Little postcard swap

So my inspirational blogfriend Kitsch and Curious Elaine asked me if I'd like to do a postcard swap and I said yes. Her timing was spot on because it's all complete just before the bigger Postman's Knock swap gets going.
     The plan was to send each other a printed postcard which would inspire us to create our own postcard to send back.
     It was quite hard deciding what to send Elaine as I felt it was a big responsibility to choose something that would get her creative juices flowing. I sent her this:

And she got busy with her watercolours and sent me this spiffing young man:

I feel I should display this very prominently as an encouragement to myself to go and put some lengths in as I am far from emulating this boy's graceful limbs. Thank you so much, Elaine, I love it.

Meanwhile, Elaine sent me this deliciously unsettling card:

It got me thinking about brides and the 1950s and trousseaus and a rather American sensibility. I raided a 1957 Sears catalogue for some period home furnishings and, for the other side, some modern gadgets that no smart young couple should be without. The Sears catalogue is really disturbing as it sells absolutely everything: it starts with clothes, household goods, all fine, but continues on into the tool department, the livestock, the guns. It seems you could get everything and anything by mail order even then. I like the sepia tones in which all the goods are rendered, so that you can't quite tell if they're photographed or drawn.