Vintage sparkly unicorn stickers

One of my goals for the long weekend (along with writing lots of mail and spending tons of quality time with the kittens) is to list some new items in my etsy shop that I've had for a while now. First one achieved: these Vintage sparkly unicorn stickers.



Don't these vintage sparkly unicorn, heart, and rainbow stickers just take you on a journey right back to the 1980s?

The listing includes 2 strips of stickers with 5 perforated squares each. Each square measures roughly 1.5 inches and contains 3 stickers (one unicorn with rainbow mane, one pair of red hearts, one crescent moon in a circle with rainbow stripes), for a total of 30 stickers. (Kitten not included.)



I love these stickers a little too much... I'd better sell some before I use them all up myself!

Vintage sparkly unicorn stickers on etsy

The postman delivers mail to the Red Army

This fine postcard was another very pleasant surprise from Postcrossing, in the form of RU-1125795. According to the sender, it shows a photo entitled "The postman hands a letter to the Red Army," from a set of "victory mail" released by the Russian Post "for the day of victory in the great patriotic war." You know I love any imagery of mail and mail delivery, especially involving mail carriers, and views of postpeople from other countries and eras always fascinate me. Plus, he's got a great bike!



The sender, Yury, even included this awesome stamp showing Vologda lace.

Red, white, and blue

I thought some good old red, white, and blue was in order for the season.

This is a letter I wrote last night on some vintage Wessel "envo-letters" stationery. It is WWII era, dates around the same time as the V-mails, but notes in packaging that it can be sent anywhere, not just to and from U.S. troops (as was the intent for V-mail.)



And yes, I do use the stickers I sell in my shop for my own correspondence, too.

To all my American readers, have a wonderful 4th of July holiday!

Lots more vintage stationery coming...

One of this summer's big themes for me will be listing a lot of vintage stationery for sale in The Missive Maven etsy shop. I've been collecting stationery all year (of course!) but it takes a long time to photograph and list it properly. If you're into vintage stationery, stay tuned to this blog, my twitter feed, and of course the aforementioned etsy shop, because I'll be listing multiple items each week.



One of my most recent listings is for this lovely complete set of Vintage Current Meadow Medly notecards. I've got an awful lot of Current stationery items to list, so if you like vintage Current, you're in luck!



I'll also be listing some lovely older vintage items from the 1940s and 1950s. Literally as I was writing this blog post about a lovely 1940s stationery set I just listed about an hour ago, it sold. So I won't tempt you with more photos. But if you're into some of the older stuff, again, keep an eye out! I guess I'm pricing things well because they're selling really quickly.

I'm off to the post office soon to mail some etsy orders AND pick up the new Miles Davis and Edith Piaf stamps just released today - yippee! I'm as excited about these new stamps as for any released in 2012.

Gilded

I was feeling golden in my decorative mood for a recent (well, November) letter to Donovan. I combined some large plasticky deco tape with a Martha Stewart Crafts label. I think the stationery is Crane something... it's certainly cottony.



I went with a simple vintage label on the back.



I used a couple of vintage stamps - Abigail Adams, known as a writer (corresponding with her husband, President John Adams), and that lovely rainbow-edged United Way stamp.

Only a few more days where two 22-cent stamps = the current 1st class domestic letter rate...

Rainbows for sale!

Here's an update on some new rainbow items I have for sale in my etsy shop. First up, these awesome vintage 80s rainbow hearts postcards, which I love and am using them all up myself already. I'm loving these really fun, simple happy rainbows to send through the mail. The rainbow beams ending in hearts. The front has the rainbow with a space for address and stamp, and the back is completely blank for your message. Each postcard is roughly 4x6 inches, and they're for sale in lots of 10.



Also, I now have multiple color options for these awesome Zebra super marble rainbow gel pens, which I'm also using a lot of myself! They're great on postcards, and the rainbow colors really stand out.

I guess its my vintage kitsch side, but I'm really into 70s and 80s rainbows right now...

Hot postcards!

I had a lot of fun picking postcards for the Hot postcards swap on swap-bot. I do love me a good pin-up and a little bit of sizzling salaciousness, and nothing was better for this swap than postcards from the fabulous Hellcat Amazons postcard book.



I'm a big fan of the campy-ness of these classic pulp images. This one promises to be "revealing." Ha! I received one of my two postcards for this swap yesterday, and it's a bit too risque for me to post it here!

This swap was a play on hot weather/hot postcards, but I do believe the summer is gone. Labor day is past, and it certainly seems like fall here now.

Shop update: vintage Current postcards

Hello! I have some updates to my etsy shop to share.

My favorite is this old-fashioned telephone postcard.



It's always "time for a note!"



And who doesn't want to shed a little light on the subject?

I've got a few more of these designs that will be going up for sale, and I've also listed a bunch of new Lisa Frank items, with more to come.

MissiveMaven.etsy.com

More than one Postcrossing account: what do you think?

Last week I sent this postcard to someone in Germany. It arrived in 6 days: awesome. Then yesterday another German address came up... and it was to the same name at the same address! Wait a minute, I thought this wasn't supposed to happen on Postcrossing? Lo and behold, it was the same person with a different account.

I've heard that people do create multiple Postcrossing accounts - I guess to get around the limits on how many postcards they can send? Initially I felt sort of cheated, like - hey, I just sent a postcard to this guy! But I pondered it a bit further, and figured he's really enthusiastic about postcards, and he clearly cares enough to register them quickly. He also has a full, robust profile, and has had both accounts for nearly a year with around 200 postcards sent and received in each. So why not send to someone who's really enthusiastic and will register immediately?

One of the things I love about Postcrossing is the serendipity, so I did feel taken aback to be assigned to send a postcard to the very same person basically one day after he registered the first one. In that sense, having multiple accounts is sort of cheating the system. But I'll admit I have often toyed with the idea of opening a second Postcrossing account myself - my username there long predates this blog, so it is not Missive Maven. Something always holds me back from doing it, though; I guess it's a combination of some weird sense of ethics plus really wanting to keep all my stats in one place. Under my current account, I am allowed to have 15 postcards at once, and the way it works out, I usually end up sending one new one a day.

I've got a postcard traveling in the USA right now that's been traveling for 40 days and the recipient hasn't logged into Postcrossing for a month, so I am pretty well prepared for that one to expire... and then there are all the postcards that get sucked up into that giant country on another continent that has a poor track record, in my experience, with postcards actually arriving or getting registered. So I've had the max number traveling and, again, I've been tempted to make that second account. I'm now repeating myself, so I'll just stop and ask for your feedback:

What do you think? Do you have more than one Postcrossing account? Do you think it's inappropriate or no big deal?

Vintage bee illustrated envelope

This vintage stationery set was one of my favorite fantastic eBay finds. The paper itself is sort of a textured pink - I haven't photographed that, as it's not all that special - but the envelopes are amazing! This is the bee design, and there are 3 others with similar styles: illustrated and printed all over both sides.



These photos are fairly true to the color - sort of a yellowish green. Of course I love the directive to "Mr. Postman."



The back of the envelope is seriously amazing! I confess I am a bit of a sucker for puns, so I love all this cheesy word-play. And I adore the bee who is lounging on top of a mushroom, brandishing a fountain pen, with a cute little ink blot below.

My favorite verse is in the pink box:
"Is writing notes a thing you love,
or do you need a 'lil shove?
I'll furnish the shove!"

Tee hee. Bee well, springtime readers.
Now buzz off and go write a letter!

New etsy shop

UPDATE: after a minor PayPal snafu, my shop really IS open now! I already sold one of my three items, yippee!



I am finally running out of room for my stationery and supplies.

I have to cut down. Argh!

I get a lot of things in eBay auctions that come together with other things I really don't want, or know I'll never use. Or I bought some stationery that I find isn't fountain-pen friendly. Or whatever.

It's a tiny little shop, and right now (grand opening: today!) I only have three items listed, and I didn't make any of them myself. (I have fantasies of making and selling some hand-made envelopes and the like, but... we'll see.)

I doubt it will see much action until the summertime, when I have a lot more time, but this was something of a lark and I really had to share it.

Comments? Suggestions? (Do the banner graphics suck?) Berate me for shameless self-promotion? (I really have been thinking about this for months, and it's pretty much a break-even, niggling-profit, I-need-to-make-room-on-my-shelves / why-the-heck-did-I-buy-this? sort of thing.) I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Here's the link:
missivemaven.etsy.com

Very creepy vintage postcard poem

Belen sent me this very bizarre vintage postcard. Lovely image, but whoa, man, that poem! She commented on its strangeness, too. I wonder if these sentiments were common??

The poem reads

Mother cooking, no one looking,
Kiss her like a real man should.
Footsteps running, papa's coming,
Beat it while your shoes are good.

Ewww, creepfest!!

I feel like this should be some kind of PostSecret postcard.

Because it is a good pen

I just came across a wonderful thread on The Fountain Pen Network showing old Parker Pen advertisements. This is but one of them. They are priceless! For anyone who likes vintage advertisements, pens, or writing paraphernalia, I do recommend a peek:
Old Parker Advertisements

A bevy of wild west girls

This most excellent postcard, a reprint of an old rodeo-type poster, came to me from my favorite sendsomething user in Wyoming.



She even kept the stamps all-cowboy: traces of Buffalo Bill Cody on both sides. Yee-haw!

...a little behind...

Tee hee... Just came across this on the Good Mail Day tumblr and had to share.

As for myself, I've gotten a BIG behind in my letter writing!

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?)

Pelikan postcard

This came from a fountain pen postcard correspondent. I love the meta factor, of course - and Pelikan is a famous maker of fountain pens and ink.

Vintage European scenes postcards

A very generous blog reader in Connecticut sent me these postcards. If I recall correctly, the writer supposed that a relative had brought them home as souvenirs after a tour of military service overseas. Is my historical photograph/paper age sense incorrect, or do I surmise that these may date closer to WWI than WWII? I believe the scenes are from France; they are not all labeled but the ones that are seem very French. There are a couple of chateaus. (Chateaux?) I just know that they are so gorgeous I'm not even sure I'll be able to use them! My favorite one is on top, the dungeon-looking door with the light shining through... spooky yet lovely.



Here's the back of one...



...and here's another. I am honored to be the recipient of someone else's history!

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...

Telegraphic message

Another gem from the trusty LWA headmistress in Chicago.



I think the envelope was made of a topographic map. The green sparkly star stickers contrast nicely with the postman in the corner.



Incidentally, I am SO taken with this postman. He made me squee. It is a cutout, but did it come from a rubber stamp? I would love to know.



More vintage squee-able goodness: the first page was typed on an official "telegraphic message" form. CONFIDENTIAL!



I got a chuckle out of the "return letter overdue" classification. Official business, US Government, March 15, 1957. Love it!