The other day, my friend Teri asked me if I'd seen Pilot Pen's new program that lets you write emails in your own handwriting.
"Whaaaa?" I sputtered. "How did I not know about this?" I raced to the computer and nearly hyperventilated when I saw the website. It's that cool.
(Pilot Handwriting screen grab)
Like most of you, my penmanship rarely gets a workout anymore. Honestly, I do lament this, but what can one do? I have boxes of gorgeous Smythson stationery which are used mainly for thank you notes these days, because let's face it: email has increasingly become the 21st century way.
But wouldn't it be odd and delightful to use your computer keyboard to reacquaint yourself with your handwriting?
Pilot's website has a chic little video that shows you how to do everything and in about five minutes, I was indeed "writing by hand on the computer."
You just print out their template, fill it in...
...upload it via your scanner, webcam or digital camera...
...and presto! The computer instantly processes it into your own personal typefont.
Here's the template I wrote and scanned onto my computer...
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Postscript: And now moving from bespoke handwriting fonts to bespoke Halloween costumes...
...and here's a sample letter that I typed out for you all.
I still have to figure out how to get my lowercase letters to connect, but all in all, it's pretty darn cool. I'm looking forward to writing some chatty emails to long-distance friends and having them take on a whole new dose of personality.
This is what happens when you let your son watch "Project Runway" with you.
("Percy Jackson" gladiator breastplate. Sewn by me.
Conceived, designed and superintended by my son.)
After avidly watching the last two seasons of the Bravo show with my husband and me, Luca was horrified when he caught me trying to slip a boy's gladiator costume into my Amazon shopping cart.
Luca: Mom, no! That's totally lame. We have to make it from scratch.
Me: We do?
Luca: Percy Jackson would not wear a costume from Amazon.
Me: He wouldn't?
Luca: No. And that guy...whatshisname?
Me: Tim Gunn?
Luca: He would say to "Make It Work."
Me: He would?
Luca: (exasperated) Fine, I'll design it and you just sew it up.
Me: Oh, really?
You get the idea.
It actually worked out fine -- that is, after our little contretemps over the faux leather vs. real leather at the fabric store. (At $19/yard vs. $85/yard, the faux leather won, although it's still a sore point with him.) A little stitching (by me), a lot of micromanaging (by him), and he's been wearing it ever since.
Happy Halloween!