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 so it begins....

This week I joined the wonderful world of  postcrossing.com For years I have collected postcards from my vacations, bookstores, gift shops, as well as my family, friends, and acquaintances.  If I hear of someone vacation my ears perk up and I have no mercy asking pretty much Anyone for a postcard.  It's a fix that a collector can only understand.  That being said, I found the mother load at   thanks to a friend posting a link on her Facebook page.  Thank you, Lauren!  I set up my account and immediately dove in to send as many postcards as possible. Fortunately, they limit you to only five to start. I have the postcards, do I have the postcards, however I do not have the postage just yet.  Tomorrow I will head to the USPS and stock up.  These are the six I started with... Yes, six.   

Wonder Woman was my first card to send to The Netherlands.  I then realized that each of my new contacts have a profile describing what type of postcards they enjoy.  Since I had completed the WW card already I decided to just send it as an extra surprise.  

I read that Jessica's birthday is in February and she loves birds and I had the perfect gift.

My next contact, picked at random would be a member from Singapore who has sent SO many postcards in the last two years.  I figured she gets tons of postcards, so I would send her one of my favorites, a Blythe Doll.  Which also happens to be a current obsession of mine.  I must say, I was a bit sad to see that she had sent so many of the same post cards from her country but then again maybe she got a deal in bulk for the hundreds that go out from her alone! If you want to get lost in postcards, check out the pages of them she has received through the years.   Ashlyn_Lee gallery.  I visited for quite a while and from what I could tell, this will be her first Blythe postcard.  

Next my postcard will travel nearly 6,000 miles to Russia!  This might Alena1972's lucky day.  She like Harry Potter and Hello Kitty.  I have been collecting Hello Kitty for over a decade now.  I made sure to add Hello Kitty stickers to the back of  her Harry Potter postcard.  I just visited his Florida over the holidays. Lucky for her I visited his Wizarding World in Orlando, FL.

My last two are both Vegas postcards, purchased a couple years back when I was there for my birthday.  The card that is on it's way to Portugal is going to a man who likes buildings and architecture.  I came across this post card and thought he might like it if he doesn't have a Las Vegas card already.  I mean seriously, one of the building has a roller coaster! 

My final post card this week goes to Natalia over in Poland .  She happens to like night scenes and well, Vegas certainly has that down!  

After seeing the random nations I was given to send my postcards to, I cannot even guess where mine will come from.  I look forward to sharing as they come in!  

FYI - Click on any of the places and see a map to there from Austin.