free art.: Urban Exploration

This is a Group-Blog I got invited to join through the IUOMA. Worth a peek. Here is one of three photos I submitted. You'll have to visit them to check out the rest;0)

free art.: Urban Exploration: "Police Activity; Chase Me, Mommy!; St. George-YUS line; Three Urban Exploration Submissions by Louise Kiner @ My iPod is My Sketchbook !"

Test

Ok Blogpress. Why are you not working for me?! Blech.


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A Whole Whack of Mail...

...to be sent off, now that everything "postal wise" is back to normal. You could say, I'm one happy girl (or you could say, I kind of obsessed, which would be true as well.). - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

TARDIS Take Away Coffee Cup

TARDIS Take Away Coffee Cup
Originally uploaded by Louise Kiner

My "Tardis Take Away Coffee Cup" has the distinct honor of winning the Coffee and All That Jazz "Art Cup" contest.

A good payoff for a few hours spent playing with a new set of Copic Markers.

Gallifrey, here we come.

From Boo

As of midnight, last night, Canada Post is on strike. Sad state of affairs for the mail-artists and Etsy/Artfire craft sellers in this country.

But, what came in under the wire that cheered my soon to be mail-art drenched soul? This wonderful card from Boo, as part of "Mail-art 365". Thank you, Boo! It will be my beacon of hope that this strike doesn't last too long!


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I Survived The Lego Store Grand Opening...

...and lived to tell the tale...



Ha! What some parents, including moi, won't do for their children...wait in long line-ups on the opening weekend of the Lego Store at Sherway Gardens. I have always taken the attitude that nothing was worth waiting in a long line for; concert tickets, sales, amusement park rides, etc. Well, you get the picture. Not until this weekend anyway. My son, who is quite the Lego-maniac, had been counting down the days when this Mecca of brick-topia would be opening, so how could we disappoint? And so, we wait in line. Not an easy task. One of the staff had noticed my son was having difficulties waiting; she spoke to him, and, I guess, spoke to a supervisor. She kindly let him jump the cue. I couldn't thank her enough.
He quickly picked out his Lego kits he'd been saving for and gave them to Dad who lined up to pay.
So, I followed him around for the next hour (yes, that's how long the line up was to pay), while he excitedly wandered from place to place looking at all that was offered.


There was some very cool displays; my favorite being the Lego biker girl (above)
and the Lego sushi (below).


The staff were incredibly nice and answered all my son's queries. He's very excited about joining their builder's club. I'm excited that they have bricks in Tardis blue (but, I will get them another day.).
So, was all this worth the line-ups and madness? I just had to look at the Boychild's face to see it was.


"Hey Mom! This looks like you!"

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Cool 'zines...

...and so I open my mailbox very tentatively...



...expecting the same old, same old as I've been getting the last few days. You know, bills and junkmail, etc. etc. It's been one of those weeks mail-wise, which means the mail-gods and goddess' are telling me I need to make and send off more mail-art.
I've been a bit on the lazy side of late...but I did post 3 items yesterday, so that should merit some kind of postal goody, shouldn't it? And, it does...



...a very colourful envelope containing these very cool 'zines made by my Twitter friend, Jessica, of the fine blog Nature's My Friend, which I implore you all to check out. "Mountains Made Of Fur", I know she had made when she and I were both suffering with tendonitis at the same period of time. Her "tweets" about creating it inspired me to make my "Canadian Space Agency Artist Trading Cards" (as seen below; it could be done on a computer with Photoshop or whatever.).



"Who? Hoo!" is filled with her delicate, yet bold drawings of one of my favorite creatures on this planet (there's a reason why Harry Potter had an owl and not a rat. No offense to the rats. Really.). I also love the surprise centres of both 'zines and how they fold out. Really clever.

Well, Jessica, you've done it again and inspired me!

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Bathysphere; You Are A Thing of Beauty.

I saw this beauty while out on a drive last Tuesday night. A real bathysphere! Now, what one would do with a bathysphere these days is the big question.

But, next to my own personal dirigible, this is the gift for me.



Splendid!


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And now for another edition of "Be Splendid...

...in which Louise and her very good pal, Siri, visit their very first Steampunk Convention....




I have a confession to make. I love steampunk. I have also spent months lurking on various Steampunk sites and reading many blogs. So, when I read months ago that Steampunk Canada would be mounting a convention in the Toronto area, I, of course, would take the opportunity and have to go. And, I would have to take my good friend Siri along. She, of course, agreed to this venture.




Although, neither of us could do the whole weekend, we opted for the Sunday portion of the program, of which there was still quite a lot going on. We started with the intriguing "Steampunk Around The World: Steampunk Beyond Victoriana" led by Jaymee Goh (silver-goggles.blogspot.com). It was an engaging panel which encouraged much discussion by Goh and the audience members in attendance. For more information on the subject, a recommended website by Jaymee Goh is Beyondvictoriana.com.  Another website that also might be of interest is Multiculturalism for Steampunk .




The Mad Science Fair was fun and quite mad (of course!); I'm not quite sure who won the "Cup", but all the creations were marvelous; from the modded Ghostbusters pack (above) to the mummy-wrapped chicken, which was later to be unwrapped (below).




This is where I and my dear friend, Siri, parted ways, so I implore you that you will have to read her account of this marvelous Sunday as well on the Turtleduck blog .




I attended 2 more panels; "Steampunk Costuming On A Budget" led by Stephanie Lalonde and J.M. Frey. Very sound advice was given as one can be very overwhelmed by all the Steamy accoutrements available. My favorite being (and I admit, I am paraphrasing here) to go slow; start with one good piece and build around it. Very sensible advice indeed.

As every good adventurer, time-traveller, Airship Captain, etc. should have their own journal, the next panel I attended was "Bookbinding- An Introduction To Non-Adhesive Bindings" led by John Morgan. I learned so much in that one hour about simple bookbinding that I have actually made 3 books since then. Thank you, sir!




This day came to a perfect ending with a performance by Professor Elemental ( I could not help myself and purchased his CD and have been listening to it ever since.).

For it's inaugural year, I would have to say the Canadian National Steampunk Exhibition was a success. My only thought as I was leaving was "is that all there is?!". It had definitely left me wanting more. I had a splendid time and I look forward to next years event. And, I hope to be able to spend more time at it.




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50th Anniversary of the First Man in Space Pt.2...

...and more! Once more this gloomy rainy post election day has been brightened by an excellent piece of mail. This time from Tomsk, Russia.



A nice surprise to receive such a lovely print as well.
Brilliant!



"Keep calm and carry on", as they say.
Now, where is my cuppa brown joy?

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I Am The Urban Spaceman, Baby...

"I see Earth! It is so beautiful! "
-Yuri Gagarin, Cosmonaut



This month marked the 50th anniversary of the first man in space; him being Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who completed one rotation of the Earth in his Vostok spacecraft on April 12,1961.



14 artists from The IUOMA (International Union of Mail Artists) Postal History Boutique group created a special mailing to mark this historic event at the suggestion of one of it's members. There are still one or two cards to come, but April isn't over yet.

Over and out, Space Cadets!



Follow this link for film footage of this historic event:

http://m.boingboing.net/2011/04/12/video-footage-of-yur.html

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Doctor, Set The Way-back Machine For..."

1979. Or maybe 1980.
Tom Baker was still the Doctor. His companion was the very capable Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) and "Doctor Who" was on TVOntario hosted by Science-Fiction writer Judith Merril (who I once had the privilege of being stuck in an elevator with.). The series was always a year or 2 behind what was being shown in the UK and the internet did not exist in the capacity as it does today (Feeling old yet?).



On my most recent move, I had rediscovered a pile of these fanzines in a box. I had made them with my brother and a group of like minded friends. We were all very young at the time; barely in our teens.

There were 4 issues created (although issue 3 is missing; hopefully to be found in another box somewhere), all painstakingly typewritten and Letrasetted. All, with the exception of #4, were photocopied and then hand-stapled. I even found a "fan-letter" that was written stuck in-between one of them. I sat back and flipped through them delighting in the enthusiasm that dripped from every page. Not great writing but heartfelt for something we cared about and took seriously at the time.

For me, I think I have just re-opened the Pandorica.




Addendum: I found I couldn't post this blog without mentioning how saddened I was about the passing of Elisabeth Sladen last week. She wrote the book for every one of the Doctor's companions who came after her and will be missed.

When Mail Goes Astray...

I received this lovely package back after it's 'round the world tour, courtesy of the Royal Mail. It was sent off to a mail call way back in February. As it never arrived at it's destination and had missed the deadline (I knew this, as the person who was running the Mail Call had kindly been in touch and was keeping me informed by email, of course!), I just resigned it to the Lost Mail Fates.

As you can see, it arrived home safely yesterday with some lovely new stickers ("no such address"). Upon closer inspection, I had indeed forgotten to write a number in the postal code portion of the address.

I guess the saying "measure twice, cut once" goes for sending mail as well.

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50th Anniversary of The First Man In Space

By the way, today marks the 50th Anniversary of the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin. Now that the "blackout" has been officially lifted by "mission control", I will now post these lovelies that I have received. Feast your eyes, folks, on this one by Carla:



More to come...

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