OFFICIAL Card - Russia

When this card arrived from Kate I literally got teary-eyed. When I visited Moscow I brought back a tray very similar to the ones depicted on the card for my Grandmother as a souvenir. Thirty years later, the tray is now in my possession. I can't say that I use it, however I do remember how much she loved it and had it on display at her house. Receiving this card brought back a flood of wonderful memories of my Bubby and my trip. I also learnt what the style of painting is known as - Zhostovo. Have you ever received a card that triggered a strong emotion? Brought back memories in a snap?

Bloglovin

Trying something different here. Stumbled upon this site called Bloglovin.com, new to me and I see I have a few followers - thank you! I am attempting to "claim" my blog. Somedays I think I am too old for all this!

One more way to subscribe to this blog to see the posts and others. Looks to me like it is kind of like Pinterest for blogs. Has anyone used this before?

a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/6260159/?claim=tagm33nr9jd">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

OFFICIAL Card - Taiwan

Alice lives in Taiwian chose a wonderful card for me - Mt. Fuji, located in Japan. The swans and blue skies are so serene and peaceful looking. It is also classed as a UNESCO site. Not too sure if that is her on the sticker/stamp she used, I asked but did  not hear back from her.

OFFICIAL Card - Malaysia

YungJia lives in Malaysia and loves to travel - who, doesn't! They recently went on holiday to Cambodia. This is one of the cards they bought on their trip. It shows the Ta Prohm Temple, it is a UNESCO site. Simply amazing.

OFFICIAL Card - Belarus

One of the first cards my daughter received via Postcrossing had the view of the Minsk Railway Station. So when this card arrived from Victoria last week I was able to recognize it. Good memory if I do say so myself. She translated some phrases for me from English to Russian and Belorussian. Love the Christmas stamps she chose too.

Greetings from Taiwan - Direct Swap with Sonya

No sooner am I able to sit back and enjoy the completion of my PostalLove collection and it seems they issue new cards just to celebrate with me! This last round saw five new countries introduced. I have connected with a few people to swap and have three other cards travelling to me. Right now the elusive one is Thailand. Wish me luck with that! Sonya and I connected on Facebook as she was offering the card from Taiwan. She shared with me her traditions for the Lunar New Year, they sound fun!

OFFICIAL Card - Taiwan

This is such a funky card! I love the simplicity of the photo and the way the longitude and latitude co-ordinates are superimposed over it. Such a striking visual! Singing lives in Taipei and wrote to me about a recent trip she took.

Direct Swap - Anu from England

It seems many others are now starting to collect the "Greetings from" series of cards too. I still have a few Canadian cards and am happy to help out when people ask. Anu was just starting her collection and had several cards to offer in return. I chose this fun one which on the back is titled "Pullover Farm". It is by a photographer names Senka Causevic. While I can find various eBay listing for other works I cannot find out much about her. I love the colours, really put a smile on my face. Anu used a Year of the Sheep stamp and chose a Water Sheep, that is my daughter's sign. I am Fire. I also love the circus stamp too!

OFFICIAL Card - Korea

Now that my Postcrossing account seems to have evened out it has been a really nice pace these past few weeks to receive a new card every day or two. Nothing like the dry spell I had leading up to Christmas. That was painful! This card arrived earlier in the week and I found it the most interesting read. I had never heard of King Sejong and really enjoyed reading the back of the card which provided many details on his life. Between my address, stamps, etc I wasn't really able to easily scan that portion. Hyemin chose a great Lunar New Year stamps and used some fun stickers showing Hanbok (traditional clothing).

 

OFFICIAL Card - Germany

Erika lives in a suburb of Bielefeld, Germany. She sent this nice multi-view of the town and her message was sweet. She told me a bit about her life and kind thoughts for me. The card came on the same day my friend Lynda and I were talking about travelling. She had just attended the big Postcrossing meet-up help there last October and hopes to make it back again this year. She could probably name the spots on the card for me!

USA from Michael

To say my friend Michael cannot stay still is an understatement. This time he was in Santa Barbara for school. So proud of him and all the work he is putting into his PhD. He did have some downtime and visited a few wineries - no surprise there! Always gives me a great feeling knowing that he is thinking of me and takes the time to show me and send me a card.

Direct Swap - Oleg from Israel

Oleg and I connected on Facebook when he posted this card to swap. He was looking for "Greetings from" cards and still needed Canada in his collection. The card shows a map of The Holy Land at the time of Jesus. Oleg was able to use stamps from 1992 showing  The Sea of Galilee. My card has arrived too - great swap, thanks Oleg!

Travelling Card - Christmas Stamps

This year I once again participated in a travelling card. The theme was Christmas stamps. Each person was to select a card, using Christmas stamps and send it to the next person. Once it arrived at the fourth destination it would then start to travel back to you. I chose what may be one of the smaller cards I had, but wanted to have a Christmas theme on the front as well. (Hard to see the glitter but it is there!) I received it back last week. I love seeing the various creative stamps other countries publish. Many thank to Claudia from Germany (who also organized this), Anne from Luxembourg and Mervi from Finland.

OFFICIAL Card - USA

As you may be able to tell from reading my blog I like birds. Of all birds, I think I would have to say my favourite are hummingbirds. I can and do literally sit for hours in the warmer months and watch them come to the feeders I keep for them. They are amazing, so small, so fast and so consistent! Claire is a Canadian who winters in Arizona. She sent me this beautiful card and told me how she had baby hummingbirds in her tree last year. That would be an amazing sight. Great stamps too!

OFFICIAL Card - Canada

Remember when I wrote the other day that receiving official cards from Canada was kind of rare - guess what? I received another one! Funny thing, the send dates were a month apart however they arrived a day or two apart. Who knows?!? Often in Postcrossing there is a "goal" to be the person who draws a certain number. For example, last August I drew CA-456789. The next big number people were aiming for was CA-500000. Josee was very close, as this card is CA-500064. Josee admins one of the Facebook groups I belong to and we met last summer at the Toronto meet-up. It was neat when her card arrived as I was truly able to put a face, voice, etc to the card as I was reading it. She chose a card depicting Aries. Nice as it not only shows a symbol of the zodiac but it is a Ram which is the Lunar New Year we are about to enter and "my year" to boot. Fun!

OFFICIAL Card - Canada

This card from was a very pleasant surprise when it arrived in my mail box. Official Canadian cards really do not occur that often. Don lives in Edmonton and sent this great aerial view of his city. I love how green it is! He gave me a great birds eye tour of the various sights. One day maybe I will get to see this in person.