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?

Pens and Pencils

Here are two photos of the Parker 51. What a beautiful design with the point included in the barrel of the pen. It writes wonderfully well. In the pen group photo, the bottom two pens are by Sheaffer. The dark green transparent barrel one (doesn't show up so well but it's next to the red pen) is the one I remember as the first pen I ever had that used cartridges for ink. We loved not having to lug around bottles of ink. The Red one is a recent design. The upper group includes a Stypen from Paris (green and yellow) which writes very smoothly. Stypen became part of the BIC company but is still it's own brand. The other 2, like the green one in the previous post, which I mistook for a student pen from Paris, are Rotring pens. I now remember I bought all three when they were on sale (Maybe at Kate's in NYC) and I couldn't decide which color I liked best. They, too, write very smoothly.

Besides fountain pens, I like automatic pencils, which keep a point better than a "regular" pencil. I like sharp pencils!



The two pencils to the left are classic Scripto. One is marked Classic Mexico. I remember these from high school. The double pointed pencil has the word Autopoint on the body and clip. Red lead on one end, black on the other; maybe meant for a teacher's marking pencil. The pencil in the middle is a Parker with a gold arrow clip. It feels great in the hand and belonged to my father. The silver metal (aluminum) faceted side pencil is from Muji. I like that I can put it down and it doesn't roll. Next to it is a nice, slim pencil with no identification and I have no memory of where it came from.



The last two items are a boxed set, pencil and ball point pen (which I don't usually like to write with except on certain slick papers) were probably a gift from someone to my husband. The back of the container says GOODWILL with the word Japan under it. The pencil has a nice heavy feeling to it.

So there you have it, my pen and pencil collection, except for one other Waterman pen that has a broken nib and will eventually go to the pen doctor.

So go find a pen, any kind of pen, and some paper and write a letter. Get a nice stamp. Send it off to someone and make their day nicer!

A very long walk.

Yesterday, we decided to walk to the Tour Eiffel. It's a very long walk, but it was sunny and seemed a good day to do this. There is a photo exhibit on the Quai Branly that we wanted to see, right by the Tower, so off we went. Here are some images from our walk. Play equipment in the little Square Jean XXIII behind Notre Dame is so different, and the surface beneath it is soft and spongy. Chuck took these photos of the Stained glass window of Notre Dame, the Gold Dome of Les Invalides, and a view of the tower from rue Bosquet. On the way, we wound through lots of streets, stopping into a Monoprix, a Muji by Saint Sulpice, a Mariage Freres tea store, a boulangerie, and Bon Marché.

It turned out that it was chilly in the shade, and windy, and Chuck hadn't dressed with enough layers. Since we weren't in a hurry, it was a nice way to take a long walk.