Good to the Last Squeeze

Cutest ink packaging ever!

I was thrilled to learn I could buy ink by the quarter pound, in tubes. It's cheaper and space-saving, which is a consideration for the time being. Now, along with my larger supply of whites and black, I can begin mixing more nuanced pantone colors. These represent a lot of the standard pantone colors, and are a mixture of rubber, oil, and soy-based inks.

Baby, Are you Down?

Just because it's Valentine's day, some images I've slowly been collecting:

(1) From Dover Publications, free sample art (2) Found on a really lovely blog written in French that I can't read: gris-bleu (3) Admittedly, poached from my friend Nana's blog: sankofa (4) Image from NPR article: My Heart Will Go On

p.s. The post title is a reference to a song I really shouldn't admit listening to... like, thirty times last week.

Epistles of Love

Soon it will be Valentine's day, and I decided not to print valentines this year. In the meantime, here are some valentines or epistles of love from the long past:

In 1907 this was addressed to a Miss Ethel Loving.

In 1910, someone wrote on the back only: "Still am wondering."

On the back, this reads:

Dear Lizzie:
I wish you wealth.
I wish you health.
I wish you gold in store.
I wish you heaven after earth.
What could I wish you more
when the golden sun is setting
and your thoughts from care are free
when others you are thinking
will you sometimes think of me.

Be sure and bring your umbrella tonight.
Yours, write soon.
~unsigned

And, from the same hand to the same Lizzie:

Ah. Lizzie I caught you on last night by proper. Don't squeeze him so tight or you might take a button off. I received your P.C. (postcard?) alright which is very nice. Write soon.

....

Then there is a side note that says: Take off stamp.

....

Indeed, the stamp has been removed and underneath is written:

yes
yes





The scandal! The intrigue! The romance!


Also: Check out the top 10 words associated with Valentine's Day here. There are some surprising definitions and etymologies. For example, "romantic" derives from the conquering powers of the Roman empire and "amour" actually refers to illicit love affairs. And Adonis was basically a player.

CBS News: Handwritten Thank You Notes

Stationary is becoming a luxury instead of a staple. The advent of email, ecards and the like make it easier than ever to say thank you or happy birthday or "I've arrived safely" and so on, which is a good thing. Not to mention, greener.

So I'm not here to advocate or change anyone's mind about using paper stationary, but for what it's worth, here's a recent CBS News segment on sending handwritten thank you notes:


(As seen via @stationaryshow on Twitter; may not display properly on Firefox browsers)

Personally, I grew up writing and sending thank you notes for every holiday, gift, etc. and when I was a tween, I had something like 7 pen-pals, including one as far away as Russia, which was then still part of the Soviet Union. Besides my stock of Hello Kitty papers, I also had my great-grandmother's stationary, which was always tissue-thin, perfumed, scallop-edged, in pale pastels. There was some yellow stationary I remember well, printed with butterflies. It was lovely and I used it all.

Jane Austen once wrote to her sister:

I have now attained the true art of letter-writing, which we are always told, is to express on paper exactly what one would say to the same person by word of mouth...

My own opinion is that a hand-written thank you note is a nice gesture, but only if it's not completely generic. You can always recycle the paper afterward. Otherwise, maybe a simple thank you in some other form would be best, though I've recently heard that saying thank you publicly and online - on Facebook or Twitter - is not good etiquette because it lets your inner circle know what they've missed or were excluded from. That, too, can be argued in more than one way. It's tricky business, being modern.