Rain or shine, the mail is delivered

This exchange envelope from Kathy S came in the rain...

...and sadly with the dreaded sharpie cancel on this fantastic stamp.

Is the sky falling?

Typewritten

Fantastic exchange envelope from Lauren. Each letter in the address is stuck on separately - impressive amount of work! And a connection to a post from Eva earlier this month.

And an abstract print inside.

Four apes

Fantastic envelope from Eva, made from the catalog of an exhibition by collage artist Randomagus.

And the fourth ape inside.

A is for Azafrán

Azafrán is Spanish for saffron, the subject of this very nice stamp sent on an envelope from Eva.

Here is the stamp on another envelope from Eva sent in 2017 that I really thought I had blogged, but I couldn't find it in the archive.

The interesting thing is that it is described as undeliverable, even though the address is correct and quite clear. You can also see someone must have put the yellow sticky paper on the envelope and then ran it through a machine, as the top part (including the word Nixie) is partly printed on the envelope.

Fortunately it made it back to Eva, who then sent it back to me.

Lucky for me, because I got to see all the fun mail creatures. 

What was your craziest mail misadventure that turned out well in the end?

Is it July yet?

CJ surprised me with an unexpected package containing a nice note, some materials for mail art, and real chocolate!!! 

And the address on the front is perfect... love the birds, the clever way you wrote FinnBadger, and of course the nice drawing and calligraphy.

Wow, thank you again!

Cow banana

An international cow from the Netherlands on this envelope sent by Inta for an envelope exchange in 2018.

The postcard inside has a fun banana.

Happy Valentine's Pig Banana

A ton of fun stuff in an envelope from MomKat.

Bananas and hearts and pigs!

O beautiful fruit

Great exchange envelope from Heidi - the first time we've been in the same exchange. This is also the first time I've received one of the O Beautiful stamps. I would never have thought to pair it with fruit, but the colors go perfectly with papaya.

And a nice note on this card inside - glad you like to read the blog, Heidi.

Two ways to be addressed

Jean sent me this great envelope made from a paper bag. Can you see the different ways she addressed it? (You might have to enlarge it).

Big Mail Monday

I haven't had a big mail Monday like this one in quite some time. What a great surprise to come home to on a rainy, grey, dreary day. And almost a complete set of the birds in winter stamps in one day.

What to open first... how about the mail from C. Mehrl Bennett, with lots of artistamps and something original.

Z is for Zona 1

I sent some postcards to friends in the US from Rome last year. These were the stamps provided, showing the rate for zone 1.

The stamp features Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square of Naples, named after the plebiscite which saw Naples become part of the Kingdom of Italy in 1860.

This view shows the basilica of the church of San Francesco di Paola.

And a view of the post box where I mailed the postcards. This is located near the Spagna metro station.

Banana museum

From Patricia.

A museum of banana labels. I haven't seen the lego movie labels yet, or the ones where the bananas form letters.

Dada Trumph Motors

Recently received from Cascadia Artpost with excellent real and faux postage.

This fascinating documentation of, and tickets to, the opening of DTM.

And the back.

I still love these dragon stamps, even though they are not doing very well in the Linn's popularity contest. Here's a photo to show off the foil elements.

Update:

Bonus postcard from DTM, a bit dinged during its encounter with the sorting machines.

From the future to the past

The last few days have been futuristic, today it's another one from 2017... and somehow it traveled without a stamp.

And Yayoi also included this great collage.

Devil boys from beyond

It is turning into a mini-run of space-themed blog posts.

Here's on I sent to Eric some time ago for his  2018 scifi mail art call, based on a flyer for a play which I didn't manage to see, unfortunately.

You don't need an atmosphere to be able to read

Yesterday's post feels connected to today's envelope from Eva. She based her drawing on Tom Gauld's style of drawing, which was included on this postcard as part of the letter.

I love how the franking machine decided that she didn't draw the helmet to specifications, and added it's own version.

Posted

I don't splurge on mail to myself very often, but when I saw Eva's blog about an envelope from Posted Letter, I decided to treat myself (as a sort of congratulations for making it through the holidays present). 

I love how the Posted Letter pigeon symbol also got the space treatment.

Y is for Year of the Boar

I received my first Year of the Boar (or Pig) stamp a couple of weeks ago in a fantastic exchange envelope from Kate.

This is the twelfth and final stamp in this series of stamps. I read somewhere that USPS will not be continuing with lunar new year stamps after this year.

Check out more links to Y-themed stamps over at Sunday Stamps.

Gingerbread houses

It is supposed to snow tomorrow...

...how is the weather in France this weekend, Fafa?