Es gibt ihn doch...

The Gruffalo is a children's book by writer and playwright Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler, that tells the story of a mouse, the protagonist of the book, taking a walk in a European forest.

I was very pleased to receive this stamp. It is the very first book (err... tale?) I read in English. As an adult.

Typewriter

Painted and collaged envelope sent by Fabienne (France), with a favourite theme (along with bridges, trains...).

HitM | Beguinage

A beguinage can bee also a home. The Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde is the only preserved beguinage in the Belgian city of Bruges. There are no more Beguines living there, but since 1927 it functions as a convent for Benedictines. 

I visited it last year but in May the daffodils were not there (plus, it is forbidden to take pictures there). So I am happy that Laura sent me this postcard.

(See here another begijnhof.)

Little Green Mailbox

Letter sent by Eva (Germany).

Women on Stamps | N for Noël

Suzanne Noël (1878-1954) was one of the first French plastic surgeons and an active feminist. She was also the founder of Soroptimist International of Europe.

On this 2018 stamp, she is presented during a facial reconstruction operation.

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more N-stamps.

Blue & Pleasant

Postcard sent by John (the UK) featuring the cover of the 1947 essay England's Green and Pleasant Land. I find somehow disturbing that it is not green, don't you?

Coffee Mail

There is always coffee (or tea!) time and mail time, and... Isn't it wonderful when you can combine both? Like on this postcard sent by Laura (the UK).

But, of course, you can go farther and sent a real cup of coffee, as Heleen (the Netherlands) did. She included the bottom, so I can reassemble it. But if I did and drank my coffee, I would drink her words and the stamps as well (including the cow!).

This postcard made of coffee packaging was my reply to Heleen's cup.

HitM | Random

When I started the project Houses in the Mail, I had not realised that half of the postcards of the world are dedicated to housing. Maybe I am exaggerating but, certainly, this is a recurrent topic. The postcards I am featuring today were not intended for the project, but I think they fit it.

Gent, Belgium
Sent by Ana

Bruges stepped gables, Belgium
Sent by Laura (the UK)

Schloss Solitude
Stuttgart, Germany
Sent by Silvia

Le Potager à l'âne, 1918
Joan Miró (1893-1983)
Sent by Fabienne (France)

Mahalo

I don't know why, but there are some places whose mere name makes me dream. Thus I was more than delighted to receive this letter from Lilli, with a postmark from Honolulu and perfect stamps and stickers.

It was a perfect gift. And more... the same week I got another postcard from the same place (showing Hawaii, sent from Canada), sent by Rosemary. You made my day, girls!

Flying Kites Around a Lighthouse

I received this postcard from Bob (the USA), through the Postcrossing site. Usually, I like the postcards I got, because most people put care on them. From time to time, I receive one that I love. Like this one: an illustrated map with lighthouses, kites, a friendly message on the back...

It inspired me to draw this envelope for Wanda (Ireland). I painted it with coloured pencils.

Women on Postcards

Sent by Phillip (USA)

Very different women, and attitudes towards life, on some not-so-recently received postcards...

Portrait of Amy Gaskell, 1893
Edward Burne-Jones
Sent by Laura (the UK)

Sent by Phillip (the USA)

Inge Löök illustration
Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands)

Altered Portrait of Margaret van Eyck, 1439
By Jan van Eyck
Sent by Laura (the UK)

Postcard sent by Bruno (PC)

Lady Lavery at an Easel, 1910
John Lavery
Postcard sent by Laura (the UK)

Women on Stamps | M for Macphail & MacGill

Agnes Macphail (1890-1954) was the Canada's first female member of Parliament.  First elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1921, she served as an MP until 1940.

She devoted much of her energy to rural issues and women's rights. She was a major catalyst in the establishment of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Toronto, an organization which aids women in conflict with the law. She was also deeply committed to disarmament, a cause which took her to Geneva in 1929 as Canada's first woman delegate to the League of Nations.

The stamp was issued in 1990, marking the centennial of Agnes Macphail birth. Designed by Eskind Waddell (based on a photograph by P. Hardy), it combines a portrait of Agnes Macphail, in the 1930's, with a colourful background collage of the Parliament Buildings.

Elsie MacGill (1905-1980), aka "Queen of the Hurricanes", was the first woman in Canada to earn a degree in electrical engineering and is thought to be the first woman in the world to hold a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. She played a relevant role during the WWII.

The three stamps belong to the series Canadians in Flight, issues on 29 March 2019, that celebrates three individuals and two aircraft that took Canadian aviation to new heights.

(NB Have you noticed the postmark? It is from Saint-Louis-du-Ha!Ha!)

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more M-stamps.

Ancestor's Journey

Ancestor's Journey, by Ben Houstie
"We are guided by the wisdom of our ancestors"

Powerful message and design on this postcard sent by Rosemary (Canada). Don't you think so?

Furious Postal Machines

Aerogramme sent by Bryon (the USA). The vintage stamp arrived safe and sound, as they usually do. 

Usually, but not always! It seem that the postal machines in the West Coast are especially angry this season...

Safari

I gave two tries to this tutorial from The Postmark Knocks, and painted two watercolour envelopes for Imma (PC) and John (the UK).

Happy 8th Bloganniversary, Dear Mail Adventures!

(I received these cards for my birthday. I am just a bit older than the blog.)

FinnBadgers

Watercolour and coloured pencils drawing on an envelope sent to FinnBadger (the USA). The spacebadgers landed safe and sound.

Claudia Torres Martínez drew this stamp that won the first prize of the youth category in the Stamp Design Contest (Disello). 

[...] the artist calls her winning design Cantabrian badger, a watercolour showing a badger in the foreground, and a landscape in the background which could easily represent anywhere in Cantabria.

More Coffee

I just think that the world needs more coffee postage stamps...

Women on Stamps | L for Labé

Louise Labé (c.1524-c.1566) was a feminist French poet. Her works, published in 1555, consist mainly of elegies and love sonnets written between 1545 and 1555.

From a letter she wrote:

The time having come, Mademoiselle, when the stern laws of men no longer bar women from devoting themselves to the sciences and disciplines, it seems to me that those who are able ought to employ this honorable liberty, which our sex formerly desired so much, in studying these things and show men the wrong they have done us in depriving us of the benefit and the honor which might have come to us. (...) And in addition to the recognition that our sex will gain by this, we will have furnished the public with a reason for men to devote more study and labor to the humanities lest they might be ashamed to see us surpass them when they have always pretended to be superior in nearly everything.

The stamp was issued on 22 May 2016, 450 years after her death.

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more L-stamps.

Little Green Men

Leprechaun: Small mischievous Irish fairy, symbolising good luck and fortune. If found he can be forced to reveal the hiding place of his treasure, but beware if you take your eyes off him he will vanish instantly.Nearly became extinct in the early 20th century but now can be found in abundance throughout Ireland.

And I have got not one, but two little green men who are supposed to bring me luck. Nothing can go wrong from now on, can it?

Glückspilz

Postcards sent by Laura (Ireland) and Maren (Germany).

Recycling Magazines

Two letters sent to Laura (the UK):

Back of the envelope

Business Mail?

Contrary to most people (I guess), I rarely get any piece of mail that is not a personal one. The most business-like pieces of mail I receive are online orders (and also, very few of them).

But it is very nice when you order something and it arrives inside a neat and sweet envelope like this, sent from Belgium by Connie of CocoMojoDesigns.

And the postcard below came along with some yarn I ordered from Knitography in Norway.