December 2014 Update

     Hi all! I've been crocheting up a storm. Most recently, I've made a cactus stuffed toy and two beanie-style hats. The cactus was for an online friend of mine who was nice enough to pay for both the cactus and the shipping (all the way to Norway!). I'd made my friend's mom a shawl, too. The shawl took me a long time to make, but it's worth it because I really wanted to show my support of my friend and his mom while they go through a difficult time. 

     I've also been making a wee bit of mail art and I wrote a short story that may become part of a novel. 

     The other fun thing I did was follow a suggestion from the lovely Ms. Keri Smith. In one of her books, How to Be an Explorer of the World, she suggests an exercise where you blindfold a willing participant and have them touch objects. They then have to guess what the object is. So, I made a texture board and had my mom touch the various objects and guess what they are. I told her that if she got at least 5/7 correct, I'd give her a prize. She got 6/7 correct, so I bought her a box of chocolates. It was fun! 

     Please pardon the look of my blog while I fix it up a bit. 

     Happy holidays, everyone!

Review of Gutwrench Press's "Keep Writing" postcard subscription

     I first heard of Hope (of Gutwrench Press) and her “Keep Writing” project when I was searching on Etsy for “postcard subscriptions”. I wanted to see what kind of independent artists offered a service where a postcard would be sent to customers on a regular basis, ideally once a month. Hope's listing for “ONE YEAR—Keep Writing Letterpress Postcard Subscription” came up on the first page of search results. And I'm so glad it did!

     The basic concept of Hope's service is that she mails you two postcards each month. Well, it's really one sheet of card stock that can be detached at the fold, but for simplicity's sake, I'll just refer to them as separate postcards. You get to keep one of the postcards and then you creatively respond to the prompt provided on the other one.

     I love to put the postcard (the one I'm supposed to keep) onto the door of my refrigerator. It makes me and my housemates smile to see Hope's work there. The postcard I'm supposed to mail back is even more fun, though. It's fun to give some thought as to how to creatively respond to the prompt. The prompts are not complicated, though. For example, December's prompt was about how you and your family celebrate the holidays. Hope posts all the responses on her Instagram account. It's fun to see your responses and others posted online.

     Gutwrench Press's “Keep Writing” postcard subscription service is a lot of fun. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoys postal delights (both receiving and giving) subscribe to this service. Thank you, Hope, for making the mail a lot more fun!

July art & a poem!

I've been crocheting a lot, but haven't really been making as much art as I'd like. Here are some pictures of the mail art I have made. Also, I'm including a picture of my mom holding my first-ever blanket! It's a yellow baby blanket made with a simple V-stitch. Also, here's a poem a wrote at the beginning of July:


Stumble

Laying in the grass,

my head on your belly,

I gaze at the sky.

We talk about what

it means to be

fully alive.

I don't want to merely glide

through conventional motions,

I say as I watch a heart-shaped

cloud pass by.

I want to stumble on a

path that is my own,

then rise, slightly bruised,

but better.  

Summer 2014 Update

Hi all! I haven't been making all that much art lately. I've been crocheting up a storm, though! I'll include some picture of my art, as well as some of my crochet (can you tell I love to make hair bows?!). Enjoy!

End of Winter Update

I've been going through a bit of a dry spell lately. I've been crocheting, pen paling, and reading a lot, but I've not been doing much mail art. I did, however, make 8 postcards these past two months or so. That's better than nothing!