12 March 2008

Lucian Freud. Double Portraits. 1985-1986.

I love this card because of the dog in it. I really miss having a dog. Tell me about your favourite dog.


See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

15 July 2008

Vintage postcard.

I received this one from Finland through Postcrossing. I love that it's a vintage card and of a dog! If you don't know what postcrossing is yet, check it out! I just love it. I recently started again after about a two year hiatus. It's so much fun.

See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

23 August 2008

Yoshitomo Nara. dogs from childhood. 1999.

Taina and I had both bought the Yoshitomo Nara postcard book from Chronicle. I never minded when we bought the same postcards. I buy them because I like them, so it's always nice to get one back because I've had to send it away! I loved this Nara card because I just love her dog sculptures. Any postcard with a dog or animal gets on my favourite list automatically.


See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

22 July 2010

Vintage reproduction shadow card from 1890s.

This just might be one of my favourite cards ever. I can't believe it got here in one piece. One of the fingers was a little bent, but that's it. I don't know who wouldn't want a shadow card in their mailbox. I'm going to have to practice my shadow puppets now!

See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

09 August 2010

Postcard from John Derian, NYC.

There is a serious lack of vegetable postcards. I love this card. I know I have sent Taina a postcard of dancing carrots. I don't believe we have exchanged any other vegetables. I also love this card because she got this card at John Derian. Blaire made reference to this store last season.

See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

04 May 2009

Carrie Mae Weems. Untitled. 1990.

Black and white photography seems to be my favourite postcards. I've always loved this one, but can't really explain why. On the back Taina mentions that this is one of her favourite postcards.


See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

Fall 2009

Postcard from Annie.
Annie is a good friend I met when I lived in the Bay Area. We met at an Etsy Meetup at SFMOMA in February 2007 (I think). We would usually go to other Etsy meetups together, big craft shows (Renegade, etc...), get some fries at Frijtz's, or just check out the Creative Reuse store in Oakland. When I moved back to Canada she would send me some beautiful hand made cards. Annie is a wonderful collage artist and poet.
Check out her stuff: Etsy Blog


See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

15 April 2009

Tina Barney. The Yellow Room. 1997.

I'm not sure why I liked this card so much. It might be the yellow walls. It also reminded me of this very small book my friend had brought on our bike trip in 1999. I can't even remember what is was called. It was a short story and and the book it self was about half the size of a normal pocket book. I thought it had something to do with a yellow room, but I really cannot remember. I'll have to ask her. 

See original blog post about my postcard posting project. 

19 August 2008

Markku Laakso. Tango. 1998.

From: Finland

Okay, so not all the postcards I put up here are going to be from Taina. I'll include some others that I receive from other people. If I don't say who it's from, it's from Taina.
I joined Postcrossing a few years ago. It's a great way to get some mail. You receive an address of someone outside of your country (you can get 10 at a time). Once they receive your postcard they put it in the system and your address is given to someone. I got a lot of postcards of cities and occasionally some interesting ones like this one! The woman in this postcard is the Maid of Finland.


See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

The New Room

As you know, well you would if you consistently read my blog, which I doubt anyone does, you'd know that I have moved. Here's my new room:

I'm really starting to like it. It has an amazing closet.
I still miss my old room:

Oh well. It had to be done and I do like my new one. Overall, I think there are a lot of things about this new apartment that I like better, so in the end it's all for the better.

11 June 2008

Paul Gauguin. Still Life with Three Puppies. 1888.

I love this one because of the doggies, of course.


See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

Penguin Clothbound Classics

I've been wanting to collect these books since they first came out. I think it's been a year or two now. So far, I have collected all the ones in the photo above. I think there are twenty of them now, and a third set of ten is coming out in the Fall. I'm not positive on that, though.

Coralie Bickford-Smith is the amazing artist behind the designs. Check out her website. I want her F. Scott Fitzgerald books too!

23 January 2008

Jeff Wall. 2001.

This must of been one of the first postcards I received from Taina. I had never heard of Jeff Wall, but became a fan after receiving his postcards. Rereading it, I can tell it's early in our writing because she is asking me if Etsy is my full-time job and telling me where she works! I liked it so much I put it on my fridge.  It didn't come off until I moved from California to Ontario in August 2009.

See original blog post about my postcard posting project.

New Table

This is not to replace my kitchen table, but I couldn't pass it up. I found it in a shop on Ottawa St in Hamilton. It's in my new living room right now. It's too cute.

I'm a blogging fool lately. If you read my previous post, I am serious about my postcard posts. I already have written timed updates for every week for the next few months. I hope everyone enjoys seeing the postcards I have received! The first one will be up tomorrow and then on every following Wednesday.

Postcards and Penpals

One day on the Etsy forums (in early 2008) someone posted a thread about penpals. They would match you up with another Etsy user as a penpal if you were interested. I have rarely turned down the opportunity for a penpal, so I quickly signed up. I am still in contact with a penpal I was matched with in Grade 4 from OWL magazine, so was hoping to find another great penpal. I've had many through the years, but none that lasted for more than a few years or so, other than the one I met through OWL. I don't think this match could have worked out better. I got matched with Taina who lived in NYC. I was living in the Bay Area, California at the time. We hit it off immediately as you can through letters. Here was the first piece of mail I received in January 2008.

In one of her first few letters, she mentioned that she would probably be using postcards more than letters. I was excited about that because I had a bit of a stationery obsession and had a few postcards sets from Chronicle Books. So since then we have been sending piles of postcards to each other. We would use letter stationery as well, since who can resist Chronicle's stationery sets, but the majority has been postcards.
We've even met in person! In August 2009, I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern Ontario. The following December my sister moved from San Francisco to Brooklyn. This past April and July I drove out to Brooklyn to visit my sister. On both trips, I made sure to spend some time with Taina. Luckily, it wasn't weird and we had great times! Although, the amount of postcards has diminished somewhat, since I have moved back to Canada just because of the price of postage. We used to write whole letters, but use five or six postcards. That's easy to do when it's only 27 cents to send one! Oh, we still send plenty (I don't want to know how much the both of us have spent on stamps!) and are keeping the postal workers busy and hopefully they enjoy seeing all these postcards! Whenever I mailed my Etsy parcels I would usually have a stack of postcards with them. The postal worker always looked at them. I had this one really strange card with carrots dancing, he found this so funny and told me whenever there is a funny or strange card that comes through they all show them to each other. It's nice to think we are adding interest to their day!

I've decided to photograph some of my favourite postcards and put them in this blog. Since I know I will never remember to do this every week, I've taken photos of a bunch today and will time post them! Clever! Stay tuned!

Pyrex

I have been collecting Pyrex mixing and casserole bowls for years. I am now getting more particular with my collection. This is really to prevent me from buying too much, just like how I only collect hound porcelain dogs and not every single animal Beswick makes. It would be out of control. I am sticking to one colour bowls and the snowflake pattern (I have too many of the other patterns) which I recently discovered. So far, I only have three pieces for this collection and I love them.