Bi Cycles

Everybody's got something to hide
 'cept for me & my bicycle..
photo by my savior of the day,
https://www.instagram.com/maryelizx/

I got this bike from a Cat in Wyoming, on my way to start college in Utah. She got it for a song and only wanted the leather saddle. It fit me perfectly, and has been more dependable than any man I've yet to meet outside of my family... (Except maybe the Holy Trinity) It has traveled with me from Utah to Ohio, from Ohio to NYC, from NYC to Ohio and back to Utah, and went to Berkeley and Yakima with me last summer. I love to ride it to work and to church and along rivers and up mountains (and down again, whee!!!) I am a speed demon, and unlike my bother J have yet to be tarred for my sins... Dad, thanks for letting me keep my training wheels until you pointed out that I wasn't even using them anyway, they were never touching the ground. Thanks for teaching me that it's about the circle, not the up and down. Thanks for teaching me that you pace yourself, and you take turns in front and turns drafting, and you go in a zig-zag up the hill so that your lungs don't explode... Mom, thanks for telling me when I was still in elementary school that giving birth was like riding your bike up a mountain to see the sunset but even better because you got to take a baby home with you afterward. SJW thanks for being the strong silent type who gets his son to sing the song "bicycle" while sweeping the garage. (Or for marrying a woman who did that.) MW thanks for having more bicycle wheels than anyone can shake a stick at, and for letting me have the pleasure of finding the long lost one. Juju, I love you and yes, sometimes it sucks. But we will never break up, ever for eternity. I'm not temple divorcing you, so don't even ask. NG, you have produced more wonderful humans and provided them with bikes and let me be the first one to see Ra roll over and sit up on a bike. PC if you don't love bikes already you will soon. Also, you may yet prove to be just as dependable or so than this bike. Why doesn't it have a name? I don't think it even has a gender...

Near George Washington Bridge in
Manhattan...
Photo by Elizabeth Leitzell,
http://eleitz.com/about/

Little v touching a bike as we pass,
with her in her stroller trike...

The bike artisans confer... 

Again, EL/LE... http://eleitz.com/about/ . My sexy legs...

Craftiness with Ji. Martha would be proud.

Part 1

Obviously, I need a stylist for our next production. Ji looks fabulous, but I am a little too laissez-faire for my own good sometimes...

Stay tuned for Part II...

Wall Art

Some of my very favorite people :)

Good Morning!

I know that you've missed me. Sorry. Lots to write about, no time to write! But today, Saturday, it's 8:20 am and I've been up since 7 am. Amazing! Maybe there is a good side to the heat in my apartment not working right...

Anyway, I am working on my valentine cards and thinking about cleaning my room. I send out valentines instead of Christmas cards, and I make each one myself. So I have to start early!

Here are some from past years:





You can see that I really get into it, and come up with some different concepts each time. I only started scanning them last year, I wish I had thought of it before then. One year I gathered up some heart-shaped leaves and made stamps with them (painted over them with pink paint and then pressed them to paper, removing the leaf afterward). I also painted hearts on tissue paper and plastic film and overlaid them on other paper.

This year's concept stemmed from a home improvement project my roommate M dreamed up. We made collages, using old National Geographics, to decorate the cupboard doors:


Can you guess which collage is mine?

Here's a sneak peak at this year's cards:

the back of the card is on the left, the front on the right. The gardenscape wraps around. The heart on the back is the cutout from the heart on the front. This one is going to my brother in India. He's not using the internet for anything but email right now, so posting this won't ruin the surprise. The rest you'll have to wait for :)

Did anyone notice the heart shaped air bubble in my teabag at the top of the post?