• Life is really going to change

    No more casual afternoons at Starbucks. No more sidewalk cafes. No more days at the park with the kids. No more walking down the sidewalk with a kid on my shoulders while sipping a Starbucks Latte while going to the sidewalk cafe from the park.

    Not any more. Because we’re celebrities. I know, I know – don’t worry – I’ll still make me-time.

    If you are living in a well, you might not have heard that Zeichen Press was proclaimed Best of Show by -my new favorite- magazine: Do It Yourself 

    do-it-yourself-cover-winter

    With the magazine in her hands and a cart full of groceries, Jen called me. She called me over the loudspeaker. I was in the frozen foods section and she ordered me to get myself to Lane 7. I did as I was told and Thank God because Jen was being dragged away by security – I got there in the nick of time, explaining that we were on a “living on your own” outing and I’d be taking her right back to the group home as soon as we bagged her groceries.

    Phew!

    Okay, here’s a sneak peak into the magazine – go and get your very own copy and don’t forget to buy some of our goddamn holiday cards.

    printed-and-pressed-diy-art

    October 16, 2009
  • Will I win the Nobel Peace Prize?

    Maybe. Oh, who am I kidding? I can’t broker peace between nations. I’m no Dalai Lama. I’m no Barack Obama. I’m just kidding about that second one  -  I just wanted something to rhyme with Dalai Lama. Wait, what? Barack Obama really did win the Nobel Peace Prize? Oops. My bad. It’s hard, toiling away, day after day – trying to make this crazy planet just a little bit cheerier. Ghandi knows how I feel.

    *alfred-nobel

    Alfred “Alfie” Nobel

    What would Fran do?

     •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

     ANYWAY. I wrote some new cards. Perhaps, one day, they will bring peace to war-torn countries…

    •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••  *two-old-men-talking

    PSST, is this my birthday party or my funeral

    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• *gifts-dont-count

    The gifts don’t count       themselves.
    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *of-course-be-eaten

    The strong would survive the winter. The weak would, of course, be eaten.
    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *im-christmas-stalking-you

    I’m Christmas Stalking you.
    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *piano-lesson
    The Christmas concert would be her chance for revenge.

    •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *lounging-women

    I’ll celebrate Christmas however I damn well please.

    •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *man_wrapping-package-18_lg

    I hope she likes thoughts that count.

    •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *bra-ad2

    Thank you for your support.
    •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    *lovebirds_14525

    Great. My parents just got home.

    ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

    October 15, 2009
  • Wishes DO come true!

    It’s no secret that I have always wanted 300 feet of bubble wrap.

    Somebody (Jen) had it delivered to our headquarters – it’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen on my doorstep. Although… the Sunday paper is nice to see when I open the door…or girl scouts selling cookies. Hmm, one of my stalkers once left a skinned, boiled squirrel on my doorstep… that was strange – and I still don’t get the  message – was it: “Love me back, or I’ll boil and skin you” or was it “I am capable of providing small game for your meals.”

    Oh, I guess I’ll never know.

    bubble-wrap-delivery

    October 7, 2009
  • ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

    Done.

    a-z-type-room-and-board

    Do not worry. IF you can’t get your sad self to the Room and Board nearest you, you can shop online!

     It’s true. But not yet. NOT YET. The ink isn’t even dry.

    Did I mention that I will be the lunchmeat between the bread named Jackson Pollock and Andy Warhol? What a strange, virtual sandwich. Speaking of sandwiches: I decided to take a break from printing to do some printing and I made this:

    does-this-sandwich-make-me-450x337

     

    October 5, 2009
  • Freak Show

    There were two parts to the Freak Show – two tents – one contained The Fat Lady and the other was filled with the usual freakish-fare. I didn’t really want to pay to see the Fat Lady so I poked my head under the tent – it seemed silly to pay to see a fat lady but this was before the days of google searches and voyeuristic television masquerading as health and human interest stories. Before the days of shows actually called, World’s Fattest Woman.

    So I poked my head under the tent. A pit had been dug in the dirt in the center of the tent – she, all 600 pounds of her, sat in the pit in a teeny weeny bikini. The paying public stared and stared while she thumbed through the pages of a paperback.

    The other tent promised a variety of oddities and I handed my tickets to the dusty man guarding the flap-door. In this tent there was a stage and on the stage there was a sign and on the sign were the words, “World’s Fattest Man”

    The crowd – and I was in the crowd now – stared at the sign and waited for the man. He hobbled out using two canes – those canes that have the four baby canes on the bottom. He reached the center of the stage and lowered himself into a reinforced chair, spoke to the crowd about his thyroid disorder, and asked if we wanted to see him attach a bucket of bolts to his tongue.

    Ugh. I wanted my tickets back.

    Why can’t things be the way they’re supposed to be? And why can’t freaks just enjoy their exploitation? If I were a freak (if) I’d love it. I’d use my freakish power for the good of mankind.

    I’d love to have one super long arm. A Super Arm. I could take seemingly candid pictures of myself even more easily!fran-working

    Do you see that?

    It’s like someone else is taking the picture. But what a struggle! 

    If I had Super Arm my whole life would change!

    fran-super-arm

    September 28, 2009
  • Cary Grant’s Tie, A Pile of Rocks, Dandelions

    Cary Grant’s tie is the perfect shade of gray.cary-grant-nxnw-450x327

    It’s not like I’m obsessed with shades of gray because of this project I’m working on. I don’t get obsessed. I wasn’t obsessed with pulling out (and counting) all of the dandelions in my front yard (689). I wasn’t. I also wasn’t obsessed with collecting and transporting rocks halfway across the country to surround my little tree.rock-star-450x337

    I’m not obsessed with letterpress.

    And I don’t just sit around waiting for the sun to be in the perfect spot.sun-perfectly-behind-lampos

    Doesn’t this gray look just like Cary Grant’s tie? :room-and-board-fresh-print

    WELL?! It does, doesn’t it. Won’t it look lovely decking the halls of Room and Board?

    Sigh.

    1/3 of the project done.

    September 27, 2009
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  • Seeing Spring on the Dualistic Spectrum

    Farewell my Wintertime Prison… Springtime is the amnesty hors d’oeuvre and reminds all (in these Northern climates) of the duality of nature.

    See the flattened squirrel on the bike path? (Why is it SO flat on a bike path? WHY??)flattened-squirrelAnd see the lilacs in full bloom? (DO YOU??!! Face-meltingly beautiful…)lilacs-from-dining-room-windowHmm, people also think about baseball in the Spring? Right? How about a congratulations card for the bros?a-great-sports-metaphor

    May 27, 2014
  • Sympathy/Empathy Cards

    (((flashback)))

    My husband was on a business trip, and that meant it was time for one or more of the kids to get the stomach flu. Because we love tradition, the youngest barfed in her own bath water. While I was cleaning that up, and not to be outdone, the middle one inhaled and regurgitated his macaroni & cheese right back on the plate.

    The older one slunk away.

    While I was cleaning that up, and unbeknownst to me, the cat coughed up a slimy hair-ball. I stepped on it (barefoot).

    While I stood on one foot, crying, the dog came over and licked it up.

    The Endwalked-a-mile

    May 17, 2014
  • How To Catch A Fish (Sort Of)

    By age nine, I would delicately,

    with my right hand, fold down the sharp fins of a Sunfish.

    Why? 

    So I could use my left hand to insert the rusty pliars into the gasping mouth of my catch to retrieve the swallowed hook.

    If I was lucky.

    If I wasn’t lucky, I’d stare at my motionless bobber for hours.

    *Some backstory: My older brother (third of eight) allowed me to fish with him if I did whatever he said, and didn’t cry. He was SERIOUS about fishing. I had glasses and greasy blonde hair.

    **Some backstory about the backstory: My brother was born in September, and I was already a sprouted seed in our Mom’s belly by the next Summer.

    I think I’ve used the bobber-watching metaphor before, but it is APT. Everyday, I wait for my agent to tell me to get the rusty pliars.

    Why doesn’t he ever tell me to get the rusty pliars??

    He just tells me to “hang in there.”hang-in-thereOh, back to my Mom… She has 22 grandkids. This is her with the latest:mom-and-theoHAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!

    May 9, 2014
  • Spring Cleansing and Fumigation

    I’ve heard that we are only prescribed challenges tailored to fit our deficiencies. I don’t really have any deficiencies so I’ve just been row-row-rowing my boat, gently down the stream.

    But poor Jen spent the week hunting for bedbugs (that’s what she gets for going to Turkey) that turned out to be fleas. not-a-bedbug

    It took six flea-bombs and one hijab to properly fumigate.jen-w-botox-and-hijab-new-henry-dunceDoesn’t Henry look ashamed?

    Doesn’t Jen’s forehead look youthful?? I photoshop-botoxed it! AND saved her $200.

    She’ll thank me later.

    While she was busy meeting her prescribed challenge (I pray that she learned her lesson), *I* was busy nobly accepting rejections for The Book.sample-booksEight rejections so far… twelve still unresponsive. But don’t worry about me, I LOVE waiting, and see rejection as an opportunity to grow as a person.

    SPEAKING OF MOTHER’S DAY, here’s a new card:dont-worry-mom

    May 3, 2014
  • Rage-Filled Kitten Eats Dead Master’s Face

    Is that a true story??even-birthdays-filled-her-with-rageThey wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true.

    Sally Struthers says that for about four dollars, you can buy a Starbucks Caffι Latte Venti… In the Zeichen Press Shop, for just four dollars a day, you can bring laughter to someone who may or may not have been laughing. 

    The choice is yours.

    NOW, visit the shop to see our new release for Spring! You can buy the rage-filled kitten, the generous old woman,

    nobody-else-got-me-one-of-these

    my kind of tea party,

    I take my tea in a wine glass filled with wine. Letterpress printed on recycled paper. Comes with coordinating envelope and packaged in cellophane sleeve.

    and so much more!

    April 27, 2014
  • Farewell, Old Cards

    Jen made me pull six cards from our line.

    APPARENTLY, “they don’t sell” and don’t “make any money”.

    But since when can you put a price tag on greeting cards??

    Here are the cards, you can buy them from the shop until they are gone forever.

    FOREVER.torturegame-of-telephone-1screwedtired-of-feeling-tightnice-balldial-bThis card was also on the list, but I refused to pull it because I’m not afraid of her.thank-god-we-have-these

    April 18, 2014
  • The Answer to Life the Universe and Everything

    I turned 42 (wtf?) yesterday, received 18 drinking glasses, a scallop taco from Sea Salt, and this:opti-goblinsBUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, I sent 20 little book samples to my agent…sample-booksSo now he can go pitch them to 20 publishers.

    I imagine his conversations go something like this:

    Peter: Here’s a new little adult picture book by Fran Shea, owner of Zeichen Press in Minneapolis, maker of cards for people that like laughing.

    Publisher Person: Let me put my eyeballs back in my sockets and write you a check for $1,000,000.

    Peter: Very good.

    END SCENE.

    Oh, I also made a new Easter card. Don’t send me hate email like you did for my zombie Easter card. Jesus loves me, this I know for the bible tells me so.damn-jesus-punked-us-so-good

    April 13, 2014
  • Behind the Gate AND a New Book Title

    Jen’s back!

    Thank God.

    She said she “missed ZP soooo much!”

    ZP missed her too! To show her just how much, this rabbit (mascot) sacrificed and froze himself to the ground right in front of the gate she walks through to enter the ZP Headquarters.dead-rabbit-and-garbageALSO, I wrote/designed a new cover for my book… Kara is busily drawing pictures while I bark directions at her. I’m sure she’s already made a voodoo doll of me.

    I don’t blame her a bit.house-trained-cover-revised

    April 1, 2014
  • Martyr Memo

    No, no… don’t worry about me — I’m fine! I actually enjoy imagining exotic travel. Who needs all of that packing and jet-lag… and those language barriers?… No thanks!

    Jen is (still) in Turkeyjen-in-turkey

    (is she ever coming home??) and I am here.fran-feet-smartwool

    See how I put my feet in the picture so that you can tell that I’m REALLY here?

    My daydreams are broken only by Tib the Cat.tib-hanging-on-doorAnd the other inmates’ bickering.

    But shouldn’t I embrace this opportunity during Lent for self-denial?

    FINE.jesus-told-me-vert

    March 27, 2014
  • Are with mosque and minaret

    Jen is in Istanbul (was Constantinople, now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople)istanbuland I discuss cannibalism after a family dinner. “Apparently,” says Number One Son, “human meat tastes just like bison.”

    And so on.

    If this Winter ever ends (will it?? Did I just imagine warmer days??), students will graduate and I made a card for such an occasion:good-luck-explaing-that-dead-body

    March 24, 2014
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