No TV. Just Sound

Original handmade collage postcards

Wedding Invitations

Finally, last night M & I completed the majority of our invitations with one last step left, to send them out. Here's a little sneak peak.All the components of the invitation were done by me through Photoshop. The zine images were collaged on paper and then scanned in with text added and the image on the invitation was from a greeting card that I had made for valentine's day this year. I am pretty happy with the finished product even though it has taken a while with lots of questions as to how the wedding planning is going.

Cooler Climes

Today Owsley, M, & I went up to the mountains, a much needed escape from the ninety-plus degree weather. When we got out at Guanella Pass we were almost too cold, thank goodness for the old Isotopes hoodie. There is nothing I could wish for more than sweater weather and mind-blowing scenery. Here are some shots of the loveliness only a short and scenic hour away from our home. I love NM's juxtaposition of the mountains and the redness of the mesas but I am discovering the Rockies here in Colorado offer a whole different experience. Above the tree-line expansiveness feels so inviting and I feel nothing short of in love every time we visit them.

Finished Product

I decided to give my ATC's a sweet little sleeve, with magnetic closures and all, before I sent them out for the Birds ATC Swap. Here is the finished product.

Bird ATC Swap

I just finished uploading onto Flickr the ATC's for this Birds ATC Swap on Swap-bot. It's the first swap I have participated in since April and these are also the first ATC's I've made in even longer than that.

"They seem to thrive in places where other birds find it hard to hold their own."

"There is nothing outstanding about pert, gray woodland bird except its crest."

The cold hard facts about these birds make me laugh. The paper that these were created on are left over from our wedding invitations we printed, I'm glad to be getting multiple uses out of them.

You can see the rest over at my flickr page.

Slideshows

About a week ago I came by this sweet slide viewer/t.v.-looking thing only to find out that it doesn't view my kind of slides.
I have a pretty good collection of thirty-five millimeters from my grandparents, I thought I could view pictures of my family on t.v. ! ... no luck. Coincidentally there are slides of M's dental work that I framed right above the "tasco" that maybe it will display. There's nothing like studying dental work.

In it's place I used the available resources (window, metal clips, wire, and suction cups) and fashioned a smaller slideshow. With hundreds of slides it will be easy to make this a revolving trip down memory lane.I like the hue differences between the slides, one magenta, one cyan, I think I need to find some yellow ones now.

"Brave Steve Swimming"

This one is a picture of my dad in July of 'sixty-six.

Sunday Morning Exploring

This Sunday morning I was in serious need of a good breakfast burrito and thanks to google we found an awesome place for all of our breakfast needs, Sams No. 3. It was important to establish a reliable breakfast place in our new surroundings so now we can mark that off our To Do list. After polishing off breakfast and a good portion of Saturday night's hangover we decided to go exploring. We found two amazing places in the same shopping area both seeming like they did not belong there. Really it seemed like nothing had flourished there in a while.

First we spotted Hampden Street Antique Market. The second we stepped into the store it was almost overwhelming but such a welcome surprise since we've been developing the taste for hunting for vintage awesomeness. These for example found at the arc thrift store on Mississippi and Sable-It's hard to resist the somewhat hideous, yet rich, colors of the 50's, 60's and 70's... add rust and classic type to it and Hot Damn!! ... even if it is a vacuum cleaner....and back to the original topic, here is one of the gems at the antique store but we just couldn't justify hanging it in our closet even at the reasonable price of fifteen big ones so we left it for some other lucky hunter, maybe someone a little more in need of a gas mask?
And then a few doors down, as well as centuries into the modern era, we found the largest store I have ever been inside of... no not super wal-mart... it was a showroom for Scandinavian Designs. There was so much awesome furniture under one roof that it made me pine for riches, but surprisingly their prices were reasonable so maybe just moderate success will suffice. Here's M test driving one of the living room sets. There's nothing like a shiny cherry-red living room ensemble.

In Other News

when we got home we found that the kitty has finally found the best perching spot for her favorite position, the Beached Whale.

and poor Owsley still has Floppy Ear Syndrome more commonly referred to as an aural hematoma. We've been told if left alone it will go away eventually but leaving "cauliflower ear" in it's wake. Poor pup... but in the interim there is the added bonus of him being even more cute than before, if possible.

Denver Colorado USA

It's been a while since I have blogged and that is mostly because M & I decided to pick up house and move in the last couple of months. There is nothing like going through every single one of your possessions and deciding it's level of importance in your life... and then hauling it four-hundred miles and three flights of stairs. I really hate stairs. It's been one week about and I am still getting over the stairs. Soon though.

Although we have planted ourselves willingly in the middle of six other households I feel a surprising amount of privacy and space. Privacy in anonymity maybe? Anyhow, each of the neighbors have their "things" but oddly none of them are invasive, thanks to a good architect.

Anyhow, as proved in the last post, I don't have many images of my experience yet but here's at least one from the 3rd floor area of Coors Feild from last Saturday's game. Thank goodness for King Super's $10 tickets.

Thrift Store Love- Couldn't Help Myself...

Could you?It's been more than three months and this is all I have... Weak? Yes

There is a story behind them sweet deeries (one having to do with real life deeries) but they are now in my living room mostly because they're cute.

...and that painting?

That's a lot of man hours.

Legs

I created this latest series of postcards for a handmade postcard swap on swap-bot. I have to turn around and send it tomorrow and wish I could hang on to it a little longer. I think I will try to work in the punch pattern into some future postcards.
The next swap on the list is called I Love to Read Books. I look forward to trying to capture some of the wisdom that is found in Siddartha by Herman Hesse. I picked it up the book this morning and am nearly through it this evening, it is really ringing true.

My 1st Inchie

I made my first inchie today inspired by a cool postcard I got in a swap recently. The idea of making a one x one piece always seemed interesting because I love how just a little can go a long way. I drew a similar spaceman for Mig's valentine but that will remain out of the blog world.

New Mexico Postcards

I started a series of New Mexico postards for a handmade postcard swap. I am quite fond of this one and may have to make another one so I can keep this in my collection.

Check out the rest here.

Succulents

I didn't get enough of the thrift store love on Friday so I went to a different one on Saturday. I found some glass containers and sweet old bowls with cool patterns on them. Conveniently a great green house is located around the corner so I picked up some charmingly petite succulents. I combined the two purchases to form a loose prototype for M & I's wedding decore in Oct. I hope to collect enough plants in between now and then and find glass globes of every size to plant them in.

I love the mellowgreen softness of the leaves.

Thirft Store Love - Alphabet Bits

I stopped by Open Hands yesterday evening to unwind after a looong workday. I didn't find too many things that struck my fancy but these gems were in a full pack of alphabet letters of every variety.

Handmade Envelopes

I started making envelopes to send to my partners in this swap. I've been able to use lots of cool good quality printed papers for the envelopes combined with some nice solid colored flaps and inner lining to make these.my first five out of eight I need to make for the swap.

music

I decided to mix up the orientation a bit on the middle one.

You can see more here.

A break from crafting for some traveling

Something clicked in me last week that I found it absolutely necessary to get out of town for the weekend, I believe the term is stir-crazy. Anyhow Saturday morning we found ourselves cruising above the clouds covering New Mexico towards an even cloudier destination. In the distance are the Sandias in New Mexico. As soon as we got above the clouds it was a really nice sunny day.
First of all, What the Hell!! that's a lake?!? Secondly, sadly, I think Chicago is the biggest city I've seen in the U.S. I was impressed. I feel like such a small-town girl.
Yaay! It's taller than two stories and it's not made of mud. Seriously I haven't left the southwest in ages, I forget that not every building is adobe.
and once again, what the hell, that's a lake?! There was no end to Lake Michigan, there was also no end to the winter in Milwaukee so I am really appreciating the 50 degree plus weather in New Mexico.

All in all getting out of town for the weekend (even if it was Milwaukee in February) helped provide some much needed fresh perspectives.

Vintage Family Photos

My Grandma Smith sent me these amazing photos of our family. I had a real hard time not including all of them. Each has so much information in them when studied closely. I'm fascinated by them... This is my great grandmother Minerva May Tutt. I have searched these photos over and over for resemblances to me and my family now. I can't say I've found many but there are several photos that resemble my Aunt Julie and cousins Erica and Christina.

I have no idea who this is but the series is so awesome. The look on the boy's face in each frame seems to be so telling of his character.

and another one I don't know who it is but I can see some similarities between my dad and this guy. Also, the reflection of the boat is lovely.

The rest of the photos and some of a very young "Smith Family" (circa 1983-1985) can be seen on my flickr page.

Sad Day...

1993-2008. Bully, we already miss you and your sweetness.

Almost Finished...

I don't know what I was complaining about in the last post. I got a serious bout of motivation and made 12 of the 13 cards on Sunday and Monday. Here are a few and as always check out my flickr page for more. Swap-bot Serial Collage 3 of 5

Swap-bot Serial Collage 4 of 5

Valentines Postcards

Here are a few more cards. Frustratingly I have slowed down quite a bit when it comes to making collages. I am feeling a little distracted by other things. Not a good thing being that I have to produce and send out 13 more cards in short order. I don't want to jeapordize quality for quantity... Luckily I have been leaning towards making less cluttered/more design oriented collages with more cohesive compositions lately which generally equates to less time.

I am pretty fond of these two valentines...Head over heels

Lookin' Good

Looking back on my last valentines post, I am not liking the ATC's I made... oh well that is a byproduct of the creative process is it not? I feel like they are a little too informed by what I think other people will like. When I make stuff with those parameters in mind I usually find it to be cheesier (for lack of a better description) than I prefer.