Friday, May 28, 2010

Postcrossing - Volume 1


I sometimes wonder if maybe I try and take on too much....I work full time, am pretty much a single mum to three boys (I do have a lovely boyfriend, but he lives an hour away), and already have tons of very time consuming hobbies - papercrafts and textiles, ice hockey, geocaching, making jewellery, following Pearl Jam around like a lost puppy.... etc

But hey – there’s always time to squeeze in one more hobby, right? I can sleep when I retire…

So when I saw a friend on Facebook talking about Postcrossing, I hotfooted it over to the website to find out what it was all about.

In a nutshell, Postcrossing involves sending postcards to (and receiving them from) complete strangers all over the world, just for fun.

I have received 22 cards so far, from 11 different countries:

And I have posted 23
 

It has been absolutely brilliant to come home from work and find these happy and colourful messages on my doormat 2 or 3 times a week.

You can see all of the postcards I’ve received so far here

But these are my favourites to date:

This cool collage style card is called 'Vagabond Pizza' - it came from Katie in Los Angeles. 















This one is also from the US - from Micky (a girl Micky) who lives near Washington DC.

it's a picture of the famous "Fallingwater" house, built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1936.

This has long been on my list of places-I-want-to-visit-one-day

It's a pity the post office spoilt it a bit with that white sticker on the front :(


And another American favourite - once again featuring pizza! 

This very cool postcard was an original print bought from Etsy seller specimen7 (I might buy some myself). 

You can't see, but it has rounded corners.  I love rounded corners.

This was from Melanie, from Michigan



Here's a card made from an original photo taken by Athena, who lives in San Francisco.  I like this one so much because it looks like a perfect place to hide a geocache :D


And here's a brilliant card I got today - I looooove graffiti!  This one's from Minnesota.

I have just realised that ALL my favourites so far have been from America, how strange.

To balance things up a little - here's my most exotic card, I was very excited to receive post from Uzbekistan!
And here is a really cool one I got this week from the Ukraine:

As well as the brilliant images on the cards, I also love reading what each person writes. Some are short, sweet and to the point - one just said “Happy Postcrossing” and that was it - but most tell me a little bit about the person, and what life is like for them in their corner of the world.

It is a fantastic learning tool for Connor, too, as some of the postcards have prompted really interesting discussions about the country they came from.

Every time I get to 20 or so cards received, I’m going to bind them in a book, the photo at the top of this post is of my first postcard book - number one of hopefully many!

Happy Postcrossing!

10 comments:

Sid said...

All of these are stunning, love the Pizza !

rhomany said...

This sounds awesome, I'm going to have to check it out

Erika Jean said...

I love the way those are bound. I think I might look into doing something like that! of course... it might be tough to not hit and words. Maybe bring on the right? I have all mine tossed in a picture box right now! Nearing 200!

If you want to do a private swap e-mail me ;-) airrikajswan@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Just today I was wondering what to do with my postcards. I put them on display on a Real Wall, but it's full now. Binding them is a great idea! But I agree with Erika to perhaps bind them on the right to save the text.
Happy Postcrossing!

Sarah said...

don't worry, the binding holes do go on the address side, so they don't affect the message text

Anonymous said...

The FLW house is neat. I visited a couple of FLW houses in Illinois two years ago.

Anonymous said...

What a great idea to make the little books!
I have found that those white stickers peel off really easily - so I always just take them off.
I love the postcard from Uzbekistan. How cool to get a rare country so soon!!!

Have you done any activities recently for your next letter of the Alphabet?

Sarah said...

hi Annie from the opposite corner of the world :) Yes, I was really excited when the Uzbekistan card came...

Thanks for the tip about the white sticker, I'd been scared to try to peel it in case I ripped the card, but I went at it carefully and it peeled off without a trace, cheers

And yes we are now done with J and halfway through K - I need to get J blogged but am waiting for a J-related gift that my boyfriend ordered me during J fortnight to arrive so that I can photograph it and add it to the blog post :) It's coming from overseas so it's taking its time....

Chicken Licken said...

That looks such fun! Off to check it out!

Minxy said...

I dont know where you find the energy woman, im knackered just thinking about all you do lol
Thanks for the link though.. looks like an interesting exchange :)