Sept from Jeannette - potatoes and navy paint

 

Jeannette featured potatoes. This is a good followup to yesterday's rambling about liking *mud* color as much as gold. Everything has its place. Even the lowly potato might deserve more respect. It was a little bit woo-woo when I pulled Jeannette's potato out of the mailbox. It happened the day after I bought a potato to bake. Weirdly, when I asked MrW if he wanted a baked potato, he said, "No thank you." What kind of person turns down a baked potato? Perhaps I should have him go for an evaluation. 

I am fully caffeinated and will refrain from more silliness and just head out to the paint store. They open at 7 am. 

The color of the potato blends nicely with the bandaid on the stamp. Jeannette did a good job of capturing the subtlety of the texture of the potato. I think I featured a giant potato previously - let's look.

Wow - there are lots of potato posts - I have not read them - so if you have other things to do - get going.

https://pushingtheenvelopes.blogspot.com/search?q=potato

March from Liz - Nutty Cruiser

I was planning on being inspired by this one for Liz in the April exchange, but then she didn't sign up. She tends to fill up the space and I've mentioned previously that I was interested in trying to fill up the space. 

I read, and then lost, the story of the origin of the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. I've seen it in my neighborhood a couple of times. It was a pretty good story - but way off topic. Recently, the Diamond Almond Car popped up on Atlas Obscura - which reminded me of another fun vehicle sighting
 

I'm surprised there aren't more companies who have promotional vehicles shaped like their product.

One time I was on Interstate 80 - the major highway that goes right across the top edge of Des Moines. I saw a giant redwood tree that was turned into a home. There was a sign on it - and I was going the same direction. It took a lot of self control to not follow it because I wanted to see the inside. 

I have no idea if this is the same one - but, I'm happy that I thought to Google it. Wouldn't it be fun to live in the tree and be the driver of the almond. I'd want to live in Wisconsin and wear a cheese hat.

LINK to photos of interior

The Big Idaho Potato Truck has the best website - but - the truck overshadows the potato. It does not rate my taking time to insert a photo. It does not fit with the aesthetic of my blog (said jokingly).

LINK to big potato truck

The almond car is called the Nutty Cruiser - it'll be on tour all summer - check out the schedule - 

LINK to Nutty Cruiser

***

One more - thanks to the Anonymous commenter. LINK to LLBean bootmobile

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.

 

May to Leslie - careers

 

This one would have benefited from some practice - to get the arcs smoother - and the little detail that I pulled from the stamp wants to be *more* - but I was concerned that it would get too fussy. You probably can't ever see the tiny little doo-dads that are inside the arcs. No - I added them later - so they aren't in the photo. (edited the next day) Maybe I'll get another sheet of these stamps and redo every idea that needs to be pushed further. I really like the black borders on the stamps - they allow for a nice bold address.

***

Remember a few weeks ago when we found out that there was an archeologist/reader/exchanger who was willing to weigh in on topics? I've emailed with some of the people who exchange and have learned of a few of our careers. Here is a list of the ones that I can recall. If you would like to add your career to the list - send me an email.

In no particular order:

Librarian

Calligrapher - hobbyist

Calligrapher - professional 

Art teacher

Reading teacher

Home schooler

Archeologist

Lawyer

Postal worker

Unicyclist

Pastor’s wife

Career wife and/or mother - an under-rated career if there ever was one

*Money guy* - I think this person declined to use the title accountant because they did not have a degree in accounting, but clearly they did the job of an accountant.

College professor 

Astronomer

Doctor

Speech pathologist

Quilter

Musician

Artist

I guess I should start a chart - and keep a tally of how many of each.

There are more than one in several categories - and obviously everyone can put themselves into that last one.

Purpose of this survey: chore avoidance

Here are the additions to the list received in the days following the original post

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Architect

Forest fire lookout

Potter

In case it looked like I had soooo many people responding - 

I am clarifying that some of these careers/job listings came in from people who covered

the entire arc of their work-life.

One person asked about my careers - and I realized I had only done babysitting and then fell into graphic design - which led to motherhood - and then when youngest was 7 years old - I fell into calligraphy which expanded into teaching art and calligraphy - so - I've been *art* all the way.

One person's arc

Lawn Maintenance

Nanny

Potato chip factory worker

Data entry (the worst)

Social worker

Care giver in children's homes

Home healthcare worker with the elderly

One person's arc

Dishwasher

Ranch hand

Air Force officer and pilot

Computer coder/developer

Beekeeper

Carpenter

Concrete worker

Stonemason

Auto mechanic

Logger

Well digger

Caretaker of livestock

Corn detassler

Truck driver

Clerical worker

Receivables clerk

IT manager

Software developer

Photo envelope from CloverK (Quesadilla)

I am delighted to have two pen pals, both named Clover.
CloverK is from the north coast and CloverL is from the south coast.

CloverK keeps us up to date on all the USPS matters. The way the name is on the photo and the very clear address is to the right is a nice way to integrate the two sides. It seems odd that some postal worker needed to draw that oval around the name and address. Grrrr. Cutting away the sky part adds to the design. Plus, I like black and white with this color. It seems like there was an earlier blog post where we looked for a name for that color. It is not manilla. It might be goldenrod. Curiosity is not luring me away from writing.

***

Here is a foodie off topic add-on since I do not think I have mentioned food since the Potato Hotel.  It has some rant-like qualities since the claim that this is a new idea struck me as an odd claim.

The NYTimes had an article about Tortizzas - claiming they were something new. Haven't we all been melting and toasting things on tortillas for three or four decades? This is the opening of the article:

When it first opened in 2018, the Manhattan bar and vodka distillery Our/New York would serve makeshift tortilla pizzas that had been quickly burnished in a toaster oven behind the bar. The founder and partner, Dave Ortiz, got the idea from his friend, the chef Ilan Hall. “Long story short: A celebrity chef hooked me up,” he said.

 

I don't know how old Dave is - but, it seems odd that he would not have been aware of the miracle of toasting and melting things on top of a tortilla. If it is pizza inspired - it's just an Italian quesadilla.

|f you have never sliced a fresh tomato (pulp only - no watery-seed stuff) and fresh mozzarella on a flour tortilla with a drizzle of olive oil, a sprinkle of garlic salt and hot pepper flakes (optional) and sent it through your toaster oven and then topped it with freshly grated parmesan and fresh basil, you need to try it. If you want the deluxe version, add fresh garlic and fancy salt instead of garlic salt. 

Put the tortilla directly on the rack so the bottom toasts and the top browns.

Other combinations - Greek - artichoke hearts and feta cheese.

Crab rangoon pizza - this is big in Duh Moines. Sounds odd -- but it's really good. Shmear the tortilla with cream cheese to which you have added horseradish and garlic salt (optional hot pepper flakes). Top with bits of real crab or fake crab if you eat fake crab and sliced green onions. Top with mozzarella cheese. Toast until the cheese just starts to brown. Add parmesan if you have it. Toast a minute longer. Top with sweet chili sauce. The original recipe had crisp wonton strips on top. That crunch really adds to the experience. I believe you can buy them premade. I've been known to top it with any random crunched up  chip-like thing. Or you can fold it in half and call it an Asian quesadilla. 

Ruben Quesadilla - I just thought of that one. It sounds delicious. Rubens are so good - but always too much. All these quesadillas have to be fairly flat without too many toppings so they get hot all the way through before they burn. So, they are not an overwhelming amount of food.

Sorry this got so long. If I were to edit it, I would call it a rant because quesadilla seems like it should be the universal name for anything that is a tortilla with toppings. Pizza is a thing. I object to the Frankensteining of the two words.

Nov from Christy - T-day on Sunday

 

Christy's envelope dovetails nicely with my add-on of the day which is just mindless jabbering that is a consequence of putting a bunch of work into a meal. 

***

As I write this, it is the Monday before Thanksgiving. We had our official Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I had to do it on Sunday so that my local son, Hunter, could help. He's the one who requested the traditional dinner with all the trimmings and not the *easy* versions.

We made turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce - all from scratch. I found elevated recipes for a  sweet potato casserole and a green bean casserole. The only *lazy* side dish was the Stove Top dressing. I do love a good dressing, but, decided to add a surprise pie into the mix - so I had to cut one corner. It was a ridiculous amount of food for 3 people, but I sent some of it over to my brother and sister-in-law and the three of us love leftovers.

Everything was tasty - and the only glitch was that after dinner (we eat early) - Hunter looked at the clock and saw that he was right on time to watch *the football game* and then he realized that it was not Thursday. The dinner had fooled him into thinking it was actually T-day. So, he ended up doing the bulk of clean up in the kitchen. That's reason enough to move our T-days to Sunday, permanently.

Hunter added that he would like to do the T-Day dinner more than once a year - so I guess we can do another one in Feb - both Hunter and MrWilson have Feb birthdays.

***

One more holiday - and then we can settle into winter. Unless we observe John Hancock's birthday. I tend to forget it every single year....  or as someone pointed out - only 7 weeks until Valentine's Day....

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

 

keith bday - scribbly flowers

i don't have these stamps yet, so i have to pull them off mail that comes to the house. i don't destroy the art mail that people send...just regular mail.

i love pink and orange together.
i like the scribbles.
the trick to making these flowers is to rotate the envelope as you add the petals. always make the strokes in the exact same direction.
i MUST make a video that shows how i do this.

and i finally spelled his name right.
the other day i was lettering on some dishes for a photo shoot and i can't tell you how many times i put an e on potato. yes, i could tell you...but i won't.

Dec 2020 from CathyO - itty bitty printing press

 

I'm only 50% sure that the next batch of envelopes have never been posted. I found them in a folder that indicates some of them have been posted - others have not. If anyone spots something that has already been posted - please let me know.

This set is from CathyO and it is so.much.fun. Those were lovely stamps and it's an inspirational idea. Below is the card and the Pogo cartoon - source of what Boston Charlie means. 

I HIGHLY recommend you take 2 minutes to listen to the entire song. It is classic -- and mentions scribbling.

LINK to Pogo song

***

I have no idea if there are any printmakers reading the blog. Not everyone understands the difference between prints that are copies of original art and prints where each one is an original image.

There are 4+1 basic types of prints - that are original works of art and not cheap *prints* of other art:

1 - relief print where you have a plate or block and you carve away the part that is not image. This can be a potato print or a very sophisticated multi-plate (multi-colors) wood block print.

2 - intaglio - where you scratch (etch) lines (grooves) into a metal (lucite) plate, spread ink over the plate, wipe off the ink leaving ink down in the grooves (scratches) then send it through a press that applies so much pressure, the ink in the groove transfers to the paper and after it dries, you can feel the ink because it is raised (it compares to the feel of money and postage stamps - where the ink is raised*)

3 - lithography - an image is established (often on a stone - but commercially it is on a metal plate) without either the image or the non-image being raised. The principle of oil and water not mixing is used to get the ink to stick to the image which is then transferred to paper or whatever.

4 - silk screen ( & roto-graveur) squeeze ink through a mesh - 

5 - Digital printing - significantly different from the others (since there are no plates), but, worth mentioning

Forgive these overly simplified descriptions -- but if you have ever had the opportunity to do intaglio printing -- it is one of the coolest processes - but you have to have access to a very large, heavy, expensive press. Here are 2 very clever fellows who have invented a press for a very reasonable price -- and you're limited to postage stamps sized art -- so, it's a win-win for some of us.

LINK to very cool printing press

And here is the amazing part -- rather than buying a press from them - if you have a way to do your own 3D printing - you can make your own from their FREE plans. I am sooooooo tempted. 

And just to be clear about thermography:

* thermography, on wedding invitations and business cards is fake intaglio (sometimes called engraving, as in *an engraved invitation*) To save money, they invented an ink that was sticky. After they printed the invitation, they dusted some powder on it - and then sent it through an oven that melted the powder and gave that raised feel. For a long time, it was shiny and looked like a cheap imitation. Eventually, they figured out how to make it matte - so it looks a lot better these days -- however - you can still tell the difference because thermography does not require a lot of pressure. Engraving still requires pressure - so you can see on the back of the invitation where there is a very slight indentation.