Mail art & more

 Yesterday, I returned to Tiny Town and added some children, peeping over the wall. It was a challenge to come up with some titles, I don't know why, but it was.

 Each card said "The children were allowed to visit Tiny Town" then I added something to each one, referring to the child in it. The first one was the little boy. It said "Monroe said 'Cool!' The residents worried that he'd be mischievous."  The second one with the little girl (boy?) said "Tyler was quietly observant. The residents found her visit unsettling"

 On this one, I added: "Madison imagined living there. The residents liked her sweet smile."  The faces came from a 1965 LIFE magazine. The children were attending some British royal event.

 It's raining this morning, quite a downpour. We won't be going to the pool, possibly all week, as rain is predicted. I'll miss the swimming and Duckie. I've improved this year, which is nice, as I'm not a very good swimmer. I splash about too much, but I like being in the water.

I went to see the downed tree yesterday and took photos of the leaves. I'll post those soon and see if we can get an identification.

I put a couple new things in my shop on Etsy. I'm not moving on photographing my items, for some reason. I like to take the photos outdoors so I guess this week will be out for posting more. I have a big stock because of preparing for the festival last month. I'm also getting ready to make a bunch of them out of Vintage Tea Towels for a spring event. So much to do, all good.

Oh, here's a sad thought, the United States Postal Service can't pay it's bills and says it may have to close down this winter. WHAT!!!????  Read about it here.   

Smitty, the Market, and some more sewing.

Here is Smitty contemplating going down the stairs. I think it must look like something really scary for him with his bad eyesight. We actually carry him into the yard. He's so cute still, and sooo old for a dog. We walked around the block a couple days ago and he had to lie down a few times and my honey carried at the end of the trip.

The heat is so hard on the veggies. These are photos from last Saturday when it wasn't so hot. What will be this week, oh boy, we may not even have Market on Saturday as BIG storms are predicted. Did I mention the temperature? It's now 98F/36.6C, yes, hace calor!! 

Yesterday, I had such a fun time making more Purses for Change. Really, I have so much fun doing this. Today, my honey helped me choose names for the ones that I put in my Etsy shop, Fritzi. I've decided that I'll name them all (a la Ikea.) Here's one that has a butterfly on the back of it. I call this PfC (Purse for Change) Lara. Got any cool short names that might work for PfC's or for Pockets? Send them to me.

Toile-la-la purse for change

I had some of that cute toile print fabric left from the purse I made so I made a purse for change. I just posted it and a couple other new ones in Fritzi, my Etsy shop. I just love toile!! What is it about this type of print and me? Check out my shop and see what's new. I had a private sale yesterday when my friend J came by to do some shopping for gifts. It was fun to show her all of my totes and purses and get her reaction, which I must say was, POSITIVE! yay! An afternoon of sharing, drinking tea, eating banana bread, how perfect.

Purses for Change & Three Cups of Tea

Here are a few of my new change purses, which I'm now calling Purses for Change. If you check my shop, Fritzi, you'll see that I'm donating part of each sale of these to the Three Cups of Tea foundation. If you haven't read that book, I recommend it highly. Here's a photo of Greg Mortenson and some of the children who are benefiting from the schools built by the CAI foundation.
I had a basket full of these for sale at a fundraiser (for Obama) bake sale and sold all but one of the 15! Yay. People seemed to like that they were made from fabric that was "recycled" meaning remnants, cut-offs, sample swatches, etc. would have been tossed in the landfill fabric, which made me feel good and that I'm on the right track with them. I do not want to buy any fabric, missing out on cute current images, but I want to "recycle." I'll stick to this even if sales on Etsy are slooow.

Fritzi, my etsy shop news

I just added three little totes, well, actually, change purses, to our shop. They can hold money and cards.

I needed one for summer, something lightweight, so used some of the scraps from my big tote bags, and voila! I used old buttons for the closure, which makes them kind of vintage-y looking.

I was so happy with the results that I made some for the shop. Check out Fritzi, our Etsy shop.