L is for… Love #atozchallenge

I may be sticking to a rather predictable “L” word here. But love a strong powerful emotion should not be ignored. So much passion and inspiration comes from love. Writing comes from love.

No doubt everyone has a few items dedicated to “love” in the broader sense – a diary, writing down your loves, hopes and dreams. A notebook, scrapbook or box to keep all those cherished memories. A noteset for handwritten love notes. And even when we can’t express what we feel, a simple note to say we’ve gone to get milk…

… can go a long way.

Love notes… Simple ways of showing we care.

H is for… Handwriting #atozchallenge

On a personal level I love receiving handwritten mail (usually postcards from my parents), on a professional level, i.e. during the course of my job I hate handwritten letters as they are quite frequently a mess, with appalling handwriting. Handwriting: Truly a lost art.

Lately I have been reading about parents improving their handwriting skills by helping their kids with their handwriting. I can’t help but think they should have been doing that anyway, but never mind. To practice handwriting, there are some great notebooks you can get, with specially spaced lines to help improve your handwriting. It takes patience, but the right tools can go a long way.

Another useful purpose for notebooks… Who said they were just for looking at ?

The Lost Art of Letter Writing

[tweetmeme source=”notesinabook” only_single=false]

Dear fellow paper enthusiast,

I write to you from the far reaches of the internet to remind you are about the great stocking filler and fall-back Christmas gift that died out somewhere back in the 90s: the note-writing gift set.

Recently I’ve found that people end up using all sorts of scraps of paper for their correspondence – anything from torn up envelopes to the back of receipts. At best people use file paper or printer paper for what should be a professional letter. Professionalism aside, I believe there is nothing more personal and satisfying as a handwritten letter –in many ways, a perfect gift, and guaranteed to put a smile on someone’s face.

Recently I’ve been voicing a campaign among friends to bring writing back, and I think it is something everyone should do to. How am I doing this?

1. By writing letters to others to encourage them to send letters back;
2. Returning to giving proper birthday cards (instead of dropping them a wall message on facebook);
3. Using Old-fashioned Christmas cards; and
4. giving out writing related presents in the hope that others will pick up on my enthusiasm.

The recent blog post from Tiger Pens: Letter writing shouldn’t vanish really hit home and it has made me even more determined to include a few paper related gifts in this years presents.

One thing I don’t understand is that it is not like there is no great writing kits out there, there is plenty of amazing stationery to make anyone drool.

Waterstone’s Social Stationery Collection!!

Between this and the likes of the cute and cheap Rosehip notebooks (and note sets) I think my Christmas shopping plans are almost complete. For more inspiration gift wise check out: Boo Vake’s Paper gift guide which looks pretty fantastic.(I hope to put together my own gift guide list at some point over the next week, so keep a look out for that).

Pass on the inspiration yourself and get letter writing back on the map even if it is just within your circle of friends – after all it means more excuses for you to write more letters yourself.

Yours,

Travis.