NEW Tea Themed Mail Art call and more EXTENDED DEADLINE!!

 My friend, Patricia, has a new location for her tea shop. In 2011, people sent in Tea themed Mail Art, which she framed and has up in her shop. Yes, she moved it to the new place. BUT I'd like her to have NEW Mail Art. SO, I'm asking you to make some to send to her.

Theme-Tea, of course
Size - 4"x6", 10cm x 15cm
Family friendly
deadline-14 February 2019

The work will be documented on the old
blog: http://teatimemailart.blogspot.com

Send to: Cary Town Teas
2517 W. Cary Street
Richmond, VA 23220
USA

www.carytownteas.com

She'll be very excited to receive new MA.

 Here's a piece of my Mail Art. The back ground is from an exhibit card and looks warped but it isn't.  I don't know where I'll send this off to yet.

This is what I did for Day 1 of Creative Sprint.  You can follow the link, click on the words, and you can join this FREE international, creativity game. It's a lot of fun. Really. You need to do this. It relieves stress and you make friends who are doing the same thing. Day one's prompt was to make something that fits in the palm of your hand from things in your immediate environment. Fun, right?

It takes only a few minutes and you have all day to think of something and do it.

Come and play with us.
I'm on Instagram as @mimgolub if you want to
see all the things I've done so far. And Check out
#creativesprint for all of the things coming in from all over the world.

Happy creativity!

Portraits of Me, and lots of postcards to voters!

A female Pharoah

Portraits of Mim

Postcards to voters, in Texas USA

More postcards to voters, in Texas, USA

The Grand girl, age 5, delights me with her art work. The other day, she got intereted in ancient Egypt so we looked up images and then she asked for paper and a pen. The dress has embroidery on the yoke and a pleated skirt. On the feet, sandals, She said "They might look like duck feet but they aren't." 
She made colorful portrait of me for my birthday a year ago July, and then made two portraits of me a few days ago. In one, I look angry, but she said "that you calling for Chuck to come downstairs." Actually, she was the one calling for him that day.  He was upstairs in his studio and she wanted to see him. 

I've been spending a lot of time writing postcards to voters to get out the vote in various elections. I did a batch for different candidates for state senate in New York state, and now we're on to the U.S. midterms. This is a very important election. I'm doing what I can to help by spending time and money on stamps. I hope my cards motivate the receivers to get out to the polls.

We're off for a few days on a trip to the opposite coast. Quite a good time to leave as a big hurricane is set to effect weather in our area this coming week end. I'll be posting photos from the trip when I return.

Do you get active in politics? What do you do? Do you have small artists to interact with? I wish I could still draw like that. I have too much education and can't regain that lovely unselfconsciousness of childhood. Picasso strived for it and I think he did a good job getting to it. What do you think?

Skies, clouds, river, and bridge.

VMFA clouds

Potterfield bridge clouds

James River clouds

Potterfield bridge clouds

Bizoo - the cat

View from our bed!

Near you, it's where I have to be!

I decided to get back to my blog after a long absence, mainly because I think I figured out how to add photos.  I continue to struggle with my Toshiba Chrome Book, still learning to find my photos! Where do they go? I have to add them to my drive, I think, then I can't find them, oh whatever.

Here are two recent snaps of Bizoo, which came up on my drive, with a bunch of other photos that are boring and I don't know why I saved them, so I'll delete them after I finish this.

What's been going on - well, I've been writing lots more of those postcards to get out the vote. It's been really dismal for me, as many days I'm feeling distraught over what's going on in my country with the separation of children from their parents at our southern border. I think of my immigrant father and how he could have been taken from his mother. I think about our 5 year old grandgirl, mi corazon, and know how devastating a separation would be for her, for all of us.

  I write postcards. So far, since May, 600 for various campaigns. It's what I do now.

So what's going on for you? Do you have a cat? A dog? Do you participate actively in any political actions?

Odd and Ends

Patter of Amtrak Train views

I've been playing some more with the Layout App on my phone. It's such fun!

Pattern of my rain hat on a red chair

 These are all part of my Creative Sprint solutions.

A few days ago, the prompt was to make something in public then leave it there. So I made a small collage while in the library and left it there. I hope who ever found it, enjoyed getting it.

 Our cat, Bizoo looks very regal. He turned his back to the TV which was tuned to the Royal wedding.

I've been writing postcards to get out the Vote here in the U.S.A. I write for different candidates but all are Democrats. It's been very satisfying and feels like I'm doing something real. And I'm using really nice postcards. Maybe the recipients will keep them for awhile.

This is a perfect action for me as I love writing postcards and sending mail, plus I can do this from home.

 This week those of us who participated in Creative Sprint last fall, received prompts in preparation for the spring Sprint, which starts May 1.
Please do sign up - HERE. It's completely free to play this international art "game."

So the prompt was that we were to be inspired by what was above us. I looked up and saw our light fixture. I love circles so it was perfect and I love using the Layout App on my phone.  I think it turned out great! What do you think?

 I came upon this sign painted on the side of a plant box in the center of town last week. Pretty important message so I'm sharing it.









I started to play around with pieces of paper and pages from a magazine. I didn't glue anything down, just played. Eventually, I'll make some decisions and glue pieces down. Or not.

Which one do you like most of these "sketches?"

 This is a small collage that I made using one of the hands that I cut apart. I did glue it down. It's standard postcard size, for mail art.

I came across this magazine page while going through my pile of save papers.
It brought back a memory from when I was in college many years ago.

I'd attended school in the city in which I lived, but it was only a branch of the big Uni and had only a year of an art program so I had to transfer to the big school 3 hours away in a rural area. I was very lonely. I knew no one. I went to class, I went to the place I lived, and was feeling very sad,  not knowing if I could continue.

One afternoon, just a few weeks into the semester, I was sitting by the window in the stair well, probably smoking a cigarette (it was a long time ago in a different world!) An older looking guy came out, probably to smoke a cigarette, too, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that he said something like you look sad, what's going on, and, I guess I told him I was a new comer.  He was very nice, he listened, he became a classmate colleague and introduced me to people. He and his wife lived in married student housing, which were quonset huts. Very old timey. His friendship changed everything for me. He never knew that.  Al Loving

Mas Mexico y some other memories

Botanical Garden - El Charco

la Parrochia

garden at La Casa del Puesta del Sol

Mural

Mural

Instituto Allende 

In front of the rented casa

 We stayed up above the center of San Miguel de Allende in an area called Los Arcos, which was colonia Atascadero.

It was such a steep walk down, and then up, that I didn't even attempt it, though my honey and daughter did.  We took cabs or called a car. I always jumped in as co-pilota so I could have the "thrill of the ride" like a Montaña Rusa.

I was always able to have conversations with the drivers and learn about the city, the neighborhood, the people. I'm so happy that I can speak Spanish, because de lo contrario, not everyone speaks English there. Even though there's a large ex-pat population, it doesn't feel like it, but it makes it easier for people like my honey who has a small Spanish vocabulary.

Add caption

Now to some older memories - someone posted about a postcard company and they had great cards from my home town. I fell in love with the illustrations. And even though I make my own postcards for Mail Art, I ordered a bunch to send to my family and friends who grew up there, too. There's the theatre that did live shows and I ushered there in high school, and Navy Pier, which is now an amusement park but I went to University on it. We used to say, the only school that could be torpedoed. I think it went out 3/4 of a mile into the lake.
And the El train that I traveled on my whole life, as kids we took the train by ourselves to get to the ice skating arena and go to the beach. Who'd let a kid do that now? It helped us to be independent and comfident, for sure. And the fabulous Art Institute, where we were taken to see the art, even as little children, and my honey went to school there. I can remember the paintings by Seurat, Degas, Renoir, which I think is what drew me to study art. Such memories. The company has other places, too. Check out their website. It's actually a family owned business, which made it extra attractive to support. Click HERE to get there.

Adios, hasta luego, mas fotos de Mexico en el futuro, tal vez.

Like a dream - February in Mexico

A Perfect cactus!

View from the terrace

Terrace view

 We had a wonderful two week vacation in San Miguel de Allende.
 Pasamos dos maravillosas semanas en San Miguel de Allende.

on the terrace

Mail Art on Cactus

 Here are a few photos of the house we rented and some of the Mail Art that I made. I wanted to take that cactus home with me.

La casa que alquilamos fue perfecta para nosotros. Luminoso con luz y una pequeña piscina/alberca climatizada con energía solar para relajarse.

Mail art on cactus

Mail art on cactus

I'm done.

Well, friends, my lovely month long project ended.

I have many First Day Covers left so I'll be writing more letters but not on a daily basis, until some fancy to do so strikes me again.

I've heard from recipients and even gotten a couple letters in return. It's been very satisfying.

Try it, write some letters. Find a pen or two you really enjoy writing with. If cursive isn't your favorite thing, print it, or draw it. Who ever you send it to will be delighted to receive it. Trust me on this.

End of January - the daily project is almost over

 Here are some of this months letters. They are numbered for the day that they were sent out.

In some cases, I found envelopes that corresponded to the dates. When that happened, I was pretty excited.

I'll post more of the envelopes soon as I up load them.

Have you thought about doing a daily project? Have you completed one.

A thirty day project is quite easy to accomplish, I discovered.

This spring, I'm hoping that there'll be another Creative Sprint and if there is, I hope you'll join me in doing it.

January 2018 - my daily project

I started my new project.

I'm writing a letter each day of the month (or more than one) and mailing it out using a vintage First Day Cover.

I was given a lot of these envelopes by a friend who "inherited" them from her husband's family. They collected them and stamps when the husband was young.  They are not valuable except, maybe, to a few people. I researched and found this out. I did find two envelopes with autographs by the person who designed the illustration and one with the illustrator and the Post Master General of that time. They sold for a bit of money and I donated the money to a charity.

So far, I've completed 21 letters. I'll post more of the images soon, but these photos give you a taste of what they look like. Oh, and I have to add current postage stamps.

Have you ever done a daily project? For a month, or longer?