wallace and gromit stamps

Sometimes when you say you like something, people will just send it to you. For no good reason except that they're nice people.

Many months ago, I randomly expressed my envy over the Wallace & Gromit Christmas stamps that the Royal Mail issued last fall. To my great surprise, the wonderful Shadow Akiyah on Swap-Bot offered to send me some from the U.K. once they came out and refused to receive anything in return. I'm not really a formal stamp collector, but I do enjoy seeing interesting ones as well as ones featuring images with some significance to me. These W & G stamps that I just received this week are really fun, especially since the pack comes with a paper advent calendar and commemorative folder.

Have you been on the cracking new Wallace and Gromit site, by the way? There are tons of cute games, activity packets, and e-cards available there. If you're handy with the needles, you might try crocheting your own Shaun the Sheep with the free pattern from Purple Linda, too!

I find it really reassuring that in today's digital world, you can still see human fingerprints on Wallace and Gromit's faces. It's one of the many reasons that they'll always remain timeless classics.

matryoshka tape

Like my beloved Hello Kitty, I fear that this theme might be becoming a little cliche, but I do so love matryoshka. We recently got a hand-painted wooden set from a Russian dealer at the fair, which we're saving for a Christmas present for someone--but what on earth was I thinking? I should have gotten a set for me, too!

What I did get recently for myself recently, however, is this fun set of deco tape as well as rubber stamps with nesting doll themes since the seller was doing a moving sale. So cute, and such a bargain! I can't wait to use them.

I'm not really a stamp collector, but I also really love the stamps from Japan that were on the package. Someone offered to send me the Wallace and Gromit Christmas stamps when they come out in the UK in November, which makes me really happy...between those and the Simpsons stamps and the Calvin and Hobbes stamps here in the U.S., my mailbox will be a lot of fun in the coming months.