InCoWriMo Plan of Attack

It's InCoWriMo again, or lettermo, if you prefer. Either way, it's that time of year where you're encouraged to send at least one piece of mail everyday for the entire month.  

    

Personally, I easily send an average of 30+ pieces of mail a month anyway, so I like to use February to send as much mail as humanly possible.

February generally goes something like this for me.

Week one:
Reply to all the pen pal letters that piled up while I had the January blehs.

Week two:
Get out all the stuff to send Valentine's day cards to everyone I know. Send three Valentines before realizing I waited too long and they aren't going to get there in time. Put all the Valentine's day crud back in its box and shove it in the closet for next year. (Why yes, I have been sending out from the same set of Valentines for the last 5 years.)

Week three:
Send out mail desperately to anyone I can think of, possibly hosting a r.a.k. or joining a few swaps I don't actually want to do to have mail to send out. This is the week where I wonder if I'm obligated to send my orthodontist a postcard back since I am supposed to reply to every letter that crosses my inbox, or if that would just be weird.

Week four:
An easy week, I reply to all the people that wrote me back after I wrote them in weeks one and two. Usually I manage to finish the month out completely void of all mail obligations.

This generally leads to a prosperously full mail box for most of March, before I manage to slip into the April blahs. And it has worked the last few years, so it's a good enough plan of attack for 2017.

I started this morning with a healthy 6 letters, 1 postcard and 1 tax return mailed out. I'm counting it as 8 pieces of mail. I am not all the way through my reply pile yet and have a handful of swaps and things to work on in the next few days, so I am set for week one.

My desk is an absolute wreck, incidentally. I don't think I will be doing many paintings at my desk this month. So let's play eye spy.

In this photo you will notice the Chinese New Year mail I thought would be so neat to send January 1st, but absolutely could not be bothered to send January 20th. I guess that's going in the closet for next year next to the Valentine's box.

For unknown reasons I also dug out my alphabet stamps that I almost never use as well as some stickers and labels, just in case.

My inaugural letter for the month was a reply to my most important and tiniest correspondent. No matter how far behind I am on pen pal letters, nieces get top of the pile priority.

I pulled out my Valentine's box ahead of schedule this year (and used at least 3 things from it) and have a big old pile of fauxpostage to play with as well.  

On the far side of my desk things are the craziest, more things to reply to, pens, more pens, a lot of pens... I have heard people say that you are never more than 10 feet from a spider. In my house you are never more than 10 feet from a pen, and an artistic representation of a spider. But that's probably best saved for a different post.  

Happy February, everyone! If you're doing InCoWriMo or LetterMo keep track of how many bits of mail you send, I'd love to hear how everyone did at the end of the month.