New town, new locations...

Rightho, here we go..new town means new locations for my envelopes and a bit more of a challenge seeing as people know me here, so keeping the anonymity is a little difficult. 

However here's the newest one:

I left this one in Booths electrical store...I was most definitely spotted by the sales assisstant as she came over and tried to see if I needed any help...either that or she thought I was shoplifting...woops. I'm fairly certain as soon as I left she will have picked this one up *fingers crossed* she put it back or kept it for herself rather than throwing it away. At least she will have realised I wasn't shoplifting haha!

I was originally going to leave this one beside some of the colourful kettle's but they turned out to be right in front of the sales desk so I decided not to...they were some pretty awesome looking kettles though! 

Now here's where you can help me...my idea's for locations for the envelopes are getting a little thin on the ground..i don't like putting the envelopes to too similar places as then it all gets a bit boring and as the weather here is so terrible it's basically impossible to leave them outside....do you have any location ideas?

It does't even matter if you don't live near here or even in Scotland i will welcome any ideas that you have!

Please drop me a comment or email... :)

A Temporary Neighbour..

Well that's me just back from an island in the outer hebrides. I'm afriad to say that I forgot to take any of my wee envelopes with me, sadly this means I have no new photo's for you all! However I did manage to leave some of me wee cards with pictures of the envelopes on and this blogs address, so hey ho I might still have managed to get some more people involved eh? :)

I may not have been able to leave any of my envelopes around and encourage other people to get in touch with their neighbours BUT I did meet one of my (temporary) neighbours and gave her one of my postcards...the story goes a little like this...


My car broke down and needed to be fixed a few days into the holiday leaving my boyfriend and myself without any transport, this was a bit of an issue as we really needed to do some food shopping (we were staying in a family holiday home and hadn't come as prepared as we thought we had). My boyfriend went around to our neighbour, Alison's to see if she had the number for a taxi as the co-op was miles and miles away... she kindly offered to give us a lift as she was thinking of going anyway. This was fantastic news of course. That night we made poffertjes (a kind of dutch pancake) and as a thank-you we put some of the best ones on a plate and took them round to Alison in the morning, she in turn invited us around for dinner the next night. As it turns out our new neighbour is a fantastic cook and we had a very good meal and some excellent conversation. I even left her house with the loan of a book by an author I really like.

Alison said that I was welcome to hold onto the book until the next time I came to the island (we was leaving the day after), however I felt this would be a little rude...this is where one of my postcards came in. I wrote a thank-you from both of us on the back and my address incase she wanted to 'chivvy me along' with the book and also brought her half of my banana bread loaf. (I had tried to make in time for going to dinner.) When we took these round Alison kindly insisted that we come in, despite the fact that she had guests. The result was another great night and a lot of very good conversation :) I wouldn't hesitate to say that these two nights were one of the highlights of my trip!

I left with the address and the promise of returning the book when I had finished it and of course the possibility of keeping in touch...I couldn't be happier :)


You do good things for your neighbours and you get good things in return.


Any neighbours, no matter for what length of time they are your neighbours, are important people. 

Growing up...Moving on up...

So that's the show well and truly over and packed up and put away. Now you all know that I am, or rather was a student, although I'm sure it doesn't come as a shock... 

I bet your thinking: well why is she telling us this? 

Well friends I'm afriad things are about to change a wee bit for this project. Don't worry I'm not going anywhere, but things may slow down for a wee while. Because I've hit the big bad REAL world with a bit of a thump and have loooots of things to deal with, but I still want to make people smile and create mail-art and be POSITIVE! However until I figure out quite how I'm going to up the ante with this project, I'm just going to be leaving my 'public envelopes' around for other people to find. What I really want right now is to get OTHER people INVOLVED...that means you lot! 

...

I even created a postcard book that provides a super easy (and very creative) way for you to get involved and meet your neighbours...or even other people your a bit nervous to talk too but could easily leave a greetings note (a wee hello) in their locker, or on their desk, or computer, or pigeon hole...you get the idea. I'm still all about positive, fun, attractive communication! I'm hoping to get a digital view of the book up on here so that you can preview before you buy, as well as a safe way to pay. In saying that if you've heard enough and really want one now drop me an email and I can give you details of price and how to pay.

Ooof this is a bit of a long post for me, hopefully it makes up for my silence! Now back to the show...

Here is what the blackboard looked like at the end of the show, it got a bit more arty the second time around, you can see the first version of it in the previous post. I'm really happy so many people picked up the chalk and really got involved in this. Everybody seemed to love it! Reading all the comments was not only interesting but uplifting too.

Above is a photograph of my installation and to the right you can see a close up showing how I had a trail of letters from the desk up the wall to my envelopes. I was really pleased with how people interacted with this as well, people wandered up to it and moved things around, read my sketchbooks and had a good look at all the bit and pieces and photographs. By the way this is an accurate dipiction of my desk as I work on the envelopes (apart from the photos). My desk is always covered in coffee cups and cut out letters, glue and envelopes. I live in organised chaos and I LOVE it!

These photo's are of my comments plinth, here I had two options for people to leave there thoughts an opinions for me; they could write them on the plinth with chalk or write in the comment book I had on the top, in pen. I'm happy to say that a lot of both was done. I also had to rub off one side so it could be refilled again..although perhaps that's also because a lively child was a bit too enthusiastic with the chalk haha! 

Also as you can see here a lot of people also took it as an opportunity to graffitti a bit, however none of is what offensive and a lot of it was from people I know..therefore entirely forgivable! :) 

As always feel free to send any comments my way by commenting or via the contact email. Don't worry I'll take positive and negative and somewhere inbetweens even...indeed one of my favourite comments from the book was from an anonymous writer that said: What where you thinking? , I couldn't help but laugh because in some cases I look back and think exactly the same thing!

Friends you will find this project is honest as well as fun and I want your honesty as much as you would like mine. 

Keep visiting me here and if you think things have got a bit too quiet for your liking why don't you send me an idea of your own...it can't hurt right? I might even turn it into something HUGE, at least it's out there and there's a REALLY GOOD chance it will be tried out...what do you have to lose? :) 

(:   ...GET INVOLVED...   ;)

Last day of the show tommorow...

Hello Hello,

As the show is nearing it's end ( it's the final day tomorrow) I thought I would post a wee update with how it's all been going and of course a few images to show you and perhaps get some interest for tomorrow! 

Below are photo's of the space...these first two are of my blackboard, that as you can see was for people to write about what home is to them because after all that's part of why I started this project...knowing your neighbours makes a house a home :) Amazingly (as you can see) the blackboard was completely full within a few days and I had to wipe it off so that people could start again..hopefully it will be full to brimming by the end of close tomorrow as well!

All the rest of these photo's are just so you can get a general feel of the show, as you can see all the envelopes I sent out are on the wall, I have a wee desk installation and also on the plinth in the above photo are some mini envelopes to take away, my business cards (I'm not sure I feel old enough to have business cards haha) and my book which is for sale and there are still a few left..so if you want one come along tommorow!

About the book: Just a quick explanation about the book...the book is a tear-out postcard book designed front to back by myself. It contains 20 postcards that can be torn out and sent to neighbours or anyone you wish. Alongside the postcards is a small section that remains after you have torn out the postcards and this section has the subtle story of my project on it. I would include more but I don't want to ruin it for anyone, so come along and have a look!

If there is high demand I may be able to take orders of the book..if I sell out but we shall see...


I really have to go now...but I shall keep you all posted!

Perhaps see you tomorrow! :)



Ps: I'm in the paper here's a link:

http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/visual-arts/visual-art-review-gray-s-school-of-art-degree-show-2012-1-2366459

:)

An Apology and an Invite..

I'm really sorry I haven't posted anything in quite a while.

 So readers this is your official Apology!!

and also

to make things a little better...an Invite!

MakeMyNeighbourSmile will be going on show.

Yup that's right in just a few weeks MakeMyNeighbourSmile will be on display for the public to view.

The show will take place as part of the Grays School of Art Degree show in Aberdeen, Scotland.

So if you are in the area and would like to see it please come along, you may also get a chance to meet me, if you so wish.

The show is open to the public from the 16th - 24th of June.

There will also be limited edition books available to purchase at the show. All photography and design done by myself of course :)

I hope to see some of you there.

Please do not hesitate to talk to me if you do come and if your a wee bit shy then just leave me a wee comment.

Anyway I need to get back to the preparation.

Hope to see you there!

MakeMyNeighbourSmile is leaving the country!

I'm not actually leaving the country but the project certainly is...a few of my wee envelopes are flying air mail...to where you say? 

I'm not telling you

..yet!

But here's a sneaking peek of what's to come...

 

  

As the recipient of these envelopes reads the blog (of course) I haven't uploaded any close up photo's for you all, as I don't want to ruin it for her, but as soon as I get word of their arrival I will upload some more photo's. For now, you can just about make out the wee envelopes in these pictures.

A wee glimpse of myself, my studio and my super fly shoes while I'm having a break after making the envelopes. ;)

 

 This is the front and back of the envelope I sent the wee envelopes off on their travels in, of course it's illustrated as well. I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I sent them in a plain envelope eh.

 

Like I said, you can't see the illustrations on the envelope's clearly because I don't want to ruin the surprise for the recipient...but these wee teasers should keep you interested.

Would you like to get involved too? 

Just send me an email or message me and I can send you some wee (little) decorated envelopes too.

As always folks, stay tuned for where these wee envelopes turn up...your gona love it I'm sure!

I'm excited, so you should be too! :)

A friend amongst the ice-cream

You've already seen the wee tortoise I left in the Kitchen section of B&Q, well I also left one of the wee guys in the freezer section of Asda. Here you can see him waving at all the passers by, I wonder if any of them picked him up...? 

 I originally was going to put him in the veggie food section of the freezer on account of me being a vegetarian but it was busy around there so I headed for my favourite ice-cream instead.

 

 When the door steamed up my bro' drew a smiley face on the inside and I thought that's perfect...I couldn't resist taking a photo of him waving out through the steamed up smiley face.

 

I'm not sure if the reflection takes away from it though, what do you think?

Been in the kitchen section of B&Q recentley...

So with the help of my lovely brother..who was my 'eyes' for this trip I wandered around the Kitchen Section of B&Q and tried not to get too distracted by all the 'soft close' drawers and cupboards while I tried to find a place for my newest tortoise envelope...

We eventually came accross a relitively hidden 'kitchen', that we also thought didn't look too bad...not quite my taste but not terrible...anyway I digress...It took me a wee while to find the right place for him as you can see...

....I tried by the sink...but something didn't feel quite right...

...so I thought on top of the workshop would be perfet...but he was a wee bit overshadowed by the massive red price signs behind him...

...at first I tried to put him in a cupboard but that was so terrible I didn't even take a photo and rescued the wee guy straight away! 

Thus he landed on the outside of the lovely red cupboard...he seems to like it up there...what do you think?