It's still Christmas - Chicken

 More Christmas mail arriving in 2026, I love it. Eva commented that there shoud be more postcards with chickens, and then a Christmas chicken arrived in my mailbox from Carroll!

Are you still receiving Christmas mail?

Owls

 Today's theme is birds, and I received a wonderful owl-themed letter from Caroll, using one of the woodland animal stamps issued in 2023.

Caroll's letter was sent with this wonderful seal, which, impressively, traveled perfectly through the system.

For links to more bird-themed stamps, visit See it on a Postcard

Look what just flew in

 Love this guy from Carroll

Thank you, this made me smile!

New Year's Eve

 This beautiful card from Carroll expresses my wishes for everyone this New Year's Eve - harmony, peace, and hope.

Stay safe, everyone, and enjoy the holiday tomorrow.

How are your new year resolutions going?

Carroll sent me this great envelope that arrived this week on the first day of the Year of the Boar. Carroll always makes such interesting faux stamps.

With a great house (for smurfs? dwarves?) on the back.

Inside was a nice new year card, complete with suggested resolutions.

The card even has a blank space for you to add your own. I hope Carroll doesn't mind my sharing hers. They seem to be the same as mine :)

And if you want to create your own, here you go:

Did you make any resolutions? How are you doing at keeping them?

Collaboration with Carroll, June edition

Here's what Carroll sent me. I love the wings she added to the birdblot.

Here's the clever envelope and stamp combo she sent it in.

Here's what I added.

And here's the envelope I sent it back in.

Sunday Stamps - commemoratives

I sent this paper bag to Eric. The John F Kennedy stamp issued this year commemorates the centenary of his birth. The West Virginia stamp issued in 2013 commemorates the 150th anniversary of that state's admission to the Union.

I recently used the West Virginia statehood stamp on an envelope to Susan.

And a stamp from 2016 commemorates the 50th anniversary of Star Trek's debut on television. This is one of a set of four stamps on an envelope to Carroll.

Here's a stamp on an envelope I received from Katerina in Greece. It is one of five that celebrates the 150th anniversary of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and features the god Poseidon.

Katerina also included this piece of mail art inside her envelope.

For links to more commemorative stamps, head over to Sunday Stamps.

Collaboration with Carroll

Here's what I added to the collaboration sheet I started with Carroll.

Sent in this envelope.

Here's the full sheet of artistamps. This is an (unexpected) collaboration with stripygoose. She turned my ink blots into birds, and I turned her bird blots into stamps. 

I usually find add and pass stressful, however after my one on one add and pass back with Keith worked so well, I think that is more my speed.

Do you like art collaborations? 

If you were to receive an add and pass, how would you feel?

Carroll mail!

Carroll sent me this nice envelope...

...with great rubber stamping on the back...

...and a steal-worthy way to write a note, which was attached to the back of this card.

And to my surprise, she added to a sheet I sent her a while back - I had forgotten all about it. She turned this...

...into this. 

I guess it is my turn again.

Full moon today - the flower moon

More moon phases sent out to LWA, PinkyPost, Rose and Heleen - where I took some liberties in addressing her as Mevrouw ('Mrs' in Dutch) and calling her country of Netherlands 'Holland'.

And more for Carroll, Jackie, William, Alan, Dorothea, and Adrienne.

Houses

Envelope 405 to Carroll

Envelope 601 to Gina

January exchange - snowflakes sent out

I made a set of snowflake envelopes and used up almost all of my geometric snowflake stamps on them.

These are envelopes 619 through 626. Five for the swap, and three bonus envelopes to Jean, Jan and Bridget.

The rest of the incoming December exchange envelopes

One from Florence. I like the simplicity of this one, and the colors which go with the stamp.

One from Lynne - I love this idea for a modern take on a tree. Looks so cool, I need to remember this for next year.

Another clever tree, this time from Rehj.

Beautiful calligraphy from Karen. Karen always does such subtle, interesting things with her work. I love how she left off the 'rd' in 3rd, which would have interfered with the downstroke of the p.

An owl (from a calendar page) from Carroll, which came with a peace bird inside.

Vintage Christmas stamps from Amy S.

And last but not least, this one from Kate R.

It's been really great to receive so much beautiful mail over the holidays - thanks, everyone!

__________________________________

Rehj has obviously been saving up her Christmas wreath global stamps - thanks for paying extra postage to get such a nice effect on the envelope. Which brings me to a bonus mini-rant today!

I buy most of my postage from usps.com as it is convenient and easier to browse than ask a busy postal clerk to browse through the filing cabinet of stamps for me. As of yesterday, there are currently NO Global Forever stamps available at the website. NO Christmas wreaths, NO multicolored oceans, nothing. I know a new issue is coming soon, but I think it is pretty bizarre to have so many options available for domestic postage, but none for international. 

Update 12 Feb: The new global stamps are finally available for preorder from USPS.com, with a 22 Feb release date.