OK this is not from Postcrosser at least. My dearest penpal Sonia whose letters had failed to reach me these past few years, but after over one year, she replied my letter again and with this lovely card recently. In fact, throughout our friendship, she has always remembered my birthday.. although I didnt manage to remember hers this much! :/

From Anagahan. So this is the first birthday card from a Postcrosser arrived this year, and I am glad it came from a dear friend of GTKY. Thanks Ana, if you ever read this, you know you’ve been special to me! :)

From Wilma. HAHAHA I LOVE this card for my birthday!! :D It’s a real surprise from Arja-Liisa, she’s such a sweetie! Hugs to you! See my other cards of Kaj Stenval’s art here.

From Cockie. Though it’s actually a return card of birthday card I had sent to her friend (which I found a really wonderful way to cheer a friend!!), but knowing that I was having my birthday to come, Mieko also wrote this card as a birthday wish to me. Thanks so much for this pretty card!!

From Hadassah. HAHA Essi!! Are these you and me in the picture, perhaps in our 70s, celebrating our birthday together? On a tree! LOL it doesn’t look too bad! :D :D And thanks dear for this lovely wishes that cheered me up! Big hugs!

From Lauraarual. Another sweet friend of GTKY sent me a lovely birthday wish on this colorful card :)) I can’t be happier! And Laura included some lovely gifts and Holland souvenir, thanks so much – you’re so kind!! :) *hugs!*

Oh I love this card of this happening festival! Thank you for the birthday wishes!!

From Vagirl. I gasped in excitement when I opened the envelope and saw this posh-looking card, it’s just AWESOME!! :D I just love every bit of it, and thanks Chrissy for your lovely message and wishes, it really put a big smile on my face! :))

From Carolinechia. AHAHA I’m sorry others, but I have to say this is the coolest birthday card I ever got! :P Well yeah at least for a second I really thought I was smart and popular and good-looking as the card says! :P LOL I didnt know 20th June was a lucky day either :)) but every day is a lucky day when you’re born that day! ;) Thanks Carol for your lovely thoughts! You’re great!

From Ulpa. She included many of inspiring cards along with her letter! Ula thanks for all the cards you have sent me, as well as this super delicious birthday card… you’re the best!! *hugs!!*

No, it’s not the cake!! But cards!! :D Yes, the lovely Postcrossers have always cheered me up regardless I hate the fact that I get older on birthdays! :) In this post I would like to thank a heaven to everyone who spent some time writing and sending me your lovely wishes, you have no idea how much it means to me!! :) BIG BIG HUGS!!! (well yeah, I’m featuring cards from past years first, as this is officially the first birthday post for this blog – which only started this year – and in a few days I’ll be posting the cards which I have got for this year’s birthday :)). And actually, I have put several other birthday cards that had already fit in regular posts before, and they are equally special to me as well!!

Hugs to Anu!

Hugs to Mimma!

Hugs to Syairah06!

Hugs to SilentNight89!

Hugs to Wespe!

Hugs to Rwidiani!

Hugs to Ipuenktchen!

Hugs to Kungli!

Hugs to Seetas!

Hugs to Indirama!

Hugs to Anzuume!

Hugs to Ketupat!

Hugs to Padme_chandra!

Hugs to Wilma!

Hugs to Panarea!

Hugs to empty_mailbox!

Hugs to Newrule!

Hugs to rosnah!

Hugs to Taxingwoman!

Hugs to geeanuar!

Hugs to Swan!

OKAY that was  a postcards SPAM -______- but I can’t help it coz I did receive alot of birthday cards in past years!! (and of course, a portion of them are thanks to the fact that I put a “tiny advert” about my birthday on my forum signature once, well, hence those expected surprises :P and a few from Birthday tags and RR as well.. so I did not receive all these merely because I am a total celebrity or anything :D though it’s good if I were one lol). And still my dear friends Postcrossers, you are the best!!

From Sire, with a poem. (Thanks Laura for translation)

“How much, how far I longed for
How great my demand too
And oh, how slowly I learned,
How hard one becomes wise”

Exactly.

From Pike. With a short poem.

“My shadow chases
the butterfly to
the other flower”

Hmm…

From Orrin. With a quote from Toon Hermans.

“I’m getting sad, because I can’t say what I feel”.

Yes, me too :)

From Eleanorrigby. With a saying.

“There’s a saint inside each of us.”

I hope so :)

Young Little and her mom and brother lived in a village where there was a huge windmill. Like everyone else in Holland at that time, they wore wooden shoes.. but they looked very comfortable.

One day, Little and her friends went to watch the sails at the sea. They had a great time there. But once she realized that everyone but her seemed to have a boyfriend. Little felt so lonely.

Little’s friends along with the boys went to pick blue tulips in the field and left her alone. Not that blue tulips really existed, but everything seemed to be blue at that time anyway. Little was very sad, but not for long…

Coz later, she got a boyfriend too, yay! And he’s even cuter! Little also got to dress in a beautiful colorful costume which has real stitching on this postcard! Cool, isn’t it? They continued picking colorful tulips and lived happily ever after.  Little and Littleboy wish everyone a Happy Postcard Friendship Friday!

P.S. The above Dutch postcards were sent by my lovely buddies Littlebloempje, Lauraarual, Eowyn and Vessie.. thanks a bunch and somehow Imajica managed to come up with this weird short story :P

From Sire. This dress was probably from France by its name, and the period when these wide hips were in fashion was around 1755-1760. The dress is made of silk and painted by hand… so it does look fragile. And even in the past the fragility of these costumes used to prevent their exhibition.. but with expert restoration now they have made it possible for the collection to be brought out of storage. Okay, the idea behind the wide hips is that women with wider hips are more fertile than women with narrower hips, and in those days the most important thing for a woman was to get marrried :-) So the wider hips you have, the easier you can attract the (hopefully) rich men! ;)

Happy ABC Wednesday!! :D

Holland from Shuff. Windmill – checked. And it’s the Kinderdijk windmill, one of the UNESCO world heritages. Other pictures are of Zandvoort Northsea beach, Volendam harbour, Amsterdam Royal Palace, Scheveningen boulevard and Graft. 

Holland from Sas80. Windmill  - checked. Or rather, a cool image of windmill at the body of motorbike! Tulips – checked. Bicycles – yeah, I have heard that Dutch people mostly ride bicycles. It’s cool and perhaps because distance from within places are not too far in the Netherlands, and they have cool weather unlike here that it will be a crime to ride a bike under hot sun and you’ll be sweating right after the first hundred meters! And wafers – I didn’t know wafers were among Dutch specialitis as well… but it doesn’t sound strange either. Yum.. wonder how it tastes.

Holland from Quispi. Wooden shoes – checked. Though the shoes look funny, they are interesting and fun! Looks like an impossibly hassle to wear them with a comfort, no? But see the girls… they can jump rope skipping wearing wooden shoes, so it wouldn’t be that bad. And that wooden shoe boat! Looks real cozy, doesn’t it? I have a pair of Dutch wooden shoes as well – exactly like those in yellow color… except in a form of fridge magnet! :) Why are they in yellow color, any idea? 

Holland from Dameg. Well, no windmills or tulips or wooden shoes here.. but what are these?? It’s cheese, can you imagine? :D This place is Alkmaar cheese market and since 1593 it’s a tradition they they sell loads of cheese in bulk on every Friday. I love love cheese but since we get only imported cheese, they’re rather expensive here.. I should move to Holland!

Holland from Sun_vk. Windmill – checked. So many windmills in this awesome artsy card. Those blue illlustrations are on ceramic tiles.. and I love the texts on some of them:
Daily Prayer.
O Lord, help me to keep my big mouth shut until I know what I am talking about.

And another:
This house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy.

And the toilet bowl says:
Use me well and keep me clean. I’l never tell what I have seen. LOL.

Whee! I have received a neat envelope from Sas80 filled with assorted Dutch teas :) It’s been ages since I last tasted a foreign tea, so I’m craving to try some new taste. I have got many different flavors here, must take picture first before all are gone :)

From Ilona23. A typical farm house with reed on the roof. These farm houses can mostly be seen in provinces of Drente, Overyssel, Gelderland, Groningen and Friesland. I don’t know those places, though.

From Jora. This house from Aalten looks a bit interesting, with steep roof but low walls. Really cute.

From MorganLeFay. Hahaha, this one is so weirdly cute! I wonder who’s living in a house like this.. perhaps a witch? Hmm it says here it’s an old Dutch house which is now a museum. A museum? I mean, it doesn’t look too spacey to be a museum. And some more it’s inside a jungle. 

From flower81. This is a house from the 18th century in Groningen. Houses like this usually belonged to very wealthy land owners and are called a Borg. Many of these houses are now museums, and some are still used as family homes. 

From inkie1010. A multiview of Brabant province showing countryside views with cows and farms and lake and windmill and house! I love the house in this picture, it looks one from the medieval era.

From Babsie22. Another lovely cottage house, and Babsie says the house seems to be too small for Dutch “giant” people, therefore the assumption that ancient people used to be short. 

From Shuff. Another multiview that I don’t mind including here as it still shows some neat country houses :) Geithorn is called the “Venice of Holland” as it has a lot of canals and water.

From Sabje. It may look like a plain huge field but notice the windmills making the area looking so beautiful.

From Patjee. A windmill in Deurne.

From Bontkwagga. A gothic windmill this is.

NL-4545 from Hesham. Windmills and tulips, great combination!

From Jetske. Beautiful tulips some more. Hang on, doesn’t this look like similar to above? Yes it is similar, but not same :P Anyways. When I look closer to these two postcards, I have got a feeling that those windmills aren’t actually there in the Tulips field. Yes, if you can read my mind, I think they’re Photoshopped! lol. Nevermind, Photoshops can be great too :P

Greetings from Haarlem. Here’s my first postcard from The Netherlands, which was the 3rd official card I received by the record. The sender is Eleanorrigby, who was active on the forum as well and we even exchanged underwear on once-so-popular Underwear swap! :P *oh missing it now..*