Holiday wishes!

Well, it's clear that over the holidays I need to make myself a lightbox.  I had a ton of really cute designs to list for Christmas, but the weather in Toronto did not cooperate.  It was either overcast, drizzling, or windy every single day since the beginning of December.  I shouldn't complain because we've hard record warmth as well, but the weather we had did not allow me to take pictures of my designs.  I need to set up an indoor space to get this done, obviously.  In the meantime, here are some sneak peeks.  :)

Yummi Sushi (I've been rewatching Buffy lately, and her pjs spurred me to make this set)

 Call of the Sea

 Three Little Bears

I've been a really prolific pen pal writer lately, and I'm super proud of myself for that.  Of note is that I found another new pen pal, this one in Ireland, and sent off  a letter to her that included some free stationery. I've also been drinking a lot of David's Tea lately.  Coincidence?  I think not!  :D

Mail call!  This cute envelope came from a Canadian pen pal who reminded me that great envelopes don't always have to be super elaborate.

To send back to her, I tried my hand at another envelope made from calendars.  The charities I donate to monthly always send me a calendar at the end of the year, I think to try and convince me to continue my monthly donation the following year.  I keep telling them it isn't necessary, but they don't listen to me.  I end up with 5 different calendars for the year, and I never use a single one.  I've decided to re-purpose them for pen pal letters.  This time I tried sprucing it up with a funky lining too.

This one came in time for Halloween, and I've been super delinquent about replying.  I've gotten started on it finally and I think I'm up to 10 A4 Novi Tomoe River sheets.  :)  One day I'll finally finish it and send it off though, Michelle, I swear!  Michelle has sent me a lot of gorgeous envelopes, but I think this one is in my top five.  

These came from a pen pal in the UK.  The paper for the envelopes are amazing!  Thanks Adrienne.  :) 

This fun fountain pen sticker came in on the back of an envelope from a pen pal in Toronto.  She is a friend from the Toronto pen meet ups who bought a pen from me at the Scriptus 2015 show.  I wanted to see how the pen wrote, so she sent me a letter.  I sent a reply and now we're pen pals.  See what I did there?  :D  I'm sneaky when it comes to drumming up pen pals for myself.

If I don't write again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a great holidays season, whatever you celebrate.  I'm planning on just having a small family dinner on the 25th, mostly vegan.  I have grudgingly agreed to let someone else bring in a small amount of turkey breast for my 90 year old aunt who doesn't "get" the whole "vegan thing".   But that's it!  Other than that, my best friend is making yummy chicken seitan pot pies, I'm making sweet potato mash with maple syrup and summertime succotash, and my mom is bringing carrot salad with apples and pineapples.  I'm hoping my friend will also make me a pear and blueberry pie.   :)

Happy holidays, everyone!  I hope you all get some time to sit down and write letters during the break.  

Upcoming designs

The raffle prizes started their journeys towards the winners this afternoon, winging to the UK and New Zealand.  I added a few freebie sheets into each packet too, and I hope the recipients like them.  :)

It's been a busy week for me, what with finishing off my class for the term with an exam on Wednesday and trying to figure out what's next in terms of schooling for 2016.  Do I take more university English courses, or do I enroll in the continuing ed writing classes at Woodsworth College at U of T?  Ideally I'd love to do both, but even one course this term felt like a lot, piled on top of all the other stuff I do.  I'm still torn about what to enroll in, and I'm not sure how much time I have left to decide.  Arg.

I've been designing some stationery, dividing my time between the old school letterpress stuff I really love, and the more modern, coloured images I've worked with for the past year or so.  Here are some sneak peeks of both.  First off, the letterpress stuff.  These are from older book designs from the early 1900s, I think.

And here's a snapshot of some of the coloured designs.

Lastly, mail call!  I got some really cute washi tape in the mail this week, from two different people.

The pumpkins are actually gold and shimmery on a clear backing.  Super pretty!  The blue washi tape came with this card.

I'm a sucker for blue, so this is right up my alley.  :D

This weekend I have a lot of chores to do, but I'm going to definitely carve out some time to respond to pen pal letters.  I've got probably 4 lagging right now, and that's more than I like on my to-do pile.  I'll also be finding some urban fantasy writing prompts to share with a pen pal of mine, and working on them with the goal of posting on my Kind Words of Fiction blog on Tuesday.

Happy weekend and happy writing, everyone!  

Raffle winners

This month I was feeling generous and decided that as a pre-Christmas treat I would pick two raffle winners for November.  :)  Congrats to Adrienne and erymis!  I've contacted both and I'm waiting to see what sets they pick.

I wanted to do a mail call today because I've gotten some letters with nice washi tape and paper.  Sadly, I've got an exam tomorrow and I don't have time to do all the scanning and replying to letters, so I'll post a mail call on Friday instead.  That way I'll even have time to try my hand at more envelope art!

I've decided that I hate the idea of posting creative writing snippets or extra personal stories on this blog.  It distracts too much from KWS.  But I have been meaning to make writing more a part of my life, and even though I do all my writing by hand with a fountain pen, I think that having a writing blog I have to post in every other day will keep me writing.  I just need some practice before I dive into writing the novels ideas I have puttering around my head.  I've set up a Kind Words of Fiction blog that is empty right now, but I'll put up my first post of writing on Friday.

I've got a few KWS orders left to get out today and I want to head home soon, so I'll sign off until Friday.  Catch you then!