Happy April 1st! Yes it is april fools day, but this is no joke. The nice creative people over at Egg Press (a nifty Portland-based letterpress and card company that I have loved since I got here) and Hello!Lucky (a cute San Francisco card company) have challenged the internet and the world to write 30 letters in 30 days, one for each day of April. It is a chance to return to analog, to make someones day a bit brighter, to reconnect with an old friend, to say thanks, or to congratulate.
I have always enjoyed having pen pals. After moving around a few times, I accumulated a bunch of friends on all sides of the country. What better way to keep in touch than through letters? Getting a hand written letter in return is so much more special than an email or a text. It means that person cares enough to put in the extra time and effort. A friend is always worth it, I think. And who doesn't love getting mail that isn't only bills?
It thought it would be hard to get up 30 people, but after some thinking I ended up with the perfect list. It is of course full of best friends, as well as friends I haven't talked to in too long and a couple I wish I hadn't lost touch with. I had to throw in a few dogs and cats for good measure.
cards from Happy Hour & Co.
My friend Brianne, co-founder of Happy Hour & Co., clued me in to this. Running her own card company, she is always up on the latest card happenings. A few lucky recipients will even receive a Happy Hour & Co card! The rest I found digging through bins of blank cards at SCRAP. I got a lot of really good ones, the hard part now will be deciding who gets which card.
This is also the perfect opportunity to get better at calligraphy. I have been wanting to learn, and what better time than when I have to address 30 letters? I was super inspired by my friend Taylor who did a massive amount of calligraphy for her wedding invitations, place cards, and thank you notes. More inspiration came last summer when I went to Creative Morning's talk by Mara Zepeda, an amazing calligrapher and entrepreneur. Plus typography is the best and I want to learn all about it that I can. Maybe I'll be a master calligrapher by May?
Its not too late to take part in the challenge! Visit the Write_On website to get a free starter kit and search the #write_on tag on instagram and twitter to see what other people are doing.