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?

What's On the WorkTable (and Other Stories)

Things are busy this time of year, aren't they?
I like to be working on art projects more than doing holiday stuff. But sometimes you can combine the two.

There's always outgoing mail on the table.....

Why send it plain if you can send it fancy?

Zine-making
I had fun making a zine for my pals who went on the Portland-Seattle Art Trip in October with me.
It seemed like a long time ago since I had that other big trip right on it's heels.
But I promised to make a zine -- and I always keep my promises.

I used 11x17 paper for this zine and it was 99 cents to copy it at the  copy store. Not bad and the larger size was more fun to work with....
I copied tourists brochures from the places we went and attached real wallet sized photos to the pages. A Seattle pressed penny went in there too.

Kind of a good Xmas idea for some friends I think....Did you do something fun with your friends this year? A party? Weekend getaway? Outing for lunch and flea market? You could make a zine to commemorate the fun.

It was fun tucking things into the zine like extra photos and business cards and it is a nice reminder of the fun we had.

OUTGOING
Don't you just want to laugh when you see those cats? I sent them to two cat-lovers I know.
Hope they got as much of a kick out of those faces as I did.

Interesting note - one cat lover in Virginia got her Grumpy cat envelope right away but the other,
which went to Connie Rose took almost four weeks to arrive in Fortuna, CA.
As Connie suggested on her blog post, maybe the cat walked there...
Don't you wonder where that envelope was for so long?
I sure do.
But at least she got it -- I am having some bad postal karma lately. Nesting dolls bought in Russia and sent to a friend are "Delivered" accordIng to the USPS tracking but she never got them.
Another friend in Budapest hasn't gotten the mail I sent her weeks ago and I am still waiting for Virgo's postcard collage from Russia.

OUTGOING
This postal pencil case went out to Monika Csete in Budapest and happily that is one thing that got delivered. Read her blog post about our meeting at the Stamp Museum in Budapest.
(more about that visit soon)

OUTGOING

OUTGOING to Vizma in Australia.

OK, here is yet another piece of mail that has gone missing. Vizma in Australia still hasn't received this envelope -- which was mailed before Thanksgiving. Four weeks ago!
I think maybe I should call this post
WHEN GOOD MAIL GOES BAD

Another holiday-ish project. Working on some cards using photos I took on my recent trip. A present for someone who doesn't read my blog (gasp!) so the secret is safe.

Ok, I am kind of a scrooge but I actually do enjoy wrapping presents.  Good thing too because Christmas is getting awfully close. Maybe too late for starting any holiday projects this year.
But there's always next year, right?

Remember, if you are really running late, you can do as the French do and send New Year's Greetings. There is still time for that.

Merry Christmas to All (who celebrate) and to all a Good Night!