Another long stretch of Postcrossing (and Postcard United) to partially share! Do you have any favorites here?
U.S. Postcrossers, how are you doing with the latest increase in stamp rates? This, plus my recent discover of old discounted postage for sale, has resulted in my doing a lot of math lately to get the right amount of stamps on each postcard — and often, it’s resulted in my running out of space to fit the stamps across the top of the cards!
Some postcard manufacturers barely leave enough room for a small single stamp in the corner of their cards. I wonder sometimes if the people designing the back of the postcards ever actually send cards. How do you handle the challenges?
My mailbox has been very happy, though: so many cute animals & cool ‘toons! Check them out…
Not much to say this time. I noticed this first card seemed to be a piece of paper glued on the back of a photo, and the sender explains:
“I made this card because I can’t currently buy one because of the lockdown.”
Not too many cards today, but all with the common theme of featuring Miyazaki Hayao’s characters from Studio Ghibli films. Still unearthing older unlogged (unblogged?) cards; most of these arrrived in 2017-2018, but there is one from this month! These were all received through Postcrossing Forum tags.
Let’s go with my favorite two first! The one on the left is from Japan, and the sender writes, “do you know Totoro? Totoro is character of Ghibli series – Japanese animation movie. This character is very loved in Japan. Totoro’s goods are sold a lot. This is nengajo postcard. In Japan we sent (as a greeting) postcard to celebrate New Year.”
The second card was from Serbia, and the sender tells me the first Studio Ghibli film they saw was Princess Mononoke, and the most recent was Grave of the Fireflies.
Next two cards have great images from My Neighbor Totoro; the top card came to me from Japan, and the bottom one from China.
The two poster-style cards side-by-side here are from Russia & the Netherlands, and both of the senders told me they were about to go see Disney “live-action” remakes: “Lion King,” and “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” respectively.
The last two cards move away from Totoro, to the less-cute side of Ghibli (I’m definitely a fan of the more-cute side of Ghibli). Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind came from Japan, and Princess Mononoke came from right here in the U.S.
What do you like the best today? Before you answer, check out all of the stamps, stickers, & washi tape! Lots of cool little things to enjoy.
(oh, that was a very nice otter sticker)
As I continue to slowly declutter, I continue to come across previously-unlogged postcards. Today we have cards from 2018-today, from regular Postcrossing, Postcrossing Forum, and Postcard United.
Let’s start with my favorite, which I love because I love sea otters. It is only in seeing the scan here that I noticed there is a crab on their faces! So now, the sender’s message makes so much more sense: “This card makes me think of happy memories chasing crabs around the tide pools at Half Moon Bay, back when I was a kid.”
I also love this shiba inu, and the delicious dumplings next to the bear. Both cards are from Taiwan.
These funny hungry cats, who did not scan so well, are also from Taiwan, and the rabbit came from Japan, from a friend who was traveling on business.
Chicken shopkeeper and the village of cats are both from China…
The two red dogs come from Germany, from a Postcrosser who says she bought the postcard “at a Warhol exhibition which cost us a fortune because we parked our car where we shouldn’t have left it.”
The beautiful sea turtle above is from Malaysia; and the playful animals and the penguin below are from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively.
I really like the plants and birds on this card from a Postcard United user in South Korea. She writes that “the lotus painting on this postcard means happiness and flourishing.” The postcard next to it–the civilized tiger–is from another Postcard Uniter, but in China.
Finally, zebra and sailfish are both from the U.S., and are both from the “Animal Box” postcard set which I also purchased for my postcarding purposes. These two illustrations (zebra by Katharine Barnwell, and sailfish by Happy Menocal) are lovely, but the entire box is not made up of this high quality. There are some cards that are downright scrawls, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to send them out without first gluing collages on top. I think I’ve mentioned before on the blog that I finally noticed that the person who draw those pictures is the same person who is credited with editing the collection. That’s one way to get your work out there: shove it in with all of the better artists’ work.
Time for the stamps — there are some old U.S. stamps down at the bottom, and I always love the tropical fruit stamps from Taiwan. Do you have any favorites?
At least one of the cards in today’s batch is from 2020! I mostly see 2018, though. Some great Disney cards to share this time, and I really like the art style on this first pair.
Donald came to me from Austria, and Mickey & Minnie from Finland. A whole lot of good Disney cards do seem to come from Finland, including Scrooge McDuck’s money bin here.
Another pair of Donald cards; the left is from Japan, and the right from Finland.
Disney parks cards! Both of these are from the U.S.
Also from the U.S. is this card with Walt and friends riding a little train; that was a staff greeting card from the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco. The Tokyo Disney card is from, yes, Japan.
Two more postcards to go–Aladdin is from China, and Beauty & the Beast is from the U.S.
Stamp & sticker time:
Catching up? NEVER. But here are another few postcards I’ve received (cough-cough, over the course of a few years, cough-cough) as I take a few moments here & there to do some decluttering. All Snoopy cards this time! Probably all from Japan. Or also Finland. We’ll see as we go, but Peanuts postcards are a rarity in the U.S.
Oh, I’d say this is my favorite of the lot! Surfing Snoopy came to me from Japan, mailed in June, 2018.
Temple-photographer Snoopy is pretty awesome, too! Sent from Japan in January, 2018. And I always love receiving cartoony nengajo (New Year postcards)! That one is from–can you guess? And sent to me in March, 2018. Hmm, I wonder if ALL of these cards have been laying in repose since 2018…
Two more… another cooool Snoopy nengajo, obviously from Japan, but it was sent to me blank in an envelope–so I can only guess as to the year. This is a HALLMARK card. What’s up with that? All the Peanuts greeting cards Hallmark sells here in the U.S.–but ZERO postcards!
Snoopy and Snoopy with a Mustache (yeah, I know) are also from Japan, dunno the year, as the whole card was one of at least 3 mailed together and used as note paper. Awesome to receive and read, way back whenever, but poor right at this moment for forensics!
Down to the last two. Let’s talk about “Rock on Snoopy” first: Japan, 2018
Last card, then, is the blue one. No date information. It came to me from a post pal in, you guessed it…
Happy New Year! I’ve got a bunch of fronts & backs to share, from cards going out in Postcrossing Forum tags, and a few Postcard United clicks.
In this grouping below, clockwise from the top, where we start with a pair of food package postcards:
It’s-It cookies go to Saitama, Japan
Animals chocolate cookies are off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Robert Mallet Stevens’s “Museum” goes to Shaanxi, China
William H. Bradley’s “The Modern Poster” is headed for Abidjan, Ivory Coast. I don’t think I’ve ever had postal contact with that country! THANK YOU, Postcard United! I guess this will make up for some of the times they’ve given me an address here in my own country!
Here’s the Great Bell of Mingun, in Myanmar. The card is making its way to Hong Kong.
A red panda off to Hokkaido, Japan…
This photorealistic view of Malaysia–my favorite of this round of postcards–goes off by request to Semarang, Indonesia.
Mickey goes to Sendai, Japan.
That one was off in a Postcrossing Forum Disney card tag, as is Gaston, who is headed to Kyoto, Japan.
This beautiful scene from coastal California goes to Melbourne, Australia.
Another coastal scene, this one going to Saint Sever, France.
Charlie Brown & Woodstock are bound for Singapore!
Yangon, Myanmar…
Hefeie, Anhui, China…
Frank Lloyd Wright’s “May Basket” seems destined for Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
Time for stamps, stickers, & washi tape. A whole lot of awesomeness down here, I say. What do you think?
I just got back from Malaysia, and it truly is a food paradise. Sad to say, I didn’t quite make it to every single thing on this postcard! It went off in a Postcrossing Forum food tag to Quzhou, Zhejiang, China.
The Hainanese Chicken postcard is also from Malaysia, but not procured during my trip. I got it some time ago when I ordered the wonderful book, The Food That Makes Us. A set of postcards came with the book! This card is on a trip to New Taipei City, Taiwan.
Another food tag, but this recipient in Sendai, Japan, isn’t getting anything nice at all. In brief: Andersen’s Split Pea Soup is a pretty popular brand on California supermarket shelves, so of course way back when I first passed the restaurant–a popular roadside stop in the city of Buellton–I wanted to try their homemade version. Well, do you know what it tasted like? CANNED SOUP!
Another card I bought in Malaysia; this one goes off in a “not my country” tag to Gunma, Japan.
This is a place I’ve been to, but not in a while; it’s the Hotel King Kamehameha in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, and it’s off in a travel tag to Nairne, SA, Australia.
Here’s a card I bought at the airport as I was departing for my vacation. I’ve come across a whole lot of California map cards, but I think this is my favorite. It looks even better in person! This one goes out to a postcard pal in Hawaii.
This pair of shiba inus are headed for New Taipei City, Taiwan.
This card goes to an otter lover in Hamburg, Germany.
Another otter card for another otter lover, this one in Shenyang, Liaoning, China.
Honest John went off in a Disney tag to Ylivieska, Finland.
Postcrossing Forum has a number of “send me a card from my album of favorites” tags. I don’t dip in too often because, you know, what are the odds I’ll have a card the person has marked as wanting? Well, it’s happened twice recently (though the second Postcrosser has yet to respond to my tag)! This gator is being mailed to Faches-Thumesnil, France.
The lovely merpug is off — by request — to Itzehoe, Germany.
Here’s another requested card, this one on its way to Riverside, California.
Ready for a Peanuts Gallery? I’d better send off this 2018 postcard while it’s still topical! Copies go to Itami and Tokyo, Japan.
This is the moment when Lucy starts calling for iodine; it goes to a postpal in Peacehaven, East Sussex, U.K.
Lucy & Schroeder are off to Kyoto, Japan.
“My Favorite Peanuts” will go to Jinjiang City, Fujian, China.
The tiger, like one of my earlier cards shown here, is also headed for New Taipei City (but to a different recipient).
I pulled another name on Postcard United! The recipient in Hong Kong enjoys images of architecture, so I’m sending her an image of the grand main library in San Diego, California.
…and another Postcard United draw, this one going to Zheleznogorsk, Russia.
This third Postcard United draw goes to Hangzhou, China.
This last card makes 23 I’ve chronicled this time around, and its a postcard of Kliban Cats! I love them. This card goes to a fellow fan in Taipei, Taiwan.
Stamps! Stickers! Washi tape! Do you see the durian washi tape I picked up on the second leg of my eating vacation: Singapore? Here and there you’ll also see puffy Tom & Jerry stickers, a silly online purchase that was awaiting me when I returned home. Kliban cat stickers also show up a lot in this batch of outgoing cards. I love Kliban cats. Dunno if I’ve ever mentioned that before…
Do you have any favorites this time around? Please let me know about them!
Sooooo many postcards to share–of course, they were sent off over the course of several weeks. Take a look & tell me what your favorites are–and stay tuned ’til the very end for the stamps, stickers, & stuff. Here we go…
Dreaming by the sea, this crew is off to Taipei, Taiwan.
Elephant & Piggie are going to Orange, NSW, Australia.
President Linus–one can only dream! Off to Itomi, Hyogo, Japan.
Franklin & Linus go to Gunma, Japan.
I don’t know where this book-filled postcard came from, but it’s been in my stash for a long time, and now it’s off to Tianjin, China.
A food package postcard, going to Beijing, China.
An awful movie! Off to Saitama, Japan.
Out by request to Lübeck, Germany…
It’s a wacky map, and it’s going to a map lover in Tokyo, Japan.
Donald & friends will land in Shanghai, China.
I clicked on the “advertising card” tag, and sent this card for KFJC (I had to look it up) to Yokohama, Japan.
This scene from Redwoods National & State Parks goes to Cronulla NSW, Australia.
This beautiful sea otter is on its way to Yonago, Tottori, Japan.
This card from a Thai restaurant will go to Foshan, Guangdong, China.
Captain Hook will go to a Disney lover in Hokkaido, Japan. This being a USPS postcard, the stamp on the back matches.
As much as I enjoy using Postcrossing Forum, it’s faster to just click “send a postcard” on the regular Postcrossing site, or its imitator, Postcard United. I happen to prefer the latter, and I have clicked a few times…
Snoopy on ice going to a warm place: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This Kliban Cat is skating toward Perm Krai, Russia.
The beautiful San Diego Central Library goes to Annandale, NSW, Australia.
Charlie Brown will cry his way all the way to Dazu, Chongqing, China.
Uh-oh, a U.S. address came up! This beautiful scene–another from Redwood National & State Parks–will go to Van Dyne, Wisconsin.
Time for stamps, stickers, & washi tape…
Okay! Be sure to check in.
The Snail Mail 