Lottery Win - Finland

Elenna hosted a lottery in October on the Postcrossing Forum. It had a really neat twist to it. She opened the lottery and offered six different cards featuring the Swedish Royal Family. You were to choose which card you liked best and answer the question she posed about Royal Families. The twist was she asked the winner to open a new lottery, kind of paying it forward. I really liked that idea. Lucky for me I was the winner and chose this fantastic card showing Princess Madeleine and her groom. What I didn't know was Elenna took the card to a mini meet-up with a few Postcrossing friends and they all signed it. The icing on the cake is the beautiful foiled wedding stamp. This was the first postcard I received for 2015, a great way to start off the year - thank you Elenna!

Greetings from Sweden - Direct swap with Jarmo

I honestly thought trying to find someone to swap the Greetings from Sweden card sent from the country was going to be a needle in a haystack. I was thrilled when it turned out to be one of the easier ones! I connected with someone on Facebook who pointed me in the direction of Jarmo. He was keen to swap as he needed the Canadian card. So nice when it works out like that. The stamp and postmark he selected for me is icing on the cake. The Europa stamps are from 1998 and the theme that year was festivals and national celebrations.

Lottery Win - Sweden from Tiina - Part IV

Tiina wrote "it is never to early for Christmas" and I happen to agree. She found this card in "Old Town" (I am guessing that is an area of Stockholm). The stamps she used too are wonderful. I love seeing different Christmas stamps from around the world.

The big brown building on the right is the Royal Palace. Tiina writes that she {loves} Stockholm. On this card she sent me a souvenir sheet of Sweden's Europa stamp for 2013. You can learn more about these issues here.

A great view of one of Tiina's favourite places - Old Town, Stockholm. Another wonderful stamp celebrating the King of Sweden's 40th year.

The arrival of this card was bittersweet. Like all good things, Tiina's vacation had come to an end. This card shows a typical Kraftskiva or crayfish party. It is an outdoor party held every August. It is so important there is a special stamp issued. Looks like fun!

I cannot thank Tiina enough for sharing her vacation with me. The cards, the stories and her extreme generosity will be treasured for a long time - thank you!!!!

Lottery Win - Sweden from Tiina - Part III

Today was Tiina's husbands birthday. They spent the day sailing on a steamboat to Marstrand. There were local celebrations going on this day so it just happened that an entire brass band orchestra was there to meet the boat when they arrived. More of those delicious cookie stamps too!

Next up is this card from the amusement park they visited, Liseberg. They went on several rides and her husband won a 2kg bag of M&M's - my favourite candy!

A great view of Gothenburg harbour arrived next. Tiina shared that both Swedish princesses are expecting. You don't hear much about that Royal Family in Canada.

Next up is this card showing the S/S Storskar which take 1.5 hours from Stockholm to Waxholm. Tiina writes it was a lovely ride though Stockholm archipelago.

Vaxholm is on of Tiina's favourite places and she and her husband visit each year when they go to Stockholm. It was a warm 27C when she sent this at the end of August.

Lottery Win - Sweden from Tiina - Part II

Card 6 came from a visit to the island of Smogen, a "fisherman town" where lobsters and shrimp go directly from the boats to the restaurants.

Next came this multi-view of Kungshamn.

This is a fun map of the Smogen harbour. Tiina was staying in the area where the woods and animals are (top right) and wrote saying they did see lots of jelly fish. Fun! Also, love the cookie stamps.

Card 9 is from Lysekil. This was Tiina's last day in Bohuslain province.

Some days Tiina even sent me two cards! Here is another from Lysekil.

Lottery Win - Estonia, Latvia and Sweden from Tiina - Part I

Overall, most days I do consider myself a lucky person. I enter almost every contest that interests me and for the most part have had some pretty good wins. The lotteries section of the Postcrossing Forum is no exception. I have won some great cards just by being lucky. In August, Tiina was hosting a lottery promising at least 5 cards from her upcoming vacation. To say I hit the jackpot with this win is an understatement!!! 19 wonderful postcards with incredible stamps from three countries. It was the next best thing to being on vacation with her. I am going to split the cards up over a few posts as they really deserve their own spotlight. Thank you Tiina once again - you were so descriptive with your messages I felt like I was there with you.

From Parnu, Estonia her hometown, it is known as Estonia's summer capital.

Next from Riga, Latvia a big Christmas Tree. Tiina writes Latvians believe they were the first to bring trees at home. She also writes she has heard the same thing in Tallinn.

Card 3 is a map of the area she visited that day, Hunnebostrand, Sweden. The stamp is beautiful!

Card 4 is also from Hunnebostrand and Tiina writes about the hike they took to the hightest mountain in the are as seen on the card. Another super snowflake stamp too!

Next came a card from Ulebergshamn which Tiina describes as a lovely little harbour with white houses. They were intrigued on their walk that day to discover "what's behind the next cliff?"

Direct Swap - Annette from Sweden

Annette posted in the Forum looking to swap country maps. While she wasn't interested in a map of Canada as she had one, lucky me she was looking for a Canadian flag. She lives in the second largest city Gothenburg, which is just south of the flag pole on this map. The text translates to "Sweden - Midnight Sun Empire". This is a great map for my collection - thanks Annette!

Sweden from JJ

My brother in law has what many people would think is the coolest job. Even after all these years I don't know that I fully understand what he does but do think it is pretty neat. He does live television editing. The cool part is that he primarily does sports television. Don't get me started on the places he has been - almost every Summer and Winter Olympic Games from Lillehammer, Norway to Vancouver in 2010,  Qatar, all over the US and Canada, Russia, China and more hockey and baseball games than even he can probably remember. So many sporting events, so many missed postcards! Who knew when he went to many of these places I would have found Postcrossing.

At the beginning of December he went to Karlsstad, Sweden to cover the European Curling Championships. Seeing as this was a country I had yet to receive a postcard from I took this opportunity and asked my sister to have him send me a card. I was super excited when this card arrived last week. After my initial excitement, I'll admit I was momentarily confused, you see my "other" friend J.J. hadn't mentioned she was going to Sweden and I thought her handwriting looked different. Took me a second to clue in that it was my "first" JJ that sent it....yes, call me slow! The tag line on the back of the card is great -"Karlstad - The city of sun, flowers and boat-buses". The drawing shows The old Stone Bridge. JJ worked most of the time he was there (as usual) but said what he did see was very pretty. Rumour has it Latvia and Norway are on the curling tour next - maybe we will be hearing more from JJ - hint hint!