Misadventures in mailing - belated St Valentines Day card

Received in May and blogged in July...

I received this envelope from Pamela K, and initially thought it was for Jean & Jan's May envelope exchange. Inside was a great card.

And Pamela apologized for the post office, who sent this envelope that was part of the February exchange back to her.

It opens out into this.

Thanks for sending it on, Pamela! Hopefully my response doesn't have a misadventure.

Envelope 912

Jean & Jan's February exchange

I showed the envelopes I sent out back in February. In case you missed them, here's the group photo. I dodged the love/red theme and wished the recipients a happy new year of the ram in gold and blue.

Here are the incoming ones.

Aquarium style from Hester, and the first time receiving this year's Love stamps.

With dragon tea - first time I've received tea in the mail!

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Marti saw my St Valentine's Day post where I blogged that I had never sent or received a Garden of Love stamp. So she parted with one on her envelope to me. Thanks!

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I'm not 100% sure if this is an exchange envelope or not... I'll have to keep count. Karen matched the stamp to the envelope perfectly on this one.

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Then another one from Marti showed up.

And another, with some cool dice stickers on the back! The blue colors of the flower on this stamp are stunning. The envelope was a tiny bit injured on one side. 

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Kathleen H sent this one. The red in the lettering is cool - and a bit bloody - but then when was love ever easy! And the paper additions below the address are very tactile. I'm enjoying the vintage stamps, too.

Amongst other fun stuff inside, Kathleen enclosed this card. Thanks - I enjoyed it all!

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And I thought this was the final one, a stunner from Christy.

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Then this one arrived from Marti.

With this inside.

And a note explaining that it has been damaged in a postal sorting machine and returned. At least the stamp made it! And quite a story for this envelope. Interesting that it would be returned, rather than delivered in one of their apology envelopes, as the address is largely intact, and should be able to be verified in the database.

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Cathy O sent me this lovely envelope - I think it is a reply to my exchange envelope above rather than part of the swap, but it fits perfectly in this post. Make sure you click and enlarge it to see her clever use of hearts on the capitals.

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Some outgoing stamps on a red envelope - just to show I don't always avoid it.

It's the Year of the Ram! or Sheep! or Goat!

I hope it isn't cheating to have my Sunday Stamps entry a few days early, on the first day of the year of the ram (or sheep, or goat).

Baby mountain goat stamp from Canada, from a series of baby animals. $1.20 is the rate to send mail from Canada to the US. 

The envelope is the real story - this is the most amazing mail I have received in 2015, and one of the all time best.

The envelope has travelled on part of its journey by dog sled - through three towns, each with a postmark on the front. 

Thanks so much, Adrienne.

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I sent this tangram goat to Karen I, host of MMSA, for the first challenge of 2015.

Karen's was stamped with the Wyoming 'Flags of our Nation' stamp, featuring bighorn sheep (and a bison on the flag).

The ones for the swap were additionally stamped with the brand new Year of the Ram stamp, as after I mailed Karen's I realized the 'postcards' exceed the letter size, and thus need large envelope postage (98c, or two Forever stamps). 

I think the Year of the Ram stamps look fantastic in person, however they never scan quite right. Even the USPS image isn't quite the same - the gold parts never look as good as the real thing. 

I used one on envelope 489 to Pamela in San Francisco, where they always hold the first day of issue ceremony for this series...

...and I used them on my envelopes for Jean & Jan's February envelope exchange. The suggested theme was hearts, red, and St Valentine's Day, or personal choice. I am not really one for St Valentine's day, so I sent out Year of the Ram greetings, accompanied with the new stamp.

Don't be shocked, regular readers, but for a change I used commercial stationery and Jean's wrought iron lettering. I think they make a nice set. The one with 3 stamps is heading to the Czech Republic - hope it makes it!

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I also have this mint Shaun the Sheep stamp from the UK. He'd be perfect for mail sent in the Year of the Ram.

And on the topic of British stamps... Royal Mail released this fantastic set of eight stamps today, celebrating Inventive Britain. A pity you can't use another country's stamps on US mail, as they would work with many of my envelopes.