elephant baby

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was just fine thank you. My poor husband is terribly sick with a super-cold. Well, it's not SUPER, it's BIG. He's home from work today and I'm hoping he feels better soon! He's not having much fun. Meanwhile, I've been busy in my little office working away. I designed the birth announcement shown above recently for a client...it was letterpressed by a friend of hers. She was kind enough to send me one and I'm so pleased with the way it came out. (it's always a thrill to see the finished product after your hard work) This new mom was a great art director and knew just what she wanted. That made the project so easy.
My tip for anyone out there thinking about ordering a custom product from a designer: brainstorm in advance and think about what it is you would love to have. Think of your favorite colors, your favorite subject matter, and consider what sort of feeling you want the piece to have (fun, classy, preppy, traditional, cute, sophisticated, etc.) It even helps to find ideas you like online and other places to show the designer the types of things that you love. No, the designer cannot copy an idea already out there, but this will help the designer by giving a specific direction of style to go on rather than flailing all over the map for an idea.

Dooce!

My Leaves and Follows print from my shop made it (in a small way if you squint) onto Dooce's website today in her photo of the day section. How exciting! See it HERE. It's the tiny print to the right of the giant print over her head. My little print looks like it's sitting on top of Heather's head. Yay! (looks like Heather is doing an interview for Nightline and Good Morning America airing next week.)

surgery day

Maren, soaking up the sun by the window for a nice nap.

Little Maren had to go in at 8:00 am for surgery today; she is being spayed. I'm pretty sad about it even though I know it's the right thing to do for her and for us. I hated leaving her there and she had this puzzled look on her face as I walked away. Many fat tears slid down my face on the way home, but I know she will be ok. The nurse promised to hold her little paw through it and, knowing her, she will.

UPDATE**** Maren is doing great! Thanks so much for all the well-wishes! She was pretty out of it when we came home but she's already almost back to her old self today! She just has a tender belly and can't jump on things (which, of course, she keeps trying to do). The nurse informed me she DID in fact hold her left paw the whole time (and then decided to trim all her nails while she was at it).

Angel Lily

We decided to get a new plant...an angel lily. I wanted something that would flower all year long but be basically easy to take care of and this fits the bill. We also found a cute pot with a peacock on it at Anthropologie (at a great price for heavy ceramic) to put it in. It makes the kitchen much more homey and the sunny window sill now has life-sustaining purpose!

busyness

A random pile in my office; pencil case from Koch Handbags.

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry I've been so absent. I've been so busy with business that I've had to put any blogging to the back burner. I'm back and I'm loving the nice warm weather! We took advantage over the weekend and went hiking on both Saturday and Sunday; both in different spots. Maren loved it...getting to see all the people and all the other dogs she's never seen before. We even passed by lots of people on horseback. It was nice to get out into nature and away from the television or computer. We've decided to reconnect through hiking a lot more from now on. Sometimes I get so involved with my work endeavors and with blog-reading that I forget to enjoy living my life. I forget to slow down and notice everything around me. To stop and enjoy my husband and pup. These things, in turn, will inspire me later. But I have to stop and MAKE TIME. And more importantly...DO SOMETHING. I like it!

of measure

Isn't this a cool measuring cup? Goes up to 600 ml for measuring. You can find out more about it HERE.

How it all works

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday to you! I wanted to let you know that me and my letterpress were featured on A Visual Guide for the Online Bride...
Kim Calakoutis is a fabulous wedding photographer who decided to start this guide as a reference point for all kinds of things dealing with weddings. She decided to include her most favorite vendors and locations... thus giving brides a one-stop-shop of wedding goodness (especially for the New England bride)
This article focuses on what happens in the letterpress process (in basic terms and step-by-step photos particular to how I do it) and why you would hire a designer to craft your wedding invitation designs. I hope everyone finds it interesting and useful. For the article with me an my press click here; and for future reference the article is under the date April 8, 2008. You'll get to see me, my press in action, some of my work, and my little dog Maren! Thanks for including me Kim, it was a blast! Be well everyone!

Article A

Hi everyone! Look! I had a mini interview/article written about my viewpoints on letterpress. How fun! You can check it out and read the whole thing here. Thanks to Roxanna at Aisledash!!!

DFM E-Zine

Hi everyone! Long time, no-see. Not much new going on here in my world to report on...until today! I have and essay/image featured in this month's E-Zine (Inspiration 3) from Design for Mankind. The issue focuses on inspiration from little corners of homes and I'm on page 19! It's a must see for a personal look inside other people's spaces. You can download the PDF here.
Erin also featured my Flying Fish print on her Design for Mankind blog recently as "print of the day." So exciting! Thanks Erin!!