Another Kind of Desktop

Budapest

I can work almost anywhere -- which is good since my studio is still all torn up. I have a plan for setting up my Gelli block in my kitchen in Saturday and letting those paints fly...or drip..or whatever.
Here are some desktops where I've worked during the last year or so....
I like the way they look.

Portland, OR

A cappuccino or coffee is always nice to have on hand. And paper ephemera. Lots of ephemera.

Prague

I actually don't pack up much to bring with me on my travels about town (or far away). I like to tear paper rather than cut and mostly I bring glue sticks and double stick tape....and madly pick up stuff as I move through the day....

Santa Barbara

St Petersburg, Russia

There wasn't as much paper around to pick up in Russia...but what I did find was super cool since I loved the way the Cyrillic writing looked.

Portland

Istanbul, Turkey

The Turkish writing is very cool too. And so was writing while listening to the Call to Prayer coming in through the open windows.....

Washington, DC

Los Angeles, CA

Palma, Italy
Sitting and writing by the fireplace in Parma was wonderful until the bug bit me!

Boston, MA

New York City

Seattle, WA

Pasadena, CA

Milan, Italy

You can always get coffee in Italy --  Grazia Dio!

Budapest, Hungary

I like taking it on the road. Packing my mail art kit is a lot more fun than packing clothes. And I love picking up every scrap of ephemera I find and tearing it up and pasting it in to my travel journals, collages and postcards.
I love the look of a happily messy desktop while on the road.

Am I alone on this?
How many of you cut and paste while traveling?
Keep a travel journal?
Make mail art?
Set up a work table in every hotel room?
Anybody taking a trip?

Tell me what your desktops look like!

SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

A Postal Friendly City (Budapest)

Budapest is a very postal-friendly city. If you are looking for a place to mail this.....

...or maybe this.....you won't have to look very long long................

......before seeing one of these...
And is that a great mail box or what? Just look at that little envelope on the side with the red dot!

I only mailed four of these incredibly fun postcards (sorry guys) and they got delivered to the USA very quickly.
Budapest puts mail boxes on post cards. Postal Point Number One.

And they have a really great Postal Museum (Point Number two). We don't have a Postal Museum here in San Francisco. But we should.

This is the street we walked down to get to to the Postal Museum.....lovely, isn't it?

If you get to Budapest I suggest a visit. Lots of vintage Hungarian post boxes to ogle. 

Interesting exhibits. And did you notice that wall?

Just in case you need to see it close up. I may need this in my studio. Anyone want to come over and stencil?

Delicious Hungarian stamps with postal workers and post boxes on them....

And some very cool mail...

A display of a postal workers desk from way back in the day....see all those seals on that envelope?  Those are "security envelopes" and I found two at the Budapest Flea Market.

I want to take all these home with me me....but having a picture of them is almost as good. 
(almost)

And, if a Postal Museum isn't enough -- there is also a Stamp Museum. And it is amazing.

The Stamp Museum is filled with interesting displays....

and rows of these pull-out drawers that are filled with stamps from all over the world.
The collection is so huge that only a portion can be displayed here in this room.

And -- due to an introduction from my pal Alice -- I got a personal, guided tour from the delightful
Monika
Lucky me! Monika took time out of her workday to spent a couple of hours showing us around the stamps.
It was so lovely to meet her and we are now swapping mail art.

See those things that look like small records? Those are stamps!
No kidding.

The Stamp Museum

Ladies room door.....Monika's idea and I think it was a really good one..

Me and my new best friend.....

This is the last of the "travel posts" from  my last trip. Thanks for coming along for the ride and all the nice blog comments. 

I wonder where I'll be off to next? You know I'll be packing up my mail art kit one of these days.

Where would you like to go?

Only three more blog" followers" needed to hit 300. A nice round number.
Tell your friends.

Budapest Flea and more Postal Love

Budapest was a very postal-friendly city. Lots of charming post offices and mail boxes to look at, at well as a Postal Museum and a Stamp Museum (another post on those).
And a fabulous flea market. 
Want to come and check things out with me?

POSTA
Post Office and Post Box
No photos inside - no fun. But the outside looks good. And I did get my hands on free postal forms.

The Mail Boxes have legs!

Budapest Flea Market -- my husband always takes me to really cool, really off-the-beaten track flea markets. And then the poor guy has to wait around - forever - while I fondle everything postal.
What a guy!

And, this one had a lot of postal ephemera...loads of old stamps, first day covers, stamp books, old letters....just the sort of things that make me go crazy.
Forget department stores.

Give me the old paper...old photos...

Just look at those little packs of stamps. And they were cheap. Why don't I ever find things like this here in California?

Oh yes....this is where I found many of my treasures. No one spoke English but  writing numbers on paper works fine...

Some nibs for a fountain pen lover..

How could I possibly resist? Right. I couldn't.
Now that I look at this photo I am wondering why I didn't get more postal stuff. 
(It may have been the 50 pound limit on my suitcase)

After all that excitement at the flea market I needed to sit down and  have some  calming coffee and cake at the very beautiful New York Cafe. (Why New York? I don't know. I haven't seen anything like it in NYC)

OOps, I did it again. Another day, another beautiful cafe. This one is the Bookstore Cafe.
Now you know, if you are going to Budapest, you can visit lots of nice post offices, the flea market and eat cake. What more do you need?
(Maybe the Stamp Museum and Postal Museum? I'll show you those soon)

UPCOMING -- Interview with MISS RED LETTER DAY herself.
Co-author of GOOD MAIL DAY and organizer of the Ex Postal Facto mail art event coming up
here in San Francisco in February.
Anything you want to ask Jennie? This is your big chance. I'll show you a little of her studio and she'll tell you about Ex Postal Facto.
Stay Tuned.

Are the holidays over yet? I'm ready for "normal", whatever that may be.
Vintage paper fair here in SF next weekend. Maybe not as great at the Budapest Flea Market but it's one of my favorite local paper ephemera events.
See you there?