World Stamp Expo Fun Times!

 

So this blogging game has gotten away from me recently, and as a result there is a bit of catching up to do. About a month ago I was very excited to attend the World Stamp Expo, which was being held in my hometown of Melbourne. The WORLD STAMP EXPO!

The Expo was held at the Royal Exhibition Building, a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage listed building located in the Carlton Gardens. I dragged my dutiful boyfriend along, who patiently accompanied through the myriad stalls from various postal authorities from around the globe. I also dragged my friend Grant along - but he chose to lie in the sun for a couple of hours in the Gardens instead. Each to their own (but you missed out on some fun, Grant!).

As you could well imagine, I made a few purchases over the course of the day. My little bag was full (and my bank account empty) by the end of it. I got a souvenir minisheet to add to my royal kitsch collection, embossed with the Expo logo on it.  And I just couldn't help myself, also adding to my royal collection I got a Wills and Kate FDC.

Moving away from my tacky fascination with royals, I also indulged my love of maps, and found this amazingly beautiful minisheet from Greenland. What a find!

I also visited Deutsche Post, and purchased this lovely minisheet as it features both a map element and the Antarctic, and I love the Antarctic. The combinations of boats and ice always make for beautiful images. Would you agree?

I also found these awesome Indonesian stamps, which I saw when I visited there last year, but resisted buying at the time due to budgetary constraints.

The stamps depict traditional fabric designs from around Indonesia. They are quite lovely, in my opinion.

Anyhow that is a sample of my many purchases from the World Stamp Expo 2013.  It was a very fun day out for a big stamp nerd like me.

And now this stamp nerd is signing off for the time being. I am about to head to Turkey for six and a half weeks! I am very excited and will be working on a Roman archaeological site on the south coast. It is an absolute dream come true and I can't wait to be archaeologising on the other side of the world. So I will try and post to this blog (probably fairly irregularly) over the coming few weeks, but the posts will be archaeologic rather than philatelic in nature. But watch this space!

Map stamps post!

Hello blog-world! It has been a little while and I have missed you! I have wanted to share this wonderful package that I received from  João in Brazil for ages - but it has taken me a little while to get my act into gear. First of all - let's appreciate the gorgeous envelope.

How cool is it that there is a special postmark that matches the stamps? Crazy cool!! It is sometimes hard to judge scale on these scanned images of stamps, but the animal stamps are lovely big square stamps. My favourite though, are the stamps the ones that refer to bookplates: the ex libris stamps.

Aren't these stamps wonderful?  They feature bookplates AND a world map. Two of my favourite things! Anyhow, if you think the outside of the envelope was cool... wait til you see what is inside!

I think I love little envelopes of stamps more than I love albums of stamps. I love the colours through the glassine paper of the envelopes, I love that the envelopes are mini, and I love that a little envelope of stamps makes you thumb through the stamps so that you can appreciate them in a more tactile way than if you have them stuck in the austere pages of an album.

Of course, traditional philatelists would be horrified at the thought of grubby oily hands on precious stamps, but I just can't resist the temptation of getting a little collection like this, from a little pocket, and spreading it over the table and admiring each individual stamp, picking them up one by one and examining them.

To do that in a blog sense, to spread the stamps from the above little pocket all over the desk and appreciate them one by one, I have scanned a sample for you to enjoy:

Fantastic collection of map stamps, right? And this is only a sample! Thankyou  João! I am still collecting a few little things to send to you in return.

This weekend in Melbourne it is probably the biggest weekend in philately circles for the year/decade... it is the World Stamp Expo 2013! So you know what I am going to be busy doing this weekend!! I will be sure to let you know how it goes.

Bestest Post Eva!

Yesterday I received one of the best bits of post in the mail ever! From my very gorgeous young cousin Lucas. 

Sending post AND now collecting stamps too. What a champ! Thanks Lucas!

Also just a quick reminder I have a giveaway running at the moment. Check it out and enter away!

I have just joined up Bloglovin, lest I lose track of all my favourite blogs when google gets rid of reader... Feel free to join me and follow along! :)

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!

Despatched by Tin Can Mail

Kym bought in the coolest bit of "show and tell" to work recently - her Grandfather's cover from 6th September 1937. It was thrown overboard in a sealed tin can from the Cruise Steamer "Maunganui"to be collected by canoe from the Tongan island of Niuafoou (or Niuafo'ou) before it found its way to the faraway Victorian country town of Kerang.

This is possibly the coolest item of post I have ever seen. And I don't think I am overstating it. I had heard this story of the Tin Can Island from Meredith, when she shared her son's stamp collection with us a few months ago. But to see an actual piece of Tin Can Mail... what a treat!!

How wonderful are all the stamps on the reverse? There is even a little bit of Cyrillic thrown in!

So I am very delighted to discover that Meredith's fantastical story of the Tin Can Island is in fact true - I have seen the post to prove it! Thanks so much Kym for sharing this wonderful little treasure (I do so love "show and tell")!

2012: The Year that Was

As 2012 draws to a close it is very tempting to do a bit of reflection on the year that was. So please excuse me while I indulge in some trips down memory lane...

This year I:

• started a blog (this one!!) and rediscovered the joys of post;
• moved house;
• said goodbye to my lovely Grandpa;
• decided that I liked First Day Covers very much;
• hung out in Indonesia;

And in between I also:

• Had some very fun times at work with the gang;
• Danced like a teenager in a friend's loungeroom into the early hours, during a weekend escape to the beach;
• said goodbye to Glenholme;
• Saw the Shins do a fantastic gig at Festival Hall;
• Went to a couple of amazing music festivals (harvest and laneway) with the wonderful Jaz;

In 2012 I managed to visit some amazing places and do some amazing things:

• I started the year in Cambodia with my work friends doing some volunteering in a village;
• Went to Perth for a weekend for Em and Steve's beautiful wedding;
• Did a couple of sections of the Great Ocean Walk near Point Otway;
• Had a great time visiting friends in Adelaide;
• Went on a couple of little day trips - to Clunes (for a book fair) and to Steiglitz (a ghost town).

All in all 2012 had some sad times, some changes, but lots of really great highlights too.

So... who knows what 2013 will hold? Lots more fun times, I hope. And some more blogging. Thank- you to everyone for all the blog love. Thank-you for tuning in and for leaving comments, emailing and supporting.

Happy New Year Everyone! 

xx Helen

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.

Nerds on Film

Hello blogosphere.
Today I am particularly thrilled about the awesomeness of the internet, excited by its connectivity and vastness. This warm and fuzzy love of cyberspace is in part due to the fact I had a film director (a film director!) contact me this week after he had found my corner of the internet. And he is making -- wait for it -- a film about stamp nerds. Yup! Crazy.

This is the preview for his film... you've got to check it out, because it is hilarious. And it goes a long way in proving that I am not the most stamp-nerdy stamp-nerd in the universe. Am not sure about the chick with the cleavage at the beginning of the preview, but I guess you gotta sell a film about collecting postage stamps somehow (I know not everyone loves post as much as I do).



I have to agree with the googly-eyed dude in the beginning who says "stamps define what a culture stands for, and once you start looking at that, it is really cool". Couldn't have said it better myself. Although I do think his googly-eyes add something to the profundity of his statement.

Anyhow, a film about hijinks in the stamp world. Sounds like a good time to me!! The film is due out in Spring 2013 (northern hemisphere, I assume), so I will keep you posted if I hear of more developments. I am a little excited - thanks for getting in touch Mark. Your film looks ace.

In other post news, I received my first Christmas card today from my friend Rach.  And speaking of nerds, the card came with a personalised Christmas stamp featuring Rach's cat, who is lovingly called 'whingey'.

If you think Whingey looks pretty cute, you may wish to look her up on twitter. I believe she has her own account. I am so not a cat person, and from my perspective, Rach saw my nerdy and raised it to a whole new level when she decided to personalise her Christmas stamps with her cat (and lets not even get started on the twitter thing). But I love nerds (even if I don't love cats) so full respect, Rach.

Her Christmas greetings came with a postscript: 'no pressure, but I think the Whingy stamp should feature on your blog.'  Pressure aside Rach, I have never received a personalised postage stamp before, so I think it is definitely worthy of note. And the very lovely fact you sent me Christmas greetings the postal way also makes me very happy. It seems you love post as much as I do... but maybe we should all be a little worried about a future "I heart whingey" blog??

Gorgeous postcard from Fish

Thank-you internet world and real world for being awesome this week. Thank-you to the very intriguingly nicknamed Fish from Taiwan who recently sent me some gorgeous postcards from Laos (I promise I will write back this week) and to João from Brazil who offered to do a stamp swap. It is so nice to hear from everyone from all far-flung corners of the globe who have found my blog.

Peace out, post lovers.
xx H.