Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I'll be spending my time hanging out with the fam, cramming my face with food, and not posting for four months. Hope you all have a great day!

noodler's purple wampum

stamp collecting for winners

Over the past few months, I've begun mailing letters and postcards to people whom I've met over the Internet through social networking. And with all of the mail I've been receiving, I've also been noticing the kinds of postage that my friends use (which always seem to be infinitely better than mine).

But here's the thing: if you like the stamp, how do you save it? Every single guide I've seen online has called for hot water or steam, and a lot of soaking. But I like the letters that my friends send me; I want to preserve every last scrap of it. I've been trying to find a way to get these stamps without scissors and dunking things in lukewarm water.

I think I've found the solution.

noodler's kung te-cheng

suitably oriental-sounding name

diamine midnight

mysterious and blue, surprisingly like midnight

MUJI Recycled Paper 365 Pages Note

The notebooks on the left, the envelopes on the right. Or is it??? Tune in never to find out

I'm on spring break right now! Things that have been happening: school, Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones, Julius Caesar, eight television shows (give or take), and definitely not being here. Oops. An ink review to be up on Wednesmaybe.

But today (or yesterday) I went with some friends to Santana Row to celebrate two birthdays and the store right next to the restaurant was MaiDo! A friend and I hyperventilated our way in. There were so many things I have never used before: Paperblanks (sigh), MD notebooks (double sigh; have you seen the price tags?), and Rhodia (wink! wink!). We left the store with every intention of returning after dinner.

And then MaiDo closed.

And many tears were shed.

very majestic but not to be confused with majestic purple

Diamine Red Dragon

the worst

oops

Okay so I maybe had a little tiny miniscule mishap with my computer during December in which my (dramatic gasp) Internet shut down on my main (read: awesome) computer, and I was left with a dinky little laptop with the processing power of a grapefruit. So that's why I've been missing for the past - oh, jeez - 3 months, which, to be fair, is basically an eternity in Internet years. But with all the really awful business happening right about now (school, politics, oh god politics) I'm pretty glad that I took a break. I most definitely will not promise that I'll be back tomorrow, or the day after, or a week from now, but when I get something done... well, you'll know!

I hope everyone had a great (choose several): Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, Winter Holiday, New Year, Lunar New Year, Award Season, etc. And if you didn't, I hope you had a partially pleasant evening.