Visit to Maryland and the U.S. Postal Museum!

So this winter I went back to Maryland to visit family and I got to go to the U.S. Postal Museum! It was awesome and it was way bigger than I thought it would be! I didn't get to see everything. I definitely want to go back.  I took some photos with my phone while I was there so here they are...

If you can't read the caption it says : Hope Diamond wrapper, November 8, 1958.
 And yes, that means they mailed the Hope Diamond!!!!  I couldn't believe it. This was one of my favorite parts of the museum because I was so surprised.

 beautiful mailboxes. I wish I was a better photographer because this is the kind of thing that if photographed well I would love to frame and put on my walls!

 Hey look! It's kind-of-creepy Owney the Postal Dog!


The next 6 pictures are all from one delicious room of the museum. 
Below is an advertising cover.  You might already know how much I love horses, so I just had to take a photo of this beauty.  (By the way, it's the Year of the Horse!) Such a great motto. "Horse Blankets. You want'em. We've got'em."

 This one is really cool too! Okay so it was ALL cool and I was beside myself the whole time. But you see that on this postcard one of the stamps is cut in half. It used to be the case that if a stamp was of a higher denomination you could cut it in half and use it separately!

 And then there was the case of mail art. Beautiful beautiful mail art. 
I love the "Mail Art is Big in Lomita" postcard. Awesome.

 I also loved the presentation. The addresses were covered with papers that said "You cannot see the addressee." Perfect.

 And finally, leaving the museum, we saw the wonderful stained glass stamp windows.  This was such a great museum. Highly recommended.

I must say though, that the gift shop left a bit to be desired.  I only ended up buying one postcard and some stickers that were half off because they were Christmas-y.  There was quite a bit of stuff available for starting your own stamp collection, but I wish they had fun t-shirts and things like that.  Also, the best postcards at the museum were free for the taking at different exhibits! That was pretty awesome.

And... I will leave you with one more photo.  Since we were back in Maryland we just had to have some seafood.  Oh woe is me, out in Illinois!  I bought some lump crabmeat and Clay made us crabcakes!!! Soooo delicious!

Mail of Holidays Past

I've been using my phone to take a lot of my mail photos lately, but I just used my real camera and realized I had quite a few photos on there too.
So without further ado...

Thanksgiving mail!

And when I got back from visiting family for Christmas, I had a lot of lovely mail waiting for me!

 mail, delicious mail!

Some awesome Star Wars stickers and a cool card from Tara

I love the Grinch!

Dana gave me this really cute Christmas tree card.
On the back was this sticker...

It's so perfect because her puppy's name is Olive. I think the sticker is from a book called "Olive, the other reindeer". And the photo is of Olive at her puppy school graduation! So cute!

 Not one, but two cards from Tenzin were waiting for me when I got home.

From guess who? StoneZebra of course!

A really fun envelope! I love bright envelopes! And a cool Dickens card from Becky

A horsey!! Christmas card from Alison (fellow LEP member) in South Africa.

I currently have 3 cards from Danielle that I need to respond to!

I've got a lot of writing to do! I can't wait to send everyone pink and red envelopes for Valentine's Day!

time for joy and time for cheer

 Christmas, Christmas time is here! (or past)

I've had the Chipmunks Christmas song stuck in my head for a while now and I learned that my fiancé hates it! Not like I think it's the greatest song, but I'm attached to it from childhood.

In any case, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Anyway, I thought I'd take some mail photos with my fir tree candle as a prop. It smells so wonderful!

 Received from Taradactyl

 sent to Taradactyl

 two outgoing Xmas postcards- made from a box of green Christmas lights I got at Goodwill, sticker selvage, washi tape and a couple old stamps.

and Christmas puppy gets a treat!

We've been traveling for the holidays and this is my mailart travel pack.

Inside are : stamps, gluestick, scissors, red and green markers, pens, address book, address labels, Xmas washi tapes, a box of assorted holiday cards, and a big batch of mail to respond to!

I really love the gingerbread house stamps this year!

Oh! For Christmas one of my gifts was the Harry Potter stamps!!

I wish that instead of stills from the movie the USPS had chosen to use illustrations, but maybe it only happened because of the movie tie-in. Anyway, they are still really fun and I'm so glad I have some!