Postcard Making!

So, I have been signing up for A LOT of postcard swaps with Swap-Bot lately. Too many. I look forward to my lunch break every day so that I can go to the post office and send out my latest batch of postcards. I can only imagine the pile of postcards my boyfriend has to deal with arriving at my apartment...

And the fellow at the post office isn't helping. He keeps talking about what a soft spot he has for postcards, and how he would like to receive more of them. Maybe I should somehow find out his address and send him some on my next vacation...

Anyhow, I received the names for my latest swap and looked up their profiles to see if they have any specific postcards they prefer. One of my latest partners collects map postcards from the Canadian provinces and territories, and has Nunavut on her list of territories she is missing. Since Iqaluit is the largest community in Nunavut with roughly 6,000 people, I figure I am the best chance she has of getting such a postcard from Nunavut.

There's only one problem - I have been all over Iqaluit, and spoken to people all over town - some who have lived here for 24 years - and they don't sell such a postcard in Nunavut. So now I am late for my swap, and they don't sell the postcard I need ANYWHERE.

So I decided to make one. I realized I have map-making software on my laptop here, and all this Nunavut data. So I made a postcard-sized map image of Nunavut that I'm going to glue to a 25cent store-bought postcard. I added a Nunavut flag image I found on the internet, and some images I shot of plants up here, and I think it turned out pretty well. The only downside is that we have cheap paper, so the printout will look a little crappy. I hope she likes it!

Also, on a completely separate note, I love this dress from Shabby Apple and want to make my own version of it.

Sylvia Grinnell Park

Iqaluit has been having terrible weather. There has been more time of foggy skies than clear skies, and nice days are rare. A few days ago, we had an absolutely beautiful day, so we took off early from the warehouse and headed to Sylvia Grinnell Park just outside of town to practice with our cameras.

It turns out that Jen has a similar camera to my own, and is really into photography. She lent me a couple of her amazing lenses and I got a chance to practice with them.


We mostly took a lot of photos of vegetation. Considering the fact that the land up here is covered with snow 10 months out of the year, there are some really beautiful plants. The best photos are on my Picasa Web Album, along with all my other photos from this season on Baffin Island here.

We stopped by the Visitors Center in Iqaluit today - a very worthwhile visit, if ever you happen to be in Nunavut. There was a beautiful book of Nunavut vegetation, and I came across this little guy:


The Arctic version of the Spider Plant. I have never seen one in the wild, and it turns out that they only live in small patches above latitudes of 70 degrees or so. It's amazing that such an incredible life form exists, let alone in such a harsh climate. I'll bet the summer only lasts about a month up there. Now I want to travel even further north!