I'll be there for you(c)

Yay, I'm soo happy to receive this card! It's from Monika, I took part in her lottery. I didn't win (of course), but, as I'm a big fan of this show, she proposed me to swap. And now I have this card!
Friends is the most favourite TV-show for me.

Vancouver!

(from Rose)

Olympic Games has started tomorrow! I'm soo excited! I love big sports competitions, and yesterday's opening ceremony was great, great show!


(from Josie; hope your aunt will receive my card soon!)

And I'm especially happy because I have 3 cards with 3 Olympic mascots! (card with Quatchi is here)



And this card with spectacular view of Vancouver came to me from Lisa. Just WOW! Thanks a lot! You guys did a great job and I'm sure Canada will host a great Olys!

More Inge Look cards

Now I have 2 more Inge Look's cards:


This card is from Eva.



And this - from Nunne.
Thanks!
Again, Finnish people are very creative with their postcarrds.

Happy New year!

Oh, I totally forgot about my blog! Sorry, I'll try to improve, I still have a lot of postcards to post here.
And now I wanna share with you Christmas cards I've got this winter.

This snowman came to me from Croatia:


This card came from Germany:



This card is from Poland:



And this card is also from Poland:



Another card from Germany:



Card from Estonia:



Germany again:



From Finland:



From Norway:



From USA:



From Lithuania:



Moomins from Finland:



And two my favourite cards - from Canada:





Have a great 2010th!

The panther is resting (2007)

New Kaj Stenvall's card:) I wish I can get a full (of large) collection!
Thanks, Merja!

Some adds to my moomin collection:)

This time I received worried moomins:)



This one is from xpaula (sorry, missed the real name)



This card is from Heidi.

New Kaj Stenvall's card

Born sinful (2002)

This card is from Marja again. Thank you!
Interesting card, eh?

Inge Löök's art

I like many kinds of Finnish postcards. I think that's a great idea to publish cards with paintings of Finnish artists like Kaj Stenvall and Inge Löök. It's very interesting for people who receive the cards. It's like a piece of something specially Finnish:)


(card from Tanja)

I've already shown my Stenvall's cards. And now it's time to show "Old Ladies". Finnish artist Inge Löök created them:) And I like it! I'd like to be like these ladies when I become old:) They are funny and optimistic.
Unfortunately, I didn't find anything about her:( But I know she draws not only old ladies, but also many other different and interesting pictures. If you know something about her - please, let me know.


(card from Tiina)

Olympic card

Wheee! I have a card with an Olympic mascot, Quatchi. Thanks, Trupti!

Olympic Games-2010 in Vacouver have 3 mascots - Quatchi, Sumi and Miga.

Quatchi is a young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada. Quatchi is shy, but loves to explore new places and meet new friends.

Although Quatchi loves all winter sports, he’s especially fond of hockey. He dreams of becoming a world-famous goalie. Because of his large size, he can be a little clumsy. But no one can question his passion. He knows that if he works hard and always does his best, he might one day achieve his dream. Quatchi is always encouraging his friends to join him on journeys across Canada. He is also often recruiting others to play hockey – or at least to take shots at him!

The sasquatch is a popular figure in local native legends of the Pacific West Coast. The sasquatch reminds us of the mystery and wonder that exist in the natural world, igniting our imagination about the possibility of undiscovered creatures in the great Canadian wilderness.

These mascots are sooo cute:))

Cheeeer!

It's my second card from Singapore, from Relie. I like this one very much! It looks so cool:) And very cheerful:)

And new Stenvall card!

So, not duck, but cow:) Interesting:) The picture has a name "Handshake from the microcomputer" (2005) Even name is interesting:)
Thank you, marja2006 (sorry, I don't know the real name - it was written on the card and I didn't make out), for made my collection bigger:) !

New moomins

This card - from Ronja.



And this - from Johanna. Big thank you for both cards!
I love these characters:)))

Hello Kitty!

Hello Kitty cards are also very populard among the postcrossers. And not just cards (magnets and othet stuff), and not just among postcrossers:) Hello Kitty is a world superstar.
Hello Kitty is the character of Japanese pop-culture, a small white cat into a simplified drawing. Invented by the company Sanrio in 1974 and receorded in 1976, Hello Kitty is used as a brand for many products, became the main hero of the same cartoon. Hello Kitty toys are popular souvenirs in Japan and all around the world.
Kitten Kitty has been invented in 1974 by Shintaro Tsudzi, the owner of Japanese toy company Sanrio. Once he decided to create a new character, who would like to everybody. As a result of a long work Tsudzi made a perfect hero. Today brand "Hello Kitty!" has about half a million dollars of income annually.
There were doubts about the name of a kitten. Her creator chose between "Hello Kitty" and "Kitty White" (that was a name of one of the Alice's cats in "Alice in Wonderland"). But the second version, at least, was rejected.
The first product became very popular among customers. It was the simple curse with the image of Hello Kitty! This Kitten was really popular, but in the end of 80's became to slow down. Customers didn't like that Kitty always had the same look - muzzle looks at the viewers, the body turned sideways, she was dressed in blue
overall and has a black outline around her figure. Then the designer Yuko Yamaguchi decided to change the image. She deleted the black outline, painted different clothes and put different items in her... mmm... hands:)
Later Kitty found a family - mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, sister Mimmi and hamster Sugar.
Now there are millions goods with HK-image - from T-shirts and toys to machine guns and toasters, which bike toasts with her image:)
Here is an official site of Sanrio company, where you can read her biography (and biographies of other characters). So, she was born on November 1st, live in London with her family and has lots of hobbies.
Hello Kitty has many web-sites: this, this.



The first card is from Tomoko and the second card - from Sumie.
I love this cat:)

A very familiar-looking ducks

I am a fan of Finnish paintner Kaj Stenvall (does anybody know how to pronouce his name in English?). One day I received a card via official postcrossing (this card is above, named "To be enjoyed in good company and candlelight" (2006), from Heli) and, to be honest, I thought: "Ummm... What?" And only when I became a postcrossing forum member, I found out more about him and his art.
Here is my second card, "The after glow" (1991), from Sari:



So, Kaj Stenvall first came to the attention of the Finnish art world about ten years ago when he began to paint a very familiar-looking duck in a variety of settings. Stenvall asserts that this character has been developed by himself, even while acknowledging its similarity to the most famous duck in the world. The scenes in his pictures are from the world at large and his duck often appears in absurd, if recognizably generic, settings. There really is nothing in his paintings that one can put their finger on to connect them to any particular corner of the world, especially not to Finland, except perhaps a specific intensity of angst and foreboding. [...]
[...] Stenvall insists that his images do not have any connection with his own life, stating that:

"The duck is more of a symbol; the material of an intermediary; and a symbol of Man. The character illustrates the dilemma of being human. The duck, as such, doesnґt symbolize anything to me personally. It is used as a catalyst in the process of how it will be interpreted in the eye of the beholder."

My third card, received today from Essi ("With one touch" (2007)):



I love this, the idea is very creative! I deceided to gather my own collection of the "familiar-looking ducks":)

Sniff!

I'm so happy! I received my first moomi-card!
I like moomi-cards sooo much! They are cute and funny.
Moomins are the characters of a books written by Finnish writer and ilustrator Tove Jansson. There are nine books in the seria (and five picture books), they have been published since 1945 for 1993.
If you wanna know more anout Moomins, please, visit their official site.
The character on my card is Sniff. According to the site, Sniff "is adopted by the Moomin family and does not look the least like the others. His character is also completely different - a somewhat ambitious type who is always looking for ways to further his own interests. At times, Sniff feels a bit ashamed for messings things up but then he knows he is always forgiven. After all, he belongs to the family".
:)