Postcards to Me was first conceptualized while perusing the shops on Laugavegur street in Reykjavik on a chilly November afternoon in 2015. My friends and I had just landed in the land of Fire and Ice and to stave-off jet lag, we kept moving in and out of the shops filled with Iceland-made woolen sweaters and Nordic artwork. We talked of travel as we ducked in and out of the cold.

During one of our moments outside my friend asked if I ever collect anything from my travels. At this point, I had been to 13 countries and 40 U.S.States but had never considered collecting anything besides the occasionally quirky magnet or regionally made jewelry, or as I like to call it “wearable art”.  He pressed on, “why not mail yourself something for the stamp?” And, it was in that moment that we saw postcards. I responded, “I mail postcards to everyone else to keep them informed and entertained of my travels so why not mail them to myself? I should start doing this”

We decided then and there that we would make it a habit of finding a regionally significant postcard and mailing them back to the States.  We quickly made our way into the warm sanctuary of a souvenir store and began the hunt for the perfect first postcard.

I distinctly remember being struck by the high number or well-fed, domesticated cats roaming the side streets of the Capitol city and chose a white and black stencil of a cat and house to mail home to me. 

Since November of 2015, I have captured many  “postcard moments” and mailed myself over 75 postcards from all corners of the Earth – most have made their way to my mailbox while others have sadly been lost to postal purgatory!

How do I choose the perfect postcard? 

The requirements for being chosen to send to me: be humorous, show an image that captured my memory or interesting to look at.

What do I write?

And the inscription must include a fact, a fascinating thought or random memory that I wanted to capture in time with this lost art.

This is the greatest souvenir I’ve ever collected! What better way to capture one’s memory and reflect upon it. So many unbelievable memories occur in a  single day let alone a week or month of travel and this helps keep the memories alive!

I take so much pleasure in flipping through my piles of mail after weeks or months of travel, finding a postcard from myself. It helps me express gratitude and to be reminded in a tangible form of the fun or sometimes frightening memories of being a traveler.

Foll0w @postcardstome to see my postcards