Owl Post

This subtle Owl Post logo is my favorite aspect of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone postcard book. It tends to get hidden under writing, but I had to share this image with you.

The owl post concept is one of my favorite aspects of the Harry Potter world - AND that they still write letters (with quills, no less!).



Each postcard is different, but here's a creepy view of Professor Quirrel.

Fishing for letters?

A pen pal sent me this fun "A Jolly Halloween" postcard (yes, she did send it in time for Halloween, so you see how behind I am with blogging as well as letter-writing). What is the little witch doing? Is she pulling letters out of the pumpkin, or putting them in?



This was a mistake shot with the flash, but I'm posting it anyway because it really shows off the glitter accents.

Typewriter imagery

Olympia-licious! I'm not sure how he got this image on the envelope - laser printed, maybe? - but I loved pulling it out of my mailbox.



Here it is with my response - including some vintage stamps (Willa Cather, Johnny Appleseed, Elvis - is the Elvis stamp vintage yet?).

Hand-painted peacock stationery

The amazing artist over at All My Hues has done it again - she sent me this gorgeous hand-painted peacock stationery!



See the gold glitter in its tail? Isn't it AWESOME??



I just had to do a close-up on that glitter because I love it so much.



I'm very fond of peacocks, and this is one of the finest representations I've seen. I'm so floored that it was painted just for me! She blogged about it in detail when she made it, in case you'd like to learn more about all the wonderful materials she used; I'm not an artist, but I do know she did this on Crane paper.

I am SO honored to receive this gorgeous work of art - and she wrote a really great letter around it, too!

Shalom mail art

One of my smashing mail artist blog reader correspondents is also Jewish, and sent me this lovely mail art Happy New Year card for Rosh Hashanah.

Heck yeah, I'm behind... I received it in October and now it's December, but I'm going for better late than never here, folks.

I really like the bird. It feels like new beginnings.

In Hebrew, Shalom means peace and is also used as both hello and goodbye.

UPDATE 15 Dec 09:

The sender and artist just gave me a little more info on this piece, specifically that wonderful bird:

"The bird is from a photo sent to me to use in my collage for a book cover. I made many copies in various sizes, in order to prepare the collage. The book will be out in April 2010.

The bird was painted by Palestinians in Gaza, children and adults, in an art project by Jewish Americans and Israelis. The wall was built within feet from the door of this particular family's home. The mural is to brighten their view and create a bond between Palestinians and Israelis.

To see about the book, go to: http://www.osieonline.com/Announcements.html."

Hanukkah stamp

This seems a great moment to talk about this year's Hanukkah stamp from the post office - Hankkah begins at sunset this evening. It startled me to learn how early that is here in Newport right now - 4pm!

Sometimes I find the US postal service's Hanukkah stamps weird or cheesy, but I'm really fond of this one. I've been using it on my mail a lot lately - I like the clean, uniform look of the menorah coupled with the little bits of runny wax on the candles. It's beautiful yet authentic, with classic Hanukkah colors of blue and silver.

If you've read this post, you know I won't be saying much about Christmas, but at the beginning of Hanukkah I will say that I wish all of you the infectious joy that can accompany this season. I dislike all the stress and obligatory consumerism and silly gift-giving that goes on around me, but I do really enjoy the general feeling of attempted kindness and goodwill. If you celebrate a special holiday this month, I hope it's delightful.

To my Jewish readers - Happy Hanukkah!

British post boxes

This lovely postcard came to me from the gal behind A Postcard A Day. A while back (in August, specifically) she blogged about these lovely stamps and postcards, and offered to send one to the first few people who emailed her. Lucky for me, I was one of those folks!



She included the matching stamp for this postcard, and some very cool UK knight-looking stamps as well.



Here's a closer look. How delightful, and delightfully meta!

He wrote it all down zealously

This postcard is from Edward Gorey's "The Glorious Nosebleed," via a postcard book from Pomegranate Books. The title of this postcard/page of the book is "He wrote it all down zealously." (I added the bat sticker.)



I put some Gorey stamps on the back, plus an advertisement for this here blog, but only got all Gorey-licious after reading in her profile that the recipient was a Gorey fan. I have since learned not to put quite so much effort into a general open Swap-Bot swap, or should I say I've since learned not to bother with the really general postcards swaps, because most of the postcards I received in these things didn't seem to have much thought put into them.

But I had fun with this one.

So my current Swap-bot stance is to host my own swaps if I'm really interested in one concept (like the cat postcard swaps - I'll set more up soon!), or maybe jump into a few interesting and specific ones, but my initial infatuation with Swap-bot has calmed down and I'm devoting most of my postal energy to my regular correspondents again.

Speaking of which, it's time to go write a letter...