Last Mail Art of 2010

"Can you see the letters?"

This is #31 of 365, the last card of 2010. I completed the first month of the project. It feels terrific. I'm really enjoying making one or more pieces everyday. This piece is going to a child, the grand-daughter of one of my internet/mail friends. I hope that she likes it and I like the fact that a very young person will get the last of this calendar year.

Happy New Year, Feliz y prospero año nuevo, bonne année, Chronia Polla, Ein glückliches neues Jahr. 

Mail Art for Myrna

Art for Myrna

Peace for Myrna

I spent most of the afternoon lying down, speaking on the phone with family and friends. After awhile, I decided to make Mail Art. These two were created in memory of Myrna. 

So long, old friend.

Myrna Lynne Shenkler Hammons

My friend died this morning. By chance, I was at the nursing home for a care plan meeting and was able to hold her hand as she left. It was all so fast, so fast. Though she'd been ill for many years, and in a nursing home for many months, it still happened so quickly today. I'm stunned. I met her when we were 14 years old. She was a visual artist and a poet.  

Today's Mail Art

 It's interesting to me, how certain scraps just work themselves into a composition. I had no idea that this would turn out as well as it did. I like how the illusion of space plays out and the apparent action of the dancers. #29 is entitled "cow dancers," of course.

"I hung it from my ceiling"

"sense of purpose."

#29a has a lovely woman on it, which I think is an image from Pompeii. I could be wrong; she's made of tesserae so she could be Byzantine. In any case, she's a beauty.








#29b takes advantage of the image that was on the blank, which was cut from a Persian calendar from a previous year. The paper was very nice, so I couldn't merely recycle it via the recycle bin, could I?  This officer needed something under him to ground him, as he seemed to float on the crimson. The words seemed to fit his serious demeanor.

A commercial of sorts, mail art, and more

 I was in my supermarket this morning and picked up some half-priced items, thinking ahead to next Christmas/holiday time. They will be perfect for food gifts: cheese spreads, cookies. I got two of the plates. So cute, right? I've even made a note on 5 Dec. 2011 as to where I storing them. I'm being a smart cookie!

 This is a commercial, though not solicited or paid for, nor do I receive any perks for doing this. I just want to share a good product that has no bad ingredients in it. Really. I first blogged about this moisturizer Sept. of 2009.  I found it on the cosmetic safety datebase as a product rated with a zero - meaning "good." It's made by Soap for Goodness Sake.  I was getting down to the bottom of jar #1 so I ordered it again and look, it came in a paper "jar." How cool is that? Not plastic! The product is really effective in moisturizing. I use it on my face, my hands, and even rub the excess off of my hands by running them through my hair. I recommend this highly if you are concerned about what you put on your skin.

 

Here's #28, a bit fussier than I've been doing, but it turned out okay. Someone noted that the bird looks threatening. Oh dear, it does, however, the woman looks very calm so I guess it's an okay scenario. The background is a Sam Francis painting, which I've wanted to use for awhile. I AM working my way through my scraps.

A pretty sight and some Mail Art

Buddha and Birds

 This morning I met up with a friend at a coffee shop to practice our Spanish. It was slippery out there but the sun was shining.

On the way home, I stopped by the post box so that all the mail from the weekend could go out at the 1 p.m. mail pickup.  #27 of 365 went out with the mail carrier late this afternoon.

The James Center

Late on the 24th, we went down to the James center to see that light display. Isn't this beautiful. Lots and lots of straw deer with lights on them interspresed with lit up trees. The buildings in that area are outlined with lights, too. It's like a fairyland. My son took this photo with his smart phone. Beautiful.

Snow day & mail art

 The snow fell through the night and morning. The yard, as always, looks so pretty to me, with snow covering it.

I could have used the same photos from last year, right? But I didn't. This is today's version.

 The wires are like white lines across my yard. It's very quiet. No one is out and about. I threw some crumbs out for the birds and I see evidence of their having visited, with little prints on the snow.

fish with color experiment

Dog with color experiment 

 Today's Mail Art continues with the color experiments. I didn't have anymore of these fish, but I found this fine dog. I'm sending the dog card to someone whose name is sort of connected to dogs. I don't want to reveal it at this time in case, the recipient reads my blog. This is pretty mysterious, right?

Snowy night and Christmas trees.

late last night

 We had a nice visit with our niece and nephew. See their tree? It's loaded with Moose ornaments and we added one to the collection this year. One of their cats enjoyed watching the snow start falling. Just a few flakes at first.

Later in the evening, we had dinner with friends. See their tree? The ornaments were varied and colorful. The snow came faster and thicker. We drove home carefully. There weren't many people out and the snow falling made everything so unreal.

Monument Ave crossing; see the Monument?

Bowrings tree

Davis Tree

Kitty Davis

#25 & 25A of 365 Mail Art

"fish with color experiment"

I was really looking forward to making today's card. I had no idea until I sat down at my work table, what I'd make. I started with a background on two blanks. I used paper from a "newspaper" about Marimekko that I picked up at CB2 in New York City. It has several pages of full sheets of patterns that I'll be using up. I then decided to use a couple of these fish that I'd cut out of an old encyclopedia type of book. They were so colorless that i decided I needed to do more color experiments with them.

Overall, I'm pleased with the way this pair turned out.
I think the color experiments worked well, too.
What do you think? Can you see the color changes?

"fish with color experiment"

In the kitchen afternoon!

Grand Kugel

 I went to Spanish meet-up this morning but our Science museum was closed. I waited for awhile in my car for others to arrive, and eventually, a small group of us headed to a coffee shop. It was packed but we managed to find 4 seats by the window and proceeded to converse en espanol.   We had such fun that it was noon before we knew it.

This afternoon, I'm so busy in the kitchen. I have to prepare lots of edibles. Even though she said not to bring anything, I'll be bringing something to our niece for their big Christmas morning gathering, then in the evening a big potluck dinner with friends. I've promised to bring my non-meat balls and some cheese spreads. I haven't much time, but this bit of waiting while the mixture sets for the neat balls before I brown them. We have a party to drop into this evening then we're off to see the film Black Swan. Busy social season.

Neat balls being mixed up, cheese for spread, etc.

  
 I'm got ingredients out to put up a pot of vegetable soup as part of Sunday's dinner with family members at our casa.
Back to work. No more time to dally. Busy busy in the kitchen! Glad I got my daily Mail Art done early. 

for veggie soup

The well used food processor!

Mail Art & more

#24

 I'm really excited about combining all the bits that I've saved for ages into these little compositions. You can see that I've saved faces, stamps, and butterflies, and there'll be more with these during the 365 project.

#24A

I can't just make one. I put a couple of the bases out and then go at two or more at once. It's just so satisfying.

A surprise.

I bought a box of Clementines yesterday. This morning Chuck showed me what he found in the box. It's some figure, maybe Manga? One arm is missing, and both legs. What is it? Anyone know? My guess is that, since the container only has some plastic netting on it, a child put this toy into the box, or accidentally dropped it in.  Funny.

Mail Art & more

Stripes and Dots

 I didn't make my daily card early today, as I've been getting used to doing. I don't know what I got caught up in but I was happy that I could get into my studio while dinner is cookin'.

From Camelot to Chincoteague

I have lots of maps and quite a few classic American BIG cars, so I think I'll make a few more with this theme. I'm hoping that I'll use up all my scraps on this project.  Then I can get NEW scraps.
Notice the stamp in the right hand corner, it's Henry Ford!

moving Christmas lights

I took this photo of the houses with Christmas lights as the car was moving. I like the way this turned out. It looks like I used some camera effect, right?

Mail Art and Christmas lights

Grove Avenue houses

 These neighbors keeping adding more and more lights each year. I learned from a friend who lives across street from this display, that they now turn it off at a certain at night. They used to let it go all night, which was disturbing people's sleep! It's pretty impressive.

#21

This card is #21 but I thought it was #20 because I had a "20" in my little tin. I forgot to affix it to yesterday's card. Oh well. Anyway, today was a busy Mail Art day. I created two this morning. Then this afternoon, while hanging out with Noah as he was doing a book signing of his 365 book, I made 2 more.

I've been saving faces from paintings for awhile. I really like using them. This one, in 21A really draws me into it. Such a sweet look.

#21A

#21B

 I brought with my traveling Mail Art kit to Fountain Bookstore, and one of my tins of scraps. I was happy that I had a few butterflies in the tin so that the two cards looked like a series.

#21C

Mail Art and more

"orange"

 Well, I've been keeping up with my one-a-day Mail Art, though some days one is just not enough.

 I had this woman in my stash for a long time and wasn't sure what I'd do with her. She is so serene, but wait, maybe it's not a her, maybe it's the Buddha!? This is just such a peaceful image to me.

"Tri-color with yellow and green"

In #20, I used the packing tape "trick" to demonstrate how it looks. I had done a better image of some Confederate soldiers but somehow I lost it, in my own studio. I can't find it. I hope it turns up sometime so I can use it, as I liked the image a lot. Oh well.

Washington, D.C.

As our train was coming around the south side of the district, I grabbed this photo of the Washington Monument as it appeared over the buildings. I was so excited to see it but didn't have the chance to frame the shot as the train was actually moving along quickly.

Crossing the Potomac River

The train crossed the Potomac River parallel to the 14th St. bridge, which how we drive into the district. This was a nice view of the river and the clouds that day.

A merit badge~

Merit Badge

Wow, I got a merit badge from Lea Redmond. Read about her here.  I remember my girl scout days fondly and often wonder what happened to all the merit badges I earned. I loved earning them.  I wrote to Lea about this badge but never expected to earn one as I'm not a big collector of things. However, I do collect something and make things out of it. I collect the wire bindings from old calendars, paper sample books, etc. And I make what I call action figure sketches. For that, Lea awarded me this badge. I'm going to make mine into a pin so I can wear it on different hats, coats, or bags. How fun is this? Thanks Lea!

#15 of 365

color experiment with blue bird

Now I can show you card #15, since the recipient has e-mailed that it was received. I sent this to my artist amiga in Chicago. I've known her a loooong time and wanted her to be surprised, and since she reads my blog, I wanted to wait until this little bird had arrived.

I'm having fun trying out color experiments. They don't always work but I like them anyway. I like the way the bird appears to be looking at the green area.

Mail Art #17 and #18

"flora"

 I wasn't feeling very well on the 17th. I had a sinus problem and was head-achy all day.  BUT before we left for dinner at some friends' home, I went into my studio and made this card. When I returned home later, I looked at this card again and was really pleased with how it turned out. My feeling awful wasn't reflected in it at all. Cool!

"Health and Peace"

I awoke early on the 18th, happy to be head ache free. Yay. So I went into my studio and made card #18. I decided to make this a thank you for our friends, who had to see me at a time when I wasn't my usual bubbly self! (Also, I'd learned that my aunt, who lived in Arizona, had died, which made me very sad, of course.)

Mail Art #16 A & B

#16A

 Yesterday was a snow day. After my morning excursion, I stayed in the rest of the day and made a BIG pot of vegetable soup. I, also, made more Mail Art. I'm numbering them to correspond with my MailArt365 project. The A card is going to my friend in Canada, who knits, and who kindly sent my old mum yarn.

#16B

I had printed out the image of the moth last week after my son, the 365 meister suggested it.  I was pondering what kind of card to create for one of our 365 project members.  Yesterday, I started to play around with the image and made this card.  I like the way it turned out.

Lucky me, the mail carrier will pick these up at my door. I'm NOT going out until some of this snow goes away. The main streets are clear, so I've heard, but my barrio doesn't get plowed. That's okay, I can make more mail art and eat vegetable soup!