Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Once Upon a Time (a story told through pictures)

Here is the story of a lovely lady [named Brady Laura]

This is Laura (as interpreted by her 10 year old niece. It's an uncanny resemblance)
 And she wasn't bringing up three very lovely girls. Instead, she liked writing letters. She often writes letters while sitting in this back-breaking kitchen chair...


...while facing her table of writing and paper-related supplies:


When Laura wants to write a letter, she chooses a stationery set from here:

and a pen from here:

And off she goes to perfect her imitation of the Hunchback of Notre Dame while sitting at the aforementioned back-breaking kitchen chair. Sometimes when she's not feeling creative and is having trouble finishing a letter, this is how she feels:

When she's done writing her encyclopedia-long letter, she chooses an envelope:


And then decorates it with something from what she calls her "finisher" box...


...or her washi tape box:


Then Laura chooses a label from her labelling box... [storyteller's comment: the originality involved in naming these boxes... WHEW. Laura really outdid herself. And by outdid herself, we mean: not at all. Not even a little.]


...addresses the envelope, and slaps a stamp on it!


TA-DAH! And this is the story of how Laura's special brand of oddity gets delivered to your mailbox halfway across the world.


THE END. Thank god because Laura was getting tired of speaking in the third person...and Laura is still doing it, isn't she? Can someone please help reset Laura?!!! 

What's the story behind creating your letters? I'd love to hear it.

22 comments:

  1. Look at all of that lovely mail stuff! You're organized and I love it. <33

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    1. I love that you say organized, and not some other less-complimentary terms. I've been accused of being crazy obsessed and anal--organized sounds way better. :)

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  2. Ahhh we have the same Battlestar propaganda posters <3 I loved the pacman envelope!

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    1. YAY for BSG posters! It cost an arm and a leg (several arms and legs actually) to have them framed so that the corners are cut off, but it was SO worth it. <3

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  3. Omg, all of the lettersets and washi tape! I have yet to purchase my first roll but I want some so bad! Where did you buy yours at? I've been looking for the most affordable place!

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    1. Oh, take it from me: once you buy your first washi tape roll, obsession kicks in, and it's a slippery slope from there.... My stash was all bought from DeSerres, Happy Tape, Omiyage, and Cute Tape. The last 3 stores are all online. I hope that helps! Etsy is also a really great place to buy washi tape.

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  4. Oh my! *jaw drops* Your collection of mail items really amazed me! I love your Pac man envie, that was really creative and it brings me back some of my childhood memories! Happy mailing! :D

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  5. Wow you have so much stuff there for your letters, I love how much stuff you have big big big big time.

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  6. I really like your way of organizing your letter paraphernalia! I want to write a post about my letter-writing process now, complete with pictures!

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    1. Hello, my neighbour just to the right! :) Oooohh.. please do! I'd love to see how other people organize their supplies and how they go about writing their letters.

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  7. Awesome!!!!!! Oo That's really an amazing collection! Say, where did you get all those cute labels from??? It would be great if you share some of the shops you buy your stuff from :)

    Many greetings
    Yoshi

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    1. Hello Yoshi! I'll let you in on a little secret: most of my labels are either post-its, or they're printables I downloaded from the internet. Most of them are intended for other purposes (ie: jar labels or box organization), but as long as it's big enough to write an address, it works great. If you go to a site like pinterest and search printables, you should be able to find them as well. It's great because it's inexpensive and you can print as many as you want. Happy searching! :)

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  8. No story here right now, just popping in to say what fun it is to discover your blog. I just linked it from mine. Looking forward to following you here and on Twitter. And wow, you're organized. I am marveling at your washi tape box!

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    1. Hello Missive Maven! How lovely to see you. Thanks for visiting my little corner of the blog world. And thanks for following me on twitter as well. I'm terrible at twitter however--when you suffer from verbal diarrhea like I do, the 140 character limit is very difficult to adhere to.

      How sad that I needed to google diarrhea to figure out how to spell it properly. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere.... :)

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  9. I'm scary impressed by your organization. I'm sad to say that my paper and letter writing goodies live in a box under my desk in my room (it's really the only place I can store anything!) If I'm heading out somewhere and I think I'll have time, I tuck paper into my purse (there's already about a dozen or so pens in there, which is insane, because who needs that many pens while you're out?). Otherwise, I just curl up on the couch/bed/at my desk, play some music/a dvd (usually something I've seen about a thousand times and glance up at occasionally but makes great background noise--currently Three Musketeers, just for the Luke Evans scenes...) and write. This is also how I study...which probably explains my awful math skills...
    You get extra points for awesomeness (on top of your scary organization) for the cowboy hat sitting on your goodies. Not only are you a gunslinger, but your goodies are ready for a quick draw too! ;P

    On a side note, I ran into a speedy little snail today. He brought me a mix of tunes and some Doctor Who love. Naturally, I made him a nice cup of tea and we listened to Take That playing "When We Were Young" at maximum volume on my stereo. The neighbors then called the police (really, I don't see the problem--so we may have shattered some glass from the volume, but it's a beautiful day outside, they didn't need those windows anyway!) and my little snail friend was arrested. I'm breaking him out of jail in a couple days, but you don't have any spare room by any chance, do you? We'll need somewhere to hide out. (my long winded, LAME way of saying some letter awesomeness came in the mail and the CD is soooooo good and I'm on a high because of your letter and the card!)

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    1. Holy moly, that snail was indeed speedy! YES! I always have space for a snail on the run and for the intrepid lady who broke him out! But only if you get rid of a few pens from your bag. I have a 11 pens-per-person rule for everyone that comes into my house. ;)

      I love the picture that you painted of writing while listening to music, or more often, watching a DVD. It seems so lovely. I envision it as slightly contortionist because you used the word "curl," but still lovely and homey nonetheless. Of course, you never get distracted, right? Because you're a woman on a mission. It occurs to me that "When We Were Young" just happens to be the theme song for The Three Muskateers. Coincidence?! Take That at maximum volume...! You make me so proud. But be nice to your neighbours, will ya? There's probably a six degrees to Luke Evans there, and you don't want to burn your bridges.

      Can I just say how much I love you for noticing the cowboy hat?!!! If you look at the right hand side of the photo, you can actually see my guns hanging on the wall--practically still smoking from a long, hard day of gunslinging. There is no rest for a gunslinger. There's a story behind all that, which should be reaching you shortly....ooohhh, the suspense!

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  10. Damn! I guess we'll just have to find somewhere else to crash. Goodness knows I can't anywhere with less than fourteen pens (one of these days, they're going to explode or break and leak ink all over my purse, and I'll start crying and yelling "Why? How could this happen?"). Haha, "When We Were Young" is indeed the theme for the Three Musketeers :D and you should be ashamed for feeding my addiction (okay, not really, there's a monument being built in your honor--the dedication ceremony is this Wednesday, by the way. There'll be chocolate and lots of people with British accents.
    Now that I've read your comment, though, I should say that I've decided to invite some people from my neighborhood. Just to, you know, get to know them *cough*stalkLukeEvans*cough* it's really important to stay involved in your community, I think.

    Ah! You do have guns! X__X you remind me so much of River Song when she's all dressed up like a cowboy at this moment! *peers at you closely* you're not a time traveler, by any chance, are you?

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    1. You know what would be AWESOME? If after the inevitable pen explosion of 2012 happens (oh, it's gonna happen someday. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday....), you fall to your knees and re-enact the scene from the 1996 Romeo and Juliet movie: "I DEFY YOU STARS!!!!!!" I would be thoroughly entertained and impressed.

      Wednesday you say? I checked my calendar and all I have on the books is Breakfast with Jane Austen and Tea Time with Dorothy Parker at 3 PM. What time is the dedication ceremony? 3 PM? Well, I'll just spin up the drive and relive 3 PM and ooooops. Did this time-traveler just say too much?

      This is how insanely long comments start. First it's just witty banter, and then soon it becomes something like Comment #54648797: Dear Kay..... Winston Churchill says hey, what's up?!

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  11. I saw your ad on pen pals of the week and found your blog. Love it!! I'm new to this pen palling world, and I'm excited to make all these new discoveries in other people's blogs! I am obsessed w/ stationaries and washi tapes -- and your collection is AMAZING! I have a small little bin of washi tapes that is slowly growing and my stationary that I've been slowly building up needs to be used! I will be sending you a letter soon :D

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  12. hey there i just saw you labels i NEED to know where you got the elephant ones from they are so adorable :)

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    1. Hey Roxy! Luckily the labels are printable so you can print them out yourself. Check them out here: http://thenimbusfactoryblog.blogspot.ca/2011/02/tnf-freebies-78910-sweet-labels.html

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