Direct Swaps

As well as the random strangers from postcrossing.com, I have been involved in a few direct swaps with the members.  This is when you are contacted by a member who would like to exchange postcards off the record.  Since there is not a place to show this in a gallery on postcrossing.com I decided to post them here.  

 In my profile on Postcrossing.com under my likes I asked for women from different cultures.  Silvana from Bali, Indonesia sent me this one.  She writes that by custom most Balinese women were usually topless until the 1960's.  She also said that most villagers cover there heads with towels but she did not know the reasoning behind it! 

The back of this one says "I always would dream, that I had such plait.  I think it came from a woman in Russia but because it was sent in an envelope I am not sure b/c that is all it had on the back.  She does however have very pretty hair!  

 

This sure is a cute one from Siny in the Netherlands.  It also had a Postcrossing stamp which made me so very happy along with flower stickers.  :)

 This handmade card of a knife thrower is from right here in TX.  It was sent via a swap from Sarah in Lufkin.  I love carnival and circus themed postcards especially vintage styles and she said she had the perfect match for me.  I concur! 

This isn't the best photo of this adorable Moonin card from Finland.  Moonin is a very famous character over there.   Henna, the sender of this card asked for one of my Hello Kitty postcards so we swapped.  :)  I love the glitter and the colors of this one.  As a bonus she sent a Moonin stamp and Hello Kitty stickers too! 

   

Another Fin woman sent me this card of this lady picking flowers.   I am wondering if all of Finland's stamps are this cool?  They are so much fun and different, right?

 I LOVE mermaids.  I sent a postcard to Karen in Finland (seeing a theme, yet?!) , via postcrossing , and she loved it so much that she asked for my address to send me a thank you postcard.  I was so happy to see this lovely surprise in my mail box a few weeks later!  Ginger Kelly is the artist and she happens to be Australian.  She titled this one appropriately, Sunbathing. 

And she's back!!

Hello Hello!!  It's a bit after 3:00 in the morning here and I have spent my entire Friday night taking pictures and uploading dozens of my received postcards via postcrossing.com. I found one random one to Germany that I never registered.  I have already contacted her with an apology and asked to send her a make up card.  :)  I am sharing a few of my favorite cards here tonight but should you need a bigger fix you can checkout my received postcards directly at http://www.postcrossing.com/user/postcrosseratx/gallery. 

 Please forgive the poor quality of photos on these.  It was my first time taking pics with my iphone and I think I'll stick with scanning from here on out.  

A glittery Hello Kitty postcard from Japan!  When I saw it I thought it would be difficult to top, then I turned it over and it actually had a Hello Kitty stamp!  I love the polka-dotted washi tape at the bottom as a background to the stickers too!  

This postcard is from Finland.  It is a photo from the 1900's taken in front of Stockmann department store.  I just love the entire shot from the vintage color, to the clothing, and the action of the women crossing the street. What a historical treat!

This Albanian postcard is so special to me because it is such a rare country to receive a card from via postcrossing.  This is only the 124th card to ever be sent from the country via postcrossing.  When you realize the thousands of cards that travel in a day via there site you realize what gem this one is!    As of today, there are only 6 members of postcrossing in the entire country of Albania!  There are 39,236members here in the US alone!

 

This postcard came from the next state over but is one of my top 10.  I love the women of the World War II era and this photo of a reenactment is awesome. The hair and makeup of that time was impeccable.  This museum is in New Orleans, Louisiana.   I would love to visit it one day on a vacation.