Sunday Funnies I

Oh my god, this is cute. I can't wait for it to be released.

Although I never read some of the strips when they were still running on newspapers, but the drawings are just too adorable.

Beetle Bailey ---------------------------->>

Let's have some laughs with the first stamp featuring Beetle Bailey - which is a comic strip first published in the 1950s. The story revolves around a lazy and inept private name Beetle Bailey and his superior Sergeant Snorkel.

As you can see, Beetle has to answer for everyone since he has not done a roll call for so many days!!

Tomorrow, we will have some laughs from Calvin & Hobbes.

A flowery cover from Russia

【作者: msyanwu】【2007年04月16日 星期一 10:31】

俄國花朵實寄封欣賞

Russian cover with flowers

集邮其中一个最大的乐趣就是能通过四通八达的邮政系统和世界各国的集邮爱好者交流。 最近新认识的一位俄国朋友寄来了这样一个实寄封。 对俄国的历史，人民风俗实在不太了解。 只是在历史学堂里稍微认识了一下皮特一世， 凯莎琳大帝， 列宁， 斯大林， 以及电影上的战争与和平， 施瓦够医生。 实在是贫乏。 觉得， 俄国人的信封总是色彩缤纷的， 邮戳蛮好的， 字很奇怪。 前苏联跟中国是盟友， 虽然后来闹了矛盾， 不过在中国还是有遗留下来的影响力， 好多官员都要学学俄语， 不知道现在的中国， 俄语是否还是有市场？

One of the advantages of collecting stamps is to be able to interact with collectors around the world.  Here is a cover from a Russian collector.  I really don't know much about Russia, except Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Lenin and Stalin from my history class.  Other than this, I've watched War and Peace and Doctor Zhivago on film.  This is so meager isn't it.  :( 

Year of the Monkey - a heartache

I have written about stamps for quite a while and some of my older articles were written in Chinese. I would like to post them here from now on so they are all in one place.

【作者: msyanwu】 【2007年06月22日 星期五 02:19】

心疼

一直想拥有的８０猴子邮票又又升值了。 现在要３百多美金。 几年前或是更早以前我都可以用大大低于这个数目的价钱买到， 可惜我什么时候都觉得这个邮票被高估了， 所以一直没买。

有些人说， 只要你喜欢，就应该买下来， 不要等将来升值了你又来后悔。 也对， 可惜有些人就是没那么的萧洒， 像我。

最潇洒的一次吧， 就是用６００多大洋买下了牡丹小全。 还有一次， 还在读书的时候， 发邮疯， 用一千多大洋买下一集邮本， 里面包括了梅兰芳套票， 黄山套票。 这个投资不错。 不过在当时来讲其实是很冒险的， 因为我都还没有收入嘞。 集邮是很花银子的爱好， 而且引诱很多， 因为同样的邮票可以做出很多不同方式的邮品。 所以一定要管住自己。 有个朋友每次到邮展都给自己一个数目， 高了就要停买。 我觉得可以借鉴。

梅花－我最喜欢的邮票。 买了十几张。 赫赫， 又病了。

Prague 2008

Sorry about my prolonged absence and thus neglecting the blog. For now, I would like to share some pictures and words from the Prague 2008 International Stamp Exhibition which I've recently attended.

This is my first visit to the Czech Republic. As a collector I've always been impressed by the stamps of this country. They have exquisite designs and are beautifully engraved. I especially like the stamps that Czech Post issued in the 60s-80s.

The night before I leave I was very excited because this was my first stamp show in a foreign country. My plan was to attend the show for the first day and 1/2 a day the second day and then go on with my other plans in Prague.

9/11 Looking out the window while flying from France to Prague, I gotta say Air France was pretty good in terms of service and food.

9/11 Looking at the land of the thousand spires. Almost there!!

9/12 First day of the show. Long lines at the entry gate! Unlike stamp shows in the US, stamp shows in Europe most likely are not free. But, first time I felt lucky to be a woman because women and children could attend the show for free :) Great wasn't it. This worked for me because I didn't know I would be in and out of the exhibit later on.

9/12 This is a picture of the Industrial Palace in Prague. We were late for 2 hours the first day because we had no idea how to get there. Haha, but we made it following the tracks of the tram that goes to the palace.

9/12 The venue itself was quite big! But of course, it was a lot smaller than Washington2006. I walked into the exhibition hall and felt a little overwhelmed because it was really really crowded and we were like the only Asians there and (young) No offense here .. hehe..

This is the catalogue I bought, I forgot how much maybe 500 kr.

9/12 The exhibition ground was divided into 3 parts. The right side of the palace housed all the competitive exhibits, the middle section had all the postal offices from the world and including Czech Post. Finally, the right side of the palace were the dealers.

Will continue soon.

Here comes Micky - er, not quite

In the past I've written a lot about my personal experiences with stamp collecting. However, I haven't really shown any covers that other collectors have sent me. So, in order not to waste the beauties of these covers and to express my heartfelt thanks to these collectors, I'll put online the images of the covers I've received randomly.


This I've received from Mr. L who's a collector of music, dance and ballet. Thank you. What is special about this cover? It's the 2 Frama labels on the left side from Hong Kong! Mr. L must have bought them 12 years ago? :o No? Because the Frama label depicted a mouse with a green background that says "The year of Rat."

First UN Braille Stamp

Wow, the UN is issueing its first Braille stamp this June. Although this is not the first and certainly not the least Braille stamp issued around the world, I am pretty surprised to see it coming.

Only one stamp out of the 6 stamps set will be embossed with raised Braille characters.

The stamp will be issued by the NY office. The Braille characters spell the word "UN" and I am going to touch the words and pretend I know Braille. :-P

According to Wikipedia - Louis Braille, born  4 January 1809 in France, was the inventor of braille, a system of reading and writing used by people who are blind or visually impaired. As a small child, Braille was blinded in an accident; as a boy he developed a mastery over that blindness; and as a young man – still a student at school – he created a revolutionary form of communication that transcended blindness and transformed the lives of millions. After two centuries, the braille system remains an invaluable tool of learning and communication for the blind, and it has been adapted for languages worldwide.  

Orchids

Hum..I guess I ran out of ideas and I've been lazy so I just pulled some old covers I made "years" ago to show you. Hehe...

Orchids have a big family. There are white orchids, green orchids, purple ones, big, small and they also come in different shapes. Love their variety but they are usually not fragrant. Or at least not the ones I've seen.

The one Orchid that I always run over to see them are the ones that shape like a slipper. They look really cute and I can put a finger of mine in the little pouch. Not that it's right to do so, but I just couldn't resist..sigh..

Couldn't believe I made this 3 years ago. It was actually my first UN FDC that I made for myself at the stamp show. I got the artist and also Robert Grey, who was the UNPA cheif to sign it.

Yousuf Karsh & Winston Churchill

Yousuf Karsh was the most famous Canadian portrait photographer in the 20th century. He had taken pictures of celebrities, politicians, scientists, novelist and people from all sorts of backgrounds. One of his most famous works was a portrait of Winston Churchill taken right after his speech in the Canadian Parliament in 1941. This photo brought him frame and success later on as a professional photographer.










This month, to celebrate Yousuf’s achievement, Canada post will issue a set of stamps showing 2 of Yousuf's most beautiful works and a self portrait of the artist himself.

Talking about the subjects of the Canadian s/s.  Here is my favoritate photo of Audrey Hepburn!! Amazingly done and so beautiful! Coincidently, while I walked past by an odd little variety store the other day, I found this amazing postcard of Audrey. It is exactly the same photo! I think I will make a pretty nice Maximum card out of this.

 Most of Yousuf's portraits are in black and white, no props or decorations to distract attention from the model. The portrait of Audrey, captures the essence of Audrey's on screen personality, a sense of innocence, pureness and holiness. Audrey is definitely one of my all time favorite actress. 

Here is a larger photo of Sir Winston Churchill.  Besides being one of the most famous British politician during his time, he was also a great historian and writer.

I love some of the shorter essays he wrote here and there, beautiful writing but I thought he was too much of an imperialist at heart.

Next UN issue: 2008 Endangered Spices

The UNPA "Endangered Spices" is a very popular and my favorite stamp series from the UN. The series has been running into its 13th year and still going strong. I guess most collectors have a soft spot for these lovely and amazing creatures living around us. I wish we as human being could have contributed more to help them coexist amongst us.


This year, the stamps will be showing various animals from the sea. I am seeing Seals, corals, whales and sea horses. They are beautiful. Did you notice that all of the endangered spices stamps are actually painted by an artist?  I don’t recall seeing any photos of any sort.

And every year, they also issue a special silk cachet envelope with one stamp from each office cancelled. I usually buy a couple and have the artist signs them.

Since this series is issued in March every year and coincides with one of our semiannual stamp shows here in New Year, the UN also provides a special hand cachet.

2008 Year of the Rat

Hello readers: Just to let you know, that the year 2008 is the year of the rat in Chinese Zodiac. I know some people who are born in the year of rat and they are indeed very ambitions people.
If you are born in that year, you are welcomed to leave me your address and I will send a cover to you at the beginning of 2008.


If your countries issue Zodiac stamps, please send me a cover if you are able to, if not, it's ok with me, it's a token of friendship.

The US will issue this stamp for it's new Chinese Zodiac series in 2008. This is the first stamp in the 12-year series. I don't like the design very much because I think it lack originality. The images of red lanterns are very common in Chinese society. Yea, I am a hard to please girl. :)

The Year Of The Rat - Characteristics
1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996

People born in the Year of the Rat are noted for their charm and attraction for the opposite sex.
They work hard to achieve their goals, acquire possessions, and are likely to be perfectionists.
They are basically thrifty with money. Rat people are easily angered and love to gossip.
Their ambitions are big, and they are usually very successful.
They are most compatible with people born in the years of the Dragon, Monkey, and Ox.

washington 2006 -Russia

Last year, I had the good fortune to attend a world class stamp exhibition in Washington DC. It was the first world stamp exhibition that I have ever attended at that kind of scale. The place was huge, definitely size of a football field. There were so much to see, so much to do and so little time even though I stayed there for a week. I am sure there will be more to come and that I will attend even more stamp shows in the future, but the first is always more memorable than the rest.

One of my main activities during the show was to visit all the different foreign postal administrations. I think more than 50 countries came, more or less, which was great. You know, the chance of seeing new issues from 50 countries at the same time and at face value is rare. Most of the world class stamp exhibitions only take place once every 10 years for the host country.

I stopped by the Russian postal booth because I have always liked stamps from Russia. Maybe it's because of the funny looking Russian alphabets? or whatever it is .. :) but I think Russian stamps are pretty. I asked the lady behind the booth if she can sell me stamps worth the rate of sending a letter from Russia to the USA, but the lady didn't speak English. After about 10 minutes of sign language and body gestures, I finally bought a set of stamps issued in 2001, beautiful paintings of the city of St. Petersburg. I knew it was about St. Petersburg because the lady kept saying St. Petersburg, haha... I bought the whole set thinking the postage will be enough to mail a letter from Russia to the USA but I was wrong!

A while later when I affixed all the stamps on an envelope and handing it to the lady, at the same time, another lady appeared and she spoke English and she asked me if I needed help, so I handed the letter to her instead. She looked at it and asked if I wanted to have the letter mailed from Russia and I said yes. She was like, oh no, the postage is not enough, and she took a 100 p definitive stamp and put it on the envelope. I asked her how much and she was like, it's ok, no need. I was thrilled. About a month later, I received my envelope back. It was very nice, first self-made letter from Russia. Although, to this day I still have no idea why she put a 100p stamp on the envelope, the 100 seemed very high!

Yoda - May the force be with you.

2 weeks ago at our twice-a-year philatelic stamp show here in New York, a new (or not exactly new) star wars stamp had been issued. Guess who? It was our master Yoda! A funny looking, definitely old, but wise Jedi master in the famous Star Wars series. The stamp was originally issued to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the films "Star Wars" One wonders if this is such a big occasion that it deserves to be shown on a stamp? I don't know, the USPS only thinks of money, so I guess it is!

The promotional postcard stamp collectors received from the organizers had a picture of Yoda. I've never created a maxicard before so I thought maybe I can make one out from this postcard since the theme matches so perfectly. It might not be a valid one, but hey, who cares. Here I come Master Yoda!

Can you see him?

Stamps from Thailand

Last week I was very busy yet satisfying because I'd received my order from Thai Post! Continuing my search for postal authorities who use stamps on their philatelic orders, I found Thai Post to be the best among them. The number of stamps used on the covers was incredible. I counted 14 of them and they are complete sets! There is a recent issue of traditional Thai beetle arts, which I like very much. The silhouette of the queen is gold foiled. There were also a set of 4 showing Thai temples. Very nice cover, although I do wish that the envelope is a little smaller.