Frog and Toad Love Mail!!

One of my all time favorite books is "Frog and Toad are Friends" by Arnold Lobel. I remember reading this great book when I was a child and laughing with my mom at the silly antics of Toad. I also remember reading it to my own sons.  The Murphy Bros. laughed just as much as I did! My favorite part of the story, of course, is the bit about mail!!  I especially like Frog and Toad's postman!! (This book was first published in 1970. This is definitely the original  "snail mail"! He's so cute!!)

In honor of such a wonderful book I decided to make a Frog and Toad snail mail package for one of my young pen pals! I included a copy of the book, a frog themed letter, a plush frog (or is it a toad?) and some candy!!  I got word that she loved it! Yay!!

Frog and Toad Mailbox Magic!!

Go postal, people! 

XOXO Mrs. Murphy

It's No Secret ~ Puzzle Post is Awesome!!

When I was a kid I loved spies, codes and secret messages. I would write encrypted letters to my cousins and anxiously await their secretive replies! Nothing like breaking a code to get to the good stuff of a letter! It just adds to the excitement! The memories of sending and receiving these coded messages from my youth inspired me to make and send some puzzle mail today!  For a sure fire success send your puzzle letter to a kid, but I think adult pen pals would enjoy some mail like this, too! I would, anyway!

Here are a few ideas I added to my Snail Mail idea book:

• Picture Puzzle ~ An easy, but fun puzzle letter to send is a picture or image puzzle. Write your letter on the back of a printed or handcrafted image. After your letter is completed, cut up the image into puzzle pieces and place into an envelope to mail to your puzzle loving pen pal. Your recipient will have to piece the image together to read your letter! 

• Rebus ~ Nothing says "fun" like a rebus!! I used to love these as a kid. Figuring out a rebus puzzle is most amusing and making one takes a lot of creativity!! A rebus is a representation of a word by pictures or symbols. To write a rebus letter simply replace some words (or partial words) with pictures. You don't have to be a world class artist to make a rebus. Simple figures are best.  Here's an example:

• Cipher ~ Create a cipher wheel for you and your pen pal.  A cipher wheel is basically two concentric circles divided into segments. Each segment is assigned a letter. To encode something one simply turns the wheel. Each letter on the outer circle is paired up with a replacement letter on the inner circle. Write your message using the replacement letters. Be sure your recipient has an identical wheel and knows the key letter combination. (Ex: A=K The recipient turns his wheel so A on the outer wheel lines up with K on the inner wheel and uses that wheel alignment to break the rest of the code.) Here's an awesome wheel I got from Top Spy Secrets (A fun website for kids...and those who are young at heart!)

It's not puzzling...snail mail is magic! Send some today!!

Go Postal, people!!

XOXO Mrs. Murphy

Mailbox Warming!

Moving stinks. Oh sure, there is the excitement of living in a new place, but the packing and unpacking, the cleaning and sorting through your stuff, the deciding where to put everything but getting tired so you end up chucking it in a drawer...that part of moving sucks. I know some folks that moved this summer so I thought I would send them a mailbox warming care package! Everyday is better when you receive some good mail! 

I purchased a few small items every home owner could use, packaged them into a cute glass jar, added a fun letter and headed off to the post office! My small town post office is the best! No lines, the staff helped package up my gift and we chatted about our kids. (Good mail makes everyone happy!)

My awesome package only cost a few dollars to send at the standard shipping rate and that includes tracking. (Bargain!) This little bit of mailbox magic should arrive in a few days! Now hopefully that's a box my recipient will want to unpack!! 

Go postal, people!! 

XOXO Mrs. Murphy

The Question Letter! Why not?

"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." ~ Voltaire

When the Murphy Bros. were young whippersnappers they were full of energy. Their exuberant life force was wonderful on the playground, but not so great in the doctor's office, at a restaurant, or worst of all, on an airplane! In an effort to keep some semblance of order (and to hang on to my own sanity) I created "The Question Game!"  Basically I came up with a zillion questions that I would ask the boys whenever we were waiting.  They enjoyed it because some of the questions were silly and got them laughing. Others were more thought provoking and I loved listening to their "deep" little boy answers!
The Question Game is not just for kids. I've played it with many different people, family members, old friends, new acquaintances, co-workers, friends of the Murphy Bros. It's always fun!

Recently I sent a Question Game inspired letter to one of my pen pals.  I composed a letter around one question. I wrote my answer making sure to give lots of details and I included a few illustrations! It was great fun! I can't wait to receive my pen pal's reply!

Here are a few questions to get your creative juices flowing...

• If, with your safety guaranteed, you could experience something considered very dangerous, what would you want to experience most of all?
• If your name were given as the description for any one word in the dictionary, behind what word would people find your name? 
• If you had to choose your own epitaph of eight words or fewer (besides name and dates), what would it say?
• If you could be the editor-in-chief of any magazine in circulation, having significant input as to the style and content of the publication, which magazine would you choose?
• What season best describes you? Why?
• Of all the rooms in all the homes you've ever lived, which was your favorite?
• If you could enter a racehorse in the Kentucky Derby, what would you name your horse?

Now I have a question for you... Why not go postal?! Send more mail, people.

XOXO Mrs. Murphy

Snail Mail! The Cure for the Common Doldrums!

I love vintage ads, typography and photographs and recently came across a product labeled "Brain Salts." 

I was intrigued. What was this mystery product? Did one use it in the kitchen when cooking brains? Perhaps it was composed of dried, ground brains? Nothing like a dash of brain salt to season your dinner and keep it tasting smart! 

I discovered that this mystery product was a medicinal, not culinary, potion used in the treatment of headache, nervousness, mania, sea sickness, sleeplessness, over brainwork and indigestion. There was very little these brain salts couldn't cure!! 

I don't know where one can procure brain salts, but I do know of something better!! It cures boredom, loneliness, melancholy, apathy, incuriosity, lethargy, tedium, ennui, listlessness and monotony! Yes, that's right!!  It's snail mail!! I received a wonderful letter from a new pen pal today. It totally cured me of my doldrums!! Hooray for snailmail! It's magic!! (Much better than brain salts!) 

Go Postal, everybody!

XOXO Mrs. Murphy

Postal Plan - Days in August to Celebrate!

“The more you celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” 

I may have mentioned before that I'm really bad at sending "expected" snail mail...birthday, anniversary cards, etc. I find more inspiration in the quirky and unique.  I love to send surprise snail mail!  It is, hopefully, magic in my recipient's mailbox!!  I may not put everyone's birthday on my postal calendar, but I do add other fun dates that inspire me to send snail mail to family and friends. I thought I'd share a few dates that I've added to my postal plan for August!! 

Monthly Celebrations

• Peach Month: Send some peachy mail to a peach of a pen pal!! It's a month long celebration, so any day will work!! 
• Romance Awareness Month: According to the Huffington Post and Glamour Magazine,  August is National (US) Romance Awareness Month! Sounds like a perfect opportunity to send a love letter to your sweetie!!
• National (US) Picnic Month: Who doesn't love a picnic? Why not send a picnic invitation via post? I'm also thinking about sending some picnic themed books and fun mail to my young pen pals!

Days of Celebration

• (8/3/14) Friendship Day: (Celebrated on the first Sunday in August.) What better reason to send snail mail! They don't call them pen PALS for nothing. 
• (8/3/14) Sister's Day:  (Celebrated on the first Sunday in August.) Send some celebratory sister snail mail to your sister, or a sister-in-law or a best friend that is just like a sister, or ... you get the idea! 
• 8/9/14 Book Lovers' Day:  (Celebrated on August 9th every year.) Books are a wonderful package to send (and receive). Send one to your favorite bookworm.  I like to tuck a few notes in the pages of the book.
• 8/13/14 Left Hander's Day:  (Celebrated on August 13th every year.)  It is said that 10% of the population is left handed.  In the Murphy Family it's 50%!! Both of the Murphy Bros. are lefties while Mr. Murphy and I are righties.  (We must carefully arrange ourselves when we sit in a booth for dinner.)  Sending a fun left-handed package through the mail to your favorite lefty is an awesome idea! There are all kind of left-handed products out there you could include in your mailbox magic package. 
• 8/26/14 National (US) Dog Day: (Celebrated on August 26th every year.)  Lexi (the wonder dog) loves snail mail almost as much as I. She prefers to chew it, however, so I don't usually send her any. In honor of Dog Day, I will, instead, send some snail mail to my dog loving friends! 

Join me in taking a few minutes at the end of July and plan some August snail mail! Accept the challenge to send some smiles through the post in August!

Go postal, everybody!!

XOXO Mrs. Murphy

Snailmail ~ Where Seldom is heard a Discouraging Word!!

“Instruction does much, but encouragement everything."  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Nothing cheers me up like a hand written letter in my mailbox!! And it goes without saying that I absolutely LOVE making snail mail to send to someone who needs a little encouragement.  Today's outgoing post idea is my way of encouraging you to send some encouraging snailmail!!

I started with a pun, of course! 

"Orange you glad..." 

My discouraged recipient recently entered a new life stage and was feeling a tad overwhelmed. She was also surrounded, of course, by people who kept pointing out all of the negative things about her situation. (There never seems to be a lack of Negative Nellies in one's life, is there?) I wrote a note to my pen pal outlining the "Top 5 Reasons" her new situation was awesome! I hope this note brought a smile to her face and a little cheer to her heart. Magic!

Orange you glad you sent some snailmail?!

Go postal, everybody!!

~XOXO Mrs. Murphy