Belles-lettres

My mom always tells me the story of when I realized I could read. We were driving down the street and I was staring out of the window looking at all of the signs passing us by. I was sounding out the letters to a sign when all of a sudden it dawned on me that I had put together a word. Voilà - reading. To this day I read signs that I pass by {thank goodness I have learned to say them in my head} and from that moment on I felt like I unlocked a secret world. When I watch my niece sound out her letters and see the delight on her face when she sounds out a word...I can still feel that excitement and I hope that she holds on to that feeling as well.

I am still fascinated by letters and words...they can do so much. Strung together they can tell stories - love stories, sad stories, funny stories and stories that make us too scared to go to bed. Pulled apart - letters can also tell those same stories. The swoop of Bickham always feels elegant and romantic. The clean lines of Futura convey a straightforward and contemporary quality. Even Comic Sans has a definite point of view - a view that can be read here thanks to a heads up by our newest member of PP - Amy. {Warning: Comic Sans' defense of itself is a little profane...but it is, well, dare I say...pretty darn comical.}

As usual, I digress and have made you read a long drawn out explanation of my picture above and the whole point of this blog. On a recent trip to the Alameda Antiques Faire I took some pictures of various letters and when I put them together I just thought, well, "Belle-lettres." When I was downloading these pictures onto my computer I couldn't help but think how beautiful they all are and thought I would share them with you. I hope you like them as much as I do.