Mail art, produce, and buttons

 I still have a few of these Greek Cycladic figure postcards. They are a challenge, like the pig postcards, but I think I've got my default for them: hats and something to balance on.  The hat is from a map I received from Alexis in Canada, who recently sent me a package full of maps, and stamps, and buttons (see below.) Lucky me, a present and it's not even my birthday!

 All of yesterday cards were altered cards with something red on them. It was fun to set a "theme." Doesn't this red bird look like he's just popping out through the gate?

 Okay, this one is a bit of a stretch, but the title is something about a red square emanating orange squares in the sky above Tiny Town. I wish I'd left enough room on the card to write a response from the Tiny Town residents. What did they think about this? What was their response?

 The pig cards give me a challenge and I have no default for them. This dream was all I could come up with, and I wrote something like "The pig had a strange dream about a red thing." Can you come up with some alternative?

 Yesterday was pick up at the Farmer's market. I couldn't resist the bell eggplants. I got this lovely striped one and a solid purple one. I've got one of them cooking on the stove with tomatoes and onions in a sort of caponata/ratatouille dish. Yum, my favorite thing to make with eggplants.  Tomatoes were abundant as were small pickling cucumbers, potatoes, onions, basil and more.

 My honey's fruit share was a peck of peaches and one small container of raspberries. The peaches are firm, I hope they don't all ripen at once! I think I see peach preserves in our near future.

Here are the buttons I received. They're big, which is perfect for use on my Pocket/purses. Love the colors, too.  My next batch of purses will be from vintage tea towels, which my honey has been buying for me on eBay. They aren't big sellers in my Etsy shop or even at fairs, but I'll be participating in a MadHatters Tea Party in the spring, so I'm preparing for that.

Good news, our weather is cooler than it's been, no earthquake after shocks, and our new A/C might be totally installed by the end of the day, just in time for autumn weather!

Cooling off and Andrea Mail

I headed this "cooling off" but being in the pool is not quite like that. The water is tepid due to our hot weather. It's refreshing though because it's salt water and recently was treated with Vitamin C to clear the algae. Very healthy water.  The pool is located near our major north-south interstate highway, which goes from Florida to Maine. You can see an exit sign just beyond the sound barrier wall. We can hear the rush of traffic sounding like the ocean, except when an emergency vehicle goes past and then you KNOW it's a highway. We go almost every morning, early, to exercise. It's just us and our son and usually no one else, like a pool in our own backyard. Lucky us!

My nail polish "Iris" matches buttons!

Yesterday, I got a lovely package in the mail from Andrea. She sent very cool African print fabric and terrific buttons. Her note was on the reverse of one of her water colour sample cards. Read about Andrea here. She does wonderful water color paintings.

Sewing, lots of sewing.

I'm getting ready for my participation in the 3rd Annual Johnny Z festival on 7 August. (I've linked to an old bit of info about the festival.) I've got 10 Pockets, 17 Purses for Change, and 9 sunglasses Pockets ready. Whew. I sewed up everything I had cut out so my next task is cutting our more pieces. I have new fabric (from Ikea) and new buttons. It's the first time I've purchased buttons since 3 years ago in Paris. I've been using buttons from Mom's collection mainly, but really wanted some bigger ones and some colors that I didn't have, especially for the Vintage Tea Towel Pockets.  I'm really enjoying this. Since it's still quite hot here, staying indoors is preferable and having something to make is delightful.

Purse for Change

Okay, here's a bit of self-marketing! I just added a couple of purses for change to Fritzi, my Etsy shop. I made so many last week that my neck hurt from bending over my sewing machine, I was like obsessed with making these. I loved every part of the process from choosing from my fabric stash, cutting out the pattern, choosing the combinations (what lining with what outer fabric,) choosing the buttons, and even ironing the seams. I'm giving myself a rest from it all, focusing on the class I'm teaching at the VMFA studio school. I have a piece in the studio school faculty exhibit, with a reception this Friday; if you're in the area, come on over.

Knitting for a Blythe Doll

What craziness! I'm knitting for a doll, and a small doll, at that. I can't believe that I made this coat. Chuck suggested that I make the head wrap and it turned out really cute. I haven't named this doll, yet; but, I'm leaning towards "Zelda" as kind of a 1920's name. If you have any thoughts on doll naming, chime in with a suggestion. I'm working on a second coat to see if I can "perfect" the pattern. Maybe I'll get adept at this and even offer one for sale on Fritzi. Who knows. All I know is that I'm having a lot of fun with this. Thank you, Tracy!