Reply

I received a reply to the letter 'In the morning I...' which can be seen in the Letters and Envelopes post. The neighbour who received it kindly sent me a letter back telling me what they do in the morning and of course asking why on earth I sent out the letter. Although I would love to post the reply here I don't want to without the permission of the author. So for now just watch this space, you never know it might be published.

I replied to the reply (bit of a tongue twister there) in the below envelope. Unfortunately this one didn't scan in too well because of the shiny material but it has the letters of 'Hello' stitched onto pieces of material and then stuck on the envelope. You can just about see it in the below image.

I have a copy of my reply and may post it up in the future...

My neighbour was very considerate and returned the reply by hand so that I could reuse the stamped envelope, which was very kind, especially as stamps aren't cheap these days. Therefore I returned my reply by hand also. *fingers crossed* I got the right address and i'm not about to baffle another neighbour!

I have now been given permission by my neighbour to publish the reply! I am delighted :)


Here it is:

As you can see a lovely letter to receive.

The project goes 3D!

So MakeMyNeighbourSmile has gone 3D and a wee bit conceptual...but in miniature today. 

Unfortunately the 3D objects are much harder to document, so here's a look at my efforts.

I'm aware these images don't look very professional, however this is not a super professional project. It's more about the people and making contact and making people smile than anything else. So yes in the background you can see my kitchen...there's a slice of my world. :)

This box is actually very tiny, only just bigger than the size of my hand.

You can see here I placed an even smaller box inside my box. This box is empty and also prepaid at the Post Office. I think I may have completely confused the poor woman behind the desk with that one this morning, oops! 

The idea behind this one is that someone can send me a 'Hello' back in the other wee box, or perhaps more, or you never know I might even get something small in it! 

I'll keep you updated if I receive a reply.

Sewing.

Perhaps I got bored of cutting and sticking or perhaps all my new ideas were just coming too fast but for the next, wave shall we say, of letters I have sewed on the word 'Hello' in one form of another.

These two are sewn into material that I have then glued onto the envelopes. 

You can't really tell from this picture but this is actually a tiny envelope. I'm considering doing a series of these tiny envelopes, so this should be the first of many.

The above envelope was sent with a note that reads:

"It's nice to meet you.

My name is Amy.

I'm one of your neighbours.

I don't know you and you don't know me

but

I think that neighbours should know each other

and 

be able to rely on each other.

I think that neighbours are important people.

If you agree.

then please feel free to write back.

I would love to hear from you.

Sincerely"

Below I have sewn into the envelope itself.  (This is also one of the tiny envelopes)

Going out in the next few days...

I'm happy to say i've had a couple of replies to the letters/pieces that i have sent out so far and I am hopeful that there are more to come.

All my pieces are personal to me, they're all statements that I believe and hope or think that other people should. They are all also (hopefully) things that other people can connect to. 

Letters and Envelopes

This idea was another transformation of previous ones. This time i decided to give the reader a little more of myself with the hope that they would return in the same fashion. All i really want to do is encourage communication and make my neighbours smile of course. However in order to encourage communication sometimes you have to offer up something of yourself, which is what i have done here.

The below letter is a continuation of what is on the envelope...it's just a wee run down of how i start my day. I'm hopeful that whoever reads this will smile or even chuckle a bit and then send me a wee note with what they do in the morning. - Again the envelope contains a self addressed and stamped envelope.

The same as the above letter this one is a continuation of what is on the envelope. A wee note about what I used to want to be when I grew up and what I am doing now. Again hopefully I'll get something similar in reply.

Envelopes

These envelopes were a culmination of the previous two ideas. I also thought that with the 'ransom note' style message on the outside the likelihood of the message being perceived as a threat was much lower. It also gives the post men something interesting to look at!

The above envelope was sent with a blank sheet of paper as well as a self addressed envelope. The idea being that if someone does have something they want to say they can write it and send it to me and as the envelope says i'll listen.

This one may seem odd but it is true. As this is all part of my honours year project it is part of my future and therefore the success or failure of this project will impact on my future. In essence leaving my future in the hands of my neighbours!

Character

I created this little tortoise character in the hope that having a welcoming image on the front of the envelope may encourage people to get in touch. The inspiration for this lot, not surprisingly, is Mail Me Art. I also own a tortoise and I wanted my character to represent myself in some ways. So a tortoise seemed like the perfect way to go. I sent these three with self addressed stamps and envelopes..if i'm lucky I'll get some decorated envelopes back.

Letters

The idea for these letters was inspired by the artist Douglas Gordon. He send letters containing quotes to people he knew. The quotes taken out of context could look quite sinister however he had written the letters as normal with his address on the top and signature on the bottom. This created an unusual juxtaposition which i enjoyed. However I decided to leave my letters anonymous to a degree because it suited the aesthetic better. All the letters were sent with a self addressed and stamped envelope with the hope that one of my neighbours will send me something back even if it is just something along the lines of: "what the hell?!" 

These three letters are now winging there way to my neighbours...so *fingers crossed* for something.

The above were all sent in a similar envelope to the one below, under the flap of each (as you can see) i have asked each recipient to put the letter in their window or on their door to show me a sign that they received it, even if they don't reply.

On the outer side of the flap is the blog address so that whoever receives one can find out why.

If your one of the lucky people to receive one of these then please get in contact, by post would be excellent or if your really keen give me a buzz i suppose!