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Dori Singh Mail (skippydori on IG)
As promised, here is some of my wonderful incoming mail. I love everything I get from my pal Dori....

Patti Martin (mysticartbypatti on IG)
Patti sends me all kinds of wonderful mail. She made me a BOOK this time....

...and all the pages are beautifully collaged....if I made this I'd want to keep it!

She included this postcard that I had sent her...so very fun to see it inside the book.

Adrienne Mason
Check out her great blog and collage adventure here
A wonderful collage and postcard from my pal Adrienne really cheered my mail box.

Christie JZ
Another cool handmade book arrived in the post from Christie...

And she also re-cycled some mail I sent to her, like this orange envelope. I loved getting it back.

Of course there is usually a postal theme in what I get since all my mail art pals know how I love mail.

Michele C (mbcano1 on IG)
Michele sent me a cool.....(I'm not entirely sure what to call it)....postal folder made of envelopes.
Just my type.

See? Very cool.

Tammy W (PaperTams on IG)
Tammy sent a little booklet with surprises inside.

Two rolo cards from PaperTams for my Rolo Art File.

Michelle G (@HoldDear on IG)
From the amazing Michelle Geller an airmail fantasy.....this was really a good mail day!!!

Virgo
From Virgo and Russia with Love
I love trading mail with Virgo in Russia. And this mail only took two weeks to get to me. That is fast. Sometimes mail from him has taken five weeks and I am a very impatient Aries so I don't like that.

Margarete (Margarete.Miller on IG)
From another special pal -- my first mail from Slovakia! She spent five weeks in Europe and sent mail from Slovakia and Vienna.....lucky me! But I'd be even luckier if I was there with her.

Even with all these numerous photos I haven't been able to include all the great mail I've gotten but each piece is very wonderful to receive and thanks to you all.
And, remember
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Coffee First & Cocktails Later

Last week I took the Larkspur Ferry with some friends to Marin to see an Altered Book Show
at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art...an annual tradition. 

With a Peets coffee in hand and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge it was a great start to the day...

When I got to the show, I had to laugh, because it sure looked a lot like my studio....

At the show...

See? This is my studio.......

I really liked this piece and...

I found the description quite touching....worked on in a hospital waiting room....I have spent some time in hospital waiting rooms and the last thing I could do was make any art. I think it is very impressive and inspiring that this artist could.

Another piece I liked...

I got to attend the show with one of the artists, bottom right is the very cool work of Punkie Ebert. She wrapped some poems around those spools....

Just bits that caught my eye....

You KNOW I have lots of books that book like these....

My studio

And, of course, there was lunch. A wonderful group of six artists and I'd love to put a photo of us all but I know they would kill me so.....here is what I had for lunch. Blackened salmon salad....delicious.

And, Barcode Barb brought little handmade presents for us all -- vintage matchbooks with her charming drawings inside.
Aren't they cool?

The view on the ride back to San Francisco wasn't bad either....every time I take the ferry I wonder why I don't take it more often......good question..

Well, it is Memorial Day Weekend coming up here in the USA. What are you all doing to celebrate.
It is the official start of summer but here in chilly, foggy, windy SF, I may have to have a nice gin & tonic by the fireplace.
I can live with that.

I'm thinking a movie and dinner date with my guy, some work in the studio, the farmers market....things along those lines.
What is everyone else planning on doing?

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Birthday Tin

A dear friend just had a birthday (well, more about that later).  She is always so kind and generous to me I wanted to try to do something special for her....

So, I made her an altered tin -- hers is the bottom one -- I put the altered Altoid tin in for scale.
And, it's summer and I like flowers so that's the theme.

The process...
I found the larger tin was actually easier to work with than the Altoid tin. I used a Cavallini tin that once held stickers....
And, again I will say wallpaper works great, 

Here is the bottom of the tin......

And the inside (bottom) has a vintage postage from the wonderful Vintage Paper Fair...

Inside of the top half with a teeny little envelope..

I cut tags with a Sizzix die cut machine using vintage postcards and added sari ribbon..

I brought a bag of rosebud tea back from Morocco and decided to add a few tiny rosebuds...they still smell good..

I thought she could put jewelry inside....or tiny treasures...or just leave it as it is.

In keeping with the whole flower theme....I buy edible flowers ($2!) at the farmers market every week.....you'd be surprised how many things you can put them on....I put them on top of chilled ginger carrot soup yesterday and.....

....I put them on top of the lemon squares I made for my friend.......pretty...

My sentiments exactly!
Repurpose, reuse -- make things and have fun. 

The funny thing is (I hope she thinks it's funny) the birthday celebration was exactly one month late! I had the wrong date in my mind. That will teach me -- I have now written the correct date down for next year. I hope she had fun and liked her belated presents....
I loved that tin so I need to find another Cavallini tin and make one for myself now.

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This is not what I'm supposed to be doing right now....

I have a million things to do right now and making ATC's isn't one of the things on my list....

But -- seeing a bunch of postage stamps and rubber stamps sitting around on my table -- made me want to whip up a set (or two) of ATC's...

(I can't help myself)
This is just a real quick little post showing you what I just made today while I should have been doing other things....
it's fun.

Since I've been busy making rolo cards I neglected making ATC's so I've got to get my game on.

I love having a big pile of them to shuffle around...

OK, back to working on a PORTLAND PREP post and packing my suitcase....
I'm off to PDX all next week for mail art fun.
I can't wait!
Full Report to Follow.

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