All Summer Postcards!!! (W #29-38)

I am sure I'll want to bang my head on the keyboard after I'm finished with this post, but that's the price one must pay for being lazy for way too long. On the other hand, lazy feels better than uploading postcards feels bad, so it's a very fair bargain. Actually, I love going through my postcard collection, reading the messages, remembering all those great swaps that I joined in order to receive them. Except that this time it's almost fifty postcards I want to share with you so it's probable that I get an aneurysm from all this pleasure that is ahead of me. 

Although I didn't send any postcards while I was away on holidays, my greedy mailbox back home was working as hard as ever, and so was my boyfriend... He would take photos of all the new postcards and send them to me! Poor guy, you might think. He said he was excited to be the first one to get to see the postal treasures, ha ha :D Exchanging mail is contagious, and he had been warned!

Gier güi gou! (<--- A valuable Spanglish phonetics lesson in case why not)

     (Here we go)

From Belarus via Postcrossing
Aquatic Warbler (Acrocephalus paludicola)

From Singapore via Swap-bot
(NYUP Sender's Choice #8)

It's a Doctor Who card and I get the impression that they're very sought-after by the fans. I, however, am absolutely ignorant of the programme. I just googled it, seriously.

From Belgium via Swap-bot
(Send me a postcard! - one person per country #2)

From Poland via Postcrossing

From Germany via Postcrossing

Unbeknown to the sender, I am a ---

                                                                                                       --- of Grace Jones, especially of her modelling work and music. Such an inspiration! The sender had a great sense of humor. He said the card showed him on the left with his wife on the right :D Maybe I just got a postcard from Christopher Walken.

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(P. S. Write Back #33)

For those who have never participated in "P.S. Write Back" swaps, it's a great way to add a very dear postcard from your unwritten card collection into your written and stamped- collection. You send it blank to your partner, he/she writes on it and sends it back to you. You do the same for somebody else. Of course, as everywhere, there are cheating individuals on swap-bot that might just keep your treasured card for themselves, but I believe the odds of that happening are reasonably slim. So far all of my postcards have been returned, and that's how this beauty ended up being mine forever. Some postcards are just too gorgeous to let go of!

A thank you- card I received from Lithuania (bought in Montmartre!)

From South Africa via Postcrossing
My first official postcard from South Africa on Postcrossing!!!

From Russia via Swap-bot
(Multiview postcard #1)

From Finland via Postcrossing
Peanuuuuuts!

From France via Swap-bot
(P. S. Write Back #33)

Another postcard I wanted to keep. To say that I love beer would be to undervalue the relationship I have with it :>

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(All things bright and beautiful)

From Finland via Postcrosing

Private swap from Russia
"Feline vacation"

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(QUICK cute animal postcard #35)

I am really glad that my partner for this swap chose something else than a typical kitten/puppy postcard. This one is a bobcat cub! I sent a postcard with marine mammals (don't dear to say walruses are not cute) to my partner.

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(P. S. Write Back #32)

From The Netherlands via Swap-bot
(OVERSIZED OR ODD SHAPED POSTCARD SWAP #2)

Although the scan is ugly, the postcard itself is very cool. It combines two representative features of the country, one in its shape and the other in the image. It is my first irregular-shaped postcard.

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(PC Trading: Starts w/letter)
This time the letter was "I", obviously

From Russia via Postcrossing
It was among my favorites! Thanks!

From Germany via Postcrossing

Another thank you- postcard from the same girl in Lithuania

From Ukraine via Postcrossing
I love this card!

From Japan via Postcrossing

This one is actually pretty curious. It's The Statue of Liberty that came from Japan. On the other side there were a couple of phrases in hiragana and one in romanized Japanese, neither of which I could understand. I still wonder about the postcard choice and the meaning of the message.

From U.S.A. via Postcrossing
(Another Statue of Liberty!)

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(What´s on your pizza? Postcard swap :))
Wait, another one?.. :(( I must have around 20 Statues of Liberty by now!

From Netherlands via Postcrossing
Ohh, I know it's unhealthy, but I just have a thing for brachycephalic animals...

From my penpal Heather in Switzerland
She was camping in that place. Wow!

From U.S.A. via Postcrossing
Abominable by Mark Ryden, 2008

Straight to my favorites! As the sender described him, Mark Ryden is "the Modern Day King of  Pop Surrealism". I'd like to receive more works of his!

From U.S.A. via Postcrossing

From Croatia via Swap-bot
(Love it! Hate it! PC swap)

From Finland (Lappland) via Postcrossing

I really wanted to have a postcard from Lappland as I fancy most things Nordic. Thanks to the sender from Kilpisjärvi, I now have one. Click on the town name to see how much up-north the town is actually situated! It was August when the card was sent, and the sender was glad that the weather was warm, with temperatures reaching 14°C :)

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(International Postcard Swap #1)
Mmmm, a map card!

From the United Kingdom via Swap-bot
(Easy PC Swap - sender's choice #10)

From Russia via private swap

From Greece via Swap-bot
(Easy PC Swap - sender's choice #10)

From Russia via Postcrossing

From Canada via Swap-bot
(Lenticular (3D) Postcard Swap #5)

From Russia via Postcrossing

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
(One Unsual Postcard)
Sweet Relief by James Jean, 2006

This postcard is really beautiful and unusual, as the swap indicated. I wish it didn't have that ugly postmark that I tried to clean with alcohol but couldn't. Any advice on that, please? From my experience, postmarks are really easy to remove from some glossy cards, and from others it's plain impossible. Could that have anything to do with the ink? This postcard is matte, so I didn't want to rub it too hard either. It's also worth mentioning that although all of my postcards appear as having rounded corners on the blog, this one does have rounded corners. Another point to being rather unusual!

From South Korea via Swap-bot
(P. S. Write Back #32)
Other World by M.C. Escher, 1947

Most of the postcards I want to keep for myself come through blank postcard swaps. The origin of this postcard was no exception. I have been a fan of M.C. Escher for almost as long as I can remember being a fan of sb/sth, so there was no vacillating about what to do with it. Well of course, it was going to travel all the way to South Korea and back, over 20.000 km as the crow flies!

Vanuatu ---> Australia ---> Spain via Postcrossing

From Finland via Postcrossing

From Ukraine via Postcrossing

From Germany via Postcrossing

From Poland via Postcrossing

From France, from a travelling family member

From U.S.A. via Swap-bot
 (NYUP Sender's Choice #8)
Yellow-Red-Blue by Vassily Kandinsky, 1925

When searching for the title of the painting, I realized I had scanned the image upside-down! It was written upside-down as well. I guess both me and the sender saw a cat on the right side of the painting, hahaha! I should punish myself for vulgarizing abstract art :D

From Bulgaria via Swap-bot
(Send me a postcard! - one person per country #2)
My first postcard from Bulgaria!

Aaaand, last but definitely not least - the stamps. I am too tired to comment on my favorites, but there were so many unseen ones this time!

I'll just go and puke shredded paper now. See you next time!