dedicated.

Image from: imgur.com

proposed price increases.

News broke today that the USPS is proposing a 3 cent price increase on postage starting in 2014!

Image from: news.yahoo.com

The USPS is hoping the price increase will raise $2 billion in revenue. The increase, which would go into effect in January 2014 if it is approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Here are some highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing:

Letters (1oz): 3 cent increase to 49 cents
Letters additional ounces: 1 cent increase to 21 cents
Letters to all International destinations (1oz): $1.15
Postcards: 1 cent increase to 34 cents

Read the full press release by the USPS here.

p.s. Will this increase effect you and the amount of letters you mail?

tiny post offices.

I discovered this tumblr the other day with tiny sketch drawings of small town post offices.

Image from: tinypostoffices.tumblr.com

He turned these drawings into postcards. A set of 10 letterpress postcards for $15.00. They are so adorable!


p.s. You can pick up a set here.

postal museum. copenhagen.

A year later I am finally getting around to organizing and filing some photos and stumbled across some of these from our honeymoon.

While we were in Copenhagen, Denmark I spotted a postal museum!

 

While we were there I snapped these pictures of us as the faces of two of their postage stamps.

stamps: ray charles

Image from: beyondtheperf.com

The USPS honors Ray Charles with a new stamp today! This is one of several stamps in the Music Icons series. Ray Charles is a composer, singer, and pianist, blind since childhood, went beyond category, blending blues, gospel, country, jazz and soul music in a unique and highly influential pop music style. Some of his many hits include "I've got a Woman," "Georgia on My Mind," and "I Can't Stop Loving You."

The artwork on the new stamp features a picture of Charles, taken later in his career, by photographer Yves Carrére. The stamp sheet was designed to evoke the appearance of a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side of the sheet includes the stamps and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve. A larger version of the photograph featured on the stamp and the logo for the Music Icons series appear on the reverse side.

Art director Ethel Kessler worked on the stamp sheet with designer Neal Ashby. The Ray Charles stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp.

mailboxes. copenhagen.

I took this picture while we were in Copenhagen, Denmark on our Honeymoon (Hard to believe it is been over a year already). I love how every country in Europe has such neat and different mailboxes!

p.s. Do you take pictures of different mailboxes when you are traveling?

my home. part 1

There are several places in my home that when I look at them I smile. Some of those places have to do with letters and mail! I thought I would share these places with you on a little home tour. Some of the places are still a work in progress, so when I finish those I will make a post about them.

First, is our mantle. We have a lovely gas fireplace, which I can not wait to use this winter with a cup of hot coco (and extra marshmallows). When we moved in, we painted the mantle cream to better match the walls in the room. I then added a few of my favorite things. 

I found this red mailbox while shopping at World Market one day and just knew I had to have it! I also found the adorable chalkboard easel, which we used in our wedding and afterwards thought it would look great next to the mailbox.

Sitting next to those are a few vintage items I picked up while in Mount Dora, Florida a few christmases ago while visiting my in-laws. By the way, if you ever get a chance to go to Mount Dora, I suggest you do so. There are so many great antique shops in town and they all have tons of vintage mail paraphernalia!

Here is a close up of the vintage items. The three metal tins are old typewriter ribbon tins and behind those are old mailing tubes. They are made of wood and have screw on tops. I was so excited to find these! The taller one still has the mailing label and postage on it. These old mailing tubes are so much cooler than the ones they have out now days.

p.s. Do you have any vintage mail paraphernalia in your house that you just love?

sticker maker.

I found a new blog last week: papered thoughts

She has some great ideas and inspiration on her blog. I suggest checking it out!

She has these great stickers she had made using cancelled stamps, and I just loved them. I emailed her asking her how she turned those old stamps into stickers, and she told me she had a Xyron Sticker Maker! I really appreciated her telling me how she made them. 

The very next day I headed up to Michael's with my mom and bought myself one. And to top it all off, I had a 40% off coupon, so I got the machine for under $15.00!

As soon as I got home I had to play with it right away! 

I made two stickers using some of my papa's old cancelled stamps. I love the way they turned out!

p.s. Look for many more projects coming soon using my new sticker maker!

mailboxes. berlin

While my husband was in Berlin, Germany last week on a vacation with his brother and he sent me this picture of some mailboxes he saw! Aren't they great?

p.s. There is something special about the mailboxes in Europe. Don't you agree?

received with love.

Zach always says he is not a good gift giver. I say he is wrong!

He picked up some great things for me while he was in Berlin:

He got me four adorable cat and mouse notecards. Who doesn't love a good notecard with a cat on it! He also picked up some cute postcards and an East Berlin notebook. I always carry a notebook with me, so that was perfect.

He also got me a cupcake pin and awesome cupcake berlin tote bag!

Zach and I went to Berlin together when we first started dating and I was fascinated with their crosswalk guys. They are completely different than ours in the states and super cute. They even have little hats on! Anyways, I had asked him to get me some candy with these little guys on them and he did way better than that. He got me a coffee mug, a wine stopper and cookie cutters! LOVE!

Happy Friday the 13th!

Image from: parade.com

p.s. Do you have any superstitions?

lunch notes.

I think it is fun to sneak a little love note to someone whenever you can. My husband got home last night after being gone for a week, so when I made his lunch this morning I left him a little love note inside. I hope it brightened his day!

p.s. Do you leave little love notes anywhere?

remembering.

Image from: texasgopvote.com

May we always remember the ones that were lost 12 years ago today. Pray for peace for the families that lost loved ones and pray for the survivors that struggle every day. And may we always remember to love one another.

cancelled postmark.

I am still slowly working on projects around the house and clearing out some of my mama and papas things. My mama was an avid stamp collector and I have found tons of books filled with stamps and first day covers. I also found a stash of cancelled stamps that my papa had cut from envelopes.

I looked online for the best way to remove the stamps from the envelopes and they suggested soaking them in room temperature water until the stamp loosens itself from the envelope.

Here are some of the many cancelled stamps soaking. There were so many, it took me several batches to get them all done.

I then laid them out on paper towels to dry for about 24 hours. This method worked perfectly! They are all perfectly flat and clean of any envelope residue. 

There were a lot of stamps, some of them even dating back to 1954. I was excited to find this little collection and looking forward to doing some craft projects using them all.