One Lovely Blog Award: A Paper-Pencil-Pen Nomination Part I

Last weekend I got the sweet news that Paper-Pencil-Pen was nominated by writer Tess Wixted at Suhurat (meaning: to flow with what we encounter) for a One Lovely Blog Award--a sort of spread-the-word online chain letter of love. Let me know if you know the origin (a brief Google search shows a Dec. 2011 reference). As a condition of acceptance, I am to thank the blogger,  nominate 15 other bloggers (with comments on each) to pass on the prestige, and then share 7 random things about myself. (I've decided to dismiss the latter--enough about me on these pages!) Thank you Tess for citing Paper-Pencil-Pen as "your necessary reading for writers looking to get their words out into the world"!

Here are my lovely blog award nominations for all things to do with paper, writing, books, imagery...

Yurika Chiba

1. I Make Things Out of Paper (... wood, stamps, fabric and repurposed materials of all kinds). Yurika Chiba, whose work I blogged about in The Sketchbook Tour, is a Japanese-Canadian visual artist, Taiko performer and friend whose "doodles" and musings amaze me. Looking at her blog is like sipping chocolate. Yum! Check out Toronto Subway Memories (at left).

2. Soul y Luna (formerly, Tchotkes): "little notes on the days that follow." Tegan Zimmerman Henry (no relation, but a friend) is an ultra-creative photographer-mommy-teacher--etsy seamstress. Her posts are always interesting and visually stunning snippets of a lovely country life.

3. Literacy Roots (by the same blogger as SoulyLuna): "a platform to reflect on ways in which children construct language and meaning to make sense of the world, and how these observations inform my teaching practices." A must-read for teachers and those interested in literacy.

borrowed from Red Letter Day Zine

4. I recently blogged about Jenny Hinchcliff's Red Letter Day Zine at my post on the recent SF Zine Fest! If you share our love of "postal-ish papery things," you'll want to check out her Perennial Postcard Project, stamp collections, ephemera and other found objects de papier! (Yes, I made that up.)

5. Jackie Flaherty's Letters & Journals offers ideas (turn book spines into bookmarks), contests, give-aways (ephemera, anyone?) and events (I'd never heard of the National Stationery Show!). This woman even has a "handmade carry-all" for her letter writing supplies (see below) made by her pen pal! I just stash my letters in an old trunk!

6. The Elevated Envelope: "an exploration of uncommon correspondence" showcases the talents of Tara Bliven, such as her Elevated Envelope Exchange--a project where creative strangers from all over the world send each other artistic snail mail. Love letterpress? Then her website Ephemera-Liberated Letterpress showcasing her stationery sets is a must-see!

 7. I've blogged before about Annie Yu, founder of the Snail Mail Social--a letter writing social in San Francisco with vintage typewriters, custom stationery and rubber stamps. It appears that her blog, Curbside Treasure, moved its URL and is no longer linked. Boo Hoo! Scrolling through her site is like screeching on the brakes curbside--you never know what treasures you might find.

I'll have to return for Part II of my nominations, since I can't help myself but write about each one!

Writer's Website of the Week: Literacy Roots

I'm inspired by a new blog called Literacy Roots, in which a fellow friend and graduate student of education posts reflections on language study and teaching writing:

The week before last, I had the pleasure of spending two days in a high school English class as a guest teacher/ substitute. I observed a variety of student achievement artifacts to include poetry, artwork, and copies of college acceptance letters plastered all over the classroom walls for all eyes to see and admire. One such display of work I took a liking to was an I am poetry project. Using various sentence starters, the students had created poems about themselves that represented their personal histories, hopes, dreams and self-perceptions.

I copied down the sentence starters and typed them up to give to my workshop students. I wanted to see how well they liked using these self-reflective sentence starters as a warm-up writing practice. The results were positive. For the remaining hour, the kids thought about, and shared their ideas as they were writing. We finished with the students reading their pieces in front of the group in an author's chair format. From this project, I felt as though I had learned so much more about my students as individuals in just one hour.

And her post reminds me of my own I Am poem, written as part of a collection in 6th grade: