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THE MISSIVE MAVEN

A letter-writing blog extolling the virtues of snail mail:
old-fashioned postal paper mail and all of its varied accessories.




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 * Defunct
 * On holiday cards
 * Stationery sources






FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2018


INTERVIEW WITH THE U.S. POSTAL SERVICE ABOUT POSTCROSSING


Wow, it's been a shockingly long time since I last shared a post with you! I'll
update you on some of the exciting news in my life in a forthcoming post
(SPOILER: I've got a solo album of original songs coming out soon, from my other
life as a musician!), but I wanted to check in and let you know of a very
special conversation I just had.

I was just interviewed for an article about Postcrossing in the U.S. Postal
Service employee newsletter! Be proud of me, U.S. Postcrossers: I put in a big
plug for an official Postcrossing stamp here in the USA! I don't know if it will
happen or not, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to make the pitch to an
official representative of the US Postal service.

The gentleman with whom I spoke was also very interested in my personal history
with the Postal Service, about my grandpa, a career postal worker, and how much
he influenced my life and my love of snail mail.

The article is still a work in progress, but once it's online, I'll be sure to
share it with you.

Because of the demands of work and career, I completely missed out on
participating in InCoWriMo during the month of February, but things are a little
less crazy for me now and I'm picking my snail-mail habits back up.

Hmmm, all this talk of Postcrossing makes me want to shuffle off and send a
postcard...


at 4:17 PM
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Labels: grandpa, postcrossing, postcrossing stamp, u.s. postal service



TUESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2017


ECLIPSE POSTMARKS




For those of you in the USA or nearby regions - did you get to see the eclipse?
It was amazing! I was up in Maine, far from the "path of totality," where we
only got a 56% eclipse, but it was still fantastic. My favorite part was how it
got cooler, the light got weird, and all the birds and crickets started singing
their evening songs. Coooool!

And even cooler, from a postal perspective, you can still get a special eclipse
postmark! Of course I learned about this from the fabulous Letter Writers
Alliance. I haven't gotten one myself yet but I'm going to send off for one of
these babies ASAP. Here are the details, via the LWA:




TOTAL ECLIPSE POSTMARKS


Don't wait too long, though, it's only good for a few more weeks.


at 10:01 AM
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Labels: eclipse, Letter Writers Alliance, LWA, postmark



MONDAY, JULY 31, 2017


GARDEN NEWS, OR, HOW IS JULY ALMOST OVER?




The summer is flying by! I have definitely been writing lots of mail, but
admittedly I have been spending more time in my garden. I can only garden in the
summer, so I try to live it up and maximize my outdoor gardening time during
every available moment.



The weather has been truly gorgeous, and I have had many available moments to
have my hands in the dirt! Since I haven't posted in a while (again), I wanted
to share with you photos of where and how I've been spending most of my time.



I am a sucker for color, and I'm all about the flowers! (Alex does the veggies,
and I do the flowers. Though he does a few flowers here and there, and I do no
veggies. But we have a nice little team thing going.)

I've also been posting to instagram a lot lately, so if you want to have a look
at my photos there, have a look at my MissiveMaven instagram pix.



I've been writing a lot more mail but not photographing much of it, but here's a
nice picture I arranged earlier in the summer.

How is your summer going? Are you having a good mail summer?


at 11:28 AM
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Labels: #showandmail, garden, Maine, outgoing, postcard, postcrossing, sent,
show and mail, summer



TUESDAY, JULY 11, 2017


FINE FINNISH STAMPS: MIAU MAIL!



> Gorgeous stamps from #Finland on a recent #postcrossing #postcard #Suomi #swan
> #reindeer #cat #received #showandmail #snailmail #gold #metallicgold
> #foreignpostage #postagestamp @postcrossinghq
> 
> A post shared by Missive Maven (ilona) (@missivemaven) on Jul 7, 2017 at
> 6:44am PDT


I received a Postcrossing postcard recently with these fine stamps - I had to
take a video of the swan stamp to show off the metallic gold. It also included
the adorable "miau mail" priority sticker, and a marvelous reindeer stamp, too.



Here's the front of the postcard, a lovely image of a Siberian cat. Thank you,
Tiina, for this wonderful Postcrossing treat!


at 9:27 AM
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Labels: cat, Finland, foreign, metallic, miau mail, postage stamp, postcard,
postcrossing, received, swan



MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017


RESPONSE FROM POSTCARD UNITED


A few days ago I wrote a blog post about Postcrossing United, with some
observations about its similarity to Postcrossing and a request for information
from anyone who had tried it.

While I haven't heard directly from any of the users of the site, I did get a
response from Postcard United that I would like to share here for anyone who,
like me, is curious about the site and wants more information.

On June 24, I signed up for the site out of curiosity, and on that day I used
their contact form to ask the following question:


> "Hi there,
> I am an active Postcrosser and just saw this website mentioned in someone's
> profile there. I am very curious and did not see this in the FAQ - how is this
> different from Postcrossing? (Postcrossing.com) And what country is this
> project based in? Thank you! Ilona / Missive Maven"

On July 6, I wrote my original blog post about it.

Last night (July 9), I received the following response to my June 24 Postcard
United contact form inquiry:

> "Dear Ilona,
> 
> Thank you for contacting us, it seems that you have joined the bandwagon of
> people who seems to have hatred for us, the reason we are saying so it seems
> to a lot of people that there's nothing good about PostcardUnited.com you
> mentioned that the blog is not updated, and we have issues with English maybe
> you can help us, by pointing out those to us for us to fix.
> 
> also you should advise your reader from the UK not to generate fake accounts
> at your website.
> 
> when PostcardUnited.com was created it was created with love and to united
> people trough Postcard Exchange, and even the website that you love so much is
> guilty of interfering with PostcardUnited.Com
> 
> Thank You
> Admin (3)"

The email came as a no-reply address so I am not able to respond to the email. I
certainly didn't intend to sow any "hatred" and was merely curious about the
website, so it saddens me that the creators took my search for additional
information in a negative light. My two original questions - how is this
different from Postcrossing, and in what country is the website based - remain
unanswered.

I share this information as an update for any of my blog readers who, like me,
are curious.


at 11:53 AM
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Labels: postcard, Postcard United, postcrossing



THURSDAY, JULY 6, 2017


POSTCARD UNITED - A POSTCROSSING IMITATOR?




From the profile of another user on Postcrossing, I came across a new(ish - or
just new to me perhaps) postcard exchange website called Postcard United. Is
anyone else familiar with it? It seems to be an absolute Postcrossing imitator,
with very little difference in the two sites. There's nothing wrong with that,
and sometimes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and all that, but it
just makes me really curious. I signed up for it but haven't sent any postcards
through Postcard United, since I am very devoted to (and very happy with)
Postcrossing. But for anyone who has tried it, I'm very curious about the
differences.

For example, I cannot find in what country it's based. The site is written in
English but there are a number of phrases that make it appear that the creators
are not regular English speakers (or perhaps not used to writing in English).
Again, nothing wrong with that - we English speakers are very privileged and we
need to get off our high horses regarding our native language and how lucky we
are that it is so commonly spoken throughout the world - but it makes me realize
I do appreciate the transparency with which the Postcrossing founders
communicate their history and their whereabouts, and their use of the (optional)
support funds.

They never mention Postcrossing on the Postcard United website, but in a handy
differentiation, the latter uses 3-letter country codes as opposed to
Postcrossing's 2-letter country codes, so users of both sites should be able to
differentiate immediately from which website the received postcard originated.

Like Postcrossing, Postcard United is free, and uses a similar setup with
profiles (though unlike Postcrossing, you cannot view a user profile or get much
information on the site without signing up for it), and of course I have no idea
how the coding and algorithms work behind the scenes. But if you've already
tried it, I'd love to hear more, and if you're itching to send postcards (and
maybe you're new to Postcrossing and have reached your send limit there), here's
a new experiment for you.

Also, Postcard United does not seem to have a Twitter presence (on their site
they have a Twitter icon, but it just takes you to Twitter.com), so I can't do
any sleuthing there. I did find a profile for @PostcardUnited, but it hasn't
ever tweeted. Hmm.... They do have a Facebook page but it isn't very active, and
the blog on their own site isn't terribly updated either (ooooh... that's like
the pot calling the kettle, right folks? I've not terribly active on this blog
lately, either, but I'm not set up as a postcard-sending website).

So! If you have any thoughts or opinions to share, please do!

UPDATE on July 10: I received a response from Postcard United, see the new blog
post for more info

In other news, I've been meaning to post a happy summer update... I've been in
my garden a lot, and writing many postcards and a few letters, and I have some
lovely photos to share - coming soon!


at 11:28 AM
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Labels: imitation, postcard, Postcard United, postcrossing



TUESDAY, JUNE 6, 2017


HERE IS MY MUSIC FOR YOU




I have mentioned a number of times that grad school has kept me from my
letter-writing habits... and at last, I am finished with grad school. I am
looking forward to a return to letter-writing, especially over my summer
vacation - more on that later! - but now I would like to take a moment to share
with you an accomplishment of which I'm very proud. Did you know that I'm a
professional musician and voice teacher?

On 23 April 2017, I gave a recital for the completion of my Master of Music
degree at New England Conservatory of Music. I prepared for this recital for
over two years, and it was a very big accomplishment for me, in large part
because it marked my debut as a songwriter. I sang 14 songs, 5 of which were my
own original songs, and accompanied myself on piano on 4 of them. (For the
others, I either sang a cappella or had other fine musicians collaborate on
piano.) You can see all the videos on my recital page on my professional
website: http://www.ilonatipp.com/solo-concert-2017. Of, if you'd like to see
the songs in the order in which I programmed and performed them, you can see the
the YouTube playlist.

I'll share with you here one particularly letter-related song I wrote:


© Copyright Ilona Tipp 2017, All Rights Reserved

This song, "Best of the Real," had its genesis in me staring at a pile of
letters to which I needed to respond, and gave birth to the opening song lyric,
"all the letters left unwritten..."

I hope you enjoy my music. You can peruse more of it on my musician website at
ilonatipp.com. I'm not yet sure Where I May Go next professionally, but I'll be
sure to keep you posted. I would love to hear your feedback on my music if you'd
like to share!

And on the letter-writing front, tomorrow we move up to Maine for the summer,
and I always joyfully return to much happy mail-making over summer vacation.

All information, music, lyrics, sound recordings, content, and linked content
connected to a third party storage website on this web page is owned by Ilona
Tipp. Any attempt or claim of ownership by any other party other than Ilona Tipp
is illegal by all copyright laws, and can be pursued with legal action. By
downloading content from this web page, the party doing so completely
understands the restrictions of privacy outlined above (if applicable) and that
all content is the intellectual property of and owned by Ilona Tipp. © Copyright
Ilona Tipp 2017, All Rights Reserved


at 11:45 AM
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Labels: grad school, ilonatipp.com, music, original songs, recital, song, songs,
songwriting



TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2017


UPDATE: ETSY CHANGED DEADLINE, MY SHOP OPEN UNTIL MAY 31


BREAKING NEWS: Etsy pushback has worked. Enough sellers have shown anger and
planned to leave over the new Etsy forced payment system that Etsy has pushed
back the deadline. My sincere apologies for the dire "my shop is closing today"
warnings, because I only learned five minutes ago that they have moved the
deadline from May 17 to May 31.

If you want the backstory on all this, please see my post about why Etsy's
changes are forcing my shop to close. This has all been very sudden, and my very
cynical mind is that Etsy is seeing the bump in sales over sellers who are doing
"shop-closing" sales just like I am, and has decided that two more weeks of
delaying the forced changes will get more money for them. And they're right. And
perhaps they are weighing the words of so many people, who just like me have
said they will quit spending their money at Etsy over these changes. I can't
speak for others, but any small profits I make from my shop (and after the
materials, shipping, time, etc, the profits are tiny indeed) go right back into
other purchases at Etsy. If you don't want to read my post about why Etsy's
changes are forcing my shop to close, let me just say that much of the issue
hinges on use of PayPal, and word on the street is that Etsy may be planning to
phase out PayPal altogether - for buyers as well as sellers. So from me, they'll
lose their profits from my listings and sales, AND the profits from my purchases
based on those sales. Sigh. I'll get off my soapbox now, but if anyone has
questions or comments, please let me know. I'm happy, and even eager, to have a
dialog on this.

So, this means my shop will stay open for two more weeks. I will continue to
work hard to get the word out. To those of you who have already placed orders
thinking they're the last, I cannot thank you enough for your support (and hey,
if your items arrive and you love them and decide to order more, there's still
time).


at 11:57 AM
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Labels: #EtsyExit, etsy, etsy shop

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INSPIRATION


"Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company."

-Lord Byron



RESOURCES

 * • Letter Writers Alliance
 * • Postcrossing
 * • How I keep track of my mail
 * • How I obtain cool vintage stamps
 * • Stationery sources: recommendations
 * • Anysoldier.com
 * • USPS zip code lookup
 * • Guide for addressing international mail
 * • Books for soldiers
 * • Calculate postage (USA)
 * • Mailbox map (USA only)
 * • Find a mailbox in an airport
 * • The Postal Society
 * • National Postal Museum
 * • Arago: People, postage and the post
 * • International Union of Mail Artists
 * • Sandbook.net
 * • Writealetter.org




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