mail art monday | vintage stamps and venice

best. mail. week. ever. 

among holiday gifts for j, and other things, this week in the mail i got two fantastic deliveries. the first, were the vintage canadian stamps i ordered from jaime at send more mail. each grouping consists of fifty-nine cents worth of stamps, enough for a letter sized envelope. they are so special! they are unused, in perfect condition and i can't wait to send some letters! my favourite are the large one of the queen in her hottie mctottie years,* and the really colorful seven cent stamp in the upper right corner.

my second delivery was such a surprise! it was friday night and we had just got home from a party. i usually check the mail every morning before work, but that morning i'd been in a rush. even though it was eleven pm, i told j i was going to check the mail. he told me i was crazy.**

well by golly i'm glad i did anyways! i received this beautiful envelope below from theresa in venice, italy. she originally came across me on pinterest, and stumbled into my etsy shop and blog. she sent me a wonderful array of stickers (my absolute favourite one in the last image), and offered to send me anything else i would like from italy. god, it just feels so magical to get such beautiful things (so randomly) from one of the places in the world that i revere most.*** thanks theresa, i hope to respond to you soon (how strange is it in this day and age to only have someone's snail mail address and not their email as well?)

* is that like, monarchy blasphemy or does that concept only apply to religious matters?
** i can't say i blame him, it's a pretty serious obsession of mine.
*** as an art historian, my first love was always italian art. it's been a dream of mine to travel there some day.