Mail art, of course, and more.

 I used the last of my Louise Nevelson post cards, to alter and send off as Mail Art. This one has a stamp that shows Geo. Washington on a hill over looking rural Brooklyn, NY. It says "Washington saves his army at Brooklyn."

 I was pleased to find two items that matched this golden sculpture by Louise. This is #992, oh my, so close to 1000.

 I'm the August Mentor for IUOMA and I decided to create a Welcome image. I used one of my old altered cards and added the type. I'm really excited that I know how to add type. As mentor,  I say hello and welcome to new comers to the Mail Art union, and offer them any assistance. Today, I welcomed someone in Brazil, and 2 people in the U.S. of A.

 Yesterday, I did more baking, because the Amazing Award winning brownies had been devoured. I had 3 very ripe bananas in the freezer. I defrosted them and made a banana chocolate chip cake using the recipe from my
1965 cookbook. It was super good and we think it's because frozen bananas when defrosted have more liquid to them. You can find the recipe here.

It was sunny this morning and the pool water was a refreshing temperature. Ducky was back in the shady corner, getting some respite from the glare. This is the 2nd day that we've found him there. Hmmm.

We were fortunate to have the rain hold off until afternoon, so we could swim. And we're fortunate to have rain.

SO sunny!

 I arrived at the pool a bit earlier than usual this morning, and it was already sunny and hot. Ducky was taking shelter in a corner!

 The water was cool and still. Just looking at this image makes me feel cooler and serene. I hope it does that for you, too.

 Lucky me, I was able to "grab" these off of Missive Maven's Etsy shop. Letter writing related postage stamps are so perfect for Mail Art and letters.

 Yesterday, I met up with my amiga, Ann, to practice our español. We sat on the cafe deck and it was so lovely. Low humidity, a light breeze, and a view of Jun Kaneko's sculpture and my favorite tree grouping.

I spotted this as I walked into the supermarket. I'd never seen this brand of beer before.  What do you think? Should I try it? Or just buy it for the graphics!

The usual, Mail Art, Pool, all good!

 I'm sending this to Monkey. I altered one of Monkey's Postcards to give the kids in my workshop an example of altering, before I handed out Monkey cards to them. They did an amazing job of altering. You can see examples here.  There's an interview with moi and Monkey, which includes the kids Mail Art.

 I had some scraps of matt board so made these two dotty cards. The dark board worked out well and now I'll peruse my stock to find other dark boards.

 Again, I like the ambiguity of the dots, on top or a punched hole?

 Here I am with this morning's Mail Art. I switched back to altering an existing postcard, having re-discovered my collection of Canadian landscapes that my friend Alexis sent me last year. This makes me laugh, seeing that guy peeking over the landscape, maybe he sent the stamps down the stream. Isn't the scale changed by these bits?

 This morning, the pool water was refreshing, the sky clear, the sun bright, and NO humidity. Oh my. A day's reprieve.

I snapped this with my phone last night after the rain storm. More rain came on a bit later, too. We are a very lucky part of the country right now. Drought going on elsewhere.

Another week begins, I return to Tiny Town

#972

 I couldn't stay away forever. I'm going to be visiting Tiny Town again, as I find good images to add to it. This one is entitled - "When the BIG tourist season started up again, Tiny Town residents were startled by Eugenia's pale countenance."

#973

Ana in Paris sent me a wonderful piece of Mail Art and in the envelope she included a postcard of one of her art pieces that consisted of circles (or plates?) I couldn't resist, I placed my own circles on top of some of hers. I'm sending this altered piece back to her.

 Saturday, we went to Antique Village on Route 301, in quest of some magazines from 1962. While there, I came on this Fiestaware set. Lovely color. 

 This curious plaster statue attracted me. It's entitled "The Doctor!" Oh I should have gotten it. It could be him in another guise, right? Note the skull at the bottom.  We found magazines for our gift to friends having their 50th wedding anniversary, and I got materials to cut up for collages. We stayed at the place longer than planned as a HUGE rain storm hit the area. It sounded amazing on the metal roof of the building.

This morning, we went to the pool and it was an excellent idea to do that. The water was a perfectly nice temperature. As we were preparing to leave, C spotted something swimming back and forth by the steps on the opposite side. What the heck!! B grabbed a net, ran over there, and rescued a chipmunk. What a surprise for us, and for it!

Now to get back to preparing for a workshop. I'm going to be doing my first ever Mail Art workshop for children at BBGB, our Children's book store. What fun for me!

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.   

Pool photos, Mail Art and an idea.

 Oh the pool was lovely today, the sun was out, the water was very clear and the Duck was bobbing along.

 We are usually the only ones in the pool in the early morning, except for N. who comes over many mornings. It's like our personal pool! Lucky lucky lucky us.

Adjacency List

 I'm very excited about this series. #252. The "a" card is actually card #500, though this is only day 252 of the 365 project.

Hypercubes are Sparse

 The collage bits are torn from the 1965 McCall's magazine. The paper is nicely aged, though a bit fragile.

Breadth-First Search

 This is my favorite. It's the "a" card.  I used a bit of security envelope on it.

Vertex Transitivity

 I made action marking on them with 9B graphite and then used a brush with water over top of the marking.  I really liked the way they turned out.  The titles are taken from the chapters in a neighbor's book about mathematics.

 This is one of my newest eyeglass pockets. I was thinking about the size and I thought there might be some other uses for this sized pocket.

So, I put some pens in it and it works perfectly well. Not that lots of people carry pens and pencils around anymore, though my niece, the accounting person says that she does. Also, I know a lot of letter writers, so this might be good for them. There are probably other uses for them. I'll think on this.

Optimism, mail art, and the duck

 I'm thinking that we all need a bit of this these days. I'm avoiding the news, since there's not much I can do about any of the grim events taking place (though I do what I can when I can) and spending lots of time in my studio making mail art and items for my booth at the Jonny Z Fest next Saturday. I keep this Metro Pass in front of me. It's a reminder to me that life is a flow, that everything changes, and that, for me, optimism is necessary and important.

 I made three cards in different styles yesterday. This is day #249 of my 365 days of Mail Art, though this card is actually #400 and something. I made it to send to Reed Altemus as a thank you for sending me a Hannah Hoch Fan Club rubber stamp. How cool is that? I'm a real fan of her work so it's a treat to be in her fan club.

 I made this card as a thank you for someone who organized an ATC trade. I haven't made any of these tiny art works in a couple of years, but still have some to trade so I participated. I got three in return to add to my collection.

 This card is for my mail art friend Val, who lives in the south of France. He comes up with really fun things for us to do. This one is my application for standing as an "IUOMA Advanced Mail Artist." I hope I pass the examination.

 The pool was very still this morning.  I couldn't see Duckie? Where is he?

Ah, here's Duckie, at the far end, in the shade. The water was only 84F today, which was cool compared to the air temperature so it felt very refreshing.

Now, as soon as I finish posting to my mail art blog, I'll get back to sewing.

Wow, Monday already! Duckie, Mail Art and More.

 This morning the pool was calm and Duckie was all alone in the deep end. So nice, less humidity, warm water in the pool making the emerging feel as if the air was chilly. Ah, nice.

This gal went off in the mail on Saturday. The image is of a dancer from the 1930s, photo taken by Lotte Jacobi.
 

 These chairs are outside of the yogurt shop nearby, fortunately not so nearby that I can walk there every night, which would be tempting.

Even though it was humid, I decided to take my breakfast outdoors on Saturday morning. It's like another house out there. I really like it a lot since we've had it re-done.

#241a&b, Duckie, dessert, seeds, and my sewing update

 Today's mail art is more of my three items minimal pieces. I added a graphite line to each of them, however.

 I've been wanting to do some graphite line work, but I'm not quite where I want to be with it. These look a bit researched, not spontaneous enough, yet. I'll play with this a bit more.

 Last night, my honey made some shortcakes and invited friends over for dessert. Shortcake, ice cream (non-dairy for moi) peaches and a blackberry sauce, and topped with home made whipped cream. yum!

 This morning, my honey didn't plan to go to the pool but I wanted to go for a bit of exercise. The pool water was totally still, no one had been in it yet, and Duckie was hanging out in a corner. His nose has black grease on it, which leads me to believe he got caught in the "cave" at some point. The water is NOT refreshing. It's warm bath water temperature, but still I do love getting to swim a bit.

 Here's some of my sewing out put. I put buttons on several of them last night, while we had our friends over. Couldn't totally stop with the making process. Today, my sewing machine was being difficult, but after a quick consult with the internet, I got it fixed. Whew. I made several small change purses and a vintage tea towel purse. I'm sure I'll have a nice quantity for the Festival, at this rate of production.

Yesterday, I got a package of neckties from PalmyPen/Lesa (what I'll make out of them, I do not know) and a packet from my older sister in California. I thought this was a package of pasta, but it's not. It's seeds from her agapanthus flowers. I'm not sure they'll grow here, or how to plant them, but what the heck, I'll put them in the ground and wish them "good luck." The 2009 magazine has an article on the Ennis House. That's the house that's been used in lots of movies and tv shows, like Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.