PDG Visits the PDXCC

It took a while, but I finally made it to a PDXCC (Portland Correspondence Co-Op) meeting -- our sister mail art group started a bit more than two years ago by Niko Courtelis.
On all those shelves you see? Zines! Imagine that.

Here are Miss Polly and Niko giving some highlights of the evening's meeting...

Typewriters!
They have typewriters at every meeting....how cool is that? (And, BTW, I noticed that there are A LOT of typewriters in Portland).

JJAlltheWay is giving this one a workout.

Really.....what can I say about this beauty? Except I really wanted to take it home with me.

I brought a few things along for show-and-tell....

...including all six of my SFCC artistamp passports...

And -- lucky me -- Niko had a Will Call passport waiting for  me to finally pick it up.
Passport dated January 2015
Picked up April 2017

Artistamps by Niko
Check out his artwork here
Philatelic Atrocities

Of course, if you read my blog, you now I cannot leave things alone so I had to do a bit of altering in my new PDXCC passport....I added photos I took at the meeting and some of the artistamps Niko made...

That's a photo of me and Sugene, wonderful maker of zines, who I was happy to finally get to meet.

The AFTERPARTY!
Nostrama in PDX has a happy hour starting at 9PM. My kind of happy hour. So, after the PDXCC meeting we trooped over for cocktails and some pizza and salad....

Things up there in PDX are really just too much fun....I'm thinking that I have to go back. Soon. Very soon.
You are all forewarned PDX Peeps!

One of Niko's Philatelic Atrocities -- If you want to see more, you can buy his book
right here at Kat Ran Press
I'm lucky enough to have a collage and the book and recommend both.
And now -- I am off to a San Francisco Correspondence Meeting -- yup, two mail art meetings within  two weeks. Not bad.
If you don't have a mail art group where you are I suggest starting one up.....
you won't be sorry.

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You Better Sit Down

Yes, these are ALL Stamp Books. There must be thousands and thousands of stamps in this room. And, if you are anything at all like me, you must feel a bit faint.
Go ahead, sit down.
Niko Courtelis graciously invited a bunch of us (mail art and stamps nerds) to a private showing of stamps at The Uptown Stamp Show in Portland.
All I can say is, if you are ever in PDX, you have GOT to go there.
Trust me.

There are lots of stamps for serious collectors.......

BUT
There are books and books and books you can browse through and pick out any and all the stamps you want for ten cents a stamp.
TEN CENTS!!!!!

I honestly thought I'd died and gone to heaven.....well, almost heaven...it was a little bit of hell not being about to grab as many books as I could carry and run off with them...

I got a wonderful selection of stamps from Russian....

I love Postage Due stamps, don't you? WHY didn't I get these????

Who do we have here?
Miss Polly -- I know some of you you trade mail art with her. Doesn't she look happy?
There was a whole lot of swooning going on....

Niko (standing, at left) was totally outnumbered by women going a little crazy...
The plan to go out for lunch went flying right out that window. We stayed for hours but we did bring in some deli sandwiches for the energy to sustain us for more swooning...

LOTS of stamp head potential in those albums too.

And look -- is this the old way of what we all hate? The black Sharpie cancellation?

We were all invited to add a stamp to the wall to mark our visit.

By this time I was planning on ditching my plane ticket home and renting a car....

There was a teeny bit of competition over postal themed stamps. Niko was there to break up any fights.

But, no worries, we all left smiling and very happy with out stamp treasures.
(Karen, JJ & Miss Polly from the PDXCC and Pamela from SFCC)

Thanks to my Portland mail art pals for arranging this wonderful visit and special thanks to Niko for unlocking the doors for us on his day off.
Here's the link to the Uptown Stamp Shop website
Looking at it will make you crazy. Maybe you better wait till you are heading up to Portland.

And you KNOW I will be heading back up to PDX at the first chance I get.
Anyone want to meet me there?

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SFO TO PDX

(I get to deliver these little surprises in person.....and I can't post this until they are given out so when you read this post, I will be happily ensconced in PDX already.)

Don't you love planning a trip?
That is all part of the fun.....and I have been looking forward to this trip to Portland for months...

I am prepared -- I collected lots of .25 cent vintage Portland postcards at the Vintage Paper Fair last time I went -- so let the postcard writing begin!

I have a nice little map of the metro and it goes right to the airport....

OK, I do have a PDX map but I am horrible at reading maps, I admit it....
Luckily there is a whole mail art posse and they are meeting me and showing me around...
lucky me!
And, there's Lyft.

I paid SPECIAL ATTENTION to packing my mail art kit. I usually travel pretty light as far as supplies go...and I figure I can borrow from my PDX pals as needed...and I had to save room for a little "show & tell". And my SFCC artistamp passport is coming along too. Who knows? I may get a PDX artistamp stamped in it. There are rumors. 

Always pack a coffee kit......I am dangerous without coffee as soon as I wake up....

If I paid as much attention to packing clothes in suitcase as I did in bringing things for show & tell and little surprises for my pals, I might look better...
the clothes are always a bit of an afterthought. After art supplies.

I certainly do have lots of wonderful zippered pouches to store things in, thanks to a certain, wonderful pal who knows who she is.......

A Bon Voyage card from my pal, Monica......
Hopefully no fog delays at SFO because I've got a whole lot to do up there in PDX. Like, go to a PDXCC mail art meeting and eat Russian food at Kachka and write postcards and........well.......you'll hear all about it next time, folks.
And below are a few more shots of the tins I made my friends.....
I hope they like them.

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This is not what I'm supposed to be doing right now....

I have a million things to do right now and making ATC's isn't one of the things on my list....

But -- seeing a bunch of postage stamps and rubber stamps sitting around on my table -- made me want to whip up a set (or two) of ATC's...

(I can't help myself)
This is just a real quick little post showing you what I just made today while I should have been doing other things....
it's fun.

Since I've been busy making rolo cards I neglected making ATC's so I've got to get my game on.

I love having a big pile of them to shuffle around...

OK, back to working on a PORTLAND PREP post and packing my suitcase....
I'm off to PDX all next week for mail art fun.
I can't wait!
Full Report to Follow.

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