Typical Postcrossing

After a gap (due to a lot of lost postcards, mostly sent from Morocco), I came back to Postcrossing. A friend of mine sent me this postcard to celebrate it.

There are a lot of things to say about Postcrossing. To keep it simple: it is just a pleasure to receive joyful surprises in the mail in the form of little squares. With 50 million of postcards exchanged (50 million!!!), I still think it is one of the best sites ever invented. I am very grateful to the guys that had the idea and made it true. And to the people who maintain it alive, making the world better, a postcard a time.

If you have not tried Postcrossing yet... maybe can it be one of your 2019 goals/resolutions?

(See here how it works).

Sunday Stamps | S for Smurfs

Letter S of Sunday Stamps gives me the chance to show the stamps of my favourite comic characters: Smurfs!

Belgium has featured Smurfs on stamps often. I recently got these, issued on 29 January 2018, for the 60th anniversary of the blue little fellows.

And I had got, years ago, one of the 7 stamps issued in 2008 for their 50th anniversary.

And also from the UN:

A Bunch of Nice Envelopes I Have Got!

Sent by Alan (UK) 

Sent by Rosemary (Canada)

Sent by Imma (PC)

Sent by Fabienne (France)

Sent by Bryon (the USA)

Sent by Alyona (Russia)

From Rome & the Vatican

Bocca della Verità ('Mouth of Truth'), Rome

When I was in Rome (in May 2017; pictures here, here...), I sent postcards through two postal services: Poste Italiane and Poste Vaticane. The postcards sent from the Vatican arrived after a week, more or less. Even to Morocco. On the contrary, the postcards sent from Rome three days after took more than one month to reach their destinations!

However, I received three weeks ago these two wonderful postcards from Rome (above) and the Vatican... They took 9 and 10 days to arrive (which still is a lot for a postcard within Europe).

Oedipus & Sphinx (vase)
Gregorian Etruscan Museum, Vatican City

By the way, this is the first mail I have ever got from the Vatican City. (I mean, other than the Mail Moster that I sent to myself as a test)

The Mail Monsters Project | 27

Even if some (6) Mail Monsters never came back, eventually 22 of them landed again in my mailbox, from 12 different countries. 

All the participants have been amazingly creative, both in the texts and in the drawings, collages, etc. Actually, I don't know exactly how many people have contributed, because some people get their children (or grandchildren) involved, or their friends.

Thanks to the project, I have discovered a lot about the Mail Monsters! About their appearance (ugly, hairy, multicolour, human!...); their size (big, small, microscopic...); where do they live; which kind of mail they like most; their personalities (shy, greedy, elusive...); their activities...

Every envelope in my mailbox was a party. So... thank you, thank you, thank you!

I hope that you, participant or reader, have enjoyed as much as I did. And remember...

Beware of the Mail Monsters

Blue Christmas

(In my town, and some towns of the region, we celebrate two days of Christmas.)

Sagrada Familia del pajarito, c. 1650
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Mail sent by Barb and Rosemary (Canada), Phillip (the USA), Alyona (Russia), Lluïsa and Bruno (PC), Sabine (Germany) and Catherine (France).

Christmas Trees

(Hand-painted!)

Mail sent by Lluïsa, Josep and Imma (PC), and Barb (Canada).

Christmas Envelopes & Collages

Front and back of the envelope and postcard sent by Micu (Hungary), made with a paper bag and reused materials. It arrived... almost a year ago!

Collage Christmas postcards sent by Bruno (PC).

Christmas mail sent by Fabienne (France), in 2017 and 2018. Her collages look much more beautiful in person. This year's seem intended for the Houses in the Mail project...

Envelope sent by Imma (PC).

Envelope made by John (the UK), with the Victorian Christmas as theme.

Very Christmassy envelope sent by Phillip (the USA). I love the vintage (from 1963) illustrations on the envelope. But, somehow, it surprised me to see the Coca-cola bottle in such a prominent place!

I received more stamps from this set, with a beautiful pictorial postmark:

Christmas Stamps

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Christmas. So here you have some of the Christmas and December stamps I have received this year (so far?) from different countries, and I had not uploaded yet:

Australia

Canada

France

Lithuania

Germany

The Netherlands

Spain

The United Kingdom

(some of them awfully ruined by the postal employees, alas!)

See also this post!

The USA