can the queen be put to a better use?, asks graphic designer and illustrator jamie wieck. well, apparently the answer is yes – he build a set of really cute cards where the queen stamp plays an important (and original) role.
here’s what he has to say:

“Something unique about British culture is the annual sit down after a bloating Christmas lunch to watch the Queen deliver her seasonal message on TV. Well I that, and to watch somebody die/get married/get-married-then-die on Eastenders.
Inspired by this image of annual togetherness I created a Christmas card that needed the Queen herself to complete the image – after all Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the Queen.

But for the anti-royalists amongst you I figured it was only fair that the Queen should get a comeuppance of sorts…”

check out his website for lots of other good questions.

(via oh joy!)

a few months ago, at ikea, we noticed this pot lid holder. we don’t have a lot of pots and less pot lids even, but we purchased it anyway. guess what we use it for… postcards, of course!!

it’s isn’t exactly an ikea “hack”, but it fits our needs well. also, the higher racks are smaller and the lower ones are larger, which comes in quite handy for those big sized ones.

we don’t like the idea of “storing” postcards away, once received. they make us happy, so we want to look at them! :)

more pictures, on flickr (click for larger):

a big portion of the weekend is spent answering emails that have been piling up through the week. from trivial questions, location changes requests, “i think this user is acting fishy”, people whose “english is not very famous” (that quote actually made us laugh almost to tears!), their email is not working, how much is a stamp to madagascar…
we try to make the effort to answer even the silliest email (quicktext and the quickmove extensions for thunderbird give us a precious hand, common sense is also an underestimated tool).

complaints and requests, most of the time. mais hélas, once in a while, a little kid (or a full class), a grandma or a family somewhere writes to say how sending postcards makes them happy or is keeping them in touch with the world.

and all is right and meaningful again. it feels really good to be part of a project that doesn’t specifically target “people our age”, but instead stretches to reach people everywhere, young and old, more or less internet savvy, with interests as vast as bunny-hopping (as in training bunnies to jump around – i kid you not!) or carol singing.

the only common thing between them is the love of something offline: postcards on their mailbox, when they get home. :)

(on the picture, what i do when i have too much to do: as levi would say, “pantominate”. take pictures, arrange flowers, catalogue coffee marks. what do you do?)

today i got home and i had this surprise in my mailbox: a postcard from norway, picturing 6 portraits of young woody allen in new york (1967).
can you imagine the size of my smile?

this is exactly what i was trying to explain.