Mindy Carpenter
Mindy Carpenter’s paintings & cards have a childlike innocence, imaginative color palette, a sweetness and a fondness for the little things in our journey that make us happy. Carpe Diem Papers is an illustrated life, creating charming cards form her original paintings.
Making someone’s mailbox happy makes Mindy happy. “Send mail. Write x’s and o’s. Buy good stamps. Tell someone hello, thinking of you through the mail. You don’t need a reason.”
Connect with Mindy

Bird in Lemon Tree
Happy Monday! Painting lots of birds and branches, butterflies and blossoms and it feels quite lovely to look outside at 6:30pm and see…daylight-ish sky! It feels literally and figuratively like spring. These flora and fauna inspired pieces are making me happy....

Cherry Blossoms
Not sure where you’re reading this but here in Ashland, Oregon spring has sprung, leapt, sproinged off the balance beam and landed a perfect 10. And I’m loving it. I think the whole town is soaking it up. Sunny, warm, blue skies, flowers everywhere in...

Blue Bird
Well, look at that. It’s Monday. Again! The pages of the imaginary calendar are whooshing off the wall like a black and white movie. My marker that life is moving along shows up daily living in southern Oregon, an area that has such distinct four seasons, I...

All the colors!
Anyone remember these? Anyone NOT remember these??? Oh, the 64 different, brilliant colors! The built-in sharpener! Technology was something else back then. As they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The feeling of looking at this classic box...

Floral Friday
Hi friends! How’s everyone doing? Good, bad, medium rare, fair to middling? I write about art, creativity, the process, the practice and small business but during a global pandemic, everything has to been looked at through the lens of “how are you really...

Art Supplies
The love affair with art supplies began at a young age. My two most concrete memories of this was obsessing over the 64 pack of Crayola crayons (sharpener included) until they magically appeared for a birthday or special occasion and second, was a Christmas where my...

I’ve been in the “l’atelier”
I was thinking today, it’s been a bit since I’ve posted on my blog. Proof that the covid time vortex exists because “a bit” was LAST YEAR. Ok, it was December 31, 2020 but still…what I thought was maybe a few weeks was nearly two months....

Illuminating
It’s the last night of 2020. How do I even begin writing about a year that lasted a decade? I’m counting my blessings. I’m here. I made it, my house is standing, I’m healthy, my parents are healthy, my small business is alive, there’s...

Butter makes it better
Butter really does make everything better. Especially this time of year! My obsession with the humble envelope continues and I made this funny one into a fancy lope. Whether it’s the year of enjoying the simple things or maybe Covid (stir) craziness…the...

Home for the Holidays
Home for the holidays means something a little different this year. Usually that would mean me flying to Victoria, BC to be with my family. This year, it’s staying in Ashland, OR, also home. Am I disappointed? Of course. But here we are, everyone in the same...