More for my private collection.

This is the last of the postcards I've received for my private collection.



Buffalo Bill's Wild West. Sent to me by another wonderful penfriend, Laura.



NL-540177: Stetson Hats.



Chippewa Girl. Laura also sent this one to me.



US-908624: The site of the Acoma Pueblo, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the US, was chosen for its defensive position. Only about 50 Acoma livein the Pueblo but the rest of the close to 3,000 villagers reside close by, returning to observe feast days. The site is very carefully protected and strict regulations exist for visiting.



US-928086: Picture of a group of Texas Rangers in 1845.



US-934519: This woman, photographed in Carpenter's makeshift studio at the Saint Louis Fair, was identified as Mrs. Henry Boatman, from the Maricopa Tribe of Arizona.

An update with postcards for my private collection.

I'm finally doing an update! Things have just been crazy over the last few weeks. I decided to make time tonight to do a post of some postcards I've received for my private collection. I'll try to do another post like this one later this week.



"Ghost Bear" was a Crow warrior Native American Indian. The Crow, also called the Absaroka or Apsaalooke, are Siouan-language tribe of Native Americans who historically lived in the Yellowstone River valley. This photo of Ghost Bear, in full warrior head dress, was taken in early 1908. This postcard was sent to me by my wonderful penfriend Michele.




US-954002: This is an old building at the abandoned Vulture Mines in Arizona. It was taken by the postcrosser who sent it to me.



US-1018703: Jerkline Freight Outfit. Hauling supplies throughout Utah Territory. This photo taken in 1877.


US-1034472: Doc Holliday (1851 -1887). Gambler, gunfighter, dentist, John H. Holliday's temper sent many men to their graves. Once saving Wyatt Earp's life in Dodge City, Doc became one of Earp's close friends. He was in the famous fight at the O.K. corral. He died of tuberculosis at an early age in Colorado.


US-938199: Women of the West - Mrs. Dwight Plympton Conklin, c. 1860.

It's been way too long!

I didn't realize that it's been over a month since I last posted in here. The good news is that school is officially over and done. Now it's onto job hunting and hopefully I'll find a job quickly.

I've now reached 550 sent postcards! I feel like all I've done in the last 24 hours is send official postcards (and of course some to my wonderful pen friends!) I've sent 14 official postcards in the last 24 hours. Awesome! I'm way behind on scanning in received postcards though. Hopefully I can get caught up this week.

I also want to do a post with all my postcards with my private collection, but I haven't had a chance to do that either. Another project for this week!

Almost to 500...

On my main account (vonxblood), I am close to 500 sent postcards!!!! I'm at 497 so only three more postcards to go. It seems like a lot, but not compared to other users who have been on postcrossing forever. I'd love to be one of the top senders for the USA. It would help if I stopped having my postcards expire though. Oh well. I still love it as much as I did when I started over two years ago!

Oh and I just have to give a shout out to all my awesome pen friends who read this. Thank you for being so wonderful and for sending me awesome postcards or folded cards. It totally makes my day!

If anyone from Washington reads this or if anyone on my blog knows any postcrosser from here, let them know that there is a meet up on April 9th. They can check it out on the forums for more info.

Interesting article for all you USA people....

I saw this today and thought it was interesting. If you get a chance, you should read it: http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/life/13-things-your-mail-carrier-won-t-tell-you-2445111/

And suddenly there is no mail.

Tuesday, I received 9 postcards.
Wednesday, I received 1 postcard.
Today, I received no postcards.

I'm starting to feel like each day is a game. Hopefully tomorrow I will have mail!

My zazzle.com order arrived today. Super stoked on all my new pretty postcards!

Yay! Mail!

Today, I received a ton of mail! Yay! I had 9 postcards in my mailbox. Finally!

The 9 postcards breakdown like this:

Thank you postcard = 1 (original official postcard was lost so I sent a second)
Pen friends = 3
Officials = 5

Some of the officials took forever to get here and the users did send them right after they got my address. One from Lithuania took 75 days to get to me! It was postmarked on November 11th, 2010. Crazy. I wonder why it got held up for so long, but at least it got to me!

I'm glad I finally got some mail. Hopefully this trend continues.

Slow mail.

It seems that mail has been unusually slow during and even after the holidays. I've barely gotten any mail the last two days - no official or pen friend postcards. Also, it seems to be taking my official postcards an awful long time to reach their destinations. I love writing out postcards so this makes me sad. I sent a few messages on the forum out to some people that want postcard pals. Then I logged into my second account. I haven't used it for months because I really only want to concentrate on my main official account. I figured it would be ok to send a few postcards out to people from that account. I have it set on inactive so I won't receive postcards on that account. I just wanted to send some postcards out today! I actually drove them up to the drive up mailbox at the post office on my way to pick my husband up at the ferry. I hope they make people smile. It made me feel better. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow some of my official postcards have been registered so I can send more.

Oh and I bought more postcards from zazzle.com today and my order that I placed last week showed up today. I'm very pleased with my new postcards. What can I say? I'm addicted.

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.