Monday on Instagram

Hope everyone is well! Apologies for the delay, but it's been super busy here. Today's featured postcard collection belongs to Patty in California. The sparkly red one celebrating Chinese New Year is from Fiona in Ontario, Canada, while the lovely subtle hand made collage is from Ciarra in Texas. Have a look at the rest of Donna's collection here (on my personal Instagram account) or — if you just want to see the postcards — by doing an Instagram search via #benevolentpostcardsociety. 

(photo by me on instagram)

Friday on Instagram

Today's featured postcard collection belongs to Donna in California. The chimp with a Napoleon complex is from Sarah in Utah, while Hélène in Paris sends along a saucy French postcard. Have a look at the rest of Donna's collection here (on my personal Instagram account) or — if you just want to see the postcards — by doing an Instagram search via #benevolentpostcardsociety. 

(photo by me on instagram)

Wednesday on Instagram

Today's featured postcard collection belongs to sisters Mary and Phoebe in Offaly, Ireland. This lovely vintage postcard was discovered in an antique shop in Lawrence, Kansas by sender Pam. Find the rest of the collection here (on my personal Instagram account) or — if you just want to see the postcards — by doing an Instagram search via #benevolentpostcardsociety. 

(photo by me on instagram)

Today on Instagram

Today's featured collection starts close to home — this postcard was sent by my Mum! It's the Opera House in Orillia, Ontario Canada, and I love the little Canadian flag she's attached to it, too. The lucky recipient was Johanneke in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. See the rest of Johanneke's collection here. You can find all other BPS postcards featured so far on Instagram by doing a search via #benevolentpostcardsociety too.

Wednesday on Instagram

Today's featured collection starts with a little bath time fun. This postcard was sent to Victoria in San Francisco, California, from Rebekah in Atlanta, Georgia. See the rest of Victoria's collection here. You can find all other BPS postcards featured so far on Instagram by doing a search via #benevolentpostcardsociety too.

Tuesday on Instagram

Today's featured collection of postcards on Instagram belong to Whitney in Tennessee. Shown here is an elephants postcard (originally from the Chicago Natural History Museum) sent by Meghan in Illinois, while the second one from Bianca in New South Wales, Australia, was picked up on holiday in Tanzania — on the back Bianca writes how passing through a tiny town called Dootown, she noticed all the houses had a funny sign out front featuring the word 'doo.' See the rest of Whitney's collection here — a quick search via #benevolentpostcardsociety will find all other BPS postcards featured so far, too.

(photo by me on instagram)

Wednesday on Instagram

Today on Instagram I'm sharing the postcard collection of Becky in Arizona. Shown here is a fantastic message in a bottle postcard, hand made by Marianne and daughter Abby in Maine and actually mailed in the bottle. If there's anything the BPS project has taught me, it's to never underestimate what postal services all over the world will send! To see the rest of Becky's postcards, you can follow me on Instagram here — or you can just do a quick search under #benevolentpostcardsociety if you prefer not to follow me directly (it's set up as my personal Instagram account). Hope you enjoy them. 

Monday on Instagram

Today on Instagram I'm sharing the postcard collection of Karyn in California. To have a look, you can follow me on Instagram here — or you can just do a quick search under #benevolentpostcardsociety or #bps if you prefer not to follow me directly (it's set up as my personal Instagram account). Hope you enjoy them. Shown here — a real vintage postcard from Selen in Ankara, Turkey and a daring solo balloonist from Jasmin in California.

Today on Instagram

Today on the BPS on Instagram I'm sharing the postcard collection of Jennifer in Alberta. To have a look, you can follow me on Instagram here — or you can just do a quick search under #benevolentpostcardsociety or #bps if you prefer not to follow me directly (it's set up as my personal Instagram account). Hope to see you there!

P.S. Once a member's collection has been featured on Instagram, I'm mailing them straight back home to them again. A little FYI. :)

(photo by me on instagram)

The BPS on Instagram

I'm very excited to tell you about the BPS on Instagram! Every week I'll be sharing the collection of an individual BPS member, so you'll be able to see the amazing variety of postcards we all sent to each other over the duration of the project. Today I'm kicking things off with all the postcards sent to Rachael in California. You can follow me on Instagram here — or you can just do a quick search under #benevolentpostcardsociety or #bps if you prefer not to follow me directly (it's set up as my personal Instagram account). Hope to see you there!

(photo by me on instagram)

Postcard Returns

My sincere apologies for neglecting the BPS blog for so long — work and life have a way of sidelining projects that are done for sheer pleasure alone, and the BPS book is sadly still waiting for me. I have a basket chest of your beautiful postcards still waiting patiently to be scanned, but happily I now have a fantastic new backup drive to store them on and can finally start returning your postcards. If you've moved or have a new email address since we've last been in touch, please drop me a line at benevolentpostcard(at)gmail(dot)com with your new address so I can be sure to get them to you. Thanks as always for your stellar patience — you are all amazing.

Lori
x

(photo via lucy laucht)

Old and New

I'm smitten with this vintage postcard design for an iPhone 4 or 4S case — so pretty and practical. Available here from On Your Case on etsy.

The Lost Art of Postcard Writing

Tina of the always lovely English Muse blog has a great post about a Charles Simic essay in the New York Review of Books, in which he mourns the scarcity of holiday postcards. Highly recommended for BPS members, needless to say. Fun fact about the English Muse — I designed the banner for it!


(lovely photo by moline via the english muse — thanks to giulia for the referral)

Postcards

I've been doing another batch of postcard scanning for the BPS book, and just had to share this lovely one by BPS member Mari, commemorating the project. So wonderful.

Surrealism in the Pre-School Years

Check out this fascinating article in Design Observer about the book Babylon: Surreal Babies, dedicated to a set of postcards from the collection of the British art dealer James Birch. The postcards feature babies in very odd and surreal photo collages, and are dated from between 1900 and 1920. Kinda freaky, actually.

Postcard for Japan

Love this charming postcard by Hsin Ping on etsy — and even nicer, all sales of it go towards Japan earthquake and tsunami relief. Get one here.

Something Pretty

Nothing new — just a pretty postcard photo to share. Hope you're having a good week.


(photo by Jon Day)

Penny Dreadfuls

This post is a little late, but I just had to share a link to the cynically amusing slideshow recently posted on Design Observer. Penny dreadfuls (or vinegar valentines) were 19th century insult greetings sent out on Valentine's Day — though the slideshow includes some later examples of the genre, too. I shudder to think that anyone actually got one of these in the mail! Have a look at the slideshow here.

RHS Postcards

I've got a post up on my automatism blog today about a gorgeous new postcard set from the Royal Horticultural Society — pop by to see more loveliness!


(shown here is 'Citrus aurantium' by Georgio Angiolini, painted c.1822-1830)

And Yet More Postcards!

Another great week of postcard packages — thanks so much everyone! Incidentally, distracted BPS members who haven't yet sent theirs in, please note — the official deadline for mailing packages is tomorrow, but if you can get your postcards in the mail by mid next week, that will be fine too. Thanks again!


(photo via apartment therapy)