It’s been exciting to see the energy and press around Mary Robinette Kowal’s A Month of Letters initiative. As a devoted postcard writer myself (evidenced by my postcard blog) I hold USPS-fueled communication near and dear. A Month of Letters is a challenge for the month of February, to write and send a piece of postal mail every day USPS is open (24 days). And, of course, I’m doing it.

Here are the rules if you want to join me:

*Mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.

*Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

If you use Twitter, tag your posts with #LetterMo. You can follow my daily mailings at my postcard blog, 28cents.

Love the movement and color in this installation by Supakitch and Koralie. via The Fox is Black

Arizona by Steoffrey Language

Planking by Color Me Katie

Contribute to to the Reno Bike Project‘s We HeART Bikes art show, held at the Village at Northstar on May 14 and 15 during the Amgen Tour of California.

Any medium accepted, 50 percent of sale price goes to the Reno Bike Project nonprofit. Submit by Wednesday May 11 at 5pm: Reno Bike Project, 541 East 4th Street, Reno, NV 89512, or Northstar-at-Tahoe Events Office (located above Northstar Security in the Village).

Can’t wait for this show! My latest DiStill Life column for Moonshine Ink is on bike art so stay tuned for the story.

How beautiful is this concept/video by potente di fuoco from Modo infoshop? I’d love to round up all my childhood drawings and recreate them, but I don’t think the juxtaposition would be as dramatic. My skills haven’t progressed much beyond middle school.

Speaking of drawing, I played the best game at a friend’s house the other night. Don’t judge it by its name: Eat Poop You Cat. It’s awesome, like “telephone” but with drawing. See for yourself:

Loving the work of Kelly Peyton, who was just selected as the Artown 2011 poster artist. I will now proceed to stalk her — in an art lover, non-creepy sort of way. Loving her colors, and their drips down the canvas. I plan to check out her upcoming Nevadan thesis show at Reno’s Sheppard Gallery, April 4–9. Who’s with me?

If you haven’t checked out the new Moonshine Ink that’s on stands around Tahoe/Truckee, do it! My latest DiStill Life column is on the new grant-funded Arts For the Schools programming, and it is quite exciting stuff. Project Bandaloop is the first performer on the playbill, and I can’t wait for the show next weekend… they’re dancing in the air, off the side of the Resort at Squaw Creek building. yowza!

Well, I’m back from my trip to Boulder. Such a different world there: street performers, crowded restaurants, jam-packed yoga classes, flat residential neighborhoods with blocks and blocks of houses, bike-friendly everything, and flowers!

While it was fun, I’m happy to be home to my simple, quiet life in Tahoe Pines and thus finished this simple Lake Tahoe stamp today. You can’t tell in the photo, but the lake is printed in a pearlescent blue so it shimmers. I plan to get these in some tourist spots for visitors to have a homemade postcard souvenir option. Note: lake is not to scale!

I’m a big drop cap fan… not surprising since I work in the print world. I love their functionality, yet the seemingly endless creative ways designers work within the constraints of only 26 letters. Wired magazine, for one, does a good job of mixing it up… even taking a drop cap to more than a fourth the page size (see examples from the Jan 2010 issue below). But are drop caps another breed dying alongside print? It seems most online sources, even wired.com, drop the beloved drop cap for plain-old bolded text, or nothing at all. Perhaps I need to start a Save the Drop Cap campaign. Who’s with me?