Buying more postcards... what else am I going to do with my money?

I can't resist going to zazzle.com to see if they have any sales because of course if they have sales, I'll be tempted to buy more postcards. Are they having a sale? Yes. 50% off postcards. Could I resist? NOPE. I ordered 10 different designs, four of which were ones that I had uploaded. Some of the ones I designed I'll send to pen friends, some I'll use as official postcards. It'll be interesting to see how they are when I get them. I'm tempted to buy more since it's such a great deal and the sale ends on Thursday.

Speaking of my pen friends, I think I need to buy some postcards specifically for them. I hate using the cards I bought for official postcards to send to them. I know it probably sounds stupid, but I want separate postcards for officials and for my pen friends. I'll probably start working on that next month when I can hit some stores again.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have the energy to post some of the postcards I've received for my private collection.

Another long delay...

Again, I got busy with life. It's been a whirl of snow storms, power failures, holidays, sickness and school finals, but now finally, the week of Christmas, I am finally able to update in here!

I've made some lovely pen pals. Some through the forum and some have contacted me directly on postcrossing. Yay! I've already received lots of lovely postcards and regular cards so that's nice. Hopefully I'll make some lasting friendships.

Here are some of my more recent favorite postcards:


BY-110003 Lovely winter scene and the postcard has glitter on it.


FI-957488 Can't go wrong with Santas on motorcycles!


JP-139472 This is just so cute and totally made my day when I got it!


NL-510071 It has a recipe on the back in Dutch, but is a super cute postcard.


RU-268190 The user said it's an advertisement postcard, but the seagull with a Santa cap on its head is too funny.

That's all for now. I'll have more to post soon!

Some new favorites!

I've received these official postcards over the last few days and wanted to share them with everyone.


DK-12928 Received on Nov. 19th, 2010 - Christmas postcard! Yay!


US-910568 Received on Nov. 19th, 2010 - Rubber duckies!


FI-950067 Received on Nov. 22nd, 2010 - Beautiful snow scene!


TW-220886 Received on Nov. 22, 2010 - Sweets!

It took me awhile to decide to do this, but a few weeks ago I put a request on my postcrossing profile that says:

"I am also looking for some pen friends in either the U.S., UK or Europe. People who I can just exchange postcards with randomly, but who will also randomly send me postcards back. Please message me if you have the same or similar interests as me. Thanks!"

I figured that with how many postcards I send and receive, I'd get a message from someone, right? Nope. Nothing. I wonder if my wording or something offended people. I'm not against pen friends from other countries; I just seem to have better luck sending and receiving to those countries.

There are a couple of nice women I randomly exchange postcards with. One of them is more into swapping where I get some of those wonderful old west postcards and I send her postcards that she likes off of my sent list. It works well. I just know that they're busy and I need more people that I can randomly exchange postcards with. Sending mail makes me really happy and I really haven't wanted to get really involved with the postcrossing forum again since I want pen friends, not random postcards from people.

Tonight I decided to put a post on the forum asking for postcard pen friends. I replied to a few different people who are also looking for pen friends. A few live in the US too and I heard back from one user in the Netherlands who plans on writing me ASAP. I'm excited! I hope I hear back from more people soon. Sending mail seems to make me feel better and happier lately so I'll probably have to go buy more stamps and postcards, but that's fine.

New postcards for my private collection.

I've gotten some really wonderful postcards for my private collection over the last week or so. Three of these came to me in private swaps by the same user. She is so super nice for sending these to me and of course she gets postcards back in return.


This is an official postcard: US-871379
Stagecoaches built by the Abbot-Downing Company of Concord, New Hampshire were used by Wells Fargo to transport gold, mail and passengers throughout the west. This stagecoach, #187, is on display at the Wells Fargo History Museum in Sacramento, CA.


Pioneer Log Home - This fifteen-foot by twenty-foot log home, constructed of douglas fir and lodgepole pine, was built by Latter-day Saint pioneers upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. It has been restored with furnishings that reflect the lifestyle of the Osmyn Deuel family, its original inhabitants.


Pioneer Handcart - This handcart was pulled from Nebraska to the Utah Territory in the late 1860s by members of the William Stiff family, immigrants from England. Traveling in a Church-sponsored wagon train, the Stiffs purchased the handcart to carry additional possessions to their new home.


Western Stagecoach - Before the railroad era, a Concord Coach was the best form of transportation in the West. Until the early 1900's, stages carried mail, passengers, and baggage to small towns, settlements, and remote mining districts. At an exasperating 5 miles per hour, travelers tolerated soaring heat, freezing cold, mud, and dust, sometimes all in the same day. (Photo: 1894, Arizona Historical Society.)

Where are my postcards?

While I do prefer sending postcards to receiving them, I still do like to receive postcards. For whatever reason, I do not seem to be getting a lot of postcards and the difference between my sent and received postcards is growing. I now have 398 sent postcards and only 372 received postcards. I know it's normal to have a few more sent than received, but a difference of 26 postcards is a lot. I have no idea what is going on. I hope people's postcards aren't getting lost on their way to me.

I also seem to be running into the problem of expired postcards. Right now I have six expired postcards. I had seven expired postcards earlier this week, but my replacement card made it to the user and was registered after 86 days of traveling. Two of the users seem to have stopped using postcrossing altogether, I have a replacement postcard sent out to another user and the three are all in China so I'm waiting until it's been at least 80 days before I sent replacement postcards. It's frustrating. It seems like I keep getting users who sign up and then only participate for a little bit before quitting and don't delete their profile or anything. I understand that postcrossing isn't for everyone or that other things may come up preventing a user from participating, but please don't ruin it for everyone else, you know?

On a happier note, I ordered another batch of postcards from Zazzle.com and I was much happier with the result. I ordered nine different designs and only didn't like one of them. I just wish that when I requested a new address, it would be for a user who wants a Christmas postcard! Waiting until December to send these pretty postcards out is driving me crazy. I just hope they make people smile.

New postcards for my private collection.

Here they are!



Both of these postcards show Bodie, CA. It's a ghost town now, but it used be a gold mining town in the 1860s. The user that sent me these took the photos himself. More info on Bodie can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodie,_California


Golden Spike National Historic Site: Located west of Brigham City, at Promontory Utah, the Golden Spike was driven on May 10, 1869 to celebrate the completion of the first transcontinental railroad.



Sarah Winnemucca (1844 - 1891), Native American rights activist. She gained fame as a translator and negotiator for the U.S. Army. She travel extensively and lectured on behalf of her people and later established a school for Native American children in Nevada.

Finally, an update.

I've been slammed with school and then busy at home so I haven't had a chance to update this for awhile. I've gotten some awesome new received postcards and some new ones for my private collection. I'll update first with my favorite received postcards and then do another post later with the new postcards for my private collection.


DE-723249 I love huskies and the user wrote the nicest message on the back. Totally made my day.


FI-918631 Yay for Christmas postcards!


FI-923504 Snow scene with a Christmas tree in the front.


DE-721575 Mailboxes!


JP-131486 I just thought that something about this was very pretty.

Favorite of the week

I recently added "anything related to Christmas" to my favorites list on my profile and I received a lovely postcard from a user in Germany. It still makes me smile.


DE-713457

My Ordered Postcards Arrived....

Today, both my Amazon.com and Zazzle.com order arrived and to be honest, I wasn't 100% happy with the results. The book of postcards I ordered from Amazon.com were ok. I think they'll still make people happy when I send them out and I do think they're interesting. I won't be buying this book of postcards again though. The Zazzle.com order really disappointed me. I ordered four different designs (eight prints of each design) and was not happy with how one of the Christmas ones came out. I think whoever took the picture and uploaded it must not have been very good with focusing and using their flash because it seems blurry to me. However, the cat one is super great and the other two Christmas designs are good too. I will be ordering different designs next time. I have lots to choose off of my favorites list on their site so hopefully it'll work out better next time.

I did it again....

I ended up ordering more postcards over the weekend. I couldn't help myself. I had to order James (my husband) a book for school from Amazon.com so I ordered a book of postcards for myself too. That was on Saturday. On Sunday, I was browsing sites looking for cute cat cards and Christmas cards and ended up going on Zazzle.com. I've ordered there before and the cards are fantastic quality, but are super expensive so I try not to order from there unless I don't have a choice. Well.... Yeah, I ended up ordering some Christmas postcards and some cat postcards. I couldn't help myself. There are more I want to order, but I am going to try and hold off until next month. They should be shipping my postcards in the next day or so. I'm excited... and of course I want to buy more!

Yesterday, I came home to six new postcards so that was nice after a long day at school. One of them was a cute Christmas postcard that I will have to post in here after I scan it in.

I love postcards and postcrossing!

Favorites day!

I'm now able to send 15 postcards at a time which is awesome. Of course waiting for them to get registered can still be frustrating! I'm trying not to buy anymore postcards because I have so many as it is. I want to buy some Christmas/holiday postcards to send out during December. I'll hopefully have the money to do it in November.

I've received some awesome official postcards and here are some of my favorites!


US-843203 Lewis and Clark on the Lower Columbia River, 1905. This will be going in my private collection.


IT-102531 My first Coca-Cola postcard! Yay!


CA-125352 This was sent to me by another mother and it was her first postcrossing postcard sent out.


NL-434868 My first rubber ducky postcard (also my favorite color, dark pink!) and it was also her first postcrossing postcard sent out.


FI-906454 I just thought this was simple and beautiful.


IS-9720 My first postcard from Iceland. So beautiful. Would love to go someday.

Long week...

It's been a very long week and I've been feeling somewhat down too. I want to send more postcards! Sending postcards cheers me up. I've sent six this week and now I have to wait for more cards to get registered so I can send more. I've thought about opening my profile back up for private swaps, but that's really not the same as official cards.


Bah.

More for my private collection

Here are some more postcards for my private collection.


I bought this at The High Desert Museum while on vacation.
Commercial District, Silver City Idaho Exhibit.


I got this in a private swap from a wonderful postcrosser. Lots of awesome information on it.
The silent stone walls of Mesa Verde's ancient cliff dwellings tell the story of a civilization struggling to survive in a harsh environment. Once a prosperous and highly advanced Anasazi community, it was mysteriously abandoned sometime during the close of the 13th century. Today the remains of Mesa Verde are the best preserved ancient cliff dwellings in the United States and tell us much about their inhabitants' culture and customs.


Another postcard I picked up while on vacation.

Private collection

When I was on vacation, we went to The High Desert Museum. It was so cool. They had this huge section on the settling of the Old West/Wild West and it was amazing. I am now totally hooked on anything related to the settling of the Wild West. I hope postcrossers that live in the US can help me out if they have postcards relating to that subject. I put a request on my profile and have had some users respond to cards that I have favorited so I'm feeling pretty hopeful. I found some postcards on our adventure the other day. I'll be posting cards like that in here and I need to put them in an online album so everyone can see them.


This lovely postcard was sent to me in a private swap.
Scorched Lightning - This Minneconjoux Sioux was named Scorched Lightning. Note the magnificent string of large bear claws around his neck. The bear was held in reverence among Northern Plains Tribes and admired for its great strength and courage.



I bought this one myself.
The Beaver Family - Sampson, Louise, and Leah Beaver are dressed in a combination of indigenous and European clothing and accessories. They are a family of the Stoney Nation, who live near the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Photo taken in 1907.


Another one I bought myself.
Hanging Meat to Dry - This Crow woman from the Great Plains hangs meat out to dry. Once the meat is dry, it will be mixed with fat and berries to become a dietary staple called pemmican. The meat is stored for use over the winter months. Photo taken in 1905 or 1906.

Postcards and adventures

When I went to buy stamps on Tuesday, there ended up being a huge line at the post office so I decided to order them online instead. I think they'll be here today, but it's not a big deal if they're not.

After that, I went to my favorite drug store on the island. They sell so many wonderful postcards. (I actually went there for something else, but who can resist postcards?) I stocked up on some favorites that I was almost out of and bought some new ones that I couldn't resist because I thought they were either cool, interesting or funny. I can't wait to send them out!

When I got back from my errands, my husband suggested that we go out on an adventure since I start school again next week. We bundled our daughter up and headed out to the Olympic Peninsula. So beautiful. We ended up going out to the Hoh Rain Forest since neither of us had ever been there before. Wow. Amazing. That area is just so awe inspiring. We found this great store called Peak 6. They sell hiking and camping gear as well as souvenirs. I found some awesome Native American postcards for my private collection (I would have bought some to send on postcrossing, but they were 75 cents a piece!) and one that featured the wild cats of Washington so I bought those since I hadn't seen that postcard before. My husband and I ended up with new winter jackets, Native American jewelry and our daughter chose a stuffed husky for herself.

Today, I need to head out to see if I can find a specific postcard that a user wants in a trade. I think I know where I can find it, but we'll see. There are only three stores in could be in and two of them are within minutes of where I live.

Back from vacation!

I was on vacation from September 5th to September 11th. I bought soooooo many postcards while I was down there. I couldn't help myself. There were so many beautiful ones to chose from. I was able to use the Postcrossing website from my phone so I actually sent some users directly from where we were. It made me happy to send postcards while I was on vacation. I have extras to send to other users now too.

Anyway, that's all I have. I'll hopefully have some new postcards to post soon. I need to buy some more USA postcard stamps too. I'll hopefully be able to do that tomorrow.

Favorites.

These are some of my favorite received postcards from the batch of 40 that I just scanned in this week.


DE-659904 I thought this one was great with the gummy bears on it.


FR-103466 A combination of my love of cats and mailboxes. Plus, it's super cute.


US-788553 Not only is it a super great cat picture, but the user wrote the sweetest message wishing my husband and I a happy early wedding anniversary.


TR-39044 It's shaped like a sheep. How awesome is that?

Postcards, postcards, postcards

This week, I bought postcards on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Like I said, obsessed much? I definitely buy way more postcards than I can ever send out. There's something about postcards that I've always loved. I like them better than letters because you get a picture and a short note from wherever the person is. I used to buy them on trips all the time, but stopped after awhile. Now that I have a purpose for cards, I have to buy them wherever I go. I send some to friends and family when I travel, but I reserve most for postcrossing.

I finally scanned in and uploaded my received postcards. I had 40 of them to scan in. Yikes. I usually don't wait that long, but I just got really far behind with school and everything.

I also scanned in the postcards I bought. I only do that for cards I buy in bulk because I know it's nice for users who can't scan their cards in.

Received postcards

I am way behind on scanning in my received postcards for a variety of different reasons. The main reason is that I just haven't had the time with school, but since school is done this week, I will hopefully be able to start scanning them in. I have a huge pile of postcards next to my computer. It's going to take me a long time to get it all done. I hate falling behind like this.

Expired postcards

Right now I have 5 expired postcards. I hate that! Two just recently expired and the other three have been expired for awhile. The three oldest expired postcards, the users haven't logged in for at least a month and one user hasn't logged in in over five months. I hope they get registered at some point before they completely expire. I have a new rule that when I get an expired postcard, I have to contact the user after the postcard has been traveling for 120 days just to check in with them. If they haven't gotten my postcard by then, then I'll be happy to resend them one. I figure if it hasn't shown up within four months, then it's probably lost. I really hate seeing expired international postcards since it's so expensive to send to begin with, but I'm determined that all my postcards will reach their destinations.

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I updated this. I've been super busy with school and taking care of my 7 and 1/2 month old daughter so this obviously wasn't a priority.

I've decided against posting every received card in here. If people really want to see my received cards, they can go to my postcrossing profile and look at them. I figure I'll use this to talk about my obsession with all things related to postcards and postcrossing!

I swear, I can't go anywhere without buying postcards! Last Thursday, my husband, daughter and I went to Hurricane Ridge which is part of the Olympic National Park. They of course had lots of postcards to choose from so I bought some. I wanted to buy more, but they're more expensive than other places (50 cents a card) so I only got the ones I really liked. Then on Sunday, we all drove up to Neah Bay and Cape Flattery. When we stopped in Port Angeles at Safeway for something to drink, I found more postcards so I quickly bought some. I've scanned these in so when I send them to people, I can upload them on postcrossing. I don't upload everything I buy though. Only the postcards I buy in multiples or spend a lot of money on. I'm trying not to buy too many because I have so many to send out! My mother-in-law buys me postcards when she travels so I have postcards from other places to send out as well.

I also went and bought stamps today. I think I'm going to order more online so I can get some cool regular mail stamps. I wish international postcard stamps weren't so expensive!

Received postcards 250 to 255

CZ-63243 received from user efik on July 13th, 2010. It took 13 days and traveled 8,457 km.


TH-46871 received from user musika on July 13th, 2010. It took 13 days and traveled 11,414 km.


MY-43503 received from user ahneinei on July 13th, 2010. It took 8 days and traveled 12,928 km.


PH-16717 received from user carl8888 on July 16th, 2010. It took 18 days and traveled 10,688 km.


US-752759 received from user MGray on July 16th, 2010. It took 5 days and traveled 3,454 km.


CA-106405 received from user squigglepie on July 16th, 2010. It took 55 days and traveled 3,543 km.

Received postcards 242 to 249

I got a lot of wonderful postcards over the last two days. My mailbox was overflowing with them!

KR-9848 received from user Lovely_Genie2. It took 9 days and traveled 8,411 km (5,226 miles.)



DE-630658 received from user katzeeladia. It took 12 days and traveled 8,357 km (5,193 miles.)



US-543373 received from user Tsadida. It took 250 days (the first card never made it to me) and traveled 4,056 km (2,520 miles.)



AE-2363 received from user ultimate_beauty. It took 14 days and traveled 11,924 km (7,409 miles.)



ES-72805 received from user remite. It took 93 days and traveled 8,739 km (5,430 miles.)



FI-842005 received from user Kobaje. It took 11 days and traveled 7,630 km (4,741 miles.)



US-743709 received from user Cbear214. It took 9 days and traveled 1,947 km (1,210 miles.)



NL-379930 received from user Mirsky. It took 5 days and traveled 7,883 km (4,898 miles.)