Mail Art & more

 I purchased a wonderful book of sunflower photos at the thrift store for $2, and yesterday, while my honey was teaching his collage workshop, I cut envelopes out of the photos.
Today, I used some of the left over bits to add to my dotty mail art.

 I can't stop punching holes in paper!! When will it end! I have some other ideas for mail art but, I think I'm punch-drunk, or have punch mania. ja ja ja

 I now have a second bird feeder. A round pale yellow one and the birds didn't have any trouble finding it. I snapped this photo with my phone through the kitchen window. The round one has birds in it and the orange rectangular one has a squirrel in it!  Here's where I got the bird feeders - Modern Artifacts.  Food for all on this very hot day. At this moment 99F/37C.

Here are the two Flat Rate Boxes that I've got packed up, almost packed up, to send to some soldiers. I'll send these in honor of the 4th of July, American celebration of Independence, hoping that our troops will come home soon. You can send books and treats to the troops in various ways, in the U.S. by joining Books for Soldiers.  

Celebration!

 This is how I'm feeling tonight! Powerful! It feels powerful to reach my goal. Doesn't this gal look powerful? I thought so.

 Tonight, I celebrated by attending the Art-o-Mat event at the Visual Art Center. If you're in the Richmond, VA area, check it out. The machine still has some pieces to vend. Here's the machine open so you can see the art that's left in it. Two are completely sold out.

 Here are people standing in line to buy mini-art works. That's Clark Whittington, the man behind the project, standing to the left. Yay for Clark. I love him!

 Here's the machine getting it's front panel replaced, while people wait to purchase tiny art. That's Alyssa, our local Art-o-Mat gal extraordinaire (who got the machine her originally.) Yay, Alyssa.

 People waiting and someone trying to make a decision on which one to choose. We got 5 pieces tonight. I let my honey do the choosing and he chose well, but we may have to return for a couple more.  I'll post pieces after I scan them so you can see what he chose.

We got home and our mail still hadn't been delivered. Poor Clyde has to work so late to complete his route. I was thrilled and delighted to get this piece of mail. Notice: "Free Mail" and "..tary Post Office" This was a note from one of the soldiers that I sent a package to earlier this month. I've only gotten a note 2 times before. I don't expect any so when it happens, it's soooo nice. And I'm about to send off 2 more packages to this officer since he has 3 platoons with 100 soldiers total that he can distribute things to. These are people who don't get much or any mail. They are in forward operating bases in Afghanistan. If you're interested in sending packages to the U.S. troops, sign on with Booksforsoldiers.com. Since I couldn't stop the wars, I figure I can send some lovin' to the people far from home with a care package.

Support the Troops & more Mail Art (of course)yum!Y

Yum!

Some of you may know that I'm a volunteer with an on-line group called Books for Soldiers. It's time for me to do more boxes as I have lots of books, donated to me by friends and neighbors. Plus, my neighbors, laid a big surprise on me over the holidays - a check to help with my personal project. I went shopping today, after having to do something sad (related to the Cremation Society, no more to be said on  that) and buying things for troops made me happy. Here are some of the things that I'll be putting in the boxes, along with books.

More Yum

 Beef Jerkey is a biggie, I'm told, though I never hear from the recipients themselves. I try to find candy that won't melt (duh) and stuff like hand sanitizer and razors. Gotta be needed, right?

Happy birthday, Nephew!

Happy birthday Mercedes!

I decided that today's cards (#35 and #35a) will be birthday cards. I was happy to find these 1970s American cars (huge!) I think I might have a few more 1960's and 70s in my stash, so you'll see more of these car cards.  Having fun, making more Mail Art.

Writing postcards.

When my niece's mother-in-law died, my niece presented me with a smallish cardboard box covered in gold paper. Maybe stationery had come in it, maybe candy, there was no indication of it's original usage, but inside it was an assortment of old postcards. Some were those linen surface ones, some were hand tinted, many were quite boring and left me wondering "who would want a postcard of a parking lot in rural North Carolina?" Some were in multiples, like the apartment complex in Tidewater, Virginia, or the Observatory in Chesapeake, Virginia. I'm so happy to have these cards. Tonight, I wrote 8 of them to service people on support mission in Haiti, one to PostMuse, and one to my daughter (which showed a photo of the place she went to school.) I like thinking of what to write on each card that relates to the image. In most cases, the cards are from locations I've never been to, or ever will be, like Luray Caverns. No cavern for me, thank you. One visit to the catacombs in Paris was enough subterranean for me for a lifetime.

Mail Art

Here are a couple of pieces of Mail Art that I sent out into the world today. I remembered to scan them before I sent them. It's good for me to have a record to refer to when people mention they got the card. Card? What card? I hope the recipients are happily surprised. Happy Good Mail Day! Write a letter to someone, send some mail, make some mail art, send a postcard to a soldier who gets no mail (join Books For Soldiers,) it's so satisfying.

Salad, FRBs and a nice view

The other night, I made a really nice salad and had to share the image of it. It was so good with different textures and flavors. It was the entire meal with some bread and butter.

Today, while driving home from my Spanish class, I went through Byrd Park and saw this gorgeous tree.

After lunch, I packed up the two Flat Rate Boxes that I'd finished filling to send to soldiers in Afghanistan. I'm an official volunteer with Books for Soldiers. Please consider joining this group or sending a donation to keep the site up and running. You can become a friend of this group on Facebook, too, but it's best to actually join and send packages or letters or postcards. It's very rewarding!