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Greetings, friends!

It has been so long since I have posted that I am almost ashamed! But life has been busy; I have not had time to scan and share all of the lovely postcards I have collected since I last wrote–and there are a lot!

One of these days I will do it. I am just not sure when.

But I did want to write about a topic of interest right now, which is the etiquette of home exchanges. Actually, since I have not yet actually done a home exchange, I am thinking more of the etiquette of requesting a home exchange.

My husband and I recently joined www.homeforexchange.com. We want to travel but find the cost prohibitive for our family of five. For example, do you know that, right now, round trip airfare to Munich (a place I’d LOVE to vist) is running about USD $1,400 per person? That comes out to USD $7,000 for a family of five. I don’t know about you, but that’s way too much money to spend on airfare alone.

A family outside of Paris recently wrote to us asking for an exchange this summer. While we would have LOVED to do so–PARIS!–airfare would have been the same as if traveling to Munich–$7,000. So, unfortunately, we had to decline. In my email reply though, I did ask if they would be interested in considering an exchange during other times–perhaps in the winter months when fares are lower, or maybe even Summer 2012, as I understand that fares may be lower if you book far out in advance.

However, to that proposal, I received no reply.

Another exchanger in Florida also wrote, asking to exchange homes this summer. The area was not one where we’d like to visit, so I proposed a possible three-way exchange: perhaps I could find someone in an area where we’d like to visit who wanted to visit Florida? Then I would stay in the 3rd party’s home; the third party would stay in Florida; the Florida party would stay in my home, which is what they wanted all along.

However, to that proposal, I received no reply.

I have also written to two parties myself asking about possible domestic exchanges this summer–one more than a week ago, the other yesterday.

However, to both proposals, I have not yet received replies. (I’m not as concerned about the proposal sent yesterday; it takes even me at least one full day to ponder a request and to reply!)

And this leaves me wondering about the etiquette of requesting and responding to home exchanges.

• Is it not hospitable to respond to every request, even if the response is negative?
• Is it not hospitable to respond to requests promptly, within three days or so?

The people making requests are trying to plan–if the dates and details can be worked out, there are airfares to book, travel plans to make, lots of planning and dreaming and scheming to do! 🙂

I don’t know about others, but I will not be offended if you cannot or do not want to take me up on my proposal. If you do not want to come to my area, or if you are otherwise engaged, just say so. But please, don’t leave me hanging. I sent my request to you in full readiness to start acting–now! 🙂

I think this is a reasonable request. And I think that perhaps home exchange websites ought to publish information to members so that they know to respond courteously and promptly to all requests.

But–since I know I can’t change the world, I will simply continue to do what I do and hope that others will follow my lead: I will respond to all requests promptly!

So if you’re interested in an exchange, please review our listing online–and then write!

A very pretty art card representing a local tree! I love it — all the way from Mauritius, “an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres (560 mi) east of Madagascar.” [Thanks, Wiki!]

A lovely postcrossing card, with lovely round stamps!

I recently swapped with a lovely postcard collector in Finland, choosing a selection of cards from her very nice album. When the cards arrived, I was so pleased to see them in this envelope, with many interesting Finnish stamps worth keeping! I like the two stamps in the upper right corner, showing books and reading. And then are the character stamps, which come with little stickers that allow the sender to “dress up” the characters themselves! Very neat — I’d like to see more of these types of unusual stamps, as we have nothing like this in the U.S.

I love these cards 🙂 When I received my first from a penpal several years ago, she described the scenes as two old ladies enjoying each other and their golden years. She also said that she hopes to have a friend like that one day. And I have always wished that, too 🙂 So I was very pleased to find that a Finnish swapper had a collection of Inge Löök’s cards available! This one shows the old gals celebrating a VERY OLD birthday, with a gazillion candles on the gigantic cake 🙂 They are enjoying large mugs of beer, and lots of other yummy goodies as well 🙂 Looks like fun!

This card, received from a swap with a Finnish collector, was printed in Austria. I love cats, art cards and foreign languages, so this card triply appealed to me! The titles of the books are: My Friend the Dog, Cats, Cats, and Big Cats.

 
I could not quickly find information about Anna the artist, but I did discover that she has painted many cat scenes that now appear on postcards! I will have to add her cat cards to my wish list 🙂

I love this card, because it’s just like me 🙂 The grannies are sitting by the door, with their clock and tea and munchies, just waiting to see what fabulous goodies the mailman will bring! 🙂 And look how delighted they are with today’s delivery! I have felt that way many times, myself 🙂

 
This text on Inge Löök comes from Click here to view. I also found the information in Finnish on Wiki, but the translation did not come out so well. This, however, is written in English 🙂 “Inge Löök (Ingebor Lievonen) is an artist and gardener from Pernaja, Finland. She was born in Helsinki 1951. Her artistic name Löök means onion in swedish. She graduated from high school 1972 and got her gardening degree in 1974 and graduated 1979 from the Arts and Crafts University in Helsinki as a graphical designer. She worked as an gardener for six years but then her art work became a full time job. She has drawn over 300 postcards, half of which are Christmas themed. She also designed more than 800 greeting cards and illustrated numerous exlibris book-tags. She has illustrated various childrens and young adults books and Christian literature and schoolbooks, couple of CD-covers and magazines especially gardenig magazines. She has worked for different publishers in Finland. ** The anarchistic grannies ** She is best known for her anarchistic grannie figures. Her first Grannies illustrations where born in 2003. The motto of the grannies is “Time is not money and spending it isn’t a sin.” At first her grannies were rejected by the publisher when she offered them as Valentines Day cards ( commonly known as ystävänpäivä friends day in Finland). Pirjo Laakso noticed the grannies at a postcard fair and they were included in the Paletti card manufacturers prints. Then the grannies started their world-wide success. In a couple of years grannies have sold more than hundred thousand copies. They represent a humorous approach to the world. In spring 2008 a book and a wall calendar was published called “Paljain jaloin mummojen puutarhassa”- barefooted at the grannies garden. Grannies have now appeared in various prints and textiles and Finland has used them in stamps. The visual appearance of the grannies comes from the artist’s childhood and the old ladies who lived in her neighborhood. Grannies picture a gentle caricature of the artists own attitude towards life.”

What a very unusual building — and since I love unusual buildings, I could not resist this card 🙂

From Wiki: The Turning Torso is a deconstructivist skyscraper in Malmö, Sweden, located on the Swedish side of the Öresund strait. It was designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and officially opened on 27 August 2005. The tower reaches a height of 190 metres (623 feet) with 54 stories. Upon completion, it was the tallest building in Scandinavia, the tallest residential building in the EU and the second tallest residential building in Europe, after the 264-metre (866 ft)-high Triumph-Palace in Moscow.