Monday, March 3, 2014

when you can't paint, what do you do?


My eyes have been too strained lately to paint new etegami. But "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep." (Robert Frost, for those who don't know.) 

So here is what I do when I can't paint: I cut out pretty cards from boxes that various foodstuffs come in. In fact, I never throw away cereal boxes or cookie boxes or tea boxes or bird seed boxes or curry roux boxes (you name the box) without first cutting out postcard-sized pieces of the most interesting or colorful parts of the box. I keep these on hand for all sorts of uses. Like for writing thank-you notes to include with the orders I ship to my Etsy customers. 

Monday is the day I reserve for sending etegami to shut-ins and people in the hospital or nursing homes. Today, I picked the salmon eggs card for my father, who spent nearly his entire adult life in Japan, but now lives in a nursing home in the US. The cereal box card with raspberries are for a sweet Japanese lady in a nursing home in Japan. The handwritten words on the raspberry card say "Trying very hard to remember the smell of summer." 

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