And They Said It Couldn't Be Done.....

I wondered if I'd ever see the top of my work table again......

Things have been pretty messy here in my studio. Trips to the $1 library book sales and to Scrap have left me with stacks of books piled up on the floor and boxes of rubber stamps...
but really, enough was enough...
This is where the books were stacked up on the floor...

And look at them now! I sorted and tossed,  put boxes of books out front on the sidewalk where they were scooped by by passers-by. And I still have all these beauties -- loads of French dictionaries, lots of Atlases, typing manuals, Chinese and Japanese dictionaries and books, medical books, books in Russian and all kinds of other languages....
I think I still have plenty to play with -- and now they are all lovely and organized.

Finally got a nice spot to put my beautiful Japanese boxes. They are filled with paper treasures.

Vintage Japanese calligraphy

I am really enjoying being in my studio more now that I've picked it up and organized things.
And, my friends can come over now too.
You know who you are.
You're all invited to come and play. Type on the typewriters, stamp with rubber stamps....
I love company.

I even found things I forgot I had - like this old, blue metal box - perfect for my collection of vintage daters and some paints.

I still have some stacks of things...

The Rolodex Files

Two of the (Five) Typewriters

I even tackled the big closet! It is looking pretty good, don't you think?
I have been thinking of opening my own Esty shop but I see a lot of folks sell directly on Instagram and I am thinking that might be a lot easier..

My foreign language flasg card collection from all those library book sales...

Come on over and I'll make you a cappuccino and you can read....

The other room....yup...my studio is big! This is the room in the back and I cleaned that one up too.
How good am I?

Cappuccino Break
I think I deserved a cappuccino break after all that cleaning. I'm not even finished but I have the worst of it over with. Unfortunately I did fill up a cardboard box with STUFF I didn't know what to do with and now I have to figure that out. And I have two giant shopping bags filled up with free stuff for the SF Correspondence Co-Op swap table this coming Sunday.

Now I can get back to the art business -- I have so many projects going on -- altered books, travel journal prep, altered passports...on and on....and mail art....
is it any wonder things can get messy?

The Vintage Paper Fair is coming right up. Need I say more? You KNOW there will be vintage paper showing up here in the studio.....the only question is how much?

So, I'm back to work and I'd love to hear from all of you out there. Hope you enjoyed the cyber-visit and I also hope some of you will come over for a real visit soon.
We can make things and have show-and-tell and drink cappuccino. It's only 61' in SF and if you want to cool off, come over!

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MAKE THINGS!

And One Thing Leads to Another

Rubber Stamps from SF Scrap. Somebody stop me!

I admit it...I have a rubber stamp problem and Scrap isn't helping...

The $1book sales aren't helping my studio space either. I have SWORN OFF going. But I was at the farmers market and ...well...I had to walk by on my way to the streetcar and I just took a little look.....ok, I bought ONE book but only one and I went right home and tore it right up. Now I have 25 beautiful Chinese drawings which are perfect to use in my Chinatown Altered Book project.
One thing leads to another...

The World of Stamps is a page for my altered book .....

My pal Dori needs more pages for the book I made for her and she likes joss papers so I played around a bit one night...

And, here is what I ended up with -- like it? I hope Dori does. I actually liked it and wanted to keep it for my book. But good behavior won.

Chinese inspired book pages made me think of Chinese food....and if you like it, SF is the place to be (unless you're in China).

The clouds parted one day and I tried out a little cyanotype printing. I have some ideas for that too....if we get summer sunshine any time soon. It was 55 degrees here the other day. In July.
We really are different here in SF.

Card for my pal The Artful ReCrafter. She recently got a beautiful old six burner (yes, gas) stove and this ad made me think of her. I'm sure she'll want to make that lovely hot dog casserole.

Re-purposed card made by mail art friend Judi K. She cut up and re-worked an envelope I sent to her and sent back this card to me. I love it, especially how she cut that slit in the mail slot and stuck the little card in it. This was such fun to receive.

The Rolodex Project
The cards are coming in and I am loving each and every one. These two from the talented Connie Rose. 

HEADS
For some reason I am obsessed with cutting out all these heads from my old French and Spanish dictionaries. I can't stop. I have an Altoid tin stuffed with heads.
Why? I don't know but I am quite sure I will think of something to do with them.
Any ideas? What would you do?
I've been clearing -- and cleaning -- my studio. It was time. Those $1 books really add up. I put boxes of books out front on the sidewalk but i still have enough to fill up a brand new bookcase my sweetie installed for me.
Then, I started cleaning out the closet. 
Right now you'd never know how hard I've been working but things often get worse before they get better, right?
I hope so.
I'm getting tired of cleaning and I want to play.

When I'm done you can all come on over and we'll have an art party!

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A Day

A day that starts off with a perfect peach and a good read and some strong coffee has potential....

(This picture is going to make you crazy, I know)

I decided to go to Scrap. I haven't been in months, not being happy with the pricing some of the clerks do.
But today was a real good day.
This is my favorite find. I am a sucker for labels like this.

I found a bunch of these cool  rubber stamps...

And the usual good assortment of postcards and cards....

And vintage buttons -- just because they looked cool. They aren't mail art but I like them.

FREE!
And, in the free section, I got seven (yes, seven) 2015 Asian calendars. I love them for tearing up for collage. Plus, heck -- they still have six months left in 2015 on them.
And, I'm going to share and bring a few the SF Correspondence Co-Op swap table on Saturday afternoon.

After Scrap, I took a nice walk in the sunshine and stopped in at this very fun show. If you are local, swing by. You'll enjoy it.

This piece caught my eye...(of course).

And, if you're not local, here are a few more pieces you can see right here on my blog.
Matchbook art.

You can check out this link to see more about the show -
Strike Away

After Scrap and the match box show I dropped off some mail at the post office....

When my mail came today, I got nothing, nada, nula. Very bad and depressing.
But I did get this book. I hadn't even heard about it until two days ago. Somehow I thought it would be too cutesy for my taste but it is actually quite charming.

I love how the pages on the side of the book look like air mail stripes.

I think you guys might like this one.

Now, I'm just going to sit down and look through my new book.

So---what did you guys do today?
Or, what are you going to do when you have time? Or, maybe, what did you do all weekend?
I'd like to know.

Lucky for me, my work is freelance so I can squeeze in little outings between jobs.

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(Which hasn't been working too well for me lately. I'm just saying.)

Save The Earth

Every city and town should have a center for creative reuse. It makes so much sense. Let's keep things out of the landfill.
It is just such a great idea. We have SCRAP here in San Francisco and I took a little field trip over to the East Bay to visit The Depot for Creative Reuse.

I'm all for creative reuse (as you already know).

The fun starts right out on the sidewalk....books anyone?

Nicely organized store with lots of things to ponder a use for....

Lots of books inside too.....

It is just amazing to me all the STUFF that exists on our planet Earth...and I am happy to see some folks are really trying to limit what goes in to the landfill.

My favorite color is green! Did they know?

Definitely better to use all these pens than toss them away....

I don't actually sew....but I love old wooden spools of thread....and a pal is going to help me learn how to thread my sewing machine so I can sew some mail-art envelopes.
(Right, Dorothy?) 

Check and see if there is a Center for Creative Re-use in your town -- or in a spot you are traveling to. I guarantee you will have fun poking around -- and you'll actually be doing something good for our earth at the same time.

We also went to the dump...er....recycle center on that same field trip and we got FREE books.
My idea of a good time.

Any of you have these creative re-use centers? Let me -- and my blog readers know -- because people keep asking me about them.
San Francisco, Berkeley, Portland all have them but there have got to be more out there...
so, let us all in on the secret if you know about any others.
I finished a little zine, worked on envelopes, painted some stuff -- I'll show you next time.
Right now, the sun is shining here in SF and I'm going for a walk (to the mail box!).

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Make things from re-purposed materials -- you'll be glad you did!