Roll Me Over (West Coast)

This week I opened a special package containing new rollers and trucks for my Chandler and Price. It is sort of like Christmas in September, without the any needles to vacuum up. I have been running my press with two older composite rollers and I finally decided to take the plunge, and splurge on some new rollers. While I was spending anyways, I thought I would just be brave and purchase the third roller that has been missing on my press since I purchased it earlier this year. With all this came the need for the additional trucks too. I decided on composite rollers for my press. I have been using them for the past few months, and they seem to work really well in my climate out here. I had tried rubber rollers before, and they caused me a lot of grief. So I am now operating with new rollers and trucks. Pretty cool!



Some birdy treats for my shop. I have been working on keeping some sets of notecards in the shop, and decided to do a themed set of goodies. Mini notepads, cards and hangtag/bookmarks.

One more thing, thanks to Paper Crave and Paper*Cakes Finds for the nice write ups!

Banner (Midwest)

A quick post here to show off my new 2 1/2' x 4' banner for my Renegade Chicago booth. I put grommets on it today and had it hanging on my screen porch for inspection. Hopefully, it will be easy to hang in the tent. Oh, and let's keep fingers crossed that the Windy City is sans wind for the Renegade weekend.

Caffeine Fix (West Coast)

Coffee is a big topic in my house, as I am married to a real coffee head. If Alan doesn't have his daily doses at regular intervals, he can be a bear! Lucky for me one of my favorite clients is a local coffee roaster. Lulu Carpenter's has three shops, with a fourth named Coffee Cat. They are roasters of fine beans, and specialty blends. I just finished up new packaging that we are getting ready to roll out in the next few weeks. These bags are hot off the press! I really like the way the matt and gloss varnishes work together. I think they will pop off the shelves at the local grocery stores! Buzz buzz!

Coasters (Midwest)

Recently, I bought a small amount of blank coaster stock to play with. I slapped some of the stock on press last week. Voila. Coasters! I have a few for sale here.

I'd like to order more stock and print up a larger inventory, but they are a bit of a space hog. I'll wait to see if they sell...

Christmas in August (Midwest)

I have loved having a regular babysitter this summer. I have been able to take on a few extra freelance design projects. I'm caught up on my invoicing. And, I've been printing!

This is the first year where I have had all my Christmas cards designed and mostly printed by the end of the summer. I have one more design to print and I'm ready for the Holiday Season. Here is a look at a card I designed last year, but never got around to printing.





I'm happy to have some more typographic designs in my card line.

Work Space (Midwest)

Don't let the title confuse you. This is not a Midwestern Work Space. This is pure West Coast. You can't tell, but there are eucalyptus trees nearby and not a holstein in sight.

I thought it might be fun to give you a little peek at Laurie's home office. I snapped a few photos when I stayed with her last month. Her office is cheerfully filled with inspiration boards, family photos, artwork, crafty bits, etc. It is colorful, but not chaotic. Everything has it's place. It's fun isn't it?

Yee! (Midwest)

Our entire family is finally finished with the summer swim team season. This year our pool hosted the end of season All City Swim Meet. All City is the largest swim meet in the Midwest and one of the 5 largest in the country. Almost 2000 kids competed!

The entire meet was run by parent volunteers. Each family was responsible for 4 half day shifts. I was the person in charge of taking photographs for the website. This was a great gig. I got to view the event from right up front. I had access to the entire venue, even the hospitality suite! It was exhausting, but I really feel like I got to see the magic of the meet.

Here is a (chronologically backward) slide show of my photos from the event. There are almost 200 of them!

Peculiar Craft Fair (Midwest)

I am back in Wisconsin after spending a few days in the Bay Area with Laurie. We participated in our second joint craft fair - Renegade San Francisco.

You may recall my first ever craft fair. No? I blogged about it here. The highlight of that fair was the ever popular, and so affordable, lawn spinner. I've been trying to come up with the must have craft item from RSF and am coming up blank. Was it the Rebe coats? Maybe. Was it the stuffed organs and glands? Could be. Or, the scuba kitty t-shirts? Hmmmm...

The thing that I think stood out at the fair was the attendees. Oh, we saw your run of the mill pierced/tattooed people. And, the mandatory crafty artsy fartsy types. But, this fair had something extra special. There was just a little more flair. I'll give you a little taste and you decide...

First we have this dude. I think he is a super hero. Though, I'm not sure which one and I'm certain that crime fighting isn't his expertise. He kept yelling "RUTH! Want a rematch!?!" O...K...?



Here is a vendor who I will call I. Scream.



This guy was just too good. Can you hear me now?



Lastly these chicks kind of summed up the fair mood for me. Bright and fun.



So, here I sit back at my computer with fond memories of chatting with Laurie and Janice. It was a weekend to remember for many reasons!

Errr...Um...??? (Midwest)

Joey has been out of town for 4 days and I've been flying solo with the kids, which I hope explains this photo...

Today I had a sitter for 1 hour. I put some stuff for Goodwill in the car and zipped off to the grocery store. When I got there I realized that not only was I wearing my right flip flop on my left foot, but on the right foot I had on a completely different sandal. I debated going home and heading straight to bed, but decided to forge on and do my shopping. I even faked a limp in the cracker aisle to make my shoe attire look more appropriate to the cute doctor in scrubs assessing my feet. (Ha. Crackers. Coincidence? I think not.) Should I be concerned?

Getting Organized (Midwest)

I completely blew off celebrating the Nation's birthday this year. Why? My little people and my husband went up North and I stayed home to finish up some work and letterpress details. I spent 8 hours in my office yesterday and today, so far, I'm at 7 hours. I designed, invoiced, printed, stuffed envelopes, babysat the neighbors cat, went for a run, photographed new products, reorganized my Etsy shop and cleaned my office! It feels so good to get organized. This week all I need to do is find a big box and ship my wares to California and then I'm all ready for Renegade.

Speaking of Renegade, I believe I now have 7 new products to display there. I have scads of new mini notepads:




And, I have other goodies fresh off the press already listed in my Etsy shop.

I can't wait to travel back to my old digs and hang with Laurie.