Thank You, My Friend!

Oh, Robyn! The Lovely Robyn has once again caught me completely off guard and sent me something wonderful and generous in the mail. She is so kind and I really owe her at this point. She, like me, is an inspiration junkie, which is actually the name of her blog. I didn't even have a name for what I was until I met her. We are like two peas in a pod in many ways, too bad she lives in Illinois, instead of right next door.

So, one day, I was reading Robyn's blog, or maybe I was in her Flickr, and I saw one of her works of mail art that struck a nerve right away. It is this piece you see here, "I Have Everything I Need". My daughter had this beautiful way of declaring, "We have everything we need", usually in a very practical way, as we are readying to walk out the door, but I also swear that sometimes, she is uttering it in a wise way, in the same way that Robyn's piece is meaning it. I told Robyn I loved this piece, and wanted to know how much it is. She never responded. I meant to keep checking to see if she listed it in her Etsy shop, and did once or twice, not there, but then, being a mom and all, kinda had it slip from my mind. Although, once, I did email her about it again. Anyway, last weekend, when my father was visiting, my daughter, grandpa, and I went to collect the mail. Q reached into our PO Box, and lo and behold, Robyn's card was there. Q was all excited about it, and held if for the blocks we walked to have tea and cookies at a local shop. I was sure to put it away in a safe place in my book bag as soon as I was able, since Q is about to turn three, and sometimes isn't all that gentle... but boy does she love your work, Robyn, she gets all excited when she gets to hold it. Thank you, thank you, my friend. With friends like you, we have everything we need...


PS I asked Robyn's permission to post this personal note above. I LOVE everything about snail mail, the personal thought, the handwriting, the postmark. Robyn wrote such a thoughtful note. The part about "making people" made me teary! Click on the image to make it larger...

Thank You, My Friend!

Oh, Robyn! The Lovely Robyn has once again caught me completely off guard and sent me something wonderful and generous in the mail. She is so kind and I really owe her at this point. She, like me, is an inspiration junkie, which is actually the name of her blog. I didn't even have a name for what I was until I met her. We are like two peas in a pod in many ways, too bad she lives in Illinois, instead of right next door.

So, one day, I was reading Robyn's blog, or maybe I was in her Flickr, and I saw one of her works of mail art that struck a nerve right away. It is this piece you see here, "I Have Everything I Need". My daughter had this beautiful way of declaring, "We have everything we need", usually in a very practical way, as we are readying to walk out the door, but I also swear that sometimes, she is uttering it in a wise way, in the same way that Robyn's piece is meaning it. I told Robyn I loved this piece, and wanted to know how much it is. She never responded. I meant to keep checking to see if she listed it in her Etsy shop, and did once or twice, not there, but then, being a mom and all, kinda had it slip from my mind. Although, once, I did email her about it again. Anyway, last weekend, when my father was visiting, my daughter, grandpa, and I went to collect the mail. Q reached into our PO Box, and lo and behold, Robyn's card was there. Q was all excited about it, and held if for the blocks we walked to have tea and cookies at a local shop. I was sure to put it away in a safe place in my book bag as soon as I was able, since Q is about to turn three, and sometimes isn't all that gentle... but boy does she love your work, Robyn, she gets all excited when she gets to hold it. Thank you, thank you, my friend. With friends like you, we have everything we need...


PS I asked Robyn's permission to post this personal note above. I LOVE everything about snail mail, the personal thought, the handwriting, the postmark. Robyn wrote such a thoughtful note. The part about "making people" made me teary! Click on the image to make it larger...

Robyn The Great and Her Art-O-Mat Video

artomat 6.2
Originally uploaded by robayre

Robayre, whom I meet sometime ago online, in a group called Create-A-Day, which is now EveryDayCreate, is one of the most inspiring artists I know. Not only is she prolific, her interests are all over the map, truly someone I can relate to. She is creative, and talented, and she blogs like a mad woman. I wish I had the time to accomplish a tenth of what she does. I think she is an idea collector, like me, so she always has something she has found out about that she will share with other artists, and I would love to participate in all of this cool groups. One of the ones I strive to be a part of SOON, is Art-O-Mat. I blogged about it here.

I love the whole concept behind Art-O-Mat, not to mention their trademarked phrase "Kerplunking Culture Since 1997". I can't think of a better thing to do with old cigarette machines, then to dispense miniature works of art. Robyn has been making these works for a long time now. She even came up with her own method of making mini stretch canvases to create her original paintings, which are inspired by her collages, on. She was recently named the artist of the month! That is pretty great since there are 400 artists in 10 countries working with Art-O-Mat.

Now, if all this was not cool enough, or I should say if Robyn were not already cool enough, she went and made a video about Art-O-Mat! I am totally in awe. It is soooooo fun and perfectly explains what you can expect when you pull the lever on a Art-O-Mat machine. Check it out! And thanks to Robayre, for letting me feature it here.

Blog Feature on The Craft Begins...

Self Portrait by Tiffany Teske

My friend and fellow crafter on EveryDayCreate, Bri, was kind enough to ask to interview me for her blog, The Craft Begins. I had great fun answering the awesome questions that Bri wrote. I always like to read artist and crafter interviews and I hope people have enjoy reading mine. Here it is... Thanks, Bri!

Day One NaBloPoMo AND Thing-a-Day for February

I have decided to sign up for another month on NaBloPoMo AND I JUST made it in before the midnight deadline to be part of Thing-a-day (thanks, Robyn!). I blogged everyday in January, thanks to NaBloPoMo. And February is make a thing a day month. Yippee! Now I can create and blog everyday :) And hopefully that will get me posting to EveryDayCreate more...


Today I created this Polaroid transfer. It is of vines growing on the wall of a home in the Hintonburg area of Ottawa. I made the slide back in 2005, but today I made an original transfer on watercolor paper.

Christmas Keeps On Coming...

On Tuesday, I had a package slip in my PO Box (every single resident who receives mail in Banff has a PO Box) but didn't have time to stand in line to collect the package. On Thursday, I picked up the package, a beautifully stamped envelope from Honolulu, Hawaii! The package came from Stacy, one of my crafting buddies, from the former blog Create A Day (which was somehow deleted from blogspot), which is now EveryDayCreate. As a TOTAL surprise, I would even call it a random act of kindness (ok, not a random act...), Stacy sent me a package of Hawaiian holiday treats :) Quin and had a ball checking out all the goodies...


...which included coconut coffee, chocolate covered macadamian nuts, chocolate macadamian nut cups, a 2009 Hawaii calendar, a fun silver tag that says "believe", and a lovely pair of earrings (Stacy makes jewelry, check out her lovelies here). It was so generous and so fun!! Thank you so much, Stacy! And Quin, my chocoholic daughter thanks you, too :)