LETTERS BY THE SEA

if you've been reading here long, then you already know my affinity for everything british--the afternoon teas ( herbal cuppa, please ), the accent, the fashion, the tv. I could seriously watch the a&e 6-hour version of pride & prejudice on repeat if I could get away with it. one of my all time favorite cinematic moments has to be when elizabeth bennett calls mister darcy out for all of his rudeness, and in turn, he writes her a good old-fashioned letter defending himself. I've seen this dialogue more than 20 times ( I'm not embarrassed ), but this time I wondered, 'what happened to dipping a quill in ink and pressing it to paper using the best cursive one could muster?' if that conversation occurred today, the whole thing would have gone down via text message in less than 50 words and mister darcy and elizabeth bennett, one of my favorite literary couples of all time, would have never ended up together. and I don't know about you, but I think that would have been quite a shame. 

so in light of all of this jane austen watching and letter pondering,  I set out to perfect my own letter writing by, well, writing letters. first, I needed to find my very own, personalized stationary, which I found with the help of tiny prints and their amazing staff. they have ( what feels like ) thousands of wonderful options and their customer support is so easy to work with. as a result, I love the end product of my very own, custom stationary set. I hold it in my hands and know it's made of quality and durable materials ( a must if you travel as much as I do, have little ones running around, or just want to show the recipient that your message really, truly matters ). I cannot recommend them highly enough! second, I had to perfect my letter writing skills. a far more difficult task. typically, when I have to tell someone something or ask them a question, I send a text or an email that is friendly, but albeit, straight to the point with maybe a few emojis thrown in for embellishment. when writing a letter, there are all of these formalities one has to remember, but that's when it hit me. when did having to care about someone or show interest in their life become a formality? when did life become so straight-to-the-point that these questions and taking the time to write them down became burdensome? these are questions that should be asked on a regular basis that typically get left out of the common text message. really important things like, "how's your family?" ; "how are you feeling about x, y, z?" ;  "are you seeing anyone new?" and there's something about receiving them on paper that makes them so special and timeless. just think how you feel when you get that e-vite to your friends' baby shower. there's something lacking there and you're left wanting something more tangible. the same principle applies to your everyday greeting. you don't even need fancy calligraphy or stationary to write and let someone know that you care and that you love them. you just need the heart and some genuine interest, and I think you'll find you have the most loved feeling loved ones around.

and so it's tuesday. this week, I'm spending my days catching up on life laundry and trying to get things done, which is really tough after lazing the last bits of summer away. I feel as though I need a post-vacation vacation--a common complaint, I am sure. but alas, the budgeting and the cleaning and literal laundry doing aren't going to do themselves. so I may as well queue up my favorite reruns from netflix and get started! I hope you're all having a wonderful precursor to fall. know that I envy all of you!

love, arielle

** stationary c/o tiny prints