when you can't paint, what do you do?

My eyes have been too strained lately to paint new etegami. But "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep." (Robert Frost, for those who don't know.) 

So here is what I do when I can't paint: I cut out pretty cards from boxes that various foodstuffs come in. In fact, I never throw away cereal boxes or cookie boxes or tea boxes or bird seed boxes or curry roux boxes (you name the box) without first cutting out postcard-sized pieces of the most interesting or colorful parts of the box. I keep these on hand for all sorts of uses. Like for writing thank-you notes to include with the orders I ship to my Etsy customers. 

Monday is the day I reserve for sending etegami to shut-ins and people in the hospital or nursing homes. Today, I picked the salmon eggs card for my father, who spent nearly his entire adult life in Japan, but now lives in a nursing home in the US. The cereal box card with raspberries are for a sweet Japanese lady in a nursing home in Japan. The handwritten words on the raspberry card say "Trying very hard to remember the smell of summer."