Calligraphy - a new hobby

I seem to suffer from this creative illness where my mind suddenly stops and thinks: hey, I want to learn how to do that!

Some of the skills I've acquired through the years I pick up from time to time, such as sewing for instance or knitting. Others, like ahum, ... gardening, well, let's just say that I soon learned that my fingers aren't as green as I thought they were.

I'm currently taking a calligraphy course and after learning the basics we now get to experiment with different inks, papers and more creative ways of writing.  Now that I have some knowledge of how to use a calligraphy pen I'm also hoping that I can teach myself how to write Copperplate.

After reading some really good reviews about this book: Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy by Eleanor Winters, I went ahead and ordered it.  I also ordered a bunch of new supplies as this particular kind of calligraphy requires its own set of nibs and pens.

Because I'm taking a course I already know that one can only truly master calligraphy by practising often. It is definitely not something that you can learn overnight. I guess I'd also better stock up on paper then...

Hope Notes

After reading a wonderful guest blog post by Colleen Attara on The Petit Cadeau blog about hope notes I've been inspired to write a couple myself. 

Colleen described the hope notes as little notes of love and encouragement that you send off into the world not knowing who is going to receive them, but believing with all your heart that the right person will find them.

So I used my newly acquired (I'm still a beginner) calligraphy skills, took out a bunch of small cards I had lying around and wrote a few short sentences: dream big, you deserve to be happy, pay it forward,...

I plan to leave them between the library books I'm currently reading.  

I wonder, have you ever found one? Could a small note written by a stranger have an effect on your life?