First Day Covers

 I'm still not sure about what to do with all the First Day covers I got from a friend.

Here are a couple more that I've collaged the fronts of , and added current postage but left some of the original postmark visible.

 I put a card inside with the saying "Creativity is a Practice."

I hope that somehow the stamps and the recipients connect.

What would you do with these envelopes. I appreciate any ideas you have.

Here's my kitty, Bizoo, with his favorite morning thing. A heavy duty plastic zipper bag.

He's so pleased, if a cat can show that, when I bring it out in the morning from the closet where I stash it over night.

Sunday: update on rooms, Mail Art, and more

 Here's my terribly messy studio, which I'd planned on straightening up this summer.

 Here's my studio as of this morning. The clearing up and out happened sooner than I thought.

That pesky draining A/C unit created a waterfall in the wall dividing my studio and the TV room.

I'm a bit tired but, surprisingly, not cranky about this. Just tired.

 Here is my temporary studio, that I set up on the enclosed side porch off of our bedroom. I have a nice view to my right, of the big tree in the back garden. Not sure where this lap top will go. Perhaps after I cut up a bazillion black squares using my paper cutter, I'll put the computer on that little table.  I think I've kept essentials at hand.

365.2 #322

365.3 #172

These are Friday's Mail Art pieces. I like the paleness of them. A bit of topo map, some Washi tape, and my new circle dots rubber stamp.

365.2 #323

365.3 #173

Saturday's Mail Art: some more topo map scraps, stickers from a map sticker set, and since I didn't think the compositions were working, I added an ink swoosh! Yes! That works.

365.2 #324

365.3 #174

More topo maps in today's Mail Art.

Most of my stuff had been moved to the new space but the work area was in the old so what to use. I started with two pieces of paper torn from a magazine print of a Leger painting.


I put a piece of topo map behind the bits. Glued down, they looked okay, but not great.

I still had my tin of Washi tape handy, so I added bands of tape and that just made the composition work for me.
Tomorrow's Mail Art will be made in the new space. I'll be able to get out of bed and just steps away will be my studio! Nice!

 Here's Bizoo. He's exhausted from helping out, jumping in and out of boxes, checking out where things were going, watching stray ants on the window sill, tossing scraps of paper. He does like this perch on the old high chair which is in my new studio space.

And here's the cutie pie, Baby Z. Can you believe it? She's 3 months old, and looking so serene.

Sunday Mail Art, My Father, and the babies

365.2 #316

365.2 #317

365.3 #166

365.3 #167

Keeping things simple is so satisfying for me. A scrap of paper and a postage stamp, in this case a very old Turkish postage stamp. I've been thinking about Turkey a lot because we have friends there and are getting updates.






Today, just a few scraps of color.













Another simple one with an old postage stamp. I purchased a packet of them when we were in Istanbul. They are quite old but didn't cost me very much money. I guess they aren't considered valuable, but for me - priceless.







Today's second piece. The adhesive got on the top and I couldn't get it off. grrr. I really dislike when that happens. It becomes another element.

I posted a photo of my father from 1941 on my Facebook page, last night, right after midnight. Today, my hunny found this one of my father, which was taken at his place of employment in the fall of 1968.

I think about him, and the things that he taught me. He once told me that he chose to be happy.  How good is that, to say that it's a choice one has, whether to be happy or not. And he did chose that.

 Here's the furry baby. My hunny brought him up to the bedroom in the morning, while I was still upstairs reading in bed. He ran around a bit chasing a paper ball, then hopped up on the bed to nap a bit.  Purrrr purrrpurrrrr

Here is the cutie Zinn. She was at our casa today for our Fathers' Day fiesta. 
I took lots and lots of photos, hopefully a few will be good for me to share.

She has steely blue eyes at this point.

Intense, right?

A bit of Mail Art, a lot of Bizoo

365.2 #313

365.2 #314

365.3 #163

365.3 #164

 Circles, I'm all about circles right now as I haven't found good images to cut out. I need new source material!

Circles are always my default.
When Julie came to visit, we cut some circles using her gigantic circle cutter. They're a good size addition.





Yesterday was a crazy day with a storm, a deluge in our house, and other disruptions.
Keeping Mail Art simple is a good thing on days like that.








Large circle really changes the scale. I used a left over tiny circle inside of a medium circle, inside of the larger one.












I keep a tin full of black circles handy for just such a day when simplicity must rule.

 Our niece spent the night as her home lost power in a storm and her hunny was out of town.
She came into the kitchen early and caught Bizoo doing things he never does when we're in the kitchen with him. 

Here he is checking out the sink.

 Here he is IN the sink.

 Here he is, having somehow pulled the garbage bin door open, hoisting himself up, and then onto counter and sink.

 Here he's sleeping on the low-boy rather than in his bed or on his comfy soft chair.

And here he is, hiding in a white paper bag. "No, it wasn't me. Nope, it was a look-a-like and why is Auntie M playing nanny-cam?"

We found out this morning, that Bizoo has 6 toes, and because of his markings, he'd be identified as a "target tabby!" Who knew!?

Note to me: 1. buy museum wax to stick things down, like the candle sticks.
2. keep kitchen sink scrubbed clean
3. buy baby latch to keep garbage bin locked tight
4. laugh a lot

Mail Art, and more

365.2 #311

365.2 #312

365.3 #161

 I'm giving myself a break from finding just the right little person or little object to fit into a space.

Working with circles is more soothing plus I have lots of them cut out.

365.3 #162

I like using not only the circles but what remains when they are punched out.












There are such different spatial relationships and "meanings" that are evoked by these.










For instance, this one makes me think of a party, of fun, of joyful playfulness. Even though the color blue is often associated with sadness, this one is not at all sad for me.

Though, at the moment, I'm feeling sad for what is going on in Istanbul, hoping our friends are okay.

My younger sister sent this to me. I'd done this drawing of myself back in 1969 and sent it to her. She thought I'd enjoy seeing it again and I do. Julie suggested that I scan it and put it into Tiny Town. Perhaps I'll do that for my very last one.

My honey looked at this and said - "Oh, you were very fashionable then."   Hmmm, guess I'm not so these days.

My older sister sent me a quantity of laces, trims, and appliques (and other stuff) that she was clearing out.  I sold a few things at a vintage shop for her,  now am putting them on Etsy, in my FritziMim shop.

Check them out. If you know anyone interested in making things with vintage, unused, cool stuff, send them my way.

 Here is Bizoo in a shopping bag! I wondered where he'd gotten himself to, and somehow the bag had righted itself after he ran into it. So cute! He was playing with both an aluminum foil ball and a piece of crumpled paper.

And here is our cutie, Zinn. Happy girl in her summery dress. She's nearly 3 months old.

Odds and Ends

 Here are some of the entries for the Skull Appreciation Day 2013 Mail Art exhibit at the International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago.  

 This is a delicious little meringue made with violets! I got to taste one and buy a few at the Farmers' Market this past Tuesday.

Edible flowers are what makes Petal Palate special. If you're in the area, check them out.

 The little puffs melt in your mouth and have a very delicate flavor. 

 Bizoo had some visitors this afternoon. S. and N. came by to help B. get acquainted with more people. They told me, before I got Bizoo, that they'd need to come over to get the kitty used to children. What a good idea! So here they are, patiently waiting for Bizoo to send the aluminum foil ball back out from under the paper. He was leery of their energy, but I'm sure that after enough visits, he'll be happy to see them.

 Okay, stretch, stretch and hold! Kitty yoga perhaps? Kitty Pilates? This is quite the pose, wouldn't you say? Bizoo stayed like this for awhile. Must have felt good.

 J. came to spend some time with me. We made a salad lunch and then talked about quilts (her new one is gorgeous) and looked at quilt and fiber books. We measured yards and yards of vintage trimming and wound them on cardboard. And we punched circles out of paper using J.s new HUGE hole punch, and my smaller ones.

Here's a scan of some of the left-over hole punched paper. Nice, right?

We both felt like we'd have a vacation day! What fun.

And here is our little cutie. She spent some time with us on Saturday. I caught this photo of her after she had a diaper change on top of our washing machine. She looked so cute in her summery dress.

In coming Mail Art, Out going Mail Art (& 2 cuties)

365.3 #150

 Here's they are, milestones of sorts. #300 and #150, these numbers make me feel like I'm getting to my goal. Plus, I really like the way these turned out. They're among my recent favorites. I made them last week. This week isn't going so great so far, in terms of Mail Art. But can't be 100% all the time, right?

365.2 #300

 Awhile ago, I received this very, oh so very, Dean pieces of Mail Art. It's a piece of wood, with rounded corners, that he, no doubt, gleaned from the streets of Paris. What it's original use, I have no idea, but Dean turned it into amazing-ness. He covered the front with  an intricately woven something-or-other and many faces of Olivier.  More on Olivier in a moment.

 Here's the address side. On this side there are wonderful French postage stamps, strips of text cut from posters for Olivier's performance (How to become Parisian in One Hour)

On the card, Dean tells  me that he scored quite a few of the posters while attending the performance. When I got the card, I thought that Dean had written the messages and faked the autographs. ha ha ha, but wait......

 the real story comes out now. Dean sent me this photo of Olivier, mailing this card to me! The autographs are genuine. Wow!

Now the rest of the story.   My Honey and I went to see this show last winter, while in Paris. We loved it, thought it was hilarious, laughed so much. We kept telling people about it. Dean had told us that Olivier is his neighbor. How cool, right?

Then, one evening, my honey and I, plus 3 of our Mail Artist friends went to dinner at Dean & his wife's. We were in the entry foyer, in the dark, because we didn't know where to find the light switch (this is an energy saving custom, no lights on until you turn them on.)All 5 of us were huddled around the door bell panel, trying to find Dean's buzzer, when the outside door opened, and the lights came on.
We turned, I'm laughing as I write this, and there in front of us were Olivier and Claudie. How surprised they must have been, as were we. Oh, my, I'm laughing right now at remembering this moment. I then realized that this was OLIVIER from the performance! I stammered out something about seeing the show, and he said something nice, and then wished us goodnight as he and Claudie disappeared up the stairs. We held ourselves back from getting hysterical laughing. We made it up to Dean's, by squishing into the elevator, with stifled laughter, until we entered his apartment and laughed and laughed, and finally when we calmed down, told Dean and V. the story. This may not be funny when you read it, but picture the situation from each perspective. In the dark, huddled group, lights on, SURPRISE!

And for those of you in London, Olivier is performing his show  there. Go and see it! You won't be sorry you did. 
 

 Now to wipe the tears of laughter from my eyes, and continue. Here's a photo of Bizoo, which I took yesterday. He was on my lap while I was trying to use the computer. He is so lively. He shows us that a paper bag, or a big sheet of crumpled brown paper can be so much fun. What a reminder to take joy in simple things.

And here is our grand! This is Zinn, appearing to be dancing some lively folk dance! This was sent to us from Chicago, the other day, which is a city full of folk dance opportunities. Opa!