It's Wednesday! Midweek hooray!

 Hats for sale! Hats for sale! My sister makes lots of hats for little ones and hasn't any outlet for them. She sent a dozen to our grandgirl, who looks so cute in them. Now she's sent me a bunch which I'll put into my Etsy shop at some point. However, if you need a last minute gift for a baby, let me know, I've got hats galore.

Here are a pair of my mitts keeping Bad Girl Art's Keithley's hands warm. They're made from cotton and linen blend yarn. Oh, look, they kind of match her puppy!

 Chilly weather here, so tea time is anytime during the day. N gave me a lovely gift of a Tardis tea "ball." How cool. It's big enough to fill with tea for a pot but also works in a big mug with a smaller measure of tea. I love it! And that's my nice breakfast blend tea from Carytown Teas.

#349

I'm coming into the final stretch of my 365 project - can't believe it. A relief in so many ways, but hopefully my practice is well established and I'll carry on daily in my studio.

#350

In this series, I'm using old postage stamps to create scenes. Above, a landscape of a city with a bridge, airplanes overhead, and a bus headed for the bridge. In the one on the right, a family takes a walk in a city, visiting the sites.

#351

I'm totally not religious but what does one do with sooo many Madonna and Child stamps! Look, a Mary Cassatt painting in the center. I like this theme, it works so well. What do you think?

Tuesday, a very rainy day.

 I was looking out the upstairs back window to see if the rain had finally stopped and saw that my dogwood was in bloom! This is amazing. It's a late bloomer and is very different looking. It's a shade tolerant hybrid. It has an off kilter shape because early on, a limb from the big tree fell on it and tore off a small branch. I'm so happy it's blooming!

 Bizoo in my studio last night. Before we started to take things apart. Stuff still on wall, all water damaged. He's sticking with me as I pack up, helping me by jumping into the packing boxes, and climbing over the paper stacks. What a good helper.

 Now he's taking a little rest, on the ironing board in the studio, next to a photo of himself resting on the kitchen chair.

 These are some sparkly, silvery butterfly appliques that my sister sent me. I've put them up for sale in my Etsy shop. I sure hope someone can think of something cool to use them for. They are silver metallic thread embroidered. Very shimmery.

365.2 #319

 I used an old show card from my friend Keith Long to alter. I attached the man's arm, which I scuffed up a bit, and a real four leafed-clover that was laminated. Keith makes excellent sculptures, using repurposed material. I'm going to send this to Keith.

365.3 #169

For today's second piece of Mail Art, I used some scraps that I "unearthed" on my work table. Oh the bits that were hidden there amazed me.

This is a collage book that I sent off to Laurence in Nancy, France for an exhibit of Carnets. I started it in Belgium in 2008, completed it just this spring. It says, in Dutch, "Welcome to the mim." Who or what "the mim" is, I don't know but I sure liked seeing my name in print.

Mail Art, and more

365.2 #311

365.2 #312

365.3 #161

 I'm giving myself a break from finding just the right little person or little object to fit into a space.

Working with circles is more soothing plus I have lots of them cut out.

365.3 #162

I like using not only the circles but what remains when they are punched out.












There are such different spatial relationships and "meanings" that are evoked by these.










For instance, this one makes me think of a party, of fun, of joyful playfulness. Even though the color blue is often associated with sadness, this one is not at all sad for me.

Though, at the moment, I'm feeling sad for what is going on in Istanbul, hoping our friends are okay.

My younger sister sent this to me. I'd done this drawing of myself back in 1969 and sent it to her. She thought I'd enjoy seeing it again and I do. Julie suggested that I scan it and put it into Tiny Town. Perhaps I'll do that for my very last one.

My honey looked at this and said - "Oh, you were very fashionable then."   Hmmm, guess I'm not so these days.

My older sister sent me a quantity of laces, trims, and appliques (and other stuff) that she was clearing out.  I sold a few things at a vintage shop for her,  now am putting them on Etsy, in my FritziMim shop.

Check them out. If you know anyone interested in making things with vintage, unused, cool stuff, send them my way.

 Here is Bizoo in a shopping bag! I wondered where he'd gotten himself to, and somehow the bag had righted itself after he ran into it. So cute! He was playing with both an aluminum foil ball and a piece of crumpled paper.

And here is our cutie, Zinn. Happy girl in her summery dress. She's nearly 3 months old.

Catching up on Mail Art Monday

365.2 #230

365.2 #231

365.2 #232

I decided to put a few of my Tiny Town prints in my Etsy shop. I had three that I couldn't fit into the gallery space so they are immediately available. I thought, why not try it! This is one of the prints.

365.3 #80

Surprised

365.3 #81

365.3 #83

365.3 #82

The following 6 pieces of Mail Art were done during the past week. I was running on empty, or so I thought, but somehow, ideas came to me. How, I just looked at what was on my studio table, or in one of my little tins of cut out bits.





















My friend Katerina had sent me cut off strips of color paper from her projects. They've come in handy.










Washi tape is always a favorite default of mine, as well as, the ubiquitous circle.











Surprise! We had snow yesterday. Big, fluffy puffs of it fell from the sky. Lots of those big puffs fell in a short period of time and cause havoc to reign. Lots of fender benders. We made it home okay and found our hen and her chick surprised by the snow, as well.








3 bits of paper and I have a composition!!

365.2 #233

More of Katerina's strips of color. The substrate is cardboard cut from boxes and any other source that appears in our house.

Mail Art, of course, and a tea bag!

 Oh dear, you can't see where the card ends and the back ground begins, oh well. It's a 4" x 6" piece of dotty mail art! My honey likes it so I might keep it for his birthday card, oh right, I should mail it to him!

 This hand and foot bit fit so nicely with this card, I just had to break away from JUST DOTS. In fact, as I look at this more, I'm quite fond of it. I could mail it to myself! Oh no, it'll go to someone.

 This is Mail Art #960! 40 more to go for 1000 since 01 Dec. 2010. When should I stop numbering? What do you think? Your opinion counts.
With this one, I like that the gray and the pale violet are the almost the same value and the boundaries are soft, as opposed to the yellow with the pale violet.

I re-opened my Etsy shop FritziMim, after a long hiatus. I've put a few bags in it, including a vintage Tea Towel bag. A TEA BAG! Get it? You can see my stuff at FritziMim.

Mail art & more

 Yesterday, I returned to Tiny Town and added some children, peeping over the wall. It was a challenge to come up with some titles, I don't know why, but it was.

 Each card said "The children were allowed to visit Tiny Town" then I added something to each one, referring to the child in it. The first one was the little boy. It said "Monroe said 'Cool!' The residents worried that he'd be mischievous."  The second one with the little girl (boy?) said "Tyler was quietly observant. The residents found her visit unsettling"

 On this one, I added: "Madison imagined living there. The residents liked her sweet smile."  The faces came from a 1965 LIFE magazine. The children were attending some British royal event.

 It's raining this morning, quite a downpour. We won't be going to the pool, possibly all week, as rain is predicted. I'll miss the swimming and Duckie. I've improved this year, which is nice, as I'm not a very good swimmer. I splash about too much, but I like being in the water.

I went to see the downed tree yesterday and took photos of the leaves. I'll post those soon and see if we can get an identification.

I put a couple new things in my shop on Etsy. I'm not moving on photographing my items, for some reason. I like to take the photos outdoors so I guess this week will be out for posting more. I have a big stock because of preparing for the festival last month. I'm also getting ready to make a bunch of them out of Vintage Tea Towels for a spring event. So much to do, all good.

Oh, here's a sad thought, the United States Postal Service can't pay it's bills and says it may have to close down this winter. WHAT!!!????  Read about it here.   

Post Festival resport and some mail art, of course.

 Here I am, at my table. I got a good spot partially under a tree, which was helpful when it started to drizzle (twice.) I had my four baskets full of stuff, including one with my wool mitts. I wasn't sure that was a good idea on a hot day, but I sold one of the really nice ones made from Japanese yarn (a silk mixture.) I'd brought with a plastic cloth and when the drizzle started I put the display board against the tree trunk and three the cloth over the table. It worked well. I did about the same in sales as I did the previous year, when there was no rain, so I'm quite pleased. And I was, also, QUITE tired. We packed up at 5h15 and went for some dinner but I could barely eat, got home, unpacked the car, brought stuff to my studio, then crashed into bed, fully clothed. I slept for 5 hours, woke and had some tea, read a bit, did the accounting for the sale, then back to bed for another 6 hours. Today, I'm just chilling. Tomorrow, I'll start to post some things in my Etsy shop.

 Here's a photo of the street, looking towards the band area. The band was good, and loud. Note the guy doing a headstand in front of them.

 This is from Friday's time at the pool. Ducky was hanging out by the "cave." 

#256

 I recycled the front of one of my birthday cards. It's one of those very detailed illustrations of a French shop. I was happy to find this gal (from a painting) to alter it with, and give it a French title. I'm sending it to the person who gave me the card. She speaks French. The title: "Quand Suzette a rendu visite à sa mère, elle lui a toujours apporté quelque chose spéciale du Cremerie."

#257

This is today's card.

My fatigue from yesterday prevented me from doing anything that required much thinking or a catchy title. This one is called: "Void-Filled."

Big day tomorrow! Mail art and more.

 This was yesterday's card and I had the best time thinking of a title for it. "The flash from Ray's camera let the Tiny Town residents blind for two days. They were not happy about his visits."  When I posted this on Facebook,  I got some funny comments. What fun.

 Today's card combines a monkey (or orangutan?) with the Cycladic Greek statue again. I've been really lucky to find these animals that the statue can balance on, right? I like making hats for them, too. The title of this one is The Balancing Act: "Yes," she thought, "we can stand like this for hours."

 Here are some cards I got from my friend Andrea, over in the U.K. She is very productive, I don't know how she has time to make all that she does. Inside the cards, she included tags and messages, some of which I send on to others that need a smile in the mail.

 This came from Diane in Illinois. Nice old papers and some silver foil. Diane asked if I'd received the sand, but I hadn't. She'd sent me some sand from a beach that I was familiar with in Chicago. Funny, her sand from 1149 miles away (1849km) didn't get to me, but a plastic baggie of sand from Normandy Beach in France, sent from Paris got to me. That's 6304 kilometers (3917 miles) away. And the stamp had fallen off somewhere. Isn't that amazing?

 The pool was so still this morning. The sky had lots of little puffy clouds in it, and the sun was somewhat obscured. See the reflection of the clouds? We did our exercises and by the time we were done, the sky was clear and the sun was hot.

 This is the mail that I got today from my friend Katerina in Greece. She mails them in envelopes and these two cards have some bits on them that I sent to her.

Here's one of my Pockets (small purses) that I made last year, from fabric & a button, that Andrea sent me. I donated it to the Richmond Peace Education Center's fundraising auction.
Tomorrow is my big event of the summer. I have a table at the Jonny Z festival, oh I've been telling you about this. Well, I'm all ready! The goods are packed up, the display board and signs are ready. The easel and chair have been dusted off. I'll be setting up around 11 a.m., and ready to go at noon. Fingers crossed that the weather will be nice, not hot, not humid, not raining, just nice with lots of people out enjoying the event.