Mail Art Swap

Getting my postcards ready to mail for the first swap I've done in AGES.  I'm so happy to be back into it - just another of the many perks of retirement. This swap challenge is to use paint chips (those free color sample cards you get at paint departments) on your postcards.  I'm sure that the folks at my local Home Depot now have me on a watch list because I went in the other day and literally took a huge handful. Better not go back there for a while...

If you'd like to participate in mail art swaps, check out Karen Isaacson's  blog, Mail Me Some Art
She does an amazing job of hosting LOTS of swaps!

I'm Back!

Yes, after an inordinately long hiatus, I have returned to Blog-land. So many things have happened since my last post (over a year ago!) that I'm not sure where to begin.  I guess the biggest and most wonderful news is that my husband and I retired from teaching in June. He taught for 20 years and I survived taught for 24. No, we do not miss it. Yes, we are enjoying our freedom. No, we're not bored. In fact, I'm busier now than I was when I was teaching. I understand this is a common condition among the retired. Yes, we are very blessed to have been able to retire early and I thank the gods daily for it, especially each morning when we have our leisurely coffee in the front yard (also known as "the morning room") and the rest of the world is racing around getting to work.

One of my longstanding whiny refrains has been "Working cramps my style. I don't have time to work on my art..." Now that I HAVE time, I figured I'd better stop whining and start creating.  So I am pleased to announce the opening of my Zibbet shop! Some of you may not be familiar with Zibbet. It's much like Etsy, but I find them a bit friendlier to use. At present, I'm focusing on upcycled/repurposed stationery and mail art and have already made a sale! Stop by for a visit, when you have the chance: Enveloped In Art. Here are a few examples of what you'll find:

Halloween envelopes

Kokopelli postcard

Winter Trees postcard

Autumn Stationery Packet

Halloween Stationery packet

There's been a definite learning curve involved in the computer part of this.  I must say that I find the art part much more engaging! But, I'm determined to become part of the 21st century and find my way around technology. At least enough to get my work out there. I suspect it takes me three times longer than it would someone who knows what she's doing.  So much of my life is trial and error...

There are other adventures going on around here (like reworking our city plot of land into a permaculture homestead - click on this link to see some folks who are my heroes and role models), but they will have to wait for another post!

Repurposed Cards

As promised, here is a picture of the basket I made from this year's holiday cards:

While I was blanket stitching around the pieces, I kept having a sense of deja vu.  I know I haven't made one of these before, but it felt so familiar.  (Could it be the mysterious D.A. vibe again?  Naaaawwhh - can you really imagine Lady Mary making one of these?)  Anyway, I think it turned out to be something cute and I got the idea for it and the snowflake thingy (see previous post) here.  I'd like to try one of the burlap wreaths they show in their December/January issue. 

This afternoon I plan to make Orecchiette with Sausage, a recipe from an ancient issue of Tastes of Italia magazine (I think November 2006 qualifies for ancient).  It looks pretty simple to make and the husband deserves a nice dinner since he was back to school this morning and I have the next 8 weeks off with my foot.  I haven't attempted home made pasta, but this looks like I can do it with minimal time on my feet...

My Left Foot

This is my foot.  And David's chihuahua, Rosko.  He's a nice chihuahua and he likes everybody, but he LOVES my husband.  This is his coy pose.

My foot is tired of looking like this.  I suppose I shouldn't complain.  I'm fairly mobile considering I had surgery on Thursday morning and it's Sunday afternoon.  Pretty much done with the pain pills, which were not fun.  I have to creep along whenever I get up for fear of bumping it - also not fun.  I see the doctor on Tuesday.  Hopefully I can lose some of the bandaging, which is tight and itchy.

Here is my faithful companion, Murnie:

She's a snuggle-bug and has much taken up residence on the couch with me.  We receive occasional visits from the cats, when they're not at Secret Cat Club meetings or napping or getting into things that I don't know about because I am stuck on the couch...

Here is a weird snowflake thingy I made from some of the cards we got this year:

Yep. That's what I did for two days while lying on the couch, high on percocets watching Desperate Housewives on Netflix.  (Thank goodness Downton Abbey starts back up tonight.)  I've also got pieces cut out to make little baskets from the cards that were too small for the snowflake thingy. Pictures to follow once I get going on it.

While haunting the internet I discovered this:



which I love SO much and want to make.  It will have to wait for a few more days because I have to be able to get up and root around in my stufio for the yarn, needles and beads.  Isn't it gorgeous???  For those of you who knit, you can find the pattern here.(Even if you don't knit you can find it there, but you probably aren't interested.)

I'm finishing up a wimple knit from a deep green Shetland wool.  It's not delicate like this one, but it is WARM.  And I like the color - a foresty kind of green. 

I also have some pillowcases that I'm going to embroider (white on white).  I planned to have a bunch of fussy little stuff to work on because the coffee table won't hold big projects and I have to be able to work on things while lying down.  I'm not sure why the pillowcases.  I just woke up one morning last week and wanted to have elegant embroidered pillowcases.  Perhaps it's the Downton Abbey vibe, not sure...

Enough nattering for now.   More on the next episode of  "View from the Couch..."

Welcome, October!

Once October arrives, I know it's truly autumn, regardless of what's happening outside.  This morning started off quite cloudy, (wonderful for drinking coffee in the "morning room") but it got hotter and sunny in the afternoon.  I cleaned out the bed with my poor corn stalks and used them to make two wreaths and two shocks which will fit perfectly on my outdoor altar.  Pictures of those to come, as I haven't finished decorating them...

Here's what's growing:

Now, this might not look like much to those of you in more temperate climes, but to have this much robust color in the Mojave Desert just tickles me to no end.

Here we have beans (3 kinds - scarlet runner, purple, and yellow bush beans), radishes, and shelling peas.


Today, Morgan and I were going to decorate the house (once October hits, it's Halloween all month as far as we're concerned), but we were waylaid by the creative impulse.  The dining room table was clean this morning but now...

Hmmm...well, we got a lot of stuff done.  I worked on my zettified Hogwarts friends, did a section in my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2012:

and made this postcard for one of Morgan's friends who is on the other side of the country and needs some good mail days:

Any Twin Peaks fans out there?  I also worked on making a new art journal, using old magazines which I bound together with E-6000 and then covered with a brown paper bag from Trader Joe's.  Talk about repurposing!  I got the idea from Paula at Journal Artista (http://www.journalartistaart.com/2011/09/magazine-art-journal.html).  She doesn't give any directions, but I thought it was cool enough to give it a go myself.  The glue isn't dry yet and no embellishments, so I'll wait until I play with it and then I'll post some pictures.

That's what's going on around here.  Now off to make chicken fajitas...

Postcards!

After planting this weekend, I was left with some empty seed packages, so I decided to make them into postcards.  (I thought the packets were too pretty to throw away.)  I cut them open, tore off the fronts and glued them to 6"x4" index cards.  Then I added some fruit/veggie stickers (we have a huge page of them hanging on our refrigerator -- we just stick them on there when we wash the produce).  And I added some machine stitching.  Fun, yes?  Hopefully fun for people receiving them, too!