PC#164 Australia, Ice Flowers Maxicard,

This one is from set of three showing Ice Flower types. I'm so surprise how beautiful they are!

Thank you Xue!

PC#162 #163 Czech, Noel mails,

 Christmas is arriving very soon. It is not a special event to me as Im not a christian. But I have many memories about Noel. When I was a boy, my father oftens took me to the central Church to enjoy christmas time and saw their decor.

Sent: 28/11/2016

Arrived: 21/12/2016

Sent: 3/12/2016

Arrived: 21/12/2016

Thank you Trung!

Cover#205 Taiwan, Year of Rooster 2017

Sent: 07/12/2016

Arrived: 21/12/2016

Thank you, Maggie!

Vietnam, Saigon Shaped cards,

Rooster year stamps are released today and I went to philatelic shop to make some items for my lunar year collection as precedant years. I met director of Vietnam stamp company. We talked a bit about shaped cards that Vietnam post issued recently. She confirmed that in next time, there will other interesting shaped card designs about different topics such as 4 seasons, Vietnamese cuisine, ethical people,... that the sale in Saigon is better than that one in Hanoi. I am so excited about designs next time.

She gave me these cards as a pretty gift. (Coz I said that I hadnot seen them on sale in Hanoi. They are Saigon site cards).

These 3 cards show well-known sites in Saigon. Bến Thành market - biggest one in Saigon; the Cathedrale and The central Post Office. They are all french colonial architecture in Vietnam.

Thank you so much Mrs.Hang for this gift.

Cover#204 Vietnam, Year of the Rooster 2017,

 Today I went to stamp company as we have new issue: Year of the Rooster. Actually this issue have been delayed. It should have to be issued on first day of December but the designer got some problems with the copyright of his another creation so they lated release.

The set is composed of 2 stamps showing the silhouette of a chicken family in “Tò he” – an ancient art in Tonkin. “Tò he” is made of rice powder with natural colors (from floral such as orange from carrots…).

The both are designed by N.Du – the same one with design of Year of the Bufle 2008, Year of the Cat 2009, Year of the Monkey 2016.

How to create a Tò he?

To create a Tò he figurine, the craftsman needs a mixture of glutinous and ordinary rice powders which is easily to knead into different shapes and edible for children, bamboo sticks to plant the shaped Tò he and his own skill in graphic depicting.[2] Modeled by the hand of the craftsmen, the forms of Tò he figurine are drawn from animals, flowers and characters in folk stories such as Tôn Ngộ Không, the Monkey King in Journey to the West. There are seven basic colours of Tò he figurines which are green, sea blue, red, purple, yellow, white and black, those colours come from rice powder mixed with food dyes which are used to replace colours from trees or ashes in order to ensure the edibleness of tò he.[3] In the past, tò he was steamed after being kneaded but today the figurines are made directly from preboiled paste so that the craftsman can reduce the time for making one Tò he figurine.[4] The paste is made from glutinous and ordinary rice powders, it was kneaded with fresh water before dropped in boiling water for one hour and finally dyed with food colour.

The procedure of Tò he making requires utmost patience from the craftsman, but almost all Tò he makers are men and there is an unwritten law in families of Tò he craftsmen that secret in making Tò he is only passed from father to sons and daughters-in-law, not to daughters. There are no lesson of Tò he making, sons are transmitted the skill from their father solely in watching and self-learning. Nevertheless, nowadays tò he making is also taught to the handicapped so that they can live on making tò he and other forms of traditional art.

Source: Wiki

Uncut stamps:

Specimen stamps: 

20 Dec 2016 (#110430) is the first day the philatelic bureau of stamp company postmark is officially valid. But it seems that the postman didnot know that news so they chopped another postmark on my cover.

 Here are 2 private maxicards. I used rooster year cards of Japan to make. They are really nice. Thank you Masako for this support.

Cover#203 Czech, Commemorative Handstamp: Number50: God's gift (Christmas Ornament)

This time I got a christmas cover with the Christmas ball handstamp on. The postmark is made of several ice flowers. Inside is a fold card showing a snow view. I always enjoy to see view of snow on forest or on mountain.

Sent:1 Dec 2016

Arrived: 19 Dec 2016

Thank you so much Trung!

Cover#202 Czech, Floral Cover,

Sent: 03 Dec 2016

Arrived: 17 Dec 2017

Thank you Trung!