#241a&b, Duckie, dessert, seeds, and my sewing update

 Today's mail art is more of my three items minimal pieces. I added a graphite line to each of them, however.

 I've been wanting to do some graphite line work, but I'm not quite where I want to be with it. These look a bit researched, not spontaneous enough, yet. I'll play with this a bit more.

 Last night, my honey made some shortcakes and invited friends over for dessert. Shortcake, ice cream (non-dairy for moi) peaches and a blackberry sauce, and topped with home made whipped cream. yum!

 This morning, my honey didn't plan to go to the pool but I wanted to go for a bit of exercise. The pool water was totally still, no one had been in it yet, and Duckie was hanging out in a corner. His nose has black grease on it, which leads me to believe he got caught in the "cave" at some point. The water is NOT refreshing. It's warm bath water temperature, but still I do love getting to swim a bit.

 Here's some of my sewing out put. I put buttons on several of them last night, while we had our friends over. Couldn't totally stop with the making process. Today, my sewing machine was being difficult, but after a quick consult with the internet, I got it fixed. Whew. I made several small change purses and a vintage tea towel purse. I'm sure I'll have a nice quantity for the Festival, at this rate of production.

Yesterday, I got a package of neckties from PalmyPen/Lesa (what I'll make out of them, I do not know) and a packet from my older sister in California. I thought this was a package of pasta, but it's not. It's seeds from her agapanthus flowers. I'm not sure they'll grow here, or how to plant them, but what the heck, I'll put them in the ground and wish them "good luck." The 2009 magazine has an article on the Ennis House. That's the house that's been used in lots of movies and tv shows, like Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.

Taking a break, more mail art, more Duckie, more...

 Here's today's mail art #240 (that close to the 365 mark) which is the number of the day, but I've sent over 400 cards so far.  I've entitled this one: "Paula liked to dress in colonial garb and discourse on abstract expressionist art. The visual anomaly tickled her."  I tickle myself with the titles.

 Yesterday, Duckie was headed for the "cave."

 When we arrived at 08h00 today, the pool was calm and Duckie was sheltering behind the stairway pole.   I love how the water appears to be a different color each day.

 Here's some mail that I received from my Mail Art friend Dean, sent from Paris, with barely any damage to it. On the reverse, he give facts about the longevity of both diamonds and styrofoam.

There is an enormous bush in a neighbor's front garden, filled with big blossoms. I think it's some type of hydrangea. It's withstanding the high temperatures and humidity beautifully.

Back to the sewing machine, my friends.

Mail Art and catching up

 Yesterday morning, the Duck appeared to be seeking shelter in the "cave" by the side of the pool. The water was, naturally, quite warm. What's new?

 I sent this off two days ago but it returned to me yesterday. Why? I forgot to put postage on it, which happens infrequently, fortunately. Now the ladies are on their way again.

 I altered a couple more of the Utrillo city view paintings using two figures that I cut out of a Renoir painting. I wonder if they'll make it through the USPS, or there'll be some censorship. Prurient art?

 The first card said something about the residents of Tiny Town waking to find a large model was present and the second one said something about when the second large artist's model appeared they knew something was happening. (I'm paraphrasing myself.) I have such fun with the titles.





The other morning, the light was coming in through the glass blocks and causing a ripple effect on the floor of the shower area. So pretty, my own space and I really enjoy the way it looks

I went with a friend to have lunch yesterday, and we tried out a new little cafe, The Franklin Inn,a few blocks away, in what's called The Museum District.  The owner brought the space back to it's original 1930's look. The food was good, they have Stella Artois and Amstel on tap (lately I'm enjoying an occassional beer) and we got to speak with the manager about ideas for their menu. Cool!

Okay, back to the sewing machine. I've been busy making purses/pockets. I wore down my needle! Just changed to a new one this morning, and am set to go again.

Two new purses!

Whew, two bags done, except to sew the buttons into place. These will be for the Jonny Z Fest.

Mail Art, Asemic book project, and more

 Yesterday, I went minimal with my daily mail art. I needed to do that after doing several, to my eye, busy series.

 Today's daily mail art is also minimal. I used the rule of THREE. I picked up what was, literally, at hand, and placed it on the blank.

 These felt very satisfying to me, as they were very calm. And I'm needing to stay calm as I'm embarking on another stretch of sewing sewing sewing in anticipation of this year's Johnny Z Fest. I'll be doing a table of my purses/pockets again.

 This is the back cover of the chapter that I did for a project initiated by a couple of people in my union (IUOMA.) We had to create something asemic, 8 pages, to go out to 15 people. Daunting! 16 people per book. The numbers were daunting.

 This is the front page. I looked at examples of asemic work and tried some handwritten stuff, but it just wasn't me. So I cut up type.

 This is the page 2 and 3 spread. I wish that I'd done something to link across the spread but I didn't. oh well. I glued each strip of type individually; I was amazed at my patience.

 This is the center spread, pages 4 and 5.

 This is page 6 & 7 spread.  I had the pages copied and I added something to each page so that no two are alike. The chapter is folded to open, book like.  I've received 6 plus my own chapter, so I've got lots more to come. I hope no one backs out of this. We'll learn how to "bind" the chapters into a book from Cheryl Penn, a book artist, from South Africa. I sent out the last 7 of my chapters today, to artists in the U.S., the Netherlands, Canada, and Brazil.

 See the cute kitties? A young mother cat and 2 kittens found their way to my son and STBDIL's house. They have two rescued cats of their own, but have been caring for these outdoors. They need homes  badly. If anyone is near my hometown, or knows anyone near my hometown, who might give one or all a home, let me know. They're mighty cute. I wish I could take them.

A former student of mine is now a graduate student at Savannah College of Art and Design in fiber arts. He was in town for a bit this summer and was doing embroidered portraits at Quirk Gallery. My honey and I had ours made by him. He does this with free-hand machine embroidery. Amazing to see him work. He made me thinner (love him) and my honey a bit wider than he is, but, all in all, quite a likeness. Check his work out, here.

Pool water 94F today!

duckie checks out the pool edge.

Mail art Up date - 234 and 235 series

 I made a series of four cards out of a large board I'd covered with magazine photos and Washi tape. Yesterday, I cut out circles from the brochure about the Fabulous Faberge exhibit at our museum (VMFA.) I thought the cards were too busy for my taste, so I only added the circle to them, which gave each card a focal point.

 This is probably my favorite card of the series. You can see why, it's simpler than the others.

 I've always been fond of the letter "X" and wished my name had an "x" in it. But Mxm is like a date in Roman numbers and how would one pronounce that? Or Mimx, with a silent "x?" No, not working. But I do like "X."

 This circle came from a framed portrait of the Tsarevich, which was inside of an enamel and jeweled egg.

 Today, I thought about cold watermelon and picnics with a cool breeze under a shady tree! Not happening here. The water in the pool was so hot and it's predicted that we'll have temps over 100F. So I make cool mail art!

Another picnic card, a chill pound cake, a cool breeze, under a shady tree. I'm feeling the image.

Pool time

Water temp 95F @ 8:15 a.m.

At the pool early.

Water temp now 94F according to the duckie thermometer.
We arrived at the pool at 8h05, a bit later than usual because I didn't want to drag myself from my bed and go out. I heard on the radio on the way to the pool that the heat index will put us a 115F. Okay, I know I know, it's hotter in other places, but I just need to get it out - it's HOT here. Thanks for listening.

HOT day, mail art, and our river James

 It is so hot out and the air is so thick, that it's hard to breathe.  I took N. to the train station this morning, then went to the office supply store and then went to the super market. While I know I'm fortunate to have a vehicle, mine is 12 years old and has no air conditioning. As soon as I got to the super market, the icy air hit me hard, so I picked up a bottle of one of those vitamin waters with electrolytes and opened it immediately.   It helped. I stayed in the store longer than needed to cool off before facing the oven again. I know I'm not alone, but I can't help being amazed - I'ts rare to see my car thermometer read 37c/98.7F.

 I decided to make a couple of series of Mail Art this morning. I haven't made multiples for awhile. I tool two mat boards and covered them with pages from a design/photo magazine.

 I added Washi tape to one of the boards.

 I was able to get 4 standard postcard sized pieces from each board, plus a couple of smaller pieces.

#233b

 Here's one of the finished pieces from one of the boards. I used one of the vintage postage stamps I got in Istanbul, a Blue stamp sent to me by Jenni Hinchcliff, and a lovely open eye. I added the tape because the card didn't seem interesting enough.  I'll work on the others later today.

 On the last day that my nephew and his wife were here, I took her to see some Richmond sites. One is an overlook in Church hill. Andy and I had talked about Richmond, Virginia being named after Richmond on Thames, just a couple weeks ago. On the hill, they've made a little park and put up an informative sign and a photo of Richmond on Thames. Our view must have been so lovely before industrialization. Still, our river is pretty attractive from up there on the hill.

Mail Art, pens and Fritzi (my Etsy shop)

 I had such fun thinking up titles for these cards. This one is something about how she thinks about the number 5 when she sees a de Kooning painting.

 This guy's job is to keep records on the fox hunt but he gets distracted, right, cause he looks like he's not paying attention.

 Ah, my Tiny Town series. I just love doing these. I bought lots of them, so hopefully neither you nor I will tired of them.  This is something about her bright smile lighting up the sky over Tiny Town. By the way, the painting is by Maurice Utrillo, in case I never gave him credit.

 I didn't buy many of these Cycladic figure postcards when they were on the 10 cent sale shelf, and now I'm a bit sorry about that. Since I realized I could add features to the figures, it opened up ideas for me.  The title of this is something about how they practiced to perfect their balancing act. ha ha ha. I cracked myself up, really.

 I really like these pens that I got at Muji, in New York City. Now, whenever we go there I pick up a few refills, in any color available. I prefer the .38 for that fine line.

While we were in NYC, I got two sales on my Etsy shop, Fritzi. I sent the items out soon as we returned and the next day, I had another sale. Wow! I added a couple more purses (pockets) including this one made from a 1950s era linen tea towel. I found a Dutch woman's name for it. Lena. Why was Dutch imagery so popular in the United States back then? Anyone?