Naturally, you’re asking yourself, ‘What’s Tata up to this summer?’ Everyone is! Well, I am up to art and food preservation, as I am every summer, but also home repairs and declaring Gazpacho Season open. Gentlemen, start your preferably organic engines!

My cousin/hairdresser/not actually my cousin asked me last week if I wanted cardboard from a box he was unpacking as I walked into the salon for another fantastic haircut. I said I did, because for the last three years, I’ve been sending art projects through the mail on cardboard just like that. He looked skeptical. Who does that, whatever that is? He might’ve thought I was making yet another of my excellent jokes, but no. Anyway, I left the salon with cardboard. Inspired, I drew and sent out cardboard postcards to about 30 of my closest friends, some of my blood relations, and my actual family. It’s a party!

Just enough time passed for me to forget about bulk-mailing insulation before my cousin/hairdresser/not actually my cousin tested me this image, asking if I’d sent this. I had! He liked the purple smiles and the green squiggle, which was the only common element I employed in this batch of cardboard postcards. I told him a feature of this artform was that it was recyclable when he was done marveling that I had mailed him special cardboard. That part is fun for me! Do not keep my dumb stuff!

You can do dumb stuff like this yourself to keep in touch with your many friends, blood relatives and actual family. All you need is postage, pens/crayons and stuff you’d ordinarily recycle. You would be surprised by how many people send you presents and thank you letters – I know I am!