Lauren's Celebration of Mail (Bunny book on YouTube)

Lauren is a whiz at happy mail. The celebrate stamps are super happy.

I can't tell if the black items are rubber stamps or digital art. Either way -- everything is right up my alley. I wonder where that expression came from but not enough to go off on a surfing mission.

Gina knew the name of that children's book I was trying to remember a couple weeks ago. The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. I could not find a digital option to read it, but there is a woman who has recorded it on YouTube and it was surprising to see that it took 30 minutes for her to read it. I did not recall all the details in the book when I wrote the blog post - just the part that the mom of 21 little bunnies had them trained to do all the chores and two of them got to be the entertainers. I think a couple of them were artists who made paintings to hang in the house. I just flipped through the video - so I still do not have all the details. But, I had forgotten a huge portion of the book.

I can't imagine that any of you want to spend a half hour listening to the book so I will tell you how it ends. Of course, if you want to listen to the book, you can stop reading now. The visual while she reads the story are all the pages of the book.

In the end, mom is awarded the little gold shoes because she goes on a long trek to take a special Easter egg to a special child and she is in pain from a foot or leg problem. So she is awarded the gold shoes which cure the pain. When she gets home - everything is in order because she has done such a good job of raising her kids. I do not recall seeing any dad in the story. Pretty surprising for a 1939 book. 

Link to the book

In my search for this book, I found (and lost) some really good sites with digitized children's books. If anyone knows where I might've been, please let me know. Thanks.

 

Lynne & Leslie. (loosening up)

I forgot to fill in some talking on this one, which has been loaded for several weeks. As I recall, Lynne had a note enclosed that said she was interested in loosening up a bit. The style she used is called Weaver Writing, which was designed by Gwen Weaver. When we had a local guild, Gwen was one of the people we invited to teach a workshop. I really enjoyed Weaver Writing -- and also her Rascally Romans.

I might pull out some ink and try some to see how loose I can go with the Weaver Writing. I have not done it in quite some time. I had been working on my big project of converting the garage into a studio - because the weather was perfect. I needed to have the doors open because I was using a nasty solvent to clean the wooden shelves. But, it is going to be in the high 80s - even 90s for a few days, so, my nibs and ink are calling.

Leslie could give lessons in loosening up. I already know the secret. Time. You just need to put in the hours. I heard that Leslie is doing a massive studio re-organization. Nothing like big projects to lure some of us to our desks. 

Also -- inheriting art supplies from people who are downsizing. I have a nice pile of paper, colored pencils, etc. I did not know that they made chunky size colored pencils. The pencil isn't any larger - just the lead. They are very cool. Maybe I'll try them out on the October exchange.

 

MegD's envelope + quote.

Mr Wilson and I were both delighted with this. Adorable drawings and we love the quote. It seems to be a handmade envelope. 

Remember how much I loved MicB's envelope yesterday -- all the things I said about spacing apply to the quote below. Nice S. Letting it drop below the base line is another good way to avoid the common problems with S.

And I like the long middle stroke on the E. Does anyone remember when we had the big debate about the center crossbars on E's? Look at the crossbars in the word *OFF*. In that situation, it's OK to make the center crossbar shorter. She needed some white space between those two words.

I generally do not put in punctuation. In this case -- would a question mark have worked? I don't think so. It's a rhetorical question and I don't think you need a question mark with a rhetorical question. I need to research that.

OK - enough. I hope MegD is OK with the comments. She's clearly taken time to study lettering and design.

 

MicB - silver + moon stamp. (proportion rant)

This is a simple design and very straight forward lettering. What makes it so nice is the spacing. We don't  know how much planning went into it. The proportions of the name and address are very nice. Spacing between lines is perfect. Maybe she practiced it before putting it on the envelope. The margin around the stamp works with the space above the *on* being consistent. The stars are nice. Did she add the star after *Street* to make that line centered? We'll never know. But, it's another feature that I like. I like the bit of a serif on the L because *il* can be so skinny and weird. 

Here comes something that I hardly ever comment on. Nice S's!!  I hardly ever say that because a lot of people struggle with S's. These are nice because they are top heavy. That's a very good secret to remember when you get to an S. I refrain from pointing out bad S's. 

A+ on your numbers, MicB. A+ on your letter spacing.

My second biggest gripe with lettering is the proportion of caps to small letters. So.Many.People. make the caps twice the height of the small letters. Yuck. Double yuck. I know that's what you learned in first grade. But, there is a big world that comes after first grade. I guess, if you had cursive, you got a double dose of yuck. They maintain the twice the height caps in cursive.

OK -- this is a sneaky rant. I did not intend to rant at the beginning, but my blood started boiling. If you make your caps twice the height of the lower case - please stop it. Either make them just a bit taller - or make the lower case really small and the caps about 3 or 4 times taller. There are times when they can be even more.

It will be interesting to see if I get any comments on this rant. Feel free to email me directly if you do not want to post a public comment. Maybe I should post some examples. Or you may just cruise over to John Stevens IG or website -- and you will see what I am talking about.

 

Actual pen pal, MikeM.

This is some beautiful work from my actual penpal. We connected through The Flourish Forum and it is fun to get real mail. I was looking for a way to stay awake during the arsenic hours - and I had been organizing all my pens and markers -- and I found 3 that were .38 -- super fine. Mike likes very fine and tiny writing, so I wrote him a whole letter with the various tiny pens. It was fun although it was just drivel about the pens. Now I have to obsess about what kind of envelope to send to him. Maybe I need to fill that Copic marker that is about an inch across.

The arsenic hours are what I call those hours where I have run out of energy but it is too early to start the actual sleeping. When the kids were little, 4-5 was the arsenic hour. Kids tend to get tired/crabby/hungry around 4 pm. If you try to fix dinner, things just go from bad to worse. My solution was to have *dinner* right after they got out of school and then have something to eat later. It was pretty radical. But we seem to have survived. 

Have I devolved into whining? I hope not. If I have time, I will rewrite this one. If not, I hope I am not driving you away. 

 

Nanski card and envelope. (covid reminder)

Hopefully I will find time to try this card design. It's never too soon to start working on valentines. Or it could be a Christmas tree. Maybe there is a Halloween idea - a piece of candy corn?

This is popping up in real time because I just heard from a close friend of mine who has been as vigilant as I have about maintaining distance from people. She is also vaccinated - however she and her husband caught breakthrough cases of covid. They did not have to be hospitalized, but it sounded a little worse than *mild* to me.

So, I am reminding people that it's out there and no matter how vigilant you have been, it's probably not a good time to become complacent. Obviously, the numbers are different in the various states. But, when it strikes this close to home, it has an impact.

We're not out of the woods. Please be careful. 

Thank you to the people who let me know that they agreed with my previous comments about the pandemic and vaccinations. It's nice to feel validated.

 

Ruth's Feel Better / Dec mail / Nutella

Thanks to Anthracite Woman for reminding me what that word is for types of food (that is not genre) -- it's cuisine. I was so happy to get that word back and hope that it sticks. Also, I am happy to report that I keep feeling better. I have no idea if there is any actual progress, but just knowing I have this posse of people who will help me remember the things that seem to have been deleted makes me feel so much better.

Ruth has signed up for a ton of classes and I love hearing from her. Here is a link to all the posts where I have mentioned Ruth. I rather like the idea of taking a little trip down memory lane via the blog. The thing that strikes me about Ruth is how much variety there is to her work. 

Link to posts with Ruth's work

Some of my envelopes are mixed in.

It is Sept 9th and I need to add the commentary to the posts that have photos but no words. While I have mentioned this previously, I don't think I can say it enough - I really have appreciated all the wonderful mail and emails that have arrived. 

And, once again, I am stunned at the difficult situations that other people are in - and yet they have the time and energy to stay in touch with me. I get so many thank-yous from people who sign up for the exchange. It continues to be something that I enjoy as much as the exchangers do.

Early warning. I am not going to send anything in December. I will put holiday envelopes inside of November envelopes. But, I will not add to the tsunami of mail in Dec. I will still run the exchange. It's probably too early to start yakking about Dec. 

***

Now it is the 20th and I can report that the grandkids did not bamboozle me on the recent trip. Apparently they only try bamboozling when the parents are out of town. They did, however, recruit me for some mild rule-breaking which was confined to eating Nutella before the parents woke up. My granddaughter wanted to know why her mom buys things that no-one is allowed to eat. I agreed -- it does not make sense. Mostly, moms don't make sense.

 

Two from Sharon - Coffee & Watermelon & Allium

I feel like there was something really good inside the coffee envelope and I feel like I will find it.

Sharon is a relative newcomer to the exchanges and her work is lovely. I do hope I figure out what was in the envelope.

I do not recall the name of those flowers and I can't think of a way to do a search to find the name.

<pause> Well that could not have been easier. I searched *purple puff ball flowers* and there are tons of gorgeous photos of allium. As you scroll down there are other kinds of puff ball flowers. So many. So pretty. The flowers are mostly gone for the season - except for those big pots of forced chrysanthemums that are popping up all over.

Personally, I would like to see them banned - the same way that people try to ban foie gras. A knowledgable horticulturist told me that those forced plants seldom do well if a person tries to keep them as a perennial. It seems like a shame to grow a perennial and use it like an annual. My kooky streak that anthropomorphizes things has a notion that plants can feel things. 

Some of you are nodding because you read the book about how trees communicate and help each other out and warn each other. I have not read it yet because it might be too sad. If trees do all that communicating, why wouldn't flowers? And how sad is it for perennials to have to live the life of an annual? What does it feel like to be forced?

I'll refrain from discussing how upset plants are when we eat them. The expedition to Target just ended and clearly I should not be working on the blog. But, I also can't let myself fall asleep too early. Thank you for letting me deal with my situation.

 

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.