dear united states postal service,
we need to chat. i have hit a small breaking point with you for one reason only. stamps. your default- hey i need to mail this postcard i’ll grab a stamp– stamps. in case you’re still not sure what i’m talking about let me remind you- right now the postcard stamps are the ones with the gradient teal to pink background with a pale and, quite honestly, innuendo laden cartoon fruit in the foreground. with a drop shadow. WHAT? seriously, THAT is on our christmas card!!? oh yes it is.
i know one can special order stamps but really, we’re already paying $1 or more to mail two letters and that plus the time it takes = no time this year. next year it will probably become a new years resolution- it is just that big of an issue. i think i speak for the world of stationary lovers, businesses and brides when i demand change. can’t ignore that demand anymore now, can ya? please explain to the masses why you spend time and energy and serious dough creating colorful stamps that ruin wedding invitations, resumes, christmas cards and thank you notes?
my humble suggestion would be to create a classic, unimaginative, uncolorful, non subject matter solid white stamp with a little black number in the corner. all stamps could be the same but with the numbers changing according to amount. why? because it won’t steal the show from the little mistletoe on the back of a christmas postcard, ruin a perfectly classy white envelope or clash with a red one, or even EMBARRASS THE SENDER. in case this isn’t already clear please let me just say, i don’t buy stamps to decorate things and even though you label the fruit in your postcard stamps i’ll still never use them to educate my children. i buy them because it is a simple way to pay you for sending my letters. so please drop the presumption that everyone in america must LOVE 80s colored cartoon fruit or cheetahs (admittedly, they run really fast and that is neat) and transition smoothly into reality starting with a huge bonfire- can i request that lots of those hideous stained glass one cent stamps be first the first to go? you know, the ones i bought from you when you raised postage prices the day before i sent out my wedding invitations? those.
bottom line time usps- we need change.
love and christmas cheer (mixed with a little pink&teal),
kate
Oh my, those are nasty! I was ok with USPS because I got the forever stamps:) They were actually quite classic and went with my brown color theme. These, however, are entirely unacceptable! Gross.
haha so true! :-) I know your cards will look great anyways!
I laughed out loud at your “stamp rant”…;-)
Amen sister! Hey and I see you are using SlideShow Pro…so do I and it really works great.
I agree! A simple white stamp with just the amount number would suffice. I think the USPS deems it their stamp’s duty to not only act as mini-sticker masterpieces of art in the upper right corner of every letter, but to also educate the public about a number of subjects (like what papayas and guavas are). I think my wedding invitations informed everyone about some great Native American chief who led the Trail of Tears or something. Yeah, THAT set the scene for happy wedding love. (/sarcasm)
I guess my main complaint is that they seem to always be behind on the seasons. These stamps wouldn’t be so bad in the spring, but for winter and the holidays? Oh well. We can’t expect our government to make sense, right? :)
Kate,
I couldn’t agree with you more!!! I totally had to put the same hideous things on my Christmas postcards this year! I was went to the post office to realize that there was ONE option for postcards! So, I ended up slapping a piece of fruit on Rudolph’s face! I feel your pain =)
– kg
‘admittedly, they run fast and that is neat.’ bhahahahaha.
Wow…I’ve never seen those before. Interesting!
your picture actually makes them look lovely! well done!! i totally agree though—a white stamp with a black number would be so nice. i’m thinking similar to the periodic table.
This is hilarious!! I wish you would actually MAIL (haha) this letter to them! The stamps are terrible, and I have already laid awake nights wondering what to do about our wedding invites. Have you seen the terrible “guy carrying a heart up a hill” stamp!?!
Well said! Nothing screams “Chrismas!” like a bunch of tropical fruit. Maybe they could stop raising prices if didn’t have to pay someone so much to come up with new stamps all the time?
*dennis bullock* we LOVE it so much!
*rhonda* trail of tears!? yea, bummer, SO not wedding themed! i think you make a good point that we really shouldn’t even try to expect our government to make sense, haha!
*kristen* you too? i’m so sorry. that papaya kills me. i feel your pain!
*holly* DEAD ON with the periodic table reference- wish i’d thought of that one myself! EXACTLY what i was trying to say!
*brittany* guy carrying a heart up a hill? how have i missed this!?
So true. I was thinking the exact same thing this morning while stamping my Christmas cards. The nutcrackers so don’t match my cards this year which totally ruins the theme. Your plain white stamp is a brilliant idea. You should definetly send them a suggestion or two. :)
Maybe we should all reject your postcards in protest.
andrew, if you were to do that i would literally HURT you- remember, i know where you live
hey, I love the papaya stamp.
Okay, not so much. But I DO love your holiday postcard, which arrived today and is beaming with Christmas cheer and giving off an all around creative glow on our mantle
sooo you could have shot one of your enameled fruit brooches as a postcard and used these on the back to be super cheeeesy. I can’t wait for my christmas card! I saw your twitter on the martini–and it’s thoughts like that that make me very very thankful I don’t and won’t have kids for awhile. But if I accidentally do, then I’ll make sure to pick up some exotic fruit stamps to put on their baby announcements.
amazing. and hilarious. and true. it’s about time someone took a stand.
ummm YES!!! agreed… can I tell you that I picked out postcards as reply cards before I knew about these stamps. the people at the invitation place thought it was a great idea… then I had to slap a tropical fruit on my classy reply cards
I’m so glad you think some of the fruit look like women’s genitalia as well.