This is panda postcard I received in a Native Animals tag. It came from China, of course :-)

I think that's the first time I've received two postcards from the same country (other than the U.S.A.) in the same day! Yay, China!

I have no idea what this postcard from China is supposed to represent. It's beautiful, and I love it though! I wish I could find a way to translate it.

The part on the right appears to be a screen of some sort. The bit in the circle in the upper left is a baby riding a dragon's back and carrying an envelope? The whole left part is meant to be torn off, and in addition to the written characters on it there are raised dots, sort of like Braille. Definitely the most puzzling postcard so far!

This is a map of Whidbey Island "the longest island in the United States." It's part of Washington State. Part of me would LOVE to live on an island! You can bet that part isn't doing well in Colorado ;-)

Another upcycled food package postcard. This one came with a pretty good story about how the day she bought this product, she also saw a cold cut called, "mac & cheese loaf," which was basically bologna with pieces of cheesy mac in it. I wish I knew exactly where this came from, because if I ever travel there I'm hunting that down!

Dining Room in the Country by Pierre Bonnard

I made this one for a tag called "Card Decorated with Stamps." I didn't collect all these stamps myself, in addition to my new postcard habit, I have a longstanding ebay problem...

This one's going to China in the morning.

Picupurcross, the writer of this postcard says:

I know there are more touristy and interesting places to see in Texas, but I love the stark simplicity of this view! I have lived all over the US and what I love most about Texas is the land-rolling hills, flat plains and a big blue sky that goes on forever!

This is a photograph of The Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer/Savior in Moscow, Russia. In Russian, it looks like this: Храм Христа Спасителя. I can cut and paste, cool huh?

Apparently it was originally planned by Tsar Alexander I in 1812, but not completed until 1883. Then, there was that whole Russian Revolution, and the government dynamited the cathedral! On purpose! They planned to build a monument to socialism, the The Palace of the Soviets in its place.

But, that never actually materialized, because of funding issues and WWII and the fall of the Soviet Union, etc. So from 1958 until 1995 they used the foundation as an open air swimming pool. You gotta love the Soviets, they sure knew how to make lemonade I guess!

In 1995, the Russian Orthodox Church gathered funds from around the world and rebuilt the cathedral. Isn't it beautiful? You can read more about it here. I had no idea there was so much behind this building until I started poking around. Fascinating stuff!

This is a result of a fun game at the Postcrossing Forums called "UYI, Use Your Imagination." You got to choose a series of any three letters, and the next person had to send you a postcard filling those initials. The person before me left "G. U. G." and I sent her a card of the Denver Capitol Building (ie Gray Under Gold, for the granite walls and gold dome.)

Then I left the letters R. A. C. for the next person and this is what I got. She sent "Retro And Current." Pretty clever, huh? It's San Francisco's Chinatown.

The Great Wall.

Another great card from Finland.

The writer, Seija, has also affixed a fox stamp to the picture side of the postcard, isn't it beautiful?

A movie quote postcard from Arizona, this quote is from Grease:

"If you can't be an athlete, be an athletic supporter." Principal McGee (Eve Arden)

Alcatraz, how cool is that?

This was made from a box of Amy's Cheddar Bunnies, and the writer Hope says her 3 year old loves these crackers. We love them, too! They're a lot like goldfish crackers, but better. It comes here from Texas.

This one was also a movie quote swap. Her quote is from HBO Presents Steven Wright:
"There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."

She says she included it because this is a photo of their favorite local fishing spot in Massachusetts. I can see why!

A beautiful spring postcard from Finland, to take some of the "blah" out of the winter.

An upcycled postcard, made from health food cookie packaging! The postcard is from New York, but I'll have to see if the cookies are available here, they look yummy!

This one was a swap with the theme of "White." It hails from New Jersey.

This one had a front panel that fell off somewhere between Boulder and here. I wrote to the sender through Swap-Bot and asked, just for the sake of curiosity, what it was. If I hear back, I'll let you all know!

The swap involved sending a movie quote, so I'm sharing the back of the postcard with you, without the mailing information of course, so you can see how cool this one is! Her quote is from Blade Runner:

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.

I'm not sure which state this was sent from. This was from a swap on Swap-Bot which required you to add 3 book recommendations to your postcard.

She listed:
Summer of My German Soldier-Bette Greene
The Outsiders-S.E. Hinton
Thurston House-Danielle Steele

I read the first two, but not since I was in junior high or high school. I loved them then. I haven't read anything by Danielle Steele, but if she liked the first two and this one, maybe I'll give it a try.

This was from the same swap, her book recommendations are:

The Graveyard Book-Neil Gaiman
The Hunger Games-Suzanne Collins
All We Know of Heaven-Jacquelyn Mitchard

I thought this was especially perfect because this summer we listened to The Graveyard Book while we camped our way through Utah, which is where this postcard is from! I haven't read the other two...

This says, "Beautiful Trier, Here resided Constantine the Great." Martina says Trier is beautifully decorated each year for Christmas, and that people come from all over Germany, France, the UK and even the US to see it at this time of year.

Isn't this beautiful? This is in the Cascade National Park in Washington State.

I'm not really sure, but there appears to be a tiny UFO above the mountains. It's not mentioned anywhere on the back, but it is a part of the photo, not something smeared on the postcard. Hot air balloon? E.T.? Blip on the negative? Hard to say...

A portion from The Birth of Venus. Dagmar chose this postcard to send me from her hometown from Frankfurt, Germany because right now, Frankfurt is the home of a large exhibit of the works of Botticelli. I'd love to be able to go there and see it!

This one came to me from about 10 minutes from my house! The theme of the swap was "white." It's a detail from a Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

This is the first "Ad Card" I've received! Also from the "White Postcard" swap. It's for the Acela Express route on the Amtrak, that goes from Boston to Washington D.C.

This is from a swap where we were suppose to "Upcycle" a grocery box, or essentially recycle it by turning it into a postcard.

This is a lovely multi-view of the Abbaye Saint-Léger in Soissons, France. This was part of a cathedral, but is now used as a museum, it appears.

Changhua Great Buddha Statue of Baguashan

This is an 86 foot tall statue of Buddha in Taiwan. Visitors can go inside and look out his eyes! How cool is that?

It says View of the Parque da Cidade in Niterói. According the Bruno, the author of the postcard, it's about 8 miles from Rio de Janeiro.

This is from Matilda Bay in Western Australia.

This is from a school in Great Britain. Their classroom is using Postcrossing to learn about the world!

Suomi is the Finnish word for Finland.

This is from Poland and says, "Greetings from Gliwice" in Polish.

This came from from Switzerland, it's called "Water."

From Isabel in Portugal, this is the Douro wine region.

From "Quu" a student at The University of Turku in Finland!

FAQ

Where do I get my postcards?

Postcrossing-A great site for exchanging postcards with people throughout the world. Their main system is well-organized and does a great job of hooking you up, over time, with people in most every country. And they are remarkably flake-proof! Postcards from Postcrossing are often called "Officials."

Forums/Postcrossing-This is the forums or message boards of the Postcrossing system. If you want to get postcards more quickly, or you're looking to collect specific kinds of postcards, you may want to register here and find your way around. I spend most of my time in the area marked Tags-postcards only. So, if you see me explaining that a postcard was from a "Book Recommendation Tag" or somesuch thing, now you know where it came from.

Swap-Bot-This is a site for all kinds of swaps, not just postcards. I've been on Swap-Bot for a long time doing afghan square and CD swaps, and just recently discovered there is a section for postcard swaps, too! Look all around, there are tons of different kinds of things there to swap!

Postcard postage from the US to:
U.S.A-$0.28
Canada-$0.75
Mexico-$0.79
Anywhere Else-$0.98

The Postal Store-An online place to get odd postage, since you can't always get anything but the $0.44 stamps at the grocery store. This will keep you from having to go to the post office if you don't want to. NOTE-They offer a free catalog, the USA Philatelic Catalog, every quarter, just go to the site, type that in, put it in your cart and send for it. Shipping is free for that, but for stamp orders it's a dollar. Sometimes that's worth it not to stand in line...

Where to buy postcards? Most anywhere around you that has a "souvenir" section will have postcards. In my neighborhood I can find pretty decent tourist ones at the Wal-Mart, King Soopers and Walgreens. Also, the local bookstores carry them. And that's just the places you're likely to go anyway, many places you pay to get in will sell them, too! You'd be surprised how common they are when you start paying attention! Go get 'em and ship 'em out! :-)