Remember the Shelf? An update.

Some of my readers may get remember the little shelf on a pole, which changed over time to a "Shelter." It's gotten shabby and the kids who added things to it are now pre-teens and teen, and moved on in different directions.

I decided to use a few items from the goodie back that my honey brought me from a NYC exhibit called Take This or something like that. So he took stuff, including, molded plaster take out coffee lids in two sizes, some "coins," a pin of a man's profile in blue and red, some fortune cookies, which I broke open and looked at the "fortunes." Also, a foil emergency blanket in a little plastic bag and part of the poem from the statue of liberty. I put these into the "shelf" and will check it tomorrow to see if things have been removed.

I'm happy the box is still there. I hope it intrigues people, still.

You can see past posts on this item if you search using the tag - shelf or elflog.

More Mail Art, and more about other stuff

#59

#60

#61

 This first piece of Mail Art was done for #CreativeSpring day 5,  I think. Take something boring and make it interesting.

My honey said "that'll be easy for you; you do it all the time with your postcards!"

#62

I happen to have acquired a number of these very boring postcards from a friend. They call for alterations, they scream for alterations. So here are two of my newest.

By the way, you can still join up to get daily prompts from CreativeSprint. You'll get them starting with whatever day you join. HERE.










I used part of M's #CreativeSprint in this #61 Mail Art piece and I'm sending it to her. Don't say anything, I want it to be a surprise.










This card is going to some friends that we haven't heard from or seen in a long time. We miss seeing them and the message on the reverse is "How are you?" "Where are you?"

Maybe I'll hear from them.

 So last week, we were taking a walk in the neighborhood and came upon another "shelf!"
This one is about two blocks east of the original shelf.
Original shelf can be read about on this blog if you use the search term "shelf" or "Elflog."

The second shelf appeared on a corner at the end of my block and I know the orgins of it, as opposed to Shelf One whose origins are unknown.

This shelf is mighty nice and has a note to let us know what we're supposed to do.

"Take what you want, Give what you can!"

We had nothing in our pockets. We could leave nothing. So you can be sure that I'll be back over there with something to add.

Hopefully, this shelf will continue, undisturbed.

Carry on, neighborhood, carry on - create shelves!

No Mail Art - just some of my photos this morning.

Market Day

Market day

Tiny sweets

Chris Milk's chicadees

Bizoo (thinking of Chicadees?)

Brown sugar yogurt cake!

Shelf with Weather gram

Saturday, Mail Art, of course, but so much more -

365.3 #225

365.3 #226

 This week, I continued to make water color landscapes for my Mail Art.

#227

#228

#229

Sunflowers on a gray day

I'm playing around with the black ink outlines more freely. Watching how the ink runs.












The runny ink on this one made for some interesting cloud effects. I think I got a bit carried away with the water.










These 3 puffy clouds remind me of the Georgia O'Keefe painting with a sky full of puffy clouds.

While #229 reminds me of the landscapes that I fly over in the middle of the U.S.

We haven't gotten to the pool much, but on one gray day, I got a photo of the sunflowers. it's been very chilly lately.


Here's the shelf. It's not really on this angle.  My little visitor, Ace, and I walked over and added some things that had been sent to me by a mail art friend.






And here's a special treat, our friends had been to Peru, to the Amazon, and brought us an armadillo. It was hand carved in one of the villages that they visited.

Here's Bizoo in one of his yoga poses. This one is called - "kitty loses his head."

And here's our little Zinn, showing off her superlative skeletal form. And in the dark - it glows! Pretty cute, right?

Who needs to wait for Halloween to dress in a costume? Not us!

Thursday catching up - Mail Art, the "shelf," and the babies.

365.3 #218

365.3 #219

365.3 #220

 I'm enjoying changing the scale using tiny people. Not Tiny Town, but the folks of that location perhaps stepping out into a big world. What do you think?

I've altered a show card for a craft exhibit in London.







Here's another altered show card. The necklace is made with flax seed pods. Wish I'd seen the actual piece. The Tiny People seem to be inspecting it thoroughly.








I was sent a nice painted landscape by a new member of IUOMA and thought I'd make him a landscape in return.
I had to go to the Art Supply store to get some watercolor paper since I don't have all of my supplies (temp studio!) I used a new ink pen (Pilot Parallel) and some Morilla water colour pencils because I couldn't find my paint. When I hit this with water, I discovered that the ink wasn't water proof, however, I really like the effect. My honey said "Oh, make more of these!" So I will.

A friend and I strolled over to check on the "shelf" and my friend wrote in the journal. There are new things added to it, and other items are no longer there. This is a terrifically active "shelf."

My door bell rang about 9 a.m. this morning. It was Sage and Nate coming to visit Bizoo, but primarily to interview me about the "shelf."

Sage and Nate are working on Sage's newspaper and are doing an article about the "shelf."  I was able to go back to my earliest post that was tagged "shelf" which was spring of 2007.  I printed out a photo of that minimal little site for her to use. We discussed the history of the "shelf" then we went to take this group photo. Adriana joined us. There's Sage holding the photo of the original shelf. This "shelf" was created by the children, along with Sage & Adriana's Dad. It's magnificent. There'll be a contest to name it. It's way grander than a shelf now, don't you think? If you want to participate in the naming, just let me know your idea and I'll pass it along to the children.


Speaking of chlldren, here's our little Zinn the other morning when it was sooo chilly. She was swinging on the porch with her Da.

I couldn't help grabbing the camera for this yoga pose by Bizoo. So relaxed looking.

Checking in on the "shelf," the flyer, and Mail Art

 I visited with the "shelf" which is now more like a little house. I remember when it was first really a little shelf. I called my entries on the blog The Elflog. Like Shelf Blog but like an "elf" was leaving things there.

Most people going by have no idea who's done this. It's mysterious.

I added a tiny Bonne Maman jar with a turquoise rock in it, and an origami crane that my honey'd gotten in the mail in a package from Japan.











Here's the flyer that I posted on the pole near my house. I checked this morning. The first missing tabs are - Hope, Courage, Freedom, Opportunity, and Good Luck.

I think I'll track the ones that go first each time I put one of these up. Has anyone done that?

This is today's Mail Art. I used half of a postcard from a British Craft exhibit, and added two figures. I love the scale change. The reverse of Tiny Town in this case.

Mid-week Mail Art and more, much more.

365.2 #360

365.3 #210

 Monday morning, back to lovely flowing fabric shapes. I hope I can find lots more like this. I really like the way they work out.










Added random stick on letters for more rhythm.

365.3 #211

365.2 #362

Okay, images loaded out of order, oh well. Here's a three piece collage. The colors on the 3 pieces work so well together that they blend and it's all one piece, right? I like it!








I got some scraps from a correspondent (C.Z.Lovecraft) so I used them to make today's cards. The legs were from one image and the circles from a sticky sheet of images that I didn't want to use so I punched holes in it.

365.3 #212

These legs are so active in the positions in which I placed them. In the original image, they were static.










The "shelf" is back in a new incarnation. This is a shadow-box-cubby-house-amazing-shelf! I know who made it, shhh, it's a secret, and it's so delightfully full.

 Here's a close-up of one area. Today, I added a few tiny stickers, and I noticed the "rewind" stone, which was one that I'd placed ages and ages ago on the original shelf.

 Here's a fuller view of the "box" that I got this morning. There are lots of pencils sticking out today. The label says - add to the log but there's no log. So I wrote on the old postcard that someone had place in a slot.


 When I stopped this morning to add the stickers, a man saw me and came across street. He asked if I knew more about this - so I told him the story. He and his children have been adding to the various "shelves" and taking from them, too. He was moving and was thinking he'd post a shelf in his new neighborhood. I hope he does. And sends me images, too.

 This is the notice that I taped under the "shelf." I'd seen one on Facebook the other day and liked the idea. I wish that I'd scanned it before I posted it so I could see which strips had been taken. It's nice to see that people are taking what they need.

 Here's our Zinn. We got to see her at lunch yesterday and she was sooo engaging. Cutie face, could be a doll, right?

365.2 #361

And here's Bizoo, who'd put himself to sleep in his kitchen sling bed, for a late morning nap.  Oh to be able to relax so easily. Oh, yes, that's what's called "cat naps."













Here's the out of order one that is the other Mail Art from yesterday. Again, this is three scraps of paper. I like the way the depth is working, very spatial.

The LAST Elflog update

I went out today, to put an item sent to me by Found-Art on the shelf. I stopped; I couldn't believe what I was NOT seeing. NO SHELF. GONE!! The other two images were taken on 6 July and 7 July, and now, 8 July....gone! It had to happen sometime. I began to document the shelf on this blog 3 April of 2007 and have had a very good run with it. I'm thinking maybe I'll put all of the images in a set on Flickr. When/if I do that, I'll let you know. For now: Thanks SHELF and anonymous shelf makers (there were 2 versions of the actual shelf) for 2 plus years of amazement and community sharing. It was super fun.