I’ve been busy with the postcards (yet again) and addressed three Sesame Street postcards to three Filipino fellow postcard collectors. This was a postcard I had gotten a couple of years back from Sesame Place, back when my now 8-year-old was starstruck by the sight of Elmo, Ernie and Bert and Super Grover. These days, it’s the postcards from Disney Hollywood Studios showing Star Wars that gets his attention.
I already have a copy of this which I had sent home addressed to my son, and remember that I had bought it to trade away. I haven’t been trading for the last 8 years but have continued to collect postcards. Alas, it’s time to weed out the postcards which don’t belong to my collecting interests so I offered them to Postcrossing Philippines on Facebook of which I am a part of. All three have been picked up and are on their way.
It’s a sunny Saturday here and I guess we’re going out for errands after the usual family lunch. I’m not too upbeat about it because I’m not feeling well. (Something we ladies have to deal with on a monthly basis.) This time around is particularly painful, but I’m trying to think happy thoughts to chase the pain away. (The boy was sitting on the sofa shoulder-to-shoulder with me waiting for me to finish with the laptop so he can play an online game that he can’t do on the iPad. I gave him a look and told him it takes me longer to write if someone’s waiting on me. I think it worked.)
Three day weekend on our side of the world as the United States celebrates Labor Day. We have no special plans. Just stay home, do errands, relax and recharge.
I plan to continue organizing the postcards, work on my Art Journal and my Altered book, write a few letters (penpals and friends await!), and maybe, just maybe, read a chapter or two more of my current book which has been mothballed a couple of months now, A STORM OF SWORDS: A Song of Fire & Ice Book III. “Kindling” (hahaha!) used to be a comfort, but nowadays, I’m not that close with my e-reader anymore. Maybe it’s time to renew the friendship, specially since I always have the work Ipad with me.
Three day weekends are going to be scarce and precious now that school is opening this Thursday for New York. My little guy is trying to enjoy what’s left of summer, but isn’t particularly excited. (Or he’s just trying to hide it.)
I just want to be able to sit down and paint, do collage, and try new things. And I’m doing one of my favorite things right now which is writing here. =) Literally, it made me smile.
I’m thinking Steak Fajitas at Chili’s this afternoon. =) Yet another smile. No guacamole for me, though. Everything please BUT the guacamole. I Except when served at Dos Caminos, I’m not particularly fond of avocados except as a dessert like we make it in the Philippines.
Lunch time for the mother-in-law so have to go and get a-heating in the kitchen. Here’s to a fruitful long weekend for those of us here in the US.
Okay, I have to admit, I’m a creature of habit. (Tapa all week long? I used to do that…) I tried a different ‘look’ but it didn’t quite feel right, so I’m back to this layout.
Saturday morning. I just sat down at 11:35 (finally!) after waking up close to 9am. Ate breakfast in front of the TV and then proceeded to photograph more postcards. (Photographing vs. Scanning? Photos work better for me, but I have to admit it takes some angling and set up. I think I am getting the hang of it, though.)
In 10 minutes I have to prepare lunch for the mother-in-law. No cooking. Just heating and fixing the portions. I already made rice earlier this morning for the breakfast of the boys. Another Saturday here. I’m trying to decide if what I’m going to do next after the lunch is ready. (The boy is bugging me about doing another video for “THE ANGELO REPORT” on the toys we got yesterday, but I told him I’m not taking a video of him in his pajamas. That’ll have to wait for later before we leave for errands when he’s dressed appropriately.)
I’m trying to get him into postcard collecting but more to introduce him to the children back home (found a teacher in Bulacan with whom I’ll be trading postcards with and I’m trying to arrange for his students to write us), and hopefully help him improve his handwriting and writing skills. Of course I know half the effort will come from me, but I want to broaden his horizons, so to speak, and get in him touch with his Filipino heritage beyond his family. I am trying to sort through my collection to get rid of duplicates as well, and I didn’t realize that I had traded away a lot of the ordinary New York postcards which are no longer available. I guess because I could easily pick up those postcards off of the souvenir stores in Manhattan, I figured I could always have access to them. But the landscape keeps changing and even the postcard stocks do. There are some artsy postcards I purchased in specialty shops like bookstores, and I don’t know if those are still available. Learning from that experience, I’m now setting aside one copy of each postcard I buy in multiples to trade with. I managed to save quite a few, but I remember quite a number I wish I had kept copies of.
I’ve managed to keep the postcards in mint condition by keeping them in hard shoe boxes, and I’m trying to get to the map postcards sorted by states to begin with so I can upload them and people can see which postcards I DO NOT have. Since I started collecting in 1985, I’ve amassed quite a collection, in different shapes and sizes, and even New York, believe it or not, has at least 4 map postcards out there, not counting the Manhattan map from the local Disney Store. (I’m not even sure it’s still the same map available there since they’ve moved locations. Have to check that one out one of these days.)
When I see a postcard rack, my eye has been trained to look for map postcards right away, be it here in New York, in the newstands of Paris, at the airports we stop or land in, or in the souvenir shops in New York and elsewhere. I always grab more than one because there are a lot of map postcard collectors out there, and since it’s a very particular collecting interest, we usually want a map postcard in return. During my last 4 trips home, I’ve also picked up postcards of Boracay and other provinces of which they produced combined map and multiviews postcards with.
Lighthouse postcards, my second main collecting interest, are a little trickier to come by because they are normally not available in land locked states or areas where they are not close to the sea. Being from the East Coast, though, I am lucky that even New York has its share of lighthouses, even if the postcards are not available in the city. In fact when we travel close to one, we try and make it a point to visit the actual lighthouse and take pictures. The good news is that there are a lot of lighthouse postcard collectors who will swap for them as well. I have had the good fortune of visiting and taking pictures of at least two of the most famous lighthouses in the country (Montauk Point Lighthouse in Long Island, and Cape Neddick or the Nubble Lighthouse in York, Maine) and I am going to attempt to produce my own postcard using my photography. (Another post being drafted on that one.) Of course, most postcard collectors prefer the commercially printed ones. So I’m very happy to have come across mail art and found a group of people in the IUOMA who are all into handmade or privately produced postcards. (And yes, I found kababayans there, too.)
Watercolor on Gesso postcard
Mail Art. I have always been awed by how creative people can get, and I try. More for personal therapy and as a ways of communicating, but I try. The reason I emphasize this is I am completely bowled over by the talent of the people in that group. I am looking forward to start swaps in that area, but I am trying to come up with something decent to exchange with. As it happens, there is a minimalist group for which my existing set of watercolor backgrounds on gesso would work well with.
Here’s another interesting collecting genre: FREECARDS or ADVERTISING cards, and I have a ton of them. Back when I started, I received them from Singapore, Europe and of course, the United Stated. There was a time a local company in Manila attempted to get into the business but they didn’t quite click there.
FREECARD: New York City Ballet 2003 Winter Season
They are literally FREE and are picked up from racks in cafes or stores and are meant to advertise the subject of the card. I have seen less and less of these in New York and am wondering if they are still around. I keep only one of each and are now using the freecards as backing or postcard base for my mail art. I am NOT trading them right now and will keep what I have as is, but I know what a collecting interest means to a postcard collector. I’ve started a Flickr set to showcase the more interesting ones but not all are available for trade. Unfortunately, this is not a priority in terms of documenting what I have in the collection so you’d have to e-mail me if you are interested in them.
If you are interested to receive one of my own postcards or wish to trade, please e-mail me at postcardmailbox@gmail.com
I have a general album of POSTCARDS AVAILABLE FOR TRADE OR EXCHANGE which will change according to what is available. The photographing and uploading is taking a lot of time so I am not going as fast as I hope I could, so if you are looking for a particular postcard, please e-mail me. I am looking to get rid of a few boxes of postcards that are not within my collecting interests, and I might have something you are looking for.
Pinay New Yorker 