helent

I live Melbourne, and I love it - love the coffee, the restaurants, the city.

I work for the state government, and outside of work I mostly like sewing, op shopping, watching tv on dvd, and hanging with friends.

I like cycling, it's my main form of transport, although I've been a bit lazy lately.

I love collecting postcards. I'm the type of person who starts collecting things far too easily, and so I restrict myself to postcards - they are cheap and don't take up too much space! I am not allowed to start collecting anything else...

I do a lot of patchwork, but can never decide if I love or hate it - I love hand-made things, I love the ethos of the Arts and Craft Movement, of applying artistic skills to everyday items, of reclaiming fabrics for a new use, but sometimes, I absolutely hate the grind of actually making things! So my projects drag on for months...

I like my postcards sent naked, please. Somehow, it's not a real postcard if it arrives in an envelope.

I've collected postcards all my life, starting from when I was a kid and my dad used to send them to us when he travelled for work. Because he always travelled to the same place (Geneva), I have a lot of duplicated cards from there! And my friends and family now know to send me cards whenever they travel.

I'm trying to collect all the UNESCO sites - I've just started and still have a long way to go. You can see the full list of sites, and the ones I have, here: http://goo.gl/8Eyyw2 (opens in Google Docs).

I like:

• Historic photos - street scenes, old portraits.

• Multiples cards.

• Historic figures and events.

• Remarkable women (suffragettes especially)

• Royal figures (past and present).

• Portraits of composers - Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, etc.

• Cultural days and events - Dia de los Muertos, etc.

• Old-fashioned "Greetings From..." cards.

• Kitschy tourist sites (the Big Banana, etc.).

• Jackalopes and similar kitschy cards.

• Pin-ups/Vargas girls/pulpy pictures.

• McSweeney's 'Greeting from the Ocean's Sweaty Place' cards.

• Buildings and architecture (especially details - windows and doors, staircases, gargoyles).

• The Old West.

• Foxes and wolves, goats, big cats (especially tigers) and non-cutesy domestic cats.

• Jetoy Choo Choo cats

• Studio Ghibli

• Paintings or photography.

• Photojournalism.

• Anything book related (I love the Penguin, Puffin and Ladybird cards).

• Things textile-related - traditional textiles, quilts, etc.

• National or traditional costumes.

• Photos of libraries.

• Beautiful landscape shots.

• Postcards taken to promote something really dull, like a motel or a town hall with no aesthetic merits.

If you've read all of this but are still not sure what to choose for me, there's a link to my favourites from Postcrossing up top - check that out for more inspiration.

I love really scrappy squilts of almost any design. I like all colours, buy I don't use too many bright colours, and I don't like novelty prints or most prints that look like actually things. Check out my quilts on flickr (link above).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Dexter, Arrested Development, Big Love, Degrassi Junior High, Oz, Supernatural, Spooks, Black Books, Veronica Mars, Deadwood, Burn Notice, Breaking Bad, Vampire Dairies, Sons of Anarchy, Nikita, Fringe

Heat, Le Samourai, Near Dark, Stander, Brokeback Mountain, Saved!, Pride & Prejudice, The Outsiders, Cry Baby, Millers Crossing, Intolerable Cruelty, Hud, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Ride with the Devil, Dollars Trilogy, Ocean's Eleven, Out of Sight, Gosford Park, The Departed

Patchwork/quilts

Favourite authors: Neal Stephenson, Jane Austen, W. Somerset Maugham, John D McDonald, Raymond Chandler, Carl Hiaasen

Neko Case, Calexico, Iron and Wine, Talking Heads, Nick Drake, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grant-Lee Phillips, Rhapsody in Blue, The Smiths, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, They Might Be Giants, Massive Attack, Iron and Wine, The Decemberists