Trumpet stamps

Here's another one of those fine vintage Mork & Mindy postalettes. On this one I chose special stamps for the recipient, who plays trumpet. (Could you guess?)

Mork from Ork vintage postalette

This gem came from a fabulous eBay find (ah, eBay, you are my budgetary downfall): a mint condition, NIB (new in box) set of Mork from Ork rainbow postalettes, from the show Mork & Mindy.

Yes, folks, I remember watching Mork & Mindy as a child - I adored that TV show, and it gave me a lifelong admiration for Robin Williams. This postalette shows Robin Williams in his Mork role, wearing his space suit, and the words are his catch phrase. I'm stumped by the spelling, though, because I recall it sounded like "na-noo" and not na-no. Oh well, discrepancies aside, they're fabulous. The moon and stars sticker came with the original set to seal the postalette, but I gave it a little help with some removable tape.



As if these weren't awesome enough, they're covered with rainbows! The rainbow element wraps around the front, on the address side. This one deserved some very cool stamps, so I tried to go with either the rainbow theme or a space theme, to complement the postalette itself. These are some of my very favorite stamps, too. On the left is the "It all depends on ZIP CODE" mail transportation stamp (of course I love the meta mail theme, but the rainbow puffy artwork is delish), in the middle is the Expo 74/Preserve the Environment stamp with artwork by Peter Max, and on the right is the Love stamp with hearts forming the Os in rainbow colors. The Project Mercury stamp is my nod to the space theme.

This was a fun postalette to send and construct; so far I've only sent the one, but I think I've got 11 left. Hmm...

Muppet Mail

Remember that wonderful shockingly Muppet-licious letter I blogged about recently? In it I mentioned some fabulous postcards he sent me, so I now share with you that bounty.

At the top is a Muppet postalette, a fold-and-mail sort of Hallmark wonder, here celebrating Kermit and Piggy's picnic love.

Below is a really incredible parody, which we must see a little bit closer. My generous blog reader correspondent sent me a few of these, so I've got a mini-collection of 'em.



Those familiar with basic American Art History 101 will recognize this as a very witty parody Edward Hopper's famous painting, "Nighthawks." My generous sender said he found the Muppet parody online, and did not know the artist but had a whole bunch of the postcards printed because he loved them. Hear, hear!

If anyone recognizes the artist, I will happily credit him or her. For now, though, let's admire the fun detail. See The Count up in the upper lefthand corner? Fabulous!

I should note that these are Sesame Street Muppets, not Muppet Show Muppets. There is a difference. My generous sender is more a devotee of the Sesame Street variety, and I am strongly in the Muppet Show camp, but we are different branches of the same tree and I still admire all the Jim Henson creations.

Vintage stationery spotlight: Laff Letters

Tonight I'll share a few views of some of my favorite vintage stationery (a la eBay): the WWII-era Laff Letters.



As the box says, "letter and envelope in one," so pretty much a postalette or fold-and-mail concept.



The back of each design has a joke that tends to be racist or sexist or both... I guess they are a product of their time.



I love the return address space in this "bulletin from" design, and the "atoms for peace" vintage stamp is one of my favorites.



I sent the above "last minute news" design to my late grandfather about a year ago - I tried to use a WWII/veterans theme in the stamps, or at least stamps that made sense for his lifetime.

Vintage kitty postalette

A lovely blog reader letter came to me last month on this vintage postalette with a kitty chasing a butterfly. I am a mystery lady! Who knew?



And the kitty even quotes Oscar Wilde:
☆"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."☆

☆ ☆ ☆

Desert postalette

Behold the lovely desert postalette, feeding my meta-mailbox cravings. It is a touch close to the "cutesy" side for me, but the mailbox part of it really did it for me. I wish that these items, which the eBay seller said didn't smell like smoke to them (and they said they weren't a smoker - have they no NOSE??), didn't reek of old cigarette smoke. Blech. They are getting a treatment in a closet covered with scented soaps, which I hope will help a bit.

But check out the internal story. Above, she's pulling the letter out of her mailbox by the cactus...



...and on the back, she's riding away reading her letter. The gold stickers for sealing these postalettes (like a fold and mail, but don't actually close up on the sides) came with the set.

Now, does anyone know if that's a donkey or a mule? I'm betting mule but I don't really know.

I also don't really know how old these are, but based on the style of the artwork, they classify as "vintage," I think. I'm betting 60s or 70s, any other guesses?

MuppetLust

I loved, loved, loved The Muppet Show as a kid, and Pigs In Space was my very favorite sketch. So when I found these on eBay, my heart lept with gladness. When another set came up, I had to snatch 'em up, too.

It's a fold and mail postalette, and requires stickers to seal - curiously, it didn't come with any. So the little glitter stickers are my own touch.

If anyone has a source of Muppet stationery, let me know. I'm all over it.