Spellman Stamp Museum

    Today I visited the Spellman Stamp Museum in Weston, Massachusetts. I had never heard of the museum until a friend of mine posted on Facebook that she had visited it with her father. Then, the next day, I saw it advertised in the the Highland Street Free Fun Friday program. I decided I would up my level of postal nerdiness and indulge myself by visiting this museum.
       The museum is located in Weston on the Regis College Campus. Today the museum had opened a new Olympic stamp exhibit and was hosting 2 Olympic athletes. I took a few pictures after asking, since I wasn't quite sure if they wanted their collections photographed.
     

      This is Timmy with John Allis, who was a cyclist at the Mexico City(1968) and Munich (1972) Olympics. Mr. Allis was a very kind and intelligent man. Timmy asked questions about how many bikes Mr. Allis had gone through before making it into the Olympics. He wasn't sure, but he told us about one of his earliest memories of being pulled around on his tricycle by his pet boxer. (He also mentioned that he was a skinny little guy who weighed 80 pounds at the age of 14. I think Timmy is already above 80 pounds.)

     The boys both participated in a stamp scavenger hunt.  They had to find things like "A stamp that shows Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern day Olympics,""Find a fencing stamp issues by Luxembourg" (It's the red one, 2nd row down- 3rd one in; in the picture above) Some of the stamps were kind of odd- like "a stamp showing Daisy Duck lighting the Olympic torch with the reflection of the sun" from Grenada. It was fun anyway. I chose these fencing stamps to photograph because I'm hoping that one of my former students will be fencing in the Olympics at some point in his life. I have not had an Olympian as a student yet. 

 Speaking of Olympians, the other Olympian we met was Bill Becklean, who was in the Melbourne Olympics (1956), as a rower. He told us a few great stories about his experience at the Olympics. He said that the American team actually lost the first heat of his competition to the Australians. However, they won the repechage, which is a second chance heat at a regatta to ensure that all crews have 2 chances to advance. In French it means "to save" or "second chance."  They ended up competing against the Australian team again in the semi-finals and won. Right after that, the Australian team approached the Americans and offered to show them Australia. He is friends with many of them to this day. He also told me that Nicaragua issued a stamp with his boat on it, but they didn't have it here at the collection. He was also very nice and asked Timmy if the wanted to hold his gold medal. How cool is that?

 The gold medal.

 Civil War mail from 1862. Look at that handwriting!

 More civil war mail and an accidental picture of me too :) Again, I wish I had that hand-writing.

 Prisoner of war mail- censored

 Early mail art.

 Early mail art. This one was my favorite.

 This one reminded me a little of Limner's blog. Check out her incredible mail!

 Stamp dress anyone? If you ever see me wearing something like this remind me that I've gone too far.

 The boys in front of the sign. Following are just some pictures of the pretty trees by the museum. I imagine this place is beautiful in the spring. It would've been really nice today if it wasn't close to 100 degrees!

 The respite of some shade.

 Tim's first day cover that he won from participating in the "stamp hunt."

 Each boy left with a packet of stamps to start a collection.

Sweet, thanks!
      If you are local, stop by this museum sometime. They also had an activity room, a small gift shop, a small research library and some really interesting displays about stamps, post related things- scales, post office boxes, stamp holders, mail related games, etc. They also do programs for schools and scouts. If you do go, the hours are somewhat restricted (12-5, not open Sunday.) Here is the link to the museum.

Quick postcard update

I would absolutely love to write a really long post right now but I'm about to head to Maine for a few days of relaxation. I've had some health things going on that have been taking over my life for a little over a month but I'm starting to feel a lot better now. I plan on relaxing like crazy this weekend- and reading and writing a lot. So, if you are waiting for a letter from me, I hope to catch up a bit this weekend. In the meantime, I have been dismal about filing my mail and registering postcards, which is a shame because I have received some awesome stuff. Timmy too. Here are the postcards that have recently blessed out mailbox.

 To Tim from Taiwan. It says "I've got the gift. I've got the joy. I've got the surprise. I've got you."

 From my friend Jessie. (Cool Batman stamp)

 Awesome stamp on the back of one of Timmy's cards from Finland

 How adorable! Hand-painted card from Malaysia. I LOVE this card. Thanks Jane!!!

 From a family in Germany that Timmy and I are writing.I wish I lived in this postcard.

 Machu Picchu! Seriously cool card.

 Wouldn't mind living in Tim's card either.

 Here too.

 Another card from our German family

 From Monika in Germany. Awesome mailbox.

 To Tim from Tobias in Germany

 To Tim from the Netherlands

 To Tim from Russia- cool Postcrossing stamp too

Vulturine guinea fowl card made by stripygoose. What an awesome mail art catch!!! Thanks so much! Check out her other birds  Mine is #253 out of 365

Ok! Off to get ready for Maine. Talk to you soon! I'll be "off the grid" for a few days.

Homemade card and incoming 4/22

I made this card for a Postcrossing member who likes homemade cards. What do you think? I used my gelli plate on a piece of old sheet music to create the background. Then I stenciled the bird and flowers on. The purple print is from the bottom of a pair of dress shoes I have. This is headed to Michigan

 Incoming:

     I received a letter from LR in Georgia. (LR If you're reading this, you sent me a few challenging questions I look forward to thinking through!) The cute pirates are from Anne in The Netherlands. She sent some cool music stamps too! I had never seen the stamps before. I didn't know the Vengaboys were Dutch.  The boys thought the card was cute too. 

Happy Mail

    This is the post that the people who know me probably expected me to write first and the post that people who don't know me will think "Wow, this lady is kinda weird." Mail brings me great joy. Hear me out.
    One of my hobbies is to penpal with various people across the world. I have penpals from the United States as well as  in Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa.  I cannot tell you how happy I am to receive a letter, note, gift, anything from these friends. My husband doesn't understand the appeal of "writing to total strangers."  The truth is that many of these strangers end up becoming lifelong friends. Just like friends I see all the time, I look forward to hearing news about their day, their families, what is going on in life, etc. I enjoy hearing the perspectives of people who live a life that is sometimes very different from (and sometimes similar to) my own. I also enjoy taking the time to sit down and write a letter. Can't you do the same in an e-mail or on Facebook? Yes and no. Recently I ran into an old student of mine at a bookstore cafe. We chatted for a few and then he continued to work on a college entrance essay and I sat to write a letter to my penpal Marianne in The Netherlands. I could see him looking over every few minutes and finally he said "So, what are you working on?" [This is more humorous because I was using kind of odd stationary I had received from a pal in Malaysia so I think that made him more curious.] I told him I was writing a letter to a friend in The Netherlands. "Cool." Back to work. 5 minutes later: "So, do you write a lot?" "Yeah, I have many penpals all over the place. I love writing to them." "I actually remember that from when you taught me. I was thinking of you a while ago. I met this girl who wanted me to write her letters over the summer rather than e-mail. It took longer, but it was pretty cool. It was actually really different than writing an e-mail. I actually had to sit and think about what I wanted to take the time to say to her." Amen. Exactly.  (Passing my mail obsession to the younger generation! Yeah!)
     I do use Facebook to catch up with my penpals or to keep current with their daily life but I think I use the letters to strengthen our relationships or to get into the deeper conversations.  In addition to learning about their culture (in some cases), I have also had deep discussions about faith, personal struggles, parenting,  literature, and many, many other topics. In fact, I would say I have deeper relationships with some of these friends than I do with some of my friends I see in person on a regular basis.   Sometimes the time it takes mail to get to certain places (Russia! India!) can take a little longer than I'd like (or not arrive at all) but overall I'm happy.
     Another reason mail brings me a lot of joy is because of my involvement with Postcrossing. I'm frequently getting postcards from other Postcrossers worldwide. The amount you send is equal to the amount you receive. The 2 cards that I will show later in the post are all from Postcrossing. (The 2 I'm sending out are for a Reddit exchange). I have "traveled around the world" through all of these cards. If you look further back in my blog, I have shown tons of my cards.  In addition to the general postcrossing site, I'm on the forum there too. So, I just did an exchange for a "mystery envelope." Another site I've gotten involved with lately is a mail art blog called Mail Me Some Art. I have connected with a myriad of creative people there and sometimes I even follow the swaps I'm not even involved in. (I wish I had done the black and metallics swap!)
    It's not always just about what I can get from my mailbox either. I love to spread an encouraging word through the mail. Some of my favorite ways to do that is Chemo Angels (while I'm mentioning cancer- the USPS is selling a stamp to raise money for breast cancer research. They have raised $78 million. Go buy some!), Adopt a US Soldier and The World Needs More Love Letters.  I will admit- I'm horrible with birthday cards so if you're wondering why I haven't ever sent you a card but I love to send them to everybody else, I usually fail with cards. (If you really want mail, complain here and I will be glad to send you something. If you don't know me, but would like to, feel free to reach out and I can send you mail too.) I love knowing that simple words of encouragement or friendly words can be used to brighten someone's day.

     Here is some happy mail I have received in October:

A Flat Stanley project from a 14 year old girl in Turkey. She also send the UNESCO postcard and some Turkish coffee. It was my first Turkish coffee.

 Mail from my awesome penpal Ashley in Wisconsin. She is always so creative with her envelopes and her letters. I love them. I didn't even notice the back until I went to open it. Whenever I add that many things to an envelope it looks horrible instead of cute. (Ash, I'm planning on writing back tonight.)

 Postcrossing  card from a Taiwanese girl living in Japan

Postcrossing love from Great Britain. Check out the great stamps too!

 A postcard from my dentist. This is what fall in New England looks like :)

 My 2 outgoing postcards from my Reddit swap. It's the Bunker Hill Monument on the left (which is actually on Breed's Hill- go figure) and a tiger shark.

 These things came in my mystery envelope from Ireland. I kept the sticky notes and cut outs and replaced them with stickers from Korea and Lip Smackers lip balm. (Notice the ladybird pins. I have always called them ladybugs. I had never heard ladybird before.)

 Birthday love! My birthday is Monday. My mother and father in-law sent me a package with some great goodies and a really sweet note. I aniticipate some fun art projects being made with these.

 Birthday love from Nana. Yes, 2 cards. She REALLY loves me :)

       What is the last happy mail that you have sent or received? If you can't remember, I challenge you to sit and send someone you care about a quick note, card, package (use your imagination!) through the mail.