TLC

Last year around this time I received some very sad news.  My postal pal Jess sent me plants right away, and today the memory came back to me of how thoughtful it was.  Sometimes a letter, a call or an email don't say I'm thinking of you enough.  I like to send and get plants and flowers on these occasions- just the right kind of TLC for a friend.  Thanks pal!  (I went onto flowers.com and found a picture of the little arrangment that made me smile.  Enjoy!)

Handwritten

When I saw Pilot Handwriting's new webpage that lets you turn your handwriting into a font to use in emails, I immediately thought of postal pals.  (To be honest, I've always been a little obsessed with handwriting.  I used to love a handwriting analysis kit I got as a child, and frequented this website about getting my own font.)  Here's the thing that made me think of this project, Jess now lives further away and while writing letters or postcards is great it takes a while for the news to travel.  The idea of an email is more appealing for staying in touch.  I like that with this little program I could send her a message via email that looks worthy of blog post because its in my own handwriting.  How would you feel about this combination of the new and old?

Lilypad pop

At times, Lynn has been apologetic about not following the postcard 'rule,' but I love her pop up cards. I will admit they mystify me and it takes a lot of willpower to not dissemble them so I can figure out how they pop - especially when they are small. I love pocket size art. This one is as big as my hand when opened.

I may be posting this a week or so early because she was preparing to go to Canada for her mom's birthday right before this was mailed. A great break after a long spring. She was also quizzing me on what I had planned for my upcoming birthday, and preemptively reacting to birthday complaints by reassuring me that I had a lot under my belt to be proud of - be forewarned Lynn, I am going to need more reassuring soon! And vice versa?

Hawaiian Summer

Lynn wrote that this card had been meant for spring but when she added colors it became Hawaiian summer. I like that especially since as someone who is from a temperate climate I cannot help but to measure my year by seasons even when the world around me maintains a constant state of being hot. Lynn was gearing up for summer when she sent this card, and was compiling a summer reading list (beefed up by a list of books found in a dentist office magazine). She began with 'Gang Leader for a Day,' which I have yet to read. Lynn, do you recommend it? She also was preparing for a trip north for the Fourth of July, worrying about housing two dogs in her in-laws house and quizzing me on what I had planned. Sounds like summer to me.

On a side note, I have been coming across news clips and articles proclaiming that doodling increases concentration and can help with memory. Last week, the Harvard Business Review sent out the following blurb as one of its daily stat emails: "People who doodle while listening to a monotonous message recalled 29% more than non-doodlers on a surprise memory test." This may explain why I remember Financial Management as well as I do! Check out this link to the original post if you are interested.

Crazy? Genius?

I'm not sure whose face this is, but Jess wrote on this card "I'm drawing this while watching the movie How to Draw a Bunny, about Ray Johnson."  I don't even know who that guy is, but I just looked it up now, and it could be him! Then again, it could just be something else...

Anyways, she went on to say she wasn't sure where to draw the line between genius and crazy.  I remember thinking when I read this about artists especially who seem to fall into this "gray area"  I had recently been reading about new analysis about letters from Van Gogh and his infamous ear incident at the time from the New Yorker, which is another example of this same theme.  I truly cannot remember if Jess and I ever talked about it. 

Now, hopefully, we don't ever get too close to this edge!

Pretty Packages

When Jess and I agreed to do our correspondence and art project,  we decided on sending a postcard every two weeks as our goal.  A postcard wouldn't really need an envelope...but I don't think we thought we would get as fancy with our creations as we have! So once in a while, Jess needs to hold her cards in something to reach me intact.  She makes the envelopes just as pretty as her art. 

I've discovered there are MANY envelope templates available if you want to google.  But the best thing to do is peel apart any greeting card envelope and trace it onto your paper.  As you can see with these, old magazine pages make just as beautiful envelopes as patterned stationary paper you could buy. 

        

Its fun for me to think I can post one of these "packages" as artwork itself! Enjoy!

Finding your way

Lynn's card, inspired by the blog Swissmiss, beckoned me home after long work trips to Zambia, Pakistan, Egypt and Namibia. Only later did she learn how appropriate her maze reflected my heart in the spring of last year. Nothing like finding your way home to your friend. Sometime these journeys don't end as sweet as we hoped they might. Just a month after having re-found her friend, Nora Longley, Lynn lost her to cancer last May. Nora's story is documented in this article, and pushed us both to follow debates on health insurance and argue for universal coverage. What a difference a year can make.