The muse, she is elusive right now

So I'm in the mood to write letters, lots and lots of letters, but do you think I can come up with ideas to decorate the envelopes?  Nope.  I think I'm out of practice!  I could cheat and look for ideas on Pinterest, but I decided just to go with it and let my muse come back in her own good time.  She will.  She always does.  She's a good shit.

In the meantime, this is today's outgoing mail.  Not my finest work, but still better than a poke in the eye with a frozen stick.  (I like to keep everyone's expectations nice and low.)  The postcard is from SomeECards and I'm not showing you the front because it's rude.  Funny, but rude.  Plus, I have to save SOME surprises for the recipients.

What are you sending out today?  Get going!

Love Shelley

PS: Lisa, I replied to your comment.  I KNEW you'd call me out, that's why you're my favourite!  The letters are written but the envelopes are... lacking.  They'll be in tomorrow's mail.  Pinky swear.

WANTED: New Pen Pals

Okay, so you know that I love the mail, Canada Post, my delivery driver, pens, papers, envelopes, and of course postage stamps.  I delight in going to the mailbox and seeing what exciting surprises await within.  But lately, that isn't happening so much.  Instead, I'm just getting, bills, statements, newsletters, flyers... all boring grown-up stuff that's beating out the happy mail by a ratio of like, 10 to 1!

Now, I have a bunch of pen pals, some of whom I consider close personal friends; and others who are mere acquaintances but who are still fun to write to and receive mail from.  So I don't know what's going on; maybe real life is getting in the way, or maybe I'm just not everyone's cup of tea*.  The bottom line, though, is that I NEED TO TAKE ACTION.

So, I've fired off a letter to the LWA.  They're going to hook me up with a couple of random new people, to see if we hit it off.  I'll send first, introduce myself, and see what happens.  Then, hopefully, slowly, steadily, my trips to the mailbox will become the highlight of my day again.

Want to play?  Either join up and see who you get, or if you want, hit me up.  I promise to write back.

Okay, that's all for now.  I'm off to go find some trouble, and I'll report back.  Because this blog is getting bo-o-o-o-oring.  Stay tuned.

Love Shelley!

*Pfft.

So I cleaned up my desk...

... and I found a couple of things I'd forgotten about!  

These are just a couple of postcards I made when I was hacking around. The first one is more doodling than anything.

This second one is a little more focused, but it's still on a piece of old file folder cardboard.  It's so weird that I can't resist buying fancy art supplies, but then every little piece of trash I come across has incredible potential, and I end up using that stuff first.  Junk mail, cereal boxes, packaging, magazine images and words, (and numbers... I use a lot of numbers when I'm writing letters and marking the pages), stuff out of the newspaper, flyers; basically anything is fair game as long as it doesn't have food on it.  Dirt's okay, I've used lots of stuff I've found in parking lots and at bus stops.  But no food.  I don't want feral coyotes attacking the mailbox when I go dump my daily pile of envelopes in the outgoing.  The new mail-lady would be upset too, and I kinda need to get her on board with my mail habits, so yeah... gotta watch what I use.  Also I think all coyotes are feral so I probably didn't need to qualify that, but it sounded more descriptive, and that's how I roll.

Because of these magpie-type habits, I've realized that I don't need to keep buying actual art supplies.  In fact, I'm putting a moratorium on any more art spending for 2013.  I have more than enough STUFF and even books, and I'm going to use what I have for the rest of the year.  This is a scary resolution to make, especially for books... I freely admit I have a... problem... with books.  In fact, I keep expecting to come home and see this hanging up:

I'll still keep a running wish list though - because I'm only human, and I know I'll still WANT more.  But let's see what I can do with what I have on hand and what I come across in my daily travels.  I bet it's a LOT.  Between finishing up things I've started, and following through on ideas that have been brewing, I have a lot to get to.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I know I will.

Love Shelley!

The mail is alive and well

This isn't super-fresh, because etiquette dictates that you make sure the recipient gets the mail before you go splashing it all over the internet for everyone else to see.  Plus it would be a spoiler if you saw your mail online before it showed up in your mailbox, right?

I just grabbed a plain white envelope and started playing.  First I collaged on some bits and pieces that looked interesting, then I think I put a coat of gesso over some of it to mute it a little.  Then the rest was pretty much all done with Inktense pencils.  They behave just like watercolour pencils when you're using them, but when they dry, the colour is permanent, hence the reference to ink in the name.  You can even go back and add new marks over top and if it's dry, the stuff underneath won't move.  The permanence is nice because you never know what's going to happen to that envelope between here and there.  If it gets soggy I don't want the address to slide right off the front, the mail people have enough challenges.

To make the lettering stand out, I gave it a white highlight with a Sharpie paint pen, and then I used a T5 toner grey copic marker to shade the grey underside of each letter.  

Then of course, stickers.  I'm all super fancy up in here!  Oh, but since stickers are considered cheating, (whatever), we'll just call it additional collage.  If you send me a letter and it has stickers on it, I promise not to judge.  Ha!  

I know it says "SECRET" but there wasn't much in there that was very incriminating.  (Or maybe there was.  I'm not telling.)

Hey, you should go send a letter.  Then you might get a letter back, and that could really make your day.  It always works for me.

Love Shelley!

Dear Loren:

Okay, let's see.... this isn't the only thing I've been up to, but it's the most recent:

I'm all caught up on The Walking Dead now, and this is from the second-last episode.  It's Me'Shonne, and if she looks grim, she should: Merle is about to hand her over to the Governor, who is PISSED at her.  She poked him in the eye and now he wants to get even.  

Anyway, I was going for a certain effect with the watercolour, but it wasn't as easy as it was when I rehearsed it in my mind.  Turns out you can't just look at someone else's work, decide you want to emulate their technique and then have it turn out as nicely as theirs.  Especially when they're a professional illustrator and you're hacking around with a waterbrush in the garage.  

Okay, what else...

Oh, I organized the pantry!

I can't show you the "before" pictures - they're too shameful.  Not only was it a messy, jammed-together wreck of open packages, expired products and mysterious bags of strange food; but a bag of potatoes had gone bad in the back.  To the point where they leaked on the shelf and ruined the particleboard, plus smelled like Satan's armpit.  Sooooo, I had to replace a shelf, (housekeeper of the year over here) and put everything in proper containers and threatened the rest of the family with bodily harm if they messed up my work.  It took about 8 hours to get it from what it was, to this.  Two Hefty garbage bags to the dump, a trip to Rona and Home Outfitters for plastic bins and organizers, and a ruthless purging state of mind.  

We are also keeping bees now:

Ants attacked our hives so we put them up on tables in cans of used motor oil.  Not really environmentally friendly, but it did the trick; the ants got the message and scrammed.  Today we're extracting our wildflower honey; then in the fall we'll have canola and/or sunflower honey.  YUM.  

And now I'm going to go make something, so I have more to report next time.  Stay tuned.

xo

Shelley!

Um... happy new year?

HAAA!  Is anyone else as far behind as I am?  C'mon, I can't be the only one.  

Maybe I'm still recovering from these:

I don't usually do anything for new year's but this year I went to a house party... and some bright bulb had the idea of serving these.  They are literally maraschino cherries, soaked in straight 100 proof grain alcohol.  Bleah.  SO, to kill the taste, they put a couple into a shot glass and filled it up with sambuca.  And that's how they invented a new drink called "Satan's Testicles."  I think it made my hair grow a little.

I haven't nailed down any resolutions yet but I'll keep you posted when I do.  In the meantime, here's an ATC I made.  I haven't been making much art lately (but I sense a resolution about that coming up) so I thought I better do a little something before I dry up and blow away.

That's all I've got for now.  What are your resolutions?  Inspire me!

Love Shelley!

A sad state of affairs

Remember back on October 30, when I was talking about unfinished business?  Well... a lot of it is still unfinished.

The ones in green are the ones that were great ideas at the time but got kiboshed for whatever reason. The ones in red are DONE.  And I am proud of the ones I got finished, although I think I could have possibly accomplished a couple of other things, now that I look at the list again.

I'm on a more-or-less constant quest to find more minutes in the day; to squeeze in just a little bit more living before I have to go to bed; and to wring as much joy and fun out of each day as I possibly can.  A lot of times, my satisfaction comes from getting things accomplished, which is why this list of unfinished projects bugs the living hell out of me.  So, because I'm completely contrary, I'm going to ADD to this list, and see how many I can knock off by the end of the year.  Yes, I know that's only 13 short days away - but knowing that an entirely new year (and decade, for me) starts in two weeks... well, that's a pretty powerful motivator.

I'm under no illusions that I can do ALL of this stuff - after all, I do have a day job.  However, it definitely won't get done if it's not on a list right in front of my nose.  So the list is going up right beside my "DO EPIC SHIT" resolution.  I'll be unstoppable!!

See how I left room for one more thing?  JUST IN CASE.

Okay, I gotta go.  I have a lot to do.

Love Shelley!