Thursday, July 17, 2025

June from Christy and Liz

 


Christy sent a rainbow themed envelope from Ohio and Liz - from Oxford MS - was inspired by the petals on the flower. At some point, I need to ponder the different ways to integrate the stamp and the design. These two - on non-white envelopes - illustrate how significant the color of the envelope is.


I've been putting the world's shortest address (for me) on the lists when I send out the lists to the exchangers. Not everyone follows what I sent - which surprised me. I would be all about using a short address. Liz did. It could even be shorter - the ST is not essential. Way, way, way back - there is an envelope to me that has
420 - 44
50312

and nothing else - no name - no city state - and it arrived. If the address is a known address at the ZIP code - then that's all they need. 

When I re-read what I wrote about mixing up Liz in Oxford and Cindy in Four Oaks - I thought is sounded looney. It's hard to describe memory quirks. I think it is because my memory relies on putting things into a visual memory storage unit. I *picture* things in my head. I can't think of one now, but I know I mix things up in strange ways. 

I don't think it is all that unusual to mix things up based on the letters in the word or name. Anyone who lives in Iowa, Ohio or Idaho is aware that people from other parts of the country will confuse those three states. I think it has something to do with the letters, not to mention that there are a multitude of squarish states filling up the middle of the country - and we have very little history attached to us - other than that we grow stuff.




Wednesday, July 16, 2025

June from Sue and Cindy


This looks like another practice page turned into an envelope. It is from Susan. It looks like she has some drafting templates. 

The postmark on the one below says May - and I think this one was delayed on its trip to Iowa. It looks like it had quite a trip. It's from Cindy in Four Oaks NC. I get Cindy and Liz mixed up. Liz is in Oxford MS. How would I mix those two up? They both have an i in their first name and their town starts with O. Also - both towns are in the South. If one of them was not in the South, I don't think I would mix them up. 

It's fun how Cindy put the Forever stamp as a part of the design and then used a vintage stamp in the corner.

***
My second *home alone* project was not as big of a hit as the bags. There is a cabinet with too many water bottles. A family of four needs a lot of water bottles - but not 18. They have to be in a lower cabinet that the kids can reach. They were sharing space with the clean dish towels which are neatly folded and fit in a basket. There are always 10 extra dish towels. Nobody needs 10 extra dish towels in a super convenient spot. No kid is going to want a clean dish towel. They will use the same one for years if left to themselves. The mom is the one who puts out clean towels 90% of the time. 

The cabinet with water bottles and dish towels has been bothering me for a couple years. So, I boldly moved the dishtowels. My daughter was fine with the move. My son-in-law who is perfectly happy to be called a neat-freak - and who was thrilled with the remedy of the bag situation --- surprised me. When I showed him the new space for dish towels. He said, "Why don't we get rid of some of the water bottles?"

And then we were interrupted....so, I'm not sure what's going to happen with that.

Earlier today, I needed some ginger tea - and Oh.My.Gosh - where was the basket of tea? I didn't want to call them at the baseball tournament..... but, couldn't find any tea. Eventually, I looked on a higher shelf, not in the pantry - but above the coffee - and there it was. It was a good and logical move. The three of us have a bit of a secret competition going - as to who can make the best improvements to closets, cabinets and drawers. 

I should mention - when people they've recently met come to their house - it is not uncommon for someone to ask to snap a photo of the pantry.... because it looks like the ones you see in pictures - but not in real life.


 

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

June from Amy and Kristine


Gone fishing from Amy, above, and French curve designs that could be turned into fish from Kristine, below. I'm tempted to get some lure stamps because there are endless good fish designs to appropriate. I think I have a French curve at home --- I might have to take it for a spin.



***
My first *home alone* project on this trip was the cabinet under the kitchen sink. They have had a bag-holder for grocery bags since they were married 14 years ago. They had several moves between 2011 and 2019 so excess bags were discarded during moves. After 8 years in the current house - the bag situation has gotten out of control. Partly, it's because Chicago charges people for bags if you do not bring your own, so, bags seem to have some value - and I guess it's hard to discard them. 

My plan was to reduce the hoard to whatever would fit in the bag holder and then hide the excess bags somewhere - and hopefully get the OK to recycle them. Here are all the bags. I tuned in to This American Life and it took less than an hour to fold all the bags that would fit in the bag-holder.

The bag-holder is that slender black thing sitting by the oven door.

I recommend Episode 863 - three very nice stories. 




This *home alone* project was very well received.
I found two bags from Loblaw's, the grocery store in Toronto - where they lived in 2016-2017. 
Now I wish I had just one Piggley Wiggley grocery bag from 1959.
Yes - I did a search.
Yes, you may buy 3 vintage Piggley Wiggley bags for $95 on eBay
<sigh>



 

Monday, July 14, 2025

June from Irene

Irene was inspired by Jen Sweeney on her envelope as well as the very pretty bookmark. She wrote that she did random flowers on a piece of card stock and then turned it over and cut the strips to make the bookmarks. She adhered them to a second piece of card stock and added a grommet and ribbon. Irene wondered if people still read books and I know a few people who have not warmed up to reading on screens. I still read books and my grandkids read actual books. Since their screen time is *metered* - they have to read books. I'm wondering at what point that will change. 


I am writing his on the 4th of July. The grandkids and their parents are gone for the weekend to a baseball tournament. I am *home alone.* I knew this would be a good time to fill up the blog with some posts. Whenever I am in Chicago, I have little chunks of time when I am *home alone* and I often select household projects that do not appear to be very high on the family's to-do list. I never tell them what I am going to do. I wait for them to discover what has been done.

My favorite secret project was a 4-inch slice in the upholstery on a sofa that is L-shaped. It was on the back of the section that was not against the wall so it was visible in a high traffic area. We are guessing that it happened when the movers sliced off that plastic wrapping that they use when they move furniture. It was a very disappointing discovery, but they chose to not bring it up with the movers. 

I would walk by it and ponder if it would be better to do some kind of suture even if it was somewhat visible because to leave it the way it was --- it was eventually going to fray. But, I knew if I asked them if I could try sutures - they would say no. So, I just up and did it while I was home alone. 

A couple weeks after I left, my daughter called and asked if I had done the stitching. While it was not perfect - she agreed that it was better than just leaving it. Tomorrow, I will show my first *home alone* project of this trip.

Sunday, July 13, 2025

June from Mary and Troy


Mary sent this while she was on the road. The three little pigs are freaking out because of the dragon that's appeared in the window. All I knew about the Dungeons & Dragons was that it was/is some kind of game. I thought I'd learn something at Wiki but I ended up knowing even less. And by *knowing even less* I mean that I still only know one thing - it's a game - but it has portals - and I have no idea what that means. There are too many kinds of portals and some of them seem to be in the world that is beyond things that we generally consider to be *real.*

Below, Troy must have been practicing some very large letters. He kindly gave the USPS two stamps for the additional work it would have taken for actual people to read the address and send it on its way. A postal worker with a pencil and maybe a grease marker seems to have  been involved. I only have the photo because I am in Chicago and the envelopes are in Iowa. 
 


I'm only 9 days ahead on my posts, so the next few days will be almost real time comments. 

USPS Rates going up today





 

Saturday, July 12, 2025

Birthday card idea

 This is an idea that I've used for many years. I thoroughly enjoy finding examples to fill in a Top Ten list - with the person who has a birthday being No. 1. The idea is to find the person's name used in as many categories as possible. There are the obvious ones: actor, musician, athlete, politician, historical figure, artist and then 4 more that might be a stretch - like a town, lake, mountain - or a cartoon character - or in this case - a product. I just thought of another one - Andrews Air Force Base. I'm not sure where it is - but something like that is always fun if the birthday person would relate to it in some way.


I can't remember what I wrote inside - something like Happy Birthday to the Top Andrew. 

It went in this envelope - both were tossed off very quickly - as I was running out of time prior to the grandkids arriving.



There isn't much of a trip report from the 6th Annual Trip to Iowa. At 9 and 11 - the grandkids are fairly civilized. It was the right year to tell their mom that she needed to come along because the activities that they enjoy are way out of my comfort zone -- so MrWilson was the designated additional adult - to do baseball, pickle ball and a trip to an amusement park. He did not have to do any of the pool activities. All I care about is that there were no trips to the ER and nobody got sick. 

A friend loaned me the game - Clue: Master Detective. It has a bigger board with more rooms and more players and more weapons - and that was a big hit. It was fun to revisit a game that I enjoyed from the olden days that has been improved. 

Friday, July 11, 2025

June to Amy, Sydney and Sharen



Once again - this is the first try - and it's been lost in the folder - and once again Amy gets a ho-hum envelope. Her name is always at the top of the list - because I alphabetize by first names. I always figure that her very fun short name will be a piece of cake -- and then I do something like this...... It's not terrible. It is, however, the end of the Goodnight Moon envelopes for June.

Here are the rest of the June envelopes. I feel like I added more to them - and then didn't photograph them again - maybe not. Sydney's is from the stack of old watercolor ideas - and Sharen's is me trying to figure out how to work with alcohol markers.








 

Thursday, July 10, 2025

June to Grace and Rachael


This is the end of the suggestions for *Nora* - and there are a number of things that are OK with this one. The rectangles are fine. The weight is fine. Pulling the little houses off the stamp is fine. I should have put a cow jumping over the moon above the green rectangle. 

Here's what the suggestion page looks like with the three ideas that I used.


I do not recall where Rachael's came in the series - maybe towards the end. The lettering is inspired by her May envelope.


Eventually, I outlined all the letters - but forgot to take another photo. I had goofed up on the C so I wrote Goodnight Moon along that line - since that's how it is on the stamp. I like the little details.












 

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

June to Christy and Susan


Susan sent a robot that inspired this one - and I had already done the one below for Susan. It's hard to mess up a robot --- and the style below is fun to do. Taking the color right up to the black name did not leave any *sparkle* so I went back and outlined it in white. Prior to adding the white - the black needed to some oomph - and going over it might have been OK - but it's uneven. Doing multiples might generate some resolutions to problems. 


 

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

June to Nanski and Patty


Nanski's clearly needed something else. Solution is below.

Patty's might have been OK - but it was lacking something - and I let the stack of envelopes sit on my desk for a couple days before I mailed them. If I did this one again, I'd make the space for the name and address larger. Or maybe the three picture frames work together -and the three of them need to be nudged over a bit.

I'm rethinking the idea that I should do more tutorials and less surfing. I'm not sure anyone is going to get anything out of me nit-picking at the details on the envelopes.




I'm super annoyed that I didn't fill the space better with a larger PATTY. Maybe I was cranking out too many in one sitting. 

Here are the improved versions - shadows and rectangles on Patty's and windows on Nanski's



I wrote the words *unresolved space* above Nanski's stamp. Hopefully the cancel looked good up there.



 

Monday, July 7, 2025

June to Mary, Riley and Jessica


Here are three more that didn't go anywhere - and so far there has been no new inspiration. I think I bought a second sheet of stamps -- 


Jessica's might have made it into the *fine* category if her name had been larger. The green needed to be darker. All the June envelopes are my first attempt using alcohol markers - so - there's a learning curve to new tools. Then - I jogged myself back into that original plan which was to do more tutorial-ing and less surfing - and that reminded me that I had that set of ideas to help *Nora* with her envelopes - since she left a comment on the back of hers.



Remember these ideas? I tried at least 3 of them. Stay tuned.
 


Sunday, July 6, 2025

Ofrenda update - today's regular post is right below

 A couple people have asked how the ofrenda project is going. The first post about the project was HERE (click to see it). April 24 seemed like a long way off from October 30th - the day to set it up at the museum. That would have been 6 months. Here I am - writing this in mid-June -- and it's amazing how long it takes to get everything coordinated.

I need to get the skull put together - as it is the *crown* of the while ofrenda. I had to come up with a scale model - without spending more than a half hour - and did this. The three layers will be plywood - each one approximately 30 inches tall - 


The bottom tier will be 34" tall and a little over 9-ft wide. The *shelf* is 18" deep. I needed to create a life sized mock up of the top two tiers and include the *shelf* part of the bottom tier. Thanks to persistent hoard reduction combined with the hoarding of newly emptied boxes.... I have enough empty boxes and containers to built the top two tiers. Not the full thing - just the front 50%.


This isn't finished. But it gave me enough of an idea to visualize the amount of space to fill on the bottom shelf and the middle shelf. The 2-ft skull goes on top of the third tier - the stack of plastic boxes.

This was the very rough layout that I did to show to the committee. It looked a lot better in real life because it was collaged and gave a better 3D effect. The aesthetic of ofrendas is a lot of stuff. This one has to show all the past 24 ofrendas that have been built. The photo in the center is the person who brought the whole idea of celebrating Day of the Dead to the museum. He passed away, so he is being honored on this 25th year.

I deeply regret how the flower arch looks. Once I got going with collage - I couldn't switch back to drawing. I had to use collage for those doily things - they have a name - papel something. 


I'm writing this on June 14th - and hope to have the skull built by the end of the month. I put Janet in charge of tissue paper flowers and she knocked it out of the park. I hope she doesn't regret being so good at making flowers....

***
July 3
I finished the skull before I took off for my 3 weeks in Chicago.
The small one is about 10-inches tall and was pretty easy to make.
The large one is 24-inches tall and it was easy to see how to adhere the pieces together - but very complicated to manage the pieces.



Patty and Janet helped with the cutting out of the pieces - which you can see in the foreground. They have my ever-asking gratitude.













June to Irene and Kate




I found a stack of watercolor designs done on Fabriano paper and decided to turn them into mail. The paper was not stiff enough to be a postcard. It took me a while to figure out what to put in that rectangle. Fortunately I had been doing just a tiny bit of surfing and re-found the SATOR AREPO TENET OPERA ROTAS. More about that below.

There was another pretty watercolor that was supposed to go to Kate - to make up for this complete dud that I didn't want to send - but - now I can't remember if I sent it.

The Goodnight Moon stamps were very challenging. I'll be ganging a bunch that were just so-so.

It occurs to me that I should not even post things that are this cringe-worthy - unless I can articulate what's wrong with it. There was another envelope that went to Kate - that was so bad - it will not be posted -- so, I do have a boundary. Is that the right word? Standard? 




 

Saturday, July 5, 2025

June to Juliana - spelling the letters of the alphabet


The Goodnight Moon stamps seemed like they were going to be lots of fun. This one needed something else...but what? I'm tempted to do a version with the part inside the frame entirely green or blue - but that would make the address hard to read. Maybe a big yellow cow - with the address written on the side. One needs to tap into their inner-child sometimes - to come up with fun ideas.

***

When I was complaining about 1 and I and l looking too much alike and causing confusion (number 1, lower case l and capital I) - I had to look up how to spell the names we have for the letters - eye and el.

I always enjoy seeing that list because of aitch.

1 - I - l   On my laptop, the first and third (one and el-lowercase) look so similar. I think 1 (one) is shorter.

 Here is a LINK to how to spell the letters of the alphabet

Did anyone think it was weird that I spelled out *I* as eye? The list does not include the vowels. Apparently - the way you *spell* a vowel is to just let it be itself.

I would spell them out - ay, ee, eye, oh, you - but I would be out there on another tiny tip of a bell curve. 

Friday, July 4, 2025

June to Rachael, Riley and NancyH


Apparently I did not post all the mail that I sent in June. I just found these two. I was testing markers and tossing the dry ones - while using up stamps. I wish I had added pears to Rachael's. It needed something else. Her name should have been a warmer tone.


Then I found a stack of envelopes that I liked so much I never mailed them. I'm ready to part with them, but the addresses are way too hard to read - so I will be sending them inside other envelopes. That was a very nice set of black and white stamps. I already posted all of them - but scrolling through over 6,000 posts doesn't seem like something anyone would ever do.....especially me.


This is the outer envelope. The fireplace stamp off the Goodnight Moon series is rather drab compared to the others. I might have been more inspired if it were fall or winter. The little andiron i is fun.




Thursday, July 3, 2025

June - Layout ideas for Nora (2)


This was my first suggestion. Since the stamp has a rectangle - do rectangles on the other two elements.

It seemed a little wimpy so I added a red circle around some of the dots. The colors on the stamp are a bit drab. I should have used the red and tan. The green in the stamp is too minimal.


Then I did the thing I do so often, I started outlining everything. Outlining is not for everyone. It takes up a lot of time and it is something that I do that is soothing - but, I live on the extreme end of so many bell curves that I suspect there are not many people who like to outline. And yet -- what if it is something that you never knew you liked to do. Maybe it's the *chill pill* that you've been looking for.

For me -- outlining is exactly the same as Zentangles -- I dabbled n Zentangles - and I did a few that I liked - but overall - they just weren't satisfying. Knitting is something else that draws me in - not that I have time to do it -- I only mention it because there might be people who can relate - to finding that *thing* that is mesmerizing as well as soothing.


I made another set of four variations on things that would have spiffed up Nora's original idea - and I might do each of the ideas on a June exchange envelopes to show how they look if taken farther than just a thumbnail.

The borders could overlap - that would be fun. The borders could all run off the edge - that would be fun.

The third idea is the closest to the original to show that one rectangle and two roundish shapes would be fine. The only thing I couldn't *fix* was that original shape that was flat on the bottom and left side - but wonky on the top and right side. This example was posted yesterday


If everyone wants me to get off this tutorial binge and go back to surfing - just let me know. Although, I have several examples lined up, so, you'll have to put up with them.
 

Wednesday, July 2, 2025

June - Tutorials instead of surfing - "Nora's" sunburst & oval borders

 Back in May, I thought I should cut back on surfing and provide more ideas on the blog. Lots of you know how to collect ideas. Some of you have a multitude of skills and talents but are new to envelope art.

The top envelope arrived in my mailbox from someone who lives within walking distance from me. I did not ask her if it was OK for me to use her envelopes for tutorials so if she doesn't like this idea I'll take it down. I also renamed her *Nora* - since I have not asked her if this is OK with her.

It was the back of her envelope that gave me the impression that she would be fine with me offering some tips.



My version would have been fine with a rectangle around the stamp - more than fine - it would have been better. I like the idea of rectangle and two ovals.

My tip for the front is that the borders were done after the names and addresses were on the envelope. The border around the stamp is fine. The one around my name and address has a nice straight base but the top part is slanty. Then the partial border around the return address is its own thing. The colors are great - but the elements need to be tied together. 

The shapes around the address and return address combine straight lines and curves - which suggests indecision. Anything works - it's when you start combining things that it can get complicated.


Here's the flip side that triggered my teaching instinct. It's a perfectly good idea. 
Sunburst borders are tried and true. Two of the zig-zags have a bold stroke, from the marker. It would have been nice to give each zig-zag at least one bold stroke.

Here is what I sent on the back of my envelope.
Sunburst tutorial.


Nora's had six Ms - I went with 8 - because it's a lot easier to build a sunburst by creating opposites and then filling in. I have a light pencil oval - which could be erased. Or - it could have been done in light colored pencil.


Maybe too many details.




Actually - this back of the envelope did not go on the envelope pictured above. There is a second suggestion that will run tomorrow.