Thursday, March 4, 2010

A Great Mail Day

Sometimes the mail carrier brings me bills, and sometimes he makes my heart sing!  Today, my heart was belting out an entire soundtrack.

The photo above is the end result of a several months long progressive swap masterminded by my friend Liz in the ATT group.  Liz sent out nine plain unfinished frames, about 5x5", and the same number of those vials used in drawing blood.  That was it!  Each of the nine people in the swap added something and the little masterpiece you see above is what we came up with.  The pieces traveled a total of 16, 344 miles, and crisscrossed the country several times, going from Liz in Arizona to Allie in Oklahoma, to Jason in Texas, to Nancy in California, to me in New York, to Pam back in California, to Peggy in Ohio, to Barbara in Oregon, to Julie in Montana, and finally, back to Liz in Arizona.  Liz finished them off and then mailed one to each of us.
I doubt if the photo does this justice, but click on it to see the details.  I don't know how it happened, (and I have to credit the final participants here) but it became a wonderful and cohesive work of art!  Thanks Liz and everyone else for this great experience and unique and beautiful piece that I will cherish forever!

As if that wasn't enough, also in the mail was a totally unexpected package from Japan.  Jessica, a military wife from my ArtHaven group sent me this cool RAK:
 
I just love that the package of pink lace has a label in Japanese!  Trust me, the label will find its way into a project.

Speaking of ArtHaven, I was lucky enough to win the February Lottery there, and everyone who submitted a piece (the theme was Happiness) will be sending theirs to me.  Today I received this beauty from my dear friend Angie:

 
I love the sentiment, and would you believe that the base started out as one of those coffee cup sleeves you slide over the cup to keep from getting burned?  Angie is an amazing artist and just loves to find interesting uses for what most folks would toss in the trash.
No photo for these, but there was also a new journal to work on.  Yea!  This one is from my Journal of Dreams group, and it belongs to Sarah, who lives in Australia.  

And the new idea book by Wendy Vecchi was in the mail too.

Like I said, a great mail day.   My email brought me a few surprises as well.  Several of my very kind cyber friends decided to pass along various blog awards to me.  I would like to acknowledge them and thank them for thinking of me.

Lori sent me this one:

 
Valerie sent me this:

 
And Celeste sent:

 
I decided a while back not to do this blog award thing any more.  I absolutely can't think of any more interesting things about myself to share and I love too many people and too many blogs to try to pick out the five or seven or ten to pass them on to.  So, I'm not adding these to my sidebar or passing them forward, just saying thanks to those who gave them to me, and hope this doesn't offend anyone.


16 comments:

Ann said...

the frame is just a one of a kind fabulous piece of art!!! i clicked on the photo to get a good close up...love how the heart is beaded and all th wonderful things on it..what a treasure!!!
Love your other mail goodies..Angie's piece is great.
aren't you the lucky one !!!
can hardly wait to see what you use the label on!!!!

Nancy Lynn said...

I love how Liz's swap turned out a lot. The pieces look wonderful. Just sorry now I didn't participate. Way too cool. I love Angie's piece and all your other goodies you received.

Dawn said...

Eileen,
The frame piece is absolutely stunning. I think I spent a good 10 minutes just looking at all the items in and on the frame. I'll definitely be back to look a bit more.

Barbara Mason said...

It is so amazing how it cohesed sp???...with so many different minds/styles but in the end ...Voila!!! Waiting for mine....
Love it & your stuff from Angie is not tooo bad either!!!

Carol's Crafts said...

Awesome goodies, Eileen. I especially love the cool stuff you got from Japan. That was way cool.

Anonymous said...

Your creations are AMAZING girl!!!!

Helena said...

That frame is just absolutely stunning! You all did a remarkable job on that!

Angie Hall Haviland said...

WOW...FABULOUS day!!! Thanks for your kind comments on my coffee sleeve hanging :) You progressive frame is WONDERFUL!!!

KAT said...

Thanks for sharing the end results! This turned out wonderfully!

Diann said...

What a great mail day you had for sure! Oh my...that progressive frame is awesome and a treasure!
All the ART and awards from your friends are well deserved! Diann

Patzee said...

What a totally awesome haul! I think I heard that joyful sound you made as you opened each one. The "Happiness" coffee sleeve is totally amazing. I am thrilled by all the beautiful art that has been created and delivered to you. What a wonderful community of artists!!

Erin Glee said...

So fun, getting all that GRE AT mail! Thanks for sharing the Traveling Frame & Vial project ... been hearing about it on A TT and it was delightful to see a picture!
Have an A rtful weekend!

Lori said...

What a great swap that was! You're postively right, there are so many elements there, but it turned out just beautifully! I just love the saying that came together there. Perfect! Man, you really made a haul this week!

Marit said...

OMG.. what a wonderful little piece of art the frame turned in to... amazing!!! And all that happy mail at once... enjoy it all!

Tami Putvin said...

Ohh Goodness wonderful goodies.. Everything is so beautiful..

Juliet A said...

Thank you for refusing to buy into the idea that a chain award is actually an award. Those things drive me nuts.

You got some great goodies in the mail, though!