I Like People Who Smile When It Is Raining II

Letter sent to Anke (the Netherlands), in response to this.

I fact, the envelope is a variation of this one I drew some time ago. But I tried to write an unique and funny letter. I hope she like it!

Update after some months: I'm afraid this letter never reached its destination :(

My Handwriting

Lately I have been told several times that I have I nice handwriting. This has surprised me, because I think it is just a normal one. But I guess the handwriting of a lot of people is getting worse because they write less and less by hand...

Wood(land) Snail

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

Postcard drawn and painted by Heleen. When both Heleen and I heard about the challenge #1 of Mail a Smile, we misunderstood the theme. The real theme was Woodland animals, but Heleen understood they referred to 'animals living in the wood' and I understand 'animals made of wood'. Do you see the point? I show off I speak a lot of languages, but I'm only pretending...

Anyway, we laughed about that and Heleen later sent me this amazing snail made of wood (and it maybe lives in the woods...). And the stamp is just delicious!

Fred

It have been a great fun lately to take part in the mail art challenges of the Mail a Smile blog. As you know I was the lucky winner of challenge #1 and I received this amazing envelope as a prize:

And inside I found some stickers and... the nice Fred, whose name means 'peace' in Swedish. You can see that now he is peacefully sitting watching for my letters and postcards:

I had previously got another Fred, in the form of a beautiful green handmade card sent by Micu, as a thank you for my contribution to challenge #2:

  

You can see in the gallery all the handmade versions of Fred.

Oh... Happy Day!

Sent to Micu's mum (Hungary) as my second contribution to the Challenge #2 of Mail a Smile. The theme of the challenge was A cup of tea or coffee.

Collage made of press cuttings, tea labels, washi tape, stickers and a real bag of tasty rooibos tea. The postcard is published in the Challenge Gallery.

Colours of Mail Boxes

We usually take for granted some daily things like the colour of mail boxes or the year we are living in, and forget that things are not the same in the whole world.

I found in the Wikipedia this map with the colours of the mail boxes in the world. There is also a list that you can consult to discover there are white mail boxes in San Marino, orange mail boxes in Indonesia and grey mail boxes in Philippines (if there is not any mistake in the content).

By the way, I do not know how to add that mail boxes in Morocco are also yellow (like this and this).

Lighthouses

Some lighthouses I have recently got:

Sent by Heleen (the Netherlands).

This is the maximum card no. 60, issued by Posten Åland (Finland) in 2008, 6th June. This is a very special lighthouse because it is named after the engineer Gustaf Dalén, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physic for his invention of automatic regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys. Too technical stuff just to say that he is considered, along with Fresnel, one of the fathers of modern lighthouses. Briefly... great card for a lighthouse-and-mail lover!

Sent by Marlene (the USA).

The postcard shows St. Agustine Lighthouse in Florida (the USA). This is the information on the back of the postcard:

Built in 1874 of brick and iron at a cost of $100.000. The lighthouse on Anastasia Island is 165 feet high with 8 flights of spiral staircase. Its bold black and white stripes serve as daylight landmark. Tower is open for tours and Lightkeepeer's House is a Maritime Museum.

Sent by John (the UK), and also the stamps below.

The postcard features "The beautiful Hebridean Island of Lewis in Scotland. a) Stacks at Garry Beach North Tolsta, b) Tiumpan Head Lighthouse, c) Butt of Lewis Lighthouse, d) Arch on the north coast near Ness."

Eddystone Lighthouse (in Devon, England) and The Smalls (Sorry, but I can't help telling you that it was the first lighthouse in the UK to have an installed flushing toilet).

Sent by Denis (Brazil).
The postcard shows the lighthouse in the Arvoredo Island, 11 km far from Florianópolis. He sent me this postacard as a swap, in exchange of this one.

Super Smurf

Sent to Heleen (the Netherlands).

I told you about the League of Extraordinary Penpals. Of course I could not resist to get involved in this project. Superheros usually keep their identity secret. But, you know, sometimes there are distractions, accidents, leaks... And It is how I discovered that Heleen is also a Superhero Penpal.

The occasion warranted a superhero envelope* with a superhero postcard inside!

*The superhero penpal in the envelope was drawn by Heleen. I only put the colours and the stickers.

Naked Mail

Mail sent by Mary England (taken from here).

I did not know that sending items without any wrapping has a name: naked mail. Even if I have sent and received some naked items. This bottle gives me some ideas. But indeed, I do not dare to sent naked objects from Morocco.

By the way, trying to finding out about this kind of mail, I also learn that it is referred by postal office workers as TTPO which stands for 'Torture the post office'.

Old Mail Box

Mail box in Talambout, a little village near my city. When I saw it, I didn't have any letter with me, so I could not check if it works. It looks so old...!

Sending Music & Smiles

Are you ready for the challenge #3 of Mail a Smile? The theme of the challenge this month is Music-playing an instrument (which can be freely interpreted as usual; see here how to participate).

You have until April 30th to make and send your mail art. to So get inspired and play on! 

I Like These Stamps

Sent by Kate (the United States).

Beautiful stamps!

Postcards for Me

Letter from Chi (Taiwan).

Chi usually sends pictures she takes and retakes as postcards. I like her pictures a lot, she is a very good photographer. Last time she sent me some postcards...

... specially made for me!

(I cannot publish the postcards because I still have to send some of them... ).

Extranjero

Mail box in the main post office in Sevilla (Spain) to collect mail for foreign countries. Extranjero means 'abroad'.

The three postcards I put into this mail box of stone have arrived yet.

How Do You Storage Your Postcards?

How do you storage your postcards? I am still searching a nice way to display my postcards on my new walls. And I found some interesting ideas in this article written by A Postcard a Day.