Owney’s stamp is unveiled!

Big, big changes coming up this week; dudes, I’m getting married.  Also, we *may* have found an apartment for the next phase adventure.

Anyway, after a week of traveling for work, followed by apartment hunting and exploring a my new city, interrupted by a sneaky, 22 hour trip to Martha’s Vineyard to celebrate some friends’ engagement, followed by even more exploring in our soon-to-be-home city, I took a few days off. But not “off” off, just not in the office.  Instead, I volunteered at the first day of issue ceremony for the Owney the Dog postage stamp!  The place was packed– I heard this weekend that over 3,000 people came through the NPM on Wednesday!!  Holy cow (er, pup)!  I even ran into Melissa, of Craftgasm fame, at the event.  I was there working at the topical stamps table, helping visitors find 5 stamps to begin (or enhance) their stamp collections.

Sadly, because I was busy helping visitors begin their stamp collections, I didn’t have the chance to take all that many photos or chat with that many attendees.  The image above is from right after the stamp officially went on sale.

Isn’t he a charmer? Look at that face!  This was the first First Day of Issue ceremony I’d ever attended… I wish I could say it was super thrilling.  And it was, when they pulled the curtain down from the stamp art and there was lots of applause.  However, mostly it was a lot of excited milling, some speeches, followed by some applause and then lots of people excitedly purchasing the newest stamp for their collection.  Owney himself, the pup is taxidermied (hey, it was the 19th century), was also on display in all his post “make over” finery– looking much more fluffy and friendly than he did before.  If you’re unsure what all the fuss is about, I suggest reading the NPM’s information on the dog here.

The real Owney!

As a side note, volunteering at the Postal Museum is one of my favorite (non-political, non-running) activities.  Should you find yourself living in DC, volunteering here is a mail nerd’s dream!  I’ve loved helping kids learn how to address envelopes, sort stamps, make tags for Owney, or learn about telegraphs during the Civil War.  I think I’ve said before that the Postal Museum feels like my club house– it still does, and I’m so going to miss it when we move.

By the way, if you can’t find Owney’s stamp in your local post office, you can order it online!

Just a friendly reminder from the American Postal Workers’ Union…  Absolutely zero tax payer dollars are used to support the USPS!  They deliver a ton of mail (several tons, actually) and it’s supported entirely by stamp and postage sales.  In case you’d like to do your part to help out the USPS– the 2011 stamps are incredible.  The industrial design, Civil War, and American scientist stamps are all out and are all awesome!

Sure, it’s not quite a cause célèbre but can you imagine a world without the postal service?

Love this “postcard” that WBEZ put together about Detroit’s floating post office.  The ship, J.W. Westcott, is only 45 feet long but has its own zip code!  Since 1874 the service has delivered mail and other packages to the many large ships that come and go throughout the great lakes. Wikipedia explains that:

Any mail addressed to members of ships’ crews that pass through the Detroit River can have mail delivered to them C/O The J.W. Westcott II, Detroit, Michigan, 48222 (the U.S. postal zip-code). The mail will be delivered to the appropriate ships (mainly lake freighters) as they pass under the Ambassador Bridge. The postal station is located near the bridge on the U.S. side of the river.

Like a couple of the commenters on the Postcrossing blog, I always wondered how ships received mail and other supplies.  Apparently, from J.W. Westcott!

via the Postcrossing blog

So very intrigued by “the Airmail,” a rum and champagne cocktail that I first came across on a blog based out of the UK.  I’ve found several variations on this recipe (just tweaking the ratios a bit) but very little on the origins of this drink.  According to Esquire’s “resident cocktail historian,” “[the Airmail] simply turns up, as if by spontaneous generation, in our 1949 Handbook for Hosts. The name, at least, isn’t much of a riddle: Way back when, airmail was the last word in getting something from point A to point B. And in fact, this one’ll do just that to you, but quick.”  That reference to a 1949 book is all I could find.  Anybody know more?

Once I obtain some rum, a liquor we tend no to kep in the house, I plan to test out this recipe from Imbibe magazine:

1 1/2 oz. añejo rum
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. honey syrup (1 part honey to 1 part water)
1 oz. prosecco
Ice cubes
Tools: shaker, strainer, eyedropper
Glass: coupe
Garnish: eyedropper of Angostura bitters, mint leaf

Combine rum, lime juice, syrup and ice in shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain into glass and top with prosecco. Garnish by dragging mint leaf through bitters to create an attractive design, then laying mint leaf on top.

Many thanks to the British Postal Museum’s Twitter feed for
sending me down this cocktail and mail history path…

Some very dear friends will be married this August… Their save the dates are playful, charming, and a perfect summation of their equally playful and charming relationship.  I’m so proud to say that I consulted with them while they put together these save-the-dates!  They are deceptively simple to do: custom stamp, stayz-on ink, and a reasonably well-padded mailer.  I don’t think everyone got one, just their friends “cool enough” (or young enough) to know a) that Legos are awesome and b) to be willing to put together a small puzzle to learn about the wedding.

Rumor is, the wedding tables will have big bowls of Legos on them!  Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea to break the ice and give the more shy of their friends something to focus on.  Plus, how fun will it be to see what folks come up with?

Here is the thing, as a soon-to-be full time student, I feel that I shouldn’t just agree to spend $38 per month every month.  And yet, here is this awesome thing called Lost Crates that promises:

Each month you will receive a “crate” of items, ranging from classic notebooks from the best known brands, to hidden gems from undiscovered boutique brands and individuals. You will get anywhere from one to four products in your crate, including notebooks, travel journals, pens, pencils, tape dispensers, etc.

Has anyone out there signed up yet?  What sorts of things have you received?  I’m so intrigued… It’s just expensive enough, however, to put it out of the price range I’m willing to commit to right now.  After all, $38/month is very nearly $500/year!

(Thanks to Ariel for pointing me in Lost Crates’ direction)

I loved the book jacket description of Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: “A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.”  I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend who, rightly, thought I would love the philatelic angle. The story of the “orange avenger” is fascinating and a great plot device. Plus, I loved that the tools of stamp collecting– typically seen as a dull hobby– were used in the crime.

Sadly, I just didn’t care for Flavia as a narrator. Although I’m generally fond of precocious girls, Flavia was just a bit too clever for her own good. Plus, I felt that her knowledge of Chemistry didn’t read as believable or even especially helpful. If it had been an interest, something that comes out of her in passing I might have been okay with it, but an 11 year old with a full-on laboratory who rattles off chemical compounds for no apparent reason? No. Not for me.

Still, without the stamp angle I’m afraid there would be nothing here for me. I don’t plan to read the next books in the Flavia de Luce series.

I participated in a really great Swap-Bot swap for “A Nice Pair” of artistamps.  This swap was loads of fun, it gave me a lot to think about and an excuse to pull out some of my fake postage cancels, USPS stickers, etc.  What made me happiest, however, was this note I got from my swap-mate:

I got a note in my PO Box that I had an item waiting with 31-cents postage due. They were closed so I couldn’t go to the window. I left change in my box, hoping they’d figure it out.

When I went back a couple of days later, they were open. I told the clerk what I’d done and asked if he could check my box for me. He brought out your envelope (with the postcards inside) and a couple of other things not including my 31-cents.

It wasn’t until I was in the car, that I totaled up your postage: 98 cents. That sounds like plenty enough for what you sent. Then I noticed that the envelope said, ‘FAUX postage due 31′ cents.
Did you put that there? You must have!

On top of that there is another stamp that says “MN Roseville”, which is where the post office is, and a date: FEB 19 2011. That is probably an official USPS stamp. But, weird, what does it mean? The stamp doesn’t really say. Someone also hand-wrote “2-16″ on it.

One final mystery…your stamps are all hand “canceled” with a sharpie. There’s no normal postmark – just a weird squiggly line of black sharpie snaking across them.

I love stories like this (although I’m sorry my swap-mate is out 31 cents).  In fact, I intentionally added extra postage (a full 54 cents) to cover the potentially “confusing” envelope and the fact that it was a bit too think (I included some goodies along with the artistamp).

]]> http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2011/02/22/artistamps-and-the-post-office/feed/ 1 http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2011/02/15/reclothing-an-post/ http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/2011/02/15/reclothing-an-post/#comments Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:57:46 +0000 ashleyb http://www.bashfullydesigned.com/?p=1270

(Image via culch.ie)

Unlike the last two postal service redesigns I’ve shared with you, today’s is real!  By the way, I’m as surprised as you are to learn that I actually a) care about Irish postal uniforms and b) used this Irish Times story about them as a stepping stone an excuse to learn a bit more about the Irish Postal System (also known as An Post).  It’s times like this that I start to wonder if my love for all things postal is just teetering on the edge of being a bit weird…  Anyway, there is a really fun, if slightly shallow, virtual tour of the An Post museum.  It includes images and transcripts of several letters but doesn’t include their stamp database!

One of the things I was happiest to learn about An Post is that, in 2007, it sponsored a mail art project: C Both Sides!  With the postal service’s help, every household in Ireland got a blank postcard to decorate and/or write on!  In all, about 3,000 were returned.  Sadly, it looks like no (free) comprehensive internet archive of the project or exhibit exists.  I did find a few random blogs that included photos of the exhibit, but nothing that included the whole thing.

Also, where can I get one of those green postal delivery bags the woman on the far left is carrying?!  What a perfect size and color for carrying all my things to and from work.  A contemporary USPS carrier’s bag continues to be my holy grail.

Just a few months after the (suggested) USPS rebranding, a team of Mash Creative’s designers has taken on the UK’s Royal Mail.  While I’m an admitted Anglophile, and have increasingly found myself wishing I could spend a year poking around London’s libraries, design shops, and BBC programming, this is a much more appealing postal identity than the USPS’, don’t you think?  It’s more subtle than the redesign Matt Chase proposed for the USPS and keeps the current Royal Mail logo.  Personally, I find there to be something so classy about the crown (especially when compared to the US’ kind of mean-looking eagle).

I suppose it’s a sign of good design that when I first saw this I thought, “oh of course… wait, isn’t that what it looks like now?”  Upon comparing it to the logo and imagery on Royal Mail’s website, though, I realize that the designers did remove all the “fussy” bits.

Which postal system will get the next makeover?  I sort of think Brazil’s postal service could use a bit of redesign… Nothing wrong with it, per se, but I feel like there’s a lot of potential there.  Especially since Brazil will be hosting the Olympics and World Cup! Everybody will want to send postcards saying, “I was here for this historic thing!”

Redesign discovered via NotCot