Earthscapes Forever!

Hello all!  I was ordering stamps the other day and I almost forgot about the Earthscapes set that is due out October 1st!  This was honestly one of the stamps I looked forward to the most right behind the dragon and cherry blossoms! 

These are beautiful stamps that celebrate the Earth in 3 separate categories, industrial, agricultural, natural.  To read more check out the Philatelic blog or order on line at the USPS site.  I pre-ordered several sheets of these because I think they will fly right off the self especially at my new smaller post office.

By the way if you want to support your local post office and your PO Box is at one and your home address is through another, which ever way you order your stamps that post office is the one that gets the credit per my local post office people (so it could possibly be wrong).  But I did order the stamps to go to my PO Box branch since they are smaller and more personable!

So excited to get them!
-b
 

Help! I Need a Translation!

I found this at Goodwill the other day and of course for under a $1 I bought it!   Now, what is it? 

My best guess is a Chinese commemorative stamp set celebrating the year of the pig.  Are these real uncancelled swine stamps?  Anybody?

The CD was just that and it contained a women talking in, I suspect, Chinese telling a story of some sorts, but what do I know? 
I also found this pretty tin that I will use to store more stationery and writing supplies that one should have.

Any idea on translation?

Confused in Bethlehem,
-b

Stereo-TYPED Collector

If you had to envision a stereotypical collector of typewriters, who would come to mind?  If you envisioned somebody like me (30's, female, educated, animal lover, not afraid to tackle home repairs), then you'd be correct! 
I added another bargain typewriter to my collection, although this one is technically a VERY early electric.

The funny thing is I had a gut feeling I should stop at Goodwill and take a look after leaving the typewriter repair place.  Sometimes my gut feelings do not pan out, but sometimes they do!  I like it even if its not a true manual.  I feel like it is early enough that it could be a bridging piece.

This brings the total to 3.  Does 3 classify as a collection?  I have a feeling it will grow especially since my family knows I like them and I am that hard to buy for relative!  I am also very glad I found a typewriter repair store in Bethlehem, PA to help me out!  The new one has some minor issues, and I would like the guys at Herbert's Typewriters to take a look at it and give me an idea of age and cost to repair the old Smith Corona.  They took a look at my old Olivetti Underwood and had a mini affair with it.  I was told to never let it go!  The new Royal Elite did not excite the guys as much, but I have a feeling it's going to be my favorite just because the Olivetti Underwood is hard on the fingers with its typing.  My mother and a few friends are on a strict order to keep their eyes open for more.  So it's started, a new collection of beautiful old machines!
Add me to the stereo-typed!
-b

In the Mailbox!

Here are some more wonderful letters and postcards from the post!  We have some old friends, some new ones, and a variety of postcrossings passing through.

A great package from Tara!  It's official that I will be heading out the Newport, RI in the middle of October.  Tara was sending me some brochures to help me plan.

A wonderful note from my friend and her 2 boys!

 A nice note from a friend who had to move away from me! Sad for the loss but happy she gets to start a new chapter in her life.

Another friend who is starting a new chapter in her life!  Study hard JK!

 A postcrossing from Russia.  I have received several cards like this from there.  Anybody know the story behind them?

An excellent photo made into a postcard.  My question is why does the postage need to be sanitary?  Was there a bunch of contaminated stamps at one time?

A postcrossing from IN.  This is the Indiana State University campus.

A nice letter from CKB who is also starting out on a year of journey.  You can follow along at her blog.

A great letter from Wolfey and Bombalurina

Here LR demonstrates both pattern and color.  Something sorely lacking from this season of Project Runway.  So far I only feel as though I understand 2 of the designers sensibility.  Everybody else is a bit thrown off this season. 

 

A letter from Troy!  He also had to make a life change this year.  Seems to be a theme.

 

A colorful letter from the south of France.  Happy Travels Malyss!

2 postcrossing cards. 

Last but not least, a great hand made card from NF!  Go cardoholics!

 

I hope this finds you all well and getting, receiving lots of mail.

-b

Random Stationery and a Vow

As a stationery addict, I find things routinely that are papery and cute.  But the addict part is becoming apparent as my office is crammed with stationery and I have no where else to put it, so it is being stacked up.  Here are some recent editions.

from Target

 

From Pier One Clearance

I vow as you all as my witnesses to try my hardest to not buy any more stationery for this month unless it supports a small batch card maker OR is dirt cheap.  And even if it dirt cheap, I am going to be very picky! 
I figure I have all these wonderful supplies, I really should start using them to make my own stationery goodness and the only way I will do that is to stop buying.
There, I've done it.  I am taking the first step in breaking the habit!  Any words of encouragement are appreciated.  I can hear Goodwill taunting me already!
-b

Letter Writing Social in PA!

Hello all,
I am so excited and enthusiastic to report that I have been working on organizing a letter writing social with the Piccadilly Post and the PostMuse .  We are all PA mail bloggers and correspond routinely. 
After attending the mail social in Washington D.C. at the National Postal Museum, I knew I had to help do one closer to home.  I kept having this idea for an all things mail convention, but I suspect that is down the road a few years.  What I can tell you is I got confirmation with the Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg, PA this morning for us to host our letter writing social there!

Here are the current details:
When: Saturday, November 3rd
Where: The Midtown Scholar in Harrisburg
Time: Early Afternoon - hours to be ironed out closer to the date!

Definitely check out the video tour of the Midtown Scholar as it is a unique bookstore filled with hard to find, antique and rare books.  It was once an old movie theatre that they turned into a huge bookstore!  I chose this location because it was more central in the state and for the 3 of us. 
Please consider coming and also if you know you are going to be there, drop one of the 3 of us a note.  If this turns into a big affair, we may need the bookstore to move us to a larger space.

And finally. last night I also talked to the Octogenarian who runs the Institute of Deltiology in Myerstown, PA.  (Institute of Deltiology = Huge Postcard Collection!)We may be able to do a side trip to see him and visit the collection.  He is an intriguing man that collected postcards since he was a pre-teen!  Now in his advancing age, he has catalogued and given his historic collection over to preservation.  Again, the logistics need to be worked out so this part may or may not happen yet!

My Best,
Becky

Can You Type B-A-R-G-A-I-N?

Hello all,
I know I have a knack for thrifty mail finds, but today goes down in history!  First I want to start by saying I am not much for garage sales.  I just do not usually find what I am after at the typical garage sale.  Most people are selling clothes and household, but I am more interested in antiques, paper and crafting, and books.  On occassion, I will see something that makes me want to stop or have a gut feeling that I should. 
Today was one of those gut feeling days and when I saw the sign that said barn sale, I turned the vehicle and went for a ride!  Lucky for me, because I found the below beauty in its original, slightly rough leather satchel.

It's a small traveling typewriter!  And in decent shape!  None of the keys are seized up, but it needs a ribbon and a good oiling.

The book gives you a reference to its size.  That is a standard sized hand held novel that I also got today for $1. 
Now what do you think you would pay for that old typewriter?  $20? More or less?
I am a fan of American Pickers and followed their advice of first pointing out the flaws before asking a price.  The guy came back with $5.  I did not even argue at that price and trotted away with the mini machine!
But my luck did not stop there!  As I was driving down Broad Street in Bethlehem heading towards the semi-annual library book sale, I noticed a typewriter store!

I must have driven by there close to a 100 times and this was the first time I noticed the place!  They were not open, but by the sign where they listed hours open, it said "Call, I usually make it in after the noon hour"  I have a feeling, this is going to lead to another post and a good story for my pen pals!
Until then, keep your eyes open and happy thrifting my friends!
-b

Incoming

I have not posted incoming in awhile, so I thought I would get that up for you this Friday.   The last 2 weeks have been slow for my mailbox, but I did get caught up with a lot of correspondence!

2 nice postcards from Send Something

JD sent me a nice postcard from her travels.

A nice 2 letters from KH.  Finland has a lot of great pen pals!

A nice hand made card from postcrossing

GL sends me a stuffed envelope from Barcelona

DF and I continuing our renewed correspondence.

A not from Matthew- hope your safe with the wildfires!

 

A very nice note from a new contributor - thanks Roxy for the note!  And if you see it here, a letter was mailed in reply!

 

ARRR! A letter from the Post Muse!

A nice note from NB in the Netherlands!

 A note from a new contributor from Send Something.

 A nice letter and some pretties from the Piccadilly Post

Another letter from LR about Project Runway - Make it Work!

Hope this finds you all sending plenty of mail to each other!
-b
 

Care to Send Something Fun!

Hello all,
I hope this finds you having as beautiful of weather as we are in the MidAtlantic!  I opted to mow today, not because I had to, but because it was so beautiful!  Life and house are keeping me busy, but not busy enough to prevent a blog post inspired by a package I received from Piccadilly Post

What a nice surprise after a long day at work!

The next layer should the compartments.  "Daisy" is really great at layering and all "the little things" that look nicely put together instead of stuffed in there - (which I admit is more my style.  Cram it in till you can't cram in any more!)

What's inside the packages? !

And at the bottom is some pretty stationery! 

 

I think her package has kicked off something in my head!  I am a big care package sender and my close friends routinely get little things that I collect because they remind me of that person. But with all the influx of stationery and bits, I think I may have to randomly mail out some more.  I challenge you all to consider trying it yourself!

 

Also consider commenting and sharing about a care package you got that made your day!  Maybe you have ideas that others can use to spruce up their packages!

And here's one I sent out to the winner of the stationery contest.  I used stickers to polka-dot it!

 

Hope this finds you sending a smile and sharing your bounty with others!
-b
 

Step Forward and Claim Your Stationery

Drum roll please!  The names of those who entered my stationery giveaway were carefully written down and handed to a friend who painstakingly folded them and had a coworker draw a name.
Step forward: clcdark - I will be emailing you for address details.

Thanks to all for commenting and sharing in my joy of paper, the great carrier of messages!

May your mailboxes be full and your favorite pen never run out of ink!
-b

Hey Mr. Postman

I thought I would share a link to the So You Think You Can Dance show.  They had a dance to the "Wait Mr. Postman" song featuring Twitch and Eliana.
http://bit.ly/RHugfy
Hopefully this carries you through your Friday with a smile!
And do not forget to check out my last post about a stationery give away!
-b

Score!

Okay, so the first step to helping yourself, is admitting you have a problem.  I have a huge problem/ talent of finding excellent deals on stationery.  Depends on how you see it.  I have not been to my favorite stationery places in awhile, but the other day I found myself with the opportunity to stop in and guess what I found.
No really . . .take a second and guess!

Each box is 20 cards with 4 designs

Pomegranate stationery at $3.99 a box.  This is only half of the selection available.  I was actually choosy about my purchases. 

10 cards and 2 designs.

And these were $2.99 a box

And these were on the sale rack.  That's right - Jim Holtz, idea-ology cards!  The dinosaur stickers were a dollar a sheet!  And do I know a dino loving girl who will enjoy these?!?

All in all, a great haul!  But wait, there's more.  If you too have a stationery problem, then post below and one lucky person drawn at random will receive a set of 20 mix and match cards featured in this story.  Drawing is limited to the United States, just due to the cost of postage.  Please also leave an email or other contact info if I do not already have it.  For privacy, if you do not want your email out there, leave 2 comments - one for the blog and one for me.  Since I view all comments prior to posting, I can filter those out who do not want to be public!

You have until Saturday (9-8-12) to enter.

I am a stationery addict, are you?
-b

Weekend Incoming

Hello all,
I try to keep on top of posting the incoming as I respond to it. I hope everybody had as productive weekend as I have!  I really got a lot of work done on the basement (cleaning, painting, demolition!), which is why I have not been able to keep up as much as I would like, but here is some pretty mail to distract you!

 Above and below are from DF.  She recently has sent me more state postcards.  I've been doing a project on SendSomething to collect all the states in postcards and I am happy to say I am over half way there!

Above is Mickey "helping" with the postcards - a postcrossing from Germany

A message from the sea from Picadilly post.  She is the master of packages!

 A nice note from my old pal Wolfey!  Hey, I've seen those calendar sheets before!

 A fashionable letter from LR discussing Project Runway and our favorites!

I lost a few pics last time I posted the incoming, but I could only remember forgetting the PC from Craftgasm.  Sorry if anybody sent me something and it didn't get up here.  I am only missing 2 of 3 - so not many!

 A little note from C. Bo on Send Something

Another new friend from Send Something.  And some of the nicest handwriting I've ever seen!

 A nice note from one of the Stamp Tramps.  Congrats again on hosting the OWH card party and making 750+ cards!

Who do I know in Alaska?  No literally.  This card arrived with no signature.

Hope this finds your mailboxes full!
-B