In Celebration of the Art of Letter Writing

Scattering a little sunshine in November! And celebrating of the art of writing!

The elves and I finally managed to whip up some pretty notecards which are now available in my little “workshop“. This set above includes four images from my Vintage Summer series, including Lavender Harvest, Breeze, Allium and Signs of Summer.

Single cards are also available with any of my images! (The Orchard, above and Breeze, below.) Each image is printed on archival photographic paper and mounted on rich and thick ivory textured paper that is acid free and embossed on the edges! These are the exact cards I send out personally, and the same paper that our holiday cards will be created with (um…that’s next on the elves list!)

And do you not adore this elegant fountain pen? Does it not just make you want to write the most dreamy poetry or the most romantic missive with a flourish and a scroll? Alas, the pen is already spoken for. It belongs to dear D and is one of his most cherished possessions. Hand-crafted from pure sterling silver with a white gold nib, it was my birthday gift to him the first year we were together.

One of the first things about him that I fell in love with, besides everything, was the fact that he only ever writes with a fountain pen. Sigh… I find that beyond romantic and dare I say, quite sexy in a Byronic, flowing locks, white ruffled cuff sort of way. His beautiful collection of pens sits proudly on his desk in a special leather cup or in their own little leather and suede sheaths. It’s sweet and nostalgic to watch his reverent ritual of cleaning and refilling them, which sometimes causes my heart to skip a beat with romantic fancy, and occasionally with trepidation if I think the ink is about to squirt over the desk! (It never does).

Although he wooed me via email and cell phone, I must say that when I first gazed upon his fountain pens, I swooned! How many men, or anyone, still insist on the glorious use of fountain pens? So few, and what a shame! Just the sight of them is evocative of an era of deeper and more thoughtful communication, when the time spent to write a letter, or a poem, or a diary entry was time not to be begrudged, but to be savored and relished. Thoughts were composed, ink transferred to paper, lips pursed to blow it dry. Writing is a tactile and sensual activity, and all those tangible thoughts and feelings travel to the recipient, along with the stamp and envelope and postmark. A connection is created that is real and physical and lasting.

I’ve spent precious hours with my Mother, snuggled on the sofa with tea, reading her mother and father’s letters to one another when they were courting. Some surprising revelations that made my mother quite blush! I’ve gotten to know my grandfather, who died before I was born, through those letters, as well as a greater appreciation for the woman my grandmother was.

And, tied in a pink satin ribbon in a special box are the letters exchanged by my parents when my father was overseas in WWII before they were married, waiting for a rainy day, and a fire, and another potentially enlightening read!

I have endeavored my entire life to keep every card and letter I have ever received. No, of course I haven’t managed every single one, but I do have many boxes and containers in the attic full of written treasures, that maybe, someday, I’ll have time to go through, putting them in chronological order. My life is in those letters and cards – the birthdays, the trips, the holidays, the joy and the love of people I care about, some now gone and dearly missed. No matter how full the attic becomes, I will never part with them. Will I really ever be able to read them all again? Will the flood of emotions be too much to bear? Perhaps not, and perhaps.

But it’s comforting to know they are there, all the same.

I hope each of us finds the time this holiday season to send hand-written notes to loved ones, to capture a bit of one’s life and wrap it up in vellum, or paper, or card, lick it and seal it and send it on its way to bring a bit of magic into someone’s day.