Postcrossing Blog

Xiomara, aka Blackthornhiei, is one of Postcrossing’s few users in El Salvador, the smallest (and most densely populated) country in Central America. She says in her profile that when she has mail, her dog will “talk” until she sees that it gets picked up! How handy! :)

Here is what she had to say to our interview questions:

How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?

I’ve always liked postcards, I always buy from the places I go to and even mail some to myself. And one day, looking through my collection I wondered if there was site for postcard trade. A few minutes later I found Postcrossing.

It took me two weeks to actually join, though. I admit I kept wondering if it actually worked. I finally decided to give it a try and have been hooked since then.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My hobbies aren’t all that special. Beside Postcrossing, I love to read and I make felt dolls. Recently, though, I found a local tourist company that makes groups tours to different corners of the country. I’ve visited places I wouldn’t have been able to visit alone. I even went to a baby sea turtle release. It was lovely!

Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!

This is the postoffice near my house. It’s inside a shopping mall. I come here often. The ladies there are great!

I keep all my Postcrossing cards in albums:

That way I can just pull out an album and look at them anytime, front and back. I don’t have them by country or theme, though. Just in the order they were received.

All other postcards go into this wooden crate, while I sort them in their own albums.

I even made instructions for the album in case anyone wants to try!

Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.

I love all the cards I have received so it’s hard to pick a favorite one. All of them have something I love.

But there’s one that hold a special place in my heart. It’s HU-37976.

I was feeling pretty down that day, and finding this hand drawn card in my mailbox really brightened it. I mean, the fact that a young girl decided to take one of those blank postcards and draw a rabbit for a complete stranger. It was amazing. Looking at this card always makes me smile and feel better.

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

Besides seeing what surprises might be in mailbox, I’d say it’s the whole process of getting an address, picking a card, writing on it, mailing it and waiting for it to arrive.

Most of the available cards are touristy. Non-tourist is hard to find, so sometimes I’m anxious on whether they will like my card or not. I’m looking into getting my own postcards professionally printed.

Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?

Nothing exotic, but for some reason, the postcards mailed from Siberia always surprise me.

The Olympic Games start in a couple of days in London, and you can almost feel the global rush of excitement! Who will crowned the best of the best? And how many medals will each country get?

Great Britain is now immersed in preparations for the games, and Royal Mail is not an exception! They’ve come up with a couple of interesting initiatives to honour Great Britain’s gold medalists.

To begin with, for each gold medal earned by Team GB, they plan to paint one of their famous red post boxes… gold! That’s right – for the first time ever, their iconic post boxes will be dressed in a different color. And the mailboxes will be picked according to the home town of the winners, so if you’re cheering for your town’s local athlete, keep an eye on your post box!

But that is not all! Royal Mail is also engaging in a race against time to have a commemorative stamp and their respective mini-sheet printed for each golden medalist the day after their medals are won – shortening the stamp making process to 24 hours or less!

Mr. Andrew Hammond, Royal Mail’s director of stamps and collectables explains how they plan to achieve this remarkable feat:

They will work around the clock to accomplish this operation (including weekends!), delivering the special stamps overnight to 500 post offices around the UK.

If you live in Great Britain, and see one of these special post boxes or stamps, do post a comment below with a link to a photo! We’d love to see how they look in real life! :)

We know many Postcrossers take their yearly break in the upcoming weeks to relax and visit new places.

If you are one of those and you’ll be away from your home or school address for a while, we recommend you to switch your account to the Inactive status – you can do that easily just by editing your Postcrossing account. This will tell Postcrossing not to give your address to any other member while you are away.

When you’re back, all you need to do is to switch it back to Active and you’ll be back in business again! Rest assured, all your due postcards will then be sent your way.

Oh, and don’t forget to re-stock with postcards from the places where you’ll be spending your days away!

Bon voyage!

We’ve discovered Irwin Terry’s wonderful blog by accident, but were instantly captivated by his passion and dedication to illustrator Edward Gorey. As his works are featured in so many postcards, we invited Irwin to write a post about this famous American artist. :) So tell us Irwin, who was Edward Gorey?

Edward Gorey (1925 – 2000) was an American illustrator, writer and humorist who lived in New York City and Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Mr. Gorey wrote and illustrated over 100 books, illustrated hundreds of books for other authors, provided the animation for Mystery! on PBS, and won a Tony Award for the 1979 Broadway production of Dracula. He was also a postcard aficionado, promoter, and a postcard collector. From an early age, Mr. Gorey created and sent interesting correspondence to friends and family, much of which was embellished by hand.

In 1976 he created his first set of postcard images titled The Broken Spoke which appeared in Sports Illustrated and was also published in book form. He went on to create and publish sets of postcards with themes ranging from Neglected Murderesses to Scene de Ballet. From 1984 to 1996, Mr. Gorey created a special annual post card for National Post Card Week. When designing postcards, Edward Gorey took the nom de plume of Dogear Wyrde, one of the many anagram names he created.

Due to his signature style of drawing and amusing images, many of his illustrations have been used as postcard images. Today, the best place to find/purchase Edward Gorey – illustrated postcards is The Edward Gorey House museum in Yarmouthport, MA. The gift shop at the museum sells over 50 different postcard images as well as books of postcards created by Mr. Gorey.

For more information on Mr. Gorey, his postcard images and his work, you can visit my Edward Gorey collecting blog.

Yay! It’s our birthday today! Time does fly when you’re having fun, eh? Every single year, we’re in awe of what this (once) tiny project has become, and how many lives it has touched. We’re immensely grateful for your kind words, enthusiasm and continued support throughout these 7 years! :)

We know you’re dying to know which videos we’ve picked… so here it goes, in no particular order:

Giacatalan, you have some great video skills! :)

LeishaCamden, your words mean a lot to us!

And Ejsirk, what a nice stop-motion video – we loved to see you jump!

Congratulations! The three of you will receive your prizes from MOO and Postcard Locker!

This was a very tough choice… we were seriously impressed by all the nice videos that many of you took the time to make, and had a lot of fun (and even got a little teary-eyed here and there) checking them out. You rock!

Now it’s time to send some postcards, blow some candles and eat a piece of cake! Please do have one too! :)