postcard #10 cuppa Joe?

i was enabled to buy this cute coffee cup stamp by my dear friend Annie. she sent me a card - maybe 2 years ago? - using it. I just fell in love with that little pik-me-up cup - i love my coffee! (she said as she sipped some)

so i pulled this stamp out when i was making this pile of postcards. i stamped it and thought ok what am i gonna do now? took a marker and marked in a tabletop - which is ridiculously out of perspective (but i told myself - for this project - no do -overs - or i'll never be able to keep up with a postcard a day, right?). I started stampin the words and thought ok - i can stamp "cuppa joe" and then realized... nope. i gotta make it joe and add the seph.

cos his name is Joseph (natch... )

from the time he was born, he's been Joseph to me. He is actually the fourth one and he has the appropriate roman numeral next to his name.

but i cannot, for the life of me, call him Joe.

that's his Dad. Or his grandad. Or great grandad.

teachers tried calling him Joey and Joe early on. While i still could, I would correct them.

No - it's Joseph.

Even when the time came and his friends started calling him Joe - i'd cringe but of course there wasn't anything that could be done.

But he'll always be Joseph to me.

And even though those friends, girlfriends, and even my mother - call him Joe - he doesn't seem to mind that we (his Dad, his sister and myself) call him Joseph.

Have a good Friday everybody!

Postcard #9 when pigs fly!; wiki and sonspeak

fortunately my son is not the kind who'll freak out that this postcard is pink. just in case you're thinkin the opposite.

i got an email from the son early this morning. as i've mentioned on numerous occasions he's not a big sleeper. so it was an email from around 230 am this morning. he's letting me know how things are going. apparently its hot (yeah... its hot 4 hours up the road too!) and his classes are already ridiculous. In his language - sonspeak -ridiculous is a synonym for awesome. And working on his car - he uses the term - extreming. He also uses extreming to convey his working on some computer program or another. You gotta know the sonspeak to get through a conversation. He was also relaying some information about what he was studying this semester - jabbering on about artificial intelligence and neural nets. I told him I knew what Aqua Net is but I wasn't so sure about a neural net. I decided to Wiki that neural net thing and then just for fun - Aqua Net. It really says something about who is writing those articles on Wiki if there is no mention of Aqua Net don't you think? and if you're reading this and you don't know what Aqua Net is well then i guess you're younger than me!

and for the record i cannot stand any hairspray. when i get my hair cut Michael, my hair guy, always makes an attempt to spray my hair. i prefer it au naturelle. i think it goes back to my childhood when Aqua Net was practically a requirement (when Mom's had hard hair). I just cannot stand the stuff on my hair.

postcard #8 - butterfflies

okay so yesterday it was fall... today its back to summer LOL

obviously there is no rhyme nor reason. just whatever i'm feelin like makin'

stampinup butterfly and some prismas and mcpt

postcard #7 - a little nutty

it's almost back to school here. I know a lot of places where you live kids are already back at school. Here - on the east coast -well we start either the week before Labor Day or the Tuesday after Labor Day. I think it must have something to do with wanting to get every last possible day at the beach... the shore. My daughter starts back after the holiday but as you know my son is already at college. And here's his postcard for today - lots of acorns - they seem fall-ish don't they? I think it was a stampinup acorn stamp and again i used the mcpt technique.

postcard #6 - pears

i think i told you i stamped a whole bunch of cards. many of them i just stamped the images in patterns (you'll be seeing more of those) and some of them - like this one - i stamped a few times and thought i'd do something else to them. In this case, I was watching some tv and colored with my colored pencils (using the mcpt technique - some mineral spirits added to break down the pencil). i didn't get the perfectly smooth watercolor look that mcpt is known for - which was fine with me. i was going more for a painterly look anyway. its a little unusual in the coloring - but again i was fooling around with different color combos on those pears - add a little this and that. i enjoyed myself :-) I could color with crayolas, prismas, pastels, or anything else - it doesn't matter - its more the "doing" than the results sometimes.

Draw your pet sleeping

i don't know how well you can see this - it was a quick pencil sketch from a few weeks ago. I was sitting on the couch and my mostly companion (that's Eloise, right Barbara?), Holly was right next to me - being semi-cooperative. She didn't move right away which is her normal modus operandi. Anyway, the most talented Joan, who has a wonderful blog named Drawing on Nature, suggested people post drawings of their own pets sleeping. So here's mine.

I will post another postcard tomorrow before it makes its way to the mailbox. Thanks for all the kind words everybody. And thanks to the adorable Lauren - who mentioned my little postcard project on her very fun blog all the good blog names have been taken

drawings and postcard

well strangely enough - this kid i'm sending postcards too decides to come home for a few days. He doesn't start classes til monday and had left a few things behind so he and his roommate (who lives around 1/2 hr from here) drove up on Thursday. It was kinda weird - he was talking to me while i was addressing his postcard - but he didn't realize i was doing that. ha!

I was flipping through my sketchbook trying to find a particular drawing i was going to post (i don't know where i put it - this one happened to be on a loose piece of paper that i subsequently taped into the sketchbook) and I found a couple of little drawings I haven't posted. Nothing spectacular but i thought i'd put them here.

Oh here's the postcard for Friday - another set from StampinUp thats been a favorite of mine

i think i'm going to shoot for sending the postcards Mon-Friday.

I have also been doing a lot of scrapbooking - if you're interested go check Suzy Scrapbooker. I've been really enjoying working on my son's baby pictures. Reminiscing galore.

I've also been a little obsessed with my summertime guilty pleasure "Big Brother" - reality tv. Oh i was wondering if anyone has watched a program that is on AMC called "Mad Men". I tape it via the dvr. It's a very interesting program. Set in the late 50's (and I presume into the early 60's) about the advertising world on Madison Avenue. Wonderful acting and its like a little flashback - the characters would be around my parents age and their children my age. Ok - i'm off to post my Suzy stuff! have a great saturday everyone

leafy postcard

this ones kinda pretty i think.although the colors are not right at all - but whatever. i really love this set by stampinup. i don't know if they still sell it but it's gotta be one of my favorites.

i'm posting a little early as i'm on the carpool again tomorrow (we haven't started school yet but my daughter is doing stuff she's doing at school relating to theater/drama. wednesday she cleaned out the paint closet (the paints they use for the sets etc.) and tomorrow she has some more reorganizing to do. I asked her if that's all i had to do - set some paint cans in her room and her bathroom - and then she'd clean them.

she was not amused.

i thought it was rawther clever myself :-)

i know i've got a drawing or two i should post but i will have to do that another day...

the best coffee in town

is the cup i'm drinkin right now. the first cup of the day. and its soooo good. a little half and half and sweet n low and yum. i'm not a starbucks person at all. best coffee, in my opinion, outside my own house is from Dunkin Donuts. but as a general rule i make my own coffee and take it with me. Which i'm gonna do today - need to take my daughter over to school (about 1-1/2 hours round trip) - she and some friends are doing some stuff for the drama dept - or something LOL Anyway i gotta get outta here but thought i'd post todays postcards from home. Remember this isn't any great art at all. maybe i'll do some nicer stuff but the idea is for my son to know i'm thinkin of him not show him my skills LOL

this card is made using a rubber stamp - i have no idea the mfg but i love it - cute huh? specially for a coffee lover like me... cyalata.....

i scream you scream

we all scream for ice cream - or a postcard of ice cream sandwiches

kinda looks delicious doesn't it?

i think i shall have to write on this one that he better be eating. he kinda runs on nothing this kid. he gets busy (he's been busy since the day he was born!) and he doesnt remember to eat. and he can't eat a lot at one sitting. the idea of eating small meals all day - well he just can't get that thru his head! crazy kid.

ok. i'm sounding very mom-ish huh? well thats what i am! ttyl

p.s. i should have added the ice cream sandwich image is a rubber stamp by Toybox (ok june?)

blog blah blah

i dont know - i've just been lazy as far as blogging goes.

i dont know why but i'm here to remedy my blog blahs.

i've been working a lot of Suzy things and hopefully i'll post there again today or tomorrow.

I've been working on a little project i'm calling Postcards from Home - here's the first one with the little monkeys. The Postcards from Home is something i decided to do for my son. He just left for school. (moved into his first off campus apartment this year too.... sigh). Anyway the last few years I've become pretty lax in sending him mail. I do send the occasional goody box but i've never sent him a lot of mail mail. In this age of email - hey - i just jump on the computer and send him a little note, you know what I mean?

When i was in school (a bazillion years ago it seems) my father would write me a letter every week - on a Monday. I'd receive it on Wednesday. I so looked forward to getting those letters. They were special. They didn't say anything earth shattering - as a matter of fact they were recounting what was going on around the house or he'd tell me who was sitting in the coffee shop where he wrote the letters (he'd write them somewhere in NYC - he worked in Manhattan and he'd often see some movie or Broadway person in the shop - that kinda thing). But the thing about the letters is that #1 he was writing them. Not something I ever would have bet my Dad would do - he just never seemed to be that guy. But, this many years later I realize of course he was that guy. He adored his kids. He wasn't overly mushy about it - but just try and say something not nice about any of us... Well you'd have him to deal with. He was a total softie but with a kinda crusty, but very funny, exterior. (now how'd i get off on that tangent... oh well)

So i was thinking this year I'd try my best to send my son a postcard a day. Maybe that's ambitious - i may need to re-evaluate (certainly several a week). When my oldest nephew was away at college I used to send him postcards too. I got a stack from the post office and I'd draw pictures of mostly my kids - cartoonlike drawings - doing funny stuff. Later he told me how much he loved getting those postcards.

So the Monkey Smile postcard is the first one. Actually I have made 20 of them already. I just pulled out a whole slew of stamps and just went crazy wild. It was a lot of fun. And I think i'll be making a whole nother slew in a few days just so i have a nice stock! I'll post them probably in groups - they're not any great art - just something to decorate the outside - and so he knows i'm thinking of him all the time.

Oh yeah one more thing I thought i'd post - You remember my mentioning my sister was visiting last week with her 2 boys. Before she left they came over for dinner one last time. My older nephew was holding a tupperware container when they arrived. He told me it was a suprise and I couldn't look. I said okay (we love a surprise!) Of course it didn't take long for my younger nephew to say "can we have a cupcake now?" (don't you just love little boys?) As my sister wouldn't be around for my birthday (which is not for a few weeks) she decided she'd like to celebrate it with some cupcakes. We both love those recipes you can find wherein you can duplicate a product at home. In this case - Hostess Cupcakes. The interesting thing about these particular cuppy cakes is that my sister is a vegan so that creme you see inside that cupcake isn't really creme per se. But it sure tasted like it - the whole cupcake was absolutely delicious. And isn't she the clever one - turning the squiggles on top into my name?

Ok... gee now i feel bloggy better! Just need to get here and start-a-postin! Maybe now i'll post on Suzy and then maybe i'll actually go look at a few blogs too!

EDM #96 - draw something sweet

I originally thought i'm going to scan the one drawing and leave it at that - this one of the sweet n' low packet

but then upon second thought - well here's the drawing i did first -
the mini hershey bar wrapper
not quite as successful and that got me thinking about that place - the zone - that groove - you know - Danny G. talks about it in Everyday matters - others have spoken about it. I know we talked about it years ago when i was in school. That place you get to when you're drawing (or creating - whatever medium you're working in) where everything else goes away and its just you and what you're doing.
Well i definitely didn't get to that zone with the candy bar wrapper. I don't know why. I do know that i was too consciously working on those letters that spell Hershey's and i could not, for the life of me, draw them.
Totally different story with the Sweet n'Low. I was definitely feeling that zone and i'm pleased with the results. Now i just need to figure out how to spend more time drawing so i'm in that zone more often. Too many distractions the last week. I have barely blogged or barely visited anyone else's. I need to catch up on what everyone else is doing!
oh. for the record, I used my HB pencil in my sketchbook for both drawings as well as a prismacolor pencil for the candy one.

Happy Birthday Candy and a little air and space

The birthday queen wishes Candy a very wonderful birthday! As always - lots of cake, ice cream and presents all day!

Here's the card i sent Candy. I used my Purple Onion Designs Pink Flamingo Alpha and the frame around it is from the POD vintage journaling set. The little bowl and decorating bag are little smackerels of mine. I used EP for the cake frosting - it looks kinda cool in real life.

The other day I went on a little excursion with my sister and little nephews. We went to the Air & Space Museum - the Udvar-Hazy location by Dulles airport (not the mall museum in DC). Although this branch of the A&S has been open for a few years this was my first time to visit. My husband and daughter have both been there before. It's about 15-20 minutes from the berg which is really a whole lot easier than going into DC - especially with 2 young boys.
it was pretty fascinating. It is a little different than other museums in that its an open floor plan. Tons of planes and other items like space shuttles - why not fill all the available space in a hangar - on the ground and up in the air! Planes hanging from the ceilings and all over the floor space. Planes everywhere you go!

There's a Concord and a Space Shuttle

(if you look closely you'll see Air France - that's the Concord if you're not familiar) And the picture of the space shuttle - look closely toward the bottom of the picture - you can tell just how big it is when you see people next to it.

I think my favorite small plane was this one that was painted up to look like a shark!

There were planes from every era imagineable as well as engines and clothing from airlines and soldiers - anything and everything you could think of. Interesting thing is all the contents of this location of the Air & Space is only a portion of what the Smithsonian has to show. They opened this museum because there was so much and no place to put it! (you can't exactly tuck a shuttle or some German war planes into a closet now can you?) The only thing i wasn't thrilled with was the McDonald's right there on site. Yes. A Mickeyd's right there inside the museum along with the required museum gift shop. But i guess that's just me. Anyway they've also got an observation tower (which appears to be an air traffic control tower) as well as an IMAX theater - both of which we didn't bother with on this trip. It was a nice afternoon spent with my sister (and nephews) - and a cooler alternative than much else we could do that is for sure. It's been pretty darn hot. That was on Tuesday and i believe the temps almost hit 100.

ok... I'm hoping to post some more drawings tomorrow. gotta get moving on today!

EDM #44 - draw an animal

i've been working on this one for a few days off and on. (more off than on) I really should try to start drawings when there are no other distractions - like that's ever gonna happen! - nevertheless.

i decided to try this one - draw an animal - because i cannot draw cats to save my life. i have my two cats - frankie and holly - around me every day and you'd think i'd be able to draw them.

no.

i did manage a very fast sketch of holly last week that i wasnt entirely unhappy with - fast meaning 2 minutes maybe

i like to blame my problem drawing Holly on Holly - its as if she knows i'm trying to draw her and she moves. constantly. (i have little flashbacks to one of my drawing classes in school and the model would move maybe every 10 minutes or so. I know i can do fast drawings but its definitely something you must practice and i'm sorely out of practice.)

So I thought i'm going to look around online and find a photo to draw from. something that doesn't move. See if i can actually draw a cat.

The result is above. I probably could continue fooling with the drawing some more - but i need to move on.

Other things going on here - been working on my wedding scrapbook (talk about flashbacks - almost 23 years ago - i wish i could remember all the details but then again that day - it was like being in a fog - so much swirling around me. It's definitely a good reason to scrapbook stuff as it happens if at all possible. or at least jot notes down in a diary/journal/whatever - cos' you're just not gonna remember it all!)

My sister from Arizona is visiting with my 2 sweet nephews. it's so good to have her here.

ok I'm off. hopefully i'll post again soon.