Letters from Strangers & Letter Writing Club This Sunday!

There are a few really great things about working in a stationery shop, most of which are fairly straightforward: I get to play around with new pens and inks as soon as they arrive, I get to roam the shop at night in the dark, running my fingers over notebooks, I get to talk about pens all day and call it work. But one of the things I didn't really expect is the mail! Every once in a while, we get some pretty great mail from our customers - the occasional thank you note, or a letter with a story - or sometimes I even get letters from people who have stumbled across the blog, which of course totally makes my day. Incredibly, Caleb has already received a few letters of his own, which I think is just amazing. What better way for a kid to learn to read and write, and also to appreciate something slow and analogue and meaningful - you can write something on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope with a stamp, and send it anywhere in the world! A miracle! This is a special favourite, Caleb-sized mail, from Silvie in Montreal. Jon grumbles when Caleb gets more mail than he does, but Jon secretly can't wait to see what's inside, too. I'm sharing this both because it's lovely, but also because our first Letter Writing Club of 2016 is coming up this Sunday, January 10th, and I couldn't be more excited, and not just because I'm, you know, just a bit backed up on my own letters - it'll be nice to see everyone again, and catch up about the holidays and everything else that's happening! We didn't have a Letter Writing Club in December for the big holiday rush, which I definitely missed. It's certainly frosty out these days, time to bust out the big winter jackets, so I hope you can make it! Bundle up and maybe get a hot chocolate for the trip over. Otherwise, we'll be enjoying the tea and egg tarts on your behalf, and thinking of you :) Over the last few days, we've been busy, both wrapping up the holiday stuff and also preparing to start the new year in the shop. We've been catching up on online orders, and I'm really sorry if yours is late! With the bricks & mortar shop closed, we had to change our Canada Post pick-up schedule. Going forward, we're planning on things getting back into good order. I had a whole list of things I wanted to get done over the break, and we really only got two or three of the big ones done, including ordering and assembling some big shelving for the back. It was a bit nuts over the holidays with the extra inventory and everything everywhere, but we spent our New Years Eve putting it all together, celebrating both a new year, and a business that's grown enough to need new shelves. As much as I loved the bustling holiday season, and the slightly quieter busy-ness of the break, it's nice to get back into things. We had to go to Yorkdale Mall (I think maybe one of the biggest malls in Toronto, although I really have no idea) to exchange something, and I couldn't believe how busy it was even though the holidays are over! It was a bit surreal, like we were in a theme park, which I guess was appropriate since it was Caleb's first trip. We even got some popcorn! ...which we ate on the very long car ride back. It took us I think 20 minutes to exit the parking lot because of construction and traffic. In any case, it's been a bit of a longer than expected break from me on the blog, even though I had a few things I wanted to post a bit more about. They are still on the list though, and I also got a new calendar which is supposed to help me stay more organized (haha.). Not only that, we've got something big in the works! One of the most exciting things we've done as a pen shop!! Stay tuned!!