And To All A Good Night!

You've been wondering what I've been doing? Well, I know some of you have because I've been getting emails. You might want to grab a cup of tea...or coffee...or wine because this one is going to be long.

"The Holidays".....you know how busy it is and I don't even do that much....I did take a day off to play tourist in my own town. San Francisco is a great place to do that. Isn't the Palace hotel pretty?

And Chinatown....always a favorite spot of mine. I have been roaming around the streets and alleys there for years but I had never been to this place. I passed it by lots of ties thinking it was a tourist trap and it kind of is BUT it just looks so cool...
The Far East Cafe on Grant Avenue

And I can recommend the wonton/noodles/BBQ pork soup for sure.

Another favorite spot to hang out is my studio. One of my happiest places to be and there is always so much to do there...
and, I like company too, so come on in.

My pal Margarete brought me some great boxes of stamps and I spent quite a lot of time happily sorting them and playing with them...

I wrapped quite a few presents in my studio too...

And I made a bunch of Christmas accordion fold books but having gotten into the holiday spirit too late I still have them all. But the good news is they are all ready for NEXT Christmas. If I can remember where I put them.
I just don't get in the mood for Xmas till about a week before. As I was making things I was thinking what a good blog post it would be to show you but by then it was too late...
DOES THAT HAPPEN TO YOU?

I worked on finishing up my NYC travel journal. I had fun making tabs and then sticking stamps on them..

Don't they look cool? Well, I think so...

I made a very small, almost square altered book for a good friend  who loves Japan.

Also busy making envelopes and sending out some good mail.

Yes, another lunch out - this one in Japantown. 

Spend some nice time by my pretty Christmas tree....read a lot of books, baked a lot of cookies and made pies, took packages to the post office, worked, cooked, went to our mail art group's Xmas party.....
OK, SO here's what I want to know from YOU --
What would you like to see on the blog? What interests you? Just Art? Food? San Francisco?
I need to know if there is enough interest to continue and what you'd like to see more/less of.
And, c'mon  -- you can post anonymous comments easily - I know because I get A LOT of spam comments. You can do it!
Let's start the new year together.

In the meantime, if you are looking for me, I'm having a cocktail.

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Very Happy 2109!
SEND GOOD MAIL -- GET GOOD MAIL

Booklets & Zines -- Oh My!

The oldest stationery store in Chinatown. A fixture since 1908.  This shop has been a goldmine for me for the last year or so. The woman who bought the shop has been been
cleaning out the basement and brought up a treasure trove of vintage
paper ephemera, greetings cards in both Chinese and English, Xmas wrap,
vintage erasers, onion skin paper......the list goes on....

Sadly, the run has just about come to an end and the shop is no longer a stationery shop but  just another Chinatown shop with scarves imported from China just like about 50 other shops...
But it was sure fun while it lasted.
There were a few more pre-Cultural Revolution school children's booklets left this week
and I couldn't resist picking a few up.
And my rule is -- if I bring stuff home I've got to use it for art and not just let it pile up
so.......

I got inspired...
I love the colors of vintage papers....and I love the characters and the drawings in these old booklets.
Even if i can't read them, they are much appreciated around my studio.

I decided to make some booklets using the various paper ephemera I had around . I settled on using these pretty envelopes for the covers and making pages inside of joss paper
as well as vintage paper from that shop I mentioned above.

Cutting out the pages......

Some of the finished little booklets....quite charming don't you think? 

Then i got busy and made a new little zine called -- Let's GO to Chinatown -- what else?

My favorite part of the one-page-wonder zines is embellishing them at the end of the whole process....I stuck Chinese postal stickers on them and some real Chinese stamps....

And I decided to put each little zine in a special Chinese good luck envelope and add some other
ephemera so it's a nice little package...
I think I'm going to sell them...

You know you want one.

Tell you what -- I only made 15 -- I think I'll do a give-away for one of them.
Here's what you do --
leave a comment on the blog and tell me what you are interested in seeing on
Cappuccino and Art.
I need ideas. What do you like to see? What don't you like to see?

I will pick a random number and if your comment is that number I'll send you a Chinatown zine.
The next post will have the winner.

OK? Is that a deal?

Another little booklet that went out to V.B. and it seems to be taking an awfully long time to get where it's going...

Incoming
It's been a good mail week for the most part. My trusty and loyal mail art pal,
Kelly P Fearless Mailer
sent me some vintage stamps from Hungary since she knows I'm going there...
These are going to look great in my travel journal.

Lunch
You didn't think I made all those trips to Chinatown without stopping for lunch, did you?

INCOMING
This beauty is from Karen Ann. The picture doesn't do it justice. That mailbox is on both sides of the envelope -- hand painted, I think -- and my address and the stamps are on the other side.
So cool.
That was a good mail day.

There's Nothing Wrong That A Letter Won't Cure!
My sentiments exactly.

SF Correspondence Co-Op meeting tomorrow. SF Zine Fest next Saturday. Expect updates!

See you in the mail.

They Let Me Out of the Studio

Sometimes you just need to take a break.....and go "thrifting"....
or, in this case, to SCRAP.
I wandered around for a while and didn't think it was going to be a good day for treasures at Scrap but I was so wrong.
Found these old gold foil lettersets -- I had these when I was a kid.

Rolls of stickers called out to me -- love those big, red bordered postal stickers...
and this book was on the FREE shelf.
Yes, I think I would like it. In fact, I would have paid for it -- but don't tell.

I mean, just look at these pages, can you picture handmade envelopes?

Mail art?
I think so........let the tearing begin...

And I got a pack of air mail envelopes and when I opened it at home there were LAX notecards inside too.

Letters!! Numbers!! Stick on!! Bring them on. (I should have bought more to share).

Another FREE find. I almost passed this pack by until I realized.....

.....the giant tags were not printed and they came with matching envelopes and ribbons...
Mail art purposes? Yes, I think so..

These folders were also free and since I am obsessed with making little booklets I figure these will work fine as covers (when I re-decorate them). You'll see.
Next post I will show you all the little booklets I've been making and mailing out.

The whole bag full  of stuff was $10.

OUTGOING
I've been busy making mail art too -- here is a little Show & Tell.

OUTGOING
Snail mail! (Snail Mail artistamps made by Mike Dickau.) He very generously sent me a sheet
and when I saw this foodie article on escargot I had to put two and two together. The woman working at the Post Office thought the snail mail was great and she hand-cancelled all the stamps for me. Even the artistamps. Let's hear it for cool postal workers!

OUTGOING
I still love vellum. (In fact, these vellum envelopes are from  another trip to SCRAP a while ago)

Little booklet
Sneak preview of one of the booklets. Next time I will show you a whole bunch of them.
I'm obsessed.
Cutting, pasting, tearing, folding -- can't think of anything much better to do.

What's everybody out there working on?
Oh, and I have an idea for a swap too. Next time.

Send good mail -- Get good mail

More Projects From My Work Table

Chinatown Book
Vintage Chinese booklet, vintage envelopes, joss papers, photographs
and hand dyed ribbon -- work in progress...

I thought I'd show you a few of the projects I have finished or that I'm working on.
I love wrapping them up in boxes or with ribbons. They feel like gifts to myself when I come across them on my shelves or tucked in the closet.

Chinatown handmade book project
I've been roaming around Chinatown for years (and years) taking photos, picking up firecracker wrappings and ephemera, hunting down vintage Chinese school booklets
and putting everything in books ....

Chinatown book
Crushed juice box, photos, vintage booklets...

Chinatown book
Here's a "green" page -- Happy Earth Day today.

Boston Journal,  handmade box, nature ephemera
(2001)

Travel journal with box and leaves, pods and acorns picked up in the Boston Garden...

The box has lovely layers -- fall leaves on the bottom, then the journal and on top lots of pods and  acorns....
Opening it up and looking at all this brings back so many memories..

Turkey/Italy  Travel Journal
I keep a travel journal of some sort on every trip I take. Big or small. And I usually collage inside the journal and on pieces of watercolor too...

Turkey/Italy Journal

Collage from the Zurich airport....

Origami Folder
Folder made from Istanbul map to hold all the excess business cards, postcards, menus etc that didn't fit inside the travel journal.
I may make a box for all this to go into or just tie the whole darn thing up with a ribbon.

According to this nifty Postal Chart sent to me by Kelly P -- these smallish Chinese flash cards ( a library book sale find) are not to small to send thru the mail.
I hope that's right....Off they went!

OUTGOING MAIL
There they go now -- some mail going out.

Outgoing Photo Collage Postcard
I made up some photo collage cards with one of my favorite subjects on it.

We all want mail art!

I'm not much for posting personal things on the blog, but as President Obama said in his speech the other night "It's been a rough week".
Watching the news about the events in Boston has been very painful.
My thoughts are with  everyone in the Boston area.
And I lost someone very special to me last week and a person whom I loved very much.
Make sure you tell the people you love that you love them.
I'm grateful I had that chance and would regret it if I didn't. You never really know what is going to happen in this world so don't go to bed mad -- or something to that effect.

So, you all take care of yourselves. make lots of art, send mail, hug people you love.
And thanks to all my friends who have sent me heartfelt wishes to feel better.