Hello!

Thought I'd check in and update what has been going on in our lives since I last posted.  Has it really been a month?? Wow. I have a lot to say, so this may be long...

 We listed our house on September 15th, spent the next three weeks trying to keep things all tidy and neat in case we had a call to show it, and Ornery working insane 3rd shift hours for one whole week.  After two weeks we had shown it twice.  The first guy said, "I would like it better if it had a gameroom upstairs." (There IS no upstairs!!) The second one said the Feng Shui was wrong because of the way the house faces the street or some such thing. Hmm. 

We asked the Realtor to host an open house, which she did this past weekend.  

We figured it must be the green walls turning people away as our price is right on target for the market, so Sunday October 5th we began operation beige walls.  Sunday Ornery painted the kitchen. Monday and Tuesday he worked on the dining room. Wednesday he painted the whole hall, working until 11:00 PM.  Thursday he finished off the two little alcoves outside the bedrooms. He took Friday off from the painting. Saturday morning we worked at getting things all cleaned up, then after the open house was over at 4:00, we started on the living room, which we finished about 10 minutes before she arrived for Sunday's open house.  

We were delighted to find that Lowe's Valspar Reserve paint (their top of the line) covered everything with one coat, even the cut-work, which as always required two rounds. Since the ceilings on most of the rooms we had to paint were 10 feet, there was a lot of ladder work!!  Fortunately he didn't have to paint the ceilings as they were already white from when we painted the walls green.  We figure the extra $10. per gallon for the better paint was worth it, considering it would have taken twice as much of the lesser grade paint to cover the walls. I doubt we'll ever buy anything else after how well that worked.

We had five people come through on Saturday, one on Sunday.  The response from all seemed positive, but no contract yet.  The main comment was about how clean and organized everything looked. The one on Sunday asked the Realtor, "Where is the television?" When she relayed that question to us, I replied we have never had a television and she said, "So you just don't know anything that is going on in the world??" As though the only way to learn the news was to watch TV!! Even if we had one we would not be news watchers.  Just sayin'.  

My response was that considering the slant one gets in the media, I am not so sure she is any more informed by watching it that we are by not. I was a little offended by her attitude. Oh, well.  I asked her if she would hold a Broker's Open House, and she said she would try to schedule one.  She will also see about getting new photos up on the internet sites so it represents the very blah beige walls we are now living with. If that doesn't work, I don't know what else we can do.  I don't think open houses in general work all that great to sell a house, at least that is what I have been told by previous Realtors. However, I have to say that having six people going through over the weekend was better than the two throughout the three weeks previous.

We still have the utility room to paint, and we hope to do that next weekend, or a bit during the week, but I am not in a hurry to tackle that as the pantry shelves are loaded and it will take a lot of work to paint them. 

So, besides painting and shuffling stuff to paint, we have also been spending a little time at 507, our rental property. Back at the first of August we noted that the doors at one end of the house were sticking, so Ornery has spent countless hours making a huge mess of one of the door frames, and still it is sticking. The other door is actually worse and as he studied the situation realized that the floor had heaved, or the wall had sunk or something.  So, we looked into having the company who did the piers before we purchased it in 2012 come look at it for warranty work.  We apparently failed to register the change of ownership with the company (to the tune of $500.00) within the first year, so it voided the warranty.  Okay! So, we are starting at ground zero again and they are scheduled to come out 10-15 to check it out and give us an estimate.  

Since any foundation work will alter the whole structure, we are going to have to do some repairs inside once the piers are put in.  Then, if we haven't sold this house yet, we will put 507 back on the market for lease. We don't really want to have to pay two house payments, sets of utilities, etc. if we can avoid it.  When we had this idea, I really thought we would sell fairly quickly, but it has not turned out that way.  So, we will move all the stuff we had started taking over there back here and when this house sells we will either store most of it and rent or find something quickly to buy. 

Meanwhile, Ornery has been given the green light at work to work as much overtime as he wants as they are buried in work. He actually has ten projects on his plate, and is juggling things rather proficiently.  The overtime is good for the budget, but hard to work so many hours there, then come home and paint or fix stuff here.  He is doing remarkably well, all things considered, but both of us are pretty tired; a situation not helped any by the barking dogs next door interrupting every bit of sleep we attempt.

It would be lying to say I am not discouraged by how slowly things are going.  I am not really all that patient once I decide to do something. I have missed many of the items from my studio I took over there, and between having stuff in two places and having crammed what is here into smaller spaces, working on my art has been rather frustrating. I don't think I will do that again.  And if we don't have a contract this week, next weekend I will be moving all my stuff back here and setting it back up so I can enjoy it. 

And I have been doing some art.  The traveling journals are still coming around, but I think I only have two left to work in before mine comes home.  I have done several washi tape crafts and sample swaps on Swap-bot, and have kept up with all my correspondence (+/- 30 pen pals now). So far in 2014 I have sent out just under 800 pieces of mail. That seems unbelievable!! The clerk at the post office knows me by name, and when I went in on Saturday to mail two journals he commented that he hadn't seen me in a while and that my mail wasn't as colorful as usual.  

I'll work on that. :)

I have a few other big projects in the works.  I just finished putting together a rather amazing package for the Creative Exchange, and am about 3/4 through with 20 Christmas ATC's for an Instagram swap.  I'm hosting a Christmas/Winter banner swap, and am still sending back and forth a "letter" journal, an ongoing project with two of my pen friends. We do art and write in it each time we receive it.  

Elizabeth wants to have a Halloween party, so I told her she could have it here since her place is too small.  That will probably be our last big gathering to host--that used to be my thing, but not so much anymore. 

Ornery and I have decided that Christmas this year will mostly be a non-event. We don't need any more stuff  to move, and paying two house payments and utilities for both is certainly adding a certain amount of concern for the budget. So, while we may do a little stocking stuffing, or maybe some eBooks, iTunes, or things that don't take up much space, that's the extent this year.  I think Elizabeth and Michael are on board with the idea, too, as they have had a rather expensive fall with huge vet bills and the likelihood of having to replace one of their vehicles. 

So, that's my latest news.  Today it is rainy and gray, another in a string of similar days over the last week, but the forecast is for some gorgeous fall days the rest of the week, and I'm happy about that!  

Neighborhood Living

Our new next door neighbors seem nice enough, but they have a seriously huge collection of STUFF! The backyard is home to a huge jungle gym (with VERY squeaky swings) a trampoline with one of those tall screens around it, and a soft side above ground swimming pool. Oh, and two little yappy dogs that stay outside all the time.  Did I mention they bark? All. The. Time.

So, today when I looked outside and saw them erecting a cheap metal shed, right next to our fence I might have gone a little crazy.  We have lived in this house for over three years, and every minute we have chafed at the neighborhood covenants which require approval by the architectural committee, and only a wooden outbuilding with composition shingles of the same architectural style as your home.  This must be submitted for approval and approved prior to building, at least five feet away from a fence.

I don't think I made them happy, but seriously? The house has two stories, five bedrooms, a game room, a two car garage and they need a shed??

In other news, we are almost ready to list this place for sale!!  We just have some work in the garage and outside, but the inside is as good as it's gonna get.  We painted the library, the guest room, the hall bath, one wall in the studio, the living room ceiling, covered over the verses on the hall wall, and painted one small wall by the kitchen/garage door.  We have de-cluttered, rearranged, thrown away, given away, and sold an immense amount of stuff.  Unfortunately, we still HAVE a lot of stuff!  But I'm sure it will all fit in the other house now.

We also cleaned.  Lordy, have we cleaned!  It took me hours to clean our bathroom, sorting through drawers and cabinets, scrubbing, finding homes for things we kept on the counters... then there was the kitchen, which now has a sparkling clean oven, microwave, dishwasher, sinks and cabinets, and counters. I have moved or hidden everything from the counters except the coffeemaker, the knife block and a basket on the bar. The dining room table, and in fact every surface in the house is clean. (But don't look in the closets!)

The Realtor was ready to list it Wednesday night, but we really needed this weekend to get everything done. We will still be working like fiends for a few days on the yard, but the place is looking really good, if I do say so myself! :)

Catching Up

The days fly by and I forget I even have a blog with so many things going on! So, here I am, checking in with my few faithful followers for an update.

Friday night, Ornery tackled the wall in my studio that we had left deep teal colored when we painted in there earlier this year. We still had some paint, which he used until it was gone, then we started Saturday off with a quick trip to Lowe's for another quart. That room was done by noon, and while I worked on putting that room back together, he decided to paint the guest room and hall bathroom, which were also deep teal. That took up the rest of the weekend, and is still a work in progress.

I had a professional carpet cleaner come Monday morning, and they cleaned all the carpet, ceramic tile and a wool rug. I spent that day working on pen pal letters in the garden room, which was the only dry floor in the whole house!

Yesterday I caught up on a bit of art, as I had received two art journals to work in.

Today I am going to hopefully get the house cleaned up, then work more on my pen pal letters. I'm pretty motivated to do more art, so it's hard to focus on mundane tasks like cleaning bathrooms when I'd rather be creating, but soon this phase will be over and normal life can resume.

More Check Marks!

We marked off a few more items on the list today. The garden room table has a lovely new cover on it, the hall wall is all green again, and the wall in the alcove by the kitchen/garage door is green again, too. The living room is rearranged, and Ornery is finishing up a repair of a bad three-way switch in the entry hall.

There is a bit more tidying up, and the studio and garage each have one wall to paint, but we are on target to be ready to list on the 15th.

Here is a little glimpse of the living room...

That's all I can show at the moment. There are still many piles and other non-photogenic areas and I'm embarrassed to post those!

Labor Weekend

Well, we survived the garage sale. Every time we swear it's our last, but enough time passes that we forget the overwhelming amount of work and how disheartening it is to have people bargain down your prices to next to nothing.

We got rid (one way or another) of an incredible amount of stuff, and between the Craigslist sales and the garage sale we ended up with a tidy little sum. It might pay for the expenses of moving, which will be much less daunting with fewer heavy pieces of furniture.

Last weekend we painted the library, Monday night a guy from out of town came for the aquaponics system, and in exchange, is giving Ornery a lathe and some wood from his sawmill. Tuesday, Ornery mowed at 507. Wednesday night we finished planting and put down mulch in the front flower bed. Ornery took off Thursday and Friday and both those days were occupied with setting up and holding the garage sale.

Saturday we finished cleaning out the garden room and put down an area rug out there, then we began the very sad task of covering our lovely vermilion ceiling in the living room. That chore was finished by noon today. We used one coat of kilz, and two coats of the Valspar top of the line white paint.

Before

After

Ornery also touched up trim various places, and we ran a bunch of errands. It has been over a month since we went grocery shopping for more than a few items, and it was getting desperate.

Next we have the words down the hall wall to cover, and a rather long list of additional tasks to complete before the 15th. Everything is taking twice as long as I thought it would. But we're getting there.

Working in and outside

We are moving right along with the redistribution of our excess belongings. Craigslist has sent a few shoppers our way, and the latest thing to leave the house was an entertainment armoire.  The gentlemen who bought it and came to pick it up had a bit of a mishap on the driveway, and it was not nearly as pristine as when it was standing in our living room.  :P   At any rate, it is gone now, and I am faced with a new dilemma, that of figuring out the most inviting way to arrange the remaining items in that room.

But that is for another day.  This morning we spent a few hours planting in the front flower bed. We will still have to work there more tomorrow morning, but it looks like it will really be pretty once it is finished. I had a number of perennials in pots on the back patio which we transplanted.  Whether they will make it or not, I don't know, but if they do, it's money I won't have to spend.  This afternoon we will start painting the library. We'd like to have that room done by the end of the weekend.

Ornery likes to "start in the upper left hand corner" and move out from there, so we decided that the library was that spot for now, and as good of a place as any to begin inside the house. We will also be painting one wall in the studio, doing touch up on the hall wall (sad to see my lovely scripture go away.) and the ceiling in the living room will go from stunning vermilion to plain ol' white. It will be hard to live with it that way after having it so vibrant but hopefully it will appeal to more people.  We will already be having a hard time overcoming our lack of granite countertops in the kitchen, and all the color on the walls.

There are other tasks to be done, of course, but one step at a time, and eventually it will all be done. I hope. :)

Whoa Nelly!

The biggest obstacle to selling our house to date has been getting the aquaponics garden sold and out the door. After having it listed for a week with no nibbles at all, we decided to just try to sell the fish without the whole system.

I listed them on craigslist this morning, and two hours later had a buyer. He came this afternoon and he and Ornery drained the tank enough to catch the wily little buggers. They were leaping and splashing and hiding behind things but in the end, they all made it into an ice chest and off to their new home.

I was in the process of texting my sister about it when I got a phone call from a buyer who plans to come tomorrow morning and buy the rest of the system! We also sold the fish tank this morning, so things are clipping right along.

The Realtor we are using employs an interior designer who goes into homes and tells you how to best stage it for quick and highest price sale. She comes Wednesday afternoon. We are hoping to have the garden room emptied out by then. We'll see if that happens. Ornery spent most of the morning shoveling dirt out of garden boxes, one whole box went to the new flower bed in front.

The boxes are cedar and were expensive to build, so Elizabeth and Michael will take two of them and we'll put the third one at 507 for an herb garden...which seems to be about all I am able to grow successfully. But before we can move them anywhere, they must be emptied! We're looking for any low spot in the yard, or in any flower bed that might benefit from an extra layer or ten of dirt. Then we have planting and mulching to do. It should be a curb grabber once we are done.

I made it through most of the stuff in my studio last week, and have a substantial pile of items ready for the garage sale. If shipping wasn't so expensive I'd send bits and pieces to all my friends. :-) I thought I would really be able to pare down my paper collection, but apparently my addiction runs deeper than I thought it did. It's not like I wouldn't have room for it, but I so rarely use it anymore, it seems crazy to move it all. Oh, well. Maybe next move... :-D

Big Changes!

Wow, I don't even know where to start with this post, so I'll just dive right in.  We are selling our house and moving into ??

It makes us sound a little flaky, but while it will be a little uncomfortable, part of me is very excited. I won't go into all the thought process that led us to this pass, but at the moment, we are working hard to lighten our possessions by at least 1/3.  We sold our guest bedroom furniture and glass curio cabinet this weekend and have listed the big entertainment center and aquaponics system on Craigslist. There are many more postings and the dreaded garage sale on the horizon--projected date of September 6.

We have a goal of acquiring several more rental properties and for now we are thinking we may move into the one we have (it is still vacant) and buy two more houses with the equity we have in this one. We will have to check into the tax ramifications, and a few other details... It's all in the planning stages, and I feel like we are having to make rapid fire decisions, but otherwise the whole thing could take months to get underway. And we aren't getting any younger!

Meanwhile, the Instagram Friends Traveling Journal Round 2 (#igftj2) gets underway this week! So, I'll be dividing my time between all the chores around here and a break here and there for some art. And, of course, my letters.  I'll be replying to those, too. So, that's life around here. We'll see how good I am at juggling. It's been awhile since I have had a plate this full, but I'll support Ornery's dream any way I can. For now, that means saying goodbye to a lot of extra stuff.  I'm good with that. Streamlining my life can only be freeing, right?

A Weekend at 507

Last year Ornery and I purchased our first (of hopefully many) rental properties.  We took three LONG months working it over so it would be fit for habitation. Our first set of renters recently vacated, and we are back over there working on various little chores that needed to be done. Mostly we are wearing ourselves out! It's hot, and of course everything that needs to be done is outside. We can't seem to get our carcasses in gear and over there before 10:00 AM, and it has been up in the 90's all week.

Ornery has been yammering on about wanting to trim some dead branches, and one rather hefty live one from the massive oak trees in the back yard.  The first couple were easy, as he just climbed on the roof, and they were at waist level, easy to cut with his trusty electric chain saw, and off we went to the next ones. Which were NOT so easy. Somewhere along the way, the electric chain saw decided it was too good to be cutting such awful looking stuff, and quit. Without giving notice! We tried a brand new electric chainsaw, and for some reason, it wouldn't work either.  So, we returned that one and bought a gas powered dude with enough guts and not too much pride to do the job right.

Ornery climbed up the extended extension ladder and cut off the first section without incident.  It was the second section that caused him grief, when the weight of the part he cut off was no longer weighing down the branch he was leaning on, the branch lifted and left the top of the ladder without support.  Down the ladder went, and fortunately Ornery grabbed a branch from a different tree and rode it down to the ground where he landed on both feet, no broken or sprained bones, and chainsaw still in his hand. The tree didn't fare so well, as the branch split off on the downward pull. Oh, well, we'll just trim that branch when we are done.

Next was the last section of that huge branch, and I told Ornery I would sure feel better if he would strap the ladder to the tree, just in case... So, he did, and proceeded to cut the last section of that branch until it fell. It was still partially attached to the tree, but he figured he could go back and take care of that later.  Oh, by the way, that big branch landed on the rescue tree and obliterated one entire side leaving a rather homely, lopsided beast.  So, now the job increased in scope to the removal of that entire tree, but at least there were no injuries.

After he removed a few smaller twigs the movement and the weight finally tore the last of the branch from the trunk where it somehow managed to roll around to the back of the tree where the ladder was.  Had Ornery been on it, the force likely would have thrown him off.  He owes his guardian angels some big tips and has forthwith been banned from such exercises. We are too old for that kind of excitement!

The neighbor next door was delighted to clean up most of the fallen branches to take to his house for firewood, and he even bundled up most of the smaller branches and put them out for the trash men. In so many ways I wish he was our neighbor here at Zoe Cottage. What a nice guy.

Next, Ornery worked on the fence, replacing a broken post at the corner of the yard. We had to meet with the stump grinder at 2:00 and a new leasing management representative at the same time.  Both went well, the huge stump from last year's tree removal in the front is now shreds and dirt, spread neatly out over the front lawn. Elizabeth had dug out the last of the iris on Sunday, so the area was clear of all except some daylilies which I didn't mind losing. The yard mowing will be much easier now with the removal of the stump, and we shouldn't have so many saplings to contend with, either.

The stump grinder was a remote control beast, and way fun to watch. The owner/operator stood off to the side and drove it from the ground. It was great entertainment! :)

Ornery is off all this week, and we have a few more chores at 507 before we can enjoy some time just relaxing. Which we will definitely need after all the manual labor of the week!

(If you are interested in our journey as beginning landlords, what we did to the house, etc., you can follow this link and search for 507 to see posts I wrote last year. I am still in awe at what we accomplished.)

Tags and Postcards

I spent two glorious days last week with my gelliplate.

Then I used some of them in various projects.

 All these above are post cards except the second one which is a5x7 for a monthly art swap called Happy Art Swap (#haswap)

This one is a tag I made for someone on Instagram. My sweet daughter was feeling generous and ordered a few items from my Etsy favorites, just because. One of the items was the new Dina Wakely scribble birds stamp set. Another was the Tim Holtz layering stencil with splatters. I'm pleased with the projects so far, and I have a pretty hefty pile of prints to create with..

In the printing sessions I used file folders to clean my brayer and stencils and have had fun altering them as well. I am sending one off today in a mail art swap with a variety of little ephemera pieces, and I used three others to organize my mail and swap groups. As time goes by, I plan to add more things to the fronts, but at least I have a place to store my various swaps while in progress.

It feels great to be back making art (besides washi tape postcards)

Those are a tremendous amount of fun to make, and I am making a valiant effort to use up my washi tape samples by the end of summer. Several have already been sent out either naked with stamps on them, or as a little note in another mailing. Don't those fun strips of color just make you happy? :-)

Wunderlist Saturday

I recently added a new app to my tablet and phone called Wunderlist. Ornery also added it and we have really used it a lot for keeping lists of errands, chores, shopping needs, etc.  Because we are both linked to all the various lists, we can both add or mark as complete. There are a few things I wish were different, but overall it has simplified our lives considerably.

Saturday morning during coffee time, we created a new list called Hours of operation. Then we decided what errands we needed to do and did online searches for the opening hours for each place we wanted to go. Then we planned our day accordingly. It was awesome!!

We made returns at Lowe's, had breakfast at Panera, drove out to a suburb to the south to pick up cottonseed hulls for mulch in our new flowerbed. Then we drove back into Tulsa and bought air filters at Locke Supply, and then made a return to Staples. Back to Broken Arrow to the post office and to make an appointment at Clary Sage Salon for a real haircut (as opposed to the weed whacker job I got a few weeks ago at supercuts) and finally to QuikTrip for gas. We had completed everything by 10:30, and were happily ensconced at home before the rest of the city had really started moving around.

We only lack one item on the list; to wash Big Red (the pickup) and we would have done that except for the cottonseed hulls in the back. That would not have been good!

The rest of the day I played with washi tape! I got this in the mail, addressed to me, from me!

I had set a goal to use up my samples by the end of summer and with the arrival of these orphaned samples, I knew I needed to get busy! I taped up a dozen or two envelopes and got a few cards condensed. I think I'm still on target unless another anonymous sender from Oregon sends more! :-) 

I got my hair cut later in the day, and am so far happy with it. Elizabeth and Michael came over to talk geekery with Ornery, and then took my computer home with them for Michael to fix. I sure don't get the motivation behind hackers and virus creators. Hopefully it will be the last issue for awhile. I may need to upgrade my OS as I'm still using Vista. At least my tablet seems to be more secure. 

Fish Fried

Our aquaponics experiment has been a rather daunting thing. We can't seem to get things to produce, and after a seemingly successful growth spurt, suddenly things droop or drop leaves, or turn brown or don't produce any fruit. Until recently, we had at least been successful in keeping all the fish alive, but even that has changed lately.

A few weeks ago one of the algae eaters decided to take a trip through the drain pipe, and when Ornery discovered him there, he tried to force him out, but ended up having to close the valve to keep him from going further into the works.  The poor thing lost his long tail, but otherwise seems to have escaped unscathed. That evening, one of the larger tilapia was floating on the surface of the tank dead. We have no idea why.

Then, last Tuesday (July 8) I went out to feed the fish and discovered an inch of water all over the floor of the garden room and water splashing over the top of the fish tank onto the floor.  Much work was required to clean up the mess, and Ornery couldn't figure out why the drain was backing up and not allowing the fish tank water to move through the system.  He decided he must need to make a bigger drain pipe, and off to Lowe's he went to gather supplies. 

After he got home, he took the whole thing apart and discovered that another tilapia had gotten adventurous, but he did not get by as easily as the algae eater did.  This one was dead. Nothing like taking out the whole system when you go!  Anyway, he ended up leaving the same drain pipe there, as it had been working fine before a swimmer went wild.  We really have no idea how they are getting in there as there is a cage type affair covering the opening. They must have some sort of super-powers we are unaware of... or something.

Stranger than Fiction

I have always heard that true life is stranger than fiction, and I believe it is true!  Last week one day Ornery came home for lunch and when he pulled into the garage, a van pulled up into the drive right behind him. He didn't recognize the vehicle, or the blond woman who hopped out of the van as soon as he was out of his truck.

"Hi! I'm Linda!" from the perky woman as her children begin to pile out of the vehicle.

Ornery was a little dumbfounded, but being his usual sweet self, smiled and said, "Uh, Hi. I'm Dave." 

He had a very perplexed look on his face, but the woman was quite confident when she said, "Your wife is selling an Air Conditioner, and I am here to pick it up."

**silence**

"I think you must have the wrong address. I am sure my wife is not selling an air conditioner."

"Oh!  They told me to follow the red pick up!"

0_o

Traveling Letter Journal

I have two pen-friends who are both interested in art and pen-pal letters.  We all connected via swap-bot, although I had met Karen on Instagram. Over the last several months, we have done a variety of collaborations, and recently embarked on a new one.  Beth bought a small journal and we are each going to write in it, preferably with doodles and whimsical writing as well.  Here were my first couple of pages.

 This first one is doodles and paint. I used glaze gel pens by Sakura for the doodles, and Twinkling H2O watercolors for the fill-in.

And this is the finished spread.  I did one more page, but it is all writing, so I didn't post it. The journal will travel around to each of us, and we will get to read what the others wrote, then add a message to both of them. We still write regular letters as well, but this is a fun little adventure, especially with all the fancy lettering and doodles. 

Playing with Alcohol Inks

A few posts back I mentioned that I needed to add one more page to my friend's art journal.  This is the page I did using alcohol inks and canned air on glossy paper.  I added some gel pen accents.

Here is a closer view in which you can see a bit more detail.  I just love this stuff!  The colors are so vibrant and rich.

Checkbook Covers for Mom

I don't know very many people who still carry a checkbook for everyday business. Ornery's mom is one of them, and she asked if I would make her a new one as the old one was wearing out.  So, here are the two I made for her.

How handy that both her first and last names begin with M. :)

Mail, Mail and More Mail!

I have been getting more and more creative with my outgoing mail.  I love to write letters, almost as much as I love receiving them!  Below is a photo of a little booklet letter I made.  The cover picture is a color copy of a page from my first art journal back when I started painting with twinkling h2O watercolors.  I folded the booklet so each page is a little inset from the next, and then put washi tape on each edge so it shows all the styles when the booklet is closed.  I sewed the binding with some sparkly DMC floss, and I stamped some flowers on each of the pages with different shades of purple ink.  I glued the recipient's initial on the front cover (which unfortunately I had forgotten until after I had it all sealed inside the envelope!)

The envelopes below are all for the Secret Snail Mail Society I am a part of.  It is a very small group of women who are all interested in sharing mail and mail art. Various members issue challenges and members can participate if they want.  These envelopes are filled with 40 or more little pieces of ephemera from a scavenger hunt challenge.  Much cutting and sorting ensued!

After having two days of NO MAIL this week (I think the postal workers were slacking!) I decided to make a few envies.  This after I realized what a ridiculous amount of scrapbook paper I had sitting on a shelf gathering dust and mites. I think I made 39 envelopes, then I set about using up a bunch of the washi tape samples that seem to be multiplying.  I emptied 14? 17? cards that day.

Here is a sample of one of the envies after I decorated it up. :)

Here are a bunch of them that are ready to go out on Monday.  I am starting to run out of all those stamps I had collected back in the 1990's and early 2000's.  Other than Christmas stamps, I don't have any 37 or 34 cent stamps left.  Still lots of 32 and 33 cents, though.

Hopefully more mail will come in this week than came in last week. It was pretty pitiful!  My count for the year so far of outgoing pieces is 525 counting these that will go tomorrow.  How did that happen??

Once Upon A Time...

I blogged every day!  Do you believe that?  It is true!  My first year of blogging, I ate, talked, dreamed and lived my blog.  I searched all the time for things to take pictures of to make interesting reading.  I even changed a lot of my life around to accommodate my blog and my audience.  Pshaw.  No more of that nonsense!  These days I feel good if I get a post up a week, much less every day.

This is what I have been up to.  Instead of blogging.

This was Monday, I think. That had been the state of my table for weeks!  I would finish one project and before I even cleared everything away, I launched into the next.  It was quite a disaster area!  But, Monday afternoon, I got all caught up with my correspondence (see the next post) and I tackled the mess. 

 I moved the computer desk from the library into this little corner of the studio. Now that my wonderful son-in-law has set up wifi printing capabilities from my computer, I don't have to be right next to the beast in order to print!  I can come and go from the table to the computer, and it is wonderful! :)

 Then I moved the nightstand from the guest room and put it where the little vanity stool was (which is now in our bathroom under the vanity!) and set my sewing machine on it. Actually it is Elizabeth's machine, but she never uses it, and it is stored here... something about possession being 9/10ths of the law. :)

 I organized all sorts of things, except for all the mail in those baskets and bins. :-/  This picture was to show that cool little frame my sister brought to me when she was here in January.  I have had it hung for a few weeks now, but I don't think I ever posted a photo.

 This bookcase was in the corner where the desk is now.  Note the new-to-me typewriter sitting on top! :)  So fun!  I moved all my books and magazines to this shelf unit, and all my art and mail art journals, as well.  The bottom shelf still holds all my printed papers.

This is a view of command-central.  And, a MUCH cleaner table!  Since the photos were taken, I have cluttered things up a bit, but overall, I am keeping it clean. Er. :)

A Tutorial on Alcohol Inks

Given my lack of technical savvy, I figured it would be easiest for me to do pictures and written instructions. A few of my friends asked to know how I created my alcohol ink creations, so this is how I did it. I am not very experienced in this art form, but it is so fun and unpredictable that anyone can get similar results.

Supplies:

• Gloss paper, yupo, transparency film, metal....just about any nonporous surface
• Alcohol ink (Adirondack, Piñata, or any alcohol ink marker refills such as copic)
• Blending solution (or alcohol)
• Applicator and felt pads
• Needle tip bottles
• Compressed air or air compressor with fine nozzle

Here are all my tools and supplies. I don't have alcohol markers yet, so my color selection is limited, but if you have Copies or other alcohol ink markers, you could add them, as well.

 Here is the paper I am using today. It is called Gloss Paper,

 Here are a couple other options. Those who do a lot of AI work talk a lot about yupo paper, I only recently got some and have not had a chance to try it yet.

 Here is the postcard I am working on. I dropped raspberry ink and sprayed gently with the compressed air. Do not shake the can, and keep it as upright as possible.

 Here I dropped some salmon ink and sprayed again.

 This is with citrus drizzled on through the little needle bottle.

 I added some watermelon to the centers of the pink, but it spread fast, and I ended up spraying it as well.

 Because the watermelon was more red than I wanted, I put blending solution on a felt pad and dabbed it over and over just on the pink areas. The blending solution will pick up some of the ink, and if you mix pink and green, it is not a pretty color!

 Here I put some blending solution into another needle bottle and touched it to the green areas. I kept working it until I had it like I wanted it. I will go back later and use my gel pens to highlight or outline various areas.

 The next piece has basically the same technique only I used piñata lime green and added a drop of wild plum in the center. Of course it was too purple for what I wanted, so I added salmon and more raspberry and blender.

 The last one I had blender and the pink ink it had picked up from the last one, so I just dabbed it all over. I did the same thing with a green felt pad, then went back through and used the needle tip to more precisely add the green. Then I got wild and dripped the ink along the edges while holding the paper it a steep slant so the ink would run. I did this on all four sides, the two short sides with pesto and the two long sides with raspberry. As a finishing touch, I dropped some pearl mixative on and sprayed with air to spread it out.

As you can see, all three have very different appearances with almost the same techniques. I hope it was helpful!

Journal Pages and Cover

My pen friend Karen received her ojswap journal almost six months after it was started, and was sad to find several blank pages within. So she asked if I would do another spread to help her fill it up. She hadn't decorated her cover either, so I offered to do the front. Here are pictures.

 I covered the front with gesso to give it a clean surface, then adhered printed tissue paper and a few torn squares of lime green tissue with matte gel medium. I cut the letters free hand from a variety of papers except for the Tim Holtz playing card A.

 Here is the spread. Below are closer shots of each page. The background is twinkling H2O watercolors dribbled on, then manipulated with bubble wrap and a baby wipe. The banner flags are gelli-prints, all but one are made by me, the r is on one made by my friend Jonathan. The spread took me a full (long) day to create.

I wove some strips of paper (mostly gelli-prints) behind the f. The bicycle is stamped and embossed in white. The flowers between the r and i banners are torn bits of washi tape. The letters are stamped with making memories foam stamps using distress paint by Ranger. 

I always try to use some washi tape on my artwork, and on these pages, in addition to the torn strips along the top left and bottom right pages, I cut pieces to hang the flags on the green eyelash yarn, a leftover from my daughter's last shawl. The feather on the d flag is cut from the front of a pen pal letter-- a bit of recycling... The little flower pot is actually metal, and the leaves and flowers came from other pen pals. 

I have one more single page to do before I send it on to another pen pal to work in. I got some new alcohol inks yesterday and plan to do something with them. Happy Sunday!