Birthday Giveaway Time !

This week marks the beginning of my 33rd year of being. I feel that is something of an occasion, and just for the heck of it, I am going to try something radical and new...

I am going to do a giveaway!!

Yay!

Happy Birthday to my lovely blog readers.

As a little token of my appreciation for your continued support, I thought I would cook up a little tasty treat. And because it is my birthday, and because I love Royal Kitsch, that is what I have chosen for the theme.

The task is simple - leave a comment to enter (compulsory), and follow along on bloglovin or google friend connect for a bonus entry. And if you are already a follower - then no problemo, leave a comment and you will receive two entries.

The lucky prize winner will receive:

1) Charlie and Lady Di stamp pack (see above).

2) Five hand made envelopes featuring royals taken from vintage books purchased last year (see below).

3) A bundle of QEII stamps - use them as seals on the envelopes, as decorations, turn them into gift tags, make mini royal bunting from them... oh goodness, the options are endless. Just enjoy them!

I am going to draw the winner using random.org, and the competition will be open for 10 days.

Thanks for playing along. All the best from I heart post headquarters,

xx Helen

UPDATE: The winner has now been announced here: and it is Laura L. ... not because she was the first person to comment, but because that is who random.org chose! Thanks to all for participating!

Surf, post... and a little bit of cheese

The other week my beau/gentleman caller/significant other/boyfriend/lover (who is one person, not five, its just that I am still settling on a label - I think I like beau) went to the sunny northern state of Queensland. He went up to the Gold Coast for work - leaving me at home for a five day stretch where I anticipated I would read books, write blog posts, tidy my room, catch up with friends, do my Turkish homework and generally solve the issue of world peace, or something constructive akin to that. As it happened, fairly predictably, having my new beau (yep, I like it) out of town did not mean I magically accomplished all those things I have been failing at lately, it just meant I spent a fair bit of time on the phone.

Anyhow, I am telling you all of this by way of introduction to this random edition of "I ♥ POST". One of the things that I like about Jake is that when on our second date I slipped into conversation "oh yeah, and not only do I collect stamps, I also write a blog about the process" he did not say "cheque please! Lovely meeting you, etc etc, I must be off, running late for something, might see you around".

Nope - he said "oh, cool!" Cool! I mean, he was clearly lying through his teeth, but how lovely of him to do so!

So, knowing my affection for post, when Jake was away in Queensland he managed to send me four postcards over five days. Knowing that I place more importance on the stamp than the postcard - he bought a new series of four stamps issued by Australia Post on the topic of Surfing. Surfing and Queensland go hand in hand - fantastic thematic choice!! I was so impressed.

Aren't the stamps lovely? I love how they are all different - the typography on each is as unique as the images. Very nice.

Anyhow, the stamps were just the start. He bought me back the coolest bit of 'post' ever! This may not seem as exotic to my American readers, but to me it is amazing: Jake bought me back a US post office box door that he found in a second hand shop in Bris Vegas!

Pretty cool, huh?! I will have to find something cool to attach it to, my own lockable stamp box? And that is not all... just when you thought Jake couldn't get any sweeter, he also went out and bought me the first day cover, just to make my collection complete. Awwww!

I don't know about your hippo drawing Jake, but you are pretty impressive.

Abstract Education: Sunday Stamps

The theme this week for Sunday Stamps is abstract designs. I love this set of Education themed stamps, and have been waiting for just such an excuse to share them.

This set comes from my Grandma Nellie. The packaging above is complete from when they were issued in 1974, in a bright sealed yellow envelope. But my Grandma being a hoarder kept one mint set unopened and also another opened set - so I have the information from inside as well, on this lovely card:

The four stamps only celebrate four aspects of the broad spectrum of the Australian education scene (as the explanatory card says), namely: Pre-School education (5c), Correspondence School (11c), Science Education (15c); and Advanced Education (60c). I am pretty much going to let the stamps speak for themselves this week, so here they are:

They are very bright and colourful, and very abstract representations of the education sector, so I thought they were pretty perfect for this week's Sunday Stamps. To check out other patterned and abstract designed stamps, click on the Sunday Stamps button below and enjoy. Happy Sunday, folks.

Street Art and Stamps

Check it out: Stamp street-art! How wonderful. I spotted this at the Laneway Music Festival in Footscray (Melbourne) on the weekend. The festival was great fun - Bat for Lashes headlined, but Alt-J ( ∆ ) were possibly the highlight for me... they sounded amazing and were great fun to dance to.

Anyhow it is not all that regularly that the worlds of rock'n'roll and stamp nerds collide, so I was pretty thrilled to see these paste-up images of an early and iconic Australian Stamp at a music festival.

I do actually have this stamp in my collection, courtesy of Grandma Nellie. Although the stamp I have is not in great condition.

The stamp was part of the George VI series of definitives released in 1950-51. The thing that makes me uneasy about the image is that it was released in that time well before the 1967 referendum which recognised  indigenous people as citizens. So this image smacks of paternalism to me - while it is depicting, and in a way celebrating, the nameless Aborigine on the stamp, the image seems to be loaded with the racist ethnocentric assumptions of the day.

It is an enduring image, even if it is a racist one. And in 2009 another version of the stamp was celebrated as one of "Australia's favourite stamps." I think the image reads slightly differently in the 2009 version than it did in the 1950/51 version. It is a bit more like, "Look! We love Aborigines! We always have: check out this old stamp!" And of course that is blatantly untrue.  But I see an attempt at reconciliation in the 2009 stamp, a more genuine respect that doesn't have the same patronising tone of the 1951 release.

And what of the 2013 paste-up on a brick wall in Footscray of the same image?  I love it.

Mural made of stamps at NMA

Hey internet! I accidentally didn't manage to do an Australia Day post over the weekend... was distracted by other things. But as I was surfing the net a little while ago I came across these awesome murals made out of stamps! Yep, wicked!

These Flag murals made of stamps are held at the National Museum of Australia and are pretty fun. They are Aussie in theme, so they kind of tie in with the Australia Day long weekend we just enjoyed.

Through the NMA website you can zoom in and get a good look at the individual stamps that make up the collages. They are pretty ace! I have so many spare stamps, but I don't think I have the time or the patience to put something like this together.

Celebrating Australia Day is somewhat fraught, which is part of the reason why I didn't do a themed post at the time. I don't myself refer to it as Invasion Day, but I certainly respect that some people do. But anyhow, it seemed like the right time to share these little pieces of Australiana with you. The murals were made by Alban Watkins to mark the Australian Bicentenary in 1988.

Also, I have a hot date at the museum tonight (not bragging or anything... ok I am totally bragging), so it made sense to post something museum related. I am off to the Melbourne museum, not the National Museum, so I probably won't see stamps. But it should be fun.

Anyhow, check out the Flag murals made of stamps, they form part of an online exhibition which you can access here.  Enjoy!

Bunyips

Happy New Year, Sunday Stampers. This is my first time participating in Sunday Stamps for 2013 - and it is almost February! The theme this week for Sunday Stamps this week is "cartoons and cartoon-like drawings." I have to admit that generally speaking, I don't usually rate cartoon stamps. They are just not really my thing.

However, flicking through my album, I found these stamps from 1994, which I still quite like. I think I liked them very much back in Year 8, when I got them.

They depict the mythical creature, the Bunyip. The Bunyip from Berkeley's Creek is a classic Australian children's story book and features on one of the stamps. I still get a pang of sympathy for the poor misunderstood Bunyip from Berkeley's Creek when I think about him. Needless to say, this is my favourite stamp of the four from the issue.

I have the stamp pack for these stamps, because I thought stamp packs were cool when I was in Year 8. The first stamp is a representation of the bunyip from Aboriginal myth, the second is one called the "Nature Spirit Bunyip".  The last stamp is an artist's interpretation of reported sightings of the Bunyip, so is the depiction of the "Natural History Bunyip".

The more I reflect on these stamps, the more I like them. I love a good mythical creature. Happy Sunday, everyone... and beware of the bunyips out there.

Recent Acquisitions

It is perhaps clear that although I have titled this post "recent acquisitions" some of the stamps I am featuring are not that recent, given that I am beginning this post with the Australian Olympics stamps, which are obviously several months old by now. Although I am not really a sporting sort of girl, I was really impressed with Australia Post's offering this Olympics, as I really like the watercolour splattered effect and the bright colours used.

The "enrol to vote" stamp, another one that I really like, was actually issued all the way back in March. But the reason that I still think of these stamps as "recent" is that I tend to buy my stamps only once every few months. All the stamps that I am featuring in this post I bought recently (in a sense) but they also feel new to me, because they haven't made it into my album yet. Until I got them out to scan they were still sitting in their packets.

The above stamps are portraits of Australian Nobel Laureates. I bought the above set because it had a cool illustration in the gutter. And I love a good gutter strip. But I also really like the portraits, which are painted by some very highly-regarded Australian artists (Brett Whiteley and Clifton Pugh among them).  I just think they are a lovely set of stamps. So lovely, in fact, that I accidentally went a little crazy and purchased the First Day Cover as well!

Okay, fancy Gutter Strip set AND First Day Cover? Uh-oh... this could be a sign that I am turning into a crazy cat lady. Without a cat, but with a stamp collection. But checkout how the postmark on the FDC matches the gutter strip image. Cool, huh?

Anyhow, in the latest edition of the "Stamp Bulletin" published by Australia Post (damn, I can hear those crazy-cat-lady alarm-bells ringing again) the results of a public poll on the favourite Australian stamp issue of 2012 were released, and it was the following:

It is quite a fun series, but I don't think it is my favourite issue of the year. Maybe this issue beats it for me:

These little fellows are "nudibranchs" which are tiny (25mm - 120mm) marine molluscs. Aren't they trippy? Like strange little aliens. According to my edition of the Stamp Bulletin from May (from when they were issued... yep it really has been a while since I sorted through my stamps), nudibranchs...

can be found in all habitats from the deepest ocean to the shorelines of every continent.  They come in many sizes are beautiful to behold and have developed survival strategies which defy the imagination.

I still don't quite want to commit to the tiny nudibranchs as my favourite stamp issue of the year. I like them much better than the road trip stamps, but perhaps the Nobel Laureates are my favourite stamps of the year. Perhaps. As always, I find it hard to pick a favourite!

Festive Stamp Gift Tags & Merry Christmas

As has become blatantly clear over the course of the past few months of blogging, I have a lot of stamps. A lot of stamps I don't even know what to do with. And I don't like chucking things out. But I do like re-using things. Given that postage stamps are little mini pieces of lovely design, it makes sense to use them.

Lots of people who otherwise might not post things, tend to post things at Christmas. Therefore there is an abundance of Christmas stamps. I keep them all separately, and I have found the perfect use for them - as Christmas gift tags.

I had a little 'crafternoon' the other weekend and sat down in the sun and made some tags to go on all the pressies that I was yet to buy.. although I still had plenty of things to do pre-Christmas, making gift tags is way more relaxing and fun than heading out into the madness of shopping centres, so that is what I chose to do.

These are all the supplies I used

I meant to post this little craft project last week, but now it is so close to Christmas it is probably too late for people. But, as you are sorting through the post-Christmas debris, you may wish to set aside your Christmas stamps for next year. I keep my Christmas stamps sorted in little black album cards.

For the gift tages I used coloured paper and washi tape to give colour to the tags, and then used the stamp to decorate. (And here is a tip: packaging tags from the newsagent are far cheaper than tags from a craft supply store.)



Choosing the right stamp to go on a tag

The finished product

So now it is Christmas eve and it is now time for me to go and use these tags and wrap up my presents that will be sitting under the Christmas tree tomorrow.

I don't think the USA stamp is necessarily a Christmas stamp.. but it works! 

This is a bit of an unusual Sunday Stamps edition... apart from the fact it is now Monday here in Australia, but I thought this was a nice way of sharing some of my old Christmas stamps. And I have previously shared what I think about this year's Christmas stamps here, which you can check out if you haven't already.

And with that I would like to wish everyone: Sunday stampers, friends, readers, passers-by, bloggers, and everybody else who has kindly supported this blog this year, a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy festive season.

For other festive Christmas Stamps, check out other blogs through the Sunday Stamps link above.

Merry Christmas, everybody.