Mail Art, a memory & some exciting news!

#37

 My friend Ang in Illinois wrote me a note on a lovely note card. The front was a modern interpretation of an old National Park poster. I really liked it and decided to re-purpose it into a piece of Mail Art. I altered it by adding figures cut from a photo of a painting that is in our Fine Arts museum. I added a nice circle, which makes a terrific floating planet.

Dots all over Centre Pompidou! Dots rolling wild in Paris!

#36

 Starting in 1955 until 1968, my mother worked in downtown Chicago at a big department store, Goldblatts. She started her career there as a sales clerk and moved up to being the manager of the patterns and trimmings department. It was perfect for her as she was a sew-er. She made lots of clothing for her children, including many stylish dresses for me while I was in high school and beyond.  She was very helpful to her customers, including the ones who worked at a place called The Jewel Box Review. She helped many female impersonators choose patterns and fancy lace or fur trimmings for their costumes. She, also, helped Sister Celine with patterns for full nightgowns, which she made for her convent. what an interesting life Mom had.

 BIG SURPRISE - After the destruction of the last incarnation of The Shelf, the neighborhood children were very upset. Some adults were, also.  Today, while walking over to Joe's Inn for breakfast, we saw the NEW Shelf! Isn't it fabulous. So rustic!

The inside is so cozy and filled with interesting items. I'll stop by later this week to see if anything has changed. How exciting to see this. I hope it lasts a long time.

Update on The Little Library - we drove by the other day and it was packed with books. How exciting is that?!

Day 12, almost a 2 weeks in Paris!

 La Poste offices are in old buildings but have been "modernized." This one is near Les Archives. I have to go to one again tomorrow. One of my big indulgences - postage stamps!

 Mail Art using a show card from an exhibit that has passed. Now I'm seeing a couple of eyes peering out at me!

 This is another of the Mona card alterations. I'm having a lot of fun with these and glad that I saved the petit-point patterns catalogue. I bought another dozen Mona cards from the book shop Monalisait, which has a different version and a better price, 12 cards for 2€. We (my honey and I, have a plan for them.)

 Here's the view from Centre Pompidou looking towards Mont Martre. What nice weather we had for that day. I love how the light and shadows effect the pattern of the buildings.

Folks from Richmond are in Paris for a few days and met up with us for dinner. We went back to Le Trumilou. Here's my dinner, which was quite tasty.

The Tarte de Pomme, shared by my honey and I, was yummy. It had a berry sauce drizzled on the plate. 
We aren't going out to eat very often. I'm making simple meals in our tiny kitchen, frequently just a salad with cheese and baguette. We eat it, sitting at the table which we've placed by the window, with the view of the Seine and the Ile St. Louis. It's so good.

Lunch and a walk.

We took the metro to our friends. K and R live near Per Lachaise Cemetery. We took some nice walks with them last year, too. This time, we went to a cous cous restaurant that they often go to, and had really good food for me a delicious vegetable melange. After lunch, we walked around, found the place where V. had taken photos of a punk squat. We couldn't go into it but did see a funny little show of art work nearby. From the top of the hill on rue Menilmontant, we could see Centre Pompidou in the distance. R. said "It's big, it's blue, it's Pompidou" without realizing she'd made a rhyme..or maybe she did.

On the way back down , we stopped into the church of Notre Dame de la Croix. There was a display of religious figures made from tree trunks that was interesting.