|
|
|
how to re-start
sat 26 jan 2013 | |||
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130126.html | |||
|
I am very happy to see LetterMo come back for a second year... The challenge is to put something in the mail every single day during the month of february. Last year, I was sick for most of the month, but I did enjoy it... and managed to get 60 bits of mail out. I am all signed up, and ready to do way more than 60 mailings! This morning, I spent about 100$ at my friendly online postal store. The price of US stamps goes up on 27 jan, and there are a bunch of new stamps to be had! I've still got most of a sheet of the old $1.05 international stamps, but I can't wait to use one of the new ROUND international forever stamps...
This afternoon I walked to Staples and spent 50$ on the special photo paper that I use to make my postcards. I am way behind on my postcards. I moderate a monthly postcard exchange, and I've not sent postcards to them. I've not sent anything to my overseas pen pals in months. My january postcard for the postcard group I've been a member of for years is not even designed, let alone printed or written. Plus I have a few xmas Thank You notes left to write!
The one thing that I have worked on is my Amnesty International writing. In 2012, I wrote letters for 40 cases, and this year I want to do more. My goal for 2013 is 60 cases! So. I am bound and determined to get some mail out in the next month and beyond. If you're interested, I've set up an account at Postable... ∞ Sign up for Free Postcards! (phone and email not required) |
|
Happy Snail Mail
sat 2 feb 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130202.html | |
|
Yes, I Send Mail! A single postcard went out on the first of february. Today's mail includes 2 PostCrossing postcards, protest letters for Amnesty International, and 1 "Save the Post Office" postcard... My PostCrossing account has been inactive for years(? maybe). Here's what my most recent newsletter from them said: Postcards sent: 0 (251) It'll be interesting to see what my next newsletter says! The "Save the Post Office" postcard was for the cute little post office in Rupert, Vermont, USA. The post mistress there is going to send out 200 handmade art postcards in reply to the art postcards she receives. And speaking of replying to mail... The other half of the LetterMo challenge is to "Write back to everyone who writes to you." For various reasons, I have trouble writing back. I don't really know why, but I get major procrastination and writer's block when it comes to replying to mail. So for LetterMo, I would really like to work on this issue. My goal is to reply to two or three mailings every week! Happily, this weekend's mail brought some treats which will be very easy to reply to! :) February LetterMo Daily Mail
|
|
begin again
fri 15 feb 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130215.html | |
|
And to celebrate my forward motion... I went out and got a Post Office Box! Yes! Now I can display my address for all the world to see! Please write me! I promise to send you a postcard if you include your return addy!
rift vegan I am surprisingly happy about my new po box. It's partly about supporting the US mail. I will continue to use my home address for my postcards... Yeah, I really want my home mailbox to continue to be happy! :) I'll use the PO Box as my return address for my ongoing political mail. Probably, it doesn't matter that the random/non-democratic/maybe-evil governments know where I live... but maybe they are sending the zombies directly to my house to make me one of them! You never know.
February LetterMo Daily Mail
|
|
Happy Stamps
fri 22 feb 2013 | ||||
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130222.html | ||||
|
After all, postcard stamps come in rolls of 100. I am sending out plenty of mail, but not all of it is USA postcards...
Plus, I had started out the month with the old herb stamps...
In other words, it's getting towards the end of february, and I still have some postcard stamps left. So, here's the real problem...
I jammed through an entire sheet of the new Global stamps in just a week! Ha! I bought more. And decided to take it easy with my Amnesty International mailings. But, really... sending out mail is my hobby. I should be proud to be buying more stamps! Yes. Yay Stamps!
February LetterMo Daily Mail
|
|
end of LetterMo
fri 1 mar 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130301.html | |
|
Yay Mail! During february I joined the LetterMo challenge to send mail out every day and I sent out a total of 108 bits of snail mail. Mostly postcards, a few cards, and letters for three Amnesty International cases. The one new thing that I really loved about this year's LetterMo website: the "What have you mailed today?" widget, which shows up on your LetterMo profile. I just loved filling it out every day! It had a text block for writing about what you sent and you could upload a pic. Here's an example that I uploaded to Google Plus: 02.16 A secondary LetterMo goal was to write replies. I wanted to write two or three a week. haha. I wrote a total of five replies! But, in my defense: I had actually kept up with the replies until the very last week... which brought a plethora of LetterMo mail! I put one postcard reply in the mail this morning. And I intend to continue with my replies. At the beginning of LetterMo, I had sent a postcard to Save the Rupert VT Post Office. The owner of that cute little PO is an artist, and she offered to reply with art postcard! Here's the art postcard she sent me:
Yay Art! I love her art. And I intend to send her a thank you card soon! |
|
random
sat 2 march 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130302.html |
|
Daffodils and Crocuses are blooming! I also FINALLY found our Little Free Library...
It was installed in June 2012, and I loved it but didn't see it on my regular walks. ha... It is exactly one house down from where I thought it was! Inside, the only book that interested me was the big one, which is by Anais Nin. I do have several books to trade for it. Maybe I will head back there tomorrow! (Like I don't have enough to read already!) And like I don't have enough mailing hobbies... this morning I discovered this: ∞ Etegami ... is a Japanese folk art consisting of simple hand-painted drawings accompanied by a few apt words, and they are almost always done on postcards for quick and easy mailing. What?! how did I not know about this?? |
|
productive weekend
sun 31 mar 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130331.html | |
|
Another batch of postcards out the door. Taxes done. All the regular weekend chores are completed. And I got great exercise...
My beautiful Hooded Merganser girl has found someone special! I am so happy for her.
Plus, I discovered several clumps of "The Bane Of My Existance"... an evil weed we tried to irradicate last year. (I still don't know it's name.)
I used my hand tool mercilessly.
|
|
a postcard month
sat 6 apr 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130406.html | |
|
I've decided to do another month of daily mail. In February, for the official LetterMo, I put over 100 postcards, notecards and letters in the mail. This time, I want to focus on making ONE reply postcard or notecard every day. Yeah, I'll still be doing my "batch" postcards on the weekends because I'm still behind on my monthly sendings. But I have got a ton of reply mail to send, and it's a bit overwhelming! I'm hoping that one a day won't be so difficult. April Daily Mail: Week 1
|
|
Crow Happy
sat 6 apr 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130406crow.html |
|
As a photographer, I especially love birds. I can go outside, any day of the year, and take a picture of a bird. I can't do that with any other wild animals. And as an individual, I have a special place in my heart for Corvidae: Crows and Jays. They are smart and they have a sense of humor. Crows are common in my city. We also have a good population of scrub jays. The Steller jays are more shy. Ravens live outside the city; I've never seen one. Since Crows are common, I often photograph them. And since I like them so much, I often turn my photographs into a postcard. This is one of my favorites from last year. (um, yeah, all my postcards are "one of my favorites". that's why I turn them into postcards!)
This photo also included a wonderful story. Here's what I wrote on the back of the postcard... This crow is one of four crows who have hung out near our home all year. They are a family: Mom and Dad raising a baby with help from last year's child. The baby yelled a lot thru the summer. He or she finally leared some manners tho, and it's much quieter around here now! (But maybe I miss their noise:)) At the end of the summer, I was delighted to see Baby learning to fly. And being shown the nearest and easiest food source (my neighbor who feeds the squirrels nuts!) and this is how you open a peanut shell. It was wonderful. And I wondered if the crows would come back next year. Well, I think they may have returned! I was sitting on my bed, reading my book, when motion in the bare oak tree outside caught my attention. There was a crow... and another one further away... strange behavior. I had to watch them both for several minutes to figure out what they were doing. Gathering sticks!! They would hop out to the end of the branch and test the twigs. *yank, yank* move on, *yank* "Oh Hey! I got one!" Re-arrange for easy carrying (in the beak). "Oh wait, is this twig better? Hmmm..." And then they would carry the twig to the top of a big, nearby spruce tree. I definitely saw three crows gathering sticks... most likely last year's baby is helping this year. This is a normal crow family practice. (I'm assuming this is still the original Mom and Dad!) But I do wonder about the sibling that helped out in 2012... Is s/he starting their own family this year? I hope so. How far away are they? Still close by? I hope so! |
Sun, 14 Apr 2013 17:39:35 PDTApril Daily Mail: Week 2 |
Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:18:33 PDTApril Daily Mail: Week 3 |
Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:50:39 PDTApril Daily Mail: Week 4 |
|
postcard organization
sat 27 apr 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130427.html |
|
Organization is not my strong point, but when you are sending out 70 or 100 bits of mail every month, and getting who-knows how much back... well, a little bit of orderliness is required! I have a couple of ways of keeping track of my mail... ∞ I scan all mail. Everyone gets their own directory on the computer. In theory, I also scan the text side of my out-going postcards, which goes into everyone's directory as well... I am no longer able to send mail to everyone in my address book every month; So, scanning my out-going mail helps to know who got what. ∞ Every bit of daily mail gets listed in a table... I look at and add to this file almost every day. Sometimes, seeing this file, I realize I am crazy. Fortunately, I am crazy in the good/happy way that makes people smile. ∞ For the postcard exchange that I run, I keep a simple database. Each participant gets an entry which includes their address and when they joined. And then each monthly postcard exchange has an entry with the different participants listed. I spend quite a lot of time hosting this postcard project... it's something near and dear to my heart. But I worry about what I'm going to do if I ever get a membership explosion! ∞ Today, I set up a separate table listing for my LetterMo replies. Yes, LetterMo was in February. And Yes, I am still working on my replies! As I mentioned: organization is not my strong point. :) I'm hoping that having a smaller file, that is focused on replies, will call my attention to what needs to be done. ∞ I really like the little "April Daily Mail" reports I've been making here! So! I'm going to continue with my saturday morning "Weekly Mail Check-in". My hope is that I continue with the mail replies. |
Sat, 04 May 2013 08:06:39 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in |
Sat, 25 May 2013 08:08:23 PDTThree Weeks of Mail, Check-in I've been busy, on vacation, and busy again! And now I'm ready to catch up with some blog posts, and some mail! |
Sat, 01 Jun 2013 09:01:04 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in Okay, need to get back to those replies, notecards and letters! |
Sat, 08 Jun 2013 08:11:42 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in |
Sat, 22 Jun 2013 09:35:04 PDTTwo Weeks of Mail Check-in |
Sat, 29 Jun 2013 08:55:49 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in |
|
weekend odds and ends
sun 30 june 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130630.html |
|
I print all my postcards on my printer. A slow month is 60 postcards. A good month is over 100. All those postcards are printed on that over-used, under-appreciated Canon i9900. And in the past week or so, it has reluctantly printed a couple of pages. And I'm worried that it is about to die in a permanent way. A new print head is $160 and comes only from China and I'm not sure that is the actual problem. A new printer of the same kind is $1050. not exactly in the budget. But it might be necessary for my soul. As of tonight, Google Reader is deleted forever. Damn them. The new Digg Reader came out on thursday. I used it for a few days, discovered it was not updating some of my feeds, and went looking for something more established. *sighs* I think I've settled on The Old Reader. It's still clean, but much prettier. It's free, but if my feeds stay updated, I will be sending them a yearly donation. I am thrilled that I found something that works for me! Last november, we seeded the entire community garden plot with a cover crop... Berseem Clover. Since the plot is too large for us to handle, we've let the clover take over in a section. I think it is beautiful. Plus, it is a good nitrogen fixer, so it's good for future plants!
We harvested 1.8 pounds of sweet snap peas on saturday! Yay! The first zucchinis are growing... And the cucumbers and tomatoes are blooming like crazy. And the first sunflowers in the community garden... a portrait with the waning moon. :)
I can't wait for my own sunflowers! Oh! I also found a volunteer tomato plant next to all the snap peas. Last year, in that area, we had the hybrid Sweet 100 Cherry Tomatoes, Cascade Tomatoes and Oregon Spring Tomatoes... I don't remember the difference between the second two toms, the sweet 100 were smaller. I am happy about the volunteer tom plant. I doubt it will give us any tomatoes. But I am wonderfully curious about it! |
Sat, 06 Jul 2013 10:35:52 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in I am just two mailings shy of finishing my "May" postcards. Ha. |
Sat, 13 Jul 2013 09:20:51 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in Yay, done with the May mail! |
|
envelope and garden
sun 28 july 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130728.html |
|
I supported a successful Kickstarter campaign for Kreate-A-Lope, and last weekend I got my reward: some envelope templates! Of course, my original plan was to print some of my more abstract photos and turn them into envelopes. That plan being on hold, copic wide markers to the rescue!
(ha. the sky blue marker definitely needs to be re-inked!
and the violet one soon.)
Now... if only I could just print something to put in my envelopes!
Baby Sunflower!
I ate this sun gold cherry tomato right after I took this pic. It was the most tasty tomato that I've ever eaten in my life. Well, it was the first garden tomato I've eaten this year... but I think it was more than just that! |
Sat, 10 Aug 2013 19:25:19 PDTWeekly Mail Check-inThis may be some kind of record for me... Hopefully, I'm just getting started! |
|
update
sun 11 aug 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130811.html |
|
Might need more stamps!
Lucy and Ethel. Still trying to capture the cuteness, but black faces are impossible! Maybe I should try drawing them?
This is our Grey Stripe Sunflower... Pretty sure the description is about the seeds, not about the flower! :) The plant is probably 6.5 feet tall, and that's a bud in the center. Our other sunflower plant (the short one) was a Zubulon, and it only had one flower. I'm hoping the Grey Stripe has multiples. I eat zucchini at every single meal. Even breakfast... zucchini with a few tater tots, quite tasty! But I can't keep up with the garden abundance. Thinking about freezing some... |
Sat, 17 Aug 2013 15:39:01 PDTWeekly Mail Check-in I don't have the next postcard designed yet... but I'm going to try to have a record month! I mailed 108 things during LetterMo this year. Can I beat that?? |
|
update
sat 24 aug 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130824.html |
|
We brought home almost 10 pounds of food from our garden plot today. Mostly zucchini, lots of cherry tomatoes, several cucumbers and six lemon cucumbers. I suppose we're averaging about 15+ pounds of food per week? Yes, I'm kind of sick of zucchini. So I've been trying to keep up with the lemon cucumbers instead.
The bees are still very busy and soon this flower will turn into a lemon cuc. Along with dozens more!
Sat, 24 Aug 2013 18:03:42 PDT Weekly Mail Check-in I've met my goal of beating my February mail count, which was 108. And I've still got most of a week to bump up my numbers even more! I've now completed my extra "non-month" postcard mail and I am two postcards shy of completing my June mail. Since I don't yet have a photo picked out for my July mail, I'm going to focus on some replies in the final week of August. Yay Mail! |
|
update
sat 31 aug 2013 | ||
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130831.html | ||
|
Weekly Mail Check-in Yay Snail Mail!
I'm not sure what my project for september will be. But here are some thoughts...
The goal is to write 20 blog posts about vegan food. I love the idea, and I usually skim a few VeganMoFo blogs ... But I don't enjoy kitchen-time and try to avoid cooking. That said, I do want to support vegan ideas. So I'll be posting something!
Just glancing through, I might read: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Bridge to Terabithia (I loved the movie!). What books will you read?
And then there are the Additional snail mail projects! |
|
Banned Books Week
sat 28 sept 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20130928.html | |
|
Postcards, writing, reading and talking about books... not to mention the photography I'm sharing on the front of the postcards.
From the Challenged Classics list:
5. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
And from the 2000-2009 list:
4. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
And Currently reading: I really enjoyed this article in our local paper, the other day: Dangerous Books can lead to enlightenment. Haha, the comments made me laugh even tho the people seem to be completely serious!! I wonder if they actually read the article! Banned Books Week is important to me because I love to expand my mind by reading books I wouldn't ordinarily pick. The books on the Challenged Books lists are so diverse and wonderful! And even when I read one that I don't like... I still love the fact that I am able to read that book! |
|
Amnesty International
sat 26 oct 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20131026.html | |
|
I've been an active member of the UAN since December 2011. I had written a few letters for their annual Write for Rights campaign that December and got hooked. I had been taking on one case -- sending three or four letters of protest -- almost every weekend. In 2012, I wrote letters for 40 cases. And this year I wanted to do more! I started out very strong, in January and February I would sometimes write two cases in a weekend! After that, my letter writing kind of fizzled, only writing once or twice in a month. The last case I wrote for was Urgent Action #205-2013. I sent four letters to Cuba at the end of August. Nothing since then. This week, I read I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. And I am sadly reminded of all the violence in the world. Writing for Amnesty International was my form of peace activism. Why have I stopped? Why in the world have I quit?
So far this year, I've worked on 24 UAN cases... I am not sure I'll be able to match the 40 cases I completed in 2012. But I'm going to try! |
|
weekend roundup
sun 10 nov 2013 | |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20131110.html | |
|
Good thing I still have 20 days to practice! I am also playing catch up with my postcard and mailing projects. I love sending mail! My ongoing goal is to send a monthly postcard to the two mailing groups I belong to, and a few friends and family. The mailing list is currently between 60 and 70 postcards. But then I pick up random Swap-Bot projects that look fun. And then I want to send something special to someone. And then there are a few replies to be made... yeah: there's a pile. This weekend, I cleared out the Swap-Bot projects. And I wrote a couple replies. And I really organized that pile, so that I can pick up the top project and get going with it quickly and easily!
Also worked on an Amnesty International case. When I read I Am Malala, I was reminded that my Amnesty International work was important. Having recently finished E.O. Wilson's Biophilia (the fire ant!), I was reminded again... He writes about the terrible changes that come to Surinam, in South America, after a dictator comes into power in 1980. Wilson was concerned about the human rights violations as well as the environmental destruction. He mentions Amnesty International's Urgent Action cases in the footnotes. As a member of the Urgent Action Network, I must continue my activism! It is so important! I've signed up for the USA Write for Rights, which happens in December. But the UK Write for Rights is already under way! |
|
Happy Long Weekend
thurs 28 nov 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20131128.html |
|
The great thing about Write for Rights is that they provide sample letters. It's so easy to participate! Just print up the sample letter, sign it and put it in an envelope! In addition to sending letters of protest, you can also send letters of solidarity. There are 10 cases highlighted this year... and my goal for this long weekend is to write letters for ALL of them!!
|
|
3 piles of projects
sat 30 nov 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20131130.html |
|
The pile on the left is the art pile.
The pile on the right is the Amnesty International
letters. The pile includes all the letters, since I decided not to mail them until the Write for Rights campaign "officially" begins on 2 december. Also in the pile are my stamps: the round global forever stamps and the US stamps are the Modern Art forever stamps (I bought a bajillion sheets of these, because I love art, and now I so tired of them!) (ha). And my little set of Hallmark cards, there in the middle... I usually make my own notecards, but I am glad I decided to use up some of my "bought" stash. When you're writing so many letters in a single weekend, it's good to make things as easy as possible! Making my own: I have to choose a design, print it, cut and fold it, and then dig out an envelope for it. These bought notecards have a design of leaves on a teal background. They are beautiful, gender non-specific, and small so I don't feel like I have to write too much! Easy.
The pile at the top of the pic is my journal binding
project. Which is fine. It's nice to get a little perspective -- aka let months pass -- before looking through journal pages. |
|
update
sat 7 dec 2013 |
|
Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2013/20131207.html |
|
Last weekend I was getting a head start on Amnesty International's Write for Rights. I wrote letters of protest and notecards of solidarity for 7½ of the ten cases! The letter writing campaign goes through to the 17th of December, and I think I'll have time to finish up the rest before then. I hope you'll join me in writing letters! Amnesty USA provides sample letters that you can just print up and sign, stick it in an envelope and send it on it's way... and you've made a difference in the world! Write for Rights, Scotland 2012: How Letters Change the World This week, I decided to keep going with my drawing project. I won't be able to continue the "daily" part for much longer, since I get distracted with family stuff at the end of december. But until that moment arrives, I am going to go where the inspiration takes me... I wanted to give the Peaceful Prairie turkey some colour...
And then I had to search for some pics that interested me. I found a spoonbill and a dolphin:
And then, moving some of my piles around, I rediscovered my Charley Harper book. He is one of my favorite artists. I thought copic markers would lend themselves wonderfully to the flat colours that Harper uses!
Yeah! Oh my gosh! I had so much fun doing these!! |
|
You Are Here: |
|
|
|
