May to Jean from Irene - the healing power of stamps

This is just spectacular --- Irene put it in a clear envelope which I knew would not photograph very well - so I positioned the stamp, stuck on it's corner - in the upper right - which is why it is up-side-down. The lettering is filled in with some kind of glittery paint or ink - so pretty. It's always fun to see that the inspiration that I get from people gets passed on to others. From JeanR to JeanW to Irene -- I've already forgotten the name of the designer of this style - Wes Wilson? I think that's right. You'd think if the name is Wilson, I'd be able to remember that....

and Irene's mail often comes with an extra... 

***

Clover sent this a year ago - and I am just now discovering where I parked it to add to the blog. And I added this prior to getting into my *short blog post* warning mode.

It is from Ben Joravsky - I have no idea who he is - looks like someone who jabbers on the internet - but is a better writer than I am -- but, I bet my envelopes are better than his.... :-) OK - I Googled him and figured out who he is --- he writes for a living....

Feeling a little down because of the smoky skies from Canadian forest fires, I stopped into a post office I passed along the way.

It was empty. Not a soul in sight.

“Hello,” I called.

Silence.

“Anyone here?”

“Hold on, I’m coming . . .” Out from the back walked a clerk. “What can I do for you?” she asked.

“I need some stamps.”

“Well, you came to the right place.”

She opened a drawer and pulled out some sheets.

“Got any Elvis?” I asked.

“Not in years.”

“I miss Elvis . . .”

“You and everyone else.”

“How about the Marvin Gaye?”

“Nope.”

“Jimi Hendrix?”

“Sorry.”

“Paul Newman?”

“No. But this is what I do have,” she said as she rifled through the sheets, calling stamps out as she went.

“Roy Lichtenstein . . .”

“One of my wife’s favorites. I’ll take it.”

“Pony cars . . .”

“Love those cars. One day, I’m gonna drive across the country in a ’65 Mustang—you watch.”

Like she’d be around to see it.

“Toni Morrison . . .”

“Just reread Song of Solomon. Even better the second time. I’ll take it.”

“Pete Seeger . . .”

“Little pink houses.”

She looked up, confused.

“Wait,” I said. “Wrong song. That’s Mellencamp. The Pete Seeger one is little boxes made of ticky tacky.”

She asked, “You want the stamp or not?”

“Absolutely…”

Back she went to the other stamps. “Ernest J. Gaines . . .”

Suddenly, I felt overwhelmed by a need to connect the dots.

“Yes! The Autobiography of Miss Jean Pittman. Not to be confused with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Which was not written by Ernest Gaines. I can’t remember who wrote Brodie. But Maggie Smith was in the movie. Cicely Tyson was in Pittman. Got any of her stamps?”

“Who?”

“Cicely Tyson.”

“Nope, but how about Nancy Reagan?”

“Are you kidding me? Do I look like a Reagan voter?”

“Can’t give these stamps away . . .”

“Everyone just says no?”

I got a little chuckle out of her on that one. And wound up buying two more sheets of stamps: women rowing and Eugenie Clark. That’s the great scuba diver, people. She was known as “the shark lady”.

Walked out with over $76 worth of stamps. And feeling a little better. Not sure why.

Maybe it’s the healing power of stamps—or maybe it’s because I got that clerk to laugh.

May to Jean from Grace - camp mail

Grace's lettering is so fun - and very tempting to try. It's going on the list.....

The stamps are old favorites - the 33-cent stamp caught my eye - so I looked up what year it was from - 1999-2001 were the years that stamps were 33-cents. So, they predate the blog - but, those were the years that my envelope *thing* was amping up - when I was sending 2-3 envelopes every week to my daughter who had gone away to college.

Here's another one from the stack of mail that will be handed out to my grandkids when they are at camp.

I had fun doing the camp mail - and thought it would loosen me up before I did the July exchange envelopes. It didn't. I ended up with only 2 ideas for July. It will be late August before they appear on the blog.

 

May to Jean from Christy - Phyllida Barlow

Storm report  on yesterday's derecho - nothing bad happened on my street - 

other parts of town were hit pretty hard.

Christy used that stamp that's been popping up on several envelopes. I would not have thought of using it on a black envelope - but because she has some nice bright, opaque gel pens that pop on the black - it's a lovely combination.

***

I ran across a series called Art in the 21st Century. I've only watched a couple episodes - and am not sure how many I will use in my add-ons. The point of linking this one is to remind all of us that sometimes we see art that rubs us the wrong way and then we *take a disliking* to the artist. And sometimes - that's jumping to a conclusion. 

This video is about Phyllida Barlow. She had a show at the Des Moines art museum that is in my back yard so to speak - where I taught. Not a major museum - but a respectable one for the size. Smaller museums do not get the BIG NAMES - and I had never heard of Phyllida. I read about the work and it sounded right up my alley - but when I saw the work, I was so disappointed. The exhibit ranked with my least favorite - stuff I wished I could un-see. 

And then I watched this video - and I saw several things that were even more disappointing than the exhibit in Des Moines. But, there were also some things that I just loved - so - I ended up being reminded that sometimes you have to look at everything a person has done before you say that you do not like an artist's work.

It's 15 minutes - and if you already know you don't like art made out of junk/trash/whatever -- don't watch it. If you do watch it - there is footage of the work in the Des Moines exhibit at 6 minutes and 20 seconds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW7SjEZfrGM

Or you can do a Google search of images. I found this - a drawing - that I rather like --- she's primarily a sculptor. No surprise that this looks like an abstract pile of stamps and envelopes, eh?

 

May to Jean from Amy - From Lynne to Skip

Amy did borders and flowers and used one of my new uber-favorite stamps. I like that *hi* in the border and would love to remember to do that.

Real time add on: 

Here is another envelope for Skip's 40th birthday. Lynne sent it inside another envelope - to insure that none of the stickers fell off. It's so fun - and perfect for Skip. It was hiding on my desk - and I spent most of Sunday dealing with stacks of stuff - filling up the August posts - but, it's better to post this one closer to the rest of Skip's mail. 

Quick add on

Once a year - the balloon people all show up in a small town south of Des Moines and then fly over Des Moines. This is from a previous year. I live right under that tiny balloon on the horizon. Just heard that today's the day they will be flying over.

 

May to Jean from Irene

Pointed pen loveliness from Irene. Every time I see her work I think I will get out my nibs - and as I write this on the 4th of July - and I have only 5 envelopes left to do for the exchange - I really wish I could get my nibs and ink out - but as you can see - I am only 10 days ahead of myself in writing these blog posts. I usually stay a month ahead. So - this is as close as we get to a panic. 

Or - since we are such clever people, we can look at it as a much needed excuse to not do any of my chores. It's hot and humid - and I should just relax and write blog posts for a couple hours. I think I have a stack of add ons -- so - this will be short - and maybe tomorrow will be more fun.

And maybe I'll get my nibs and ink out in August....

 

May to Jean from Kate - bike trails

This nice design is from Kate. Those stamps really pop on the kraft paper. I'm wondering why Kate used 4. I think the space that 4 take up is more pleasing than 3 would have been - so maybe it was an aesthetic choice. 

And because I have mixed up my stacks of mail - here is June from Kate - even though the rest of the June envelopes won't show up. for a while.

I was going to put this add-on with a post that featured mail to or from Leslie - because I know she's into biking - but if I start jumping around, it will only add to the chaos that has been plaguing me.

Maybe I'm the last person to be aware of this - the building of a bike trail from coast to coast. I have been aware that Iowa was one of the early states that turned some stretches of land that are no longer used for railroads into bike trails. I was not aware that there is a program to create the coast to coast bike trail. It will go through Iowa. While I am not a biker - it makes me happy that bike trails are getting a lot of support. 

https://www.railstotrails.org is the main website with info on bike trails in every state.

Here is the link to the specific trail from DC to the west coast. I'm not sure why it doesn't go all the way to the actual edge of the east coast. I've actually flown into DC and ridden from there to the Atlantic Ocean and from what I recall, it did not seem like a bike friendly chunk of the US. But, one would think they could find some bike-friendly trails that went south of DC. 

Congrats to Pennsylvania - looks like they have done the best to get their stretch completed. And poor Wyoming -- they have some tiny little chunks of 2 or 3 miles - or 6 miles --- I can't imagine how they will ever get a bike trail to span their state. The interactive map is fun because you can zoom in to specific trails.

https://www.railstotrails.org/site/greatamericanrailtrail/content/route/

There is a really nice chunk of trail north of Des Moines.

 

May to Jean from Susan

This is so pretty and my favorite part is how beautifully the skateboard and graffiti-esque lines on the stamp go with the Asian design. 

I've mentioned my endless battle with dandelions - so when this popped up, I thought I should share that in spite of the fierce battle, I do acknowledge that dandelions are marvelous works of art when they go to seed. Who doesn't remember the joy of blowing the seeds when they were a kid?

So here we have a light made by someone who has the patience to glue all the seeds to an LED light and then create an actual *lamp.* It sold out at $2,200. 

Here is one for only $241.00

Link to the smaller lamp

Link to the larger lamp  The larger one was a special edition of 100. I enjoyed the description of the meaning behind the lamps.

And then --- if you really need to kill some time - here is a tour of a home - with an entire chandelier of these dandelions. One wonders how much it cost - but, they might have gotten a deal - because as interior designers, they are in a position to steer clients towards purchasing dandelion lamps....

It is a 15 minute video - if you want to see the chandelier - slide over to 9 min, 15 seconds into the video

Dandelion chandelier

 

May to Jean from Cathy - USPS mail truck

This is a style I need to spend some time on. I tried it on my June envelopes and they were too loose. I'm liking the way my first and last name stack. Eliminating just one letter - so it is a 4-5 combo - instead of 4-6 is very pleasing. I wonder if the exchangers would be interested in an exchange where we all used our middle names. Cathy is very good at finding the right proportions. The colors tie in perfectly with the stamp. Somehow there wasn't anything about that stamp that was inspiring me to buy it - but now I am tempted. 

Chuck sent me this photo - always fun to see old postal vehicles. I'm still longing for an LLV to share with my postal son. Note to self: pester him about finding one.

This is an LLV, in case you didn't know that they had a name.
It stands for Long Life Vehicle - such a clever name. I so wish we could see the list of possibilities that were tossed out.

 

Camp mail to Ben - Fairyland houses.

This is a random envelope replacing one that was a repeat. My grandkids go to a Y-camp in Indiana and if you would like your camper to get mail, you drop it off when you drop your camper off. This is 8-yr old Ben's first year - so I did 5 envelopes for him. I decided to get out all my old random markers and see how many were dried up. I actually think this one is fun. Out of all 5 - 2 are so pitiful I'm not going to post them. 

My dad ran summer camps and I will not go down that particular memory lane - even though it's chock full of crazy stories. I'll just mention that I loved spending time in the woods as a family member in the staff section. I would have had no interest in sleeping in a tent - unless there were no bugs. 

One of my favorite things to find in the forest was moss. I remember building some little *fairy communities.* More recently - when I first started seeing elaborate fairy houses and communities on IG, I was hoping I could get my grandkids interested in building some. Their mom (my daughter) said, "No!" The way she said it made me want to ask *why* - but when I am at her house, I defer to her wishes without asking *why* and set a good example for the kids. I can always move on to other exciting activities that are only slightly out of bounds. They mostly involve ways of turning outdoor sports into games that are played somewhat safely indoors....but I digress.

Below is the link to some very nice fairy houses. They intrigue me - but not to the point that I am actually going to make any.

These two might be the same ones - maybe not - I was trying to show the scale.

This one is built around a wine bottle - to give you an idea of scale.

She has a number of videos that show how they are built - and many are full houses, not just doorways tucked into the base of trees.

https://www.instagram.com/maryinthefairyland/

Mary in the Fairyland - is in Vancouver BC - which caught my eye - since BC is the *fairyland* where my son, Skip, has been living since 2020. I visited once -- and was smitten with the area.

 

To Skip from Sharen - Moss book

 Sharen sent an envelope to me as well as to Skip - thank you very much. This style has appeared on the blog - the lettering is one of Lynn Slevinsky's. Somewhere along the line I corresponded with Lynn - but it was pre-covid - and anything that far back is getting hard to retrieve. At one time John Neal had some of her books, but I do not see any - I wonder if they are out of print. I wonder if Lynn would ever consider putting her books at an *on demand* publisher.

***

My add-on for the day covers 2 related items - a book that I listened to and do not recommend to everyone, only the people who are fascinated by moss. I doubt there are many of us - but if you are a moss aficionado - here's the book: Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer. 

Here is the Goodreads review of the book. I'll post the other moss item tomorrow.

Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses. Robin Wall Kimmerer's book is not an identification guide, nor is it a scientific treatise. Rather, it is a series of linked personal essays that will lead general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings, from salmon and hummingbirds to redwoods and rednecks. Kimmerer clearly and artfully explains the biology of mosses, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.

Drawing on her diverse experiences as a scientist, mother, teacher, and writer of Native American heritage, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.

Gathering Moss will appeal to a wide range of readers, from bryologists to those interested in natural history and the environment, Native Americans, and contemporary nature and science writing.

I would love this type of yard. It's all moss.

To Skip from Susan - Blackwing pencils

Susan made good use of birthday candle stickers - and found a perfect solution to fitting the round letters into all those straight letters. The stamp is also perfect. There's no easy way to convert the yellow envelope to white - but if we could, I am 100% positive that it would have been fine on white - but it's so much better on yellow.

***

Back in 2014 (Aug 26th - but it's not worth going back to read the post) I wrote about the Blackwing pencil that Jeri had sent to me. They are really nice pencils although I am a mechanical pencil aficionado. I loved-loved-loved this video on how Blackwings are made - and how they were almost lost to the ages - but-for interesting people who care about things like pencils. And no - one pencil is not $40 as implied by the title - it's $40 for a whole box of them - but that is still a pricy pencil. I will say - cheap pencils agitate my being. I'll refrain from going into details on visceral reactions to various problems with pencils. Some of you probably know what I am talking about - but if I type out the details I might sound a little un-hinged. And that makes me want a t-shirt that says *hinged* on the front....maybe that's the name of my whole movement...now that I have a posse. Yes, the coffee extract is a new batch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8J_nYQge14

To Skip from possibly Sharon - Object arranging artist

Our word for the day is commiserate. Many of us are in the same boat - losing stuff. As I write this, I am not able to put my hands on Skip's mail - so I can't confirm that this is from Sharon - but it's the guess that I am going with. It's a fun idea that I hope to remember next time I have a birthday envelope to send.

I like the word commiserate because it has a little bit of *misery* included. I'll spare you the whining about how badly I have garbled the order of the posts. Thank you for bearing with me. I will also spare you the story of the lost car title. If I run out of things to talk about, maybe I will revisit the topic. I know the stack of cards will turn up -- I just have to keep looking in the same places. That seems to be the way to find things - they are always in places that I have already searched. Grrrrr

 

***

Here's one of those IG people who is doing something that is right up my alley - in my dreams. I'm not sure I'm up for this kind of work anymore. Although that crazy puzzle of figuring out a dozen different fabrics to repair those two vintage quilts reminds of some of the matching one would have to do to create these works. 

https://www.instagram.com/witenry/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=76da3d75-9854-4135-a519-da8d1a528a26

I enjoyed this article about how he got into this.

https://therooster.com/articles/object-arranger-adam-hillman/

It was really hard to choose a couple images. Some are much more detailed than these.

It is taking a LOT of restraint to not replicate this on my own. A LOT!

To Skip from Lynne - cardboard ceramics

 

Here is another great idea for Skip's birthday. I love the choice of stamp. Mama elephant with her little calf. Is calf the right term? I'm alway curious about what my kids actually think about me. Personally, I was not in sync with my own mom, from an early age. Nothing serious - she just wasn't creative enough for me. None of my kids are *artsy* - so I figure they might not feel in sync with me, but at least they are too polite to say anything. That part of me that recognizes sports-crazed-kids as being equivalent to art-crazed-kids feels like the boys appreciated my support of their sports. Of course, my daughter and I are close on mom related things. 

***

This add-on goes perfectly with Lynne's envelope. 

It just looks like a funky pitcher thrown together with tape - but it is actual ceramics, made by a guy who switched gears from graphic design to ceramics. It was hard to pick just one image. I'll link to the article and within the article you will find links to IG 

LINK to the article

To Skip from Leslie - a little rant

 

This one from Leslie is so perfect for Skip. I love the colorful mountains - and turning his S into his path. I'm writing this on the day before the summer solstice and he is going to get to enjoy it in Iceland. They are currently getting 21 hours of daylight. Shout out to the USPS for perfect cancel placement and restraining yourselves from making an ink mark across the stamp.

***

I have not had a good ol' rant for a while. In the news on June 19 was this:

• What to know: Astronomers had been watching a galaxy far, far away for a long time. It seemed unremarkable — but, in December 2019, it suddenly started shining bright.
• So what’s going on? A black hole appears to be waking up and sucking in gas, creating a light show, an upcoming paper says. But it could be something else, like a star being torn apart.

IMHO, scientists are wildly boring in their guesses about what they are seeing through their impressively large telescopes. Personally, I think it's aliens who are just celebrating and they have better fireworks than we do. They are celebrating that they have in fact infiltrated the earth using *technology* and while we think we are so clever and innovative, they are chuckling at how easy it was to sneak in and run the show. 

Feel free to submit some even better theories about what this faraway bright light could be.

And in case you missed it - the theory is that either something is being created or something is being torn apart. What they are saying is: Uhhhh....we saw something and it could be anything. <eye rolling>

To Skip from Juliana - Big Brain Award

 This is a lovely idea from Juliana. The delicate line drawing and the medium sized name and the gigantic initial is a good design lesson. To use 3 different sizes is a tried and true design principle. The postal marking are pretty nice additions - except we don't need the wording on top of the mountain. The wavy lines would have been just enough.

***

Obviously. thinking to use a wet-dry shop vac on a giant barbecue sauce spill was evidence that MrWilson had a big brain. So, I created the BigBrainAward for his Christmas present that was a surprise and he was very pleased to be the winner. As we were gathering all the gift wrapping and ribbons, I took the award and tucked it away. It wasn't even a beautiful hand made certificate. It was just a quick fill-in off the computer using a free template.

Over the course of the following year whenever someone did something that was extra helpful at coming up with a solution to a problem, I would exclaim, "Wow! That was brilliant. You might be getting The Big Brain Award this year.". It became a real *thing* and by Christmas of that year, I made a big deal about the presentation of the Big Brain Award and of course, MrWilson won that year and also every year after that. I would encourage the kids to keep trying. 

I never printed out a new cheesy certificate, I just used the same one and crossed out the date and put in a new date. It was such a goofy thing - but everyone acted like they really wanted to win. I don't remember how many years it went on - but eventually I lost the certificate - or perhaps someone else decided it was time to retire the award and surreptitiously ditched it. But the concept lives on and it's a standard comment when someone figures something out - to say, "Oh wow, you might get the big-brain award this year."

From Janet to SKIp - Saucy Skip story

 Janet noticed that Skip's name starts with S-K-I .... which pretty much blew my mind. I can't imagine how I never noticed that. So Janet get's the Big Brain Award for July. I can't remember if I have ever written about the Big Brain Award. It's another Wilson Family Story - but ties in a bit to making special things out of paper and ink.

I just did a search and it looks like I never mentioned the Big Brain Award. I started it one year when the kids were, in theory, grown up - but - still doing stuff that harkened back to toddlers and kindergarteners. Over the years, MrWilson had figured out he could ease my load at Christmas time by just buying what he wanted, have me wrap it and he'd act surprised.

One year I wanted to surprise him with something unexpected. I reflected on the year and he had participated in 3 things that were above and beyond in the area of resolving problems. I only remember two of the big-brain level solutions. One was simply the concept of asking to extend a lease on a car for a month to resolve some vehicle shuffling when we had 5 drivers - not a big deal - unless you are me - and had no idea how easy and flexible car leasing is. 

The biggest Big-Brained problem solving of all was when 

This is too long - more tomorrow.

There is a bonus post below.

BONUS post

Alert reader, Clover, sent a reminder that the rates are going up. This is from The Portland Stamp Company. I always print it out and keep it visible on my desk to help me remember what the rates are.

Thanks for the reminder Clover....

               

 

To Skip from Grace - car talk

 This is a super fun idea from Grace. I know he will love it. It reminds me of a couple of Skip's car stories. We told him he could take our old Saab back to his college in Vermont after winter break of his freshman year if he had a B average - which he did. That car made it through all 4 years and then headed out to Tahoe where it spent a couple more years. He drove it to Iowa and took off for a nomadic phase of a year in Chile with side trips to Argentina and Easter Island. We had never bothered to transfer the title.

As a mom, I did not think the Saab was safe any more and didn't trust that he'd pay attention to the brake maintenance, etc when he returned to Tahoe. I convinced MrWilson to sell it while Skip was gone to force *us* into figuring out a better car. About 3 days after Skip returned from Chile my dad died and my mom did not drive so Skip inherited a marvelous vehicle - a true grandpa car - a Chevy Lumina. That car lasted for a really long time -- until that time he headed out with friends in the Tahoe area to ski the backcountry. That's where you just park on the side of the road and hike into the wilderness. As he returned to the car he thought, "That's strange, I thought I parked the car facing the other direction." As he got closer and saw the other side of the car he discovered that someone had hit the car hard enough to turn it 180-degrees. The car was totaled, but he got way more from the insurance than he would have if he had traded it in, so it was a win-win. 

In true Skip-the-minimalist fashion, he found a place to park the totaled car and used it for a storage unit for ski gear for a while - until he emigrated to Canada in 2020.

To Skip from Mia - July exchange sign-up

 

It was tidy (or symmetrical?) when my May envelopes came to the end on June 30th so that I could start July with the Skip series. Skip is my older son. He was hatched in July of 1984 and for his 40th birthday he booked a trip to Peru to do the kind of skiing where you have to climb the mountain in order to ski down. What kind of people do that? Part of me is thinking of devoting the month of July to my top 31 stories about the kind of people who do wildly difficult things. Maybe I will just run my top 10.

When I sent out the lists for the May exchange - right after I clicked [Send] on the first list - I remembered that Skip was turning 40 and I had never put his name on the list so I quickly swapped out his name on the remaining lists so that I would have a stack of birthday mail for him. I put down skiing and mountain biking as his main interests - and exchangers came up with some spectacular ideas. Mia's is very clever with the bicycle chain and wrench.

***

Well, this is a first - a real time link - to Skip's instagram - and you can see what's happening in Peru - 

Link to Skip's instagram

***

Today through July 4th is the window to sign-up. 

If you participated in the June exchange - just shoot me an email that says: SIGN ME UP - 

and you will get your list on July 5th. 

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

This streamlined sign-up is only for people who signed up in June - as I will not dig back through old lists to find your information.

If you are an occasional exchanger - or a new exchanger - or took June off - then send the following info in this format:

Jane Doe

123 Oak Street

Ames, IA 50010

janedoe@aol.com

[Birthday]  [2 Lists]

If you are new to the exchange - here is a LINK to additional details about the exchange