What Keeps You Busy With Your Stamps At The Moment?

I thought it would be fun to see what keeps the members here busy stampwise at the moment.

Myself, I've had a few productive days. I finished with the rehousing and reorganizing of my pre-decimal Australia collection, hopefully that will be the last reorganizing for a long time for this collection (even though I had fun doing it, it takes too much time reorganizing all the time).

When finished with the Australia, I started on an album I picked up at an auction this fall. It was one of those impulsive actions, and it contains stamps from Jersey, Guernsey and Canada. Have sorted through the stamps from Jersey and Guernsey, getting an overview over which stamps the album contained. The newest stamps turned out to be from 1986, and I was pleasantly surprised with the coverage. So a question presents itself, try to complete the gaps or not?

It also has to be said, both Jersey and Guernsey issued a lot of beautiful stamps in the 1970s and 1980s. I might try and scan a few of them this weekend if I have the time.

Have had a quick look at the Canadian stamps in the album, and will probably work a bit on those next.

So, what keeps you busy?

This is probably the wrong time for me to answer this question, as I am currently sitting up with my daughter who has a sickness bug and I am supposed to have 10 people to stay tomorrow night
So the quick answer is - nothing to do with stamps is keeping me busy!
But recently (until all hell broke loose in the house) I have been sorting out my French stamps, and printed off some French album pages from a free website. I haven't mounted any yet, but I have nearly finished the preparations. Most of them are from the 1940s and 1950s as most come from my Mother in Law. She is English, but spent a lot of time in France as she studied French and was a French teacher. I have studied French too, although I'm pretty rusty, so I am enjoying the linguistics involved.
I'm sure it will all be waiting for me when the house returns to normal..
Daughter is sleeping peacefully now, but I am dutifully standing by with the bucket...

Reading and replying on Stamp Community.

Searching ebay.

Looking for an album or storage device or way of storage for #10 or long envelopes / covers.

Arranging and scanning personalized stamps.

Trying to digure out how I am going to display all the different covers and stamps about my collecting topics.

Enjoying the whole process.

I just acquired a Morley Bright watermark detector, the first such instrument I've ever owned. It works quite well, so I've been going through a lot of stamps, mostly German ones, whose watermarks can't readily be seen by the naked eye.

But if there's a hinge or paper adherence, the wmk detector doesn't work, so these days I'm also soaking a lot of stamps.

Hi Jimjam
I have a morley bright detector as well, you need to be careful as sometimes if you press to hard they develop small holes and the liquid can bleed onto the stamps. I am going to save and buy and electronic one they are about 75 pound English which is about $100 australian, and considering the Morely one was $59 it is not too much to pay extra.
Regards
Horamakhet

Sadly, I can't spend several hours on my stamps at one time. So, I take on little subprojects when I can.
Mostly sorting the new arrivals and putting them in stockbooks, until I have the time to properly mount them.
I have a few (too many) big projects that I can't decide to do which first.

My main interest is US, so the bulk of my time goes there, cataloging and putting in albums what I can.
I'm still missing many modern era definitives.

My grandfather was in WW II, so I've started researching and collecting AMG stamps.
I also have a good amount of Pitcairn Islands, and the startings of an Israel Tabs collection.

Sometimes, I just browse through what I have to admire the designs.

Speaking of watermark detectors, I still have my small black bowl in which you pour some carbon tetrachloride, dunk the stamp in, peer closely at the stamp and try not to inhale. It sits here abandoned, maybe forever. I've had great luck so far with just water immersion and/or viewing by light transmission through the stamp or by observing while the stamp dries. I learned this month that different stamps seem to lend themselves to quite different methods of watermark observation.
I'm presently on watch with a sick dog, and a cat in my lap and allowing my recently soaked Swiss stamps to "equilibrate" using the "freezer bag and scrap book page" method posted by rod222.

Puzzler I have picked up a couple of lighthouse cover albums for number 10 size envelopes on ebay...these are the narrow single cover page books..i believe I got them for under 10 dollars each which included shipping...i find it easier to acquire those than the #10 envelope plastic stock pages !1

At present I am playing with Argentine official stamps..placing them in stockbook by type...also have Argentina registered covers and Polar Station covers that I am playing with !!

To reply to question about #10 Album/Storage Device, check out local Dollar Stores. Often I come across their "photo albums" designed for the old "panorama" sized film (when that was popular some years ago.) With the film's demise, the albums went to surplus stores for sale at $1 or $2. It's a good storage device for #10 envelopes, selected plate strips of stamps or even banknotes, if you're into collecting paper currency.

Stampgal: the trials and tribulations of a Mom - your daughter will never forget this. I never did.

Kicking myself for not finding SCF sooner and wishing I had spent more time learning the details.

I'm currently documenting all my stamp collection, through the use of the Scott catalogue and thanks to this website.

I've done all my Africa collection and now am doing my Middle East/Central Asia, next will be Asia, Oceania, Europe, South America, Central America, North America and then finally UN and Antarctica.

However, thanks to my carton of stamps, I keep finding African stamps, so I think I'm not going to be done anytime soon.....

I'm working on making my own album pages, so my time is currently filled with the design process and trials to see what I like.

The remainder is spent trawling eBay/Bidstart/Delcampe/Wensy for the elusive superbly centred US stamps that haven't been graded.

Balf

Currently I am in "lounge lizard" mode,
it's hot here, I have a tin roof and no air cond,
inside with tall ceilings its "temperate"
I don't have a thermometer as yet.

I feel lethargic about stamps, I go cycling,
and last night dancing, and will read a book
today after looking through SCF.

Thats ok rod, I don't think airconditioning is good for you...i have it in my truck but I also have windows so I never think to turn it on..wish I could get away without a furnace in winter but have to keep the pipes from freezing and bursting....wish I did not have to heat with oil..wow what a stamp allowence I would have !!