Manatee Mailbox

Welcome to the early Friday edition of Post Card Friendship Friday, hosted by Marie of Vintage Postcard. The theme is of this carnival is pretty much anything to do with postcards, mail, post offices, mailboxes and other assorted fun stuff that's mail related.

Marie is talking about a potato postcard she found and then she did a fun video on the historical significance of the potato on the country of France. I would have never thought there would be such potato controversy! Check out her video and see what I mean.



This picture is of the post office nearest to my home. I took this photo on Sunday...that's why the parking lot is nearly empty. It's a nice post office, but it totally lacking in the wow factor. It's really quite dull inside. I like to go to the busier post office most of the time, just because there's more stuff to look at and browse while I'm waiting.


I was taking photos down by the beach this week when this truck pulled up right next to me. I thought it was a pretty good photo op. so I took it :)



My friend and I have thing for Manatee mailboxes. I have to take a photo of each one I see if possible. I was walking by this one, so it was easy this time. This little guy is down by the beach where the salt air rusts nearly everything in sight...poor manatee is just a victim.


IN the vintage stash of postcards that I have, I found these two cards from Wisconsin. This first one is from Kenosha, WI. My bloggy friend, Keetha, is in Wisconsin this week. That's why I chose these cards.

Isn't that just the sweetest looking bridge?!! (You can click the photo to enlarge.) It makes me want to visit. :) I'm a sucker for a stone bridge.


This postcard is from LaCrosse, Wisconsin. It had some water damage, but is in pretty good condition otherwise. I like the old river boat. Once again, you can click the photo to enlarge the card.

I hope you've enjoyed Post Card Friendship Friday. Please visit the other participants and see what interesting things they've posted!

Have a fabulous weekend!
Kristin

Haley's Court Motel

Hello! It's that time again for the blogging mail service to come strolling through via Vintage Postcards - Postcard Friendship Friday. I set out this week to photograph something mail related that was interesting and I found it. I'm sure everyone participating in PFF found something interesting, too, so be sure and check out the other participants.

I went to the beach yesterday to take photos of the Vilano Beach community because I knew there were some old motels there...some of my favorite Florida sights. When I saw the Post Office I was thrilled! But then I noticed that it was both a post office and a real estate office. I don't think I've ever seen that - how funny!

The building where the post office is located is a vintage building, too. I love the minty green colors.



Directly across the street from the post office is the Haley Court Motel. Isn't that a great sign! I just realized that I may like that sign so much because I have those colors in my house. My bedroom is yellow, my bathroom and computer room are the seafoam green and my entryway and living room is red. Hmmm, very interesting!

This is the plaque at the base of that motel sign. If you need to enlarge the photo, just give it a click :) It looks like the sign was erected in the 40's or 50's. I wish there was a more specific date for the sign, but I guess they don't have one!



This is a postcard I found on eBay of the vintage motel. It's the same scene as on the plaque describing the sign.


I met Johnathon and Summer outside of the Haley Court Motel. They were riding their bikes and wondered what in the world I was up to. Johnathon was about 10 and Summer was 8. Summer told me that Vilano means colorful and friendly. I told her that she was very fortunate to live in such a place.

I think that a few people actually live in this motel. A few of the windows will full of knick knacks and the front patio full of plants. There was a front office and the kids said that the place fills up quite frequently. Summer said that she plays with the vacationing kids quite often.

These colors are just so much fun I can hardly get enough of it!


and the final shot of the Haley Court Motel was of the mailbox and street number. I think you can tell from all of the photos that this is a well maintained and well loved motel.

Thanks for coming along! Have a great day!
Kristin

Mailbox treasures

I've got another submission for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie at Vintage Postcards. This carnival is devoted to the mail - postcards, stamps, mailboxes, or mailmen. If it's got a mail theme, I'm sure it's included in this fun carnival.

This week Marie found some interesting info on Gone with the Wind and has included a postcard or two. Since Marie lives in France, she's already gotten to her Friday! So I'm going to celebrate Friday a bit early!




A few years ago my sister in law found this lovely stamp dispenser and mail scale.

It came in the original box.

It's a bummer that the new sticker stamps don't fit this little dispenser, but I did use it when we had the rolls of lickable stamps. They fit just right.



I used to collect McCoy pottery, in green, and one of the things I wanted so desperately was the green mailbox.

I was obsessed.

Every antique store or thrift store I kept my eyes open for McCoy, but mostly for this mailbox.





My friend found this one and bought it for me.

She bought it!

Goodness, I was floored.

and so happy.



I love it.

Thanks Bob :) (that's my name for her)

I hope you've enjoyed my little mailbox show and tell.
Hope on over to Vintage Postcards to see more fun finds.
Kristin

Montague & Mackinac

I've really been enjoying Marie's Post Card Friendship Friday (PFF.) She lives in France, so the past few weeks I've been very late coming to the party. Since I had some caffeine today there is no sleep in my body at the moment, so I'm kind of early (for me) getting to the blog party!

The whole idea behind PFF is to "Have a blast with this mail theme! Examples include: any type of postcard, a photo of a mailbox, mailman, a stamp image, postcard altered art, or simply a photo of something that you find 'Postcard Perfect' etc etc etc!"

I've been going through this book of postcards that I got at an auction many years ago. The people who saved these postcards lived in Michigan, so there is a strong Michigan theme about the cards. Since I grew up in Michigan, it's dear to my heart.

image - Google Earth

Here is my lovely home state of Michigan. The two Michigan cities where today's Michigan post cards came from are marked on the map. You can click on the photo to make the image larger.

This is probably a view of White Lake, a rather large body of water that runs through Montague, MI. I guess I moved the postcard, it's a bit wonky. There wasn't any writing on the back of this postcard, nor date. This type of postcard is about my favorite - it looks almost like a water color painting and the card is actually textured, almost like a linen card.


This is Mackinac Island (pronounced Mackinaw) - It was mailed in 1937 - August 12th. The island is a big tourist destination in Michigan and is known for being a place where there are no cars allowed. Bicycles, horse & buggy and walking are the transportation of the day...just as it was in 1937! I have never been to the Island, but at some point I would really like to go.

Just a line to let you know that I went to the island.
Tell Dad and Mother that I will be home Saturday night.
Your Brother Dick

This is the Terminal Station in Jacksonville, FL. It was turned into a convention center with nearly all of this original building being a part of the updated center. I actually had not realized that fact until just a few minutes ago. The interior of the Prime Osborne Convention Center still has some details of the old train station, but there are no more train tracks nor people waiting for mass transit. This card was mailed October 11th, 1941.

Dear Beverly,
How are you I am in Fla. at Mr. Rouse Mothers and it is very hot here.
I don't like it. Do you like your work.
Will see you when I get back.
Mrs. Rouse

I live in Jacksonville, FL now and I find it very interesting that these vintage postcards from this family's estate also included a few post cards from Jacksonville.

I hope you've enjoyed the postcards. Come back next week for another addition of PFF and please go and visit the other participants as you never know what they are going to post!

Have a Fabulous Friday!
Kristin

Post Boxes

Welcome to Postcard Friendship Friday hosted by Marie of Vintage Postcards. I've only officially participated once on Friday so its not ingrained in my brain that I need to get something posted for Friday morning. Since the carnival is hosted from someone in France, it's already really late in the day!

I hope you go over to Vintage Postcard and take a look at all of the postcard posts, as well as anything at all that has to do with mail. Today I will be showing you some of the post boxes that I found in Ireland and the Isle of Man. A few of them you may have seen before, but I thought I'd put them all together in one post.


This shop was in the heart of the little downtown area of Nenagh, Ireland. Nearly everything was closed because it was a Sunday, but I was drawn to the tile in the entranceway so I went over to take a picture. Then I saw the letter flap.

I thought the closeup of the letters flap was very nice. I loved the burgundy door and the gold. I also really liked the font used for the letters.

The first night in Ireland we went looking for a place to eat dinner. We were following directions, but pulled over to check the map and see if the folks in the other car knew where we were going. I walked around snapping photos while the drivers talked to one another. I saw this post box set into this giant rock and new I had struck gold!

This post box was spotted at Bunratty Castle in Ireland. I loved the two tones of green paint and I so love the roundness of the "box."

I think this is a stylized version of the P and R that I saw on the mailbox in the stone up above. Ahhh, turns out I was wrong. Sheila gave me a little history lesson in the comment section. Thanks so much! This post box is even more special now that I know a bit of the history.

Sheila said...The two-tone green letter box is an old British one dating from Victorian times. The letters are VR, Victoria Regina. Rather than replace all the letter boxes when Ireland became a republic, they just painted the existing ones green. I imagine it's had a good few coats of paint since it was last red. :)

Extreme closeup of the word post and part of the drop slot. I am kind of fond of this photo.

This is the Isle of Man post box that we saw at the IOM airport. It is so bright!

Those are all of the mailbox pictures that I took. I have to say though, every time I saw one I wanted to photograph it, even though most of them were the same shape and color. I forced myself to focus on other things.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to visit other Postcard Friendship Friday participants.
Have a Wonderful Weekend!
Kristin

Michigan Postcards

Last week I posted some of the postcards I got from Ireland and the Isle of Man and Marie from Cpaphil Vintage Postcards contacted me and asked me to join her Postcard Friendship Friday (PFF for short). People show off their postcards, stamps, mailboxes and anything that relates to postcards. Sounds like fun! This week Marie is showing off a new stamp that France has debuted that is actually chocolate scented. (Marie lives in France, so she's kind of got an edge to getting those stamps.) Sounds very intriguing.

When Tom and I lived in Coldwater, MI., we used to go to a lot of auctions and estate sales. One of the things that I always bid on, but never got were books of old postcards. They always were bid up far to high for my blood. Some of the books would go for a hundred dollars or more. But this one day near the end of the sale, a book of postcards went up for auction. I think it had gotten lost in all of the stuff and I got lucky. I pounced and got about 70 postcards for $35. That was a great deal at the time.

I think most of these cards that I received were all from the same family and most of them are from the 1940s.

Lansing Auto Body

With all of the talk about the car industry, I thought I'd show off a few of the postcards I found in that book I was talking about. You can click on any of the pictures to view them larger.

Here's the General Motors Building in Detroit.

and here's the back of that card. I loved that he typed this postcard. What fun. He even had to turn the card and put it back into the typewriter to type the extra on the side.

Here's the place I was born and raised. Right there near the middle of the mitten is Lansing. That's where I grew up.

The Oriental Gardens in Jacksonville, FL

and this is the town where I live now :) I also found it in the postcards from that auction.

Thanks for taking a little postcard tour with me and don't forget to go on over to the PFF page to see more.

Kristin

Thrifty Souvenirs

Welcome to another edition of Thrifty Thursdays hosted by Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville. A fun little time to hunt around the house, the garage, someone elses house and garage or even a thrift store or two to dig up some cool finds. Be sure and check out the other Thrifty Finds, from the other participants.

I stopped shopping for stuff several years ago. Every so often things come into my house, but for the most part I go to the grocery store a few times a week and that's about all the shopping I do. So when I went to Ireland and the Isle of Man this past week (Be sure to come back and read about the trip. I've got three posts up so far.) -- Yes, so on my vacation I wasn't there to shop. BUT I knew I had to bring back souvenirs and I knew they had to be thrifty because airplane fare, food and lodging was 99.9% of my budget. I had very limited space in my bag to carry anything, too.



I'm obsessed with mail.

I love mailboxes.

I love paper to write on.

I love writing out addresses on envelopes and I am in love with fun stamps.



Before I left I decided to invest my Dollars, Euros and Pounds into post cards. I copied off a few dozen names and addresses of friends and family and took them with me, so I could send off postcards to them as small gifts :)

Then I made sure that I got a really nice assortment of postcards for myself, too.

Continuing the Thrifty Theme - I'm going to mail out a few dozen more post cards to people, even though I'm home. It's much cheaper to send the cards to the US, in the US.



I only got to the Post Office in the Isle of Man and not in Ireland, so I was only able to bring home IOM postage. I usually like to get a few stamps from countries that I visit. It's a very inexpensive way to get a souvenir. The flower stamps were 1 cent, 2 cents and 4 cents each- so that's REALLY thrifty!



This stamp was so neat - it's an IOM stamp that shows the US landing on the moon. It's even got a US flag in it. I thought it was the perfect stamp to bring home.

I did end up buying one shirt and I had to buy a windbreaker/rain jacket because I was not prepared for the deluge of rain we experienced. Other than that, my Thrifty Souvenir adventure was perfect and I don't feel like I missed a thing.

Oh, I also took over 400 photos! Those were really inexpensive, too!

Please go on over to Leigh's place and see who else joined in on the carnival.
Kristin

I was asked by Marie of Vintage Postcards blog if I'd like to link up to her blog carnival about Postcard Friendship Fridays. I thought it might be nice, so I did :) If you'd like to see more fun postcards, stamps, pictures of mailmen or other things postcardish, go on over and take a look. I'll have to do the same!