4th of July

The big weekend is approaching and I'm headed out of town for a few days. So here is a 4th of July post card for you. The dog photo is from an old calendar. The cover is missing so I don't know who to credit for the dog pic. I added my rubber stamp goggles. Have a good holiday.

June 25 going back to Punwit

Our collaborative piece is looking good. We work on both sides. Here are the pics before it goes back to him. This appears to be finished. What do you think?

June 25 inbox

The mailbox had all kinds of good things today. First there were these three postcards. The circus is from Diane whose maiden name was Barnum. The mountain scene with lumberjacks is from Susanne, and the commercial card from Yosemite, artwork by Penny Otwell, is from Joanna T. She sent me the news that she is working on an altered book with her carvings in it. Can't wait to see that.

Punwit adds to collaboration

Mail art coming in. I had recently sent this one to Punwit. He added his special touches, and now this is how it looks. I'll add more and send it back to him again. Thanks, Punwit.

June 22 In box

Look at this lovely post card I just received from my friend Roberta. I had seen she was making some on her blog, and next thing you know one arrived here.
Thanks, R.

Heat wave!

Spent afternoon yesterday with art critique group in Sacramento. Steaming hot weather. Winter is GONE. Now I can complain about the heat!

Here's a pc going out.

Mail art - outgoing.

I have 28 post cards ready to mail. they are stamped and addressed. Tomorrow they'll be gone on their way to bring a smile or puzzled expression to some family and friends.

Collaborations update

These three post cards were shown a couple of posts back. Now they have some minor changes and will go back to the last one who worked on them. I wonder what they will have glued on when they come back again?

June Summer landscape swap

I know they specified landscape, but you can see the landscape behind my little figures. Close enough.

In Box - one more goodie

This card came from Pamela, who usually uses photographs she takes. She took this in my garden a few years ago.

In box - collaborations

These are post cards which are being altered by myself and other artists. The snakey one is one I started and sent to Punwit. This is how it looks now. I'm going to add more to it and return it to him. The lobster is going back and forth from Susanne and myself. I'll add and return it once more. The last one is a card sent unaltered by Norma. She thought it was too pretty to alter but I'm going to alter it and return it to her. LOL Then we'll see if she wants to play along.

In box - doing the happy dance

After a little dry spell, some good things started trickling into my mail box. Here are some. The circus is a mystery, no return address. Hmmm.... the friends is from Pamela (I'm on the left). The hand is from Joanna T, and the last one is from Carroll Woods. Thanks gals, they made my day.

June 14 outgoing mail

This one goes to my son Doug's family, who have hyper Jack Russell Terriers. Reminded me of them.

June 12 outgoing

Jne 11 outgoing mail

The bear card was made on a piece of a cereal box.

June 10th outgoing mail

Today is my friend Nancy's birthday. I made this card for her. Maybe you need to know Nancy to appreciate it. Nancy loves her personal private swimming pool. And her aquaerobics. Of course I made it post card size.

The beauty of words

I just bought a pack of flash cards, really old ones with the states shapes and related facts on them. Things like the state bird, capitals, etc. They cost one dollar at the Library Used Book Store.

I was thinking of making some post cards with them and picked off my bookshelf the ancient copy of Lalla Rookh by Thomas Moore that I sometimes use phrases from. One of the first pages I turned to, was page 185. You see I never read front to back or back to front unless I'm seriously interested in the whole book. Anyway this portion of the text was so fine, I wanted to share it .

"Such was the golden hour that broke
upon the world, when Hinda woke
From her long trance, and heard around
No motion but the water's sound
rippling against the vessel's side,
As slow it mounted o'er the tide--- "

Doesn't that create wonderful images in your head? Does it make you want to grab your paint brush? Or read more of the book?

June 9 outgoing mail

You may have noticed I found an old stash of post cards to alter.

June 9th Prayer flag flying day

Today the Lodi Mixed Media gal pals got together at a members home to fly our flags and have lunch. The weather really cooperated as it was warm but not hot, and there was a nice breeze blowing, not howling. The streamers on the flags kept them dancing. some were hung between trees, some on trees, some under the beams of the deck cover, some on the lanai, some on the back wall of the garage. Here are a few pics.

June 8 outgoing mail

June 7 outgoing mail

June 6 outgoing mail

June 5 outgoing mail

June 4 outgoing mail

Jun 2 outgoing mail

June 1st

One rain storm after another. Thunder, gully washing downpours. Is this June?

I went to the senior center today to paint, without my rain jacket since it was sunny when i went inside. But after an hour or so someone said to look outside and sure enough it was pouring down. I was working on blocking in a drawing with water color pencils. I don't know what this will turn into, it was busy work - no purpose other than to entertain myself and keeps hands busy while we chatted with each other. The pale pic is the pencil version. This afternoon at home I went back in with acrylic liquid medium which makes the w/c pencils turn into acrylic paint. It just picks up the pigments and mixes with the medium. I still don't know what will become of this. I'm hoping my muse, Lollie, will come back and whisper in my ear that it needs this or that.

I got a nice post card today from Linda Giese. In fact, it is very special. She recently taught this technique and used it here. Don't you love it?