Liberate Your Art 2015

Liberate Your Art 2015 has come to a close.
The official postcard swap is over.
It was a lot of fun this year and now
It's time for the annual blog hop to see all the wonderful postcards.

The FaceBook group was very active and a lot of fun ... still is!
What a bunch of talented generous folks!

A big thank you to Kat Sloma and her helpers for putting this swap together each year.

Now, for the "official" postcards that I received:

The Eye by April Rocco. April lives in Cocoa, Florida.
The second card is a view of Notre Dame Cathedral from the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. The photograph by Deanie Houghtaling.

Kat asked us to photograph our cards around our house and that's what you see with cards number three and four.
The beautiful shore scene is by Darlene Cunnup.
"There is never one sunrise the same or one sunset the same." ~ Carlos Santana

"Just Dandy" is by Kelly Warren at Happy Shack Designs.

Postcard number 5 is photographed on my "crafty/arty" table. It is from Sharon in New Zealand. I believe it is the Maori design for the seahorse. Cool!

And last, but not least, is "Imminent Downfall" by Kat Sloma at Kat Eye Studio.

Leave room in the garden for the fairies to dance is the postcard I sent during the swap.
I hope everyone enjoyed the plumeria blooming in my garden and could see the fairies!

And then there were the side swaps.

They are all beautiful.
How did so many of them know I love birds???!!!

Thank you, Sheila Delgado, Siobhan Wolf, Marsha Leith, Sherry Harmes, Terry Owenby, Michelle Matucheski and Kat van Rooyen. Many hugs to all of you.

This was my third year to participate and Liberate Your Art just gets better and better with each year. So much fun to dash to the post to see what treasure has arrived. So much fun to "meet" new folks and make new connections. So much fun to have the video return! I'm already looking forward to 2016!

Thanks again to Kat for another wonderful year.
See you in 2016!

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

An InLinkz Link-up

Liberate Your Art 2014

Liberate Your Art 2014 has come to a close.

This is the second year for me to participate and I had a great time again.

It's always fun to see what surprises might be in the mail box.

Kat Sloma puts this swap together each year and it is because of her that it is such a big success and so much fun.

Last year, I made five different postcards to swap.

I only heard from two of the folks who received my cards and I was disappointed.

So, this year I picked one image and had Moo make the postcards for me.

They did a great job.

This is the image on the cards I sent to Kat for swap.

Two of my favorite things: the baby Buddha and Iris.

The first card I received was from Lynne Foerster of a lighthouse near Cape May.

She used the pallet effect on photoshop.

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The cute little shore bird is a photo by Annie Kelleher of Crimson Cove Photography.

I love shore birds. They are very entertaining. So much fun to watch.

The second photo is by Eric Muhr. 

He was in the right place at the right time to capture the morning sun along the crest of the young fir trees.

Both of these cards speak to the beauty of nature, contemplation, quiet. 

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The watercolor circles are by Carlyn Clark.

I love watercolor and the colors on this card are so bright. Cheerful!

The mixed media LOVE postcard is by Tina.

Clicking on Tina will take you to her Flickr page.

Unfortunately, I have not received Kat's postcard.

I'll keep looking and hoping that it is just slow or that the mail people

are enjoying it before they deliver!

I'm already looking forward to Liberate Your Art 2015.

I hope Kat will be able to put together a video of all the postcards like she did in previous years. This year she was unable to do so. 

See you next year!

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Namaste

An InLinkz Link-up

Potpourri

On this last day in February
 I decided to go to my box of kisses to pick out a vintage postcard.

 

I laugh every time I see this postcard.

No artist or publishing date listed.

It is from a collection of postcards called 

A Box of Kisses published by Chronicle Books:

Charming vintage postcard reproductions of all sorts of smooches.

Mwah!

Thanks to Beth for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday. 

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Outside my window...
It is cloudy today.
The last week has seen summer, winter and spring.
I'm not fond of guessing which season will appear each day
and would really like to enjoy a little spring before the dog days of summer arrive!

I am thankful...
for the nice soaking rain we got this week.
We need the rain. It's so easy to drop back into drought.

I am creating for...
Another postcard swap at June's.

The card on the left is from June and the one on the right is the one I made.
If you like swaps, check out June's blog, A Creative Dream.
She has a swap schedule for the year! 

One of my favorite things...
Is Terri Windling's beautiful blog.
Her name may be familiar to those of you who read fantasy.
Terri is a writer, artist, and book editor interested in myth, folklore, fairy tales, and the ways they are used in contemporary arts.
Myth and Moor is a daily journal for musings about art, myth, books, village life, and the world-wide community of folks who create and love Mythic Arts.
Full of beautiful words, beautiful art -- I could spend days there.

A peek into my day...

I'm missing my tulips.

A trip to Trader Joe's for flowers is in order!

Thank you Nancy for hosting!

Thanks for visiting.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Potpourri

I finished one postcard swap and can now show you the cards.

This is the one I sent:

and this is the postcard I received in return:

Isn't it fun?!!

I love the little feet.

It makes me smile.

Thank you, Deb!

You can meet Deb at Learning To Just Breathe.

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Talking about postcards:

It's February and time for Valentine postcards.

A reproduction vintage Victorian Valentine postcard.

No artist or publishing date was given.

Cupid is in attendance with his box of hearts.

Take care, Cupid!

Thanks to Beth for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday.

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I watched the first half of the Super Bowl and then switched to Downton Abbey.

In case you were wondering if the kitties and I had a favorite team

 -- this should answer that question.

My BSD (beautiful step daughter), her knight in shining armor and my amazing grandson live in the Seattle area. 

But I've been a Seahawks fan for a long time. 

I love the colors and the mascot! 

****

Not everything is baseball or football around here.

I attended part of the women's tennis match at Rice and came home with a new T-shirt.

A girl can never have too many Rice University T-shirts.

This one says Rice - Women's Tennis. 

The match was between the Rice Owls and the Stanford Cardinal.

Stanford is ranked #1 and the Owls #22.

Stanford won, but it was fun to watch the Owls give the Cardinal a good match.

*****

Still cold and damp and cloudy here.

A little sleet yesterday morning. 

I'm still doing some odds and ends around the house.

I was in bed, looking at the ceiling and the smoke detector and thought

"Yikes -- something else to do -- change out the batteries in the smoke detector!"

Do you do that, too -- have your best thoughts and ideas when you are almost asleep?!

It's always fun to visit with Nancy and the Random 5 bunch.

Thanks, Nancy!

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

More Mail Call

I'm still trying to catch up with Mail Call!

Here are two more Liberate Your Art postcards.
Both of these were made by blogging friends.
We thought we'd continue the fun of Liberate Your Art.

By Sherry at Becoming.

By Tracey Fletcher King

Tracey and I are both tea lovers
and along with the wonderful postcard she sent me a print of her beautiful watercolor header.

One of the blogs I've been reading for years now -- even before I started blogging

is Colette Copeland's Blog.

I've always admired her lovely art.

 She had a give-a-way and I won! 

And last, but certainly not least is the bracelet I won on Face Book
 from Diane at Snigglefritz.

I think I'm all caught up.

Another big thank you to Sherry, Tracey, Colette and Diane.

I love all my goodies.

Wishing YOU well and much joy.

Mail Call

It will come as no surprise that I LOVE Mail Call!

The lovely June at A Creative Dreamer suggested a postcard swap

to her followers and I threw my name in the hat.

Here are the lovely mixed-media cards that arrived in the post.

The first postcard came from June.
She sent a card to each of us.

In many ways the scan doesn't do this card justice.
The colors are so bright and wonderful.
I'm glad June loves poppies.

The second card came from Eileen - The Artful Crafter.

Isn't this lovely?!

I loved the message Eileen had on the back:

"Striving for perfection sometimes prevents me from finishing things. Challenges and swaps help push past my inner critic."

And last - this is the card I sent to Barbara at Rocky Cross Studio.

You know how I love tea.

This little bird is trying to add the teabag string to her nest.

And, I liked the message (also from a teabag):

For All You Do and ALL you are

SIP, SIP

hurrah.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap 2013

This was the first year that I participated in the

Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap.
There were 216 participants.

Kat Sloma is the brains behind the swap and thank you Kat!

It was loads of fun and I'm already looking forward to the swap in 2014.

Zen Mind by Valeria at Zen Mind Photography

Abandoned Rail Car by Jenny Tucker

By Kelly Ishmael at Minding My Nest

By Karin Wei (unfortunately I have no link for Karin)

By Mandy Kopelke

"Abandoned and Alone" by Kat Sloma at Kat Eye Studio

Another big thank you to Kat and to all the participants.
I can't tell you what fun it was to check the post everyday and find the next surprise.
Kat is hosting a blog hop.
You can visit with Kat and see a video she has put together of some of the art.

Wishing YOU well and much joy!

Five Random Things

It's Friday.

Sit back and relax.

I have some random, this and that, things for you.

Thank you, Nancy!

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Since today is Good Friday and Easter is Sunday,

here is a reproduction vintage postcard celebrating the holiday.

No artist, publisher or date was listed.

Can you hear the music?!!!

Thank you to the lovely Beth for hosting Postcard Friendship Friday each week.

**

Sometimes the kitties think simplest toys are the best.

Like an empty box.

In this case, it was a waded up piece of paper.

I think the sound got Cassie's attention.

I threw it across the room, Cassie fetched, and we had a game going that's lasted all week.

Of course, the other two had to get in on the act and two more pieces of paper gave their all in

two furious games of soccer for Teddy and Mina.

***

I mentioned that I finished a counted cross stitch project.

I couldn't share it with you as it was a birthday gift.

The gift has been delivered and here is the project all finished.

This is a kit I purchased from The Stitchery.

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I'm taking part in the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap.

This is my first postcard swap and the reason I liked it --

I could use photographs of art I had previously made.

Five postcards (goes well with 5 random things) could be made of one image or more.

I made five different postcards using 4 Index Card a Day images and one tea image.

Kat Sloma put the swap together and I should be seeing postcards in the mail by mid April.

I'll share as they come in.

Thank you Kat!

*****

I've started reading As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis Devoto

Food, Friendship and the Making of a Masterpiece edited by Joan Reardon.

What a lovely book and what lovely letter writing.

It really makes you think about the lost art of writing ... and writing letters.

I'm taking the letters a few at a time.

Wishing YOU well and much joy this holiday season.

Happy Spring!