Mexico trip (more)

 The grand-girl was a great traveler. She was so easy, took everything in stride. Here she is wearing her safety harness. Rather than carry a bulky car seat, her parents found this cool harness that hooks into the adult seat belts. She like the harness. She said that it was like Frida Kahlo's corsets she had to wear because of her accident. Hard to believe that she knows these things. In this photo, she's a month away from her 4th birthday.  We were taking a break on the road from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende.

Some chimichurro in a terrific coffee shop, cafe, in San Miguel de Allende.

 We stopped by a cemetery in SMA. We always like visiting cemeteries in countries we visit. They're so peaceful and so different from cemeteries in the U.S.A.

The view, looking up, at a small cafe. A bird, a colorful building.

More birds, right next to us. Very chirpy. The cafe was called Cafe Magico and it was on a main street into SMA called Salida de Saleya. The inner area was tiny, the patio was the main seating area. The owner was friendly and brought Grand-girl a gigantic glass of fresh orange juice. What a treat.

In our friend Barry's house. Devils on display in an interior window. We loved the color of his house. So cheerful.

Maybe I've caught up!

2015-#156

2015 - #157

2016-#1

2015 - un-numbered sent as secret santa card

Zinn's sticker collage Mail Art 2015

It appears that I've made 157 numbered pieces of Mail Art in 2015. There were a few not numbered like the one at the left, and several "holiday" Peace cards - maybe 6 or 8 of those. A good year of Mail Art.
And I started the new year by making a card on day 3!

The last image was an altered piece of Mail Art that I'd received from Ti Ar Raden in France. My grand girl covered it with stickers! I sent it back to Ti Ar with a note of explanation. It was an Add and return, I'd say.


Happy 2016! Here we go again!

More catching-up on Mail Art

2015-#153

2015-#154

2015-#148

 Now these are out of sequence but I'm not going to bother to put them in order, too late at night, too much eye strain, oh yes, my excuses.

And, I'm missing images for numbers
151 and 152. This is so weird! I made the cards, I know I did.
Yet, I seem not to have scanned or photographed them, how not like me,
but then how not like me to not post
to this blog for 6 weeks, right?

Do you love my bird series? I do.

One of the things I did during my hiatus from blogging was to clean out my music cabinet. I had lots of sheet music and books that I'd inherited from a friend's deceased mother. Much of it duplicates of what I owned already and others not anything I'd play.
So, collage material! Plus I sent a lot of it off to other collage artists.
Whew, what a relief to do that clean out.

The other thing I did, was clean out my yarn stash. All the little bits of wool yarn I sent to my friend Guido, who makes cool hats with them. Yay, for another end of year clear out.

2015-#149

2015-#150

2015-#155

Number 149, I made one day while the grand-girl was hanging out with me. I used her left overs from sticker.

She made some fun cards with the sticky circles that had birds on them.

Now she's in a new phase. No overlapping.

Mail Art collaborations - a series.

 The cards in this post are a collaboration with my little grand-girl, Zinn.

She's 2 and some months old and is extremely fond of making sticker collages.

She'd lost interest in her "kid" stickers so now she uses my stickers.

 She layers with no interest in direction.
I love that! It's so random looking an yet she does it with intent.

 The past week, she did a number of postcards and when I mentioned mailing them she said that no, they were hers and clutched them to her chest.

I put them in an envelope and she took them all home.

This week, I managed to hang on to a number of the cards, and I added numbers and letters to them.

There's an energy that I love in these.
I wish that I could recreate her style myself, but it's be forced.

For now, I'll collaborate when I'm able to.

This one was sent to a Mail Artist in Japan.
Oh, and I do give her credit on the cards.

Now to hunt up some more stickers for her.

It's a lovely day in my neighborhood!

#73

#74

#75

 Some Mail Art collages - #73 uses very specific shapes, #74 uses left-over shapes (and I do like this one a lot) and #75 is an altered vintage postcard that my friend Andrea sent to me. It's sort of Colossus of Rhodes, right?

It's such beautiful weather today that I've taken my lap top outside; where, I can enjoy the garden, and the lovely, low humidity and light breeze.

Meanwhile, inside, a chard pie was baking! Here it is. I did it without the pie crust that the recipe called for. I think it'll be good!

 Here's my lovely little garden. All hosta and ferns and other shade loving plants. The couple bird feeders are back in business attracting birds. Yay.

On Monday, I got together with my friend to finish up day 21 of #CreativeSprint. The prompt was to call someone you hadn't spoken to in awhile, and have them give you a prompt. My friend suggested that I make a map of a place we could walk to easily, so I did. We walked the map together, first to a nearby "shelf" to leave some things, then to a coffee shop to leave books.

The book is registered on Bookcrossing. I hope that whoever found it will make a journal entry.

Whatever is on the shelf is anonymous, so we'll never know who took our stuff. And someone left a miniature china cup and saucer, and I took it for our grand-girl. She loved it.

So there you go, a lovely day in the neighborhood. I hope your day has gone, is going, or will go well.

Mail Art plus

#153

This was my post on Facebook for MAM (Mail Art Monday.) I was really pleased with how I could take two scraps of paper with similar purples and a circle and create this landscape-like composition. I'm really please with myself. And what a good feeling that is.

What gives you that pleased with yourself feeling?

 Here are some chickadees by Milk, that are on display at Quirk Gallery. I had to buy one and I got a tiny one for free! How cool is that. Can't wait for the show to come down so I can have my bird!

 Here are some mice that were on display at the candy counter in Southern Season. I did not buy any. I was tempted, but I didn't do it. Maybe another day.

We've been fortunate to be able to take our grand, Zinn, to the Virginia Museum of Fine Art on Sundays recently. She loves being there and has some favorite pieces. One of them is this large Buddha. She says Buddha so clearly, it makes us smile. A Buddha smile!

No Mail Art - just some of my photos this morning.

Market Day

Market day

Tiny sweets

Chris Milk's chicadees

Bizoo (thinking of Chicadees?)

Brown sugar yogurt cake!

Shelf with Weather gram

More Mail Art and an anniversary

365.2 #236

 Oh I just had to add a bird. It just felt like the day to do that. The gull also needed to be on a light background that reminded me of a pale sky. The red scrap is another of the bits from Katerina.

365.2 #238

365.2 #237

365.3 #86

#87

#88

Here, in the next few pieces of Mail Art, I tossed the strips onto the background. This wasn't as easy as I thought I  would be, as the strips had a mind of their own and wouldn't drop, wanting to stick to my fingers!








I decided that the black background piece really make the strips pop. The other ground weren't as effective.










Here's the other bird piece that I did the same day as the gull. Some days, things just come together!











More randomness.












And more randomness. This is my least favorite of these cards. It just doesn't work as well as the others. Oh well. Tomorrow's another day to make Mail Art.

 This past weekend was exciting in many ways. One of the things that took place, was the 25th anniversary of the adoption agency that I co-founded. In 2000, I retired from the agency. It was really wonderful to see how the agency has continued providing excellent services to families. 

Go to Coordinators/2, Inc. to find out more about the agency.

Here's my face, peeking around the corner of this piece of cake!

The photo on the cake is one that the current Executive Director, amazing Becky, found in our archives. It shows the 3 women who were directors. Myself and Sharon, the co-founders, and Lynn, who we were fortunate to have our board approve as our next in-line director.

We all thought we looked so much better now, than when this photo was taken, but we are all proud of what the agency continues to do. Pat pat pat on it's back!

Saturday night Mail Art catch up

#215

#216

#217

 Gosh, these look nice as a little grouping.  An altered Picasso postcard, a bird in a gallery looking at an image I inserted, a Matisse woman looking out at us for International Woman's day! These are for my 365.2 Mail Art project.

#65

#66

#67

These next three are for my 365.3 Mail Art project - an altered Picasso postcard, an owl hanging out in an architectural setting with an altered window, and a mother and child from a 1956 National Geographic Magazine in recognition of International Women's Day.

















These are the cards Wednesday through Friday of this week. It's already late on Saturday and I've not scanned my cards for the day. I just finished making them, running late today because I've been busy finishing up some knitting, while watching episodes of Firefly on DVD. A very relaxing Saturday!

My African violets are so gorgeous right now. That green plant in the foreground is my miniature rose bush. I don't see any more buds on it, but I'm hoping for another little rose eventually. I am liking these flowering plants very much.