Cards for a Cause...

Grace Bonney from Design Sponge fame is asking for donations of stationery and letter writing supplies. These supplies will will help so many people in need to be able to tell their stories and communicate with their elected officials.

I live in the great and cold state of Wisconsin and I mail my postcards to Solidarity Sunday.

SolSun Milwaukee
Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece
3120 N Weil
Milwaukee, WI 53212

No idea where the rest of you mail yours but I assume you could also send it to SolSun Milwaukee.

For me there is an added bonus. These postcards are old inventory and I am in the middle of my Winter office cleaning and organizing. I am getting rid of 50 postcards and it will go to a good cause. As I clean who knows what else I will find.

And if you don't follow Design Sponge you really should. I have been for years.

Art as Therapy.

Bricolage: connected knowing. "Admired way of invention and creation practiced by creative people."

My good friend Nancy one day asked me if I wanted to make a postcard a week and we would send them to each other. We both have the same topic but can execute any way we want. I immediately jumped on board.

WEEK #1 Your word from 2016 and your word for 2017

I love Nancy's words (above) from Anxiety to Wild. It is good to think about these words and the change we want to make from 2016 to 2017. I know that Nancy has some Wild in her.

I didn't want my 2016 word to be Trump but it was. I cannot allow it to be my word for 2017 which will be Happy. I know that filling my head with creative projects truly does make me happy. Then there is less room in my head to fret over things I have no control over.

WEEK #2. Random thoughts in my head.

I really like Nancy's. Nice illustration and well thought out thoughts.

Mine are really random thoughts. What runs through my head constantly. I had so many I had to use both sides of the card. I am really liking the way Nancy and I approach the same theme so differently.

This project means I get weekly REAL mail. Always a real treat. More to come.

Ice Quakes

I had no idea what ice quakes were until moving to the shore of Lake Monona. We were quite surprised. There are varying sounds. A small one sounds like the front door slamming hard. A bigger one sounds like a heavy dresser upstairs fell over. The really big ones sound like a boom and the condo shakes. My desk is about 25' from the lake. So I have a ring side seat.

Interesting recent Cap Times article.

This is what it initially looks like. A crack in the ice.

Ice quakes happen when the ice expands and contracts. The ice cracks and one layer comes up and over the other layer. This year there has been a crack very close to our condo. I took all these photos from inside.

Here you see two pieces of ice. Ice is probably 15" thick now.

Madison.com article from Feb. 2008.

Apparently the big one was on January 15, 1948.

The American Journal of Science published this short note:

American Journal of Science, vol. 246, no. 6, page 390. Charles C. Bradley.

MENDOTA QUAKE

On Jan. 15, 1948, at 11:40 A.M. an earth tremor jolted the University of Wisconsin campus. It was of sufficient intensity to shake some plaster off the ceiling of an office and to crack the sewer drain of one fraternity house. Otherwise little damage was done.

The quake was felt by many students. One saw his books shaken off a stool and drop to the floor. Others heard windows vibrate and dishes rattle. Still others felt only a barely perceptible motion as they sat quietly studying.

The quake occurred opportunely for the beginning class in geology. They were studying earthquakes that week. When the class met the next day the instructor placed a map of the city on the board and called for a show of hands of those who had felt the tremor. Each student in turn related where he was at the time, what he was doing and what he felt. Using the modified Mercalli Scale of Intensity the isoseismal lines of the quake were plotted on the board, the results being approximately as indicated in the accompanying map.

As a classroom exercise it was very successful, increasing many-fold the students' interest in this aspect of geology.

They had not been aware that the tremor was occasioned by an ice fracture on Lake Mendota resulting from a warm day of expansion following a protracted period of cold. The position of the isoseismal lines, however, indicated the approximate focus of the quake. Following the lecture several students visited the "fault zone" where they found a four-foot overthrust in ice 1 1/2 feet thick.

The Wisconsin GNHS Report, 1984, also reported that this event was an icequake.

2017

So glad that 2016 is over for all the obvious reasons. To get back on track for the new year I am focusing on all things creative.

The new year will start with creating several fabric collections that will be for sale on Spoonflower. The top 2 were gifts and will be the jumping off point for a red, black, khaki collection with some buffalo check tossed in. I will also offer these as tea towels. Each collection will have a color selection in mind as well as a black and white of the same. I don't expect the black and white collection to sell well, but I like black and white. I will be thinking about you quilters out there with this first collection.

The bottom tea towel is a recipe in my mother's handwriting. I love it. Spoonflower has a tutorial if you want to make some. These made delightful gifts for my sisters, niece and sister-in-law. I hope they will actually use them.

This is not my font or my product. I did get them as a gift and LOVE them. This is going to be my go to birthday girlfriend gift for 2017. And quite reasonably priced for bespoke stationery. Very fresh and creative and a little messy.

This Christmas and birthday season I got 2 great books both illustrating information. Before I had even written my thank you notes a friend who is a writer, artist and yoga instructor asked if I would like to exchange postcards with her weekly. I am quite excited about this. I doubt ours will be like those in this book. I know mine will be less about data and more about illustrating a thought or question or idea. If all goes well they might be shared here.

And I wish you all a hopeful New Year. Do something creative!

A Big, Darn Deal... 86% off!

Biggest collection ever offered from Outside the Line. Lots of Doodles...

3 merry Christmas fonts and a happy Birthday one.

Wedding doodles for all your DIY projects plus Holidays for the entire year.

Create Valentines and cocktail party invitations.

Add a frame, border or banner to any doodle. And don't forget a nice drop cap either.

Add anyone of these hand drawn fonts and you are good to go.

Plz read the license for commercial use.

This bundle includes fonts only. It does not include the patterns or cards.

Some of the cards can be purchased at www.jackandellapaper.com check it out, you know you want to.

To get in on this deal go here.

Minnesota Travelogue, Part 1

A couple weeks ago we took a little Fall leaf trip. I've always wanted to do that, so we headed out to the Grand Marais, starting in Duluth.

Leaves were peaking in Duluth. Lots of yellow birch and green pines. I don't know if this area has and reds or oranges. If so, those were long gone. It was cool and overcast the entire time. But we still had a great time.

We drove over this waterfall on the drive North. On the driver's side of the car was the waterfall and this was the shot from the passenger side.

Leaves were almost done in the Grand Marais. I like to take pictures of textures.

So, so happy were were told to go to Artist's Point. If I go again I would go at dawn on a sunny day to truly capture this place. As it was I was wearing a Winter coat and it was windy. Still, so worth it.

My friend Nancy would call this trip "going on a wander" and that was what we did. It was great, it was relaxing and there was no schedule.

That is all for Part 1. Next post will cover shopping and eating...

DIY Contemporary Pumpkins

Fall is here and that means pumpkins. I've done marbleized ones, drill holes and put lights in them, carved them, etc. But this year I am going to do shiny, mirror-like ones.

I think I may have mentioned a rather creative red wall in another house. Ever since then as soon as I am going to paint, my very sweet husband convinces me that he would really like to do this for me.

He attached a bungee cord to the ceiling in the basement, masked off the stem and tied a string from the bungee cord to the stem. Using a can of Rust-oleum Metallic Finish paint he sprayed the pumpkin. Also added some glitter while the paint was still wet.

After dry, I take off the tape and put a watery green acrylic wash over the stem as they are kind of brown.

The bit of red is the reflection from my red iPhone case.

Done. And Bob's your uncle.

(Bonus, the dots on the wall are the reflection of the glitter. Fun!)

in the works

Don't hate me as I say Happy Monday! Yes, I am one of those people who are happy on Monday mornings. I am sure it is because of what I do. Hard to be unhappy while doing creative things.

Meet Walter. He is the latest, greatest and last junk robot for awhile. I think he is my favorite so far. I love the counter, which works. It has sat in my work area for a couple years while I thought about it. That's me. Think about something for a year. Make it in a day. He is the last for a few years. My work space is small and robot making spills into the dining area, on the dining table with a glue station in the kitchen. Not to mention the open boxes of stuff. But it was fun to think creatively in a completely different way.

I am trying to figure out fabric design, which I will sell on Spoonflower. I colorized these drawings from my Fruit & Veggie Doodles. And I like them.

It also occurred to me that they would make a great colored font, which I might make first. Yes, there are now colored fonts. And my doodles would be darling in color. But first I have to upgrade some software and figure out how to do it. Luckily I have a guy who will help me bumble through learning this.

I also want to make some Wilderness Doodles tea towels. I live in Wisconsin where people have cabins, cottages and lake homes "up north". A set of towels made from this font would make the perfect hostess gift.

I am engrossed in the latest UPPERCASE quarterly. I have studied about half the magazine. As the tagline says, for the Creative and Curious. And I agree.

Have a creative and fun week!