A dragon for Halloween

Eva sent me this awesome dragon mail. I love the way she extended his tongue (or is it a flame?) onto the stamp.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Be safe!

Witches, pumpkins and bats, oh my!

Great exchange envelope from Carole V.

With a great card inside.

And fun on the back.

Double, double toil and trouble...Fire burn and cauldron bubble...

Fillet of a fenny snake, 

In the cauldron boil and bake; 

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, 

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, 

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, 

Lizard's leg, and howlet's wing, 

For a charm of powerful trouble, 

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Macbeth Act IV Scene I

Fortunately for me this envelope did not contain any type of hell-broth, just a nice letter from Eva. Great coloring that goes with the stamp.

Although these eyes on the back gave me pause...

K is for Kupka

A great autumn envelope arrived from Fabienne, with this wonderful stamp celebrating the art of František Kupka (1871-1957), arriving in perfect time for Sunday Stamps. He was a co-founder of the abstract and orphic cubism art movements. [Links take you to wikipedia pages]

A close up of the stamp, showing the painting Planes by Colors.

And included (amongst other things) a postcard featuring some medieval (I think?) art showing a Cheval de Neptune.

For more links to K stamps, go to Sunday Stamps.

Creatures from Maggie

Some great creatures on this October exchange envelope from Maggie. The Halloween-themed lettering is fun, too.

As Jean would say, stealworthy.

The Captain Hook stamp is also perfect for Halloween.

A despicable Halloween tale...

Hester always likes Halloween mail (except for that one year when I sent sickening envelopes made from a zombie calendar), so I'm always on the lookout for something fun to send her.

This year it was a great coffin-shaped ad for ghost tours here in town.

Not too long after I sent it, came this excellent postcard featuring a somewhat unhappy stock market pumpkin (not to mention perfect timing given this week's stock market falls).

The despicable part isn't the ghostly tours, and it isn't the drastic market drops. What is it? 

Hester says it all...

Here be dragons!

CJ commented that the dragon stamps make for great additions to Halloween mail. I agree, even though this one was sent a while ago, to Eva.

You can see this envelope in the other orientation at Eva's blog, along with a lot of other fairy tale-related stamps.

Sugar skull from Jean

The Halloween mail continues with this fun envelope from Jean.

The scanner hates neon, so here's a photo. The envelope is a lot brighter in person.

Bonus J is for Jack-O'-Lanterns

J is also for Jack-O'-Lanterns, the first ever USPS Halloween stamps issued in 2017. Halloween is huge in the US, so I am surprised that they don't have issues every year. They were certainly a success, as they are no longer available from the online store, unless you want to buy giant press sheets for $60 dollars each (I think that is 120 stamps). A few post offices might still have them in stock.

I received one as part of this months envelope exchange run by Jean W over at Pushing the Envelopes - this one is the fantastic handiwork of Chuck M. I love how the close-up photo came out - it really shows off the inner glow of the pumpkin.

For more J japery, head over to the links at Sunday Stamps.

J is for John Lennon

An unusual subject for a stamp, given that John Lennon was not a US citizen, putting him up there with the likes of William Shakespeare. Unlike Shakespeare, he did have permanent residence at the time of his death, although there were times in the past that he was denied entry into the US due to his anti-Vietnam war stance.

The stamps are issued in the usual pane of 16 designed to look like a record sleeve for the Music Icons series. Unique to the series (so far) is that there are four different versions of the stamp due to the change in color.

I received one of them on this excellent piece of mail art from Keith C.

And the other side... which reminds me that Halloween is not far off.

For more joyous Js, head over to explore the links at Sunday Stamps.

I is for Italy

This stamp arrived on a postcard sent by Eva. It shows the Piazza Ruggierio Settimo in Palermo.

This view shows the Teatro Politeama, with the statue of Ruggero Settimo (1778-1863) in the froeground. Settimo was a Sicilian naval officer, and fought in the Naploeonic wars. Later he was an important figure in the Sicilian revolution of 1848, and served as head of the independent Sicilian state until Ferdinand II put down the rebellion in 1849. He escaped to Malta, living in exile for twelve years. Ultimately he became head of the senate in the new parliament of the Kingdom of Italy following Italian reunification in 1860-1861. He held this position until his death.

For more interesting I posts, head over to the links at Sunday Stamps.

H is for History

I think history could apply to so many stamps.

In this case it is one about the history of Spain - the Treaty of Tordesillas, where Spain and Portugal divided the newly discovered (to Europeans) eastern and western lands between them.

For more links to H topics, head over to Sunday Stamps.