Female scientists [Ah, what a smart girl!]

    These amazing postcards with female scientists is an art project [on the platform one of the crowdfunding projects] by talented Russian female artist Nina Pavlova, ninsy at boomstarter.ru [the illustrations in social network group womenscientists, of course, were praised and printing the postcards was an idea by feminist's community]. I received three scientists, the closest to my area of science:

1. Rosalind Franklin (biophysicist, X-ray crystallographer), who got the X-ray crystallography pattern of DNA;
2. Marie Curie (physicist, chemist), who explored the radioactivity, discovered radium and polonium;
3. Sofia Kovalevskaya (mathematician, mechanic), who found the third case of solving the problem of the rotating rigid body.

all received from shishna_vedma, Russia (direct swap)

     Other women scientists in the postcard set were: Inge Lehmann, Mary Anning, Antonia Maury, Margaret Mead, Jeanne Villepreux-Power, Lise Meitner, Ada Lovelace.

Chinese traditional costume [in the scope of received postcards]

     Chinese national costume is something i received a lot during first few years of postcrossing: it can be cute 'anime' version [left in the first row, also this one by Jessica, China], traditional water colour one [center in the first row], 50's stylized illustration [like two right ones in both rows], or makeup and costume of actor in traditional theater [left and center one in the second row, can be an illustration or a photo, also notable illustration of Chinese legendary hero].

left - received from helenring, China (10x10RR#168); center - received from xiaomomo, China (direct swap); right - CN-969243, from Gemmen, China

left - CN-1371084, from taylover13, China; center - received from Annline, China (Cultural Quirks tag); right - received from xiaomomo, China (direct swap)

Handmade: Pencils, roses, and golden lentils

     Even though i believe that there are infinite number of ideas for handmade postcards, most of them fall within more or less similar categories. This category is 'choose some material composed from tiny particles and put it to the postcard (either glue or laminate)': lentils (i thought it was tiny gravels though first, because i expected it to be buckwheat, which smells very disgustingly, and this postcard didn't smell at all) covered with gold paint, pencil shavings glued to a postcard, and pieces of birthday roses, laminated.

left - received from zombozaets, Russia (direct swap); center - received from zabava_zanoza, Russia (direct swap); right - made by me after zabava_zanoza's idea, sent (direct swap)

Handmade: Essence of the Netherlands

     Every time i see on postcrossing site someone who does a lot of handmade cards which seem like a continous project, i ask for a swap if a person is up to it [that's how i received a kimono girl handmade: posts 1, 2, and 3]. Iisnocht makes wonderful handmades from the bits which are very typical for Netherlands: woodland creatures (NL-3181793, NL-3164776), Netherlands map (NL-3160305, this one with stamps NL-3150045), ice skaters (NL-3158319, NL-3153142, NL-3153146, NL-3013249, NL-3142879), more bicycles (NL-3160025), wind and water mills, of course (NL-3143546 with ice skaters, NL-3129473).

received from iisnocht, Netherlands (direct swap)

Erotic postcards, part#12: Wow, what an ass!

     The ass postcard I dreamed of receiving for a long time, the backside is decorated perfectly too. The cat sticker says something like 'Blimey!' [it's a Russian 'Wow!' written with a grammar mistakes, maybe closer in that sense would be translation 'Damn, gurl!']. The poem is by Yulia Kuropata about a nice butt xD [sounds something like 'Utt-utt-utt-utt (in Russian it's sound like -opa, part of popa = butt), what a nice butt! Round, big, and fine, shame it's not mine! It looks like coconut, asking for a spank! (asking for a sin, fornication in Russian)].

frontside and backside, received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap)

     And the last bit is the nut which looks like an ass, never knew about it, - Coco de mer or Lodoicea, double coconut which looks like a nice ass.

Bunny suicides [number two]

     I love this ironic postcard set (and the series of illustrations of course), already received one with D-day from Shaula before, now the another one - number two in a way [pun intended] - with very nice way to commit suicide. Yulia, azuregosa, wrote that looking at this postcard she recalls the case when a woman got stuck in the airplane toilet because her bottoms was sealed to the seat by high-pressure vacuum flush [link1, link2]. I remember the case, maybe, fake, about blue ice, when boy swallowed little plastic figurine which was processed through the airplane flush and ended in someone throat [blue ice myth].

received from azuregosa, Russia (direct swap)

When my hand is tired from writing... [sent backsides]

     Here most of the decorations of the backsides are same I used already, as you saw in previous posts [1, 2, 3, and 4]. Now it's Scott Pilgrim drawings, the cinema ticket - I save all of them! - the cut outs from fashion magazines, and stickers for kid.

left - backside, sent to hedgehog_neff, Germany (birthday card); right - backside of RU-4194001, to greenkiwi, Russia

left - backside of RU-4194014, sent to andrianova, Russia; right - backside of RU-4194007, sent to Gulfiya_A, Russia

left - backside of RU-4193993 (not arrived at the moment), sent to victoria2003, Russia; right - backside of RU-4194004, sent to Agniya_k, Russia

When the creativeness crisis strikes... [sent backsides]

     Me again with common ways to decorate backside for official postcrossing when i have not much to say to a profile with only a wishlist or have any other trouble of connecting to the postcard and/or receiver to write a lot. 1 and 2 postcards have attached little envelopes to the postcard and inside is a short note, transport tickets, teabags and other little things. 4 - 6 are with additional drawing on either the theme of the postcard (Alice) or connected with one of the wishes in the wishlist which is hard to get. 7 and 8 are just more or less usual ones.

1.                                               2.

3.                                               4.

5.                                               6.

7.                                               8.

backsides: 1 - backside of RU-4178093, sent to lesefuchs, Russia; 2 - backside of RU-4178235, sent to Irina7654, Russia; 3 - backside of RU-4178167, sent to spectogo, Russia; 4 - backside of RU-4176599, sent to katerina_benetton, Russia; 5 - backside of RU-4177124, sent to MuFyTko_O, Russia; 6 - backside of RU-4176859, sent to Pandora_Gatto, Russia; 7 - sent to kedb1, Russia (direct swap); 8 - backside of RU-4176785, sent to ampja, Russia

Weird postcard: Scull-crab and vampire spider

     Two weird cards received under the barbarian profile: one from Netherlands, ad card for horror, sci-fi, fiction magazine Schokkend Nieuws [=Shocking News, their official site] printed by postcardhappiness.com [hmm, according to this, the postcard may be adhesive... it'll make it second sticker-postcard from Netherlands, also unexpected]; and one from Germany, also ad card for anti-AIDS campaign by machsmit.de, 'Give no chance for AIDS', - probably they imagine AIDS virus as this odd vampire bat-spider-microbe.

     Another amazing thing about Netherlands postcard is the Efteling stamps. Efteling is a huge Dutch Fairy-tales theme park-resort, it's very nice, I've been there about 10 years ago and want to go once more now when i understand Dutch better.

left - NL-2937639, from sasjaW, Netherlands; right - DE-4634230, from Annikenieke, Germany

stamps of  NL-2937639, from sasjaW, Netherlands

Postcrossing links [winter-cleaning at browser bookmarks]

     Sometimes by accident you come across interesting links and/or users on postcrossing site and official forum, or sometimes someone posts an interesting fact in livejournal community. I usually put them on bookmarks, but then it's impossible to ever conveniently retrieve them. So here is the list and what they are about:

1. Russian postcrossing F.A.Q. by loco_bird, March 19, 2010; postcards shops list by postcross-shop, last upd January 13th 2011; where to buy postcards in Russia by crossford, upd July 15th, 2015; postcards by artlebedev design studio.
2. Postcrosser from Switzerland, VictorLeNettoyeur, who collected 'ugly lame ducks' of postcards, the received gallery is pretty fun, check the comments too.
3. Russian post rules about postcards [useful when they break the rules out of laziness or incompetence and you want to get them working good] and whole Federal Law about Post; also useful tutorial in Russian how to write complaints to Russian post with templates
4. Another user with unusual wishlist, gallery - thaddee_calisson, from France [also his creative covers collection of mailarts]
5. All scanned postcards (scanned by didkovskaya) from artlebedev's studio postcard set: postcard for every day with holidays (overall more than 400 postcards) [another version, and one more]
6. Useful zip-code finder for USA addresses [there are two types of USA zip-codes, extended one allows cards to travel faster]
7. Memorable/useful-as-opinions-poll LJ community posts: what is the ideal backside for a postcrossing postcard; how to choose a postcard to sent to certain user; received letter from India (direct swap, I also received a letter from that user - little girl and her dad); how to remember what you sent; mailart making tutorial by sue888 (that's where i got the idea how to do nice envelopes, sadly the image links are broken in post); ideas for mailart envelopes; how to store postcards; wishlists for community members; the post troll - story of W. Reginald Bray; a look from the outside; how people sort/remember sent cards and examples of tables for managing all the swaps; wonderful guide how to decorate a postcard, by mar-mazetka, Ukraine (i received a beautiful envelope from her and sent something back); received albums and galleries of decode745
8. Also in bookmarks other saved users [and i have no idea why, maybe nice profiles, maybe possible swaps, maybe nice sent/received galleries i wanted to track]: Levirin, Russia; cherrych125, Taiwan; writerdreams, Russia; Anne_Lise, Ukraine; Guliver, Czech Republic; WesleyGuijt, Netherlands; Sophie54, Netherlands; loops, Belgium
9. Postcrossing_blogs: www.fishmailart.com; tvorimtvarey.blogspot.ru; blogdelanine.blogspot.ru; mailart by artists

Soviet postcards: yellow-throated marten, tiger, and fox

     When i was little, my mum collected postcards, so i learnt animals from the images on them. Sadly most of postcards then were given to one of the relatives kids and gone, but now doing postcrossing i sometimes receive ones i remember dearly on the back of my mind. Those are the absolutely adorable yellow-throated marten, one of the most dedicated Moscow zoo break fugitive, with corresponding stamp; Siberian (Amur) tiger [this one appeared in the blog already on maxicard] and a common fox.

left - received from zombozaets, Russia (direct swap); center and right - received from kiskanik, Russia (direct swap)

The yellow-throated marten and siberian tiger stamps [joint issue with North Korea]

The perks of memory loss [part #2 - Greece/Cyprus]

     No brainer that second part [and third, and fourth, and further...] of memory loss is CATS! [cute cats, not weird cats] -- jk, when browsing my received albums, there are too much of different cats, so for now it will be cat and Greek/Cyprus blue and white buildings.

left - UA-1129343, from StanislavKorolkov, Ukraine; right - received from sonchik, Greece (surprise from my Israeli friend who got me into postcrossing)

The perks of memory loss [part #1 - Rooms]

     Recently i noticed that i am starting to have special postcrosser's memory loss, probably, preventing me from being disappointed by receiving duplicate postcards [eh, they are not ever a duplicate really with different messages, even in that case]. But i went further: i started to engage swaps for glorious and awesome postcards i like, completely forgetting that i have already received them [like this one] and more coincidences like having same two postcards in my mailbox [yes, it happened again - one from Favorites 198, one as a surprise from a direct swap pal]. And i think it happens generally because with a huge flow of received postcard i forget to stop, take a breath and truly appreciate every one of them. So i decided to sometimes post postcards which are beautiful, semi-special, received long ago and mostly forgotten by me [when i browsed through my boxes of received postcards, i thought 'what a postcard, what a lovely postcard' seeing them like the first time].

     Therefore, part one of memory loss sequence or how-you-become-a-postcrossing-old-cat-lady-even-when-you-are-30-something: interesting postcards beyond the usual wishlist - rooms. No, ROOMS. Who wouldn't want a veranda enclosed with glass with a wonderful view? Or a adorably minimalistic wooden room? Or a hunting lodge which also looks like a writer's work cabinet?

left - received from yukina, Japan (Closed Eyes RR#287); center - received from Sehan, South Korea (direct swap) [the scan is lost for now]; right - received from na_talie, Russia (direct swap)

All Passions want Eternity

     Yet another two cards that seem like two pieces from the same puzzle. The left one was handmade swap, it is a photo frame [PF13 - still not sure what it stands for], printed on slightly thicker paper than usually. The right one is official postcard from Germany, on the backside - "Denn alle Lust will Ewigkeit" [= All Passions want Eternity] - Motiv Nr. 45-8 (also kind of one of the frames by photographer) by German photographer Isolde Ohlbaum [the series "Alle Rechte vorbehalten" by www.arsvivendi.com]. I found it interesting how with infinite possibilities of making a photo laws of composition lead photographers who haven't heard about each other to make similar frames [i think this effect is seen the best when you compare photos of same sight made by different people].

left - received from la_fat, Russia (direct swap); right - DE-3495325, from Heide, Germany

Recent writings... [sent backsides]

     Well, me again with decorating backsides of sent postcards. The laziness intensified lately so most of postcards i sent are with stickers and collages and all those cute little coloured pieces of paper [previous backsides posts: backsides for kids, collages backsides]. Usually i use one of stick-notes for address, some girls from magazines [i have whole glamour magazines ripped for mailart envelopes] with drawn mustaches, and some random facts, quotes for the theme of the postcard.

sent to miomy, kedb1, rhioda, Russia (direct swap and Favorites 203)

Ukranian postcrossing stamp and cancellation

     Issue of a postcrossing stamps is always a big news - i absolutely love the Russian postcrossing stamp! [if only it had non-denominated postage, because the stamp became obsolete in couple months due to tariffs raise for foreign postcards - seems that rusmarka, Russian stamps agency, is going to renew it - the contest on what should be pictured on it announced] Ukraine issued forever-stamps on postcrossing and it's super cute too [and was launched on World Post Day, October, 9th - so stamp has two cancellations, from postcrossing stamp issues and from the Post Day], as most of the Ukranian stamps are. On the postcard: postcrossers are looking for their postcards xD

postcard and stamp with special cancellations, from lisvegas, Ukraine (direct swap)

backside with stamps of UA-1352718, from Kolodiy, Ukraine (somehow written in English)

Rare countries: Georgia [Batumi] and others

     I don't know easier way to receive a rare country card than from colleague who went there on conference. To be fair most of postcrossers from rare countries are spoiled and arrogant, as they received swap requests all the time. Once i got a message from postcrosser from some African country, whose sent postcard i faved on the site, demanding me sending him three postcards and then he might consider sending me something back, wtf?! And i came across some posts in livejournal community about most of those direct swap requests being a scam, so those people just asking for cards and never sending anything back, which makes it silliest 'crime' ever, battling for 1st place of idiotic crime of Russian post stamps ripper. So may i present you three cards from former Yugoslavian countries (most of them still stay the only ones i received from there, except of Croatia and Slovenia - there are skiing and beach resorts there) and Georgia (this one is interesting because their post system was reformed and previous attempts of my penpals to send me postcards from there failed).

postcard and stamp, received from colleague, who was on conference in Georgia

all received from colleagues/students when they were on conferences in Serbia [Belgrade], Bosnia and Herzegovina [Sarajevo], Croatia [Zagreb]