1. A method comprising: receiving from a user a designation of a recipient to receive an item to be mailed, and receiving a free-form description of the item; printing postage indicia bearing an amount of postage for a mail piece containing the item; in response to the mail piece being mailed via a postal authority, receiving a transmission from the postal authority containing a scanned image of the mail piece; and sending the recipient a notification that the item has been mailed, wherein the notification includes the free-form description of the item and access to the scanned image.