Beautiful Stamps!

When I was a kid, I collected stamps. I had often admired my mom's stamp collection from when she was a young girl, and then I received my very own book. The stamps came from all sorts of places...from letters that came in the mail, from my grandmother who got them from other relatives, from ads in the back of comic books...

I carefully mounted each stamp in it's proper place in the book. Somewhere, I still have that stamp collection. It brings back a lot of memories.

As I got older, I didn't keep up the hobby of stamp collecting. But, I still appreciate stamps. Nowadays, I'm happier to buy interesting stamps -- both new and vintage -- and send them off on envelopes to pen pals.

One of my favorite publications is "USA Philatelic," the quarterly part-catalog, part-magazine put out by the U.S. Postal Service. It usually features an article about one of the newest stamps, as well as lists and photos of the stamps that are available. There also are lots of other things to buy from the catalog, including notecards, stamp guides, first day covers, etc.

The "USA Philatelic" that came out earlier this year was beautiful, featuring the cherry blossom stamp story. You can still order a copy of it online for free. I think the catalog is so nice because the cherry blossom stamps are so pretty!

If you want to subscribe to the publication so that you get it in your mailbox four times a year, sign up at www.beyondtheperf.com, the online site for the catalog.