Via Airmail

Sunday Stamps: Food and Drink

I couldn't pass this week's Sunday Stamps up, since I have a few appropriate (and tasty-looking) images.  I think I shared this one before, but it's cute enough to share again.  The Sverige Brev stamp, "Ice Cream", was issued last summer, as apparently letter writing and card sending increases during the warm months.  It is one of a series of five different stamps to help keep the heat of summer at bay.  See the other designs here.

Or how about this delicious Aussie cupcake?

If you prefer something sweet yet a little more healthy, how about this Turkish peach?

How about some famous Russian Blini?  You can see a recipe postcard for the same here.   I think these are the equivalent to French crepes?

I think I like food stamps--the only problem with them--they're making me hungry!

You can see more stamps with this theme at Viridian's Postcard Blog.  Just click the box below and follow the list of links!

Sunday Stamps: Postal Services

This week's Sunday Stamps theme is anything to do with stamps--stamp collecting, the postal services, mailboxes, etc.  I've got two stamps that fit the theme nicely, though I have shared them before.  This first came from Russia.  It shows a mail truck sitting in front of a post office.

This second stamp is from Estonia and is a post horn, which is an international symbol of the postal system.  I'm slowly beginning to accumulate new and varied stamps on my postcards, so hopefully can find some that match different themes.  I also just received a box full of cancelled stamps, which I will share here soon!

You can see more stamps with this theme at Viridian's Postcard Blog.  Just click the box below and follow the list of links!

 

Cool Canadian Stamps

I recently bought a few postcard off eBay (am cautious of repeating that experience as I have found the postcards there to be overpriced . . . ), and the seller, who is Canadian, sent them in a mailer with these lovely stamps.

The stamp on the left is in honor of the Lunar New Year 2011, Year of the Rabbit.  I couldn't find the stamps on the right, but they might be part of their Beneficial Insects series as they are very similar in design.

I've gotten very few postcards from any Canadian Postcrossers (or postcard swappers), but maybe I'll eventually get one comemorating the anniversary of the Titanic (though then again maybe not as those are domestic stamps).

They're quite nice and somehow even managed to miss the cancelation mark, which means you can actually see the picture on the stamp!

To see more Sunday stamps check out Viridian's Postcard Blog and follow the links.

Sunday Stamps: Spring

Just in time for this week's Sunday Stamps theme, I received a postcard from Belarus with these lovely stamps.

The stamps were all issued in 2008.  The hares are from a sheet of Wild Animals, and the flowers, Narcissus on the far left and lilies in the middle from a sheet of Garden Flowers.

If you're curious what the postcard looks like on the reverse, check back later this week!

You can see more spring or flower themed stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog, just click on the Sunday Stamps link below.

Sunday Stamps: Three from Sweden

These are my very first Swedish stamps that I have ever received.  After looking around a bit for information on them, I've decided that Sweden has some of the most attractive and varied stamps around.  (I want one of the knitting stamps I came across!).

The Sverige Brev stamp, "Ice Cream", was issued last summer, as apparently letter writing and card sending increases during the warm months.  It is one of a series of five different stamps to help keep the heat of summer at bay.  See the other designs here. 

Ice cream for the summer and a snowflake for the winter.  The Sverige 12KR snowflake is wonderful.  It is an image of a snowflake taken by Kenneth Libbrecht at Caltech using a specially designed microscope.  It seems there is a book available of the snowflakes, so I'll be looking for it at my library as the images are really wonderful.  This is one of five stamps, and I'm pleased to get the one I like the most. 

The last stamp on the right is one of a series of stamps about 'Industrial Environments'.  This is an international stamp, Sverige 12KR, that shows a former ironworks called Avesta, which is currently used as a museum.  Scroll down this page to see the others in the series.

To see more of this week's stamp choices, click on the button below. 

Sunday Stamps: In Honor of Women

This week's Sunday Stamps theme is 'Women', in honor of International Women's Day which was celebrated this past Thursday March 8.  A quick look through  my postcard and letter bins netted me only this lovely stamp, so I'm going to have to interpret the theme very loosely.

I received a postcard last week from a Russian Postcrosser and found this stamp on the flip side.  This is one of a series of stamps on Russian headdresses which was released last fall.  This stamp depicts a girl's headband--European from Russia's North, middle of the 19th century.

For more 'Women' stamps click on over to Viridian's Postcard Blog.

Sunday Stamps: A Few Random Ones

Since joining Postcrossing I've been much more aware of the sorts of cards and letters I get in the mail.  I've been sorting through old bins and boxes and finding all sorts of treasures.  Old postcards from all over the US and Europe from friends who wanted to dash off a line to me or included one with a gift or letter.  I've started moving them into a nice plastic bin, which I will have to sort out at some point.

I've never been one to collect stamps, though I will often rip off pretty ones from packages or cards if I throw away the envelope and packaging.  Of course these have ended up all over the place--in desk drawers and baskets.  I guess this will give me an excuse to find a nice little box of some sort to keep them together.

I wanted to join in with Viridian's Sunday Stamps, but as I don't have a very large collection I can't always find one appropriate for the weekly theme, but this week it is an open theme, so I have a few cool stamps to share.

These are ten cent US stamps that look like they are celebrating the centennial (1874-1974) of the Universal Postal Union.   I'm sure I've not had them since the 1970s, so whoever stamped the envelope (and they may well have been something I removed from an envelope at work--I work in an academic library and we get mail from all over the world) chose some very attractive stamps that have been/or had been around a while.  I wonder if they are still in "circulation"?  I don't really know a lot about stamps and how it works--how long a certain stamp will be used and when they eventually get "retired", but I do love the look of these. 

They are all of artists and writers: Terboch, Chardin, Gainsborough, Goya, Raphael, Hokusai, Peto, Leotard.  Quite nice and worthy of being the first in a new and hopefully growing collection. 

You can click on the button to see more Sunday Stamps posts.