Russian Christmas

Yeeeey! A new card arrived! It comes all the way from Russia. I got this lovely Christmas card from Natasha. When I read the card, I didn’t expect that she is just 14. Her English is brilliant!

I really, really like it that she sent me a Christmas card. The tree looks very classic which I prefer by a Christmas tree. I love Christmas so you can send met Christmas cards the whole year!

Thank you again, Natasha!
спасибо

Niederländischen Tulpen?

I have sent this card to Tobias in Kornwestheim, Germany. I used my best German, which is very bad actually, to write something about the Tulips on the card. They are typical Dutch, just like wooden shoes. Originally they come from Turkey. The Viennese ambassador from Turkey brought them to Europe in the 16e century.

This is the message I got from Tobias when he received my card:

"Hallo Michelle,
vielen herzlichen Dank für deine Karte!
Ich habe mich sehr gefreut:)
Happy postcrossing:)
Tobias"

“Hello Michelle,
Thank you very much for your card!
I was very happy :)
Happy Postcrossing :)
Tobias”

Winged Feet

I’m sorry that I didn’t updated for such a long time. I was very busy the last week. It wasn’t because of school this time, no, it was freezing. Dutch people become crazy when it is freezing. Freezing means frozen water, which means ice skating! Ice skating till it gets dark and then going home to eat Stamppot and watch the news about de Elfstedentocht  (the Eleven Cities Ice Skating tour)It’s hard to explain but the whole country was depressed when we heard there won’t be a Elfstedentocht this year because the ice wasn’t good enough. The last one was in 1997 which I can’t remember. (You can click on the words 'Stamppot' and 'Elfstedentocht' to read a very funny English article about it)

Winter landscape with iceskaters from Hendrick Avercamp. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

When I’m on my Winged feet, my ice skates, I love my country so much. It’s so beautiful to almost fly on the ditches and rivers trough the nature or on the canals in the cities. Below some pictures of the Dutch people which are “schaatsen”, ice skating.

Schaatspret Skating Fun in the Dutch polder

Keizersgracht race Amsterdam

From now on I’m trying to upload more often.

It's orange!

After some stupid kids blew up our mailbox we hadn’t a mailbox for 2 months. That means cycling to another mailbox which takes way more time than the short walk to the old one on the corner of my street.

But finally, we have a new one! And it’s ORANGE! I like orange. Yeah, I’m Dutch ;) Below you can see some pictures from our first meeting. I think we are gonna friends.

Storks and Cauliflower

Last Thursday have sent this card to Anna in Russia. (are all Russian girls named Anna?) She wrote on her Postcrossing profile that she likes colourful cards. I think this one is colourful.

You can see a stork with a baby in his mouth. I wrote about the Dutch traditions to tell little children that they were found in the cauliflower or that they are brought by a stork.

I love stork tradition. You can see storks everywhere when there is a new born in a house. Do you have traditions like this in your country as well?

From............. Russia!

Saturday I received this postcard from Roman. He lives in Voronezh, Russia.

I’m a very curious person so I really want to know what I see on the card. Does anyone know what the red pyramid is?

A little bit support

I’m in the mailing list of Amnesty Nederland. I get emails in my inbox which I can reply to put my name on a petition. It’s easy and it really works. I’m always very happy when I receive an email with good news from Amnesty.


But, Amnesty also has a “Groetenlijst” (Regards list). It’s a list with names, stories, and addresses from people all over the world. Some are in prison, others are threatened but they are all human rights activists who could use a little support. You can chose a name from the list and write a letter or card. They have sentences in the language you have to use. I like to send cards to people from the list. It’s not much but I hope it will give them the strength to keep on going.
This is the card I have sent to Norma Cruz, Guatemala. She fights for protection and civil rights for woman.

If you are interested, take a look at the Amnesty website. Make sure you checked the rules bofore sending a card. Sometimes people can get big problems if you put the name Amnesty on you card as example. You don’t want to bring them in bad positions, right?

If you have some questions about it. Feel free to ask me!

Goodmorning Russia

I asked for an address on Postcrossing this morning. It’s always a surprise to who and which country you have to send a postcard. Today it’s to Anna in Russia. Russia is a big country with lots of Postcrossing members so I have to send to Russia a lot. (Just like the USA)


Anna said on her profile that she likes babies, so I hope she likes my card to. I think the little clothes are cute.

I like to learn something about another country so I have a list with facts about the Netherlands. This is what I wrote on Anna’s card:

The Netherlands are 6.7 meters below sea level, at its lowest point, which is a polder near Rotterdam. When you land at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, you are actually four meters below sea level.

If you are a Postcrossing member: What do you write on your cards?

From Santa, for you

I have told you about Secret Santa a few days ago. The picture were from the presents I got but I sent a package to. It was the first time I went to the post office with something big. I was afraid that I did it all wrong but it’s not difficult at all! Haha! Almost the same as a postcard or letter. Only a little bit bigger (and more expensive…).


This is what I bought and sent:

Coffee in Taiwan

Last week I saw some cards at the HEMA which I didn't see before. Most of the cards I sent are from the HEMA (A Dutch store with almost everything). The cards are cheap but also very nice and they have enough to choose. One of the cards I bought is this one:

 I'm going to send it to Winnie in Taiwan. I wrote about the Dutch economy. When you visit someone for a cup of coffee (Bakkie doen) you get just one cookie. We, Dutch people, don't like to spend money. When you're lucky you get a cookie at every cup of coffee but don't expect a bowl full of cookies at the table!

Mmm, I don't think that Winnie will come to visit my little country now she knows this…

Time means nothing

Today I rememberd a movie about letters which time travelled. This blog is about post and everything around it so I thought let’s make a Blog post about it!

The movie is called: The Lake House. It’s an American remake of the South Korean movie Il Mare.

A lonely doctor starts to write love letters to the new owner of her house at a lake. The architect who lives there write her back and a romance starts. They try to unravel the mystery when they found out that there is a difference in time between them.

It’s a romantic movie in which the letters have an important role.

The Lake House


Il Mare

Thank you Santa

I joined a Secret Santa game on a forum this year. I really liked it to buy presents for someone I actually don’t know. It feels like a true Christmas spirit!


And this package arrived last week:

I really like my presents! Did you ever joined an online Secret Santa?

Joy to the world, the Lord has come!

Zalig Kerstfeest iedereen! Merry Christmas everyone!
Frohe Weihnachten allen!
Feliz Navidad a todos!
大家圣诞快乐！
С Рождеством всех!


(I have sent this card to Olya in Ukraïne with Postcrossing)

All I want for Christmas

I love almost everything that has something to do with Christmas and, ofcourse, especially Christmas cards. My Mom bought me those lovely cards with angels. I like them being ‘old’ and classic. I prefer cards like this more than cards with crazy Santa’s or photo cards from families with ugly Christmas hats.

I got my first Christmas card today. It's from my Grandma and I'll show it soon :)

December Stamps

We have special December stamps since 1987. They are special stamps which you can use for sending Christmas cards in the Netherlands. They are a little bit cheaper than normal stamps and have a special Christmas look. The stamps have a 72-hour delivery.


This year’s December stamps:
 

Stamps from 2010:


December stamps from 2007 and 1994:
 

Do you have special stamps for Christmas?

♥ Old-fashioned but still beloved ♥

Kerstkaartje per post nog steeds geliefd Negen op tien Nederlanders stuurt nog steeds fysieke kerstkaarten naar vrienden en familie • Digitaal niet erg populair

Een krabbeltje op Hyves, een tweet, het muurberichtje op Facebook; er zijn mogelijkheden te over om je naasten een digitale kerstgroet te brengen. Toch stuurt negen op de tien Nederlanders nog altijd een fysieke kerstkaart naar vrienden en familie. Dat blijkt uit onderzoek van online wenskaartenservice Greetz.nl onder ruim 550 Nederlanders.

En het mag dan crisistijd zijn, bezuinigen op de kerstkaart doen we allerminst: veertig procent van de ondervraagden stuurt meer dan 30 exemplaren uit. Een op de tien Nederlanders doet zelfs meer dan 50 kaarten de deur uit. Hoe kan het dat deze sociale traditie, ondanks het digitale tijdperk, zo rotsvast blijkt? “De behoefte aan een tastbare kaart verdwijnt eigenlijk nooit”, zegt directeur Johan van Vulpen van Greetz.nl . “Zo’n lint aan de deur met allemaal kaarten eraan staat niet alleen warm en gezellig, het geeft mensen het gevoel dat anderen aan ze denken. En misschien sturen we ze ook omdat we stiekem hopen op een kaartje terug.”

Opvallend genoeg zijn het vooral vrouwen die zich bezighouden met kerstkaarten: een op de tien spendeert meerdere dagen aan het maken en verzenden ervan, dat is drie keer zo veel als mannen. En wie denkt dat kerstkaarten versturen iets oubolligs heeft, zit er volledig naast, zegt Van Vulpen. “Aan de hippe ontwerpen die worden gekozen en gemaakt op onze website zien we dat juist veel jongeren kerstkaarten versturen.”

Greetz.nl vroeg de kaartstuurders ook wie dit jaar een warme kerstgroet verdient. Op nummer een? De spelers van het Nederlandse honkbalteam, gevolgd door Johnny Hoogerland. Op de derde plaats Mark Rutte: die heeft het namelijk zo zwaar met de eurocrisis.



Uit: Metro

Just Love...

Here are a few of my favorite postcards I got from Postcrossingmembers

So, as you can see, I like vintage and cute cards. I got the card with The Mistery Of The Brass Bound Trunk from an old woman from Canada. She told me that it's the cover of a book she read more than 50 years ago. How cool?!

What kind of cards do you like?

Christmas Wish Project

It was the first Sunday of the advent period last Sunday. And for me, a real Christmas lover, the day I can start with all the nice Christmas things. One of the  traditions is to send Christmas cards to wish ‘A merry Christmas and a happy new year!’. Of course I’m gonna send lots of cards to my family, friends, neighbours and colleagues.  But, this year I want to do more. So I’ll start a little project to send cards to people or organisations which can use a little bit extra attention.  So, do you know someone who does lots of volunteer work, someone who had a very hard year or something like that? Let me know it! If you  give me the address and the reason why they deserve an extra Christmas card, I’ll send a special Christmas wish.

Birthday Post

Today I’ll show you all the postcards I got for my birthday 1,5 week ago. I got cards from my family, friends and also from Marlous and an early card from Elina, Postcrossing.

(I think my postman has problems with his back now.)

Postman Pat

It seems that I have my love for post a very long time already. One of my favourite programmes when I was little was Postman Pat, or Pieter Post in Dutch. It is a British stop-motion animated children’s television series. It started in 1981 on BBC and there are 141 episodes now. The series has been broadcasted in very much countries, so lots of people must have been grown up with Postman Pat.


But for those of you who don't know it, Pat Clifton is a friendly country postman who delivers letters in the town of Greendale... He is a good postman but he always have some trouble when he gets distracted by something going on the village. He has a bright red van, and a black and white cat named Jess. (Jess is the name in the original version. Most of the characters have other names in the different language versions)

The original version:

Here some names as you might know it:
The Scottish Pàdraig Post, in Gaelic
New Zealand has plans to broadcast in Maori (they already have the English version)
In Catalonia they have Pat el carter, in Catalan
The Italian version is called Il postino Pat
In Israel they call it Pat-e Postchi which is Hebrew
Pat-e Postchi is Persian and broadcasted in Iran
In Austria and Germany they have Postbote Pat, in German
The Arabic version is called ساعي البريد

Pieter Post (Dutch)
Japenese