Shake Things Up! Send Some Snail Mail!

 

A recent perusal of my postage stamp collection reminded me I had a few of those fabulous Soda Fountain Forever stamps issued in 2016. These fun stamps are perfect for sending summer mail! And furthermore, did you know June 20th is National Vanilla Milkshake Day? It also happens to be the official first day of summer this year! 😎 Sounds like an excellent reason to send some mail! 

Way back in 2016 when the USPS held the dedication ceremony for the Soda Fountain Forever stamps, postal employee Nancy Rettinhouse stated, “It is our hope at the United States Postal Service that the stamps we are issuing today will spur nostalgia in everyone mailing or receiving postcards, letters and packages.”

It definitely spurred nostalgia in me. 🥰 My personal family history is replete with soda fountain stories. Mr. Murphy and I have, of course, shared many a romantic chocolate soda, root beer float and green river at some of our favorite soda fountains through the years… (one shake, two straws! 😘)…  but my personal favorite is a love story. A romantic tale about a tall, quiet milkman and the beautiful, young soda fountain girl he saw on his daily delivery of milk and ice cream. Yep, that’s how my grandparents met. My grandfather was a milkman and my grandmother worked at the soda fountain!

  

(My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. And they're like, it's better than yours 🎶 - 😝 Wait, no…that’s my Gran! 😜) 

Anyway, they met at the soda fountain and the rest, as they say is history! Do I owe my very existence, in part to the sublime deliciousness that is the milkshake? 🤔 I think perhaps, I do! 

Now that is an excellent reason to celebrate the sweet treats of the soda fountain and send some snailmail on Vanilla Milkshake Day! 

Go postal people! In a good way!

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy

 

Write Til Your Ink Be Dry…Thy Mailbox Lies Barren!!

 

It has been 460 years since the birth of Shakespeare, but his words still live on. I particularly like that line from Two Gentlemen from Verona, 

“Write till your ink be dry and with your tears moist it again, and frame some feeling line that may discover such integrity.”

They’re surely talking about keeping up their correspondence, right? 😉 

I was first introduced to Shakespeare by Mrs. Hultgren, my high school English teacher. She loved the Bard and tried to inspire her somewhat reluctant students with his greatness. We memorized monologues, read whole plays aloud in class and took turns acting out our favorite death scenes. “Et tu, Brute?” 😵 

At first I struggled with the language. What is this guy taking about?!? But the more I read the easier it became. I soon got swept up in the stories which were amazing… both witty and profound. In the end it’s the words that do it for me. Shakespeare invented so many phrases, clever quips and salty insults. A lot of his lingo is still in use today. Here is just a sampling of what I discovered with the help of those interwebs…

• as luck would have it
•  bated breath
•  the be-all and the end-all
•  break the ice
• brave new world
• cold comfort
• dead as a doornail
• the dogs of war
• faint-hearted
• for goodness sake
• foregone conclusion
• good riddance
• kill with kindness
• laughing stock
• one fell swoop
• wear my heart upon my sleeve
• wild-goose chase

Isn’t that amazing? Four and a half centuries later and Shakespearean quips are still common! 

So in honor of the greatest English writer of all time, I decided to send a Shakespeare inspired letter to a friend in honor of her birthday. She loves books and words as I do so I hope she will enjoy it! 

“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.” (Much Ado About Nothing)

Hie thee, good folk, and let thy missives fly with all haste!

XOXO, 

Mrs. Murphy 

P.S. Write Sooner or Later!

 

Well, that was a lengthy hiatus. 😬 I do apologize for the lateness of this blog post, but a snailmail blog post, like snailmail itself, is a joy whenever it appears! (At least I like to think so) 😊

So, what has Mrs. Murphy’s Mailbox been up to of late? Well, one of the most fun things I’ve sent via the postal service is a sisters journal! My sweet sister picked up a guided journal for sisters to share memories, secrets, hopes and dreams. It’s a fun way to celebrate the unique bond of sisters. 

This is the actual journal she got for us!! 

It might be geared for younger sisters,🤷‍♀️ but it sure has been fun for a couple of 50-something sisters! 😊 The thoughtful prompts have been great for reflection and recollecting old family memories. It’s been amazing to me that there is always something new to discover about one another after all this time. One of us fills out a section at random and mails it to her sister! Hooray! Good mail! 

Our own sister snail mail inspired me to read about some other sisterly correspondence. The Postal Museum (one of the Smithsonian museums) is a personal favorite, obviously. 😉 They have wonderful collections of letters. I read one letter from Anna Mitchell, an American Red Cross worker, that she sent to her sister Caroline Phelps-Stokes. She included extensive descriptions of her relief work during WWI. She worked at a canteen in France in 1916. The facility provided coffee and food to civilians and the military. Reading it was like stepping back in time. 

Snailmail has value to me for many reasons. It encourages others, connects people in a meaningful, unique way and records personal histories for future generations! It’s a wonderful hobby! I highly recommend it. 

Go postal, people! In a good way!! 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

An Apple a Day Keeps the Mailbox Happy

 

I took a snailmail break over the summer and just started writing again in September. If possible I like to have a theme for the month in which all my postal projects can find a home. As many of you letter writing enthusiasts know, writing a letter can sometimes be quite difficult…creativity-wise. 🥱 Sometimes I fear my letters are most dreadfully boring, thus the theme. And it is extra nice to coordinate the postage with the theme. 🥰 📬. My latest theme? 🍎 🍏 Apples! It is apple season after all and the markets are filling up with lovely little apples with even lovelier names such as, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp and Autumn Glory. September is also the birth month of Johnny “Appleseed” Chapman. The USPS honored him on a postage stamp from 1966 as part of their folklore series. I only have a cancelled Johnny Appleseed stamp, however. 😞

My postage was a little lacking so I decided to base the letters on apple phrases. I wrote to one old friend I hadn’t seen in years but had recently met her grown son for the first time. He was delightful and regaled Mr. Murphy and myself with tales of his parents! 😂 I wrote about the apple not falling far from the tree. 🌳 🍎 

Another letter was to a friend that is a prayer partner and fellow Bible student. She has been a great encouragement so I wrote to her about Proverbs 25:11 “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word fitly spoken.” 🥰 🍎 I feel that a hand written letter, full of wonderful words, definitely cheers and uplifts…like apples of gold in settings of silver. 

One could also send a letter to the apple of one’s eye or describe a recent triumph in one’s life…you know…how do you like them apples? 😉 I feel like the apple idioms are endless and excellent seeds for inspiration!! Go forth, my friends, like Johnny Appleseed and spread good cheer by planting…um…I mean…MAILING some letters!! 

Go postal, people!! 

XOXO,

Mrs. Murphy 

It’s Starts With a Stamp

 One of my favorite aspects of snailmail and postal projects is coordinating the postage stamp with either the theme of the letter or the recipient himself! 😁

A stamp about stamps! 🥰 

I have a big collection of postage stamps. I like to sort and categorize them by subject and color and theme. Certain letters I write simply beg to be stamped with a corresponding postage stamp! I have been known to spend more time picking out the postage stamps for my letter than I did actually writing the letter! 

I was recently sorting through my stamps and came across a stamp that reminded me of the MurphyBros and of their grandfather. 

The USPS issued ten Hot Wheels stamps to mark the company’s 50th anniversary in 2018. Hot Wheels were a big part of the MurphyBros childhood. In fact when Murphy Boy Wonder was just a babe in arms, Grandpa wrote him a letter and sent him some Hot Wheels in the mail! I loved that letter. 🥰 💌 I saved it along with Murphy Boy Wonder’s baby shoes and hospital bands. 👶🏼 

By the time Super Murphy Boy joined his brother they had the makings of quite a large collection. They played together for hours driving their little cars around. 

A few years later Grandpa sent them another Hot Wheels gift. He and Grandma had been garage sale shopping and discovered yards and yards of Hot Wheels track. SO MUCH TRACK! 

The MurphyBros loved it!! They were forever designing race tracks and adventure courses. My favorite was the design that started on the top bunk, plummeted to the bedroom floor, curved out the door into the hallway and careened down the steps to the main floor!! It was a gruesome end that most of the tiny cars were fated for, but oh! how the crowd went wild when one of the tiny vehicles successfully navigated the track!

The joy of snailmail and postage stamps is a many faceted hobby for me. Not only do I love connecting with friends and family by letter, but the art and fun of the postage stamps are a wonderful bonus! 

The USPS has some wonderful new postage stamp releases including the coffee collection and the Star Wars Droid series!! Both of which I just picked up at my post office and happen to remind me of other delightful penpals! 

Won’t you take a walk down memory lane with me? I always end up at the post office!! 😉 

Go postal, people! 

XOXO, 

Mrs. Murphy 

The Never-Ending Awesomeness of a Never-Ending Card!

Snail mail people are a creative bunch of folks!  I recently took part in a fun postal swap...creating a never-ending card. I had never tried to create a never ending card before but... you know what they say..."Never say never!!"  Except when you're describing this card that seemingly never ends, I guess??  
Thanks to the magic of the wonderful, worldwide web and super crafty folks who share their skills on YouTube, I was able to follow a tutorial and make my own. It was a fabulous time of never ending, crafty, postal fun!

Snailmail is such a wonderful hobby! Not only can you unleash your creativity with cute, clever cards and lovely, long letters but you can send them to your friends and most likely get something equally wonderful in return. You send. You receive!  It's a never ending cycle of magic!!

Go postal, people! 

XOXO

Mrs. Murphy

Postal Challenge Progress

The Mail More Magic Postal Project is progressing nicely! I've written several more letters and a few cards!! Yay!! I just completed numbers 17, 18 and 19 in my snailmail challenge!!

It is sometimes hard for me to pick the next recipient of my mailbox magic. I have a pen pal return pile that, of course, is my number one go-to. Carrying on a conversation via post is such a wonderful experience.

But what if you're new to snailmail and don't have any regular pen pals, yet? Or if you, like me, like to spread the joy of snailmail to non-postal people in the hopes of encouraging them to carry on the letter writing tradition! I just love sharing the magic of mail with as many of my friends and family as possible.

One technique I'm using this year is to send mail to my holiday card senders. These are the lovely folks who took the time to send the Murphy family a Christmas or New Year's card this season. I don't get as many Christmas cards as I used to, but there are a few old fashioned souls out there who still send them every year and I appreciate it!! I grabbed my Christmas card basket and started replying to all those lovely folks. Hopefully they'll feel the magic, too!!

I recently read a story where one of the characters was called "a lady of letters".  What a wonderful description! I would love to be forever known as a lady of letters, one whose correspondence is prolific, interesting, humorous, enjoyed by her readers and most of all...magic!!

XOXO

Mrs. Murphy

Hello! It's Me or The Beauty of the Introductory Letter

Allow me to introduce myself.  I am a letter lover, a dispatch devotee, a mail maniac, a postal proponent, an epistle enthusiast, snail mail supporter, and an alliteration admirer! Hello, I am Mrs. Murphy.

I recently wrote an introductory letter to a friend of my son's at college. (A girl!!) This particular (girl)friend encouraged the elder Murphy Brother to write his mail-loving mother a letter. I was so overjoyed at this, I simply had to write a letter to this wonderful person!!!  I first asked my son's permission to write the letter. (Always a good practice when writing to your children's friends.)
  
He reluctantly gave his permission stating, "OK, I guess. She doesn't even know you though. Wouldn't it be better to meet her first?"

To which I replied, "Oh no, writing a letter is perfect." (Obviously!)

For my introductory letter I chose to tell a little about myself...my career, my family life, some of my own college stories, my interests and especially how I got into snail mail. I included some little drawings to make my letter whimsical and fun (hopefully). Most importantly I asked some questions of my recipient and encouraged her to write back, which she did. Yay! She said I am her first pen pal ever. Double yay!

I also have received some mail exchange requests through this blog and I've really enjoyed getting to know people from all over the world through the post. It may seem weird at first, writing to someone you don't know, but it's a wonderful beginning of a friendship!

Not sure what to write? It's often fun to compare favorites...favorite book, favorite meal, favorite vacation spot, etc. Perhaps you could come up with a little questionnaire. Answer it yourself and then send it in your introductory letter to be answered by your new pen pal!

Letter writing is the perfect form of communication for all the shy people out there, so don't worry if that includes you. You can take your time and think of the perfect way to say, "Hello! It's me. Let's be pen pals."

So let's start writing to complete strangers, people. It's magic!

XOXO,
Mrs. Murphy

I Mustache You A Question...

I've been falling behind on my snailmail creating. I did receive several wonderful letters and post cards during the months of February and March. My "to reply" pile is growing ever bigger!! 

There is no time like the present to dive "write" in!! 

Go Postal, Everybody!!

XOXO Mrs. Murphy