Every day/week/month seems to be a “national day/week/month” of some sort at this point. Some of them are a little off the wall. I mean, today is March 26; did you know that it's National Nougat Day? I sure didn't.
National days/weeks/months can really be all over the place, but there's one that really speaks to me as a stationery addict: National Card and Letter Writing Month. Bring on April!
I've been obsessed with paper products forever, so you might think that I'm a letter writing fiend. I have loved and collected stationery since I was a kid. Note cards, pads, pretty paper with matching envelopes. Oddly, though, they tend to sit unused. I've just never been a huge letter writer.
Thank you notes? Sure—that was required by Eileen May Patricia O’Keefe Duncan. All gifts, hospitality and acts of kindness were to be acknowledged in writing. As Mom used to say on repeat, she didn’t raise any dummies ... so I wrote those things. Religiously.
Birthday cards? Oh, I was the Birthday Card Queen for a few decades. Not a birthday was missed! Alas, we all evolve. Now I’m the Queen of buying a card well in advance of a birthday, leaving it on the counter until well after the birthday, then packing it away with the stash of others that met the same fate. Heavy is the crown.
Holiday cards? For those we settled into a comfortable routine; I was in charge of the photo and card design and Tim drafted the annual Corcoran Holiday Missive. Though his messages were legendary.
But letters? I had a pen pal in Australia for year at most when I was a tween. When I was in Paris for my junior year of college, I kept in touch with family and friends back home via trusty Air Mail and post cards. Beyond that? Not so much.
Yet here I am, peddling note cards and greeting cards in my Etsy shop. I should be ashamed of myself. I started the shop with mostly photo prints, but the stationery addict in me won out and my card offerings eclipsed the photo prints. If you visit AnneCorcoranStudio now you'll find 54 note card set listings and another 29 greeting card options. Even my social media posts seem to have veered to focus mostly on note cards and greeting cards.
I really need to step up my game and practice what I preach. Dip my toes into the world of hand-written snail mail. To pull that off, I’m going to need some inspiration. If there's anyone else out there who wants to join me, stay tuned for my next post. I'm going to share some note card writing prompts!
And I promise to test some of them out during National Letter Writing Month!
If you want to join me, I’ll see you back here in April!