A girl loves a good postcard sent 4,760 miles just for fun

I have ALWAYS had a thing for postcards. I kept every one I had ever received since I was a kid and even took them to college with me. I put them up around the top of my dorm room (before wallpaper borders had hit Alaska) and they looked so great. There were a couple hundred. I love pictures, obviously, and this was a more sturdy way to hold on to them. Wait! I just had a brainstorm. Maybe I should make postcards out of my pictures and marry my two favorite things....holy hannah, the scrambled brain might be working again.


When I got married, it seemed like a silly thing to hold on to as we have moved around the country so I got rid of them. It was like losing a bunch of old friends... like tools from your home garage living in someone else's shop.


However, Matty (and others) have been kind to me over the years and always brought me a postcard from travels that don't involve me. They sit, unwritten and unaddressed, in a plastic shoe box, waiting for the right moments to be sent. Some of my collectors are Lady Di's head, almost life size it seems, the two books of postcards from Tom A. of old advertising (some of which should definately be featured here sometime!) and some cheesy ones from Wyoming. The cheesier the better and trust me, there are some cheesy ones in the world.

Although, oftentimes I have made my own and talk about some collector's items. One of my favorites is when I saw a picture of my OB/GYN in the newpaper. I cut it out, taped it to some cardstock, and wrote the words "I have seen Val's privates" above his head and sent it. What a treat for the person who received it I am sure. :) Watch out, or I will send one to you.


Then, of course, there was the Star Wars postcard that was POSTER sized. It cost two dollars to send to Tom, which I really thought I had pulled the top postcard sending of all time. I thought he would have to get a pick up slip and trudge down the post office to pick it up. Great surprise, I thought. However, the post man was feeling generous that day and just propped it up against his apartment door. Waste of $2.

My favorite Snarky Belle (who by the way, sounded really Snarky in her last post!) sent me the perfect web site link for Christmas! It is called www.postcrossing.com. It is a place to register your mailing address with 77,000 other people from around the world. You send a postcard to some random address in the world and then in turn you will receive a postcard from somewhere else in the world.

I shared the idea with Aubrey yesterday because the postcard I sent to Finland last week to a 15 year old got there....so my postcard from somewhere should be coming along pretty soon. She signed up right then and sent two! This AK one above is one I will be sending today to Finland. :) The Fins apparently are into this! It makes sense of course, that I, being from the Finnish Reindeer Herders. Maybe I will find some long lost cousins!