In honor of Emilie, who liked to draw

 This is the basket in honor of Emilie. When I stopped by Dixie Donuts on Saturday, all but one had been chosen. Today, I'll drop off another 11 packets.

This is my final Mail Art card for the week, which I finished yesterday.
The quotation for this card:
 "Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings."
Barbara Grizzuti Harrison


Merry Christmas to all who celebrate this holiday. And to all, happiness and PEACE.

A week of Mail Art & more

 Here's the newest bird in my home. It's made from drift wood and was given to me by a friend. It's perfect with the piece of drift wood that I collected on the Outer Banks last month.

 I made these pecan flour-y, powdered sugar-y cookies yesterday. They turned out really good. I used a recipe that was in an old Cook's Illustrated magazine. Melt in mouth good!

 My daily Mail Art this week had to do with the sad feelings that I couldn't seem to dispel. The shooting rampage in Connecticut with the loss of so many young children and the death of 10 little girls by a land mine in Afghanistan just filled me with such sadness. 
The quote on this one:
"Hugs can do great amounts of good, especially for children." Princess Diana, Princess of Wales.

 The quote for this one: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." Martin Luther King Jr

 "I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures."
Lao Tzu

 This card's quote: "You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it's beauty.”
― Albert Einstein

 After reading about a mission that Patience Salagado thought of (read about it here) - I made some little blank books out of old topographic maps, bought some crayons, and made coloring kits in honor of Emilie Parker, one of the children who was murdered in Connecticut. It was said that she loved to draw.






I placed the basket at Dixie Donuts, because I
 think there'll be lots of children stopping by the shop.
I'll be making 10 more books to put in the basket in a few days.

Mail Art in Color and more

 Last post I said that this week called for a change up - I needed color! So here's my color series for this week - as of Thursday (today.)

 I'm pleased with how these are turning out. My inspiration is the torn billboard collages of Villegle. (note: can't get my accented Latin to work - there's supposed to be an accent over the last "e" in the name.)

 I'm finding some good quotes to attach to these when I post them on Facebook.

 This is the least strong of the group in my opinion. Wonder what I'll do for Friday's card.

 Here are my newest birds. I got these from a shop in Duck, N.C. called Solitary Swan. Old spools for the bases and new metal birds printed with vintage looking patterns on them. They are sweet on my studio window. To the left of them is a bobble head ceramic piece that I got in L.A. a number of years ago, and behind that is a small Snoopy figure.

 Look at these cool copper postcards. They were sent to me with a nice note, by a former classmate from my Spanish class. How cool that she thought I'd like them - and I do! Have you ever seen copper postcards?

 This is a lovely quote from Mother Theresa. It's one of my favorites. The image looks like something that Keri Smith might do. Does anyone know who did this particular version of the quote?  Among other things, it makes me think about Mail Art. Small things done with great love.

This is an image from Jockey's Ridge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The day was over cast. These two shrubs just showed above the line of the low dune.  when I looked at this image, I felt that it was sad, though in person it was very lively with the sound of the wind through the dunes. Are you getting any kind of emotional sense from this image?

A gray day - let's look at Mail Art & more

 These are the 2 cards that I made over the weekend. I think I'm going to take a break from the craft background. It's a very gray day today and I think I need some COLOR!

This is Humphrey Bogart, in case you don't recognize him. I wrote a quote on this about keeping your eyes open or you'll miss things. It's a quote from Dr. Seuss. What a guy, Seuss! 

 Here's my honey holding up the "A" that I gave him for his project. I give him grades on projects, he wants that. I always give him an "A" cause he always does "A" work. Trust me, this man does "A" work!  This particular "A" is very special. It was created by Leah Palmer Priess. You can see her work here. She is an amazing illustrator. I saw her work on A Word A Day again recently and remembered how much I like her work. I was able to purchase the "A" in her Etsy shop, here.

My honey was very pleased about his grade.

 We got a packet of presents from our friends BeeBee (aka anonymous) and her honey Tom. They were nicely wrapped then tied with ribbons. Who can let a good ribbon go to waste? Not me!

 I tied the ribbons on our candle holders and bird in the kitchen. They look so festive! Actually, the ribbon gives the bird a lot of personality, don't you think?

Yesterday, I had a taste for lasagne. I had all the ingredients for this one. I made up the recipe from a couple of more complicated ones. I wanted simple and fast. I put the recipe on my recipe blog, here.
It turned out deliciously good. Try it and let me know how you like it.

A week's worth of Mail Art and other stuff

 Our miniature Maple tree has lost it's leaves but they haven't gone far. We found them in piles and gathered them up. They are so lovely even when curled up and dry. So organic!

 This is the last of the color series for now.

After that, I decided to alter 3 cards that had the same image. A boring lake scene.

 I think it's interesting how a single added piece makes a difference.









I used quotes about nature, for these cards. 











For this next group, I used only 3 (or 4) pieces. MInimal. A person, a shape in black, a moth/butterfly.  So much can be said with so little, right?

 Do you know who this woman is?

 Do you know who this man is?

For two days this week, we couldn't park on our street. It was quite nice, actually, but then we have parking spaces behind our house. Then the work began and oh was it LOUD!! First a huge machine dug up the old street, LOUDLY. Then another machine textured the next layer. Then another machine laid down tar. Oh the noise and odor! However, we have a slick new black surfaced street. All that's left is for the stripe making machine to put a yellow stripe down the middle. It will be a quieter experience.

Mail Art, of course, and more

 I discovered this photo that I'd taken with my cell phone, forgot I'd taken it. A tee shirt at a shop in Duck. We do heart Duck. It's basically a dot on the map of the Outer Banks, but has nice places to stroll & look in little shops & now a really nice board walk along the Sound.

#117

#118

I'm playing with bits of old colored paper again. It's difficult to work with them because any adhesive that spreads onto them doesn't clean up well. Ugh! I dislike messy glue-ing. 







I'm finding good quotes about color to write on the backs and post to Facebook with these. Today is day 120. Have no idea what I'll do today. Maybe I'll keep going with color bits through the weekend and start a new series on Monday. 245 days to go!

I drove through the park on my way home from Spanish class on Wednesday and had to stop and get out of my car to appreciate this tall tree. It was still full of wonderfully yellow leaves. They looked so bright against the blue sky.

Mail art catch up Part 2 and some ocean

#111

 I made two postcards while away at the beach using images from a 1946 National Geographic story about the Outer Banks. My tourist cards!

#112

 When we returned home, I started to play with scraps of colored paper and some press on letters.

 I added circles and attempted to create an illusion of transparency again.

 Sometimes the effect is stronger than at other times.

The waves were wild, the energy of the ocean was so intense. The wind was blowing so strongly and the foam that came up with the waves would blow away down the beach like cotton puffs. It was chilly, but worth being there to see, hear, and feel the power of the ocean.