Two from Troy -G3&WGram (10 Corso Como)

CathyO emailed that the pens she used on the envelope I posted on Monday were the Sakura Gelly Roll Glaze pens. I had a set of them and they are fabulous. 

This is a weathergram from Troy and two envelopes. I love weathergrams. You may read all about them here. Correction: After doing a search, it appears that I have not written about them previously - which is hard to believe. I will make a note to discuss weathergrams and perhaps I will make some. 

Here is the exciting news about the Italian *Target* store. It has nothing to do with our Target. As an art major, we learned a lot about Italian art and we have always kept our eye on all things Italian. We even think that Italian food is one of the best genres of food. Is it called a genre - when referring to food - or have I lost the appropriate word. Please help if there is a better one. I don't want to use style. It seems like there is a foodie term that is escaping me.

Anyhow, Italian food seems like the perfect one to start with if you want to learn how to make food that is not the generic stuff that your mom fed you. Or maybe you did not have a generic mom and learned how to prepare interesting foods. I'm way off track here. 

So, I love Italian art, their food, textiles, movies, and their overall design sense. The only thing that is less-than-admirable is the mafia, but we do not need to go there. You can imagine my delight to find this very stylish version of Target. They are obsessed with hand drawn targets. It may inspire some of my September exchange envelopes. 

Link to 10 Corso Como

One more thing I love about the Italians are the feisty Italian grandmas. I've mellowed, but there was a time that I tried to channel that attitude. My mild mannered, reserved Scandinavian DNA served me well until I cross pollinated with MrW yielding offspring who did not respond very well to the calm sensible approach. In fairness to Italians, they are not the only feisty ones. It seems like it is a latitudinal thing. Cooler climates seem to produce cooler attitudes and warmer ones get a little *hotter* until you get to the equator where I think it's too hot to get *hot.* Ignore this. It's just more rambling.

 

Janet's idea to Kate and Lauren (driving to the ER, not)

Kate's is probably the best of this series because I let loose. It is always risky to let loose and scribble with abandon. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. Riley is a fairly exuberant set of letters. Kate has only the t that jumps out of the rectangle - and a lower case t is not supposed to be as tall as a d-k-h-or-l -- they are usually just a bit taller. IMHO this K should be larger - so that the whole name took up more of a rectangle - instead of the wedge shape.

Now I wish I had disguised that flaw by stacking the address in shorter lines to the left.

Here we have two names with all short letters. The only place to go wild (other than the initials) is the *ear* on the r. It was not planned at all, but I like the way the *ear* on the r in Lauren lines up with the f. It was a complete accident. The second and third r's are different. Something else that was unplanned. I wish I had not curled both names down at the end. The colored penciling could have been more exuberant. Does it bother anyone when I use the word exuberant too often?

My writing skills are deplorable. Now I am just rambling. I am waiting for MrW to finish his coffee and take me to Target. I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was driving again. I rather doubt MrW will ever be comfortable with me driving. I wonder how he would feel if he needs a ride to the ER. I guess we already learned that a person is better off in an ambulance. Of course he'll have to manage everything on his own once he gets to the ER. Or maybe he thinks I will take an Uber to the ER. As if I want to mingle with all the germs that one might encounter in an Uber. 

End of ramble. 

Exciting Italian *Target* news tomorrow.
 

CathyO Flower Power (my appropriation). 1992 conference video

I tried appropriating CathyO's design. That stamp looks really bad in the photo. I was OK with the pastel lettering. But looking at them side by side -- clearly Cathy's is better.

Here is a blast from the past that will probably only be interesting to people who have been to the International Calligraphy Conferences. It was the 1992 Mosaic conference in Michigan. It's from before my time, but I recognize a lot of people. It might have been on super 8 film -- who knows -- 29 years ago.

About 10 minutes in there is a clever part where they have well known calligraphers who were instructors at the conference making statements about calligraphy that are at opposite ends of the spectrum. It does a good job of making the point that there really aren't any absolutes.

1992 Mosaic conference

 

Janet's idea to Nanski and Lynne.

My first attempt above -- it's OK -- but obviously lost something when the only stamp I had turned into a monochromatic envelope. And I did a terrible job of appropriating Janet's style of writing and her layout. 

I do like the PTSD stamps a lot. Too bad I can't remember anything about the really interesting article I read about trauma or even where I read it. The gist of it was to give yourself a break about pretty much anything and everything that was rattling around in your head and maybe even interfering with your daily life.

When I started that last sentence, I think I remembered something helpful from the article - but, now it's gone. Maybe it will come back. 

This is why I am not driving yet. I can be thinking about something and then *poof* it is gone. I do not trust myself to be in a car - and have some important bit of information go *poof.*

I think Lynne's looked better in person than it does in this photograph. Maybe not.
 

Inspiration from Janet

This arrived and I loved the envelope. The card inside is wonderful, too. I decided to use it as my inspiration for the July and August envelopes that needed to get done. My attempts were not nearly as successful as I hoped.

Part of my problem was that I did not have those stamps. I did buy 5 new sheets of stamps right before the price went up. I do not recall if I saw these flower stamps. I'm having regrets about some of the ones I bought. <sigh>

Watermelon is the happiest fruit. Remember how Meg Ryan declares that daisies are the happiest flowers in the movie, You've Got Mail? 

****

In doing my pre-check of this post, after I had to insert a new one yesterday, I discovered that I had talked about Banksy on this post - so I had to delete that. Geesh -- I hope I don't have to redo tomorrow's post. Thank you all for bearing with me during this discombobulated phase.

The weekend in Chicago will be the intersection of discombobulation and bamboozlement. Wish me luck.

 

Troy's book (Banksy)

 

Troy made this cool little folding book with canceled stamps. He also made the envelope. I can't tell if it is practice paper or if he created the design with the intention of using the paper for envelopes. Either way, it reminds me how much fun it is to make envelopes and little books.

Every morning I check the blog to make sure I scheduled it properly. Sometimes I find mistakes and correct them. There are more than usual these days, so I also check on the following day's post which will pop up while I am sleeping. Yesterday, I discovered that I had not blocked the address so, I bumped that post to a later date and will have to fix it.

Yesterday was the day that MrW and I took off for a long weekend to Chicago. Way back in July, my daughter had a couple things on her calendar that required a sitter so thought it would be fun to have the grandparents show up. For a while, that plan was off the calendar - but as I started feeling more normal, I thought it might be good for me to get out of the house for a few days. 

Also, I get to see the Banksy exhibit. He is one of the most famous graffiti artists in the world. He has done a good job of maintaining anonymity. Most of his work is not the wordy graffiti - it's mostly pictures/images - thought provoking subject matter.

This is a recent one when he took a trip to some coastal towns in England.

Link to full article and more photos

1st brain env to Troy

This was my very first attempt at an envelope after my bonk and recuperative phase. I have about a dozen images of brains that I like and I should show the inspiration for this one, but it's so good, it makes this one look really bad. There are a few things about it that don't bother me. I wasn't expecting to turn out something wonderful on my first envelope. It was more like: how bad would it be? All I cared about was not doing a stack of stuff that I had to throw away. I think I did throw one away. But, it was because I didn't leave enough room for a legible address.

I'm still disappointed that I can't get any images of my brain. Well, I guess I could keep trying. But, I need to conserve my energy and use it wisely. The main *consequence* from the injury is something I probably mentioned way back at the beginning. Neural fatigue. Someone came up with a fancy way to say *tired.* 

Eventually, I figured out the difference between being sleepy/tired and neural fatigue. If you are tired, you need sleep. But with neural fatigue, you don't need sleep, you need to stop using your brain. I may feel  like doing something but that strange little co-pilot takes over and tells me that the brain is not available. I am trying to make friends with him in case he never moves out.

I had another consultation with my friend who is in her third year of coping with a brain injury situation. She can offer a lot of practical advice about neural fatigue. In a nutshell, you learn adaptations. It reminds me of all the other situations that we think would be too-hard-to-handle. It may seem that way, but after they happen, you realize you do not have a choice. You either accept it and move on or you wallow in misery. 

This is where I give a huge shout out to all the people I've known who wallow or have wallowed. You inspire me. I know I've posted this Kahlil Gibran quote previously, but it's worth repeating:

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; Yet strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

During my conversation with my friend, I mentioned that it was a hard to find activities to fill the time when my brain was taking a break. I said that folding laundry was a fun mindless activity - to which she responded, "Me, too!!" Then I thought about going around to my neighbors and asking if they would like me to fold their laundry. OK -- I'm getting too talkative. Enough of this.

Janet's Blue Ribbon for MrW. (vaccine rant)

Above is the back -- which has very fun details.

Below is the front -- again - clever details and amazing how perfect the colors of the stamp are with the Iowa State Fair promotional materials.

Janet said that she had second thoughts about being so vocal about the topic. For some people, the Iowa State Fair is one of the highlights of their year so it's possible the Wilson's were in that camp. For me, the risk of mingling with unvaccinated party people was a no brainer.

I will go on record, right here, right now, that I have all kinds of confidence that some really conscientious people worked really hard to get a safe vaccine out faster than any of us could have imagined. Then the amazing accomplishment turned into something that is so tragic and pitiful that I am left speechless on the topic. 

If my perspective is upsetting to you, we can part ways.

I keep really really neutral about all kinds of things.

But, this time -- I am emphatically on the side of the vaccine.

I think I already mentioned that people who do not *believe* in vaccines should not be eligible for health care. That's pretty radical. But, if you don't *believe* in the vaccine - why do suddenly *believe* in all the other drugs they will be pumping into you?

And now -- we will proceed to the frosting on the cake.

MrWilson got a blue ribbon in caregiving.

I wish I had a video of him pulling the blue ribbon out of the envelope.

He was dee-lighted.

He took photos so he could show people. 

I'm pretty sure he knows how to attach photos to emails.

Thanks so much Janet -- he is truly deserving of a blue ribbon.

Although, I am curious about one thing - which I will put into the next blog post that needs words.

 

Leslie -for MrW (decorated car)

This is from Leslie, thanking MrWilson for taking such good care of me. We both like it a lot. That Leslie has her gestural work down. I always enjoy the notes she encloses because sometimes there are things that were not what she intended and sometimes she gets into the *regret* zone. But, it seems like I have convinced her that we would prefer people just send things along - even if they aren't *perfect.* As if anything is perfect.

Here is a fun car. Chuck sent me this photo. I'd really like to see Leslie design a car. Hers could be either an all over pattern - or maybe something along the sides, like flames, only it would be flourishing. Or t-shirts. I wonder if she's ever done t-shirts.

Sakura has reissued some of my favorite markers. Permapaque.

JetPens does not have them yet - so there are no examples. I have a few old ones that are just about dried up. I used them on my first project after the head-bonk. They will show up in October. But you can search Sakura Permapaque if you remember them. They were opaque - so they showed up very nicely on dark papers. They had two tips - a large chisel point and a smaller bullet point. They were like a paint marker, but they dried faster.

*****

A few days ago, I had hoped to get Rachael's exact comment added to the kraft paper envelope with black and white - but, I didn't. Then I saw it yesterday - and she said she sometimes practices ideas using my name and then is undecided about whether or not she should send them. That one had been in the ponder pile - and then she decided to send it. I do the same thing. I found a stack of penciled ideas that I probably did a year ago - so I used them for the Sept exchange --- finding them was like finding a $20 bill in the pocket of a jacket that you have not worn for a long time.

 

Tome's feel better. (Duh Moines best calligrapher)

Tome is one of my local pen pals. In fact, she is the person I recruited to teach when I realized that I was not going to last forever as a teacher. My gut told me that she was perfect - but her kids were a bit young and I knew that I could not put the full court press on her. Luckily, it has worked out that each year, each kid gets a year older - and the oldest is now driving -- so she can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I know that she is going to be very happy that she has cultivated this fabulous career as *the best calligrapher in Duh Moines.* She's very good, but she is like all of us who cross paths with the true rock star calligraphers who can now be reached through the internet. We can see that we are not rock stars on a national or international level. Tome's copperplate is better than mine ever was. I'm not sure she believes me. But, it is. It really is time for her to assume the official role of *the best in town.*

I still feel silly that I got to be that person for so many years. I have an envelope that was done by Jean Larcher. I would pull it out whenever I got into a discussion with someone who wanted to exaggerate where I was on the bell curve of calligraphers. I'd whip it out and say, "Oh, yeah? Do you think I could do this?" And they would gasp.

Passing that envelope along to Tome will be like passing the -- what's that thing people pass? Is it a mantle or is it the keys to the kingdom? 

***

I came back and took time to Google passing the mantle and that's the right word. Although we are going to call it Passing the Larcher. It is pronounced Lar-shay' - and he was French so the Jean is more like John with that zj-sound. Tome (pronounced like the other word for book) will teach for 20 years and then she will have to find someone to pass the Larcher to.

Link to LARCHER website

A Larcher envelope:

I never got to take a class with him, but I did give him a ride one time at one of the conferences.

He passed away in 2015.

 

Janet's mail bag etc (USPS uniforms etc)

Janet had her return address in the upper left corner, so I placed that cool patch over the address. I'll have to check with my little postal worker. As I recall, they are not supposed to buy postal uniforms for non-postal workers. One year, when he was in college, he worked for UPS during the holiday season when they put an extra person in as many trucks as possible. During the training session for all these temporary workers, they were emphatic that if you did not turn in your brown jacket when your employment ended, they would send sheriffs to hunt you down and retrieve them. Apparently, the people who want to dress like UPS drivers are up to no good. So, I imagine the USPS is also aware that impersonating a postal worker is only for no good. Althoughhhhhhhhhh - I did see an article that during the 2020 Halloween season, UPS and USPS *costumes* were very popular because housebound people were more aware of the carriers.

Here is the back of the envelope -- a friendly  guy -- although not quite trendy. I'm still liking my idea to turn the USPS into the new *hot* place for jobs. Hunter finally got promoted out of his entry level job. He did not realize that in the olden days, you did not get out of entry level without doing some time on the night shift -- so he's pretty pumped that he got to skip that part of the process. 

Patty has the cutest postal themed t-shirt. Where's it from, Patty? I'll post a link if they are still available.

Oh, dear. I just Googled USPS t-shirt. I will not provide a link. You have to go there on your own. There are some nice ones and some rude ones. 

Here is the USPS official gift shop.

Tons of fun stuff

USPS Gifts
 

Christi's font - (365 envelope video)

Corrected link: yesterday, the link did not go to the Potato Hotel -- 

it was corrected at 9am CDT thanks to the BHB.

This is one of the uplifting pieces of mail I received after the Aug 1st post about my mishap. I emailed a thank you and Christi asked me if I noticed that the lettering on the card was a font and not hand lettered. WOW! I never would have detected that it was a font. Christi put her pandemic hours to very good use taking a class in the designing of fonts. She knows that to make a font look like hand lettering you need lots of variations of the letters.

I love-love-love this font and asked it she was going to sell her font. She is working on how exactly to do that. We will let you know when it is for sale. I've had Christi's blog in my list of blog-links on my blog for quite a while. And her lettering is on my find-time-to-try-this list. You can see more of it at her blog. 

And be sure to set aside time to watch the video - I forgot how long it is -- seems like it's 5-10 minutes. Really nice story -- link below.

Thanks Christi.

AND THIS VIDEO - is heartwarming

because the man was in a creative slump - and creating envelopes pulled him out of his slump.

https://vimeo.com/574254506

 

Rachael's Daisy --- (Jaki Svaren)

I hope I come back to this and insert exactly what Rachael said about this. As I recall, she had mixed feelings about the lettering. I think it has tons of possibilities. If I were to adjust anything, I would give a little more heft to the J and maybe a tiny bit to the E. But, that hanging daisy is a winner.

Somehow I ended up at the Portland calligraphy guild FaceBook page and saw that Jaki Svaren took a tumble. This was posted on July 30 - so I guess she is nearing the end of her rehab - although, that doesn't seem long enough to rehab those kinds of injuries. If anyone needs her address, they posted it on the FaceBook page. 

She is the author of one of my favorite calligraphy books.

It is out of print, but it looks like John Neal is reprinting it and taking orders.

https://www.johnnealbooks.com/product/written-letters-svaren

On Monday, our beloved Jaki Svaren fell in her apartment in Seattle and broke her hip, pelvis, and clavicle, and now has stitches in her elbow. No, she was not dancing, doing karate, or calisthenics! She went through successful surgery on Thursday, with the surgeon optimistically noting that she is "feisty!" She has a long rehab of at least eight weeks.

****

September is Potato Month

Link has photos of the interior.

potato hotel

If you are going to be near Boise, you might want to check it out.

 

Leslie's Crossword Puzzle (link to more puzzle envelopes)

MrW and I enjoyed this one. The NYTimes Mini Crossword Puzzle is still my first stop every morning after I check the blog to see how many mistakes I have made. I hope that doing a daily crossword puzzle is good brain exercise. I have so many fun envelopes from Leslie - and hope to send some in return one of these days. 

There are probably some other crossword designs on the blog. Although I do not recall if I have ever done one. (pause) I opened a new tab and did a search for more crossword themed envelopes. There are some really good ones. We will see if this link takes you to the same set of envelopes that I saw when I did the search. It's worth a click and a bit of scrolling to see some. 

The good ones are at the end. You have to scroll past more recent ones where I was simply talking about doing crossword puzzles.

Link to more crossword designs

If the link works, I will be doing this more often. The amount of good stuff that is buried within the 10+ years of blogging is <searching for a word other than awesome.> Feel free to leave a good word in the comments.

 

Chuck/Daisies/George

If you enlarge the image, you can see how fine the dots are in the background. I feel like Chuck told me about a new tool he had that could make multiple dots. Or maybe the little martian co-pilot in my head is inserting fake memories. It's a lotta little dots.

I'm fond of the style of lettering and if there were some way to keep a list of all the styles I want to try, it would be on it. It's also one that would be fun to try to extrapolate a full alphabet from just these four letters. 

The daisies reminded me of a conversation I had with Peggy, someone I met in college (1969) and after I got married (1979) we reconnected because she was the director of the studio programs at the museum where I taught. We have delightful conversations about art. Not too long ago there was a blog post about the most popular color. I asked Peggy what she thought was the most popular color - blue - it seems like it's an obvious answer. Then I asked her to guess the least popular color. She guessed orange. Nope. Then she said yellow. Yup. And she sorta turned her nose up at yellow. I agreed that it is not a flattering color on a lot of people if we are thinking about clothes. But, I could not imagine a world without yellow. She gave me a funny look - as if to say she needed a convincing example. So, I said, sunshine and and daisies. To which she replied, daisies are white. Well - OK - the petals are white but without that bright spot of yellow in the middle they would be a boring mum. Not that mums are awful. They are fine if you need something very subtle or a background for the more vibrant flowers.

I did some more research and there are many *most popular color* lists. Some of them divide it into two lists - man and women. On one site orange came up as the least favorite of women. So, as usual - internet information is variable. But, I'm pretty sure blue always comes in first.

Maggie/Cary/Flowers

 Maggie's note was cute -- she wasn't sure if the stamps related to the design -- but decided it wouldn't be bad for Cary Grant to deliver flowers. I agree. She said her *executive decision* was deciding between Cary Grant or Mr Rogers. To tell you the truth - I'd have a hard time choosing between those two. What's not to love about Mr Rogers. And I always enjoyed Cary Grant's perspective on how his life turned out. He said,

Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant. Let me expand a bit. I sense that you may feel that I am free of problems. Let me assure you that I have the same anxieties and insecurities as anyone in this auditorium - maybe more.

Quite a few entertainers express similar feelings. I enjoyed the documentary on Mr Rogers. He was certainly very content with his career path.

Does anyone remember the name of the children's book where the mama bunny had a ton of kids and each pair had duties around the household. Cleaning, cooking, etc. And she even had a pair who provided the entertainment. I'm counting on Patty to recall this book -- but speak up if you are not Patty and you know which book I am talking about.

How to Survive Your Stay in the Hospital.

I won't have time to write that book -- but sure wish I did.

I keep thinking about Hector and wondering if he just wants to play in a band.

Gina/coffee/bamboozled

Gina cheered me up with this one. It reminded me of the series from long ago where Smash and Finnbadger and I did some riffing with birds on heads. I particularly like the the expression on Oscar's face. It's a pretty unusual photograph to be on a stamp. It would be so much fun to see how many photos they had to choose from.

And then we get to the card on the inside. There is a note in the card referencing the way my grand kids bamboozled me. I did a fair amount of surfing and collecting of brain images. After I got out of the ICU and went to the regular neurology unit, I noticed they had a wall with some images of brains that looked like they had been done by patients. I'm hoping to send one and when I do, I might even post the picture my son took of me standing by the wall. It's pretty bad. Clearly, I am dragging my feet - because it is right here - in my phone - and I could post it with two clicks.... maybe on Halloween.

Thanks for the laugh, Gina.

 

RachaelT - sunshine and cowboys (deleted rant/tomatoes)

Rachael said she was happy to discover Ben Shahn lettering. It is still on my list of styles I really, really, really want to try. The right justified layout is so nice. I can see how this style would be perfect for right justified because it has a lot of leeway in each letter, so you could pencil it and it wouldn't be too hard to make it come out super straight. I love those cowboy stamps. I just bought the western wear USPS stamps. They have really nice fall colors. Hard to believe we are headed into fall. Summer went so fast.

******

So much going on these days. I'm writing this on Aug 27 - so a lot could change by the time this pops up. 

Then on Sept 1st, I deleted what I wrote on the 27th.

It's hard to know what's going to be going on in 4 days. It's probably best to stay away from current events. 

Let's just report on the tomatoes that my son has grown in his first ever garden. Lots of wonderful tomatoes. Here is my question. Will his garden be just as good next year - or do tomatoes deplete the soil? I like the part where he does all the work and I just get to pick them. 

Feel free to leave a message in the comments or email me directly if you are knowledgable about raising tomatoes. Yes, I could always use Google, but, I am trying to keep my screen time down. 

 

Smash's envelope pushing - black no. 10

 A perfect stamp, or pair of stamps. Black/white/red - tried and true. The part that knocked my socks off was how the various elements fit together. I would have never thought to even attempt all those horizontal lines. It has a very natural flow which probably adds to the success of the layout. Very nice.

***

This post had no add-on and I did not notice until the last minute. I have been pondering when to stop talking about my bonk on the head. And as of now, all the blog posts for September are done. OK, the envelopes are posted. I have to go back and fill in with a daily jabber. I'm in the mood to return to jabbering about lettering although a few personal comments are bound to sneak in.

Like this one.

Think twice about getting all your records after a stay in the hospital. There are some truly entertaining tidbits that pop up. I lost count of the number of times I was referred to as "a pleasant 69 y/o woman.* I wonder what terms they use for people who are not pleasant.

Mr Wilson read through the notes as well. His take on my pleasantness was this, "Did you see that they gave you fentanyl in the ER?" WHAT? No, I had no idea. I've been saying that the pain did not kick in until later in the day. Yeah, right. It kicked in when the fentanyl wore off. Dang. I guess I should thank them for alleviating my pain while I was waiting to see if they had to drill holes in my skull or cut a trap door.

Then there was the page with all the things they tested me for. I had nothing in my system. A+ on illicit drug use, Nanna.

My favorite tidbit is this one:

I want to know what the difference is between a chief complaint and a stated complaint.

For some reason, those two lines sound like something from a Monty Python skit.

Things going on in the head are probably hard to diagnose, eh?

JeanR - art/books/visit/abode

JeanR took an online class (or two - or more) with Benoit Furet and she knows how to pronounce his name. My second outing after my mishap was to see JeanR. She has so many wonderful things to see. 

There is so much to look at today, I will skip my jabbering and ranting. The Benoit-inspired J on the card from JeanR is so pretty and I look forward to trying some filigree work s.o.m.e.d.a.y.

Actually, I do have something to jabber about. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the biography of Leonardo DaVinci by Walter Isaacson. I could fill about 20 posts with items that were interesting to me. I'll just go with the item that relates to being inspired by the work of others - it is a fact that Renaissance masters did all kinds of collaborating and *copying* of styles. They were not the only ones. I've yakked about it before. Seeing things you like and trying to replicate them is one of the best ways to learn. Obviously, you do not misrepresent exact copies as your own. But to replicate is a valid form of study.

Here is a J that JeanR did for herself. The J itself is 2-inches high. There is one photo with the nib - to try to show scale. It is the tiniest nib I have ever seen. We couldn't see any name or number on the nib. If I try my hand at filigree work, I will use a mapping pen or a crow quill.

Below the J are some very cool books that JeanR made.

A cool accordion book with lettering that I believe is also Benoit-inspired.

I love Jean's home. The city of West Duh Moines repurposed a 1939 elementary school into artist's lofts. In addition to your living space, you get a separate studio. She is on the second floor, so it is like living in a tree house. Thick concrete walls and floors make it very quiet. I can't think of a more secure place to be in case of tornado. Obviously you would not stand by the window and watch. There are plenty of indoor spaces.

The ceiling is much higher than what the picture shows. There are 4 panes of window - top to bottom. The building is on a double city block with tons of green space and the play ground area is rather new and fabulous. The only downside is that there is no indoor parking, making it treacherous in the winter. JeanR solves that by heading south every winter. Smart lady. Talented artist.

A colorful ABC book.

This is one shot of the exterior - I couldn't find one with the playground.

This is a unit on the ground floor. 

It shows the kitchen area. That island is on wheels which is nice.