MAIL ART, yay!

 It's been a fun weekend of making Mail Art.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to speak with several people about Mail Art and it made me excited to make more pieces.

I don't know who gave these vintage postcards to me (don't worry collectors have told me that these aren't sought after.) I altered them with Italian phrases which I took out of my old Madame Butterfly libretto. I sent one to a friend who is actually Italian. I think he'll get a kick out of receiving it.

Here's a series that I did with my Cactus - Lily cards.

Again, so much fun for me to find words that create dialog between the two "friends."

I added an old stamp to each of the cards just because they needed something more.

 Does the dialog between them make you smile?   Any captions you come up with? Send them to me and I'll send you a card.

 Oh Lily, Oh Cactus! ha ha ha ha

 Today, I got serious with my Mail Art. I'd been thinking about text and old papers, and wanting to do a few more small collages.

To ensure that the viewer looks at them in the orientation that I wanted, I signed and titled them. As you know, I usually don't do this with my Mail Art.

I'm going to continue with this series for awhile. I need to get back to serious business, ha ha ha, rather than playing around.

or not.

Remember this motto from The Alternative Speakers Bureau.

Every day, make something, or do something creative. Practice!

If you need some help to get you started - you might find HERE.

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.

Mail Art and Mother's Day.

 Back to my old "tricks" with Mail Art collages. I found some left over scraps from a previous series and used them to create two new pieces. They remind me of landscapes.

The random letters spell nothing but with the addition of a question mark and en exclamation, wow, they sure do seem to be telling us something.

 I think this one is a particularly strong landscape. Alien, with so many suns in a black sky. What do you think? Evokes landscape, right?

 I made cards out of the photo that I posted on Facebook of my little arrangement on my porch rail. People thought these were small, like salt and pepper shakers, but the cactus is a large cookie jar in reality.

People gave me nice captions for them.
So I made up the postcard and sent them out to people with their caption on the reverse.

 I made lots of cards, so here are a couple that I added text to, making my own conversations.

These strike me as quite amusing. I have more cards to work with so you might see more examples of my silliness.
If you'd like to receive on in YOUR mail box, let me know.

 A friend asked me if I'd like some old stamps and of course I said, yes. BUT I got something even better than stamps, though I did get quite a few of those. What I got lots of were first day covers! I don't know if they have monetary value, but for me what a treasure trove for Mail Art. Here's one envelope that I changed up a bit to send out to someone. I popped a card saying "Creativity is a Practice" into the envelope so it wouldn't go empty.

Today was the American holiday called Mother's Day. It's been all changed up from the original idea of it, made so commercial. I never required that my kids celebrate me on this day. I felt pretty much honored on a regular basis year round, but it's nice day to be out and about. Every year for a long time, I've sent my kids cards on Mother's Day - if not for them, I wouldn't be one. But now we have a little grandgirl, and I like celebrating this new life and our DIL. We walked to Carytown where Z went to her favorite restaurant for her usual, a mini-baguette. She walked lots, amazing how fast she goes. We were exhausted but she still had energy.

So back to the First Day Covers: do you know anything about them, did you ever collect any? What did you do with them?

Nature!

Battery Park

 For a number of reasons, primarily the arrival of spring and the opening of the farmers' market, I've been thinking a lot about nature.

 I was happy when Mary of Uncustomary picked this as her monthly theme.

My walks in Battery Park with my grand have also made me aware changes in the season - with the little yellow flowers in abundance. My grand loves to pick them. Are they buttercups? I don't know. 

Battery Park

I love walking down the path towards the children's play area and having my grand get so happy about the flowers and the sweet gum balls that are all over the ground.

The market at Byrd House opened yesterday and my CSA had the most beautiful produce.

I got some curley kale, some peppermint chard, some asparagus, radishes, and salad greens.  I'm going so happy to have produce fresh from the fields again. Oh and eggs from really free range out in the open hens. I know my farmers! It's all real and tastes so good.

Here are the French radishes that I like to eat as a snack, crunchy and slightly spicy.

Everything is organic,

except these strawberries. They family says that they're not certified but hold to many organic practices. Hmmm. They're very tasty, sweet and juicy. 

Being part of a CSA since 2001, I've been made aware of buying local and seasonal. This really puts one in touch with nature. Tomatoes only grow certain times of the year, wow, not like year round in the grocery stores. Ditto all our other produce. It's seasonal!! It's nature.

Also, since I've gotten on Instagram, I'm taking lots of photos of flowers. Nature at it's prettiest.

After a long, cold winter, oh spring, I like you so much!!

May! It's finally here - with Mail Art & Bizoo

 I'm happy to be making Mail Art daily, though I'm not doing one a day on a regular basis. Not ready to commit to a 4th project like that, but here are the cards from the past few days.

I'm using the old colored paper that tears and marks up easily.

I think the reverse is really good, too.

I added these women who are NOT in distress - oh no, these women are seeing the Beetles in person for the first time!

I put a photo of my grand in the care of this old guy. It made me laugh to do this. I'd accidentally printed some of her photos on regular paper so the color wasn't that great. It was easy to cut it out of the background.

May 18, 2013

Look at our cute gatito! He was so tiny and had lots of room in his sling bed.

He forgot about this bed after awhile, sleeping in other locations, so I moved it upstairs in the "library" area of our bedroom.

April 30, 2014

He rediscovered it a couple days ago.






No more gatito!
But still so pretty.

Some Mail Art and more, of course.

 I'm back to my old favorite Mail Art fun: altering vintage postcards. This one got a bird on it and some text and was sent out to someone who needed encouragement. A person whom I do not know and who doesn't know me. I hope he feels encouraged by it.

I received a new batch of old postcards from B & R on Friday. They give me new views to alter.

 I started to put photos on Instagram and began with plant and flower photos. We have these growing in our front rock garden and I love how alien they look close up.

 Last night, as the sun was setting, I suggested that we drive over to Fountain lake instead of going directly home from The League of Space Pirates live streaming event. This was what we saw. We stayed, sitting on a bench until it was dark. There were lots of other people enjoying the sight/site. Notice the duck, which was doing a solo tour of the lake.

This is a view of the walkway at VMFA that captured me last Friday. There was something so captivating about it - the light, the trio of trees at the top, the curve of the rail, the pale clouds. I really liked it.

Bizoo photo by Chuck Scalin

Bizoo is very, very fond of a large zipper plastic bag. The kind that one stores a blanket in, or a sweater. He goes into it and turns around to face the opening. Maybe he thinks he's hidden when he's in it? I keep it in my closet and bring it out for him to have a bit of play time with it.

Here's our girl Z wearing the coat, dress, and hat outfit that her Aunt M wore when she was this age. So cute! Both of them.

Do you have any clothes from when you were a baby?  Nice this didn't go out of "style."

OOh, long time no see!

 The dogwood trees are in bloom, except for mine. It's a hybrid of some kind and we put it in last year and so far no blooms. I can't wait to see what it'll look like once it does have some, in who knows how many years. It's kind of sad looking now. This lovely bloom is on the tree in N & J's front yard.

 We're so happy spring is here. I love all the little flowers that are popping up.

 What are these? Are they primrose? They're in my back garden but I have no idea what they are. I do like them, however.

 Passover was a busy week for us. M arrived from the north and C and L arrived from the west.

 We had a terrific time, with lots of cooking and eating involved. We even "invented" a dessert using chocolate covered matzah. We came up with Matzahmisu, get it? Like Tiramisu! The recipe is HERE on my recipe blog.

We were so sad when everyone left to return home. It was such fun!

 The annual Monument Avenue Easter Parade was perfect this year. The weather was sunny but not too hot. People dressed up or not, and strolled up one side and down the other of Monument Avenue. I caught this mother-daughter duo from behind. They were so colorful and the little girl was so cute with her very tall Easter chapeau.

There were food and beverage tents, crafts, and hats for sale, and games for the kids.

 At each end of the parade there was live music.

The crowd was estimated at 25,000 people!  And it felt like that at times.

Dogs, rabbits, and even a pig, wore bonnets. Not sure any of them like it, but it was cute to see. There was a person dressed as a bunny giving out candy and posing for photos. It was a happy looking bunny so the children weren't freaked out.

Someone set up this darling bunny tea party on their tiny front lawn.
Across the street, a couple of children set up a lemonade and cupcake stand and were doing a brisk business.

A lovely start to spring. Yay!