Saturday, August 11, 2012

Postcard Revival

Postcards and letter writing seem to be a lost art these days, having been taken over by email and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. So when I receive the rare handwritten card or a care package, what used to be a common occurrence is now a special treat. There's something exciting about being able to hold it in your hand and know that it just traveled across the world for days or weeks to get to you.

Before we left for our trip around the world, my sister requested that we send postcards to her and her kids. Nowadays, this is a lot harder than it seems because postcards aren't as popular and easy to find as they used to be and neither are post offices for that matter. It had been a long time since I had sent a postcard to anyone and at first I thought it was silly to go through the effort of buying postcards and stamps and writing something interesting and looking up an address and finding a post office to mail it when it would take me just a few minutes to send an email with photos attached. But we agreed to try not knowing what a sensation it would be for little kids who've grown up with the Internet and have never received postcards before. There were a few countries we missed where we just couldn't find them but in the end, I got really into it and sent my sister's family and some other friends some cool care packages and even some homemade postcards. It's so fun to see how excited people get over a little piece of cardboard from a foreign country. My niece and nephew really loved reading the fun facts I included about kids from other countries. My nephew, Colin, is obsessed with these toys called, Bey Blades and thought it was so cool that kids in Thailand play with Bey Blades too. My niece, Sydney, was ecstatic when we sent her this postcard from Sydney, Australia where I wrote to her about her fan club Down Under.

Then my sister, who is a first-grade teacher, took all of the postcards we sent, displayed them in her classroom, and turned them into a class writing and art project. The kids learned about geography and other cultures and also got to make their own postcards and write about places that they have visited. You can learn more about her class project at Tales of a first-grade teacher

We have another exciting trip coming up in a few weeks. It has been almost a year since our world trip began so we will be going back to New York where it all started. Then on to Philadelphia, Ireland, San Francisco and then back to Hawaii. We plan on sending more postcards from our next trip to my sister's class and if any of my readers would like to be a part of this project and send them a postcard from the place they live or plan on traveling to please contact me for address information.

Please come back soon to read all about our upcoming adventures. I'm sure I will have lots of interesting places and activities to write about. In the meantime, you can read some older posts from past trips I've taken to some of these places.

My third trip to Ireland.

A very brief mention about my short trip to Philadelphia in 2008 rolled into this post about Michigan and Canada.

Be a tourist in your own neighborhood. I wrote about some of my favorite museums in my old neighborhood of Queens, New York

A recent post about our stop in Oahu. Our first week back in the United States after our trip around the world.

Read about our current location, Maui, where we've been for the past 6 months.


Wednesday, August 1, 2012

August News

I've got a couple of exciting things coming up in August.

copyright Kim Nolan
First, my photography work will be in a group show at the Black Box Gallery in Portland, Oregon from August 1-22. The opening reception will take place on Friday, August 3rd- Portland's "First Friday Art Walk on the East Side"- from 5-8:30 pm.
copyright Kim Nolan

copyright Kim Nolan
Second, I will be displaying and selling some of my paintings during Lahaina's "Second Friday Art Night" on August 10th from 5-10 pm at Longhi's on Front Street in Lahaina, Hawaii. There will be a cash bar and complimentary valet. www.mauifridays.com/lahaina

If you can't attend these events but would like to purchase artwork please contact me for pricing and shipping information.