Mail Art and our grand girl

 I'm playing around with strips and circles again.  I'm using OLD scraps in new arrangements. I'm very pleased with how the circle looks transparent but not happy that I didn't line the edges up squarely with the edge of the substrate.

Doing landscapes vertically for a visual challenge.

Here, I decided to not worry about the lining up of the strips - I decided to just put them off kilter, which gives the pieces a bit more energy. I also like the circle that I chose to add. 

 As regular readers know, I don't post many photos of our grand-girl. I feel it's partly privacy and partly not wanting to bore people.

I couldn't resist. She's wearing the hat we'd just gotten for her - she loves hats.

She's eating fresh strawberry pieces from a little divided dish. It was serious business.

She was quite busy putting her soft toys on the couch, then she climbed up with them. The pink gingham doll bottom right was her mom's doll. Z calls it Pink!
The doll she's holding in her right hand is from her great-aunt E. Because the fabric on the back has a horse print, Z calls this baby NayNay.

She is very content to sit with all her babies and animals.

Catching up on Mail Art and more.

 I'm so happy when I make Mail Art.

I hadn't made any for a few days and I was missing it so I popped into my studio last night and set out some collages.

 Today, I glued down the collages, with some tweeking, and it just felt so good to be doing it.

Minimal Mail Art returns! yay.

I made this piece specifically for a request for a piece of Mail Art for a friend of a person in the Mail Art union. I hope it cheered him up.

This is an odd photo of my grand. That's her looking up at us from the tray. I'd received a baby head Mail Art from Stephanie (mail art friend) last year. I gave it to Z this autumn and she loved it. We made one with her face, laminated it, and gave it to her. She now carries around both of these BABEES. She loves them. I may have mentioned this before, forgive me if I'm repeating myself.

It's that time of year again, Slow Art Day 2014, which takes place on 12 April this year. I'll be hosting again at VMFA. If you're interested in attending, register HERE.

And here's a little turtle to remind you, again, more slowly, look slowly, but act quickly to register!

Sunday Mail Art, My Father, and the babies

365.2 #316

365.2 #317

365.3 #166

365.3 #167

Keeping things simple is so satisfying for me. A scrap of paper and a postage stamp, in this case a very old Turkish postage stamp. I've been thinking about Turkey a lot because we have friends there and are getting updates.






Today, just a few scraps of color.













Another simple one with an old postage stamp. I purchased a packet of them when we were in Istanbul. They are quite old but didn't cost me very much money. I guess they aren't considered valuable, but for me - priceless.







Today's second piece. The adhesive got on the top and I couldn't get it off. grrr. I really dislike when that happens. It becomes another element.

I posted a photo of my father from 1941 on my Facebook page, last night, right after midnight. Today, my hunny found this one of my father, which was taken at his place of employment in the fall of 1968.

I think about him, and the things that he taught me. He once told me that he chose to be happy.  How good is that, to say that it's a choice one has, whether to be happy or not. And he did chose that.

 Here's the furry baby. My hunny brought him up to the bedroom in the morning, while I was still upstairs reading in bed. He ran around a bit chasing a paper ball, then hopped up on the bed to nap a bit.  Purrrr purrrpurrrrr

Here is the cutie Zinn. She was at our casa today for our Fathers' Day fiesta. 
I took lots and lots of photos, hopefully a few will be good for me to share.

She has steely blue eyes at this point.

Intense, right?

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.

Odds and Ends

 Here are some of the entries for the Skull Appreciation Day 2013 Mail Art exhibit at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago.  

 This is a delicious little meringue made with violets! I got to taste one and buy a few at the Farmers' Market this past Tuesday.

Edible flowers are what makes Petal Palate special. If you're in the area, check them out.

 The little puffs melt in your mouth and have a very delicate flavor. 

 Bizoo had some visitors this afternoon. S. and N. came by to help B. get acquainted with more people. They told me, before I got Bizoo, that they'd need to come over to get the kitty used to children. What a good idea! So here they are, patiently waiting for Bizoo to send the aluminum foil ball back out from under the paper. He was leery of their energy, but I'm sure that after enough visits, he'll be happy to see them.

 Okay, stretch, stretch and hold! Kitty yoga perhaps? Kitty Pilates? This is quite the pose, wouldn't you say? Bizoo stayed like this for awhile. Must have felt good.

 J. came to spend some time with me. We made a salad lunch and then talked about quilts (her new one is gorgeous) and looked at quilt and fiber books. We measured yards and yards of vintage trimming and wound them on cardboard. And we punched circles out of paper using J.s new HUGE hole punch, and my smaller ones.

Here's a scan of some of the left-over hole punched paper. Nice, right?

We both felt like we'd have a vacation day! What fun.

And here is our little cutie. She spent some time with us on Saturday. I caught this photo of her after she had a diaper change on top of our washing machine. She looked so cute in her summery dress.

In coming Mail Art, Out going Mail Art (& 2 cuties)

365.3 #150

 Here's they are, milestones of sorts. #300 and #150, these numbers make me feel like I'm getting to my goal. Plus, I really like the way these turned out. They're among my recent favorites. I made them last week. This week isn't going so great so far, in terms of Mail Art. But can't be 100% all the time, right?

365.2 #300

 Awhile ago, I received this very, oh so very, Dean pieces of Mail Art. It's a piece of wood, with rounded corners, that he, no doubt, gleaned from the streets of Paris. What it's original use, I have no idea, but Dean turned it into amazing-ness. He covered the front with  an intricately woven something-or-other and many faces of Olivier.  More on Olivier in a moment.

 Here's the address side. On this side there are wonderful French postage stamps, strips of text cut from posters for Olivier's performance (How to become Parisian in One Hour)

On the card, Dean tells  me that he scored quite a few of the posters while attending the performance. When I got the card, I thought that Dean had written the messages and faked the autographs. ha ha ha, but wait......

 the real story comes out now. Dean sent me this photo of Olivier, mailing this card to me! The autographs are genuine. Wow!

Now the rest of the story.   My Honey and I went to see this show last winter, while in Paris. We loved it, thought it was hilarious, laughed so much. We kept telling people about it. Dean had told us that Olivier is his neighbor. How cool, right?

Then, one evening, my honey and I, plus 3 of our Mail Artist friends went to dinner at Dean & his wife's. We were in the entry foyer, in the dark, because we didn't know where to find the light switch (this is an energy saving custom, no lights on until you turn them on.)All 5 of us were huddled around the door bell panel, trying to find Dean's buzzer, when the outside door opened, and the lights came on.
We turned, I'm laughing as I write this, and there in front of us were Olivier and Claudie. How surprised they must have been, as were we. Oh, my, I'm laughing right now at remembering this moment. I then realized that this was OLIVIER from the performance! I stammered out something about seeing the show, and he said something nice, and then wished us goodnight as he and Claudie disappeared up the stairs. We held ourselves back from getting hysterical laughing. We made it up to Dean's, by squishing into the elevator, with stifled laughter, until we entered his apartment and laughed and laughed, and finally when we calmed down, told Dean and V. the story. This may not be funny when you read it, but picture the situation from each perspective. In the dark, huddled group, lights on, SURPRISE!

And for those of you in London, Olivier is performing his show  there. Go and see it! You won't be sorry you did. 
 

 Now to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes, and continue. Here's a photo of Bizoo, which I took yesterday. He was on my lap while I was trying to use the computer. He is so lively. He shows us that a paper bag, or a big sheet of crumpled brown paper can be so much fun. What a reminder to take joy in simple things.

And here is our grand! This is Zinn, appearing to be dancing some lively folk dance! This was sent to us from Chicago, the other day, which is a city full of folk dance opportunities. Opa!

Mail Art update and my big, exciting news!

#249

#247

#248

 These three pieces of Mail Art are for my 365.2 project. I am using cardboard for the substrates (card blanks, backgrounds) and adding paper samples for the compositions.







They are both minimal and color experiments.

#97

#98

This one has a very spatial feeling for me. It has to do with the angled sides.  Just so planar!











This series of three are for my 365.3 project (which is running concurrently with the 365.2, oh I'm so loca!)


Also, very minimal, also subtle color, using paper samples.






This one has a planar strength, also.

#99

And here is our big, exciting, wonderful news! Now that our son and DIL have posted their baby's third week birthday photo for others to see, I feel open to doing the same on this blog. This is a divergence for me, as my regular readers know. I rarely put anything more personal than my vacation photos, or garden, or studio. But here is our first grandchild, named Zinn Nova, born on 19 March 2013. We are speechless.

The usual and More!

#20

 Three bits of paper and random text, what fun! I'm not sure what's going on with the baby, but it's quite an expression.

#21

I'm tearing up more of the 1906 French business receipts. Here I got a bit fancier using 4 bits of paper and a circle.

#22

I'm so surprised that the letters "J.B.G" are so bold. They are under that brown piece of translucent paper. Interesting! Scraps glued to recycled cold cereal box.

 This mural is on the side of Snake Oil Records/Recording studio. It was painted by young people in an Art180 project. It's so wonderful to see how it changes up the look of a space. I hope the kids involved go by this and feel pleased with themselves.

My friend BeeBee gave me a new Hydrangea plant, and N picked it out and delivered it to me. It has HUGE flower "petals." I painted my nails with new green polish, O.P.I. Jade is the New Black to coordinate with my plant. Having green nails makes me happy (okay so lots of little things make me happy, I'll admit that.) I now have 4 different shades of green nail polish. Is that too much?
Honestly, this silliness, nail polish, keeps me from getting too sad about some other things in life. What do you do when you feel sad and want to pick yourself up?