Even though it was Saturday, I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. I had directions to Canterbury Downs already printed out, a fully charged phone for photos and a huge wad of one dollar bills. That’s right – time for my favorite stamp show!
I don’t really need to go to a stamp show. Let’s face it, I already own more stamps and paper and ribbons and ink pads than any normal person needs. All the companies represented at the stamp show have websites (and you know I have them all bookmarked). But there’s something about being at a convention full of your hobby/passion, surrounded by folks just like you, who understand your desire to see the stamps and paper up close and in person. And who get all your stamping jokes.
The Early Bird line (for those who purchased their tickets ahead of time online) queued up pretty early. I showed up 20 minutes before opening and was about 40th in line. They actually counted down the last 10 seconds on the sound system before opening; for those of you thinking it, yes I did yell along with the others during the countdown.
This is the stamping show that’s I like best; there are several of my favorite companies there and almost every booth does a “make `n take” (unlike that other not-as-good show that was in town last month). I had my dollar bills in my pocket so I was ready whenever there was a free chair to make a sample; most make `n takes are $1 but a few are $2. I spent about 5 hours at the show, made 12 cards, chatted with folks either at tables or in line. I even met the designer who made a 6 x 6 calendar template especially for me back in February! Didn’t win a door prize (no surprise there) and blew my budget (no surprise there either) but had a glorious time.
What kind of mud does your pig like?
Trail Baboon 
First reading I thought the question was “What kind of mug does your pig like, and I didn’t know the answer. Now that I realize it’s mud, I still don’t know the answer. Thinking this may be one of those stamping jokes…
I’ll risk a one-word answer that I think my pig would like – brown.
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I think it’s metaphorically speaking.
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PJ you are correct. Metaphorical mud. In fact I thought up the question before I thought up the blog piece. I was standing in line watching someone else do I make ‘n take and waiting for a chair when I thought ” I am as happy as a pig in mud”. Voila!
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Wet?
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Rise and Wallow Baboons!
I have SO many mud puddles to wallow in, this blog being one. The on-going conversation just feels interesting? Right? Supportive? A Community mud puddle, really.
My personal mud puddles:
Polymer Clay and PC art classe and Guilds
My garden and the flowers—never enough of those (excellent year for growing them BTW)
Home and Garden TV shows
Hulu and Netflix series and movies
Jigsaw puzzles (in the winter)
Minnesota State Fair
There are probably more, but that will be enough mud for now.
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new movie for you at the edina about a puzzle contestant soon
looks good
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I get it now… Yes, the Trail for sure. Book clubs keep me in the book reading puddle. There are more… be back later. : )
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When I first started collecting and making rubber stamps, it was in the wake of the Fluxus/Mail Art movement.
https://www.widewalls.ch/mail-art-correspondence-postal/
Stamping as a craft or hobby didn’t really exist and that wasn’t where my interests lay anyway. Consequently, most of the stamps I designed or collected wouldn’t have had much application for cards except exceedingly strange ones.
I had this idea, since I had the rubber vulcanizer and the stamp making capabilities, that I would market stamps to organizations that were too small to be attractive to bigger producers of custom products. The library had a thick reference registry of organizations that I consulted. One of those groups I picked to develop custom products for was the AAAA—The Association for the Advancement of Aardvaarks in America. I designed and produced four or five aardvaark stamps, my favorite being a bookplate withan aardvaark and the motto, “Aardvaarks come first in my book”. I sent a letter to the organization offering my product but never got much response. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I did have some success with an arrangement I had with a yarn and textile arts company in Berkeley called Straw Into Gold. I created a series of punny sheep stamps for them, which they sold through their catalog. That particular venture got me a mention in The Last Whole Earth Catalog.
Of course you probably already know, ad nauseum, about my current obsession with aspects of mid-nineteenth century popular culture. It’s my mud, my refuge and repose. It’s where I can go when the world is too much with me. Unfortunately, and this has been a recurring problem with me, there are no conventions I can go to, no avid groups with whom I can wallow.
I belong to an organization made up of book artists, book collectors, a few booksellers, etc. and although I share many of their interests, few of them share mine exactly. I suppose I could try to find some mud that attracted more afficianados, but do you choose your mud or does your mud choose you?
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I still have some of your stamps, Bill. I have a few of the food ones. There’s a cabbage that I like and I have some alphabets and a beautiful butterfly that I use quite a bit. I gave away quite a few of the others to friends (including a young man of about 5 at the time who really enjoyed the dinosaur ones).
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Wow, are we different, VS. Many years ago, I was invited to a rubber stamp party – you know, like a tupperware party, but for rubber stamps. I went, because I liked the person hosting the party (she usually didn’t do stuff like that but did it as a kindness to her relative who was the rubber stamper) – and because I knew the food that she served would be good.
Well. We were allowed to test the rubber stamps, so everyone was stamping away and oohing and aahing. Everyone except me. I did a few stamps, was bored out of my skull and didn’t like the stamps much, either, so I stopped. I did not buy any rubber stamps and I left early.
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This is like the beginning of my story as well. My sister was having an in-home party for stamps. I was going to be out of town so I purchased just a few things from the catalog ahead of time, just trying to support her. These stamps sat in a drawer for two years. Then someone at work who was clearly stamping and enjoying it, had a party so I thought I would go … just so that I would learn what to do with these stamps that I had in my drawer. I was hooked almost immediately. Who are we kidding? Immediately. And the funny thing is, I don’t think my sister ever used any of the stamps that she got for hosting the party.
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Well, my support didn’t go so far as to actually purchase any stamps.
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Cookware stores and exotic grocery stores are my downfall. Music stores for husband, as well as bpok stores.
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Oh, and greenhouses.
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We are currently wallowing in Shakespeare Festival – have ushered for two plays, two to go. Beethoven Festival too… I’m tempted to sign up for more concerts… What I’m really wallowing in is “I don’t want to miss anything good.”
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They call that FOMO (fear of missing out). I used the term when I was on a quick trip with my sister and a friend, both much younger than me. Neither of them had heard it before. I enjoyed knowing something they didn’t, but figured it must not be in as common use as I had assumed.
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I’m going to remember this, one, OC.
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I make jewelry so beading companies and hobby stores like JoAnn Fabrics are my downfall. A co-worker also makes jewelry with her sister, so they attend a big beading convention in Minneapolis because her sister has a Tax ID for her jewelry business. I would love to go, but am afraid of the expense I would incur. I love buying beads, but don’t get around to making something with them.
I must confess that I enjoy martial arts movies — mainly for the great martial arts fight choreography. I usually avoid the cheesy films, but I have done a Bruce Lee marathon one day several years ago. Also watched all three “Ip Man” movies which are actually fairly good considering the genre.
That’s the main reason I watch any big ticket action movie. I just really dig the hand-to-hand combat and fight choreography. Sometimes it’s quite ludicrous like in the Kingsman movies. But hey, if Colin Firth can do action movies, so they must be good. 🙂
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I wallow in Pain. OT toupdate you: pinched nerve down my right leg. Every movement I make with back and legs is raw electric pain. Cannot sit or lie down without pain. Right leg sometimes collapses.
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OW. I had a pinched nerve in my neck once–terrible pain. Glad you can still participate here. I wondered what happened to you yesterday
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is there a reason your nevrves are raising hell with you all the time or is that what htey are trying to figureo out for you?
life aint fair but you are getting the short end of the pain stick.
sorry clyde
have you tried the marijuana pain stuff instead of the opiates? i am always interested in the cause rather than the symptom but you need to get relief form all the damn pain.
hope they find a solution.
good luck and good vibes coming at you
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to busy in mud is like a fast pace job
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At one point in my life my favorite mud holes were bookstores, music stores and fly fishing shops.That’s all in the past now. The last time I was in a bookstore was four years ago, when ljb visited Portland. And I haven’t been in a store selling music or fly fishing gear for decades.
I could explain why things changed, but you would be bored. The evolution was different for each of my former passions, although I no longer spend time in stores of any sort and don’t buy stuff of any sort except food.
Metaphorically speaking, I have two mud holes I continue to enjoy. One is my computer, and more precisely the YouTube section of it. The other is Lightroom, my photo editing app. The greatest bliss I have these days is playing with images, reworking them to be as pleasing as they possibly can be. It is a hobby that is seriously threatened by my physical limitations. People who can’t walk about with a camera are not able to generate many photographic images to edit. It is the connection to my old life that I cling to most desperately.
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Wow, it’s sobering that it was already 4 years ago that ljb visited you on her NW trip.
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Hi—
I’m waiting for rehearsal to start.
One of my mud holes would be implement dealerships. I love driving through their lots and looking at machinery. Window shopping as it were.
And Theater supply houses. I geek out over light fixtures or C-clamps. Gobos and pattern holders are sexy.
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I know you already had the tech rehearsal, but when is the actual show??
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my mud would be car shows with vintage cars. i heard about the one at the state fair grounds this year with 15000 cars from before 1964. i was booked up with a boat load of to do’s or i would have gone
i like the trade shows i go to for hardware, housewares shows and electronics. i have always had a bunch of interests and was a mile wide and an inch deep and it has worked out ok for my new amazin endevour where i talk to companies tha tmake different products to sell on amazon. i have a little knowledge about a lot of different areas so i can discuss without being an expert. i know a little about a lot. and i always have lots of curiosity about the next thing around the corner.
a love of art and music theater and literature can suck me off into never never land in a heartbeat. or put me in a canoe with a wilderness in front of me and if a mountain is available count me in.
someone mentioned foodie tendancies and that seems ot be what i do for therapy these days and motorcycle riding is zen these days.
i can be happy doing a number of different muds so happier than a pig in mud r us. oh yeah and old movies… and hats and vintage clothing, lp’s for the turntable side of life. i could spend a lifetime learning musical instraments , sax trumpet cello fiddle guitar iano harmonica squeezebox mandolin bass harp pennywhistle , i can do them all a little but wouldnt it be great to get all of them to a level where you enjoyed the ability to do it well.
remember the episode of star treck where they stopped in and found a guy with a collection of a bunch of undiscovered paintigs by masters and music by composers who as it turned out in the end were all by this guy who had all the time in the universe because he had picked up immortality and the plus side was that he could write paint create wonderful stuff endlessly and switch gifts like changing socks. the minus side was that all his life mates kept getting old and dying and he never realized how long it had been til he looked over at his mate and found she had gotten really old and he stayed the same age and had to figure out how to deal with the endless circle pursuing his interests … i dont thin he had stamping on his list of choices but i guess he still has time to give it a try.
i love linoleum and wood block printing and intaglio. is stamping kind of like that?
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Which Star Trek was that, tim – TNG? Vaguely familiar, would like to find it again.
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I think it was this episode:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requiem_for_Methuselah
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Yes, this is the one!
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Farmers’ markets are my happy mud hole during the Minnesota growing season. In winter the vegetable market at Hmong Town provides a nice respite. Finding fresh ingredients that inspire me to try different cuisines is fun, and fortunately Hans is game to try most of it as long as I don’t put fish in it.
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My pig likes bookstores, thrift shops, antique stores.
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Huh – I’m realizing that I wallow in a sea of relationships that I hang onto. Today I’ll try to keep up, by email, with a high school friend, some college friends who are reunioning in Sept., friends from our past life in Winona, two sisters-in-law, my sister…
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