Suomenlinna

This card arrived for the NDC #110 from Kaheli. The card shows Suomenlinna, a UNESCO WHS. It's a seafortress off Helsinki. I have visited there on my 30th birthday. It was really hot and I had a small problem with  celebrating the big 3-0....but my super cool birthday present helped to brighten the mood - an iPad.

A special vending machine

I'm sure you have seen a card with a Dutch vending machine before, but this one is really special: It combines the machine with a Dutch symbol: The Klompen. I love this card that Poekje sent me for the Choose a country #28 - Netherlands group.

Choose a country

This card is from the Choose a country RR #75, sent by ddonkey. 

Chosen country: Croatia

The card shows the Kornati National Park. We had a Croatian restaurant near our flat - now I know where they took the name from!

Sunday Stamps

Sorry for posting this late for the Sunday stamps, but I had to scan my cards first...cards from a whole week... that's a lot of cards! So here are my spring theme stamps!

I haven't seen those stamps before, but they are beautiful!
Tulips - one of my favorites!

And here is a Narcissus from German Post - that's a classical spring flower!

This is a post for Sunday Stamps by Viridian's Postcard Blog. Have a look at the other entries here:

Selfprinted cards

Here are the cards I received for the Professionally Printed Cards - RR. It's a RR where you send cards that you designed yourself but that were printed by moo or any other printing company. There are so many people who do not like to receive homemade or homeprinted cards, so it's pretty hard to send the cards you had designed yourself. 

Forrest Summerview by Nickey

by volvomom - a view of a park in Boston

Russian map - by tu-zi

I have just joined another group and I'm looking forward to the other postcrosser's designs!

New Zealand icons

This card shows New Zealand's two main icons, the silver fern and the kiwi!

(from jenniferb for the FebRR)

Austria meets Canada

Austria meets the world tag: This time Canada. lncrou7 sent me this card showing Montreal. Two friends of mine have lived there, but I never managed to visit. It looks like a great city to visit.

Cute!

What a cute little fellow! He arrived for the JanRR and was sent by chrissybaby! Thank you!

President on stamp

In answer to my previous post for Sunday stamps for Presdient's day, I'd like to post the stamp featuring our President Dr. Heinz Fischer again. I had a few people commenting on how he resembles former US President Ronald Reagan. And a fellow postcrosser, emotis, read my blog and used the then newly released Ronald Reagan stamp on my card. So as a small thank you I promised to post the stamps. Here they are:

 

So, what do you think...do they really look alike?

Spain

I think a pretty common reaction to this card is: The card is from Spain? No way. Where is the beach???

I have to confess that snow is the last thing that comes to mind when thinking of Spain... And though I know that they have pretty high mountains there and though I have seen them on tv (during the Vualta for example), it still slipped my mind. But I am really happy to have this card in my collection as it shows a very interesting different side of Spain! Thanks to carmencitta who sent the card for the FebRR.

Choose a country!

I received this card through a new RR, the "Choose a country-RR". You sign up for a specific country and get a card from there. You just have to send one card, but the host sends to all the members of this group. I signed up for an Austrian group, as I don't get many cards from my own country. There are obviously not that many Austrian postcrossers, so I jumped at the chance. I asked my grouphost for a card showing the Pöstlingberg in Linz and here is my card:

The card shows the old Pöstlingbergbahn, a narrow-gauge electric railway that connects the main square in the center of Linz with the district of Pöstlingberg, located at the top of a hill with the northern end of the city. The Pöstlingbergbahn opened in 1898 and ran from a terminal station in Linz's Urfahr neighborhood to Pöstlingberg. In 2009, service was extended from Urfahr to the city center and new traincars were introduced.

With a maximum grade of 11.6%, the Pöstlingbergbahn is one of the steepest adhesion railways in the world. There are steeper grades on at least one other tram system, that of Lisbon, but the Pöstlingbergbahn is still among the world's steepest adhesion railways and has the steepest grade of any in Austria (All info from wikipedia).

I took a ride with the old Pöstlingbergbahn and it was a really scenic drive up there. From the top of the Pöstlingberg you have a great view over the city.

California, here I come!

I'm currently planning my summer vacation to California (and some other places), so I thought this card fits the theme! The card was sent by lagina for the March11 RR.

The Staples center is home of the Lakers (where my basketball hero Magic Johnson played), Kings (hockey team - my favorite team are the Sabres though; both Wayne Gretzky and Luc Robitaille played for the Kings.) and Clippers (Another NBA team. The Clippers began in 1970 as the Buffalo Braves, later became the San Diego Clippers before moving to LA as the LA Clippers). These three teams were mentioned on the back of the card but in fact there is one more team playing in this arena: the LA Sparks, a WNBA team. According to wikipedia, the Staples Center has a capacity of up to 21.000 (depending on the event). It is also host to over 250 events and nearly 4,000,000 visitors a year.

Homemade card

This card is actually a photo, taken by the sender, Daria, herself. I like home/handmade and selfprinted cards as long as the sender gave it some thought. The card shows Daria's grandmother's cats, named Ginger and Squirrel.

There was also this funny fanny drawing on the card! Love that!

This card is an official postcrossing card from Belarus (BY-145548) and travelled 1060 km in 24 days.

Jackie O.

This card was sent by Cardiffgal for the JanRR. It shows Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994), who was the wife of the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. She was later married to Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis from 1968 until his death in 1975. For the final two decades of her life, she had a successful career as a book editor. She is remembered for her contributions to the arts and preservation of historic architecture, her style, elegance and grace. (All information from wikipedia)

Parliament tag

This card is from the Parliament tag, a tag dedicated to Parliament buildings. Though the card was sent from Finland, it shows the Houses of Parliament in London.

Valentine

This card shows the flags of Germany and England, two old rivals in the football world. But football as in soccer. The Disney characters all carry a football, but the field you see is a soccer field. And also the shoes are soccer shoes...So maybe it is all a mix up between football and soccer?

But the reason for showing this card is not really the Disney drawing on the front, but rather what's on the back of the card. Dancing_Sun wrote this card on Valentine's day and used those lovely stamps.

There was also a saying by Victor Hugo written on the card:

"What a great thing to be loved.

What a grander thing still to love."

Summer feeling

Not summer in the city, but summer in the postbox! The cards make me dream of a summer holiday. The first card shows Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, but actually had a Portuguese ID (PT-164151)

Look at all the vegetables - makes you want to grab a cookbook and look for some recipes to make use of all the veggies! Amapola11 chose this card for me for the FebRR.

Russian cards

Here are two cards from Russia: The first is from mad_madchen for the FebRR.

The second card shows the Kriukov Canal and the St Nicholas Naval Cathedral and was sent by mukaltin for the JanuaryRR.

A card for the February RR

A classic Winnie the Pooh drawing arrived for the FebRR from siguanea. 



"It's a very funny thing," said Bear, "but there seem to be two animals now.
Would you mind coming with me, Piglet, in case they turn out to be Hostile Animals?"



Saluti da Padova

This beautiful card was sent by Edo for the January RR. I love the tiny views that frame the card! Grazie!

New outfit

Hello World!

My blog has a new outfit. What do you think of it? It was time for a change and so I chose a new design. The cards in the background are all cards I have received through postcrossing or the Round Robins. I made a collage out of the scans of these postcards and uploaded it as the new background! I chose green as the main color for the blog - green makes me think of spring, new leaves, awakening of the nature after a long and cold winter! And with tomorrow being the first day of spring (at least according to the calendar), green just seemed to fit perfectly! 

FI-1028725

This official card was sent by Anna from Finland. It is a wonderful nature view, but what I loved even more about the card was Anna's drawing on the back of the card. I love that she drew a girl waving both of our flags - a lovely act of friendship!

Anna has her own blog with drawings, but unfortunately in Finnish, so I don't understand the text in her drawings.

The luck of the Irish

This is a post for Sunday stamps. This week is supposed to be about green stamps, Irish stamps or shamrock stamps. So I searched through my files and came up with these two: The first featuring a crab is also green!

The second stamp came with a special cancellation!

Have a look at what the other Sunday stamp participants chose:

My 300th post!

I can't believe that this is already my 300th post. I did not even post all my cards...there are so many more, but there is just not enough time to post them all. Nontheless I appreciate each and every card!

So for this Jubilee post, I'm featuring two cards from Macedonia. They both are from my train-stamp-swap-partner Ana. I just bought a new stamp for our swap today and so I see wonderful Macedonian cards in my future :-)



Kate Fortress



The Stone bridge over the river Vardar, one of the most important symbols of Skopje.

I thought Macedonian cards were appropriate for today's post as I had to work with Macedonian law today.

Sunday stamps

This Sunday's theme is anything you want and Mardi Gras stamps were suggested. But I don't have any sort of carnival stamps. I also felt that I should post something about Japan. Just a little something to say that I'm thinking of my Japanese postcrossing friends and sending good thoughts your way.

So my Sunday stamps today are two Japanese stamps. 

Cultural Capital of Europe

Here are two cards showing Cultural Capitals of Europe. The first card shows last year's capital, Essen in Germany (DE-829681) with the Ruhr2010 stamp.

And the card below is from Turku, Finland, the other Cultural Capital of Europe this year. The card says on the back: Culture? What's that? In 2011 you will have a whole year to find out. (Card from Pampula for the FebRR).

Estonia

This card shows the beautiful Estonian capital, Tallinn. The city is one of the two Cultural Capitals of Europe this year. The card was sent by ellgee for the FebRR.

A bunch of US cards

I have received so many cards from the US lately. Here are my favorites:



US-1002921

This card shows facts about SC, sent by my FB/PC friend Monica
for the JanRR.

This card with facts about Texas was sent by rothko
for the JanRR.

And I still do not know where the saying "Don't mess with Texas" comes from! Could someone finally tell me pleeeease?

And the final card shows Virginia, the "Mother of Presidents". 8 Presidents came from this state. (Card sent by vagirl for the DecRR)

Another elephant post!

Looks like another elephant post. I love elephants, they are really wonderful animals. Just today I read another article about elephants. They are supposed to be right-"trunked" and left-"trunked" as we are right- and lefthanded. And they realize if it makes sense to work together as a team.

This card is from alcott1 for the JanuaryRR and
shows the "new" Asian elephant, Maliha, born on August 2, 2006.

I would really love to visit one of these elephant orphanages in Thailand. I also heard that there are some pretty talented elephant-painters. I would love to have a painting made by an artistic elephant!







This NouvellesImages card was sent by objektklasse
for the Did you knowRR #21
and stated facts about elephants.



Japanese Kimono

This card shows the traditional Japanese Kimono. Sent by yummy for the JanuaryRR. Thank you!

Alphabet RR time!

It's time again for some cards from the Alphabet RR!

from MissMaple for M11. M for Mills in Monter.



H10 is for the sender's Homestate - from TheGreenOne





M11: Mountains from crizle
Awesome card!





E11 - Eggs in the cake from Lori



I really like the Alphabet RR as you get a broad variety of cards - it's never dull in the alphabet world!