Oh My it's almost Friday!!

 These first two pieces of mail art were done earlier this week. I wove strips from an old map of London, Ontario, Canada, that my friend Alexis sent me. I'd started weaving maps back in 2002 and hadn't done it for awhile.  They needed a dark background to make them the focus.

 The butterfly stickers, also, came from Alexis. They're quite old as they aren't self-adhesive. They have to be moistened! Old school stickers. I tied things together with some Washi tape. Yes, the tape unites, not divides. That's my visual take on it.

 In these next two woven map pieces, I decided to create a line by sewing. In the first, I used a pale blue thread then went to black thread. Definitely, the black works better, appearing to be a pencil line.

 Don't you love this tea bag wrapper? I got a box of Live Forever tea for my birthday and just opened the box. I like these wrapprers a lot. I'll use them in collages some time soon.

 Here's my honey standing under a tree that had fallen behind a neighbor's house on the next block. There are two cars under it. It pulled down the electricity lines (for those of you in other countries, our electric lines are above ground.) There appears to be some quibbling about who takes care of what and our neighbors have been without power way long.

Here are the leaves from the huge tree that came down in Paradise Park. The one with the seed cluster that I showed previously. I still don't know what the tree is but someone out there might be able to identify it from the leaf structure. By the way, that tree is still down across someone's back garden. It's not been cut up or pulled out of the way yet. It appears that the storm is still causing trouble for people.   Any ideas about the tree?

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.   

About a Pen, and mail art received

 I was going through a LIFE magazine from 28 May 1965, looking for something for a Tiny Town card when I saw this advertisement for a pen. OMG!! Just read the copy. "Girl-sized hands" Hmmm, was this aimed at female children? "Lady-like hands" Hmmm, was this aimed at royalty? My goodness, how could I ever hold a "man-sized jotter?"  aaagh! Comments welcome on this one for sure.

My young neighbor put this through my mail slot so I'm counting it as mail art. She's quite the artist!

Some tree news and mail art

 Two of my readers identified two of the three trees for me. They are the Catalpa or Catawba, which I have a vague memory of from my child hood in Illinois, and the   Chestnut.  I thought it might be, having once seen some amazing chocolate candies in the window of a shop in Paris that were all spiky and being told they were chocolate replicas of chestnuts.  The third tree, might be a box elder, as suggested by one person, but the seeds look a bit different. I'll have to take a look at the downed tree again to see what the leaves look like. In any case, thanks for the answers, the research, the fun, the prizes are on their way.

Here are another from the series of minimal pieces with Washi tape and Maths titles (thanks Richard.) This is #276 "Minimal Cycle Base"

 This is #277, "The Lexicographic Product"
The papers are from old magazines, which has a color quality that I like.

This one is #278 and is entitle "The Cartesian Skeleton." I used two pieces of old paper and a bit of a drawing done by my 3+year old friend, Jonah. Moi LeSinge asked me if the line divided or united. That's a good question, which people can answer for themselves. I'll give my answer at some point. What do you think? Divide? Unite?

Post office - Covesville VA

We are on our way home from a trip to the moumtains. I saw a tiny post office. I had to get a photo of it.

The pool!

The water was refreshing today!

Mail art and a "contest"

#273a

 Tip toe across the icy rocks: Whose idea was this?

#273

I've enjoyed finding heads to put on these landscapes and come up with captions. They're for the 365 day mail art project, of course. I've gotten some funny comments on them, which I enjoy.

I have a few more of the postcards, but they're going to be more challenging to alter.

#274

Yesterday, I went back to my minimal collage idea. Three pieces of collage material and a stripe. I cut the Washi tape thinner.   I used titles from the math book for this one and the next.

This morning, I stayed with the minimal theme, again cutting a thin stripe of Washi tape as the unifier.

#275

Tree A - long seed pods

 THE CONTEST! Name these trees. 

I was wondering what these trees were. Maybe one of you can help me. If you can identify these (send me a link to some reference) I'll send you a prize. Be sure to leave some way for me to contact you.  First 3 people to get them correct get the prize/s.

Tree B - seed pods from tree that fell over

Tree C - Very pointy spikes on this seed pod

The seed pods are in a cluster. This cluster is about 6" long (15cm)













The tree is filled with these, sometimes in clusters. They look soft and fluffy but aren't. They've got mean spikes on them.

Tree B - knocked down by Irene!