Day of the Dead

 Thanks to Hester for her Halloween postcard.

Something in the mail to you this week in response.

Ghosts for Hester

Happy, unhappy and surprised ghosts sent a couple of years ago to Hester.

Any color but red

Hester's message that arrived with this handmade postcard:

And accompanied by a largely non-red rat :)

Snowbucks

Thanks to Hester for this Christmas funny.

Happy Halloween!

Hester sent me this great piece of spooky mail art. You can't tell from the image, but there are some 3D pieces attached.

And the envelope had two of the fantastic Spooky Silhouettes stamps.

Trick or Treat responsibly, everyone.

Winter birds for Hester

The latest issue of USA Philatelic made for a great envelope to send to Hester.

The reason Hester sent chocolate mail art

A long 'postcard' arrived.

And the fantastic reason for it.

I did send a dragon to Eric, so today seems the perfect day to show it.

Dragon for the weekend

This handsome purple dragon to Hester might take your mind of the sudden plunge back into the deep freeze.

Hester's dragons

Hester sent a green dragon in November...

...and an orange one in January, with extra dragon stamps on the side.

Great to see these guys in the mailbox - thanks!

What is going on with the mail?

Hot on the heels of yesterday's blog post, these two envelopes, postmarked on Dec 28 and Dec 31, arrived on Jan 13! That is around 4 to 5 times as long as first class mail is supposed to take.

A nice collaged envelope from Carolyn in the PTEX December exchange. I like how the red from the poinsettia stamp is continued in the address and added pieces.

And a handmade envelope from Hester, with one of the Birds in Winter stamps that compliments the colors of the envelope. The bird is a  black-capped chickadee - although with the postmark he is more of a black-bodied chickadee. I was surprised to see this postmark (recycled from last year, I think) as the only one I've seen this festive season is the happy holidays slogan that you can see on Carolyn's envelope.

Hopefully a more normal postal service will resume soon. 

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...

Happy Halloween from Hester (part 2)

A mysterious and darkly decorated package made it to my door from that den of iniquity also known as Boston.

Inside was a book of Scary Stories.

And a note wishing me a Happy Halloween - which, if you ignore the scythe (and don't read the scary stories), is entirely possible.

The final and beastly best part was this amazing Halloween art book.

Thanks so much, Hester, and Happy Halloween to you and all the blog readers.

Oscar on Black

I really like the Oscar de la Renta stamps - they are large, attractive, and seem to have a much brighter finish than your average US postage stamp.

Here are some on some black envelopes.

To Cathy and Hester for the April envelope change.

And one to Eva.

Hester mail

In from Hester, with a Finn connection.

And out to Hester.

Full moon today

These are the moons I sent out for the February envelope exchange.

And a bonus moon envelope to Eric, showing his birthday month. The writing and moons glow in the dark.

April envelopes received

Here are the fab envelopes I received in April. There's a lot of green... must be spring.

From Cathy. I love how the colors match the flowers on the stamp.

From Jean. I'm loving the draw out letters here. And the color matched stamps.

From Jeanae. Great calligraphy. And I always have to think twice when typing your name :)

From Hester. Great artistamp, insect and Oscar stamps.

From Kathie. Love the WPA Posters stamp here, hiding in the bushes on this John Rush painting.

From Smash. I never thought I'd receive this stamp myself - thanks so much!

A double dose of Hester

Really interesting mail from Hester - newspaper on cardboard.

And this one was made from a wrapping that the library used to entice readers to have a blind date with a book, the only clue is the genre. Got to love the vintage Alexander Calder stamps.

Envelopes 753 and 758

To Sonia (aged 5.5) and Hester