Stay at Home with Rae. #1

I think we are all at a loss during this pandemic. I want to share things that I am doing to weather these trying times. I hope this gives you ideas. Plz feel free share yours in the comments.

Make the weekend a weekend. I was really floundering until I figured out that all my days were the same. Things felt endless. I was waking up sad. I work from home and now John is home too. So I lost my routine. I am starting to find a new routine. The most important is to have the weekend off to do as I please. Read, lounge, only do what I want. It does not have to be a big thing. A friend and her hubby get to eat potato chips on the weekend. Little treats. That new mindset is helping me a lot.

I find drawing to be meditative if I have no expectations. I bought this 5x7” sketchpad at the very beginning of the pandemic. I am drawing with a very fine line black pen. It is not how I usually draw so I am enjoying this new style that is emerging. It makes me happy. These drawings are just for me and the idea is to be loose and quick. I draw whatever I have laying around. These may become something at some point. Maybe fabric or wallpaper. But for now it is all for fun.

I just learned about Domestika yesterday. And just signed up for this class. It looks very hard but good. I got yummy new art supplies for my birthday and it is time to try them out. Again it is not about the results but about learning something new.

A friend told me I had to go outside for an hour a day and she is right. We go for a drive every day that it is nice. And yesterday we saw this. Cool huh?

My neighbor recently told me that she goes to sleep to bedtime stories. So last night I took Alexia upstairs, got comfy in bed and asked her to read me a bedtime story. A lovely British voice read me the Velveteen Rabbit. I was out before the story was done.

In the next Stay at Home post I am going to explore not doing things you hate.

Sleep tight.

Make someone's day, send real mail

Times are different now. Certainly harder. We are home most of the time. Either maybe alone or with the kids.

After our online yoga class and cleaning out the drawers in the bathroom we still have a lot of time on our hands. I am a big fan of real mail. It is so exciting to get something good in the mail. Now more than ever.

I have been sending postcards to people for years. I thought I’d share how easy it can be.

People seem to get stuck by not having stamps. Easy, just go to https://www.usps.com/ and order them.

Postcard stamps are 35 cents. Not to be confused by first class stamps for cards that are 55 cents. I finally bought a roll of stamps.

Most of those cute postcards came from Amazon.

It is an easy way to spread some love. Write on!

my new project space

I love to see where people work. And this is our newly created basement project area. Our basement flooded for two months two Summers ago and I am embarrassed to say that it is finally back together. No carpet, just rugs. And rugs from IKEA. This is a project area for either of us. We baptized it by doing our taxes there. With the cement floor and cheap rug I have a place to work with paint, ink and make junk sculptures. Basically make messes. (Sorry for the poor lighting on the photos, there is almost no natural light. Still working on the right lighting.)

Lots of repurposing always. The desk against the back wall is Techline from the 80s. As sturdy as the day we got it. The table is IKEA. I hauled those pretty legs thru 3 states before they were put into good use. The table top was in the AS IS section at IKEA. The screen which had ugly graphics on it came from the ReStore. With a coat of paint it hides the sump pump. Sweet John put up the shelves using these pipes. That idea was stolen from Will who lives in the front condo. The white covered containers are also IKEA.

Birthday and Christmas brought new watercolors from Laurie and vintage dip pens from Justine. Nothing is more exciting to me than good and interesting art supplies. This inspired me to go thru bins of art supplies and put many in the white containers.

Then there are the cigar boxes of semi random things and tubs of rusty metal and odd parts for more robots.

If you turn around here is the rest of the room. A dark, cozy, man cave TV space. This is much better feng shui. When we moved in we had shelves around this space and it was filled with boxes of stuff which we ignored for the first year and a half.

Thanks for taking a peek.

my wilderness fabric in a cabin in the bush

One of my most popular wilderness fabrics has found its way into the rugged Alaskan bush. And I could not be more delighted. Come take a peek…

How sweet is this cabin? Tidy, cozy, masculine and very welcoming. I can see a snowy day, a fire in the fireplace, a nap, some knitting and a pot of stew simmering away.

If you are interested in taking a look at this fabric or the whole wilderness collection you can go here.

Art Therapy #22

This is where Rae and Nancy make postcards and send them to each other via snail mail. I am always excited to get her oversized kraft envelope. I usually send a shimmery pale yellow one.

Oddly this collage reminds me of my Mom and high school. Less oddly, it is made from the creative mess on my desk. Mom was a brunette and this was her color palette. She would suggest these colors for me. I remember knitting a sweater in these colors. My color choices at that time were lime, aqua and teal blue. My favorite outfit was a teal sweater with a matching mini skirt. The yarn is actually scraps from my Mom’s yarn stash. Funny how bits of desk mess can come together to tell a story from long ago.

I fear that Nancy’s card suffered some in the mail. It is sort of odd but I think we both made our postcards out of scraps of stuff on our desk.

But she poses a good question, is this art?

I would say that it is in the eye of the beholder.

I was recently at the Palm Springs Art Museum and saw this piece. Frankly, I wondered the same thing.

I recently visited Nancy. For some reason we were talking about each of us have the best brownie recipe. So we decided to each do a postcard with our recipe. This one is mine. Although it is really my friend Jane’s recipe from a 1960s cookbook of hers. Although I suspect that it is a recipe from the 40s or 50s. I used fonts from cookbooks of that era. The mixer is an illustration from my Kitchen Doodles font. I colored it avocado green. I actually had this exact mixer in that color.

I had already used this recipe on a dishtowel I designed for my friend Erica’s birthday. If you want one the fabric can be found here. You just have to hem the edges.

I’ve saved the best for last.

Nancy said, “I’ve made these brownies - they are great! I got the recipe from a magazine interview with Hepburn. They quoted her directly so this is the recipe in her own words - you can hear her right?”

I find it interesting that except for minor changes these are both the same recipe.

Enjoy!

Rae

Fun with fonts!

Summertime is travel time or armchair travel time. Paris, London, New Orleans, Chicago, Waikiki and Lake Vacation Doodles. For a limited time these 6 fonts are only $9 each. (Normally $15.) You can see them here http://www.outside-the-line.com/fonts If you want to use these fonts to print things you want to sell contact Rae (using the Ask Rae link above) she would be delighted to chat with you.

Here is an example of what can be done with these little doodles. Illustrations from Lake Vacation and Waikiki Doodles are used along with some from Wilderness, Woodland, Nautical Doodles and I am sure a few more. This is a fabric design that is available at Spoonflower. I am currently turning this fabric into dishtowels and napkins.

Whether we are travelers or not we are heartbroken about Notre Dame. We visited Notre Damn in 2007. In the big book of prayer we wrote my mother's name and John's aunt's name. Both were in poor health. We knelt in prayer for them. I also remembered my Dad telling me as a young soldier how he attended Mass there. I had the privilege of being there and now so many will not. All so very sad.

On that note get out and enjoy some Spring-ish weather. I live in Wisconsin and Spring is teasing us. And those are the best days of the year. Because we so delight in them and we are so needy.

Notre Dame

I feel heartbroken about this tremendous loss. We visited Notre Dame in 2007. In the big book of prayer we wrote my mother's name and John's Aunt's name. Both were in poor health. We knelt in prayer for them. I also remembered my Dad telling me as a young soldier how he attended Mass there. I had the privilege of being there and now so many will not. All so very sad. 

Art Therapy #21

Art Therapy is where Rae & Nancy make postcards and send them to each other. Yes, we get real mail.

This postcard sat on my desk for weeks, waiting to be finished. Until I figured out it was finished. I tend to overwork things so it felt good to not add any more. That little card with the girl would also surface in my desk mess endlessly. I love her energy and it seems like you as a little girl, Nancy.

I am less pleased with this illustration. But this, for me, is also an exercise of not remaking something 5 times until perfect. I used colored pencils and watercolor pencils. I really like the drawing until I overworked it. The black lines in the flower seem too harsh and I should have done something else with the handwriting. But I learned things, so that was good.

I think this postcard of Nancy’s tells it own story. And knowing Nancy as I do I see this card as where she is in her life.

Nancy’s comment with this illustration was… trying out a new style or maybe same old style just different paper and pencils.

I think it is a little of both.

Mail is good. I am always excited to see an oversized kraft envelope in the mail from Nancy.

Make someone’s day, send some real mail.