Happy Thanksgiving

My friend Frannie sent me a card speckled with glitter (the best kind of card, in my opinion). The two turkeys were probably wishing that they would end up as a couple of roasts. I spent a quiet Thanksgiving with Mike and two elderly friends. Am grateful that we did not have any turducken. Today we went to see a movie about Marilyn Monroe. I'm not sure I liked the impersonation - it was a bit forced.

Yellow Cheer

A warm, cheery card from a Russian Postcrosser. She's an architecture student in Voronezh. I love the color schemes of gold and green. Such happy colors!

Stone Forest

This amazing postcard and stamps are from a postcrosser in China. The Stone Forest is in Kunming, Yunnan Province. It is made of karst, and erosion of limestone. It made me want to go visit this amazing formation straight away. I alos loved the stamps she affixed, the calm goddess of mercy and a verdant green forest.

Up the Tree

An unexpected, bright red card arrived from Giuliana in Brasil. It's a wonderful drawing/collage of a cat up in the tree. There's a cartoon cut-out in the upper corner with justd a sliver of someone (Blondie?) looking aghast. Thank you Giuliana, for this wonderful card!

Cheer

The bright flower and butterfly brought immediate cheer to me on this winter's day. This Finnish postcrosser writes, "You have warm over there. Here is autumn - cold and rainy!" Yes we did have warm until a week ago. Now we too have cold and rainy.

Mounties & Indians

A rather WOW card from a Canadian postcrosser.

Embroidery

Here's a card depicting beautiful embroideries from Belarus. The postcrosser pinked the edges all around, echoing the needlework of this card.

Lottery

This Lithuanian postcrosser created a card with TeleLoto, Lithuania's lottery and fashion photos. She's a 16 year-old rocker and enjoys retro rock: Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Beatles and the Cure. Thanks for this snazzy card!

Little Red Traveling Journal

I am initiating a traveling journal project among nation-wide chapters of the Women's Caucus for Art. 2012 will be the 40th anniversary of this feminist, arts activist organization. The journal will travel from chapter to chapter, with artists adding tiny artwork to the Moleskin journal pages. After the year is over, the journal will travel back to me (unless there is a postal mishap) and it will be auctioned off at our conference in New York City. Artists in my chapter have finished decorating the month of January with all kinds of art, including painting, drawing, printmaking, carved cardboard, fiber art and ink drawings. The front cover is an illumination created by a local artist and the puffy bookmark was created by a visiting performance artist.

Gegen Nazis

A most curious postcard from a German Postcrosser. This is the Berlin Olympic stadium, built during the Third Reich in 1934. The postcrosser added a sticker against Nazis on the front and singed some cigarette holes through the card. There's also some altering on the margins with fringeing and pinking.

Halloween Party

From a sidewalk on 24th Street. I picked it up around Halloween. It is gorgeously pockmarked from being trampled upon. This card uses an interesting mix of Spanish and English to appeal to all kinds of people living in the Mission District.

Desolation Angel

A card from Jacqueline sent in August with a short, pithy statement in the back: "An altered angel."

Red-Haired Troll

This fabulous card from a Norwegian postcrosser is altered. Can you tell where?

Summer Bathing

This collage card from a Finnish postcrosser made me smile. Besides her love of animals, she really captured summertime in Finland. I love the whirlpool bath in the middle of the ocean!

Encyclopedia of the Vertically Challenged

A sweet card arrived from Jacqueline's good friends, Jody and Yue. She often talked about visiting them in NYC and the wonderful dining experiences she had with them.

Fire and Ice

A lovely volcano card from a Postcrosser in Iceland. I used to dream of volcanic eruptions in my home town of Kobe. There are no volcanoes there, but my dreams looked very much like this postcard. I also recall that Revlon had a wet, juicy lipstick called Fire and Ice.

Angel

A gorgeous sewn postcard from Jacqueline's friend, Sandy. I am looking forward to engaging in mail exchanges with this extraordinary artist.

Alice & the Cheshire Grin

A really wonderful surprise was waiting for me in my mailbox today. Here's a gorgeous Alice in Wonderland card from Anna B. I adore the Cheshire smile on the backside of the card. Thanks for making my day!!!

Black Cat

My friend Frannie made this fun card using a paper napkin. I've always loved the old-fashioned Halloween cat image. My own cat, Sabrina, looks just like this.

Jacqueline

Jacqueline Ruyak, my co-blogger passed away on Friday, October 21, 2011. During the course of her illness this summer, sending and receiving postcards through Postcrossing and between her friends kept her spirits alive. Our 36 years of friendship was based through the mail, after we went our separate ways post-graduate school. Letters were the primary media in which we spoke about the interesting and irritating events in our lives. That was our preference, but also necessity, because Jacqueline often lived in remote, rural villages where the Internet was intermittent or nonexistent. It is inconceivable that I can no longer pen a letter to my dearest friend or anticipate a letter written in her beautiful cursive script. I shall miss our long conversations about art, baseball, food and travels.