The Motherload (West Coast)

My mother hit the motherload of printing blocks on her most recent antique buying trip. She has been an antique collector as long as I can remember, and now has a very successful antique jewelry business. This collecting takes her all over, and on her latest trip, I asked if she could look out for a few blocks for me. She phoned me from one man's booth at antique show, and she had a ball picking out a "few" blocks for me. Thanks mom! I can't wait to print them up!

The Good & the Bad (Midwest)

Well, May is just cruising by. I'm stunned to look at my calendar and realize that it's the 20th already. Summer approacheth.

Our good news: Laurie and I received a convo last week from an Etsy admin letting us know that one of our cards (above) over at Lucky Bee Press was requested by a main stream magazine. We shipped it off and are holding our breath that it gets published. I'm hoping not to jinx it by posting, but this news is too exciting not to share. Also, I applied and was accepted for the next Craftacular, so I have a summer craft fair to look forward to. Here's a link to the vendor list. I just ordered two new folding tables and am thinking about sewing some sort of table cover. I'll have to look through my fabric stash and see if anything I have on hand will work. Also, I'm ordering some card display racks, and will make a sign.

Ok. Bad things, there really aren't any, I shouldn't complain. I guess my big issue is I have NO TIME to print these days. Joey is away on business, so I'm kinda busy with the kiddies. And, the free time I have fills up so quickly. I'm thinking that this weekend I'll get an opportunity. Laurie however has been giving her press a workout. Every time I talk to her she's printing. She is definitely the lucky bee at Lucky Bee these days. :)

Ok. I must dash off to run errands.

Wanna Ride Bikes? (Midwest)

Joey and I just got back from dinner downtown. We had a sitter tonight so we biked to the Union and meandered around State Street. I rode my *new* birthday bike. It's much speedier than my old cruiser. And, very pretty, too. See?




Ok. Just a quick post here since I have to get ready for LOST tonight. I need time to dig the remote out from the couch cushions and find my snuggy jammies. I'm so excited!

Low Tech (West Coast)

First, Happy Birthday Amy! I hope you had a fun day. It is fun to have a day to celebrate yourself, go out to lunch or dinner with family and friends. I hope you had a good one.



Second topic, is related to my Letterpress adventures. Drying space is scarce in our small house. Our garage is the safest place to dry my cards, however it is not the cleanest space. I have come up with a solution that is working for the moment. As long as there isn't a big breeze, or kids with balls nearby. I have been saving our crates from trips to Costco and I am using these to stack the cards in. They are portable, and usually pretty clean. Pretty funny to see them all laid out though!

Mother's Day (Midwest)

It's a quiet day here. Joey took the kids swimming while I finished up some major filing, invoicing, printing, and posting on Etsy. It feels so good to clear off my desk.

Laurie and I are gearing up for the next market on Poppytalk, so I spent a good part of the morning photographing all the cards and tags that I printed Friday and Saturday. I even spent some time designing a new sleeve for our card sets. I had some kraft paper on hand which worked well with the cards I printed.

The color palette I'm working with was inspired by, of all things, Candice Olson from Divine Design, and her river rock wall mural. I printed a taupe with a slight metallic shimmer to it, on crisp white. Also a milky chocolate color on pool, and kraft. So soothing. Oh how I love my new ink tubes.



As you can see, I'm slowly migrating away from my favorite, repeated too often, color theme of pool and red. Notice I can't let go of the pool yet.

Have a good week folks.

Photography Lessons (Midwest)

I had the most fun day today. I went on a shoot with Kate. She let me use her fancy camera and lens. She even gave me a photography lesson and made me take notes! I felt fortunate to have her share her trade secrets with me. More than anything it was just fun to point, shoot and chat. The weather was beautiful and we had interesting subjects to photograph (our little boys).



I reviewed my shots as soon as I returned to my office. A good portion of them were over exposed or blurry, often both. But, there were some nice surprises in there, too. Here are some of my efforts.






Thank you Kate!!!

Getting There (Midwest)

After a weekend bout of the stomach flu, a trip to the ER (Sam got two corneal abrasions - ouch), and a few too many extra curricular school activities, tomorrow I get back to my to do list. I'm almost done with my graphic design commitments for the MTHP. I'm even starting to see some pieces come back from the printer (see brochure above and invitation and program for an awards event below). I love an unwrinkled, unfingerprinted, still smelling of fresh ink, brochure. I also love the satisfaction of finishing a job that I know I worked for. All the details of the process become worth it when you have a finished printed piece. Physical evidence of work accomplished. It's so satisfying. Time to invoice!



It may rain tomorrow so I will probably go to the gym and finalize some other design work. I'm secretly (well not anymore) hoping that the girls soccer practices will be canceled. It would be nice to have a family dinner at home and a quiet evening. Sigh.

Bazaar Bizarre & Maker Faire (West Coast)

Yesterday we headed out to the Bazaar Bizarre and the Maker Faire. A Craft and Make magazine sponsored fair. We had no idea how big it would be. The event was held in San Mateo, CA at the expo center and had a huge turnout. It was booth after booth of individual, and small companies that craft and make interesting things. Lots of home made electronic things—small robot type machines, yarn, felting, wood, plastics, and fabric... Music. Food. and a huge electronic moving giraffe. Oh, and giant cupcakes that a person could drive in. There were quite a few hands on booths where we could play around and make things. There were kits to buy (of the crafts showcased in various issues of the mags), and tables to work on your stuff with the people who came up with the kits. Pretty cool day. The kids both came home with bug kits, that have LED light up eyes. Next year, we will definitely go again, and stay for an entire day. There was so much to look at, and not nearly enough time!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun (West Coast)

I am lucky to have a great pal that keeps up our blog so reliably. I am not as good at recording the daily ups and downs of our world. I have the best of intentions, but my days just fly by. I keep waiting for a lull. Some quiet that will leave me time to collect my thoughts. All is good, very good, just very busy.

Lately, I have been trying to get up to speed on my new press, printing labels, stickers, and everything else to get my cards ready to sell. Thank you Amy for helping me through these crazy few months of letterpress 101. I couldn't have done it without your treasured advice! Thanks!



I had my first Etsy sale yesterday. Very exciting news around here. I shipped it off today, carefully wrapped and ready to open.



A little while back we made our way up to a cool bay area store in Daly City (south of San Francisco). It is a Japanese Dollar Store called Diaso—a chain similar to Dollar Tree. It is filled with everything Japanese from paper, to baskets, to kitchen tools and storage, to craft supplies. Very, very cool craft supplies. Great papers, pens, sewing, knitting, ect... I literally could spend hours in there just searching out that perfect find. On this trip we had just 20 minutes on our way to visit some family across the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, we were late for lunch, but my family is a sucker for a bargain. Here are a few of the cool crafty things I found. You can't tell by the photo, but the paper is kraft color, and has nice texture through it. I plan on printing something onto it with my letterpress or maybe Gocco.

Murphy's Law (Midwest)

Laurie knows that I am a true believer in Murphy's Law. The true definition of Murphy's Law is pretty bleak: if anything can go wrong, it will. Over the years, I have adopted my own definition for Murphy's Law. Mine is sort of a when it rains it pours approach to Murphy's Law. Y'know, if you are on a deadline (me) more work will fall onto your plate. Or, if you have all the time in the world you will have nothing you need to get done. This week is a Murphy's Law week for me (in a good way). I'm on deadline. Almost done. But, all this extra work is coming my way. Also, I've had several Etsy orders and one wholesale order to Malaysia. Sheesh.

I owe one of my Etsy orders to the beautiful treasury above by hhopper. It hit the front page and brought me an immediate sale.



On the Etsy front, today I photographed 3 card/tag/misc stuff sets to list on Etsy. Sort of an inventory reduction idea I had. I'm having fun picking out items that fit together based on color, and texture. Here's a photo of my first listing that went up today. The theme is red and yellow. I priced the set so it would be a good deal.

Alright, I've been up since 4:30 working. I must now go choose between caffeine or napping. I'm leaning towards the caffeine. I'll have to re-evaluate my situation in a few hours.