Today I learned that during World War II, the American government committed German mail fraud. 

Part of Operation Cornflakes, as it was called, air-dropped bags of correctly-addressed propaganda mail that the US Office of Strategic Services had created into areas where German trains with mail cars had been bombed.  The idea was that the Germans would collect all the mail bags that had been thrown from the train and put them back into the mail system.  They forged the German stamps at the time, and included a Cinderella stamp inside for the receiver that had Hitler's head drawn as a skull, with a slight rhyming alteration to the words: "German Empire" was turned into "Destroyed Empire." 

It totally worked; 3800 of these propaganda mailings were air-dropped and picked up by the Germans in January of 1945, and subsequently delivered to their intended recipients.

Wikipedia doesn't say if it happened more than the one occasion, but I can't imagine the OSS went through all the effort of forging German postage, making their own Cinderellas, acquiring accurate German addresses, typing or hand-addressing all those addresses, and stuffing the envelopes with their propaganda newsletters just to test it out once.

I also found this site, which talks a bit about different propaganda campaigns the Allies had in various European countries.  According to their article, the OSS got the addresses from the German public death notices of Nazi soldiers, and sent propaganda to the grieving family members.  Harsh, but probably pretty effective.  It says they sent hundreds of these by "clandestine means" every two weeks from 1942 on, so that would make it a larger-scale operation than the Wikipedia entry would lead one to believe.  Possibly they got the mail into Germany by means other than air-dropping it before 1945.

Wherein Mrs. Morrigan comes home to roost.

You might know that I live in a basement apartment.  Our steps are super steep, so it's a mini-hiking trip every day when I leave the house.  I don't usually look up; I'm generally concentrating to make sure an ill-placed foot doesn't send me back down into the seven foot well that is my entryway.

So when I got about forehead-level with my mailbox and spotted this out of the corner of my eye, I'm not ashamed to say that I jumped.  Just a little.

Unexpected pigeon mail is unexpected.

Luckily, I've loved from afar the Pigeon Post kit from the Letter Writers Alliance, so once my heart stopped racing from the half second of thinking a real pigeon was on my mailbox, I knew exactly what she was doing there.

The view of Mrs. Morrigan from my upstairs neighbors' perspective as they ascended their stoop.

You can read all about Mrs. Morrigan's past life as a fortune-teller here.  However, this week she was helping Kim send a message to me that could not be delayed, nor could it be rushed by false electronic means.

She took exactly the right amount of time to arrive. 

Many thanks to Kim for sending her my way!  I fed her (well, I put her next to the cockatiels' seed bowl, thus terrorizing both Roo and Bigsby, who thought she was real and eating their food), and will let her relax here for a little while before figuring out where she should go next.

Craftgasm at the Eco-Chic Pop-Up Shop this weekend!

I'm excited to be selling my Earth-friendly stationery and prints at the Benevolent Media Festival's Eco-Chic Pop-Up Shop tomorrow at Mova Lounge! Click here to see my fellow eco-conscious vendors.

Mova Lounge is on 14th Street just north of W Street, NW. There will be a happy hour for the last hour of shopping, so come in and cool off tomorrow!

Letter-Writing Social Wrap-Up

Did you ever get a pony for your birthday while you were at Disney World? Me either, but I had the postal equivalent of that on Saturday.

The letter-writing social at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum was a huge success. We had three mostly-functional typewriters, TONS of free stationery designed by yours truly, and the creativity of hundreds of people who came through and made mail. It can't get much better than that.

Our inspiration board of supplies and completed mail art.

There was also some blogging royalty who traveled across state lines to be with us. Mary of Mary Has Sound, Becky of The Snail Mailer, Bonnie Jeanne of PostMuse, and Amber of A Thoughtful Blog all came from their respective states. Plus my dear friend Bethany of TeaOlive came from South Carolina with lino blade in hand to carve rubber stamps for a lot of attendees at the stamp table.

The only photo I have of her working is this slightly blurry one.

Partially-functional typewriters.

Answer: Whatever you can make it.

The stamp table -- both the rubber and postage type.

Collage materials laid neatly in their bowls -- at first.

This soon became a huge, awesome disaster area.

Crayons, markers, pencils, and more cancelled stamps.

Some "after" photos of all these tables. Remember, messiness is the sign of a good time.

Three typewriters, three kids. Start 'em young!

A lovely mess of making.

A patron hard at work on an artful letter

An especial thanks to Erin of the NPM, whose hard work made this awesomeness happen.  She's super-supportive of the letter-writing and mail art communities, and her backing of this project is what made it so successful.

Were you able to come make mail with us? What did you think of the afternoon?

P.S. Did you know about the #showandmail topic on Twitter that @postalmuseum popularized? It's a great source of letter-writing inspiration.

Letter-Writing Social at the National Postal Museum

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm co-hosting a letter-writing and mail-making event at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum on Saturday, April 28th from noon until 3pm! I've always thought the atrium of the museum would be perfect for a letter lounge, what with the fabulous philepistolist tile under one's feet and the exhibit of mail trucks, trains, and planes around the edges of the space. (If only we could move a couple of fireplaces and comfy couches in there, too...) From their description:

Amaze a friend by sending an artfully handwritten, paper-based message instead of the usual tweet or text. They might just write you back!
One-of-a-kind stationery, unique postcards, pretty paper, ink stamps, retro airmail labels, cancelled stamps, a somewhat functional typewriter, and mailable supplies are provided in this veritable letter-writing lounge. Postage stamps available for purchase in the museum's Stamp Store.

The "one-of-a-kind stationery" is designed by me and will be available exclusively at the event, so be sure to drop by to take advantage of it! (A little preview can be seen above.)

I know of a few of the well-known mail artists who are active bloggers will be there, too, so don't miss your chance to meet up face to face. Hope to see you there!

Coining a word is nerdy work.

I've always been curious about what to call myself as a lover of all things postal. While I enjoy Donovan's colorful "postal pervert" moniker, I didn't want to be too high on the Google search results for that one. "Philatelist" is the perfect word for postage stamp aficionados, but its popular meaning is too specific. I like stamps, but I also like mail art and letters and envelopes and stationery and post office buildings, which aren't understood to be covered under "philatelist."

As someone who majored in English, I have often claimed that I am qualified to make up words if I wanted. Usually they're of the "ricockulous" variety, but after I complained about the lack of a word for postal love one too many times, Dan told me to put that claimed-expertise to work, and then helped me look some etymologies up.

I liked the idea of keeping the love of all things postal-related to the already recognized love of postage stamps, which, as I said above, already has a word: philately. Turns out that since the postage stamp didn't exist until 1840, the word was coined by Georges Herpin in 1864 who was having the exact same problem I am in wanting a better word to describe his hobby. He joined the Greek "phil," meaning "brotherly love or affection" to the closest word to stamp in Greek that he could come up with, "ateleia," meaning lack of taxes, since stamps at the time were used for both postage and as proof of payment of duties.

Georges Herpin, that sexy, word-coining bastard.

Of course, since an official, government-sanctioned postal service wasn't invented in ancient Greece, there isn't exactly an ancient Greek word for it, either, so I'm back to where our friend Georges was, and needed to find something that fit the general idea I was going for.

I started translating mail-related words into Greek to see what popped up as possible fits. "Mail" transliterated roughly into "taxidromeio," which seemed too close to the literal translation of "philately." Once I transliterated the translation of "letter," though, I knew I had my answer. I had no idea that "epistle" was already based in Greek ("epystol"), and I already have affection for the word since it relates to a form of literature; an epistolary novel is one of my favorite genres.

So.

Phil*e*pist*list (fil-ih-pis-list)
noun
One who enjoys writing and receiving letters & postal mail.

No longer shall we have to describe our hobby as "well, I really love mail and mail art and pen pals and pretty stationery and making my own envelopes." We have a word! Go forth, my fellow philepistlists, and proliferate our new moniker!

Edited to add:
The incredibly smart Ashley came up with adding a resting syllable in there to make it "philepistolist." I like it being easier to say, but then the T will be pronounced instead of silent like in "epistle." What are your thoughts?

Anywhere near NYC this weekend?

I'll be selling the perfect gifts for your family and friends at Bust Magazine's Holiday Craftacular this Saturday the 10th (11AM - 8PM) and Sunday the 11th (11AM - 7PM) at 82 Mercer Street in SoHo. There's a $3 admission, but it's worth it to check out the 200 vendors!

I'll be at table 187 towards the back of the first room you come in -- there will be three rooms of awesomeness! (Let me know if you're a reader to get a free little something.)

Click through to Bust's post about the show. I hope to see you there!

o! tidings of comfort and joy!

I'm really excited about the holiday cards I made this year. A friend asked me to design her annual holiday postcard, and I loved how they turned out so much that I wanted to make them available for everyone.


The image was collaged by me using some of my favorite materials: vintage ledger paper, maps, and canceled postage stamps. Add in some ribbon, a doily, and some typewritten words, and you've got the makings of an eclectic, vintage-y holiday note. (Of course, the actual cards don't have a watermark on them.)


I had the collage professionally printed onto FSC-certified, eco-friendly cardstock. Each set of 6 comes with white envelopes in a white stationery box with a clear lid (which are also great for packaging up small Christmas gifts once you've sent out all your cards). The ledger paper design wraps onto the back of the card, and each card is blank inside so that you can personalize them however you wish.


Order your set in my Etsy shop! All orders placed this week will come with a strip of coordinating vintage postage stickers made from canceled stamps, which will go nicely with your cards. Use them to decorate the envelopes -- or keep them to yourself. (I won't tell if you decide to do the latter.)

Nana's Handmade Holly Mart

I'm excited to announce that I'll be selling in person at Nana this Saturday during their first-ever Handmade Holly Mart! If you're in the DC area, swing by to shop from ten local makers, not to mention the usual fabulous inventory one can find at Nana's.

Nana's is located in Mt. Pleasant at 3068 Mount Pleasant Street, NW, and will be open from 11AM until 7PM. Shop local this holiday season!

Crafty Bastards is this Saturday!

Remember how I'm getting married in less than a fortnight? Apparently I am not busy enough with that, because I'm also selling at Crafty Bastards this weekend!

As always, Crafty Bastards is in Adams Morgan at the Marie Reed Center on 18th Street north of California Street. I'll be in the tennis court section from 10AM until 5PM selling stationery and Gocco prints. Come find me in booth #165!

P.S. I miiiight just have a new print that will interest those of you who loved the Marion Barry pins.