A Busy Little Homestead

  The days are shorter, the fall leaf turn in progress and the nip in the air reminds me that I am no longer on my beloved mountain in Costa Rica. Mid October through early November are chaotic at our house. My husband works in the election industry as a consultant (non-political) and we cease seeing him around the house about mid October. His job demands leave little time for him to play his role at home so my son and I take up the slack.

  On our little homestead fall is a busy time, harvesting the last of the garden's produce, preparing the beds for fall planting, smoking peppers and cheese, dehydrating and canning, the kitchen is busy and soon the larders will be full to the brim with goodies to eat all winter. Unfortunately, between my husband being MIA for weeks and the garden/kitchen chores, I have not had time for my personal pursuits. I have a stack of letters waiting to be responded to and an artistamp First Day of Issue to finish, they call to me...

  The guys are out hunting this week so I am here to hold down the fort alone. The garden is mostly planted, the kitchen chores are still in que, but I am at a point where I can take a day or so and turn my attention to "my stuff". Hopefully, I will be mailing out some delinquent letters and finishing up my artistamp project today and tomorrow. One point of work stoppage still seems to be that I can't find a card stock that I like for my FDOI mail out. I guess if I am ever going to get it out I am just going to have to settle on what I can find locally and then work on a better paper source for the future. I am very excited about my little artistamp, I can't wait to see it in final form, stuck to it's First Day of Issue cards and in the mail box to all my snail mail friends. So hopefully very soon, I will see you in the mail!

An Afternoon on the Porch

 We went from mid Summer to late Fall in a week. I am sitting outside in one of the wicker chairs on the porch writing this because it is too cold for me to sit in the house. My feet were like blocks of ice and it hurt my hands to type since my fingers felt brittle from the cold. It really isn't all that cold, but I still am trying to adjust to the diverse temperature swings in the Piedmont of North Carolina. In the mountains of Costa Rica where we have been living until our return to the States early this summer, the temperature stays pretty much the same year round. It runs between 75 and 85 year round, but rarely reaches the mid 80's. I am going to freeze this winter...sigh!
 So here I sit with my long sleeves and sweater, soaking in the late afternoon sunbeams. The sound of water trickling over the rocks in the frog pond is pleasant background music for writing. I just put the finishing touches on a couple of mailart mail outs and when I return to the house I will scan them so I have a record of what I've sent. With these couple of letters finished, I am officially caught up on my correspondence, which is nice.
 I have completed the drawings from my newest artistamp, and after a few final touches it will be ready to print. But I am having a problem finding a paper stock that I like for the First Day of Issue post card. With the economy going south, most of the good paper stores have disappeared, so I am having to rely on Staples in Charlotte. Unfortunately, they have  very limited choices in card stock. I think that I will probably have to distress watercolor paper to come up with the effect that I want. I was hoping that I would have the post cards ready to mail by now, but it may take a little while to get the card stock issues worked out. Maybe I'll have it done by the end of this week. I hope so anyway.

 For the moment, I will give you another little glimpse of the artwork for the stamp and wish you all well until next we meet!

Can anyone guess what it is?