Party Time -- a Give Away

Some may not realize San Francisco in the summer is generally very chilly
and foggy. We have had some fabulous weather recently and I am
taking every opportunity to sit outside in my backyard
and write letters and enjoy the weather.

Working on a letter to Isabelle here.

Some of my outgoing mail on Tuesday (with those cool new stamps).
The typewriter and the camera are my two favorites.

Mailart 365
#103 and #104

Check out these beauties -- some of my wonderful incoming.

I wanted to celebrate 100 Followers (now I have inched up to 105)
so let's have a little party.


**Oooh, make that 113 followers. Thanks everyone**

Now to the GIVE AWAY
Here are some hints --
You can use it for decorations as my talented friend
Annie
did right here. (Check out her blog - she's great)

Or.........

You could frame it like like I did here (these are artistamps by John Held, Jr for an example)
and, by the way,  I do hope you all know about
Good Mail Day

Once again, use it for decorative purposes.....as I did on my Mail Art only
Address Book.

Ta da -- here it is -- the Give Away -- a full sheet of wonderful vintage
United States Postal Service stamps.
You have a letter carrier (once known as a mail man), mail sorters, delivery
trucks and all kinds of cool stamps.
FIFTY stamps in all!

And--you can use them to mail things too--if you don't like the
above ideas of framing or decorating.

Close up

Ok, here's the fine print:

You have to be a "follower" of the blog to enter.
US residents only this time.
Just add a comment on the blog and you'll be entered.
Drawing will be on Sunday, July 10.

I limited this to US  followers since these are US stamps and can actually be used here.
Any ideas for a give-away for followers from other countries?
I have been thinking -- maybe some of my handmade envelopes? A selection of cancelled
USA stamps for decorative use? A selection on joss paper to play with?
Ideas?

Don't forget you can LIKE CappuccinoandArtJournal on
Facebook.

Good luck everybody -- keep those comments coming.

Send a Letter Today.

Send It to Get It!

It has been kind of busy around here lately and I have had to scramble to keep up with my letter writing and mail art.
Here are some of my outgoing envelopes and cards.

This is the back of Annejo's, going out to
The Netherlands.

More outgoing 

Mailart 365 cards
#101/365 and #102/365
I especially like the bike card. I am wondering if the string will make it to Gina's mailbox.

My sweetie built a tiny deck off my studio. And he just came home with  a red chair  for me to sit on so I can read mail  sitting outside in the sun.

Incoming - from Miss Red Letter Day, Jennie Hinchcliff and
John Held, Jr - my lucky day - or maybe I should say
A Red Letter Day!

From Rose in Australia
(notice Australia in the lower left corner)

A Royal Wedding stamp!
I wonder why no one put my face on a stamp when I got married?

Now really....is this nice?
I think it is pretty crummy for the USPO not to cancel the stamps and instead put
an ugly black line through them and ruin them.
Not nice.   "Dislike"

Wow! After Meike's story about my mail art my blog views went way up.
Kind of fun to see. A couple of new "followers" from Germany,
some e-mails. All fun.

And now guess what?
Since I have reached 100 Followers (don't quit on me, anybody) I am going
to have a give-away very soon to celebrate.

I was going to do it on this post but since it is a holiday weekend here in the
USA I figured some folks may be away from their
computers and on the road or out of town.
So, to give everyone a chance, I will wait till next week.

In the meantime, I am sending good mail so I will get
GOOD MAIL!

What do you think I will be giving away?

Wait a Minute, Mr Postman!

Correspondence Co-op Meeting
German journalist, Meike Winnemuth, second from right, visited the group's
meeting Wednesday night and wrote about mailart in her blog:

Wait A Minute, Mr Postman

Guess what? I'm on there along with pictures of some of my mail art.
Now, if only I could read the German.

Can anyone translate for me?
(I translated it on-line and one of the lines is I am an "unauthentic" mail artist - something got lost in translation) 

Check it out -- very fun.

Mail artists hanging out -- we came, we cut, we pasted, we socialized, we drank wine, we traded 
supplies and addresses.
We had fun.

Ray Johnson mailart wine -- who knew?
Labels by Jennie H. of Red Letter Day and co-author of the
Good Mail Day book.

One of the projects going on at the co-op.

My mailart going out (the same mail as pictured on the German link)

Like 


You can LIKE Cappuccino and Art Journal on FaceBook if you want.
(But I'd rather get comments here on the blog)


As I told Meike yesterday, mail art is a lot of fun!


SEND A LETTER -- GET A LETTER!

Happy Mail Box

Today's Mail
There can be quite a lot of grumbling around my house when I get little or no mail
but today wasn't one of those days.
Six letters and seven postcards.
No complaining here.

I do have a lot of catching up to do now though...
but no
I am not complaining.
Thanks to all of you (you know who you are).

What's not to love about these French stamps?
Everyone knows how much I like food and farmers markets and cooking
so I especially love the cheese and tarte tartin stamps.
Merci, Isabelle.

Speaking of French, here's my " French homework" for the Homework show at
Mindport.
(And thanks to SuperHero who sent me his French homework)

Into the Lucca ravioli box and off it goes to Tallie.

Two of the Mail Art 365 cards I sent out today.
Numbers 99 and 100.....
I am still hanging in there with the 365 project.

 

My copy of Esopus magazine also arrived today. Every news stand in San Francisco was sold out so I ordered it online.

Esopus

How can you resist that front cover?

And the back cover? Lots of cancelled stamps!

Inside is an interview with Robert Warner about mail artist Ray Johnson and
selections from his work. Very interesting.

Ok, folks. Thats a wrap for today,
I'm going outside to enjoy the rare lovely warm day here in
San Francisco
and I think I'll re-read all the wonderful letters that arrived today.

Remember
TO GET GOOD MAIL -- SEND GOOD MAIL!

In the Mail and Out

Correspondence Co-Op Set
I made a set of postcards to send the folks who attended Ms. Red Letter Day's
first Correspondence Co-Op
meet-up here in San Francisco.

Now here is a question - over at Missive Maven's blog

The Missive Maven

there was a discussion going on about the need to put a return address on postcards.
I vote for yes, you do
but others said they send postcards out without expecting any reply
and don't bother putting a return address.

What do you all think?

(I vote for a return address and I try to respond to postcards too.)

Here's an outgoing to Tallie, up at MindPort
in Bellingham, WA
She put together a mail art show a while back and is now accepting entries for a
homework show.
You can check out MindPort here -- looks like a place I'd love to visit.

MindPort

I got my hands on a USPO stamp catalog
and, of course, I had to make some envelopes.

More out-going, to Rose in Australia and Super Hero
and a last Co-Op card going out....

This little beauty came in a few days ago -- unsigned -- is that you, Carolee?

A message in a bottle -- or in this case -- a small zine in a bottle from the
very creative Alice S.
Even my usually stoic letter carrier had to laugh when he handed me this one.

And this lovely from Karen I.
who found me on the Good Mail Day blog -- and I'm so glad she did.

Hummmmm what is this?

something from the wonderfully creative Kelly P.

A letter, of course. So cool.
There are so many terrifically creative people out there in the world making
MAIL ART.

And there is more but I will have to save it for another day.

Help Me If You Can

OK. I admit I need some help -- some ideas of what what to do with all this
wonderful mail. The wire basket is overflowing and I can't figure out how to display all  the
terrific mail art I've received.
Help me if you can!
(Thanks to The Beatles for that line)
Please
leave me some suggestions in the comments. I know all your creative mail lovers out there
will have some good ideas for me.

WORKING ON
I am working on a multitude of projects, including my Chinatown artist book
with my photos, fire cracker wrappers, joss papers and all kinds of random things I've
picked up in Chinatown.....

LOOKING AT
I like to look at the various Chinese tea boxes and tins for peanuts and fire crackers
 (can you see those bees?).
All inspiring.

LISTENING TO
Rupa and the April Fishes
Shown here at the local farmers market two blocks from my house.
They are a San Francisco band
but the music is world music sung in French, Spanish and English.
They are terrific!

Still listening....
More of Rupa. Check out the YouTube video up top to hear the band.

EATING
A nice Japanese bento lunch

SENDING OUT
Outgoing today

SENDING OUT
more outgoing

READING AND ENJOYING
Incoming mailart
Thanks to all, including Cheryl P from South Africa, Annie Y from SF,  Mim, Lindsey,
Corrine (Dos Fishes) and Annejo.

Ok, now seriously, send me some ideas of what to do with all my great mail.
I'm counting on you all.

Happy Mail Day!

Mailart 365: 97.365

Mailart 365: 97.365