19

Jun

2010

In to the mailbox!

Posted by Lyn | Comments : (3)

Category : Postcrossing, Sent

Tags: , , , , , , ,

A few of my sent from the past couple of days, all for Postcrossing.

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Heading off to Finland for someone who wants sunset postcards is this view of the Melbourne skyline. It’s my own photo, and I’m quietly proud of it.

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Someone in Germany likes city views, so this night shot of Melbourne will hopefully please them. To be 100% honest I have literally NO idea where these lights are, I assume Southbank, but I might be wrong.

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A Beatles fan in New Zealand lamented that Beatles cards were hard to find. I decided to cheer her up with this reproduction of the first Beatles publicity postcard. Because I’m lovely.

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An art student in Malta asked for art cards or “anything spiffy looking”. I hope she enjoys Rex Ray!

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A postcrosser from Singapore enjoys cityviews to study the buildings, so I picked the card with the most amount of city in it!

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This is heading to Canada, for a user without any preferences for cards, but who enjoys travel. I thought she might like some train waiting rooms from Budapest, because who wouldn’t?

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And finally, this Red Tailed Black Cockatoo is off to the USA for a wild life lover.

Now that I have 15 travelling cards on Postcrossing, I sure am giving the stash a kicking! What have YOU sent recently?

26

May

2010

Did you?

Posted by Lyn | Comments : (2)

Category : Postcrossing, Random Cards, Received, Sent, Swap-Bot

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

HI. I’m just wondering here, did YOU get a postcard from Angela? No? Aww. Sucks to be you*.

The Resting Place

BOOYAH. How awesome is this photo? Almost as awesome as the lady who sent it to me. I want to sit there and watch the world roll by (i enjoy sitting, I’m really rather good at it). The pic is by Stephanie Izzo, and you can read Angies thoughts about her right here.

Another recent arrival which I LOVE came via Swap-Bot for the “I want to get rid of this card!” swap.

Rec'd: I want to get rid of this card

The note on the back says “Nose flute, yuck!” which is why my parter (Young46356) wanted to be rid of the card. Me? I think it’s awesome. It’s a great and expressive shot.

For the “If you ‘Building’ it, they will come” postcard swap, Mejulia sent me this LA Restaurant:

Rec'd: If you "Building" it P/C Swap

Whoa. It’s like the 80s mated with the Jetsons. I don’t know if I love the building or hate it. I am undecided.

Again, more Swap-Bot – this one for the Random Postcard swap.

Rec'd: Random Postcard

This adcard for Powell’s is delicious, it’s a book city! Who doesn’t want to live in a book city! I love the art style, and the travel wear actually really suits it. Okay maybe I’m the only one who likes travel wear.

Outgoing for Postcrossing, this card went off on its merry way to Finland today for someone who wanted “Samples of nature – landscapes, trees, animals etc”. I thought I’d share this sample from the Red Centre.

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Yup, that’s why we call it the Red Centre. This range of cards has some gorgeous photos, but the picture quality is very pixelated, which is a shame.

*Shut up Matt.

25

May

2010

Oh hullo

Posted by Lyn | Comments : (0)

Category : Postcrossing, Received, Sent

Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’ve been lazy, I do so apologise. Where am I at? Well, I’m about 7 cards off having my Postcrossing sending limit increased (WHOOT) and I’ve had some gems incoming over the past couple of days.

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From Thailand this card shows the Royal Barge Ceremony, an event that’s been happening for more than 700 years!

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From Brazil. Now, this one got wet in transit, but I like when things happen to cards as they travel (I don’t know why). Check out the buildings! Are they not gorgeous? I shall tell you, they are.

I’ve sent a fair few over the past little while, so I won’t post them all, but I wanted to show you this one:

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It’s from the Elliot Erwitt set I reviewed earlier and is off to Belarus for a couple who want romantic cards. Did I do good or did I do good? (I did good).

If you’d like to see the others I sent and received you can poke your face at my Flickr set.

18

May

2010

Review: Andy and Elliott

Posted by Lyn | Comments : (1)

Category : Review

Tags: , , , , , ,

I like to buy postcard books and packs, simply because they tend to be pretty good value, and they add a nice variety to my stash. So I figured, why not talk about those? So I am. Let’s start with Andy.

andyreview

Title: Andy Warhol: Men.
Price: US$9.99
ISBN: 978-0-8118-4377-5
What you get: 30 standard sized postcards, no image repeats, with a matt finish in a cardboard sleeve.
It has to be said, I’m not really much of a Warhol fan. I tend to think his “best” and most applauded works are a bit over-rated. Having said that, the art works in this pack are pretty interesting, and I hadn’t seen most of them before. As the title suggests, all 30 cards are of men – either drawn, painted or photographed. Out of the 30, 9 include explicit nudity and three are borderline. So for postcrossing, perhaps not the best pack to get as there’s not often an excuse to send a penis to someone.

My favourite cards in this set are the drag queen ones, I think they’re really well photographed. The drawings I could take or leave, but again that’s probably just because I don’t adore Warhol like I probably should.

Overall: Considering that one third are “unsendable” (though of course it depends on what you personally want postcards for, you saucy minx), I would skip this pack. I wouldn’t have bought it if I’d known better what was inside, not because I’m a prude but because of the ones that will sit in my stash for ever.

elliottreview

Title: 50 Postcards – Pictures by Elliott Erwitt
Price: $22.95 RR (got mine half price)

What You Get: 50 A5 sized postcards, 25 different black and white images with a low gloss finish in a flip lid box.

I love these photos very much indeed. From the bizarre to the cheeky, they each have a little shine of fun. The cards are huge, which might be a problem for who you send it to if they store in albums, but they’re gorgeous. Two of each photo means you can keep one and send one (which I’m doing for some of these) and they’re large enough to frame and display if you want to. Beautifully captured moments of life.
Overall: Buy this box. Especially if you’re tired of sending tourist postcards, or if you just enjoy photography. Sadly the image on the top of the box (the little boy on the back of the bike) isn’t actually in the cards but nevermind, these are gorgeous through out and make a unique addition to your stash. Go buy this box!

27

Apr

2010

Old Collins Street

Posted by Lyn | Comments : (5)

Category : Vintage Cards

Tags: , ,

I began collecting vintage Australian postcards after poking around a gallery of 1950s hotel cards on the internets. Since my mother is the driving force behind the Local History Group I suspect she’s addled my brains with a historical interest. So from time to time I shall share with you a gem from my small collection, and you will be impressed.

Collins Street, 1920s

This is Collins Street in Melbourne, circa 1920s. It’s a Rose Series card, which is actually a whole other collection I’m working on. Check out the brilliant very new and hi tech cars! Love it. This one is unused, which is a bit sad because I’m a nosy person and like to peek at other people’s lives through the medium of postcards. Well why not indeed.

The Regent Theater you can see on the left there is still going strong today, here’s a grab of almost the same view from Google Street View:

Collins St Today

That’s the Regent there on the left with the arched awning. Some of the buildings are the same, we’re usually pretty cool about keeping older buildings in Melbourne. USUALLY.

So there you have Collins Street, Melbourne.

27

Apr

2010

Sent – Black and White Photography

Posted by Angela | Comments : (1)

Category : Sent, Swap-Bot

Tags: , , ,

For today’s ‘Out’ pile I had 2 very simple post cards.

The swap is titled “Black and White Photography” and all I had to do was affix a black and white photo that I took and send it to 2 partners. Photography AND swapping? Oh you bet I joined.

Now, my photog skills are about as big as my big toe, so I didn’t have a lot of photos to choose from. I ended up going with a photo I took of 2 of my good friends in the park.

There they are, in all their glory. Jenn is an English major at Univeristy of North Florida and Kyle works in real estate with his mom in Gainesville. They each travel an hour and a half every weekend to see each other, and they are just adorable. Not to mention patient because I was taking their photos for about 2 hours.

Needless to say, the photo made very cute post cards and I mailed one each to Angeleyes and Liveyourheart. I’ve crossed my fingers they arrive safe as they’re going to Germany and Australia, respectively.