Nicko Huang

This card is a lovely illustration from Nicko Huang, a taiwanese artist

 Her work 

London 2012

A nice card from the 2012 Paralympic games 

The Games featured 20 sports (Archery Athletics Boccia Para-Cycling Equestrian Football 5-a-Side Football 7-a-Side Goalball Judo Powerlifting Rowing Sailing Shooting Swimming Para-Table Tennis Sitting Volleyball Wheelchair Basketball Wheelchair Fencing Wheelchair Rugby Wheelchair Tennis), most of which took place in London with the exception of Sailing at Weymouth and Portland, Rowing at Eton Dorney and Road Cycling which was staged at Brands Hatch.               

In his closing speech IPC President Sir Philip Craven described London 2012 as "the greatest Paralympic Games ever" and with record crowds, numbers of broadcasters and athletes and countries taking part combined with record breaking performances from athletes and unprecedented media coverage it was easy to see why.

The Games had a significant impact on British society. Research ahead of the Closing Ceremony found:

• 65% agree the Paralympics delivered a breakthrough in the way people with an impairment are viewed in the country – up from a 40% expectation in June 2010;

• Eight out of ten (81%) British adults thought the Paralympics had a positive impact on the way people with an impairment are viewed by the public;

• The Paralympic Games is about ability, not disability – and are about what people can do, not what they can’t do;

• 1 in 3 UK adults changed their attitude towards people with an impairment

*Source 

Thank you Constanze!

Més que un club

A great card from FC Barcelona's stadium Camp Nou

The stadium was designed by architects Francesc Mitjans Miró and Josep Soteras Mauri, with the collaboration of Lorenzo García Barbón, and it was constructed between 1955 and 1957, using mainly concrete and iron. The whole project cost a staggering 288 million pesetas. 

Although it was originally going to go under the official name of ‘Estadi del FC Barcelona’, it soon came to be popularly known as the 'Camp Nou' (the ‘new ground’), as opposed to the club’s old home at Les Corts. It was not until the 2000/2001 season that the decision was made to make ‘Camp Nou’ the official name of the stadium. 

The stadium’s maximum height is 48 metres, and it covers a surface area of 55,000 square metres (250 metres long and 220 metres wide). In accordance with UEFA stipulations, the playing area has been downsized to 105 metres x 68 metres. 

With a capacity of 99,354, it is now the biggest stadium in Europe.  In the 1998-99 season, UEFA awarded Camp Nou by with a five star status. In Spain there are only four other stadiums that can claim that, the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, also in Barcelona, the new Cartuja Olympic Stadium in Seville, the Vicente Calderón, home of Atlético Madrid, and the Santiago Bernabeu, also in Madrid.

Of the different facilities on offer inside the stadium, of particular note are a chapel next to the changing rooms, the presidential box, the VIPs lounge, the press rooms, several television studios, the Sports Medicine Centre, the Operative Control Unit (UCO), the veteran players area, the FC Barcelona club museum, the nursery and the offices of all of the many different club departments.
*Source

Muchas gracias Fabianne!

Cookies from Russia

Cookies by Julia Ostrovskaya

Such a cute illustration!

Spasibo Polina!

Australia

Lovely map from Australia!

Covering a total area of 7.69 million square kilometres, mainland Australia is the world’s largest island - but smallest continent.

In distance, the continent stretches about 3700 kilometres from north to south and 4000 kilometres from east to west, making it the sixth-largest nation after Russia, Canada, China, the United States and Brazil.

Australia is also the only continent that is governed as a single country. It is sometimes informally referred to as an 'island' continent, surrounded by oceans.

Their ocean territory is also the third-largest in the world, spanning three oceans and covering around 12 million square kilometres. Australia also has one of the most urbanised and coast-dwelling populations in the world, with more than 80 per cent of residents living within 100 kilometres of the coastline. Australia currently has a population of almost 23 million people.

Australian society is made up of people from a rich variety of cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds, and this is a defining feature of modern Australian society. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have inhabited Australia for tens of thousands of years. Most Australians are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants who arrived during the past two hundred years from more than 200 countries. The most commonly spoken language in Australia is English, and the most commonly practiced religion is Christianity, although foreign languages and other religions are also common.

*Source

Thank you Penny!

Visca el Barça!

I'm a big football fan and my favorite club (besides Liverpool) is Barcelona, so receiving this card was great!

Squad of the 2011-2012 season 

*Starting from above, left to right

1. Victor Valdés, Marc Muniesa, Andreu Fontàs, Eric Abidal, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Ibrahim Afellay, Seydou Keita, José Manuel Pinto.

2. Martín Montoya, David Villa, Cesc Fàbregas, Juan Carlos Unzué, Pep Guardiola, Tito Vilanova, Adriano Correia, Maxwell, Javier Mascherano.

3.  Thiago Alcántara, Pedro Rodríguez, Dani Alves, Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Lionel Messi, Alexis Sánchez, Jonathan Dos Santos.

Gracias Fabianne! 

Atelier Nouvelles Images

This postcards are some of the most popular cards among postcard lovers, they depict different types of one particular thing (mostly food) on a very nice way that is very appealing to the eye.

A bit of history 

Nouvelles Images is a french publisher of greeting cards, stickers, postcards, calendars, prints, posters, canvases, etc. that has for slogan "Image your emotions", they get in touch with artists who provide images full of emotion and print them as different products. 

The idea for their Atelier Nouvelles images series came in 1997 when Jacques Lavaux, Dominique Seckler, Jean-Baptiste Blanc and Clotilde Burri-Blanc used to get together every wednesday for a meeting intended to discuss new ideas and projects; the meeting would continue at "Le Passage", a restaurant in Paris. 

This restaurant had books available for the clients to read, one of them being "The book of ingredients" by Adrian Bailey. Jaques was really into the book even tough the illustrations were considered "austere" by the group. 

So that's when the idea came to the table, a series of prints & postcards that depicted various ingredients   nicely photographed and in an exquisite presentation with detail in the composition. 

Even tough Jean-Baptiste wasn't really convinced at first because of the heavy photography investment this series required and the uncertainty of who would be interested in this prints, he finally gave in and 

the first items published were "Les Pâtes" (pasta) and "Les Fines Herbes" (mixed herbs); the photos were taken by photographer Gilles Le Scanff (whose work is mostly inspired in gardens and nature) under the artistic direction of Jacques, at the same time Nouvelles Images published two similar style photos (Tomatoes and Aubergines) taken by Roger Phillips.

Today fifteen years later, millions of postcards, greeting cards, calendars and prints have been sold all around the world and this series have grown now depicting bread, cheese, chairs, candy, tea pots, fruits, animals,etc. 

Information and catalogue: http://www.nouvellesimages.com/

So far I've only received four of them but I'm determined to get as many as I can! 

*The one that made me discover NI came from Japan*

Arigato Masayo!

*Pasta from Finland*

Kiitos Sini! 

*Bread from the home of the NI cards, France*

Merci Ulla!

*Goat cheese from The Netherlands*

Dank je Wesley!

I'm back and ready to blog

I'm finally back and while I've been gone I've received a big bunch of cards so I'll be sharing them by collections, countries and country mix (a.k.a. posts where I'll show cards from various countries) also I'll be talking about philately in general, curiosities, sharing images, etc.

So I'm back in blogspot for good! (:

Finally some mail!

I've been very impatient this days on receiving something, specially since I'm waiting for lots of postcards and packages but for some reason mail has been very slow and the mail man is not coming every week like he used to, anyways...
I got two postcards and a package today! :)

I got this lovely card from France, it's so cute!

Also I got this spanish card I really love sent from Poland!

And I received a package from Israel with some candy! :D I'm dying to try all of the snacks!

Postcards from China

The two latest cards I've received are both from China.

The first one is from the city of Pingyao and features a traditional celebration.

And the second one if a beautiful view of The Great Wall!

Very nice cards and stamps!

My first postcards

This are some cards I received before becoming a postcrosser, that's why this cards have a special place in my collection.


I received my very first postcard in 1995, it was from my dad while he was working in Brazil and it's my favorite and most special card for obvious reasons.

I sent this one to myself when I was in London

I received this one from a friend while celebrating the anniversary of a forum I was member of

I sent this one to myself from Chicago

I got this ones from Ivet, one of my best friends who lives in Czech Republic and is the sweetest most thoughtful person ever and thinks of me and my love for postcards in every trip she makes!