“Mysterious Postcard Collector” sent this very nice photo through the mail, as a postcard, of an original photo of the Loveland Ski Area — along with a request to send him or her a million postcards. Well, not all from me; this individual has somehow gotten the idea into his (let’s stick with the generic pronoun, shall we?) head of amassing one million postcards. Naturally, I obliged. It’s a challenge for me to store my own collection (somewhere between one and two thousand, I think) and, necessity being a mother, I am hoping that he’ll come up with some good ideas for the rest of us.

Since the goal seems to be quantity, not quality, I say let’s oblige him. If you’ve got an old advertising postcard, unwanted card, or just plain ugly card, why not pop it in the mail?

George Barbier (1882 – 1932) was a French illustrator, whose work is in the art deco style and was produced while art deco was very much en vogue. Barbier made a living in illustration as well as in theatre and costume design; he died at the height of his popularity. This work, L’hiver (Winter), is less stylistic than some of his other works but, if you squint, you can see a little Alphonse Mucha in there, and possibly some Maxfield Parrish in the landscape in the background.

This card was produced in and mailed from Singapore, which I had thought was in Southeast Asia but which might actually be somewhere in France. Thanks Ammy!

I’m not sure how I missed the fact that Gmail was sending out free holiday postcards last month, but they were. Oh, well, since I didn’t send one, at least I received one — plus, you can click on the link and download both the hi-res images of their cards, and PDF files that you can cut out into a postcard shape and mail yourself!

“A University of North Carolina student notices a new creation as he walks past the snow-covered Old Well on the UNC campus.”  Well — if you’ll pardon the pun — it was kinda hard to miss.

This is an “official” Postcrossing card from my friend Britt, who was apparently thinking of sending me a card anyway when she drew my name out of the hat.  She writes: “This is a card from the school I hopefully will be attending in the fall. Fingers crossed.”  Naturally, I immediately sent her a good luck “V for Victory” card, which I did not have the foresight to scan before dropping it in the mailbox.  So it goes.