New Received Cards!

I've received 5 new postcards this week! 3 were official  postcrossing swaps and 2 were from private swaps.

This one came from just next door, a lady in Las Vegas. She sent a card of her hometown, Newport Beach, California. I especially liked getting this card because my husband grew up in southern California and this was his favorite beach.





Sideways Purple Heart Stamp

I got this funny flying frog-ette from a lady in St. Petersburg, Russia the same day, it makes me smile.



Beautiful Russian Stamps

 Then, today I got this card of a Alitalia Boeing 777, from a family in Saarbrucken, Germany. I thought that was really nice, because I said that I work for an airline and that I like aircraft in my profile.

Great German stamp of Regensburg's oldtown a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Also today, I got two postcards from private swaps.
This one from a man in Munich, Germany shows a beautiful scene from Oktoberfest of a large Ferris Wheel & the Cathedral of St. Paul behind it, all lit up at night. It's lovely and also has really cool stamps.

sweet foxglove sticker

The other was this great scene from a man in Rochester, New York. He told me about a place the bridge leads to called "High Falls" which is an inner-city falls. I find the idea of a waterfall in an inner city fascinating. I wonder if it is a very big waterfall? There is a tiny falls in Idaho Falls, but that is a pretty small waterfall in a pretty small city.

Clock Stamps - I like this design simple and striking; I have no idea what an "American Clock" is though.

Card to Russia arrived :)

This card of downtown Reno, my hometown, lit up at night arrived to a lady in St. Petersburg, Russia today. I find it very exciting when my cards arrive to their destinations. I really like having the web-site that shows when they arrive. This one travelled 25 days. I chose this card for her because of all the signs in English, she said she liked "inscriptions in foreign languages."

A Little Overwhelming!

I'm trying to get my postcards caught up today, I've been a little overwhelmed this week. I may have to limit myself more with my private swaps, it is a little harder to keep track of them. I'll see how it goes, maybe I just need to be more organized. :) I have a couple ideas to make it easier. One is that I've started a notebook to keep track of things. Then I thought maybe limiting myself to one private swap at a time might be good. It's just that when someone asks to swap, I don't want to let them down by refusing. So far I've accepted every time someone has asked me to swap. I only refused one person, and that was because I felt she was being a little to picky and demanding. It is fun to swap, so I'm going to try and keep myself open to private swaps and not limit myself too much. Another limit that I've been considering is to only deal with my postcards one day a week, writing and sending everything that day for the whole week. I think I might be able to keep things more organized that way. If I can't keep organized though, and it becomes more stressful than fun, I will definitely stop with the private swaps. There is no point to it if I'm not having fun with it. Wish me luck!

I put a whole stack of postcards in the mail today. I hope that I got everyone I was supposed to!

Card to Australia Arrived :)

The card that was travelling to Australia arrived, I'm so glad. I really like this one of Nevada Mustangs, it's a nice picture! It is the same as the one that never arrived in Taiwan, so I'm glad this one made it to it's destination. It arrived in 12 days, that seems fast for as far as it had to go.







I gotta postcard today!

I got another postcard in the mail today, all the way from Minsk, Belarus! It is of the Hotel "Europe" in the center of Minsk at the corner of Lenin & International streets. I really like the coat of arms in the corner. It also has really pretty stamps on it!

What have I sent out?

The first postcard that I sent went to a bridge engineer in Poland. He requested bridge postcards so I dug into my collection and pulled out this card of Cart Creek Bridge in Flaming Gorge, Wyoming/Utah. The bridge is actually on the Utah side of the Reservoir. It travelled 13 days before arriving.





 
The Second Card I was assigned seems to have gone astray, it's officially been travelling 65 days and has "expired" on the site. Technically though,  It has only been in the mail 41 days, because it took me a little while to get started and find some postcards that I thought were good. I hadn't bought any postcards recently and I am disappointed to find out there are not that many places to buy them in my town and not too much variety. I've been working hard, building up a stash to send since I started, so I don't have any delays now. The card was going to a guy in Taiwan. I'm tempted to send another of the same card to the same person. I'm not really sure if I should do anything or not though. I'm not going to post pics of cards that haven't arrived at their destinations yet.


Then I sent this purple-hued Lake Tahoe card to a girl in Russia, whose likes included "winter" and the color purple. It travelled 36 days from the day I sent it to its arrival.


Lake Tahoe in winter

 Then I sent another Lake Tahoe Card, this time of Sand Harbor, my favorite beach up there, to a lady in the Netherlands whose likes included "beaches." Perhaps not the tropical beach she may have envisioned but I thought it would do. It only took 7 days to arrive from the day I sent it. I like that it shows how very clear Lake Tahoe is.


 Next was the first time I sent out this Nevada Map Card. It went to a lady from China who  listed map cards as a preference. It arrived in 23 days from the day I sent it. I live east of Reno & Sparks, near Pyramid Lake. There are a lot of other things that could be on here, but aren't, like Great Basin National Park and Death Valley National Monument (partially in Nevada partially in California).

The next one I was assigned I took some extra time to mail it, because I got an extra-special card based on the profile and had to order it from a web-site through the mail. It's been travelling 27 days since I sent it and hasn't arrived to it's destination in China yet. I'll be bummed if this one doesn't arrive.

Then went this card of a herd of running wild horses to the Czech Republic. It travelled 15 days. I like this card, not only because of the horses but also because it shows what Nevada looks like sagebrush covered hills. This photo looks like it was taken in winter or very early spring. Since there is a foal, I'd guess early spring.


 Then my first US card, another view of beautiful Lake Tahoe to a Scottish lady living in Arizona who likes "famous places in your area" so I figured Lake Tahoe is the most famous place in my area. It was only going to the state next door, but took 5 days to arrive anyway.



 Then I sent this card of baby mountain lions, once again to the Netherlands, to a lady who likes "pictures of animals in their natural environment" and "pictures of (baby)cats." It also took 7 days to get to the Netherlands.


 My next assignment was to Russia again, it has been travelling 19 days and hasn't arrived yet, my other Russian card took 36 days so I'm not worried yet.

Then another to the U.S. this time to North Carolina. I sent a very special postcard. Because the variety of postcard subjects is so poor around here, I had several of my photos printed into postcards. I want to showcase my beautiful home. I mean, Lake Tahoe is gorgeous, but it's not the only gorgeous place around here! I think my postcards turned out so awesome! I love seeing my photos looking professionally done. This one was of Pyramid Lake with a dusting of snow on the hills. The profile said she likes scenery and I think this is one of the most scenic places around. It took 6 days to arrive.


 After that I got assigned one to Australia. It's been travelling 11 days and hasn't arrived yet. I sent the same card that never made it to Taiwan, I hope this one fares better.

Then another U.S. assignment, to a nice girl in Louisiana.  She requested U.S. state maps, so I sent the Nevada map card again. It only took 3 days to arrive! That's nice and fast. I put on extra postage, because she said she likes to look at postage stamps and see what year they were put out, so I used a couple of old 20 cent stamps that were laying around.

That's the last card of mine to have been sent, but I got two new addresses today to send. Another in the Netherlands, and a second card to Poland. neat!

I've sent the Nevada map card on three private swaps now, once to Hong Kong (for the cute little devil dog in the previous post), once to France, and just yesterday to the Ukraine. People seem to love that card.

For the great Cache Valley postcard I received from Utah (see previous post) I sent one of my own cards in return. This one of a snowy Carson Valley. You can't see it in this photo, but there are bald eagles in that tree!


 I also did a not quite swap, a lady contacted me about her young cousin who was doing a boy scout project, trying to get a representational postcard from each state, with a scouting postage stamp. She provided the stamp, since I couldn't find any around here. I sent this card of our state capital, and wrote some information about Nevada on the back.





"Capital Building

Carson City, Nevada

The Nevada State Capitol was built by local building contractor Peter Cavanaugh between 1870 and 1871. It is a two-story masonry Classic Revival structure built with sandstone obtained from the Nevada State Prison quarry just outside of Carson City. Photo by Chris Bloomfield"

4-1-2011

Dear-----,

Your cousin, ------, contacted me on a postcard website about your very neat boy scout project. So, I thought I would send you a postcard from Nevada. This is a picture of our state capital building. It has a silver dome because we are "The Silver State." Lot's of silver has been mined from Nevada, especially from Virginia City. During the Civil War we became a state because the union needed our silver. We celebrate our state's birthday on Halloween and the kids here get Halloween off school because of that.

Best Wishes,

Angela (Nevada)

PS The weather is so nice here today, It is finally spring!!

Also I pasted pictures of our state flag (bottom right), state bird, state tree, state flower, and state seal (along the bottom) and a map pf our counties (top center).

Unless I've noted I used The Grand Teton 98 cent stamp for international, and the polar bear 28 cent stamp for domestic.

3 Postcard trade

I got a note on postcrossing about a private trade, from a guy in Poland. He wanted three cards, including the Nevada Map card I had sent out, and he would send me three bundled together in an envelope. I got my three yesterday! They are pictures of his home in Poland. Two cards of Piekary Slaskie, and one of Bytom.









Cool Polish Stamps from the envelope





What did I send him? He asked for this map card of Nevada, which seems to be the card that most people asking for private swaps want.

Then I chose this card of Emerald Bay in Lake Tahoe from an aerial view for him, because in his profile he said he liked lakes & mountains.

Then I chose this card of Reno downtown at night, because he said he liked pictures of cities by night.