The Lowly Postcard

I am a total sucker for a handwritten letter or thank-you note or even the lowly postcard. From previous posts on my blog, I think you guys know that I tend to spend a lot of time and money at Hallmark. In college I discovered Papyrus, the ritzier version, and I have recently discovered TokyoPenShop.com for all of my fine pen needs....

When I buy postcards, though, I rarely send them. They aren't of the "Aloha from Hawai'i!", "Bula from Fiji!", "Bonjour from Paris!", variety - they are the beautiful pictures of beaches and bures and Eiffel Towers taken with a much better camera lens, by someone who may have had a photography lesson in his life. I save them in a big stack for no apparent reason...it is just clutter. But pretty clutter.

I was recently introduced to a business called CellPhonePostcards.com that takes pictures you have taken yourself (from your own camera?!) and prints it on a postcard and sends it for you - and the first ten are free. I don't know how their business model is successful, but I am running with it. It is kind of funny to think that the postman has seen me in a bikini next to my sandcastle that I helped build in Fiji...but it has got me to send postcards.

I sent my first ten (free ones) out the first day I stumbled across this site. I am now thinking about what to do with all of those other postcards I have collected in my various travels. Maybe make a scrapbook? It would have been great had I had the forethought to send them to myself with the stamp of the country from which they came, then I would have an even better collection, but I didn't. Or I could not have been selfish and actually sent them to people I care about....but postcards do get a bad wrap sometimes. They are kind of like the 'Na-na-na-na-na!' of all correspondence. "Wish you were here!"......sometimes can be misinterpreted as "Wish you were here, chump?" (If you were wondering, I sent the postcards to the guy I vacationed with so he'd have some of the pictures off of my camera, and it wouldn't be like *that*.)

Anyways, I was impressed with the site, and wanted to share. :-) I vow to make a better use of my postcard clutter this year, and also be better with mailing other things like thank-you notes, sympathy cards, birthday cards, and anything else where I can use my new favorite pen. :-)