Liberate Your Art 2014

This is my 3rd year participating in Kat Sloma’s Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap. After all the postcards are sent out to the 200+ artists/recipients, it’s time for the Blog Hop!

This is the card I sent (seen above with other postcards I had made by moo.com):

And, here are the cards I received in the order I received them, below. In previous years, I scanned the cards for my blog but this year I attempted to photograph them in complementary settings, which is what we were supposed to do. (Click photos to see the true beauty of the postcards.)

From Linda Yeatman.

From Adrienne Mason.

From Leslie A.

From Stacie Bebber.

From Cathy Brashear.

From Kat Sloma, the organizer of this annual postal and online event.

And…from a sideswap I did with Deanie Houghtaling, who I “met” through this event last year and found out she lives about a mile from me and then who I met in person a few months ago. Deanie shares my love of cats and photography and we need to go out shooting together soon…or at least back out to dinner.

There was also a Facebook group for this event (and an Instagram one, too) where people posted cards as they got them so we could all see a lot of the cards.

So…you can check them out, too, by looking at the blogs of the other participants. And you should join in next year, it’s really fun! Thanks, everyone, and thanks, Kat, for all of your hard work.

Here’s the link to the participating blogs:

Which One Doesn’t Belong?

Clockwise from top left: Svengali, keeping cool in the aloe; Stripey, waking up from an afternoon nap; Google, sunning himself on the futon; dove perching. It’s the dove! Did you guess it?

So we’re getting into that time of year where my posts might be sort of lame…the heat can be a deterrent to getting “out there” shooting much. But there might be a staycation or 2, or a roadtrip now and then, or an imaginary vacation, a midwestern visit, some murals, or some pretty birdies and flowers around so keep dropping by, please…

ANYONE WANT TO SWAP?

Remember a few weeks back when I mentioned the Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap and I showed you the postcards I received? I also did some side-swapping but, since that post, I received another postcard from Diane Schuller. Diane lives in Canada and does stunning photography, as evidenced by the below photo.

So if you would like to do a side swap, let me know. I have 2 sets of postcards, this one, and another one. If you specifically want the desert scene, please indicate that. Otherwise, I’ll send you the “surprise” one. You don’t need to send a postcard…if you have a little print, that would be fine, or something you can print off yourself on your printer…anything will do…you can even send me a regular postcard from where you live or somewhere you’ve been…sending and receiving mail is fun. I can do at least 5 swaps, possibly more.

I know…it’s all very boring, especially to a cat.

Liberate Your Art 2013

From Miriam Rogers in the UK.

From Lee Thomson.

From Nancy Jean.

From Tracy Swartz.

From Chris.

From Kat Sloma, creator of the Liberate Your Art postcard swap. Check out Kat’s video of all the postcards from 216 participants!

Side Swappin’

From Deanie Houghtaling.

From Roberta Warshaw.

And this was the postcard I entered, printed by moo.com:

The desert, when the sun comes up…I couldn’t tell where heaven stopped and the Earth began.~Forrest Gump

This was the second year I participated in Kat’s swap. You send her 5 postcards, postage for 6, address labels for 6, and you get 6 postcards in return (from 5 other participants and one from Kat). Like last year, I also did a little side-swapping with some of the other participants that I “know” and may do a little more.

It’s funny because so many bloggers I “know” also participated in this swap; I keep seeing familiar names.

Check out the blog hop below using the link tool and see a lot of lovely and creative pieces! Thanks, Kat and everyone. I love all those I received!

More Autumn Stuff

These petunias are on my front porch now. Remember when I posted the postcards I received as part of the Liberate Your Art postcard swap? Well, I exchanged a couple more photos with some other participants so I thought I would show them to you, too, since they’re so pretty.

This one above is from Natasha. She’s a henna artist and this is made with henna, can you believe it?

*Oops, see disclaimer below in the comments, I got it a little wrong.

Anna is a talented artist whose blog I’ve been reading for some time. Look at the beauty in those water drops.

This autumn equinox card is from my cousin, Deborah, and has a Mary Oliver poem inside.

I have autumn leaves in my yard, too…

…but they’re fake. I guess you knew that. Hmm, maybe it’s time for a little roadtrip up north? This should be peak fall color season up there.

This is the time of year our pomegranate bush has fruit.

I baked pumpkin bread…from a mix…that’s pretty good for me.

“We got a new rug and matching giraffe. Mom says it’s hers but we almost never see her laying on it.”

Lent 2012 (CAOK)

So, it’s Lent now. And people keep asking me what I’m giving up. Nothing. I was brought up as a Lutheran and we never did that. I understand why some people do it, to make some sort of sacrifice, but I like another tradition of Lent better…almsgiving. “It is a sign of our care for those in need and an expression of our gratitude for all that God has given to us” (from here).

My blogging friend, Kelli, has a Lenten tradition, called Calculated Acts of Kindness (CAOK) that she observes every year. She is a very talented person, who cooks, sews, bakes, knits, crafts, so she gives gifts of herself all year long but does make a special calculated effort during Lent to do even more. I had already decided to do something along those lines this year and I was thinking of writing some notes to people I’ve been out of touch with or sending cards to people I’ve been thinking of or sending some mailart, particularly some photos I’ve taken, to various friends and family…at least one correspondence a day for 46 days. Therefore, I was surprised when I read her blog yesterday and saw that she, too, is concentrating on correspondence this Lent…sending a thank you note to someone she appreciates, keeping in touch with someone she misses…you get the idea. And who doesn’t like to get mail or a handwritten note now and then.

Of course, it’s nice to do things for others any time of the year and I’m sure that we all do but, for me, it seems beneficial to make a concerted effort for these 46 days, to give up a little of my time and a tiny bit of effort, to let someone know I’m thinking of them. You can grab Kelli’s CAOK button if you want to participate.

Says Father Rodney E. Thibault,“We are only going to get out of Lent what we put into it. When we are that joyful giver, we are going to be joyfully rewarded” (from here).