Blog Action Day 2012 - The Power of We. #BAD12

Today is the day that bloggers around the world come together to blog on one theme. This year that theme is The Power of We.

The "We" that I want to mention today is The Richmond Peace Education Center (aka RPEC) which has been working since 1980 to promote a just and peaceful community.  The organizations' vision is to promote non-violence locally and globally.

I first learned of this organization when it sponsored a project for young people that my son became involved in many years ago. Young people went into the community and presented a play about nuclear proliferation and the need to stop it. Later, when my now adult son became president of the board, I was invited to participate as a board member. I then went on to work on the committee for the annual fundraising auction for many years. Through the work of this organization, I feel the power of we and that feels very powerful!

One of my favorite things that the organization does is work with youth through   RYPP (Richmond Youth Peace Project.) Young people are trained to be conflict resolution trainers, helping other young people to learn to resolve their differences through non-violent means. A youth essay contest on themes related to non-violence is held each year. Young people growing up with the support of this organization become leaders and influence their peers. The effect that this organization has on our community is tangible.

Check out their website to find out more about the organization. If you don't have anything like this in your community, you might want to find out how to start a group like this. In community, We can be powerful.

A weeks' worth of Mail Art!

#65

 What you see is 7 days of mail art. A couple days I did more than one. I created watercolors, mostly larger sheets which I then cut into one or more postcards. I added small dots to some, and to one, a figure. I posted them to my Facebook page with mindfulness quotes because they seemed to lend themselves to that kind of thought. Being mindful.

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#70

This one was made last night, very late, posted to MailArt365 blog at 3 minutes to midnight. We had a very full day! Since I didn't have time to do a watercolor, I altered a postcard.

Yogurt cake, Mail Art, and some more NYC

#63

 I did the background for this then let it dry. Then I tried to make trees. ha ha ha ha! I cracked myself up. Nope, not trees!  I ended up doing some sewing on top and decided that this looked like something from a fantasy sci-fi story. Some aliens under an alien sky?

#64

This watercolor pieces is kind of wimpy. I did it, let it dry, then added some details. Nothing is bold enough. I'm being tense about this. I probably should have sewn on top of it, but instead, I'm sending it out as is. I'll keep practicing.

I decided to make the Yogurt cake recipe that Kristin Espinasse had on her blog - French Word-a-day. I posted it on my recipe blog. HERE.  It turned out really deliciously! It'll be a perfect treat tomorrow, when the weather turns cold. I'll sit with a cup of tea, a book, and some yogurt cake. hmmm, perfect.

Here's Yvette Ho of Panade in NYC, with Monkey of HiMonkey fame. I forgot that I had taken this while a "formal" photo was being taken for Monkey's blog.

 Another kind of monkey is on the "billboard" next to MoMA. Oh, yes, PLAY! That's important for toy monkey's and for all of us.

This church is on the corner of Essex and Henry St. It's what we saw when we walked out of the apartment we were staying in, in Chinatown. This view, for me, looks like we're in a small city, not Manhattan. It was a very cozy corner of a busy, big city.

Oh Baby Baby - look what I got today!

 












"The Hermes Baby Typewriter was the next successful machine from E. Paillard & Company in the late 1930's and early 1940's. Also known as the Hermes Baby Jubilee, it is considered by many to be the "Mini Cooper" of typewriters. When it was first introduced, the Baby gained almost instant success and became the "must have" typewriter for novelists, celebrities, reporters, and journalists of the time. Designed for Paillard by famed Italian designer Giuseppe Presioso, the beautiful lines of the Hermes Baby changed typewriter design forever. The Baby was reputed to be the typewriter of choice for Ernest Hemingway."
Not a great photo of it, but I was so excited about bringing this home that I took just a quick photo with my phone. It's a steel gray with red accents. It's VERY light weight. Way more portable than my turqouise Smith Corona, which weighs like a ton by comparison. I can't wait to use it. My honey found the image of the advertisement on eBay. It shows the machine and the factory in Switzerland.

Thursday, how'd you get here so fast?

#60

 My friend bb (aka anonymous) send me some new hole punchers. This one makes a border and since I'm not into perfection, it's all wavy. I like it! I also like the way I was able to find a punched out circle that gives a transparency effect to the edge of the black. "hello, little lady, down there!"

#61

This card is actually a rectangle but I forgot to put a black paper behind it on the scanner. It's 4" x 6" (10cm x 15cm appx)  I really amuse myself with these altered cards. This one is a lovely Harry Callahan photo. I've entitled it "Herbert and Doris enjoyed a walk in the cool water off Cape Cod." Ha ha ha ha, oh I'm tickled by this and the comments people make about it on Facebook.

#62

Today is day 62 of my 365.2 project. I sewed some "grass" on one of the watercolor experiments from the workshop & added some pencil marks, then glued it onto a substrate. It sort of works for me. Does anyone have any suggestions about what adhesive to use when gluing watercolor paper to a backing? 

 This was the threatening sky last Friday night when we went to the opening of "Still Here" exhibit at ArtSpace. Gorgeous, right? And look at the old-timey factory smoke stack.

 Here's the darling little "shelf"/cubby on the pole. It was missing for a day or two or three, then reappeared.  I put some shiny new pennies in it, for good luck.

 This is the sign that is on the opposite side of the pole. I'm happy the little girl decided to make her feelings known.

Here's my Wednesday cloud photo. We were on the way to the airport, to get N & J.  I took this with my phone through the window. So fabulous, so awesome. So varied! All in one sky, different types of clouds. Awesome is too tame a word. Got any others for me?


On a side note: we have NO water. A problem with our neighborhood! Glad I filled some little containers with water as I'd planned to play with watercolors today. But wait, what about making a cup-o-tea? Guess I'll go out for that.

My water color baby steps!

Mail Art, of course, and more NYC.

#56

 Here I use my current favorite elements, a person lower left looking off "camera", dots and Washi tape. What fun! The color of the large area is not gray, it's actually a green. My scanner didn't do a good job of capturing this.

#57

Here is one of my attempts at watercolor (colour, for my Brit friends.) I took a workshop yesterday, with my friend Rudi, who was very encouraging. I liked it. I have to practice a lot, but I think I can do this. It'll be a nice switch from my usual cut & paste.

#58

So what do I do today, day 58? I go back to cut and paste. I couldn't resist this. I've been looking for this fish, which got lost in my scraps, and just found it today. It went perfectly with this very old postcard. Since it called for a one cent stamp, it's gotta be from the turn of the last century.  

 Now for some food photos from our New York Trip. This delicious quiche was eaten a 103 Monument Lane in the West Village. YUM!

 On Sunday last week, we celebrated our daughter's birthday by walking around a lot! It was a gorgeous day for a walk. We went down to the parks on the Hudson  River, we went to restaurants, we checked out shops, and my honey followed some music and found an event in the courtyard of Westbeth. Great surprise. Good music, including the Bob Dorough trio. Bob did the music on Schoolhouse Rock. In case you don't remember it, check it out. He sang  "Three is a Magic Number" which was such a treat!
This little girl was busy creating art with a gigantic stick of chalk while the music was playing.

Here's some chill refreshment I had at lunch that special day. It was quite tasty! 

This is a creamy tomato soup that I had at Sarabeth's Tribeca restaurant. It was   near where we ended our walk along the Hudson River Park. When we saw the place, we decided to have an early dinner there. The recipe isn't posted on their site which is too bad cause I'd sure like to replicate it. I've never had such a delicious creamy, chunky tomato soup. Got a good tomato soup recipe for me? Anyone?