Sleepy kitty, clouds, a couch, and of course, some Mail Art.

Okay, so our Bizoo is enormous! See how he fills up the wave scratcher? So big! 

And yesterday, we had such amazing clouds and colors in the sky. I couldn't get a clear angle to get the part with the orange but this photo, with the top of the monument is pretty dramatic, right?


We had dinner at an interesting place, a home set in a working space. When I turned to look, the couch was illuminated and looked like a stage set. There's the dog's lounging area in front, and behind, out the windows, you can catch a glimpse of part of the orange sky. This, too, is pretty dramatic. I'm having such interesting (dramatic) visual experiences, aren't I?

#295

#296

I've been very fond of this little house and am happy to use it isolated like this. Random text makes things mysterious, and the flat "wall paper" underneath does, too.








Time to alter some old postcards again. I cut out lots of the little Victorian scraps so I'd be ready when the "inspiration" struck. I made some comment on how this little gal always cries when visiting the shrine. I'm sure you can come up with a better explanation.

 

 

 

#297

Today's Mail Art is a rondo - I used the cover from a round of President (brand) brie cheese. It's 6" in diameter and a nice color, don't you think. I'd had it awhile and am happy to use it. The big bird with the small woman is a nice scale change. She's a beautiful, Iranian actress. I didn't see the film she's in but it's supposed to be good. Now, what's the name of it? hmmm.

Saturday update

#240

 This past week, I made a series of floating fabric pieces. These are so minimal, just the fabric and a circle (or two.) I love the feeling that they have, out of context, and we can give them any meaning we want.

#241

Then today, while emptying boxes, I came across a nice photo by Lotte Jacobi, taken in the 1930s. The woman is so pensive. I put the group photo and a single man's image behind her with some random text. I love the narrative feeling of this one.

#242

#243

 Here's Bizoo enjoying plastic packing material. He loves the sound when he jumps on it and through it. What a cheap toy!

 This darling pale blue bird was looking at me at the Pet shop the other day when I stopped in to get some kitty treats. Isn't he sweet, so pale and soft looking. The clerk said he has a sweet temperament. I wish I wanted to have a bird in the house. This would be the one.

 We went to a new ceramic exhibit. There were some interesting pieces in it.




Don't the two people look like Tiny Town inhabitants? 

And here's our sweetie, Zinn, this morning. I got to visit with her before she had her afternoon nap. Look at those cute fingers!

A gray day - let's look at Mail Art & more

 These are the 2 cards that I made over the weekend. I think I'm going to take a break from the craft background. It's a very gray day today and I think I need some COLOR!

This is Humphrey Bogart, in case you don't recognize him. I wrote a quote on this about keeping your eyes open or you'll miss things. It's a quote from Dr. Seuss. What a guy, Seuss! 

 Here's my honey holding up the "A" that I gave him for his project. I give him grades on projects, he wants that. I always give him an "A" cause he always does "A" work. Trust me, this man does "A" work!  This particular "A" is very special. It was created by Leah Palmer Priess. You can see her work here. She is an amazing illustrator. I saw her work on A Word A Day again recently and remembered how much I like her work. I was able to purchase the "A" in her Etsy shop, here.

My honey was very pleased about his grade.

 We got a packet of presents from our friends BeeBee (aka anonymous) and her honey Tom. They were nicely wrapped then tied with ribbons. Who can let a good ribbon go to waste? Not me!

 I tied the ribbons on our candle holders and bird in the kitchen. They look so festive! Actually, the ribbon gives the bird a lot of personality, don't you think?

Yesterday, I had a taste for lasagne. I had all the ingredients for this one. I made up the recipe from a couple of more complicated ones. I wanted simple and fast. I put the recipe on my recipe blog, here.
It turned out deliciously good. Try it and let me know how you like it.

A new regime will start - tomorrow!

 We had a crazy week, our first week home! My honey had to install his exhibit/exposition at the gallery with help from friends. It looked great and the openings were successful. Yay! Relief. AND we had a cousins fly in from Los Angeles to surpise us and they DID! They arrived at the preview opening directly from the airport. Wow!

Today, we went to the VMFA with them. I fell in love with this Egyptian falcon. Oh, to own a little replica would be super.

I, also, love this Egyptian head. The way the line of the stone goes across it is so gorgeous. It's hard to believe that these are so old. There is also this nagging in my brain - why are they here and not in Egypt? Okay, I won't go there; I'm just glad I'm able to see them.

Now everyone has gone, we're ready to start our re-entry into our regular lives. Tomorrow, we start the regular regimen, tomorrow.

 Here's the back garden in our spring-like weather that we had for a few days. Now it's colder and snow is predicted. That's crazy! Not happening!

The patio looks nice and I'll be happy to sit out there with my coffee soon.

A friend in San Francisco sent me a typed letter. She posted about typewriters on her blog. 
I got inspired to dust off my old typewriter. I can't believe how heavy it is considering it's a portable. Oh, right, I'm used to my little laptop computer. In any case, I got it out and it still works and the ribbon still has ink in it! Cool, right? I went on-line and found a source for replacement tapes and ordered 2. This is going to start a whole new (old) thing for me. Typing letters! All I have to do is clean off a spot on my work table. Fun ahead! Do you have a typewriter? If yes, what kind?

Moving on with Mail Art 365 days.

Tuscan Landscape with eagle and smile

 Today I decided to do some more experimenting with packing tape. I used both the pull the tape off the page method and the soak it in water method. Such fun. Not sure of how the results turned out but I had fun doing it.

Man and Parrot (#34c)

Interstate 270 (#34b)

Coping in Southern California (#34a)

The image of the man that I soaked off of the page was kind of dark so I wanted the card to be colorful. However, it was too something or other on the right so I added the colorful parrot, which somehow works for me with the addition of the sheer circle.






This young boy came from an old National Geo. His face was just so solemn and his gaze so direct at the camera. Somehow, pairing him with calmer colors and a piece of pale map worked as a composition without taking away from his powerful image.







I gleaned these images from an old National Geo magazine of a mudslide in Glendora. A lot of my family  lives in Southern California so I think about the disasters there. Once I was even there when there was a bad earthquake. To say I was shaken up by it, is to put it mildly.

Mail art in the new year.

Tuscan Landscape with Elephant and vintage TV

 I had a nice calendar of Tuscan landscapes, but the spaces were too tiny to write in, so I'm using the images for backgrounds. What fun to figure out what to do with them. This series of animals and old stuff worked for me. They are kind of like little stories. You can make them up for yourselves. All three are going to people in the U.S.A.  I'm sort of randomly picking recipients from now ever-growing list of folks. Your name is probably on that list!

Tuscan Landscape with antique dresser and cat

This one with the field of sunflowers is going to someone who lives where the weather is very snowy.

Tuscan Landscape with vintage recorder & bird

This landscape was so chilly looking to me, that I had to add the bright yellow to it. The bird listening to the old recording machine put me in the mind of springtime.

A commercial of sorts, mail art, and more

 I was in my supermarket this morning and picked up some half-priced items, thinking ahead to next Christmas/holiday time. They will be perfect for food gifts: cheese spreads, cookies. I got two of the plates. So cute, right? I've even made a note on 5 Dec. 2011 as to where I storing them. I'm being a smart cookie!

 This is a commercial, though not solicited or paid for, nor do I receive any perks for doing this. I just want to share a good product that has no bad ingredients in it. Really. I first blogged about this moisturizer Sept. of 2009.  I found it on the cosmetic safety datebase as a product rated with a zero - meaning "good." It's made by Soap for Goodness Sake.  I was getting down to the bottom of jar #1 so I ordered it again and look, it came in a paper "jar." How cool is that? Not plastic! The product is really effective in moisturizing. I use it on my face, my hands, and even rub the excess off of my hands by running them through my hair. I recommend this highly if you are concerned about what you put on your skin.

 

Here's #28, a bit fussier than I've been doing, but it turned out okay. Someone noted that the bird looks threatening. Oh dear, it does, however, the woman looks very calm so I guess it's an okay scenario. The background is a Sam Francis painting, which I've wanted to use for awhile. I AM working my way through my scraps.

#15 of 365

color experiment with blue bird

Now I can show you card #15, since the recipient has e-mailed that it was received. I sent this to my artist amiga in Chicago. I've known her a loooong time and wanted her to be surprised, and since she reads my blog, I wanted to wait until this little bird had arrived.

I'm having fun trying out color experiments. They don't always work but I like them anyway. I like the way the bird appears to be looking at the green area.

Mail Art #16, plus an idea.

"Mainly Red"

 I decided that today's card would be mainly red, since it's white outside. Yes, it snowed for most of the day. It's stopped falling, it's on the ground looking pretty, only 24F/-4C so I'm staying indoors. Perfectly happy making mail art, which my mail carrier will pick up from my door and get it on it's way. I used some things from my NYC trip and from my studio stash.

Angry kitty?

This morning, as the snow was starting, I went off to meet with my friend Thea, who is a fab tattoo artist and part owner of an art gallery. She makes some very nice Mail Art. We'd gotten it into our heads to do a mail art show and wanted to start making plans. She got a cup of coffee and it had this foamy top, which Thea turned into a kitty face. Kind of angry looking, right? Or a Persian Cat? We'll work out more details of our show, which will be in 2012, and will post details in plenty-o-time for all of you to enter. Fun thinking and planning and making Mail Art. More soon.

Mail Art

 Here's #4, a butterfly, which went off on the 4th of Dec. to someone with whom I've had correspondence for awhile.  I didn't have a little round number 4 to put on it. It's been great to use the numbers that I saved ages ago in a tiny tin. I think they came off of a little calendar. I have enough now to do the full 31 first days of this project. After that, hmmm, I'll be rubber stamping maybe.

 The color experiment, based on Josef Albers interaction of color, came out sort of okay on this card. If you stare at the space between the two color swatches you can kind of see that the rust color rectangle on the left is brighter than the one on the right. Can you see that? Kind of see it?

I really like the way this card turned out. It's going to a person with whom I've corresponded and I "discovered" that one of her Mail Art on going projects involves fish. I found the image in a book about Virginia wild life. Unfortunately, I didn't cut out the label telling me the name of this fish. Can anyone identify this fish?

New Jersey update

After dinner yesterday, my little cousin and I took a walk in his neighborhood. He wanted me to take a photo of the bird on the wires and it did turn out to be a nice composition.



A neighbor added some personality to a tree. The trees and flowers are in bloom here. I get to enjoy spring twice, since we've already moved on to another state back at home in Virginia. The little guy enjoyed the walk, especially my allowing him to use my camera part of the time. We put some of his photos on his Vox blog. Others we'll print and make into postcards. Happily for all, his mom is doing well. Yay!