought of a few more. The list really is endless. I have much gratitude for others!

So, here we go:

Day 1: And, as it should be #1., My mother. We had lunch yesterday. We texted after and relayed how much we enjoyed our time together, but she’s still going to read it, in writing next week.

2. Last night we went to a football game. There was a man there who has been volunteering his time with the team for years. He’s a local businessman with a family, but I’m going to write him and thank him for his unimaginable hours he’s dedicated to our community.

3. A friend on Facebook who I really admire and respect isn’t on there much, (love her more for that reason alone) but when she does post something it is so thought provoking and usually a link to an article I enjoy or learn from. I’ll write to her and thank her for that.

So there you have a sampling of what I’ll be sending. Anytime, just like in my last post when you write, don’t stress over the exact wording. These won’t be lengthly letters. I don’t know how they’ll be received-doesn’t matter. To unplug for a bit, take time to send thankful sentiments to others is what matters to me.

There are lots of books out there on this topic, but John Kralik’s, 365 Thank Yous: The Year a Simple Act of Daily Gratitude Changed My Lifeis a great short read and sure to inspire you to reach out to others in the form of a hand written letter.

I hope you’ll be encouraged to write a few this month as we head towards Thanksgiving. I’ll look forward to comments of who you write to!

Thankful for much …

Graduation time

Here are some photos of graduation cards I’ll be sending out in the next week. I love getting “Aunt Julie” addressed envelopes from my friend’s kids. I’m an aunt, but with no kids of my own, by choice-it’s all good! I love being a part of their lives and giving younger kids cards and gifts.

 

                                             Graduation cards for “Aunt Julie”

 

                              Economic Gaduation Cards

I think I’ll be sending out six cards this year, four high school graduations and two for college. Two of the people I don’t know that well and will be sending these cards. One I purchased from a party supply store where all cards were half off last year and I had in my file. The other card I recently purchased at Trader Joe’s. For .99 cents, you can’t beat that! I think I that same sentence in my last post!-point being you can be thoughtful without having to spend a lot.
I’m really excited to give this 5″X7″ card below as a graduation gift for someone who in my eyes will take risks to be successful. The oranges and yellow of this card burst out with the charcoal grey background. I have a few favorite calligraphers that I buy cards from and Emily Poe-Crawford, with EmDashPaperCo made this card. I’ll have to post more of hers later, but check out her Etsy site and another site I hadn’t heard of, but am now sponsoring her with future works, is called Patreon. Instead of a one-time donation like Kickstarter, you can “pledge” at different levels to support the artist. All the supporters were able to vote on which piece she would work on next. I support and get pieces of work! Fun!

                    Virgil’s quote brilliantly designed by EmDashPaperCo

The timing of cards

This photo is from a card that I had for over four years. The reason why I know it has been that long is because I put a return address on it was from a home we lived in four years ago. I’m sure it has many fingerprints on it from me as I’ve taken it out if its “Misc.” drawer dozens of times and always ended up putting it back, feeling as though it just wasn’t the right time or person to send it to.

Yesterday, a friend texted me to see how I was doing after a procedure I had for my hip. (Just a shot to hopefully calm whatever is going on in there-blog for another time! Ha!) Other friends checked in on me too, but for some reason hers stood out and I thumbed back through some our text exchanges and immediately thought, “She makes my life richer!” I headed right over to the card to send to her and it is now somewhere between my mailbox and her home.

She’s not my best friend, we haven’t even hung out a lot, but she’s funny, creative, witty, true and caring. She’s a wife, a mom, a daughter, business savvy and my friend. I hope she enjoys receiving this card as much as I did sending it!

Reason for this post? Buy cards that you like and there will come a time when you’ll instantaneously know who deserves to get it in the mail.

February 7: Send a Card to a Friend Day

So excited to sit for a bit tomorrow and send cards to friends!  It’s National Send a Card to a Friend Day!   I of course do this all throughout the year, but tomorrow will be for those close friends, ones I text and see a lot, but don’t really write to that often.  It is still fun to take time to let them know how much I appreciate our friendship or send them a little motivation.  So many of my friends are hard working moms and sending them a handwritten note is the least I can do for them.  I don’t have kids, so I try and let my mom friends know how incredibly awesome they are!

The photo above is where I get my cards when I’m at home. It sits right next to my desk and computer and is within arm’s reach.  I purchased this BisleyCollection Cabinet from The Container Store years ago.  I love it and spend way too much on stationery, but this is exactly why I started this blog:  To inspire others to write letters, “just because …”

I’m not an English major and I’m sure someone can rip apart my grammar.  I am passionate about putting pen to paper and hope you will enjoy what I share!  I don’t plan on posting just “National” this or that day. I had been sitting on this blog for months and the other day when I read about Thank a Mailman day I decided to dive in!  I will share who I write to and hopefully encourage others to write more too!  There are many articles out there about the diminishing art of the handwritten letter. I’ll share those, my favorite stationery vendors, other bloggers and organizations that support writing good ol’ snail mail.

Please feel free to add any comments or suggestions!  I’m new to this blogging world, but figured I’d give my Facebook friends a break from constantly talking about the art that I love:  handwritten letters.