Wanderlust

Being that this is a card, rather than a postcard, it is technically too 'big' for this blog. Lynn asked jokingly if this meant I would kick her out of our project. Think again, friend. More likely, you should kick me out - based off of my recent lapse in timely blogging and mailing. A transatlantic move has me off kilter. Thankfully, things are starting to settle down, I am settling in and we will be able to catch up in person soon. 


This card - inspired by the cover for The Beekeeper's Bible by Richard A. Jones and Sharon Sweeney-Lynch - celebrates wanderlust.  A term, Lynn tells me, that the dictionary defines as to get out the 'wild oats'. Although fitting at the time, this theme is a bit ironic now since Lynn and I are both nesting (well relatively) rather than setting off an a spectacular journey. Nonetheless, let's be honest, my itch for discovering new places is never far (as is Lynn's usually) and this book inspired card makes me dream of travel-inspired stories to come. 

Finding time to stitch

Ghana has great fabric. Knowing Lynn was sewing, I remember asking Lynn if I should send her some so that she could keep stitching. She laughed at me. Apparently, fabric was not a constraint, but making time to sew was. About a month later I received this postcard from her. Proof that she had fabric and plans. Lynn, were you able to make these plans happen?

Stockpiles and Seasons

While I stock pile sketches for inspiration, Jessica sometimes stock piles her cards and sends 6-10 at a time.  I get bunches at a time and then catch up with what she wrote on each one.  Unlike me, she doesn't write them all at once!

This card has a summery image of a starfish but really Jessica drew it in the fall.  She wrote about missing seasons in Ghana, and how the Indian summer and leaves changing color were some of her thoughts of autumn. Oddly enough with all her talk of the fall, Jessica spent hers in South Africa where it was actually spring.  She wrote about feeling like a new beginning was happening with the blooms and the energy. It is fall now, again, and for me back to school always makes me feel a renewal.  What about you, do you think of fall as starting again (new things like supplies and new faces, kind of like when you were a kid with back to school) or is it just spring that makes you feel energized and like starting fresh (maybe cleaning and waking up after a long winter)?

Four seasons

Lynn was playing around with common postal pal themes - seasons and trees - when she drew this card. This image does not do her creation justice. By the time she sent this, she was finding herself in the middle of the summer break feeling relatively unproductive except for regular work outs. Aspirations of creating art everyday had not been reached so she wrote that she had looked for inspiration in old drawing pads... which apparently led to little more than a reminder of the ceramics class she had taken with me in our senior year (not a bad thing to remember I must say). Perhaps in hopes of soliciting ideas, she spent the rest of the card asking me about my creative outlets... which in theory was a good strategy except for the fact that by this time I had morphed into a complete workaholic. Not an art inducing activity. Somehow though Lynn pulled through and kept up with her post cards.

Since this week I have been trying to make myself sit down to draw a card after a crazy month, reading this is a good reminder to me that I should not wait for a great source of inspiration. Taking a pause and letting ones mind wander - at last - is likely to be all I can manage and is luckily all that I should need.

A ray of hope for Detroit

Lynn saw this image in her rear view mirror last fall and ran home to draw it. She found it ironic that this this beautiful image showed up in a reflection of downtown Detroit, especially since the city's decay is all that you see in the media.

For Lynn, this card also demonstrated that our card project had strengthened her creative muscle. She was getting stronger. She had an idea and she went home and drew it - just like that.

Perfect Pumpkin

The great thing about this card project is that you dont have to even try to ignore the obvious seasonal themes. That is what cards are meant for! This is a pretty standard pumpkin, but what you cannot tell from the scan is that its toothy grin is cut out as every pumpkin grin should be. The polka dots come from a magazine picture that has been pasted behind the card. In real life it adds some depth and an extra level of fun.

Lynn wrote on its underbelly that daylight savings time was coming, which the end of the year was near. Last year's close though was highly anticipated, though since she was looking forward putting 2009 behind her. After having just received bad news about my Samoan host family last October, I remember nodding my head in agreement.

Sometimes we need bright smiles to arrive in the mail on holiday cards, dont we?

Mixed up selves

I love the unpredictable nature of March. You never know what you are going to get. I wish I could remember March of 2009 in DC but I believe that I was actually in Zambia so I missed it (although for the record I was mixed up about other things instead). Lynn, you will have to keep me posted on how March declares its self this year since it seems that March in Ghana will be, well, hot. (This is just a prediction but I dare global warming/mother nature to prove me wrong!) Last March, Lynn was in study mode and preparing to get her full certification as a social worker. She also reflected on a lost friendships and writes: "It makes you think about how hard (staying friends) is/what an accomplishment staying connected for years is. I think paces of life can be part of the 'cracks' as can distance. It make me glad we are still good friends."

Me too, pal. Me too.

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!

Winter wonderland

I took a picture of this card, rather than scanning it, in hopes of capturing that window is cut out and the fireplace scene is drawn on the inside of the card. It is neat, because when you open it you can see a more complete fireplace scene. I like the concept, and thought she did a good job lining up what she had drawn on the inside of the house so that it can be seen through the window. Lynn, did you draw the inside or the outside first? Or did you slowly sketch both simultaneously?

Inside the card, she stated that she felt this card had tested her drawing skills and that she was glad this project would give her a reason to practice regularly. She also mentioned that the card had been inspired by the enormous amount of snow they had received. As I think about this, I realize that it seems comparatively warm this year, which, lets be honest, makes me very happy.