Tuesday, a very rainy day.

 I was looking out the upstairs back window to see if the rain had finally stopped and saw that my dogwood was in bloom! This is amazing. It's a late bloomer and is very different looking. It's a shade tolerant hybrid. It has an off kilter shape because early on, a limb from the big tree fell on it and tore off a small branch. I'm so happy it's blooming!

 Bizoo in my studio last night. Before we started to take things apart. Stuff still on wall, all water damaged. He's sticking with me as I pack up, helping me by jumping into the packing boxes, and climbing over the paper stacks. What a good helper.

 Now he's taking a little rest, on the ironing board in the studio, next to a photo of himself resting on the kitchen chair.

 These are some sparkly, silvery butterfly appliques that my sister sent me. I've put them up for sale in my Etsy shop. I sure hope someone can think of something cool to use them for. They are silver metallic thread embroidered. Very shimmery.

365.2 #319

 I used an old show card from my friend Keith Long to alter. I attached the man's arm, which I scuffed up a bit, and a real four leafed-clover that was laminated. Keith makes excellent sculptures, using repurposed material. I'm going to send this to Keith.

365.3 #169

For today's second piece of Mail Art, I used some scraps that I "unearthed" on my work table. Oh the bits that were hidden there amazed me.

This is a collage book that I sent off to Laurence in Nancy, France for an exhibit of Carnets. I started it in Belgium in 2008, completed it just this spring. It says, in Dutch, "Welcome to the mim." Who or what "the mim" is, I don't know but I sure liked seeing my name in print.

Monday, what a day! Mail Art & more

 I purchased a tiny fan at the Dollar Tree (where everything costs $1.) I needed it the other day when it was hot and the a/c wasn't working.

We had a bad thing happen with the a/c - it sprang a leak and our upstairs front two rooms have water damage. We thought the damage was mainly in the tiny TV/guest room, but it wasn't.




Today, I started to clear out my studio so that people could come in to check on the extensiveness of the water damage.
And oh bother, it is very extensive. My studio is worse that the other room.
I discovered that the prints from my last show (Tiny Town) that were in a portfolio leaning against my table, were ruined.

Before, as it normally looks, a mess

after, a different kind of mess

 Then I discovered that prints from my New Jersey Turnpike exhibit, which were in another portfolio, were also ruined.  grrrr

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365.2 #168

Here's my table before I started to clear it out. A big mess which I had every intention of organizing this summer.

Here is the clean up in progress. The wall is very damp. It's wall board. And very damp. The work on it was soaked. That little square that is still on it, is a small plastic bag with a tiny collage in it. It's half way filled with water!
I have two fans on to try to dry it out. All of my mail art is off of my Real Wall.
I've got boxes to store things in. Where I'll put those boxes, I don't know. Plus I have to keep my daily Mail Art supplies handy.
Oh this will be interesting.

The floor is damaged, too.

The inspectors come on Thursday. More on this after that. In the meantime, I've got lots of work to do clearing out the studio.

Oh, and we discovered that our freezer isn't freezing. Fun. More soggy stuff.

 But, I made today's Mail Art-YAY- I used my honey's photos (rejects cause the printing wasn't perfect) and altered them with the figures, circles, and random text. I realized after scanning them that the little girl looks like she's hanging from a string. Oh no, not at all, the line is behind her, really.   I like these. 

 Here's Bizoo resting on his favorite brown paper, which is so used that it's almost like fabric. No crinkle sound left in it.

Here's baby Zinn looking so spunky. She is getting quite the personality.

Sunday Mail Art, My Father, and the babies

365.2 #316

365.2 #317

365.3 #166

365.3 #167

Keeping things simple is so satisfying for me. A scrap of paper and a postage stamp, in this case a very old Turkish postage stamp. I've been thinking about Turkey a lot because we have friends there and are getting updates.






Today, just a few scraps of color.













Another simple one with an old postage stamp. I purchased a packet of them when we were in Istanbul. They are quite old but didn't cost me very much money. I guess they aren't considered valuable, but for me - priceless.







Today's second piece. The adhesive got on the top and I couldn't get it off. grrr. I really dislike when that happens. It becomes another element.

I posted a photo of my father from 1941 on my Facebook page, last night, right after midnight. Today, my hunny found this one of my father, which was taken at his place of employment in the fall of 1968.

I think about him, and the things that he taught me. He once told me that he chose to be happy.  How good is that, to say that it's a choice one has, whether to be happy or not. And he did chose that.

 Here's the furry baby. My hunny brought him up to the bedroom in the morning, while I was still upstairs reading in bed. He ran around a bit chasing a paper ball, then hopped up on the bed to nap a bit.  Purrrr purrrpurrrrr

Here is the cutie Zinn. She was at our casa today for our Fathers' Day fiesta. 
I took lots and lots of photos, hopefully a few will be good for me to share.

She has steely blue eyes at this point.

Intense, right?

A bit of Mail Art, a lot of Bizoo

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365.2 #314

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365.3 #164

 Circles, I'm all about circles right now as I haven't found good images to cut out. I need new source material!

Circles are always my default.
When Julie came to visit, we cut some circles using her gigantic circle cutter. They're a good size addition.





Yesterday was a crazy day with a storm, a deluge in our house, and other disruptions.
Keeping Mail Art simple is a good thing on days like that.








Large circle really changes the scale. I used a left over tiny circle inside of a medium circle, inside of the larger one.












I keep a tin full of black circles handy for just such a day when simplicity must rule.

 Our niece spent the night as her home lost power in a storm and her hunny was out of town.
She came into the kitchen early and caught Bizoo doing things he never does when we're in the kitchen with him. 

Here he is checking out the sink.

 Here he is IN the sink.

 Here he is, having somehow pulled the garbage bin door open, hoisting himself up, and then onto counter and sink.

 Here he's sleeping on the low-boy rather than in his bed or on his comfy soft chair.

And here he is, hiding in a white paper bag. "No, it wasn't me. Nope, it was a look-a-like and why is Auntie M playing nanny-cam?"

We found out this morning, that Bizoo has 6 toes, and because of his markings, he'd be identified as a "target tabby!" Who knew!?

Note to me: 1. buy museum wax to stick things down, like the candle sticks.
2. keep kitchen sink scrubbed clean
3. buy baby latch to keep garbage bin locked tight
4. laugh a lot

Mail Art, and more

365.2 #311

365.2 #312

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 I'm giving myself a break from finding just the right little person or little object to fit into a space.

Working with circles is more soothing plus I have lots of them cut out.

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I like using not only the circles but what remains when they are punched out.












There are such different spatial relationships and "meanings" that are evoked by these.










For instance, this one makes me think of a party, of fun, of joyful playfulness. Even though the color blue is often associated with sadness, this one is not at all sad for me.

Though, at the moment, I'm feeling sad for what is going on in Istanbul, hoping our friends are okay.

My younger sister sent this to me. I'd done this drawing of myself back in 1969 and sent it to her. She thought I'd enjoy seeing it again and I do. Julie suggested that I scan it and put it into Tiny Town. Perhaps I'll do that for my very last one.

My honey looked at this and said - "Oh, you were very fashionable then."   Hmmm, guess I'm not so these days.

My older sister sent me a quantity of laces, trims, and appliques (and other stuff) that she was clearing out.  I sold a few things at a vintage shop for her,  now am putting them on Etsy, in my FritziMim shop.

Check them out. If you know anyone interested in making things with vintage, unused, cool stuff, send them my way.

 Here is Bizoo in a shopping bag! I wondered where he'd gotten himself to, and somehow the bag had righted itself after he ran into it. So cute! He was playing with both an aluminum foil ball and a piece of crumpled paper.

And here is our cutie, Zinn. Happy girl in her summery dress. She's nearly 3 months old.

Odds and Ends

 Here are some of the entries for the Skull Appreciation Day 2013 Mail Art exhibit at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago.  

 This is a delicious little meringue made with violets! I got to taste one and buy a few at the Farmers' Market this past Tuesday.

Edible flowers are what makes Petal Palate special. If you're in the area, check them out.

 The little puffs melt in your mouth and have a very delicate flavor. 

 Bizoo had some visitors this afternoon. S. and N. came by to help B. get acquainted with more people. They told me, before I got Bizoo, that they'd need to come over to get the kitty used to children. What a good idea! So here they are, patiently waiting for Bizoo to send the aluminum foil ball back out from under the paper. He was leery of their energy, but I'm sure that after enough visits, he'll be happy to see them.

 Okay, stretch, stretch and hold! Kitty yoga perhaps? Kitty Pilates? This is quite the pose, wouldn't you say? Bizoo stayed like this for awhile. Must have felt good.

 J. came to spend some time with me. We made a salad lunch and then talked about quilts (her new one is gorgeous) and looked at quilt and fiber books. We measured yards and yards of vintage trimming and wound them on cardboard. And we punched circles out of paper using J.s new HUGE hole punch, and my smaller ones.

Here's a scan of some of the left-over hole punched paper. Nice, right?

We both felt like we'd have a vacation day! What fun.

And here is our little cutie. She spent some time with us on Saturday. I caught this photo of her after she had a diaper change on top of our washing machine. She looked so cute in her summery dress.

Mail Art - Sunday catching up

365.2 #307

 Tiny Town is back, for a brief visit. I have one more "blank" to alter then it's done.

While the residents were not sure of the propriety of the new monument, or it's placement, they were somehow drawn to it's smooth, simple elegance. Tiny Town always worked around strange occurrences.

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Tiny Town residents were grateful that Simone took on the duties of feeding, and looking after the well being of, Phideau.

#365.2 #309

365.2 #310

I have to come up with stories for a few of these cards. Nothing has come to me yet.






Ah, a lute player, what will I have to say about her?  I'm using some of the cards that my honey had printed for his Body of Evidence exhibit. They were the ones that he was not satisfied with the printing. They work as cards to be altered, by me.

Check out my honey's website HERE. It's a work in progress. More of his work will be added on a regular (or irregular) basis.

365.3 #157

365.3 #158

 The brass armillary was suppoed to be installed in the new colossal garden. The error on the part of the moving company was not appreciated by the residents of Tiny Town.

I was taken by this item when I saw it in a magazine. It was tough to cut out but worth it. I had to look up the word armillary!




Marie Claire's visits were infrequent as she led a very busy life, and Tiny Town residents always enjoyed her pleasant demeanor.

365.3 #159

 This guy is a companion piece to #309. They look like they belong together when I have them side by side. Maybe the same recipient needs to receive both of them. No story for him yet, or the woman, in the red coat, at the fox hunt.

365.3 #160