Postal loving

On my mum's side of the family there is a cluster of cousins who are all the same age. Like five of us within six months. One of those cousins was born exactly a week before me, the Boxing Day to my New Years day.

We neither of us like our birthdays so much.

That's not the point that I was trying to get at.

This cousin of mine, Tom, he married this amazing girl called Jess. I'm confident that he agrees with me when I say that it is probably one of the best things he's ever done. I think so for totally different reasons I'm sure, but I'm very glad that she's part of my family now. She has a blog called A Heart Full of Frost.

She's having a competition on her blog at the moment where you can win some of my art. Mailable art. In the form of a six month subscription (there are two up for grabs and every month they include work that you can't get anywhere else) so you should go and have a look and get into it. 

Yes. That envelope is addressed to YOU at YOUR HOUSE!

It all came about because of my affection for what I call the 'LOST ARTS'. That sounds really kind of witchy and magical, but it's far more mundane than that. I mean things like letter writing, conversation, and other old school things that are under-appreciated these days.  I mentioned this earlier ... several times in fact.
I enjoy digital mail too, don't get me wrong, but nothing really compares to a letter.
It represents thought and effort well beyond that of an email or facebook message, and lasts longer than a phone call.

I get wistful while watching Jane Austin films not only because of the restrained romance of the whole thing, but because conversation was an art form. An art form which has, in large part, been lost. People thought for longer before they spoke and the more well spoken they were the better it seemed to reflect onto them. Somehow this has flipped around and despite the often high levels of intelligence contained within people's skulls, only slang, cuss, and heavily abbreviated nonsense comes out of people's mouths.

"Oh em gee Eleanor, it's IRONIC"

Get. Out. 

My mourning over the laziness of the written word in communication is even more profound. For speed and ease we have sacrificed beautiful words for abbreviations, txt, and bastardised spelling.
 (I am a terrible speller so I have to call myself out on hypocrisy here... in fact I just spelled 'hypocrisy' wrong until I checked the suggested spelling. Thanks Right Click.)

I'm not a great writer, but I am a prolific reader and I love reading well put together phrases. Especially when they are put together just for me, then wrapped up in envelopes and delivered into my real life in-box.

That's why I started subscriptions. To motivate some postal loving.

So check out Jess's blog, and check out my etsy store.