Mail Art, Mail Art - It's Monday again! (and cake!)

#154

#155

#156

 Three cards from the past few days. An original collage incorporating a painting by Kandinsky, who I didn't apprciate until I was an adult.

Two altered cards to send to people that I know, to surprise them.

And for book club yesterday, I once again made the Brown Sugar-Toffee cake. It was the best version ever! Want to taste it? The recipe is HERE.

Let me know how it turns out and how many compliments you get when people taste it.

Crossing the James River on Sunday morning, headed to my knitting group, so peaceful, with such a lovely sky.  I took this while driving!! I can't believe that I did it but look, no one was on the road with me.

Have you ever done that, taken a snap with your phone while driving?

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

Only 2 days to go, oh my!

 Just out of the oven - the delicious sweet potato pound cake! I was mindful to lower the oven temp and to shorten the cooking time a bit, and voila, perfection! The recipe is on my recipe blog HERE.

#361

#362

#363

More Kitties in the environment cards. I'm having fun. I'm adding a sentence about what's happening, on the reverse. I"ll leave it to your imagination.










I have only 2 more cards to make to complete my third, and LAST, 365 Mail Art project. Whew. I've got my last one planned out in my mind. A good ending. However, that said - I'll still be making Mail Art, just not daily, and not posting them, unless I feel like it.

Ta Da!

I have sooo much to catch up on! Here goes!

365.2 #329

365.2 #330

365.2 #331

 We went off to New York City for a short trip to see museums and an off-Broadway play.

I continued to make my daily Mail Art.
On the train each way, in the hotel, wherever necessary to accomplish my goal.






I took with me in my traveling kit circles and some black paper, some Washi tape, and then used found images or paper to create the images.









I'd already stamped the reverse with my rubber stamp to keep track of the card number and the date on which I made it.

365.3 #179

365.3 # 180

365.3 #181

Oh, yes, I also brought with a sheet of stick on letters. These were Spanish ones so there were accented letters, too.








Oh, I just remember, I brought a few used postage stamps, too.  And made use of a Metro ticket.

 When we returned it was time to celebrate my birthday. I had a miniature banner which I liked and my honey hung up in the kitchen for me. Yes, Congratulations on achieving another year of life!

This is a bit of the birthday cake that my DIL ordered. It was a typical birthday cake which I really wanted, yellow inside, sweet frosting on the outside - It said Happy Mim Day! Isn't that so perfect?

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!

Yogurt cake, Mail Art, and some more NYC

#63

 I did the background for this then let it dry. Then I tried to make trees. ha ha ha ha! I cracked myself up. Nope, not trees!  I ended up doing some sewing on top and decided that this looked like something from a fantasy sci-fi story. Some aliens under an alien sky?

#64

This watercolor pieces is kind of wimpy. I did it, let it dry, then added some details. Nothing is bold enough. I'm being tense about this. I probably should have sewn on top of it, but instead, I'm sending it out as is. I'll keep practicing.

I decided to make the Yogurt cake recipe that Kristin Espinasse had on her blog - French Word-a-day. I posted it on my recipe blog. HERE.  It turned out really deliciously! It'll be a perfect treat tomorrow, when the weather turns cold. I'll sit with a cup of tea, a book, and some yogurt cake. hmmm, perfect.

Here's Yvette Ho of Panade in NYC, with Monkey of HiMonkey fame. I forgot that I had taken this while a "formal" photo was being taken for Monkey's blog.

 Another kind of monkey is on the "billboard" next to MoMA. Oh, yes, PLAY! That's important for toy monkey's and for all of us.

This church is on the corner of Essex and Henry St. It's what we saw when we walked out of the apartment we were staying in, in Chinatown. This view, for me, looks like we're in a small city, not Manhattan. It was a very cozy corner of a busy, big city.

Birthday day, mail art & sky

 My birthdays are always nice. I have no expectations and I'm never disappointed. Oh, that's not true, once I went to lunch with a bunch of people on that day and it was a big noisy bunch and it wasn't about me! ha ha ha After that, I decided that on my day, I'd do whatever I wanted even if it was nothing but it'd be about ME! ha ha ha
I made a couple of pieces of Mail Art. This rather fussy one for Dean, with a moveable part, which I hope makes it through the mail.

 Using some more of the sunflower scraps, this makes me think of how hot it is here.

 Here's a not very good photo of my birthday cake. It was a Key Lime cake. It was delicious! We shared this one piece 'cause we were so full of delicious Indian food at Lehja.  The food really is very good.

 When we left the restaurant and looked up, the sky was like a Maxfield Parrish painting. We were entranced by it.

 My birthday sky, just for me, we all decided. Oh yes, for one evening, the sky, just for me.

N. decided to chase down the sunset. He drove to an area that was slightly higher (we are a fairly flat area) and got this view. Doesn't it look like a big squiggle?  Of course, my camera couldn't possibly capture the real thing.

How was the sky in your area last night?

El dia de accion de gracias, thanksgiving day

 I like the way this day is said in Spanish. It's about the action of giving thanks rather than a title of a day. The day of the action of thanks. I wake up every day, feeling gratitude for my life. I learned this from my mother, who at 97 still says that every day when she awakens.

Today, we are having 4 of our relatives with us, to share a meal. Each bringing something yummy to eat.

These are the "Neat balls" that I made, before they were simmered in a tomato sauce. I'll post the recipe to my recipe blog this weekend.

 My honey set the table. These are the dishes we got when we got married. We still like them and have seen them in two museum collections. Oooh, we are surprised we had such good taste back then.







Here is this year's version of the Sweet Potato Pound cake with a drizzle of lemon icing on it.








This is today's Mail Art (day 359.) I used up the left over paint from my sky changing palette. A mini-action painting!

 I am so thankful for the life I've been fortunate to live and for the people who are in my life, and who I've met along the way, and to departed family and friends, who are still in my heart.

Baking day (and mail art, of course)

 Today, I'm making a sweet potato pound cake. Here's the image of the one I made back in 2008 and here's the link to the recipe, should you want to try it.  It's a perfect cake for fall, though right now we are experiencing a very spring like, about to drizzle day.

 Today's mail art play - use commercial postcards from my stash and alter them with only one or two images.  This is series #358 (only 7 days left in the year long project!)  Someone in Finland send me this card in an envelope, so there's no message on the reverse except a translation of the description. It's a vintage card reproduction.

 This is a postcard that I picked up for free in Dublin, Ireland one year.  I titled this one "We took a wrong turn?"

 The background is a Tiffany stained glass window in a chapel in Petersburg, VA. The little Victorian scrap turned this into something like a music box for me. I don't know why, but it did.

This is another of the Tiffany stained glass windows. I added the butterfly and the old man, who appears to be demonstrating something.