another altered card

A little bit of America, Bulgaria, and Budapest (a wonderful teddy bear shop called Macimuvek) will head with this card to Japan.

holiday quartet

I keep telling myself I have only three more to go but this morning I think it's four. And I'm now thinking beyond the belated holiday greeting.

This whimsical New Year card from Tono farmer Kato Fumiko lets me know that her husband is still busy building their new house.

Each of these altered cards has taken on a life of its own and halfway through making each I usually know where it is going.

I love Christmas/New Year postcards. This one, shiny with hope, is from a postcrosser in Ukraine.

two more altereds and a rabbit

For now at least the altered cards just keep coming. It's about time, though, to think about the Year of the Rabbit.

b. free franklin

A little New Year homage to Benjamin Franklin, the first Postmaster General of the United States. His personal franking signature was B. Free Franklin, Postmaster.

country life

These stamps from a series on country life illustrate a way of life in Japan that is just about gone. It was already rushing by when I moved to Tono to live in an old thatched farmhouse. By the time I left, mobile phones and the Internet had changed things forever. Even the faces of the children were different.

hope for spring

This card, of a Bruce McCall illustration called Triple Play, arrived last week from PostMuse, who writes that she is not really a baseball fan but definitely not a fan of winter. Thinking about baseball makes her feel that winter will not last forever. Poor winter! The season has barely begun and already people want it gone. I love winter but I'm already itching for spring training. This card put me in a tizzy.

more altereds

I have definitely punked out on making New Year's cards. It looks like it will be all altered cards this month. So far I have put one of these cards 'naked' into the mail, then waffled and put a second in an envelope to send. It's a dilemma.

happy rabbits

happy new year

A postcard from the IronPigs to get 2011 off to a good start. A Happy New Yeat to all!

year of the rabbit

One of my favorite series from Japan Post comes out each New Year's and features some of the many ways, old and new, to write the zodiac animal for the year. It's already 2011 in Japan so here's to the Year of the Rabbit! Shinnen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Rabbit is usagi in Japanese and these elegant stamps all say, in one way or another, just that. Many thanks to my friend Keiko in Tokyo, who used these stamps on a packet she sent.

ending on an altered note

I was dilatory making Christmas and New Year cards this year but have started again making altered cards. These two are altered beyond recognition. Both will be in the mail today. I can only hope that they survive the increasingly rough treatment of the USPS. Odd that as mail revenues decline, service does too. Oops, I did not mean to end on a carping note.

dressed for destiny

Friend John in Kyoto sent this New Year's card showing the 12 animals of the Chinese costumed and ready to go.

some stamps

four on a bench

Four on a Bench, a 1990 work by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. A friend who is a Met fan sent this card. If she hadn't mailed it before the Phillies signed Cliff Lee, I would have thought she was making a snarky comment about "our" four aces. But she did indeed mail it days before the Phillies were even in the conversation for Lee.

v is for.... + 2 stamps

A postcrosser from Sweden sent the Royal Warship Vasa card, while one in Germany sent the Verona, picked up on her travels. The stamps were a bonus.

happy 1893

Inga U. sent this New Year's card, which makes use of an 1892 label. She wrote lots of comments about this Santa, who does indeed look somewhat louche.

chestnuts roasting and all that

No chestnuts are roasting in this Monticello fireplace shown in a card from Thomas Jefferson's old home, but I imagine that the room is currently decorated for the season. A fire in a fireplace is always a good thing. I sent the card off into the wide world, to a postcrosser in Belarus.

green goblet

I've just put this postcard, showing a green goblet (c. 1928) by Austrian designer Josef Hoffmann, into the mail for a friend. The design itself was done with pencil and green paper on graph paper. I have long had this card sitting here because I like it so much.

keeping it safe

Two more postcrossing cards: A striking old fortress from Gdansk and a National Museum in Malaysia, famed, the sender wrote, for having ghosts.

delivering the mail

See the mail carrier on these stamps, from the wonderful series featuring rural life in Japan. While rural mail carriers in the States use cars, in Japan they use motorbikes---and wish they were in cars. Still, mail carriers zipping around on their distinctive red motorbikes are an iconic sight.