The Mailbox is a Museum

I had that saying on a rubberstamp, back in the days when I sent a lot of mail art. I lost touch with a lot of my mail art pals. Seems when you stop participating in swaps, and you don't send a lot, the stream dries up. I also had a rubber stamp that said "Senders Receive" So if I want more Mail Art, I'd best start sending more, right?

Well, I signed up for a drawing on Janet's blog, and my number was picked. She sent me this lovely Asian style postcard. There's a lot of texture on this card that doesn't show up in the photo. Thanks Janet.


This reminds me of how much I like Asian style, and makes me want to go searching for yet another thing in my room of hidden treasures. I have a lot of Asian papers and rubber stamps. No surprise there, right...as I have a LOT/too much, of everything.
However, on this last day of February, I can say...I haven't been to JoAnn's or Michael's at all. With the exception of that stack of magazines I bought at Borders, I haven't purchased any art/craft supplies. Yay!

My Favorite Color Day

It's a grey Saturday, a bit between mist and light rain. 65 degrees. Had an early morning appt. with the furnace/air conditoner man, just to make sure the system is working. Our weather this time of year is use the heater one day, the A/C the next. A lot of people complain about grey days, but I rather like them. Hubby was out of town all week, and I have still been sorting and re-organizing. This a.m. we went out for breakfast and a few errands, then he headed for the golf course. I have the rest of the day to play, create, or continue organizing. Or a little of each. We'll meet back up later for dinner and a movie. I think it's a fine way to spend a Saturday.

Look at my Crape Myrtle, known as the Lilac of the South. In February we are advised to trim them back, since they only bloom on new growth. Some folks do, some don't. I like the way Hubby trimmed this one. There was a little nest that he didn't want to disturb, so he didn't trim those two branches. I always thought most birds didn't return to re-use a nest the following year. I have seen a bird perched on top of that tree every day the past week. It does appear the nest is getting smaller, so maybe she's is just going for re-cyled building material, and building her nest somewhere else.


I enjoy the bare branch trees so much because you can better see the birds perched in them.

I Got Carried Away

After hearing the news of Borders bankruptcy, and finding out that in their "re-organization" they are leaving some stores open...rumour? Anyhow, they are closing all of the ones in the Austin area. I stopped by to see if there were any real deals so far. The only thing that caught my attention was the magazines being 40% off. This is exactly the price I like to pay, but since we can no longer use coupons for them at Michaels, and JoAnn's has them on sale every week for 10% off, I haven't bought a single magazine for weeks and weeks. Especially those $14.99 ones. But I may have gone a wee bit overboard in the feeding frenzy...the place was a mess and the lines were long, and they still didn't have a couple of the mags I was looking for, so I bought a few I wasn't looking for!

Here's my stack.

There's the British ones, Tattler, IdealHomes, and Selvedge. Stuffed and Art Journaling from Stampington, seriously overpriced at $14.99. Well Selvedge is $14.99 also, but it used to be $25. (for a MAGAZINE??) Quilting Arts, just because I haven't bought one in a long time. Vogue, Bazaar, the Spring fashion issues have good ads and stuff for collage. Then Flaunt, really out there, with ads you don't see anywhere else, and nice quality paper. Whew!

Hubby hates when magazines come into the house and none leave. He reads his, then gets rid of them. Not so me. I felt the need to justify to him that there were two large paper grocery bags full sitting by the back door that needed to be donated to the library. He just wishes I would do that more often. But being the paper addict that I am, I always think there will be just the perfect image in that stack that I can use for journal or collage fodder. But one needs to take time to go through them once in awhile, right?

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

That's how I feel most days. Here we go again.
I've been busy cleaning and sorting. Mostly sorting, papers and art stuff. I am constantly reorganizing, trying to make things easier to find. I have been very frustrated with my current state of affairs of too much stuff, and not being able to find all the required items when I decide to do a project. Well, I do make such a mess when I do any project. Then if I don't put everything back where I got it, it gets buried under something else. It's a mess of my own making, so no one can fix it but me.

I'm breaking up the monotony of sorting by doing a few small projects. Nothing significant, just little putterings to keep myself convinced that I really am going to use all these supplies! HA I keep discovering things I bought that I forgot about, then a bell goes off..Oh yeah, I was gonna, you know, do that, this or there was a very important reason I needed that. Yikes!

I made a couple of cards for my Dad(horse diagrams), a card and mail art envy for my Mom, decorated some jars I'd been storing tiny things in, worked on some Lunar New Year cards(still finishing those up)and I made a quick Valentine hangy thing on VDay while hubby was cooking us dinner.



My goal is to do a few small things every week, even if it's just a card, tag, ATC or collage. I need to get in the habit of finishing things, instead of starting, starting, starting...you get the idea. My mind goes in too many directions at once.

Happy Heart Day

Well, I started a few Valentines, but true to my state of disarray these days, I didn't get them finished. Almost, but not quite. I can't quite believe, and you probably won't either, that I used to do a yearly Valentine exchange that required 100 Valentines. It's been awhile since I have been able to manage that. I thought I'd show you a few of my collection of candy boxes. These are the ones I could put my hands on around the house. I started collecting the Choxie boxes a few years ago, but none of them are heart shaped, I just liked them. I'm a sucker for interesting packaging, and mostly little boxes.



The metal heart ones are from Brighton, came with jewelry not candy in them. I found a few more boxes after I took the photo. I have heart things tucked into shelves all around the house.

Yes We Have Weather

We got just enough snow to make the weathermen ever so happy, since they had been talking about the snow coming for several days! I know they are so proud of themselves when they actually get it right. It matched the "computer model" of the impending storm to a T... I do love to make fun of those guys, because they don't often get it right. The storm that we are right in the path of, usually passes us by, or it arrives many hours sooner than they predicted. Oh well...here are my snow day photos.




It's still 28 degrees, but the sun came out and the snow is melting already. We have nothing severe like the rest of the country is having. I feel really worried for the folks who are having to dig out of many feet of snow, downed power lines, being withouut heat. Not to mention treacherous road conditons. I lived many years in climates like that, so I sure don't complain about Texas winters.

Hope it is warm where you are. Do you think that groundhog was right about Spring coming soon? Oh by the way, my friend Ruth Ann Gigliotti owns Stewart's Drug Store right in the middle of Punxsutawney PA. On Mahoning Street I think it is. You can buy a rubberstamp of Punxsutawney Phil there, plus other groundhog collectibles.

A Not So Secret Pact

In almost every conversation with my friend Sue, we both bemoan the fact that we have too much stuff.... Not just art stuff, but everything. Mostly art stuff though. Yet we are constantly buying more. Having so much stuff means that some of it gets misplaced. So sometimes when we buy more, it is to replace something we already bought but can't find.

So, as we do often in every year, but obviously not often enough.. Ha Ha. We have declared February to be NO ART SUPPLY PURCHASE month! So if one of us is tempted by a coupon...or a sale at anyplace, we will call one another for support. Of course, right after making this pact once again, we started tossing in qualifiers.. What if Michaels or JoAnn's has a 50% coupon? What if we really do need another glue pot of some kind? Probably because we can't find the one we bought last month. OY How about a book we already "pre-ordered". Does that count? What if Tim Holtz comes out with a new die cut we cannot live without? We have come up with several excuses. We will just have to do the best we can. I know we can do it. Me more than her! Hear that Sue? Well, it's really only because she is exposed to way more tempting situations than I am.

Well, here is the plan. We will start today, and try to create something every day or two, using only what we have on hand. No new stuff! I think I could be locked in my art room every day for a year and not need anything new. Providing I could find it. Two examples are: I decided I wanted to carve stamps again. Can't locate my entire box of carving tools. Then I decided I really wanted to just do some old fashioned stamping. Found the embossing powders, and the pad and ink refill...Now where is the heat gun that I probably haven't used in 5 years? Nowhere to be found. Both a heat gun and carving tools are not lightly replaced because they are kind of costly. I probably don't need to mention how many other categories I went through before I found a couple that I actually can LOCATE everything I need for it. I can do some FELTING, because all my felting supplies are in one of those large plastic 3 drawer organizer thingies. But I don't really want to felt right now. I could do some stenciling, as all of those supplies are in one place. I'd really like to do some of that. Oh but wait, right now it is 28 degrees in the garage, and even colder outside. I can't do my stenciling without spray paint.

So...it's back to the drawing board. I may have to rethink the felting. Maybe a few small things just to get the feel of it. That's what I usually do with the felt stuff. Take it all out of the drawers, FEEL it and then put it back.

Hopefully I might have a project to show in a day or two.