Postcrossing Blog

As most Postcrossers, Judit enjoys getting surprises in her mailbox in Belgium. And despite being mom of four, she still finds time for Postcrossing! Here’s what she has to share with us.

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

In June 2006 there was a message by Postcrossing member szirmaik on a Hungarian Forum site. I was curious and checked it out. Since then I’m hooked on Postcrossing. As I don’t get a lot of mail, it’s a nice way to get “unexpected” surprise mail.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

My other hobby is cross-stitching which I also started in 2006. Right now, I have little free time because I gave birth to my 4th child in June 2010.

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

This is where I receive mail:

And this is where I send it:

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

Through the years I have received so many beautiful cards that I can’t decide which is the most precious. Some cards tell me about something I’ve never known before. Some of them are what I really like. Some of them show things I’ve never thought of before.

Present&Correct is our kind of stationery shop: filled with tastefully handpicked goods from all over the world, ready to brighten up any desk. Updated weekly with sophisticated items & retro finds, you’ll find that every single notecard, rubber stamp or set of masking tapes is a temptation.

Going through a bit of nostalgia? They have original telegram envelopes, old-fashioned library stamps, or kitschy postcard sets in funky popcorn bags.

Or perhaps you’d fancy something a bit more modern? Try this Stamp Sheet Wall Planner, the Stencil greetings card or the unexpected Chalk Clipboard.

To write this review, I spent hours going through the selection and trying to narrow my wishlist to just a couple of items to order. The checkout was quick & efficient, and the goods arrived within the same week (they’re based in the UK, but ship worldwide).

First, let me show you the Giant Button card, which is a cute letterpress card on the shape of a button, in a white envelope. The reverse of the card simply says “You’re as cute as a button”. How cute is that? Perfect to cheer someone up – instant smile guaranteed!

Then, we have the Russian doll card. This is a very clever card, where the successively smaller matryoshkas are folded into the larger ones. Even the envelope is pretty neat! :)

Some years ago, I stumbled on an interesting project by Craig Giffen called The Human Clock, which is a clock that shows the time with pictures submitted by people. The way it works is, for every minute in a day the clock shows a photo that has been submitted by a random contributor, in a random place, using a number of different ways to show the time. For example:

The same developer also brought us a widget, The Human Calendar that maybe you’ve seen before on a blog or website. It’s shows the current date with people:

These days, Craig is working on a new project, The Mail Clock! It is basically the same idea of the Human Clock (a site that shows the time) but this time using mail items that he receives. Like this:

He’s looking for help to complete this new project, so if you have an extra postcard, head over to the project’s site for details on how to help. Remember to be creative!

We can’t wait to see the final result! :)

German Postcrosser, Isabelle, had a love for horses before joining and has seen her horse postcard collection grow through the kindness of other Postcrossing members. She quite enjoys attending Postcrossing meetings.

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

My pen pal (since ages) and Postcrossing member tinewoest, from Belgium, told me about Postcrossing in a letter and I immediately got infected! Thank you sooooo much Tine!!!! I got hooked from the kindness of the Postcrossers and found the forum pretty soon. After finding the forum I was a complete addict! I attended as many meetings as I could get to. For example, I joined meetings in Helsinki, Cologne, The Netherlands, and Belgium. I have learned so much about the world, the people, kindness and habits in the Postcrossing world. I became sick in the summer of 2009 and needed to slow down a bit but Postcrossing is still my BIGGEST hobby.

Do you have any other interesting hobbies?

Before Postcrossing, collecting horse postcards and writing letters were my biggest and only hobbies. I stopped horseback riding in 1998. Since I am now a Postcrossing addict my horse postcard collection has grown bigger and bigger (over 15,000 cards now) and I have no time to sort them properly because I spend all my free time on the Postcrossing site. I have about 22 shoe boxes full of postcards from the last 4 years. They are unsorted but most of them are in my head or in my computer lists. I also started scanning my postcards when I discovered Flickr through Postcrossing but it is impossible to scan my whole collection because most cards are in folders already. My pen pals now only get a letter once a year and many ask if I am still alive. Writing a postcard is so much faster than writing a letter. Sorry girls!

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

I don’t like the girls working at the post office and mostly order my stamps online so no pics of the office but the following pics show me at the mailbox I usually use. I mail the mail before i go to work there and this mailbox also get lifted on Saturday and Sundays. :D

My home mailbox

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

My absolute favorite:

Second favorite:

Third favourite:

But I also love all the non-horse postcards. There are so many that are so beautiful.

We’ve already told about the artist who spent several years mailing himself strange unwrapped objects. But it seems that the hobby of mailing oneself quirky objects through the postal services has antecedent roots, as writes John Tingey on a newly published book. “The Englishman who posted himself and other curious objects” is the story of a 19th century’s man and his passion for the postal services and their quirkiness. Here’s the synopsis:

The first impression of W. Reginald Bray (1879–1939) was one of an ordinary middle-class Englishman quietly living out his time as an accountant in the leafy suburb of Forest Hill, London. A glimpse behind his study door, however, revealed his extraordinary passion for sending unusual items through the mail.

In 1898, Bray purchased a copy of the Post Office Guide, and began to study the regulations published quarterly by the British postal authorities. He discovered that the smallest item one could post was a bee, and the largest, an elephant. Intrigued, he decided to experiment with sending ordinary and strange objects through the post unwrapped, including a turnip, a bowler hat, a bicycle pump, shirt cuffs, seaweed, a clothes brush, even a rabbit’s skull. He eventually posted his Irish terrier and himself (not together), earning him the name “The Human Letter.”

He also mailed cards to challenging addresses some in the form of picture puzzles, others sent to ambiguous recipients at hard to reach destinations all in the name of testing the deductive powers of the beleaguered mail carrier. Over time his passion changed from sending curios to amassing the world’s largest collection of autographs, also via the post. By the time he died in 1939, Bray had sent out more than thirty-two thousand postal curios and autograph requests.

The Englishman who posted himself and other curious objects is available at Amazon.com
Pray tell, what was the strangest thing you’ve ever posted? :)