Postcard swap: Manila, Philippines

Shinichi and Ran The #postcard I sent to Manila for @phoebe.swaps! I'm glad that you have finally received it. I wonder where your Where's Waldo postcard has gone though. I might as well find him inside the post office next week! Oh, Waldo!! Hahaha

A month ago, I participated a postcard swap with Phoebe from Manila. She wanted this postcard: Shinichi & Ran of Detective Conan Anime and I am supposed to receive a Where's Waldo postcard in return. To my dismay, up to now, my post office has not sent me the postcard. I already checked the office but there's nothing for me. I guess it's lost now. But I am glad that Phoebe has received my card safely! I have a stack of Detective Conan postcards with me that I am very much willing to give those who likes it. Do you want one? E-mail me!

I have said it before and I will say it again: Yay for postcards! :)

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 10 (Wesseling, Germany)

(Read about this collaboration)

Aquitania
Sonnet poetry: D.G. Bersabal
Photograph: Cosettex

As I walk towards the beach
I see these tiny orange flowers.
Little trumpets with a unique melody in each
They’re not even tired of playing for hours.
The sea breeze may blow away
their masterpiece,
but the melody always finds a way
to deliver kisses of peace.
Someone took a photo of them.
So still, but I can imagine the way they dance.
In my mind, they’re swaying to their anthem.
Oh, what a lovely dose of romance!
So every time I go to the beach, I’d stopover
because they’re part of my life forever.

*postcard sent to A. Kogler

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 9 (Riedstadt, Germany)

(Read about this collaboration)

Playful Silhouettes

Limerick poetry: D.G. Bersabal

Photograph: Jeansman

There was a little boy named Baloo
Who always play around with his friends of two.
They are having fun
under the bright sun
in a paradise where playful silhouettes sings ‘yahoo’!

*postcard sent to M. De Cesare

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 8 (Leipzig, Germany)

(Read about this collaboration)

Winter Oak

Iambic Pentameter poetry: D.G. Bersabal

Photograph: Rob Roy Aus

Through the range of hills in Southwest England,
lies an oak tree standing very firmly.
Does not fail to give its glowing beauty;
even during winter months it looks grand.

*postcard sent to E. Bischoff

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 7 (Hautcharage, Luxembourg)

(Read about this collaboration)

Red Wedding Shoes

Occasional poetry: D.G. Bersabal

Photograph: J. Utz

Black and red are the colors of the day.

One denotes strength, the other denotes

love. Black and red are the colors

of the day. IT means strong love,

tight bond, forever and ever.

*postcard sent to A. Kalmes

UPDATE: Ms. Kalmes sent me a photo of the postcard!

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 6 (Mstow, Poland)

(Read about this collaboration)

Snail

Circle poem: D.G. Bersabal

Photograph: 7ns

Your journey through life

does not always happen

on a wide and flat road.

Sometimes you have to

walk on narrow

and rocky ones

to find its meaning.

(written as a circle poem) 

*postcard sent to S. Boral

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 5 (China)

(Read about this collaboration)

Red Umbrella

Free Verse: D. G. Bersabal; 

Photography: E. Won 

I can see you
slowly walking
away from
my heart.
In between
trees; under
your umbrella;
on a patterned
concrete.
You are there
carrying my
heart's
specific light.

*posrcard sent to E. Won.

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 4 (Gifu City, Japan)

(Read about this collaboration)

Hot Air Balloons

Acrostic Poetry: D. G. Bersabal; 

Film Photography: Y. Goto

                                               Beautifully-patterned hot air balloons slowly

                                               arising from the ground. Filled with

                                               lovers in each big basket of love. And

                                               lovers wave to the people

                                               over and under. And the world gets smaller but not

                                               ordinary. How grand it is to witness the impressive

                                               natural scenery. How majestic must it feel to

                                               see such beauty.

*postcard sent to Y. Goto

UPDATE: Mr. Goto sent me a photo of the card.

I received an amazing post card from Philippine!! A Lomographer Debie Grace Bersabal from Philippine wrote a beautiful poem for my photo(*^^*) I'm soooo glad to receive it. It's a great experience that we Lomographers have a connection each other like this. LOMO ON!!

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 3 (Lille, France)

(Read about this collaboration)

Snow-drop

Tanka Poetry: D. G. Bersabal; 

Film Photography: A. Zigante

                                                                 There you are standing

                                                                 so precious in a green field

                                                                 with droplets of dew

                                                                 around your two closed petals.

                                                                 Behold your awakening.

*postcard sent to A. Zigante

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 2 (Kuala Lumpur)

(Read about this collaboration)

Flower

Haiku Poetry: D. G. Bersabal; 

Film Photography: Adam

A tiny flower

clipped in between my fingers

-- pulsating with life!

*postcard sent to Adam

Update: Adam sent me a photo of the postcard.

Thanks my lomography friend from Philippines using my pic as postcard! Love it and love the poem ! Good job Debie

Postcard Collaboration: Postcard # 1 (Greece)

Ideas come and go. Sometimes we think about them in a moment, for a second, and then forget about it or we think about it, deeply think about it, think about it more, and then try to allow its existence to the world. For countless times, I had made some of my ideas into the real world (discreetly, academics/work and other important things aside, like making small bookmarks with words of encouragement on them and insert them into random books at my university library. There are other things, too; you'd probably know them if you try to read everything in this blog which will cost you time so you don't want to do that!) One of them would be this collaboration with photographers all over the world. 

ABOUT THE COLLABORATION:

Back in 2012, I wanted to write a poem for each kind of poetry there is out there. At least ten. That was the primary idea. And then I decided to make a postcard out of them and send them to strangers. Then another idea popped in, supporting the primary, which is to collaborate with photographers and lomographers. So then I ventured through Flickr and Lomography websites. I selected five digital and film photographs that could be a great topic to my poems. As it is a collaboration, I did not just grab the photographs (also becuz ~duh~ dats bad!), I sent e-mails to the photographers about my fairly simple project. Most of them were delighted about it and very nice enough to give me their trust -- re their photograph and their mail address (!)  for they will receive the postcard version of their photograph along with my poetry about it.

Having gathered ten photographs, I already started writing my poems. It was not that easy though for I wanted to somehow feel each photograph so I can write about it. It was not a serious thing; I worked on it on my free time.  So it took me more than a year to finish them. Once I have organized the poems, I sent e-mails to my collaborators about the progress. I did not expect them to remember me, the stranger who wanted to shamelessly collaborate with them, but turned out they were glad about the news. Haha!

The positivity I got form their replies made a great impact on me. So I printed each photo and made my simple drafts on each postcards' designs on the back. I manually wrote each poem and a message of thanks.

Although it took me several months to make the small idea into the world, I did enjoy the time I spent working on each of them. Now, as of July 2014, I have sent half of the postcards to their respective owners. I am still waiting for the replies of the other half. I understand that it is not safe to give out your addresses to anyone on the internet. I might just ask them if they want me to give the postcards to my friends or to people from Postcrossing. So anyway there you go. It may have taken a long time to finish but I am glad I did not give up on that idea. Looking back, I can not remember what made me think about it but it sure does make me smile every time. And please don't judge me when I say: you are amazing, at least in your little world, self! You deserve a plateful of pizza!

I really like the thought of sending postcards to strangers all over the world. It gives me that sense of freedom to reach out other places and other human beings through my words in a form of a snail mail -- or for this matter, a postcard! 

So, here is postcard # 1:  A postcard sent to Greece

Lake 

Diamante Poetry: D. G. Bersabal; 

Film Photography: V. Anastasiou

Lake

Serene, magical

Moving, soothing, enchanting

Deep, extreme, sanctuary, refuge

Far-reaching, far-ranging, blossoming

Photographic, territory

Land

*postcard sent to V. Anastasiou

Update: Maria gave me a photo of the postcard I sent to her. She said the postcard is in her bookshelf and apparently guarded by a skull! Hahaha so cute!! Thanks again, Maria! :D

AWESOME! There is something magical and thrilling in making, writing, sending and seeing the postcard! At least, somehow, my words have carried its way to Greece! :D

Postcards from China, Germany, and Iceland

I have some new postcards in the mail lately and all of them are lovely~  The postcards above are from Michael, a postcrosser from Denmark, who sent me three postcards in one envelope. Sad to say the original postcard he sent prior to these got lost and so he sent me a bunch. Thanks, Michael!

The third postcard is (YES I KNOWWWW OMG SO LOVELY) [a] The Little Prince postcard. I'm so thrilled when I saw it the first time just because~ Olivia of Beijing sent it to me because she knew I read books and it is her favorite one. Good choice, Olivia! The fourth postcard is one of the three postcards Michael sent me -- "Peaceful Place" by Henning Kappenberg.

The fifth postcard is a postcard sent by mon amour! It's a postcard from Iceland and it says "Aerial view of Namaskaro, one of the largest solfatara sites in Iceland." He has been around Iceland last year and I am so jealous about that. Hahaha! 

Postcards sent to Manila, China and France

This is another handmade postcard I made for Sara from China. She likes to travel, read, photography and music so I made her a postcard with all of her listed interest. Weeks after I sent it, she responded through e-mail saying:

"Dear sweet Debie,

It's really a big surprise to have your card this morning,I shall say this is the most lovely card i ever received cause you paint it yourself!
and it's so nice, you are so........sweet. I LOVE IT!
i love photography while till now only with digital machine,i am not an expert on that but it is a really good experience and trying to learn more. i truely believe film photography is much more dramastic, as what you said "MAGIC"! yes! I hope i could have a chance to take film photography someday. and if you could share some of your works with me?

It's getting cooler here these days after nearly one month high temperature upto 45 centigrade which is the highest one in my life. and sunny days with very comfortable feeling now.

I do hope to have a visit of Philippines someday, it's a really nice place with so beautiful landscape. hope soon...

and last but not least

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEBIE!
with my sincere wishes for you and your lovely families!

Sara from Ningbo
Sep 05,2013"

You are the sweetest postcrosser I have ever met, Sara. Thank you. Thank you for letting me know you have received my card and that you like it. It's one thing to make a postcard and send it to strangers and it is another thing to receive a response from them. I know it does not count much but this e-mail amazes me. It's just amazing how you take time to write back through e-mail. Thank you again for giving this fleeting but amazing moment in my life, Sara. :)

Another postcard I made for Aurelien from France. He likes books. I guess he is a fantasy bookworm and geek. I secretly checked out all his books in GoodReads and decided to make a simple compilation of book titles he likes.

 

A birthday stitched card for my sister who is in Manila. I found several free stitched card patterns from Stitching Cards. I glued a little paper card on the flip side, hence that curvy upper right side, which is full of greetings from relatives and close friends of my sister.

I have nothing fancy to give to other people but I am pretty sure a letter and/or a card will brighten up their day. :)

Letter challenge: yours dreams

Dear dreams,

The reason why I still go on walking along this rocky path of life is because of you. You are comprised of both real and unreal things. Some real, tangible things that seem so easy to achieve but I am too clueless how to start. Some unreal things that require me to take risks, do wild things, or nothing. Most of the time I just let you sit in the air and not mind how to deal of your presence. That does not mean I don't care. It means I still have hope for you but there are more things easier to achieve. Or so I thought.

Thank you for existing in my head. I know it takes years but you are still hanging in there. Thank you for the patience. It's not like how others' dreams are; others seem to achieve theirs quickly than I do but maybe that is because I dream about big, difficult, and almost impossible things.

I am taking baby steps now. I clearly don't know how to put myself out there but once I figure it out, perhaps it will be easy. Be patient, trust that I won't leave you hanging in the air just like that for the course of my life. I won't do that, no. I may alter you a bit but it will be for the better. I may also have to add some more or take some things to and from you but I will never ever let you go empty. Remember that.

A full-time daydreamer,

Debie

Letter Challenge: Your Siblings

Very old photo of us lined-up together. Eldest to youngest (with Mama)

(A letter of the youngest kid among six children about feeling hopeless at times, about missing the good old days, and about contentment.)

Dear Siblings,

Isn't it amazing how we are bound together by love? That no matter how each of us fail at some point in our endeavors, we still accept each other just because.

As the youngest, all I want is the best for all of you. Even though I am always left behind, I still hope and pray that I will be okay because I understand that all of you want to live your lives away from home.

Whenever I think about the past, when Mama and Papa were still alive, I become happy and sad. I miss those times together. Those times when we always eat together, spend time in the garden together, watch television together, share everything we have with each other, celebrate Christmas Eve and New Year's celebrations together. Thank you for making my life exciting sometimes. Everything is extremely different now. You have your own lives, I am still here. The magic is slowly drifting away. I wish it was the other way around.

I remember people telling me that I am such a cheerful kid. I am not the same anymore unless I am away with friends. I am alone and, in the recent years, been dealing with complicated things. I know it would get more complicated as the years progress.

All of you are lucky to have wonderful younger years because those were the last best years with Mama and Papa around. Now, I feel alone. Sometimes lonely, sometimes not. But still alone. I wish I had some people to guide me through life. If Mama and Papa were here today, I might have my everyday reminders about little things. I would not feel scattered if so.

During Christmas and New Year's in the recent years, I always think about our simple but happy, glorious and meaningful celebrations together as a family. I am almost alone during these times now that is why I think about it so I won't feel lonely. :) For the past years, I always treat these celebrations as the time to remember the joys I had together with the whole family years ago and the blessings I have currently. I will forever treasure them and carry with me wherever I go once I leave this life.

Our parents must be very proud and I am happy to know that you are all stable somehow. Knowing all of your stability, I am contented enough that if I would be gone, at least I have nothing to worry about. I am contented with our happy memories together, my life in the past years, and what I have currently. What matters most are the things that keep me happy and strong and those are not material things. Those are memories, positive feelings, and satisfaction from the people I truly care about (including friends).

I wonder if there is something in store for me tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, or the day after that. I wonder if I'll ever going to leave home as well? I wish I could live near all of you, each one of you... maybe every day would be the best. I hope there is something out there for me as well. Something that would help me flourish without anyone else stopping me. I am faithful to have another amazing and happy experiences in the future just as how hard (but I am trying to be brave not to cry every time) experiences I have now.

Thank you for always saying that I can do it. That I shouldn't mind whatever is happening around because the people who hurt other people just so they would feel on top would never always win.

Thank you for not forgetting about me.

 

The youngest kid among six who hid behind leaves in her early years,

Debie.

Postcards for England and China

I made and sent two postcards last month. One for Beverly from England and Dina from China.

Beverly is the first person who inspired me to write. She doesn't know it, I guess. But I mentioned it, finally, in my letter. At the age of 13, I started keeping a notebook full of poems and whatnot. And I started keeping a diary before I started blogging back in 2005. She's one of my heroes. :) Back in high school and early years in college, she was my pen pal. We used to write novel-like letters but it suddenly stopped. I can't trace back who stopped replying but it doesn't matter. I hope someday our paths will cross again. I want to tell her a lot of things. Things that I didn't understand years ago but I do now

Dina is a postcrosser from China. I made her a dream catcher-inspired card because that's what I thought of while thinking about what kind of postcard should I make for her. I hope she gets it! :D

Incoming cards from Denmark, Portugal and Louisiana

3 cards in the mail recently -- postcrossing cards from Denmark & Portugal, and a surprise card from Louisiana.

1. Pocahontas-inspired card from Melanie of Denmark. Whenever I look at it, my mind sings Colors of the Wind. I love how it reminds me so much of my childhood days which was filled with afternoons in the garden, playing with caterpillars, going inside a very large cage & feeding my father's (different kinds of) birds, and reading comics/stories to my mother's flowers (because she told me they will bloom if I do so). It was a Pocahontas-like childhood except there were no John Smith involved.

2. Planalto das Cesaredas card from Nuno of Portugal. Just in case I find myself traveling around the world... I'd probably visit Portugal and remind myself to visit this place. Also, I'd learn Portuguese. That must be fun!

3. Flower card from Arielle of Louisiana. This card made me smile while working in the office. The day when I was totally clueless (because I was not expecting any mail to arrive), curious and excited at the same time as I walked towards the mailman who just blurted out my name outside the gate. What a lovely surprise from a friend who lives miles away in the States! :)

Thank you for these beautiful mails. They surely made my days happy! :D

Venise postcard sent to Arielle

One night, I decided to draw Venise, the cat that yawns when it saw me the first time. I made a postcard out of it. Purple graded watercolor wash (that was too grainy, basic). Sent to a lovely girl who likes cats and purple. (Hello, Arielle!)

Looking forward to make more postcards soon. :)

Letter challenge: your parents

 

Dear Ma & Pa,

I am inspired by the love you have with each other. I hope someday I am going to be with a man who's willing to share everything in good times and bad times. Just like you. I can't say anything else, but I miss you everyday. I just wish you are still alive to guide me through, but even if you are gone by sight, you will always be in my heart. I know you will always be there for me. You're the only strength I got to live this life. Thank you for raising us well. I love you more than anything else.

Your little daughter,
Debie

A hand-made postcard sent to South Carolina, USA

A postcard I sent to David L. from South Carolina, USA. He likes naval ships, books, and dogs. So, I made my own postcard which composed of his favorites, which turned out to be a funny hand-made drawing. (See a closer look). The title of the three books are from novels which are set in his place. At the back, I have drawn a tooling leather as a separator of my message and address lines, because he likes tooling leathers.

I enjoyed making this postcard because it was done spontaneously. No further initial planning whatsoever which is the fun part. The boarder was quite fun to do as well. I admit I was kind of scared that he might not like a hand-made postcard but he actually listed it as his favorite (and he didn't 'favorite-d' everything he received, and that is something.). So, yay! 

So, I am definitely making more hand-made postcards soon and I will be making them during breaks and/or before going to bed because I don't want to spend more time for it (there are other important stuff to do). Anyway, I like making drafts and simple designs during breaks. Making fun stuff such as this make me sane. It's always good to have something to do especially when you're too caught up with heavy stuff. :)