Postcrossing Blog

This week on the spotlight, we feature Jamie1972 (or Alex), from Switzerland. As a mother of 2 small (and really cute!) children, Alex is understandably passionate about children’s rights. Here is what she had to say:

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

My dear penfriend from Poland told me about Postcrossing and curious as I am I had to check out the page. I started slowly with just sending out few cards and had a longer break then because of a difficult pregnancy.

When I got back to Postcrossing I also discovered the Forum more and more and then it started to be real fun. Suddenly you know a bit about the person you write too – which is fun.

These days it is funny – there are weeks I only write “officials” – then are weeks I feel only writing to forum members – both are a lot of fun.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

I am a mother of two little children, Billy who is 5 and Sarah who is 2 years old. So I am a bit busy.

We also have two dogs and I love to go out with them for walks. I usually take my camera with me then – wich leads to my other great passion – photography. I love to take pictures of everything and I have now two external harddiscs just to save them!

I write a lot – not only letters and postcards but sometimes also short stories or I wrote a children’s book for my children about a little pirate. During my studies I did a children’s book with illustrations together with three collegues – and we printed it too – it was such a great experience.

I love to read a lot – but usually I can only do it in bed before going to sleep – and I start to buy only paperbacks because I wake up regularly because my book has fallen on my head because I fell asleep during reading.

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

My son Billy at my favourite mailbox where I usually mail my postcards, and little Sarah signing cards at the Bielefeld meeting:

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

To choose special cards is so difficult – there are just too many! I have to say that a lot of postcrossers really try to send you something special, which is so great!

One of my favourite subjects: Jip en Janneke

here is a bunch of cards that just came in my hands flipping though my postcards and I love every single one of them!

This one is a very special card – it’s a wooden one from Poland!

This card says: “After the last night with you I am only a shadow of myself”… This card prooved me that my mailwoman is looking at my postcards – I met her before I saw what was in my mailbox – and believe me her look at me was very strange and shocked!

Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?

I know that some of my penfriends are postcrossers as well – I usually tell people about it when they see me writing bunches of postcards!

My son Billy started now in the kid’s round robin and he loves it. I guess in about a year or so when he is really able to write on his own he will want to have an account too.

And my little one, Sarah – she is mad about postcards and she loves to look at them. Usually she is really upset when I take them away to register them! It happens a lot that my children sign my postcards too – so if you get a postcard with strange signs of it – this is Sarah’s greetings :-)

What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?

I love to draw addresses and read the profiles. Often I know then wich card is best to send – and usually really hit the taste of the reciever. I love to choose the “perfect” card for everyone. Something I love too is sending and getting RAS cards. Those are really big surprises!

Have you met any other members in real life?

Yes I did. When the first Swiss meeting was taking place in February 2010 I had some of the foreign postcrossers thew day befire in Lucerne and showed them around. In the evening we were at my place having Fondue and a lot of fun! The meeting itself was fun too – all the three Swiss meetings.

And I went to the big Bielefeld meeting last December – three days in a house with all those crazy postcrossers and it was a very special experience! I am always surprised how open all these people are and usually easy going. There is a great respect for everyone in the group and no one feels left out – at least this is my impression.

The weather up here in North Germany has been cold and rainy for the past weeks, so we’ve been day-dreaming about southern beaches and warm sunny days. Pretty much like the ones in Balaklava, Ukraine, where a group of intrepid postcrossers decided they should have a meetup… on a desert island!

The gathering was attended by postcrossers in the Sevastopol area, who loaded their kayaks with postcards and paddled in the beautiful Black Sea. They settled on this small island and spent a few hours checking out each others cards, talking, enjoying the sun, signing RAS cards, and swimming, of course!

The meeting was attended by (left to right): BlackDrago, Ael, alter_ago, a_ur, Mirrora and foksik, who sent us this lovely report.

So the challenge is on! Can you outdo these bold postcrossers and come up with a different activity for a Postcrossing meetup? We’d love to hear about it! :)

Most people know the name of Charles Lindbergh. He was a great American aviator, most famous for being the first pilot to complete a solo non-stop transatlantic flight, from New York to Paris, in May 1927.

But did you know that before his transatlantic adventures, Mr. Lindbergh was also a U.S. Air Mail pioneer (and later one of its advocates)?

As a child, Charles Lindbergh had always been interested in the mechanics of cars and motorbikes, and so it came as no surprise that when the time came, he chose to enrol in University as a mechanical engineering student. A couple of years later though, he found his true passion for aeronautics, dropped out and re-enrolled in a flying school in Nebraska. He spent a few years studying, doing air tricks & acrobatics across the country, testing planes and finally training with the American Army Air Service. At 23, he was a already veteran flier, but since the army didn’t need pilots at the time, he was looking for a job elsewhere…

Meanwhile, the US government had been running some experimental air mail routes between different cities for almost 8 years. The results were good, but the government had no intentions of continuing expanding the Air Mail Service on its own… and so in 1925, the Kelly Air Mail Act was passed by congress, which allowed the private sector to bid on specific airmail feeder routes to the main transcontinental system.

And thus in October that year Charles Lindbergh was hired by the Robertson Aircraft Corporation to be the chief pilot on a Contract Air Mail route between St. Louis and Chicago, with 2 stops in Springfield and Peoria.
He started flying a modified war surplus de Havilland DH-4 biplane after swearing the Oath of Mail Messengers, which had to be changed to note him as a pilot instead of a mail messenger – you can see it here.

Lindbergh did well as an airmail pilot, achieving a remarkable 99% delivery efficiency even in the harsh conditions of the time (which included no proper equipment or landing facilities).

Twice during his work he lost control of the plane due to bad weather or faulty equipment and had to jump out of it, landing by parachute on nearby fields. On both occasions, his first priority upon landing was to locate the wreckage of the planes and secure the mail – like a good mail carrier would!

He continued to be a chief pilot on this Air Mail route until February 1927, when he decided to take part on the race for the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris… Well, we all know how he did on that adventure! :)

And although Charles Lindbergh never returned to the Air Mail career after winning the Orteig Prize, he kept on promoting the Air Mail services, by doing speeches on their behalf and carrying souvenir mail covers from international flights in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis.

Credits: All photos by the San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives collection on Flickr. Read more about Charles Lindbergh on his wikipedia page and on charleslindbergh.com.

This week on the blog, we start a series of posts about the people behind some stationery brands that we’ve seen and liked. We hope to keep it up more or less regularly!

On this first post of the series, we’ve talked with Anna, from Lila Ruby King. Anna is an Australian native living in Athens, who divides her time evenly between her illustration work and jewelry making.

She started selling eco-friendly stationery in 2007, under her micro-label Lila Ruby King. Her postcards feature hand-drawn patterns of birds, twigs and other curious objects, printed in different types of recycled paper. They’re sturdy and slightly textured, almost begging to be touched! And each postcard includes a small playful drawing on the back side – which is a nice little detail :)

We were intrigued by her unique style and asked her a few questions.

How did you get started doing stationery design?

It all started when I first moved to Greece, I needed cards to send home to family and friends for birthdays and Christmas and that sort of thing, but the range here was very uninspiring, and so I started to make my own.

Where do you find your inspiration?

Most of my inspiration comes from the natural world, every day there is something new to learn and discover which is amazing! I’ve also got some new pieces I’m working on, that are inspired by the nature and animals featured in the fables and folk stories of Europe.

If you could define your style in 3 words, what would they be?

Simple, playful, natural.

We couldn’t agree more! You can see Anna’s stationery collection and other products on her Etsy shop.

If you enjoyed this feature (or not so much), give us some feedback in the comments below! What would you like us to change, or what would you ask the stationery makers?

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the anniversary video!

This year, we received over 400 photos from all corners of the world, and we are in awe of all your smiles and amazing postcards!
Each time we watch this video, we’re reminded of how truly global the project is, and of the power that simple things have to brighten up our days.

Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the video you made!

Thank you all, you’re awesome!

We apologize if your photo is missing – a few photos were too small to be featured, but don’t worry, your name was still entered in the lottery.

So, without further ado, the 3 lucky winners (chosen by Paulo’s random number generator) are:

SjuElen, who won The World’s Smallest Post Service kit, and DinisMiguel and klyava’s son, who both won a set of Playmobil Little Mail Carriers. Congratulations!

Didn’t make it this time? Don’t worry – we have a few more contests lined up for the Summer! :)

Happy Postcrossing!