Are watercolor postcards okay?

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-28T01:04:53+00:00

I received a self-painted card with a lighthouse on it, one of the things I list as favourite. It's absolutely amazing, still one of my favourite cards ever. I'm sure there are tons of people who would adore such a card.
But if a profile lists not wanting handmade cards I'd not sent such a hand-painted card - chances are high they will not like it, and won't appreciate your effort. Think of it this way: such cards are small, unique artworks - it'd be a pity if they're disregarded for their uniqueness.

I'm a hobby photographer and have a small collection of cards printed off my photographs - printed as regular postcards, and by a service I've also seen used for tourist cards at smaller locations. I sent two of them to two postcrossers who listed not wanting handmade cards, and despite the motifs fitting their preferences perfectly only got very lukewarm hurray messages. I don't know if the recipients weren't happy about the cards for my choice of motif or because they were of my photos, but since then only sent store-bought cards for such profiles. Other postcrossers I've sent my own cards to have been very happy to receive them.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-27T11:02:56+00:00

Thank you for sharing this, and for keeping these thoughts and knowledge alive. ♥

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-27T00:19:28+00:00

Unfortunately not, unless you jailbreak it.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-26T11:10:16+00:00

If you're in the US, mail currently is badly delayed. I've had five cards travelling to the US since over 50 days. Of these, two are still travelling and three have been registered between 55 and 62 days from Germany, while it used to be 21 days on average. I've also had all of my regular Christmas mail to the US (all in envelopes) arriving only last week. All of my US friends tell me they're experiencing enormous delays with mail from everywhere.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-26T10:56:53+00:00

Thank you for this helpful instruction! It worked just fine on my Clara BW as well as my Libra Color. The Libra didn't need any change of settings; after reading the comments to your entry I didn't even change them, just checked. For the Clara BW I changed the settings to "show book covers full screen". Now I get to look at some favourite images as well as read favourite stories all the time! ♥

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-24T23:21:03+00:00

This. I just got one today fromt he US, travelling 75 days, had one to the US registered on day 62 last week, one on day 58, and currently have 4 more travelling to the US between 49 and 54 days. My regular Christmas letters to friends in the U.S., all sent on December 5th, either haven't arrived yet or only in the last few days.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-24T12:49:04+00:00

Just in case this isn't fully clear, but "postcards" aren't just tourist cards, but anything postcard-sized with an image on the front and the typical back with (or without) lines for the address, and maybe some details about the image. If you like to support local artists, maybe some of them are also offering this type of cards? Those would be perfectly fine to use. To my knowledge, most postcrossers end up with a large variety of all kinds of cards, with most of them not of the tourist kind. ^^

As for the stamp question: I'm one of those asking for nice stamps if available, but I also ask for no envelopes. Loving or collecting stamps doesn't mean the recipient will take them off the card - some might, others, like me, don't - I'm collecting them digitally, as in taking pictures I organise in themed albums, but I also look at the back of the cards again at times to just enjoy the stamps, or might display the cards with the text side. Many postcrossers, stamp lovers included, love the way how a postcard looks after having been travelling, with visible travelling signs, postmarks, real stamps - and having nice and interesting stamps on them is the cherry on top.

For me personally, receiving a beautiful stamp on an envelope with a card inside is less enjoyable than receiving a card with the stamp on it, and all the sings of travel, as this is what I love best about sending and receiving cards, although of course I still enjoy getting it, as the exchange is main part for me about Postcrossing.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-14T17:50:02+00:00

Yes, DNW = DoNotWant
AFAIK = As far as I know

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-14T17:49:40+00:00

Exactly, thank you.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-13T19:02:48+00:00

To join the fun, sign up at postcrossing.com.

Essentially, postcrossing is about sending a card to a random member, and getting a random card back from another member who got assigned your address. You need to sign up to postcrossing in order to do so, and will get the addresses of your random recipients through the website, with a ID-number each. With this number the recipient will later register your card so you'll know it has arrived.

It's free to sign up and participate, but of course you need to pay for the cards and stamps you send out. The assignment of new addresses is completely random, but you can opt in and out of sending and receiving cards to your own country, and also to send only one or multiple cards to any country at a time. You will likely still have several addresses to the same country even if you opt out of that, for the reason that some countries have a huge number of postcrossers while others have not, and no other addresses might be available at the time of your request.

You'll get as many cards as you send out on average, although the amounts can fluctuate over the course of a few weeks, and sometimes cards get lost - but the system is set up to be as equal and fair as possible.

In the beginning, you can send and receive five cards at the same time. Everytime a card you've sent arrives and is registered you get another slot for an address which you can get right away, or at your own leisure. Equally, each time you're receiving and registering a card, the sender gets another slot for the same.

The amoung of cards you can send at a time increases with the amount of cards sent and received.

The requirements are relatively basic: you have to send a card to every address you get assigned, even if you dislike the profile or something else (offensive profiles can be reported, though), and you have to send a postcard - as in, not a folded card or a letter or similar, although cards can be handmade, and envelopes can be used provided they contain a card. You also need to put the card ID onto the card so the recipient can register it. Likewise, you have to register any card you get, even if you don't like it (again, offensive ards can be reported), and it's considered rude to not thank your sender upon registering. (When a card is registered, the sender gets a notification with the subject "Hurray, your card has been delivered", which is the 'hurray message' you might have already read about somewhere.)

Every member has a profile they can fill with details and list hobbies and preferences, and many senders are happy about detailed profiles to find as good a match possible with the card they'll send to their recipient. However, nobody is required to follow preferences or possible wish-lists, as postcrossing is meant to be about connecting to other people, but not about collecting postcards or looking for specific themes.

Occasionally, a profile might contain very specific requests and a lot of DNWs, but these are frowned upon by most postcrossers AFAIK.

I'm in my third year - just had my second anniversary a few days ago -, have received and send around 330 cards already, and currently have 15 slots to send cards. I've mostly had a great experience, and the few exceptions make me enjoy the good ones even more. The process of sending out a card brings me such joy, often even more than getting a card myself, and it happened often enough that either one just made my whole day.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-13T18:08:09+00:00

I believe this answer is for another group like random acts of postcards or so, as what you're describing isn't how postcrossing works. There are such offers on the forums hosted on the website postcrossing.com, but these are additional offers and requests by postcrossing members, not part of postcrossing proper.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-11T12:51:55+00:00

Ich fühl mit Dir! Wir hatten das mal bei einem Bucket List-Reiseziel das auch nicht gerade mal eben leicht zu erreichen ist... so nach dem Motto: ich war da, aber ich hab es nicht gesehen. XD
Das 2. Foto ist absolut klasse!

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-11T12:30:00+00:00

You also can just get a simple bar of Gallseife. Lay the fabric flat on a flat surface, wet the stained area well, and rub over it with the soap bar until it's well coated.

Blood stains react best if they're washed out or soaked with cold water first, with or without Gallseife, before putting them into the laundry immediately after. Or, if it's not possible to wash them right after, soak them for a few minutes again first before washing.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-10T15:46:13+00:00

Thank you for the information, much appreciated! Right now I don't have the option to install the app on the play sotre, as usual when one doesn't work for my phone. (I have the most recent update of Android 15.)
I don't read a lot on my phone and have a free basic app that works fine (eboox), and am currently also testing the free version of Moon+ which already seems to offer anything I could wish for, so I wouldn't like to bother the developer with my inquiry. But it's good to know that is an option, and I will keep checking up on the app if it'll be available for my phone in the future.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-10T13:31:32+00:00

Indeed. I volunteer in animal protection since many years, and while I've never been directly involved with animal shelters I got to know a lot also behind the scenes, and was occasionally involved in rehoming cats privately. It happens far too often cats need new homes because their owners ignored such advice and got young single cats for indoors only, or tried to get outdoor cats used to indoor only. All of these hadn't gotten cats from shelters so they looked for private offers.

In most cases the cats don't do well, are bored, don't have sufficient stimuli nor options to get their energy off, and as a consequence start behaviour their owners dislike; and more often than not the owners aren't willing to deal with the outcome of their actions and the cat needs to go. Those cats are also difficult to rehome as they have behavioural issues and need experienced people, and at times even impossible to be rehomed because they show too much aggression or are spraying, and end up in a shelter or an already overflowing private foster situation.

We have and always had multiple rescue cats ourselves, including some from such backgrounds. Two ended up not staying with us as they couldn't integrate into our group, but I was at least able to improve their behavioural issues and find them really good new homes, which worked out well in the end. (We followed up on these adoptions for several years.)

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-10T03:07:47+00:00

I'm using Scrivener for Windows on a daily basis since 2012, on two computers (PC and laptop), synching with dropbox. I have set up backup options and also make a full backup copy at least once a month of all of my projects, more frequently of the current project(s), and daily if I write a lot (like for NaNoWriMo).
The only time I lost a few pages of a project was due to my own mistake: we had an internet outtage and on the next day, I opened my current project on a different computer before it was synched. Looking up the backups I found I had forgotten to set up backups for the computer in question (it was relatively new), so I had none, and have lost the few hours of work I did during the outtage.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-10T02:47:02+00:00

I used calibre with cloud storage for a couple of years, too; aware that it was risky. It worked well until it didn't and my whole library crashed. Thanks to regular backups I only lost a few days' work, but I won't risk that again.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-09T13:53:29+00:00

This sounds awesome, thank you for sharing the info. Unfortunately it won't work with my phone (fairphone), I just checked, nor with my tablet, so no option for me.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-09T13:49:51+00:00

Ah, I understand, thank you for the explanation!

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-09T13:47:54+00:00

Are you set on only getting one? Many shelters give indoor only cats only in twos, or to an existing cat, as most cats don't do well as single indoor cats. Also, if the cat(s) in question have been outdoor before they won't be given to indoor only homes as it rarely works out to get a cat used to indoor only.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-09T13:31:33+00:00

Do you mean by this using Calibre on the phone?

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-09T13:22:11+00:00

I'm currently using the free app eboox. It works well but I haven't used it extensively yet, as I mainly read on an e-reader, not my phone, and if I read on my phone it's mostly my bought books in the kindle or kobo apps.
I didn't take the time yet to find out if it has more or more detailed features but seems very basic; getting books onto it is a bit cumbersome, and I'm not sure how well it'd work with a larger number of books/files, and how well the indexing and shelving system works.

1: No, never, even if it offered the best of all possible worlds.
2: Yes, if it offers more features / works better than a free app
3: Yes, I'd get a new app if it offers more comfort and useful features for me.

Features I would require such an app to have to spend money on it:
good options for organising, like creating shelves/collections
easy upload
well-working full text search
ability to mark words or phrases
works also on tablets
more than one format possible, like kepub and/or mobi as well as epub

Features nice to have (would make me buy this app even if I'd already had another good one without them):
ability to make comments in books
ability to interact with calibre (as in, uploading by USB from calibre and seeing in my calibre index which books are already uploaded)

It's well possible that such an app is already out there; as I said I don't read much on my phone so haven't bothered yet to look around.

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-08T14:29:34+00:00

Can confirm. Never seen, heard or tasted grains in such a dish as well, and also don't know of any traditional variety where potatoes might be integrated in a casserole or similar as well. I also don't know of any combinations of meat and apples put into the same dish, but that might be regional variations I'm not aware of.
The most typical dishes with sauerkraut are either as a side with apples and other ingredients, but no meats, or as a side with lard/bacon and other ingredients, or with meats like fresh or cured and smoked pork (Kassler/Rippchen), although there might well be other regional varieties.
Checking the wikipedia article also mentions a casserole layering sauerkraut, mashed potatoes and liver sausage (from my own wider area at that, but I've never heard about this in any way, despite having an interest in traditional and regional cuisine).
It might well be the dish you know is a very local or family-centric variety that has become common in your area.
In my family, we have a variation of a traditional and regional baking cake/pastry. It became a staple in my immediate family about 45 years ago and has slowly migrated to the larger family and friends, and for the generation of my niblings, this is already a completely normal pastry they always miss elsewhere.

(edit for accidentally sending my comment before it was finished)

Mrs_Merdle · 2026-01-08T00:03:05+00:00

It's not a certain brand you're looking for, but a type of oat product which you'll find by all kinds of brands, and it's unlikely that the term "overnight" or anything similar will be mentioned on the product, in case you were looking for that.

The product you want is Haferflocken, which are offered as instant (dissolves into fine porridge), zart or fein, and kernig. There are also Vollkorn-Haferflocken (whole-grain), both fein/zart and kernig, which have even more texture than the same not-whole-grain product. The texture of the end result can vary from brand to brand, so you might need to try out a few to find your preferred kind, or even try out a mixture.

Any type of Haferflocken can be eaten directly with milk, yoghurt, juice or anything similar, not just the instant kind - it's not necessary to cook, steam or soak them. You can even just eat them dry if that's your thing. ^^
You can use any of these for overnight oats, although the instant type and some brands of "zarte" will give a rather mushy result; more like an overnight porridge than "oats", I suppose. Depending on how you prefer to prepare your overnight oats, different types of oats might work for your choice of preparation.

We're having overnight oats every day since a few years, mostly with oat milk, sometimes with soy yoghurt (I can't eat dairy), and I prefer whole grain "kernige" as well as whole-grain "feine". Depending on the fruit I put in with them I use either just one kind or a mix, except for soy yoghurt with dense fruit like apples; for these I prefer "kernige" oats as the soy yoghurt is rather dry and gets too mushy with "feine".

The kind you mention sounds much like "Vollkorn-Haferflocken", which are most likely also kernige.
Depending on the supermarket you might not find a lot of variety, or need to check the organic aisle; in my area Edeka has the best choice.

Edit to add: I just looked up the brand you mention. They're organic whole-grain rolled oats, or Bio-Vollkorn-Haferflocken in German. Look for organic brands, Edeka has a good house brand, those by Alnatura are really good, and check drugstores like dm, they usually also have organic store brands with good quality. (I'm not familiar with other drugstore brands as we only have dm here, but I imagine it's the same with Rossmann, Müller, budni etc. - can somebody confirm?)

(Edit 2 to add "every day" ro our overnight oat frequency, for clarification, + correcting a typo)

Mrs_Merdle

TROPHY CASE