Leaves me alone!

Sheesh. Things seem crazy busy lately. The internet kind of scares me because I see it as a big black hole of lost time.

I have a blister on the bottom of my foot from doing toe-heel-swivel barefoot on the hardwood floor! I'm up to my eyeballs in yarn, trying to finish X-mas gifts! That is if you could see me past the mountain of packages I've been wrapping.

I realized recently that the things I started doing to relax and unwind (dancing, crocheting, knitting, making mail art and ATCs) have sort of morphed into something else, and now they are PART OF THE PROBLEM. And the problem is that there is never enough time in the day.

So, to escape the stress of my other hobbies, this month I decided I should take a drawing class. You know, because it sounded so relaxing. And also because I CAN'T DRAW! Seriously, the last time I took an art class was my freshmen year of high school (17 years ago!) and I was so stoned that year... I don't even remember it. So I scribble like a kindergarten reject, it is true. Anyway, I've only been to three drawing classes and guess what? I'm already stressed out about it. The first class was great, I loved it. Two classes later I am banging my head on the table and wondering WHY CAN'T I DRAW A FREAKIN LEAF?

Of course, drawing a leaf is a problem not only of proportion and shading, but of my dislike for nature. I admit it, if you know me you know it is true, I have issues with NATURE--especially LEAVES. I like deserts and oceansides--places that do not have leaves. Drawing a leaf shortly after having to rake 20 bags of leaves out of my driveway is not relaxing. LEAVES ARE THE ENEMY!

I am afraid to tell my drawing teacher about the problem with me and leaves. I don't think she would understand. Yesterday I decided to forget about the Enemy Leaves. So I drew something that makes me happy--my friend, the shoe...



I feel better now.

ATCS- I haven't really been doing much in the way of Artist Trading Cards lately, but here are the latest. I did find a new trading community that looks promising: ATCards. And I found out I will soon be getting some cemetery themed cards from a swap I participated in MONTHS ago. It seems that the woman who hosted the swap has a home based business and an employee was stealing her mail and taking it home. The police confiscated the mail, which included hundreds of cemetery themed Artist Trading Cards and held them as evidence before releasing them. What a scandal. 

Mail Art

A few months ago I posted my info at this website called PostcardX. It's just random people around the world sending each other random stuff. Remember snail mail? Yeah, it's pretty cool stuff.

Recently I got this great Fabio postcard from Jami in Michigan:



She has no way of knowing how obsessed I used to be with Fabio-- to the point of writing a song about him. A really cheesy song. But you can't really write any other kind of song about Fabio, can you?

I also got an envelope full of cool art bits from Solamito in Italy this week. Here's one card:



Besides getting fun mail, I'm still on the mad organizing spree. I can see my sewing table, bedroom floor and writing desk again. I've missed them. Plus: Making ATCs, throwing a dinner party, X-mas gift knitting, drawing, updating my website (www.eyhom.com) and homeschooling.