Eric Mondays part 35 - the 50th state

When I sent Eric 50 states on postcards, I mailed them with the 50 state flag stamps. Or so I thought. I left off the Wyoming state flag by mistake.

A pictorial postmark from Yellowstone National Park allowed me to correct my error.

Here's the final product shown on Eric's website.

Sunday Stamps - Horses

I sent March from a postcard calendar to Heleen...

And included three equine-related stamps.

A stuffed toy horse ridden by Woody in Toy Story (from the Disney-Pixar Mail-A-Smile set), horses in Assateague Island National Seashore (one of 16 stamps issued this year celebrating 100 years of the National Parks Service) and horses on the Kentucky Flags of Our Nation stamp which I have shown before.

Thanks to Heleen for showing the images on her blog, I forgot to scan this piece before it went out to the Netherlands.

For links to more horses on stamps, visit Sunday Stamps.

Eric Mondays part 8... on Sunday

I've been showing the various envelopes and other bits of mail art I've sending Eric for his 'Fifty' call on Mondays, however this series fits with today's Sunday Stamps theme, flags and ensigns.

Between 2008 and 2012 USPS issued a series of stamps titled 'Flags of Our Nation'. There were six separate issues of 10 stamps, printed in coils of fifty. Interestingly, when researching for this post, I found out that the 5th set was issued here in Columbus on 11 August 2011. Since the stamps were issued over several years, the values change from 42c, to 44c, and finally to Forever.

'But 6 times 10 is 60,' I hear you say. Yes, the 50 states were in there, then they also included flags for the US territories (American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands) as well as the District of Columbia.

'OK, now we're getting closer, but we're still only at 56 stamps.' The final four stamps showed the Stars and Stripes of the national flag against four separate scenes inspired by the first four lines from the song 'America the Beautiful', for a grand total of 60. 

O beautiful for spacious skies, 
For amber waves of grain, 
For purple mountain majesties 
Above the fruited plain! 


I had wanted to create something related to the 50 states for Eric's 'Fifty' call. I saw some images of the 50 states arranged in the style of the elements of the periodic table, and I had my idea. I added four different rankings to each 'element', using the official postal abbreviation, printed them out on postcards, and voila, mail for Eric. The 16 cards were posted one at a time, every few days for several weeks.

I also sent the bonus 10 stamps on a 'master plan'.

If you'd like to see how they look after traveling to France, click here to see Eric's blog.

Bonus points if you can determine what the four rankings of the states are.

Sunday Stamps on Tuesday - Flags

A bit late for last Sunday Stamps' theme of flags and maps. Click the link for more stamps with this theme.

The flag of Ohio is the only non-rectangular state flag - bonus points for knowing what the shape is called without resorting to Wikipedia.

The Ohio flag stamp is from a set of 60 that covered all the flags of the states, DC, and the protectorates of the USA, plus 4 generic stamps featuring the flag, inspired by lines from the national anthem.

Apparently it has been legislated that there is always one or more stamps featuring the US flag, which is why there are so many versions of first class stamps featuring the stars and stripes. I like this abstract version, however it was solidly blasted as one of the least necessary issues from last year.

The stamps are featured on envelope 296 to Nikki in Canada.

Blue, white and red

If you put the five pieces of toothpaste packaging-related mail together, this is what you get. And there can only be one recipient - Christophe's mailarteeth project. This is the largest piece of mail art (when put together) that i have made - 26.0 cm x 49.4 cm. Who knew the official US flag has such an unusual height to length ratio? (1: 1.9)

I hope all the pieces arrive - otherwise it's going to look a bit odd.

And various flag stamps to cover the postage.

I also sent a Tricolor in for the project (link in the side bar).

Stamped with the new $1 patriotic waves stamp, and last year's red, white and blue forever stamp.

The 'waves' stamps never scan well - they are striking in person. I like these more than the waves of color stamps.

____________________________________

Update:

I sent the five pieces on five consecutive days, and they arrived in France on five consecutive days according to Christophe's blog! I am not sure why it worked out so perfectly, but I love the fact that it did.

Sunday stamps - islands

Today's Sunday Stamps topic is islands.

I'm going to cheat a tiny bit with my island choice of Hawaii (or Hawai'i), as it is part of the US and hasn't issued its own stamps since approximately 1900.

A set of Aloha Hawaiian Shirt stamps had its first day of issue ceremony in Honolulu, January 19, 2012. The 32c stamps were for the domestic postcard rate that year. I have received just one of the set.

I also have a pineapple prestamped postcard (slightly covered up, unfortunately, since the 26c is 8c less than the current postcard rate of 34c. Pineapples are a major export crop in Hawaii, having been introduced from their native South America in the 1800s by the Spanish.

And finally one from the Flags of our Nation series. Hawaii became the 50th (and to date the last) US state in 1959, the only state made up entirely of islands, and it's flag is the only US state flag to incorporate the Union jack. The eight stripes represent the eight major islands that make up the archipelago. On the stamp itself you can see a mountainous island in the distance. The stamp also shows ferns and an ohia tree with lehua flowers. Interestingly the stamp uses the spelling Hawai'i, rather than the official Hawaii. Locally, both versions seem to be used.

According to wikipedia, British explorer James Cook is one of the earliest, if not the first, European visitors to Hawaii. He visited more than once, and unfortunately upset the locals by kidnapping the King of the Big Island to bargain for return of his ship, and the king's supporters killed him.

I've never been to Hawaii, but I think you get a nicer welcome these days. Particularly if you don't kidnap any of the local officials.

Russian cows

Eric and Eva have a thing for cows.

I sent each of them a set of nested envelopes.

For Eric:

This envelope...


...contained...

...which contained...

...which contained this!

And for Eva:

This envelope complete with cow stamps...

...contained...



...which contained...

...which contained this!

Envelope 60 - mountainarteeth

I convinced myself that the white mountains look like teeth so I could send Christophe yet another envelope.

This is the oldest of the stash of envelopes I remembered - if you go to the first post of the blog, then you'll see it on top of the pile.

The Alaskan flag stamp fits today's Sunday Stamps theme of water. Not to mention the frozen water on the envelope and mountains of the other stamps.

And the image on the inside flap couldn't be more different...