Happy New Year, in a Russian winter postcard

What better way to say "Happy New Year" than with a postcard?

This lovely Russian postcard, Postcard RU-3269709, (the text reads "Happy New Year" in Russian) came to me via Postcrossing. It's a vintage reprint complete with a lovely ornate design on the back, and something about the snow-covered cottage by a lake really speaks to me. I feel the cozy, inward-turning of wintertime, but the yellow sunrise in the sky lights the promise of a new year. Hmm... am I feeling a little extra poetic-romantic today? Perhaps, but I wish all my blog readers a very Happy New Year as we move into 2015. An added bonus was the very sweet message on this card: it was the sender's first Postcrossing card, and she was quite excited about it. I am honored to be the recipient of her first card! She is sure to be an enthusiastic Postcrosser, and of course enthusiasm brings the most fun.



I've had some great Postcrossing adventures lately, with some wonderful cards received; above is one of my favorites, DE-3782357 from Germany, with a vintage illustration from 1890 of cats on a train. I don't know why this one delights me so much, but it does. Maybe because I like cats and trains both, and the cats on this train look so very civilized and serious, while also looking utterly ridiculous. (The cat illustrations from the late 1800s often share these traits.)

I also get a kick out of the fact that both these postcards I'm featuring today are vintage reproductions. Those seem to be very popular these days - and I certainly enjoy them myself!

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.

Vintage rhino postcard

I sent this lovely little vintage Current postcard to Lela in Estonia recently. (She blogged about it, too, and took more photos as well.) She and I both have a fondness for animals and fanciful illustration styles. I am a big fan of these vintage Current postcards - they are very sturdy, and take fountain pen ink beautifully. I love the colors in this, too, with the toucan making a splash of brightness against the purplish-grey of the friendly-looking rhino.

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

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.

...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!

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!

Amazing Australian Airmail

Ms. Goodnight Little Spoon writes such incredible letters. I am spoiled. (Alas, less spoiled than I could be because I fear her latest mail-art marvel sent to me has never arrived, the second piece of blogged-about mail in the past month that I have seen online but not received, argh.) But to focus on the positive of this loveliness - WOW! What a decorated envelope! I love how the q substitutes for an a.



All kinds of goodness on the back, but of course my very favorite is the gonzo sticker.



These items came from her trip to Tasmania. The vintage postcard is truly lovely, but I confess I've never in my life seen a cooler sticker than this little Tasmanian Devil! Clearly her submissions have won both the coolest postcard AND the coolest sticker awards, all for the little Tasmanian Devil grooviness.



I can't even decide how I will ever use this fantastic sticker, so right now he just lives in the side of my clear stamp drawer storage unit, so I can see him looking out at me from the clear plastic. I often look at him when I'm writing letters and he makes me smirk.

Mail joy!!

Old Absinthe Bar

"Gen. Andrew Jackson, Sarah Bernhardt among notables served from it."

The back says:
"The Old Absinthe Bar, 400 Bourbon Street, New Orleans, La., is one of the most treasured antiques in a city famous for its ancient background. Mark Twain was served over it; so was Gen. Andrew Jackson, the Pirate Lafitte and Jenny Lind. Tourists truly feast on these colorful and historic relics, assembled in 1806, and which are still in the custody of L. J. Cazebonne, son of the late Pierre Cazebonne."

I found this in my grandfather's house after his death, and sent it to a friend in Europe who loves New Orleans, and absinthe, too.

1980 airmail postcard

Isn't it just grand when the rate on a vintage airmail postcard equals the current domestic postcard rate?



Thank you, eBay.

Beautiful Cypress Gardens...

"...Natural fairyland of sunshine and flowers."

Wait, southern belles are part of a natural fairyland? Guess so! Love it for the kitsch factor, doubly so because I've had a spate of southern belles in my mailbox lately (in fact, someone even commented on the last postcard like this that it looked like Cypress Gardens), complete with those oddball pouffy dresses. I know, they're not oddball for the time and the place, but they strike me as extremely comical now. (I'm a no-nonsense midwestern girl cum plane-jane New England transplant. Wearing a dress like that would be antithetical to my very nature.)

A few of my correspondents just send me the coolest vintage postcards. I laughed at this one for a long time. Love the Lusterchrome color!

Vintage bikini on a log

What's up with this posed studio shot? Is she supposed to be sitting on driftwood? No matter, this is one of a few lovely fine vintage pin-up postcard I got from eBay. Red polka dots are cheery.

This one went to a friend in Florida.

Fan mail art for Good Mail Day

A little while back, I kvelled over Good Mail Day. See that link for all kinds of nifty info on how to buy this awesome Mail Art book. Before I read it, I never would have called myself a mail artist. Sure, yeah, I decorate things, but I'm not an artist. Then I started reading the book, and I got totally inspired.



So I made this fan mail/mail art postcard to send to the fabulous gals who were responsible for the book. (OF COURSE they put their mailing address in the book so readers could do this very thing.)



We all know I can't really draw, so I went for a simple idea of various ways of punctuating "I love the book" written all over the back of an airmail postcard, in one of my ever-awesomeZebra Super-Marble 3 Color Changing Gel Ink Pens (about which I blogged so merrily in July). Then I drew over that and filled in a larger slogan with glitter glue. I think this photo, above (after about 15 different angles and attempts!) actually shows off the many glitter colors pretty well. (And if you have a Flickr account and can actually view large, you'll see it even better. But I know not everyone can access that. Sorry.)



And here's the "Star Wars view" angle. Yay, mail art with mail art book! I know I'm but a novice, but I have to say this was a lot of fun. I know I'd really get a kick out of pulling something like this out of my mailbox.



Finally, behold the front of this vintage air mail postcard, which even oh-so-meta-ly features an air mail plane. I'm pretty sure I added some silver glitter to the front of the card, but I forgot to photograph that before it landed in a mailbox.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, in my previous post about this book, that the creators of this book have an excellent blog, Make Every Day a Good Mail Day - check it out!

Then go make some interesting mail.

Say it with bananas

One of my fabulous postcard correspondents from The Fountain Pen Network sent me this vintage postcard, which I just adore. Bananas?? Awesome. It has a raised texture (which should be more visible in the next photo), and someone (not my pen pal) wrote "Love to Lizzie, Ella" on the front.



Competing for top awesomeness honors is this bit on the back, which says "postcard" in 19 languages. The sender and I agree that this postcard must have originated outside the USA. I don't really know how old it is, but I find it utterly charming.

Vintage camellia kitsch

This vintage postcard came to me from a correspondent from The Fountain Pen Network.

Wow. Dig those dresses.

Vintage postcard: Tourism Year of the Americas '72

This is a great vintage postcard I picked up on eBay, way way cheap. I got it for, and sent it to, my grandfather, who likes postal memorabilia as he worked for the post office for many years. He's been to all these state parks, too.



I love the back, with the pre-stamped 6-sent postage showing the sailing ship. I added my own vintage stamps to make the current postcard rate.