News from Des Moines

 This item has hit the national news and I've been fielding questions.

It did happen at the main station where my son starts his day - but he was not there when it happened.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/postal-employee-arrested-minutes-after-shooting-coworkers-at-des-moines-post-office-police-say/ar-AA2gOWj7

(5) Oct to Kate

 I've gone back and forth on this one so many times. Currently I'm not happy with any of it but that might be because of the way it photographed. There were moments when I made improvements and it got better. The original outline was dreadful. I was going to show it at each step - but I only have the very first layer. The K has been outlined to make the lines crisp. The R has not been outlined and you can see how lumpy it is. It took quite a bit of time to add layers to a point where I was liking it enough to send it - but my intuition told me to leave the -ate and -iley off - because I know more letters would be super distracting. I give myself a D- on planning on this one. The stamp helps - and I was glad to find an idea that needed a really fun stamp. As I recall, my other attempts to do something with this stamp were so-so at best.

There's enough written here - that I can leave the cookie topic on the proverbial back burner.

(4) Oct to Liz - November - month of thanks

 

Remember the envelope from Liz to me with the note from Liz saying that she had intended to go in a minimalist direction? This was my response. I'm not sure what Liz thought of it - but I rather like it. I keep forgetting to feature Mississippi on envelopes to her. It's such a fun name. 

***

OK, this envelope was loaded - waiting for a little more musing. I can finish my musing on October being so hard and the possibility of November being better. It seems like the month with Thanksgiving has a built in reminder to be thankful for the harvest. I suppose I would be thankful for the squirrels if I knew how to catch them and eat them. I wonder how many readers are vegetarians? I'm not. I think I'd feel quite at home with those Mongolians whose entire diets are reindeer. I bet they don't have to be bothered with farming or growing things. I'm still encouraged by the amount of ground covers I have been able to nurture into choking out the weeds.

The only down side to November is the tsunami of *holiday* stuff. I understand that it's a thing that's grown into what it is and it doesn't help at all to be Scrooge-y about it. I still have warmth towards the seasonal cards - although - the plight of the USPS is a bit of a cloud hanging over that.

I guess we'll have to talk about cookies.

(3) Oct to Mary and Kerry - monster mouth font

 

In my endless quest to find markers that look good on these shimmery gold envelopes, I tried alcohol markers and outlined them with Sharpies. As long as I get a solid black and some nice bright white for contrast, I'm satisfied. It would be good if I found a link to that font. I'll try. 

I regret that I did not use the font on Kerry's. I deeply regret that I did not go with a really bold black outline. I think this one was done after I had done some that I liked and was on the decline.

Finding the font was easy. I searched *monster mouth font* on Pinterest.

Here's a link Monster mouth font

Yesterday I said I was going to write more about how things are in November - having survived October - but, I discovered that I had already filled up this post - so maybe tomorrow we can reflect on November.

(2) Oct to Patty - survived October

 

The idea was fine - the result was a little disappointing. I hope it made it across town. 

As I write this, there are two weeks of posts already loaded. I've had a week off from writing. I've alluded to taking a break from surfing. The squirrels have been relentless in tearing up all my gardening efforts. There was another portion of a neighbor's tree leaning on my son's house that had to be dealt with and the list goes on and on.

And then - when I just needed to look at the calendar - I accidentally clicked on IG and saw an ominous post - from someone whose work I have enjoyed - and - once again - it's a person who is trying to make a living at *content* and pouring out their little heart on how hard life is.....

.....and I wanted to send a note saying --- it's all October's fault. October is a very difficult month. So, today, my drivel is going to be - Yay - October is over ---- so everything is going to be peachy.....

....yeah right......

.....more tomorrow.....

(1) Oct to Nicky - Sign up for November Exchange

Most of the time I use an incoming envelope on the first of the month for the sign up post. But I'm in the middle of scheduling the envelopes I sent in October. Nicky was having a birthday and I have not had much luck coming up with a design that goes with this stamp. I tried acrylic markers on vellum and I'm pretty happy with how those markers work on vellum. 

The two blues are not right - but in this case - two wrongs make a right - or they make a *close enough.* I see more of this design in my future if I can remember to pull it out. I really need some kind of virtual file for all the ideas that I've already done that are worth doing again. Who wants to trade places with MrWilson, move to Iowa and organize my stacks? If there is someone up for the task, I say we hire a film crew and do a documentary where we drug MrWilson and he wakes up in a new place and has no idea where he is or how he got there. Obviously, I am just finishing my noon cup of coffee. We need to drop him off in a place where people do not speak English. Or perhaps they speak English - but they are way more fun than I am - so he's grateful to have a new home. MrWilson will be upset, but after we release the documentary and it is wildly popular he'll be so happy.

*** 

Today through November 4th is the window to sign-up. Lists are sent on the 5th.

If you participated in the October exchange - just shoot me an email that says: SIGN ME UP - you do not need to retype your address and info.

Send your sign-up to:    PTEnvelopes-at-aol-dot-com

Let me know if it is your [Birthday] month or if you are willing to be on [2 Lists].

If you were not on an October list - or if you only sign up occasionally - or are a new exchanger - please send your information in the following format:

Jane Doe

123 Oak Street

Ames, IA 50010

janedoe@aol.com

[Birthday]  [2 Lists]  -- if those items apply

If you are new to the exchange - there are helpful details at this link:

LINK to helpful details

(31) Oct to Lynne and Lucy - Paid-Payed

 

These are the two vellum envelopes I liked - with the halloween theme. I drew the witch by hand - copying the Ed Emberley exemplar. On Lucy's I traced something that had been sent to me that is also Ed's work. I love the results when I just trace - but after doing one, I'm not keen on doing any more. That owl stamp is so dang cute.

***

On Oct 1st, I made my coffee, then checked the blog and read the line: She payed attention to my warnings about collaged materials surviving the aggressive USPS machinery. 

The word *payed* looked goofy. I changed it to *paid* but then I wondered if payed was a word because it had not been spell-check-corrected. This happened at 6 am and I saw that over 600 people had already seen the blog and perhaps noted the mistake. It's not that I'm a stickler for spelling and grammar issues - but - I was curious - so I Googled payed vs paid and found some interesting info for anyone who is interested in this kind of minutia.

When to use payed or paid 

The verb pay has multiple meanings. Its most common meanings relate to giving something as part of a financial transaction or obligation. You can pay when buying something, but you can also pay attention, pay a compliment, pay respects, pay a visit, and the list goes on.

In almost all cases, the past tense and past participle of pay is paid. When used in this way, pay is considered an irregular verb because it doesn’t use the ending -ed like regular verbs do.

However, the word payed is used as the past tense and past participle of pay in two very specific nautical senses.

The first means “to cover parts of a ship with pitch, tar, or similar coating.” The second means “to move a ship toward the direction of the blowing wind.”

In addition to these rarely used nautical senses, the form payed is also sometimes used to form the past tense of the phrasal verb pay out, which means “to gradually let out a rope.”

It should be noted paid out is also often used in this case (and considered acceptable by most grammar sources).

(30) Oct to Sharen - painted backdrops

 

Here is another one in the never ending quest to find something that works on my vellum envelopes. I have at least 100 left. There are a couple others coming up that I really like but they only worked for October. I wonder if I can spin them into a Dec theme - to enclose in my Nov envelopes. I think I have a good idea. 

***

The add-on today is a YouTube video about painted backdrops. Back in the 70s, when I did graphic design, I had a few trips to Minneapolis to work with a commercial photographer in a very impressive studio with amazing backdrop fabrics. The backdrops come in all sizes - so even Olan Mills has them - so it's something we've all seen even though it probably didn't leave any impression on most of us ..... except those of us who have a *thing* for paint. I always looked at them and wondered who painted them. Now I know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6HqXNhT_kJw

They can be mostly one color with some texture or variation - or entire scenes.

I'm wondering if all of this is done with photoshop these days.

It's been a while since I watched the video - so I do not recall if there is any comment about that. 

If it's another *art* that is near death, I'd rather not think about it.

(29) Oct to Susan - buttons

 

Obviously Susan's was done after Teresa's (that ran yesterday). I didn't need to do more like Teresa's to remind myself that I do better when I loosen up. Perhaps this is too loose. There were not enough of these stamps to do 7-10 and arrive at something I loved. The only unloveable part of Susan's is the s in mashman.... but, it's only half bad. As much as I loved the stamps, it was tricky to find blues that worked.

***

My new system of filling the blog with a daily envelope as well as an add-on if there isn't much to say about the envelope seems to be working. It looks like I can get Oct filled by the 11th and then I'll have 2 weeks to get my Nov-Dec mailing done.

Here's a fun off-topic add-on with a link to IG and 10 more photos of very cool button ideas.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DdTQcPpDz6E/?img_index=1

That might be a linen shirt. Swoonworthy.

(28). Oct to Teressa - soapboxes

 

Since Teresa is new, I took the opportunity to flip through some of my old stuff and find something that would be new to teresa. I used a G-Tec pen knowing that it was usually very friendly to becoming a *wash* if I went over it with water. Sadly, I did not test the paper and the paper allowed bleeding. I could nit-pick at the lettering, but will refrain. 

Here is the old work that inspired me to try ribbon writing again. The verdict is still out on whether or not I can still do a decent ribbon. As always - I think it's more about doing just one - or doing ten in a row. 

I've tossed out this tip <about the value of doing multiples> and those of you who really need it will nod - and then ignore it. You KNOW multiples yield results. <sigh> Preachy Jean will get off her soap box. Or should I dive off my pulpit. What kind of people are on soap boxes? Crackpots? <pause> Influencers seem to be the new soapbox people.

I'll stick with Troy - and just be a cult leader. Somewhere in the past I posted a very funny letter from him where he referred to this *envelope thing* as a cult. 

(27) Oct to Cindy - Wisdom? (riled up about papermache)

It's a little wonky. I contemplated going around each of the letters to square them off. Then I decided that the mission is to get rid of all the orphans and I should let it go with all its glorious wonkiness. It's hard. Very hard. But, I am vigilant about doing these hard things. I know some of you are rolling your eyes. As always.... it could be worse. My hoard is manageable. It's that *virtual* hoard on the computer and the external hard drive that seems insurmountable.

Thoughtful Cindy figured I enjoy seeing the USPS's addition to this envelope - and she was correct. Very nice. Thank you for sending.

***

Why was I so riled up about papermache a couple days ago? The underlining of mis-spelled words can be helpful - but sometimes it's just a cranky schoolmarm making us feel bad about being bad spellers. 

It is also the way technology is everywhere - messing with us. But without technology - I wouldn't have all my pen pals and virtual blog-commenter-pals - so I'll just whinge about how it is now Oct 11 and it feels like the month is half over and I should be getting ready to do my big Nov-Dec mailing.

To be honest - I just had a flash of something that might have been *wisdom.* I remembered that the only time I get really good ideas is when I feel some pressure. So, perhaps that really good idea is ready to burst forth.

(26) Oct to JeanR - drivel about drivel

This is the last circle stamp to JeanR. It's very scribble-y and not in the best way. It could be worse. I do like the way it says Sweet Jean - because Jean is a truly sweet person. I don't think anyone would ever call me sweet, but I'm fine with that. I like variety. I know some people who are as ??? as me - and whatever we are is not sour or acid or salty or any of those other food labels. Maybe umami is the word that best describes us. I'll let Janet and Patty respond and tell us if they think I have an umami personality. 

This is short because the days are speeding along at an alarming rate. I found 15 posts that I had written but forgot to schedule - so we might be reading some very old strange stuff. Or there might be some new strange stuff. Either way - there will be stuff. 

I'll start putting *drivel* in the title to offset any disappointment for those of you who arrive each day looking for a dose of something more than drivel.

***

I was clearing out some folders and found this image ---- it's a much better design to go with that stamp. I wish I had found it and used it for JeanR. It's from Juliana - sent in Sept of 2025.

It's a good design lesson for how to switch up your fonts to make things fit. 

(25) October - Sept from Nicky (papermache)

Apologies for this post - the writing part needs some editing, but I don't have time.

The exchange emails pile up and once in a while I go through and delete them. I recently saw the very first one from Nicky where she introduced herself as a printmaker. Her prints have been a welcome addition to the blog posts. I think this is the first time she has taken on lettering although my memory is a teflon colander so there may be some delightful, font-tastic envelopes from Nicky. Either way, I enjoy her work very much and there is only one suggestion on this envelope. The center crossbar on the E is a little wimpy. That might be the way it was on the exemplar - but we are free to tweak whatever we find. 

*** 5:30 am - I just did a search and Nicky has done all kinds of lettering. So ignore what I said in the previous paragraph. ***

Do we know of things that are 100% lovely and we should not mess with them. Absolutely. Will I find an example and post it - maybe. Or I could refer you to Sheila Waters, Peter Thornton, John Stevens - and other rock stars in the world of lettering - those were just off the top of my head. 

*** 

When I woke up and read the October 10th blog post, I groaned to myself about what I had written. I quickly added a note that I would return to the topic. I just read the Oct 10 post and it is 5 am. There are usually 300-400 hits by 5 am - which means I might have that many readers. Lately - there have been 5,000-7,000 hits. My comments are mostly for Scarlet since my exchangers are mostly US people.

The comment on Oct 10th suggested that there were papers that were *finer* than other papers - but it would break my heart to tell brown kraft paper that it is not an equal to 100% cotton rag paper. Every paper is precious. Paper is my *thing* along with the tools and the fluids. And paper does not need to have anything added. Just folding paper is a world unto itself. <pause to make some kind of meaningful gesture to the paper deities> 

And if anyone is thinking that perhaps toilet paper is a lesser paper....nope....there is a lovely lady in Minnesota who has contributed to the papermache community with her fantastic recipes that include TP. 

Now I must pause to rant about Google's unwillingness to include papermache as an actual *thing* that has been around for a long time -- I'm so riled up I'm just going to insert the links and you can do your own research. Apparently there is no way to Englishize papier-mâche. GRRRRRRR!!!!!

LINK to the papermache lady who uses papermache as her spelling and she is the first person to pop up when doing a search for papermache - which seems like it should work. GRRRRR!!!!

Here's the official spelling - it's old - it came from China - the first makers of paper - so it's logical they they were also the first ones to tear it up and make something out of the paper with mistakes.

Papier-mâché - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papier-mâché

Bonus post - 10 years ago

 

Here is a quick bonus post, written yesterday, as I recovered from a morning of demolition noise and trepidation because demolishing things that have been done to a hundred year old house is trepidatious. I was exhausted from yard work so I allowed myself some surfing and clicked on Pinterest. It was fun to see that one of the first things to pop up was from the blog. A 2016 post. The top one is from Kate and the bottom one is from Rachael. We're probably done with our halloween envelopes. I should surf around the blog and look for ideas for Nov and Dec.

Today's regular post is right below.

(24) Sept from Mia - the denim conversation

 

With my new system for posting the envelopes in the order they arrive, I was also able to see which ones were late. Since Mia is in Canada, I checked with her to see when she had mailed hers and asked for a photo. I hope this envelope shows up - and I wonder if that font is in my collection of fonts on Pinterest. There is guy in Canada who has an extensive collection of fonts online. Luc DeVore? Maybe I can find his name and website. I'm pretty sure I have linked to it previously. 

***

A while ago I added this link to a post from 2020 and of course I have forgotten why. When I see something that looks like a good topic, I will park it in a blog post and then wait to add an envelope.

https://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/2020/07/denim-from-leslie.html

OK - I just looked at it and it's just me jabbering about fabric. I suppose you can look at it but, only if you are new to the blog and have never looked at old stuff. While I am liking my new system for posting the envelopes, I am concerned that it is too regimented and does not allow for any of the spontaneity and fun that I prefer. I'll try to focus more on the design tips. 

Mia's choice to center everything is very nice. She let the font be the star. The weight of the lines and the colors in her work complement the stamp. There's nothing to tweak on this envelope. 

***

Ohhhhhhh - I see something that might have freaked the scanner out. She spelled out FORTY-FOURTH. I think the scanner only reads numbers. This is just a guess. And here's the kicker - the way four/fourteen/fourty/forty/fourth/forth has some inconsistency has always sent me into my GRRRRs - but I'm too busy to do another tedious rant about spelling.....because there is a big one coming tomorrow.

(23) Sept from Grace - Wintering

 Grace did a relaxed version of her formal calligraphy. She appears to have an endless supply of vintage stamps. I'm getting so close to the final clearing out of my stamps. There are some old favorites that will be hard to part with - but I think I can do it.

***

Here I am, writing on Sept 30th. On the cusp of welcoming people to the exchange and making up the lists. I just finished listening to the book Wintering by Katherine May. I listened to it a couple years ago and I am always looking for audio books that will put me back to sleep when I am plagued with waking up every 1.5 to 2 hours (due to TBI).

I remembered that Wintering was a book about enduring the *wintery* parts of life so I thought maybe it would work for my dread of October. Voila. It had all kinds of things that I did not remember that were commiserating and nudging. It didn't try to be uplifting - just nudging along with a reminder to spend some time in nature and be uplifted by the way things work for the non-human creatures.

And then - when I did a search to see if I had already recommended the book - I found a fantastic post that made me so happy. We'll talk about it tomorrow - because right now - we have to pause - and celebrate the crossing over to 6,000,000 views of the blog. That's just wild. 

***

Later - when I looked at that supposedly *fantastic* post - that felt like a huge overstatement - so don't be expecting much tomorrow.

Oct to Christina -- USPS game

Here's my first October envelope. I used up some of my favorite stamps. This one was pretty quick. While I love the stamp, I wasn't getting any brilliant ideas. At least it coordinates with the rest of today's post which is USPS themed. Tomorrow's envelope is one I like even though it has four mistakes.

***

This might be my all-time favorite save the date. They are friends of my postal worker son. I blurred their faces and the info - and will probably delete it in a week or so. I just wanted to share it with my daily readers. 

 

***

Here's a fun game available at the USPS website - or other places. LINK to see details

There are all kinds of fun gifts from the USPS at their website - at the [Shop] tab.

Sept from Kate - Write like Pippi

 Here's Kate's September envelope. It makes me want to buy another sheet of those stamps. There is some pretty sparkle detail on the lettering. There are two more Sept envelopes to post - because they seem to be lost in the mail. 

***

It seems like I am just interested in a change of pace rather than a sabbatical from surfing. I haven't been paying attention to Pinterest so it's been providing some fodder for the blog. When I clicked on Pinterest, it was fun to see that one of my envelopes popped up in the very first spot. I took a screen shot. That's one of my envelopes to the post office in New Hampshire where Paula works. Note to self: send an envelope to Paula.

I scrolled down and clicked on something that led me to a Pippi who lives in Utah, has four kids and seems to think she has time to build an online career. Good luck with that. I don't mean that in a bad way - I suppose there are people who can raise four kids and build a career at the same time. To me, it seems like a bit much - maybe Pippi will see a huge bump in traffic and trace it back to me. Hi, Pippi. Feel free to let me know that my link was helpful.

I have to be honest with you, Pippi, I just use images to generate ideas for doing fun envelopes. Your ideas are very fun and I will be featuring my variations of your work. I won't be selling anything. Maybe some of my readers will buy stuff or sign up for your class. It's all very beginner friendly.

LINK to Pippi's website - not the home page - it's one of the options in her [Shop] section

To Chuck in Oct -- Red Beryl

 

I pondered this style of lettering for October. It has a spookiness to it. It's a huge no-no to write a name in all caps when the caps are specifically for initial caps. But, it's OK to do that when you want to be spooky. I suppose there is a design lesson in there - the one about when it is OK to break rules that are rarely broken. My favorite way to break rules is to mix caps and lower case. It's rare that I opt for this kind of rule breaking. On the one yesterday and on this one, I was using non-exchangers for warm up - and yesterday's went further. This one, while I like it - did not motivate me to do any additional envelopes in this style. I think it works with 5 letters. I dunno. Maybe I will try again.....  Maybe I'd like it more if I had a way to tie it in with the stamp. I'm just using up orphan stamps.....

***

How many people have heard of red beryl? Yesterday I invited a friend over to consult on the repair of a piece of furniture. He came after work with his boys, 8 year old twins. After the consultation, conversation wandered around and one of the boys was heading in a direction that I wanted to head off at the pass - so I just inserted a topic-changer. I asked the dad, if you could be a rock or a mineral - what would you be?Without even pausing, he said, "Anthracite."

One of the boys said, "I'd want to be red beryl." The dad and I said, "What's that?" The boy said, "The rarest of all the minerals." He went on with more details. The dad and I were very happy to learn something new from an 8 year old. 

Of course, I had to Google and was delighted to find that there are 9 other rare minerals. 

https://topostreets.com/top-10-rarest-minerals-in-the-world/

While I am still on my sabbatical from surfing - I am delighted to have real humans giving me ideas for add ons. 

I will also enjoy hearing what kind of rock or mineral any of the readers would like to be. As a person born in April, the diamond month, I guess I'd choose diamond... which is strange - because I would never wear a diamond. I had a jeweler friend who had designed a ring that looked like a chunky signet ring. The top panel opened and there was a little drawer with big diamond in it. A client had inherited a ring with a big diamond and they wanted to wear the diamond but they didn't want anyone else to see it.

To Lisa in Oct - George Lucas museum

 

Sneak peek at something I tried on my October envelopes. I finally found some markers that work on the gold, but I'll need some new stamps. That one is egregiously incompatible.

***

This post is written later in the same day that I wrote yesterday's post - the one where I pondered less surfing. I had hoped that people would still send me interesting things and voila - within an hour I had a link to this video about a museum that George Lucas created. It is un-bee-lee-vu- ble to the Nth degree. It's a museum for narrative art featuring work that had not had a lot of exposure in traditional museums because it was mostly done to augment something else...as in illustrating a story. There are some cartoonists - and their work is stand alone - but it would not have been considered fine art and welcomed into a traditional museum.

I've often thought that if I had been able to choose a path and magically be a rock star - I would have chosen illustration rather than fine art. As much as I love calligraphy, there is a part of me that resorted to something that was really easy for me to do and I was lucky enough to have the niche business passed along to me before I even thought about having a career. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKbgvkiNkME

From Mary to Patty - Seasonal musing

Here is another envelope from Mary. I love the worms. Earlier today (Sept 29) I was finally back in the yard after our monsoon season let up for a couple days. The rain had made the cardboard soggy enough that the squirrels were able to dig holes all over the place. I should have taken a photo. Instead, I started raking up all the shredded cardboard. There were so many worms. Everything they say about cardboard promoting worms is true. I considered taking photos - but this rendering of happy worms is much better. 

The add-on was written before I started loading envelopes. It validates how long that monsoon lasted.

***

I'm writing this on Sept 18, a little over three weeks ago. The monsoon let up for one day and then it was back. The out of doors is soooo soggy and musty and moldy - it smells awful. But, I am not complaining. Mother Earth and Father Time wanted me to let go of the yard work and do inside work. 

As much as I have enjoyed surfing and finding so many fun things on the internet, I might be taking a bit of a break from surfing. Somehow it's all gotten to be too much. The abrupt change from doing a lot of outdoor work to being indoors might be the issue. 

Also - one of my rough patches happened in an October few decades ago. At the time, I was a mess and the person who nudged me out of the quagmire said, "It's October. October is a month of adjusting to the coming winter - so while the colors are pretty, it's also dismal." I think she had more to say - and I have no idea what her source was for this information - but, whenever I am not enjoying autumn, I just remember that it's a season of decline. Mostly I am ecstatic about the end of oppressive heat and humidity - but - Mother Earth and Father Time want to temper my ecstasy so they send a portion of doldrum. If I don't respond, they add stress, as needed, until I get the message. 

Balance - one of those design principles that goes beyond envelopes. Our lives need the rough patches. Without rough patches we would be unbalanced.

Mary to Kate - Troll guy

 

I found a folder with some envelopes that Mary sent in a past exchange. You are all welcome to send me photos of the envelopes you send. Mary seems to do something different for each person. This butterfly is inspired by the stamp. 

There have been a couple posts about Thomas Danbo and finally there is a video with him talking about his work and his studio. It is soooooooo good. He is so young - and his *thing* is so fully developed and each troll is well done. I'll be brief with my comments so you have time to watch if you are frugal with your screen time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfjm3Hp1vzw   [Copy and paste if you like to find things that way or use the link.]

LINK to video.  LINK to his website where you can view all the trolls. The one below was built this year in Clinton Iowa. That's an actual person in the boat, pointing, to show the scale of the troll.

Sept from Susan - Tartan lettering

Susan has a whole series of insects and bugs on her IG - and I was thinking they looked like fantasy creatures. This one makes me wonder if she is looking at actual creatures for the shapes and then being inventive with the details. Susan is probably our most skilled italicist. Or should that be italisizer. Spell check is not fond of either option.

***

Yesterday, I called that lettering of the word TARTAN an abomination. Ironically, it was fun to resolve a twinge of bitterness that had lingered for over 50 years. I spent my sophomore and junior years working on the yearbook. It was my only extra curricular activity. I was the person who had put in the most hours and was the logical choice to be the editor my senior year. The advisor who was the art teacher led me to believe that I would be the editor. I do not know what the formal procedure was for naming the editor, but there were two mommies of two other senior girls who had not worked on the yearbook at all - who pulled strings to get those two girls the position of co-editors.

When the art teacher/advisor gave me the news I told him, "Good bye and good luck." I knew it would be a real pain in the neck for him to teach those two what they needed to know to prepare all the pages for the printer. He was one of those teachers who left in the middle of every class to go smoke a cigarette - and seemed to just *phone it in* as they used to say.

My mom offered to call the school or appear in person to see if she could help me with the situation but I declined. The incident was a good learning experience - accepting unfairness. Now - I am so happy that I did not work on the year book. I knew nothing about design and even less about lettering. My cover  probably would have been cringe-worthy. I'm glad I was spared having to look at my cheezy high school art and that my name wasn't in the list of contributors.

That drawing of the lights and toad stools isn't half bad. I could easily have done something that was 100% bad. So maybe the gods of fairness were just looking out for me. I hope, in their spare time, they will go through the blog and delete all my cringeworthy envelopes. 

The design principle that I used on the Reflections book cover was repetition. Repetition is one of my favorite design principles. So if you are asked to make something out of an existing thing that is not gorgeous - just crop it and repeat it and flip it around until it works. While 6 and 9 are a reflection - numbers are so versatile that any two numbers would have worked. 

Sept from Kerry - Reflections cover

 

It looks like Kerry was in Ireland and either took markers or found some while she was there. The color choices for the lettering are perfect with the stamp. The color in the photo is a little off. I like how the shamrocks run off the edge and I like USA written out.

***

This was a fun 15 minute project. My high school class had a reunion in August. I did not attend, but was included in an email inviting people to submit a "paragraph" about where they had ended up. I emailed the collector of the paragraphs (Mimi) and asked how many sentences in a parapgraph. She said people were sending between 5 and 25 lines. Then she asked me if I wanted to design a cover for the PDF that she was editing. She wasn't a close friend in high school, so I was a little surprised that she had the impression that I would be someone who could/would design a cover - but she must have had some recollection that I was artsy. I explained that I was not a graphic designer and that surely there were some graphic designers in our class.  Mimi said there might be but she didn't have time to look for them.... so I agreed to do a cover.

I told Mimi that I remembered the cover of our yearbook and could do something inspired by the drawing on the cover. She liked that idea. I was thinking I'd do a fun scribbly version of the three spherical lights and three toadstool *benches*  that were at the entrance of the building. The school was new in 1966 - so it was very mid-century. I also remembered that the title [Tartan] was an atrocity. A abomination. More about that tomorrow.

After cropping to get just the drawing - a fun idea presented itself. The image could be used to build a 69. The title of the book was Reflections - which was just begging me to flip the image every-which-ways. Voila. In 15 minutes I had a very fun image. If I had drawn something by hand I would have wasted a couple hours [or more] with options.

I sent it to her - without saying anything about the *reflections* of the image - and her response was that she loved how the image was actual *reflections* of the drawing. So, that was validating.

The cover of the yearbook

The cropped image, above.

The cover of the reunion book, below.

There's too much white space at the bottom - but it was a miracle that I even figured out how to do something digital and then the hardest part - sending it in a format that worked for Mimi.

Sept from Patty - Hokey Pokey

 

That's a lovely stamp. They combined the image of a 1923 stamp over the top of a photograph which seems like a new idea. The dots on Patty's initial caps are blue and they show up very well on the black so they must be gel pen. I wonder if they are glaze pens. Her broad edge marker looks nice and crisp. I wonder if she's been treating herself to some new markers and pens.

***

We've all learned to put up with my curiosity about ridiculous details. When I was writing about the distinction that might generate the most agreement and I came up with the Hokey Pokey, I wondered if there was a back story to the Hokey Pokey. 

Holy Moly. 

There is most definitely a back story. It is more than I have time to read. I did a quick scan and of course the U of Iowa jumped out. It has to do with football, so I'll let you football fans find it on your own. It's towards the end of the article.

LINK to more than you need to know about the Hokey Pokey

And you knew I was going to search Holy Moly - which has nothing to do with football so I'll add it to the post.

Holy moly (also spelled holy moley, or holey moley^{[citation needed]}) is an exclamation of surprise that dates from at least 1890.^[1][2] It is a reduplication of 'holy', perhaps as a minced oath, a cleaned-up version of a taboo phrase such as "Holy Moses",^[3] or "Holy Mary". There is no evidence connecting the phrase to Moly, a sacred herb of Greek mythology.^[4]

It was popularized in the U.S. as an expression often used by Billy Batson, the alter ego of Captain Marvel, a superhero created for Fawcett Publications.^{[citation needed]}

^***

^{Jean's final comment: What's with my bias against football? Head injuries.} 

^{If they only knew what it was like to have a brain impairment they might try golf.}

Sept from Liz - LOLing

 

Exuberant Liz had some dragon stamps and some washi tape and gel pens and paint markers and maybe someone slipped something in her beverage at lunch... but all's well because the address looks clear enough for the scanners and it arrived. I have analyzed some of Liz's previous envelopes and enjoyed doing my versions. There is a really good one coming up - but not for a while because I forgot I did it and it's been buried in a stack...but I like to have a little build up to some of the posts. I've enjoyed doing design tips for Liz. This one might have to marinate for a while before I can figure out what to say.

Ironically, she enclosed a lovely and serene watercolor with a very nice note. Since Liz seems to welcome my critiques - my suggestion on the watercolor is that you were headed in the right direction with adding some lines to the borders. Then when you overshot that one - you bailed out. It would have been nice to overshoot a couple more and then maybe overshoot all of them. At that point it might have needed something else. Knowing when to stop is not an exact science. The goal is to enjoy the process of deciding that it's fine - or perhaps do one more thing - and then need to fix that thing.... and repeat those two things until you're happy with it.

On the back of the flowers is a very nice note in excellent penmanship. I don't usually post personal notes - but this one is so funny - I have to share.

It starts out pretty mainstream for a note to someone she has never met. Then when she says, "I'm serious! I couldn't stop," I started laughing. I know the feeling. I live for it. I'm glad you just let yourself go.

Then she says - she *almost* feels like she owes me an apology for assaulting my aesthetic so aggressively. All that alliteration - methinks Liz is a wordsmith. And then with just a tiny bit of space left, she went ahead with an apology. It's charming. It ranks right up there with Rachael's comment that is embedded in our collective psyche - *deeply regret*

Assaulting your aesthetic so aggressively --- that's a keeper.

One last reflection --- where exactly did she start - when she had minimalism in mind?

There is a fun *lesson* in minimalism coming up in a few days. I might even devote an entire month to minimalism.

Sept from Teresa - proportions/leaves/minimalism

 

This was inside the envelope below.

And the above envelope was inside the one below.

Teresa is a new exchanger. You'll want to click on the link below to see her artwork. Clearly Teresa is not doing the Hokey Pokey italics. I'm including the outer envelope which she might have assumed would not be on the blog - but it has educational value - so I trust Teresa is OK with me posting it. 

Please look at the proportions of the caps on my name and compare them to the caps on the address. I've mentioned how the proportions are important. IMHO they need to be either -more than double-  or -less than double- the height of the lower case letters. On this envelope she went with -more- on the name and -less- on the address. Very nice. 

We were taught in kindergarten to make caps twice the height of the lower case - which is precisely why they are - to my eye - lacking in finesse. It was fine as a starting point - but it's was just a starting point...like the HokeyPokey.

LINK to Teresa's work

Teresa lives in Colorado so it's not surprising that she is inspired by aspen leaves. While flowers are popular subject matter and I do a lot of flowers. Sometimes I think I prefer leaves to flowers. Probably because they are mostly flat....which appeals to the minimalist in me.

Minimalism.... foreshadowing..... 

There might be someone who is already snickering - because she knows that her mailing is coming up tomorrow. 

It's a doozy.