Sometimes a little self-care can come in unexpected ways. I love this idea of writing a set of "Open When" letters to yourself. What might you say? How can today you encourage future you to keep pushing forward? If you pep-talked yourself like you would do for a friend, imagine how much kinder we would be to ourselves. These letters were written on one of our stationery kits, check them out, or make your own!  

Brenna is even sharing with us her most used pens! I *may* have run out and grabbed a 50 pack of SuperTips as soon as she sent me this. 

My most used pens (and all great for beginners):

• Crayola SuperTips: I used these to make the letters and envelopes I sent you. What's great about these is that they are easy to use, come in lots of colors and are inexpensive. They are great for beginners, but also work as you progress in lettering. This box of 100 that I linked to is also super fun and not that expensive. Obviously you can pick up smaller sets at pretty much any store.
• Uni-ball Signo gel pen (0.38mm): I use these pens to outline my Crayola SuperTips letters and for the body of my text. I love them because they are super fine and you can create sharp lines and create small details with them.
• Uni-ball white gel pen: These are by far my favorite white pen. They are fun for extras details. I used them on one of the card I made. They work great on top of colors and on colored paper.
• Sakura Moonlight gel pens: These gel pens are vibrant and the Moonlight ones specifically are think, making it easy to create bold letters and really have words jump off the page. 
• Pentel Sign Brush Pens: If people want to try brush lettering, these are my favorite pens with a small brush that pretty easy to control. Plus, it's fun to have a lot of colors.

So what do you think? Are you ready to give hand lettering a try? Share your progress by tagging @polkadotpapercompany on Istagram and using the hashtag #polkadotpaperlove

In January, I sent out a quick survey to my followers asking you how I can be the best help for you? How can I give you what you need? And wow, you guys had some great things to say! The most popular request was "how do I use your products?" along with "more blog posts!" So, I'm here to do BOTH of those things for you right now! 

Up today, an a-typical use of the popular Perpetual Birthday and Anniversary Calendar. These have been long-time staples in my shop, I've sold a few thousand of them, and well, that feels pretty good! So what if sending cards isn't really your thing? I've come up with a really fun idea for you, read on and let me know what you think!

Here's how you can use a perpetual calendar as a record for something like, your relationship with your significant other. 

Instead of filling in birthdays of people you know, use the dates to fill in milestones in your relationship. Your first date, your engagement date, your wedding day. 

Keep adding year after year, vacations, pet adoptions, birth of your children. 

Add in the purchase or sale of a home, a job promotion, a move. 

Each month as you flip through the calendar is a trip down memory lane where you can see all the amazing things you've done together. 

If you know me, you know I am really sentimental. I LOVE keeping records and looking back at all my favorite memories, but the problem with keeping up with all of that is TIME. Precious time. Scrapbooking takes time, blogging about travels takes time, making photos books and albums takes time. And more often than not, by the time I have time, I forget to add things I really would have loved to remember. 

The best part about using a perpetual calendar to jot down these milestones, is that it only takes a few seconds. I may be busy, but I have a few seconds to jot down something that will bring me joy for many years to come. As the years go on, the lines fill up, dates will overlap, but what an awesome record of the life you made together!

I don't know about you, but I really love how I feel when I get a thank you note from someone. It's just the best. I also know that while I have really good intentions, sometimes I just drop the ball and don't send as many as I should, when I should. I can also be good at writing them and forgetting to get them in the mail because I was out of stamps or something silly like that. 

So who made the rules up about when you have to send thank you notes, anyway? I'd been thinking a lot about how many things my parents and in-laws had done for us over the past year. Coming into town to help with the kids so that I could attend a class, picking up something for us from the store, taking us to dinner, sending the kids little things in the mail, keeping our dog while we went on vacation. All these things I appreciate immensely, but never put a thank you into writing. And so, I made a list, and over the course of a few nights, we wrote thank you notes. 

For lack of better timing, I was actually at my parents house when they received their package. My mom sat down to open it with me right there and I almost wanted her to wait, but I am so glad I didn't. Watching her laugh and read each note, sharing them with my dad was one of the best things. I got to see, first hand, how happy this made them, and it was amazing. She teased me for feeling like I needed to thank them for nearly every. little. thing. And laughing about notes for gifts that had been given nearly an entire year ago and for keeping the dog at the beginning of the summer!! 

I think sometimes we just need to make up new rules when we see a need. I may have missed the ideal 3-day window, but this impact was so much more. I'll still try better this year to send my thank you notes in a reasonable amount of time, but I like knowing that there's more than one good way to do something great and many ways to have an attitude of gratitude. 

Ahh, summer! A time for rest, relaxation, a break from the norm, fun in the sun... and reading! 

Reading is that one "school" activity you should encourage your children to do over the summer. As the mother of a dyslexic child (and an academic language therapist), I know how hard they work to gain those skills all school year, and three months without practicing those skills can have some major implications. Summer slide is a real thing, and you want to keep them at the top of their reading game! 

To help you get excited about reading, I've created a really fun color-in reading log that you can download and print for free to keep track of all that summer reading! Illustrate the book spines with snippets from the books you read, add the titles and/or authors to keep track and make a library of books you read! 

Do you need inspiration to find some really great books? Many of our favorite books come from the Texas Library Association's Bluebonnet Award Book List and the Texas 2x2 Book list for kids 2-2nd grade. You can also check out Brightly for all kinds of book recommendations and reading resources. Summer reading doesn't have to always be about educational content, it can just be fun. Let your kids choose books they like and run wild with it!

Check your local book stores and public libraries for summer reading programs as well. Kids can earn gift certificates, t-shirts, free books and more just for reading over the summer! We visit our local public library every couple of weeks during the summer. It's a great reprieve from the heat, and it's nice to get a fresh stack of stories to read. 

I can think of so many great ways to use these cute little books, and I'd love to see your colored in reading lists! Tag @polkadotpapercompany on Instagram or share it with us on Facebook. Happy reading! 

Please remember, this reading log is free for personal use. To share, please share our page, and not just the file. This artwork is © 2018 Polkadot Paper Company.