A quilted heart

Its valentines day again. I almost forgot. We are planning a staff conference here in Ghana, which will start on the day of love, and sadly my co-worker and I didn't realize it until someone pointed out that perhaps employees would want to be with their loved ones. Ha! Shows how used to being single I am. Last Valentines Day though I remember well since I arrived back to DC from Zambia on Valentines Day and went directly out with my eharmony adventure of the moment. I was so tired. I distinctly remember thinking over dinner: I wonder if I am making in sense. It was nice to have someone to go out with though. On the back of this card, which got wet in the February weather, Lynn writes of a V-day that included parental visits and basketball playing. Lynn, do you have plans this year? Also, do you remember that you had wondered if you could have made this card in a more traditional quilt pattern? Perhaps this will be good inspiration for future quilt cards. Love to all this holiday!

Tiny little spaces

Jessica's cards in January of last year began a new theme for her. Cut out designs. She wrote "this is a change of pace. I have been playing around with an xacto knife since christmas. Its something I haven't done since High School." I think this gets at what this project has done for both of us- get us in touch with our creative sides. Which we have always had but didn't always make time for. I remember as a child having bins and bins of Crayola markers to draw with. Something comforting about it, and something enriching!

Art Stamps!

A short post with something interesting happening at the post office (if there are any people still checking in with us).  In a few weeks some new stamps will be out.  I know most of us usually buy basic flags or the forever stamps, but really the pretty ones are the same price!  My favorites among the new stamps are those featuring abstract impressionist art, but there are some other fun options as well.  You can see all of them here.  Although, I am going to have to begin using international rate stamps...wonder what those will look like?

Hoo. hoo. who's there?

Lynn wrote last January that a book her mom got purchased for her at the Paper Source inspired this card. It is hard to tell, but the card is long enough to fit in a legal envelope (at some point it became folded, which you can see in the second picture), and inside it has three owls with little pop-up beaks down the middle. I love that somehow the eyes make the owls have personality. She wrote inside that she felt uninspired when it came to writing a catchy tag line although she did brainstorm a few ideas.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling if she made this card this month the tag line would be obvious:

Who's there?

Because, lets honest, I have been rather poor at communicating and didn't manage the promised drive-by hug on my way north from DC (my dad and I passed the Flint area around the time that night becomes morning and I didn't think I should wake her... which I regret in retrospect). But I believe that communication will be easier now that things are beginning to settle. So my response to all those hoos: I am here, pal!

365 days as President

It has been a crazy week. I have sold nearly everything I own, am sleeping on a thermarest, and had my last day at AIR on Friday. Packing is taking longer than I had expected. How did I accumulate this much junk in the last year and a half? Today is my last day in DC. Tomorrow my dad and I will begin the one-way drive to Michigan, and will hopefully stop on the way to give Lynn a drive-by hug.

So, I have been sadly away from a scanning machine so will have to delay posting Lynn's card. (Lynn, has already graciously forgiven me for this by email). Instead, I am going to post an email I sent out to my dear Peace Corps friends Dick and Ed last year after having attended the Inauguration for Obama. Obama has had a rough first year, but it is a nice time to reflect on the excitement that surrounded his arrival to DC. It reads:

Reflections

An interesting side effect of this project is Jess and I get a look back at our own lives. We see what we were thinking of and inspired by in the past year, so each blog post is a kind of personal reflection. Writing a postcard once every two weeks means our notes remind of us of a specific thought or moment we otherwise would forget over the course of big ups and downs during a year.

Jessica is heading to Ghana is a few weeks(!!), and looking back at last year's cards she actually spent much of Nov. and Dec. of 2008 yearning for Africa. I would say she started to scratch the the itch after visiting Ethiopia, Cairo and South Africa. Soon, she was in Zambia for work for some time...and now just a year later she is heading off. Her writing and notes were about DC- snow, and daily life. But, this drawing clearly shows whats been on her mind. It is beautiful, Enjoy!

New Directions

Happy 2010!

There's a news story I've been over-quoting over the holidays (apologies to family members who have already heard this...) I recently read about a contest that was held to name this decade...you know because its not easy to nickname like the eighties or nineties. The winning name was the oneders (say it like wonder). Seems appropriately fresh, positive and ambitious today.

Here is Jessica's card from this time last year, which also is a variation on beginnings. I like it. I'm curious about the * near the greeting, Jess do you remember why you put it there? (being ironic again?) On the back, she wrote about how she had tried to do something new, cards with cut out designs but hadn't made anything that she felt good about. Then she commented about the ebb and flow of the creative process. Ahhh, again how nice it ties into the them of New Year's. I think this blog, and being creative was part of a resolution for both of us! I hope to keep it up in 2010, and as we have so boldly stated on the side bar- until we are both old women!!