And Here We Are....

Well, best intensions aside, I haven't been keeping up with posting more frequently. Like many of you, I am struggling with the world situation we have found ourselves in.
I try to keep a positive attitude but there are days....

What's helping me?

I've been working on a Corona Collage Journal for the 30 days in April. I've always found tearing and cutting and arranging and pasting a comforting thing to be doing and it still is.
And, since the shelter-in-place law has been extended for ANOTHER 31 DAYS I guess I will be working on the May version of the corona collage journal. Art is my way of dealing with things.

Looking for beauty is another way I deal....

And, I am finding cooking quite comforting. As you can see, I have been doing a whole lot of cooking and my husband is very pleased.
Usually I am complaining that cooking takes too much time but I seem to suddenly have a lot more time than I used to....

Sometimes you've just got to get OUT.
A drive along the CA coast pretty close to SF was very soothing...

In San Francisco, when you get an actual warm day, you better go for it. It is almost always too cold to sit outside but last week we hit 75 degrees and had lunch out in the garden.
So fun.

Speaking of the garden, it has been giving me great pleasure. Watching buds form and flowers and blossoms bloom and everything coming to life......
Life goes on.

Friends have been giving me pleasure too. My little city front "porch" had two special deliveries today.....this first one from my pal Pam (on IG @dogearedjournals).....still warm scones and homemade lemon curd and a tiny little wonderful book she made. What a great start to the day.

Later, my neighbor dropped off a bag of zucchini flowers from the farmers market. What a terrific treat and I am making my special Greek recipe with them...

We have been driving around SF once a week on the nearly empty streets. Spotted this mailman and we had to STOP so I could jump out and take a photo. Luckily there is no traffic. We also drove down Lombard Street The World's Crookedest Street (ahem) a number of times. It is never without cars and tourists and we took adventure of it now...very fun.

Yes, I have been sending out mail...slowly.....and cleaning my studio....even more slowly.....I found an old 8x10 photo of flowers and folded it in half to make an envelope. Kind of a fun idea. I can see  using different photos and making more of these...

I hope you are all staying well and safe out there.
Remember to keep six feet away and wear your masks (which are hopefully arty).
We will get through this.
And maybe we are all learning things somehow.....

So, I continue to glue things in my glue book...
cook and drink a little wine...and make a few things and write a few letters and do a bit of slow stitching...
Sometimes I just lie on the couch.
That's OK too.
Please check in and tell me how you are all doing. And WHAT you are doing?
I miss everyone.
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Postal Fun

Did you miss the mail art meet-up on Sunday? Well, come along for a little visit today...

There were lots -- and lots -- of postage stamps to play with....

A little show-and-tell from my PDXCC pal Karen....

Some of us worked on glue books and here is a page of mine.....the joy of a pile of stamps and a glue stick...

Here is a page from Margarete's glue book....colors and postmarks...

Some made a bird glue book book..

I wish I used that bird carrying the letter stamp in my book...

Rebecca made some postcards

And, Brianna brought in a book she made using vintage envelopes for pages. How cool is that?

Three signatures in Brianna's book...I want to try making one.

And besides postage stamps, there were artistamps for our passports....

I always bring one of my postal zip bags made by my pal Dori to every meeting.

So, that was Sunday afternoon. VERY fun to play with postage stamps with my tribe.
I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, can you?
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Glue Book

I've really been busy.
Getting out a lot of mail but still not caught up.
Making all kinds of things -- altered Rolo cards, Rolo Card a Day, greeting cards & postcard collages...and working on my Glue Book.
My friend Patti made that fabulous cover and inside the beautiful covers is a Moleskin.

A Glue Book is just a new fancy pants word for an old fashioned scrapbook.
But it does sound cooler.
You just get a book and glue stuff you really like inside.

I happen to really like stamps.

It is fun to sort stamps and I figured why not glue those little suckers into something, so I can look at them when I want?
I sort by color -- by subject -- by country.

I add some washi tape and rubber stamps and air mail stickers, all in a postal them, of course.....
the whole process is very calming.

Do you see a theme here?

Here I've curated a little art show....

A Flower Show for Spring!

This page was inspired by a fabulous workshop given by my pal Monica Lee at ScrapSF called
Postage Stamp Art.
Al I can say is, if you are in the Bay Area, sign up for ScrapSF's emails and check out the classes there and if you see this one by Monica 
JUST GO.
(I digress) Anyway, I did go and spent three very happy hours playing with postage stamps and making things and getting LOTS of ideas, this being one.

I've got a lot more pages done and a lot more ideas but I thought it was time for me to just say hello.
Plus, I know people haven't received all the mail I've sent out and I hate to ruin the surprises in their mailboxes so I have to wait to post some more photos.
Hey--it's my birthday weekend and you know what that means -- cake! And fun and fooling around.
And I am planning a mail art trip to Portland, after which there will be a full report.
LOTS going on.
And you? What is going on with all of you out there? Are you there???
Say hello!

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