#9: Celebrate the little things

Everyone deserves a little congrats.

It’s done! Rhody and I are moved in. No more hustling between the Airbnb and our apartment; I’m officially writing you from our rental that we’ll call home for the next 3 years. I’m in love. Our floors are hardwood and ‘70s tile, our two balconies face east and west, and the ceilings stretch so tall we’ve had trouble finding mosquito nets to fit the balcony doors.

I’ll take an opulent problem like that any day. Sure, it’s just a rental, and yeah, 90% of our furniture was found on the street, but moving here is one of the biggest choices I’ve ever made - and I’m dang proud. Look - I even have baby’s first art/writing studio all to myself!

My private slice o (chaotic) heaven:

What we’re mailing

Earlier this week, Rhody and I got a card from our friend Andrew Penczner (he also sent us issue one of the absolutely bozo-beautiful comic, Mark of Death, which he and Elle León Nostas wrote; it was a great read and I highly recommend). The card and comic were such a sweet surprise together, and I was struck by Andrew’s choice to write us a card congratulating us on our new place.

Honestly? It left Rhody and I both feeling so loved that he went out of his way to do so, especially since he’s in the middle of his own adventures in the world of comic books!

So, inspired by friendos and all these new chapters unfurling in my life and theirs, this week you and I are writing a “congrats” card for someone we love.

Here’s what we’re gonna do:

1. Grab a card you already have on hand.

   1. If you don’t have a blank card, no sweat: cut a piece of printer paper in half and doodle little flowers in each corner of the page (the five-petaled kind you used to draw in first-grade art class). Add some squiggles along the edges if you want. There - newsworthy stationery for free.

2. Write a quick note hyping your friend the heck up for a job well done. Don’t get bogged down by making it too long; the one I wrote was three sentences, and I think it’s perfect :).

3. Slip it in an envelope, slap a stamp and address on the front, and pop that puppy in the mailbox.

You did it! Another month of mail accomplished.

Since I recently moved, I don’t have any snazzy stationery. I opted for doodling those aforementioned flowers in the corners of a piece card stock and slipping it in a matching envelope I had on hand.

I’d call that a cosmetic upgrade.

Who we’re mailing it to

Weddings, babies, graduations, buying a house - those are all things folks get mountains of cards for. And rightfully so! Each one is an exciting milestone.

But today we’re celebrating the other stuff. Think of a friend who’s doing something rad that may not get the streamers and champagne popping it deserves: getting a promotion, taking a pottery class, finishing a yoga challenge, surviving a hard-ass week, navigating a family reunion without a single fight, finishing PT. Any personal milestone. That is the kind of thing you’re writing someone about this week.

I chose my cousin. She recently took up weaving and finished her first scarf on a loom! It’s beautiful and patterned and looks like something you’d find in a shop for a buhjillion dollars. My cousin is generally one of the coolest people I know because she tackles new artistic endeavors all the time. My home is peppered with her oil paintings, embroidery, cyanotypes, and letters, and I know she’s fresh off a pottery class, too. If interdisciplinary artists rallied for a figurehead, she’d be a prime candidate.

To me, every time she embarks on another project, she deserves a whole other round of congratulations - so I went ahead and wrote her one for the scarf today.

While you’re mailin’, listen to this:

Like all our prompts, writing your congrats card should only take the length of one song.

(If you don’t have Spotify, listen to it on YouTube here.)

Is this song very weird? Yes. Is it about geckos? Totally. Do I listen to it constantly? You bet your ass I do. It’s so summery and was released 40 years ago but sounds like it could’ve been written by a strange little indie band just last week. Hopefully you love it as much as I do.

Let’s talk about it!

I’m trying this thing out where I give you discussion questions and y’all…discuss. I genuinely wanna know what’s got you pumped from this prompt so I can celebrate you too. So:

1. What are you going to congratulate your friend for this week?

2. What’s one thing that you’ve accomplished recently that you’d love a little hyping up for?

Tell me about it in the comments, and be sure to hype up someone else, too!

Thanks for participating this week, y’all, and I’ll see ya next week with this month’s involved art template like the Mona Lisa collage <3

Love,

Nikita, Your Snail Mail Sweetheart