DEC 26th

Happy Boxing Day, one and all!
I hope your holiday season has been wonderful and bright!

Until the New Year--
Ms. Always Traveling

Outgoing

This post has been long awaited.
Here it is.

This week, I have been sending out a whole lot of Thank You cards after the wonderful events of my birthday. I received some colourful stationary from a friend, so that enclosed many of my letters. I also made a Christmas-themed letter for a penpal in LA., and;

THE STAMP SELECTION IS EXTRAORDINARY.
I used "Celebration" stamps for birthday Thank You's;
I used "Love" stamps for birthday Thank You's;
I used "Holiday Bauble" stamps for a birthday Thank You and a Holiday card.

I have been following www.beyondtheperf.com, and I can't get over just how much I am loving all of the new stamp unveilings. 2013 is going to be a huge year for postage!!

Next post will be an attempt at documenting all of the incoming I have received over the past month and not posted about. It'll be a fairly long post. You ready for it?

Spread love--
~ Ms. Always Traveling

12/12/12 ~ A Birthday To Remember

So excited for my birthday tomorrow.

It's gonna be a day to remember!

With that in mind, I will not be posting tomorrow!
Have a great day!

Send some mail!
~ Ms. Always Traveling

2013 Stamp Program

From www.beyondtheperf.com

The 2013 Stamp Program is making me so excited. I can't wait to storm to the post office, see my good bud Billy the Postman, and order a pane of each stamp design--particularly the Emancipation Proclamation stamps, the Sealed With Love stamps -- right in time for Valentine's Day!!, and the Global Forever stamps--they're circular! I have been following www.beyondtheperf.com for updates on the new stamps everyday! I wonder what stamps will be revealed on my birthday (Dec 12th)! It's all so mysterious!

Don't you find it so exciting??

Something that I am finding interesting, however, is the increase in postage prices. Effective January 27th, the postage rates will change. An international one-ounce letter will be $1.10 USD, and a Forever stamps will be 46c.

Here's hoping that everyone sends double as much mail this year as they did last year to keep those rates from increasing again!!

I shall be posting soon my incoming and outgoing--with my birthday coming up, there shall be quite a few indeed!!

Cheers--
Ms. Always Traveling

Argh.

I am currently feeling like a mega-goon about not having posted my promised updates for the past two weeks. Please know that things are crazy on my side of this computer screen, and I'll be getting on to posting a proper, updating post as soon as I can!! I've just been super busy!

My birthday is next week (woot! 12/12/12!), and it's going to be a crazy week then as well...so I don't know when I'm going to have a lot of time to post, but I shall definitely work on it! The post is coming soon--I promise!!

Would love to hear from, and hope you're well!

Cheers--and send more mail,
Ms. Always Traveling

I know...

I have a great deal of wonderfulness to share this weekend.
Then, I'll finally be able to have some free time to post!!

Stay tuned--

~ Ms. Always Traveling

A Quick Note!

Hello!
I hope all are well!

I do apologise for the recent stagnancy of cosmopostalan. I've been exceedingly busy!
But I have received some beautiful letters this week, which I can't wait to share them with you soon!

Cheers,
~ Ms. Always Traveling

To A Letter Box On Chestnut Street

"To A Letter Box On Chestnut Street"

A poem by Betty Frye Leach

Impassive mail container with white
                                          collection sign
From which one learns the postman is
                              due to call at nine,

A pot pourri of heart and brains your
                                  metal sides inclose,
For written words can represent the
                                dagger or the rose--

Such mixtures as "I love you." or
                            sometimes, "Please remit."
"Your balance has been overdrawn."   "Do
                                love me, too, a bit."

Between your silent lips are slipped
                          odd messages at will:
Perhaps a bit of Paradise lies now
                          beneath a bill.

____________________________

I found a book of poems relating to Boston a little while ago,
             but I like this one the best
                                   because it is about
                                                                                       mail.


~ Ms. Always Traveling

Possibly The Best Halloween Lolly *Ever*

Halloween heralded the end of October, and I was exceedingly excited to note that one of the members of my neighbourhood was giving out stamp collecting kits as the "lolly* of choice". I could not believe it.
So I grabbed two.

When I opened the packet of stamps that came with it (how wonderful is that??), this is what I found...

...a selection of beautiful, global stamps that about blew me away.

Never have I been treated to such a wonderful Halloween "treat" as that!


And here is the coolest part of all! When I opened the packet, the first stamp that fell out was this one:

 ...an AMAZING, Australian Qantas 50th Anniversary stamp. I think it is most definitely a sign from The Universe.
Home is never too far away, and neither is the method with which to return.

Some of the other, beautiful stamps included one from the U.S.A about a music legend; one from the U.S.A. about Health Research; one from the U.S.A. encouraging the sport of football; two from the U.K--both lovely and graphic; and plenty of other beautiful stamps that I can not wait to add to my collection.

OH! And I've come to the conclustion that the red Sour Patch Kid is my favourite.



Yep. He doesn't look like much, but he's a winner in my books.

Happy Halloween--and welcome to November, everyone!
Send a record amount of mail this month;
~ Ms. Always Traveling

(*lolly=candy. Translation=pretty simple. Haha!)

Outgoing

And to pair with that "Incoming" post--and "Outgoing" post!

Outgoing

A 3rd "Lovely Letters" reply to my new penpal R., in Germany.

Love the colour combination and the cherries!

An early Chrissie letter in reply to an early Chrissie stamped letter, to S. in the United States.

...and it's all hand-typed!

Send mail--
~ Ms. Always Traveling

Incoming

It feels wonderful to post my incoming again!
This has been another of those incredibly busy weeks that has not left much time to breathe or focus as much as I would have liked to on my mail. But! I have heard from some lovely people this week that I haven't heard from in a while--which is absolutely (always) a plus!

Incoming

A "Lovely Letters" piece from my partner, R., in Germany.

Some of the gorgeous stamps adorning it...

And another airmail label to add to my collection!

An airmail-esque piece from S., in the United States.

...adorned with a bit of an early Chrissie stamp!

And a long awaited letter from V., in Spain!

The airmail sticker and "stamped (postage) stamp"!

Receiving mail is always a big ball of awesome! Have you received any stellar mail lately?
As always--if you're interested in a penpal, I'd love to hear from you! (Comment below!)
Send some mail--send some joy;
~ Ms. Always Traveling

Earthscapes

This new stamp collection is something that I am not afraid to say that I am deeply in-love with. The designers did a fantastic job, so much so that I bought one pane to use and one pane to keep for my collection. I just keep loving all of the stamp collections! Don't you?

Something about the combination of nature, industry and design--and the new perspective supplied by this stamp collection--makes me so happy and excited to use these stamps! The aesthetic of the colours, lines and shapes makes for one heck of a collection. It's pretty impressive.

To pick a favourite, I just don't think I could! They're all so beautiful. But the ones that stick out as my ones "To Not Use Until The End" are probably: Center-pivot irrigation; Railroad roundhouse; Sal evaporation ponds; and Cherry orchard. But I love them all.

I've already used two of the stamps: Inland marsh & Skyscraper apartments; and they looked fantastic. I am very, very much loving this pane. A lot.

~ Ms. Always Traveling

Outgoing

And now for the outgoing!
(I am loving catching up on all of my blogging!)
Outgoing:

Just some of the outgoing, and some lovely October pumpkins to boot!

Some more outgoing; all Halloween-themed this time!

A letter to AA., complete with jelly-bean stickers!

A letter to B., adorned with my new loves -- the "Earthscapes" stamp collection!!

A letter to C., with some washi-wonderfulness!

A letter to G., that was returned for some unbeknown reason!

A Halloween-themed letter to M.!

Possibly one of my all-time favourite letters, to N.

Just love that typewriter stamp and the washi-tape combo!

A letter to V., in Spain!



And some stickers on the back!

Some Halloween joy to my dear A., in Australia.

And the back! Spread the love, smiles, joy and mail!

V.'s Halloween letter, all close-up!

A catch-up letter to R., in Australia!

A letter to S., in United States -- "sign your name in box your normal signature" -- signature analysis = fun!

And a letter to R., in Germany as a part of the Lovely Letter's exchange!

 And there are two more pictures to post, but this Hurricane Sandy weather is interrupting the internet connection, so I'll be sure to put them up later!!

Send mail!
~ Ms. Always Traveling

Incoming

So good to be back!
I must admit, the past few weeks were a little stagnant mail-wise. But then a bit of a mail-surge happened. Then it stopped! And here is the documentation...

Incoming

A lovely USA Go Green Stamp (one of my first loves) from G., from within the United States.

A lovely letter (and some AWESOME stamps) from the lovely A., in Australia.

A beautiful letter from L., within the United States.

I love her kraft-paper envelope adorned with a simple black stamp! So great!

From the lovely M., in United States.

Some washi-wonderfulness from N., in the United States.

From the dear S., in Australia.

From the lovely Ms. S., in United States.

And the awesome sticker on the back of her letter!

From AA., in United States.

From the lovely C., in the United States.

I love incoming!
Send some mail today, readers--everyone loves to receive a little bit of mail!
~ Ms. Always Traveling