Pressing Letters.

For nearly four years, since shopping around for my own wedding invitations, I have been learning, slowly but surely, about the lost art of Letterpress. I say ‘lost’ because thats what it was four years ago. Well, in this country anyway. Not in America. No, siree. It is most definitely thriving and flourishing there. However, it’s picking up here now. I’m in touch with a small network of people who have taught themselves or have been taught by a master craftsman to print in the single, most beautiful way you can. Its traditional. Its hand crafted. It produces instant results (well, almost). And its specialised, so only the most determined and most passionate get to relish in its results. Well, thats how I see it. And this network of people are friendly, and they share their knowledge. There doesn’t seem to be any ‘I’m-better-than-you’ or ‘You’re selling more than me’. I mean, there is only so much printing one person can do.

To begin with, I was intrigued. I was baffled by the beefy, glossy, black Vandercook. Craning my neck when studying photos, tilting my head to the left ‘How does that work?’, squinting my eyes close to my monitor ‘And what is that for?’ You’d think that the best way to learn about letterpress would be to see one in use, in the flesh, right? (If someone can point me in the right direction around my neighborhood, then I would be most pleased). It is assuredly challenging trying to locate a letterpress printer nearby, where I can invite myself along to be mesmerized into a state of hypnosis, whilst watching vividly rich ink be pressed into decadent cotton rag paper. Just writing those words makes me want to do a star jump onto a downy, feathery queen-size bed.

Since I can’t actually touch or feel a letterpress press yet, I turned to You Tube. Trusty? Always. Something for everyone? Every single time. Hey. C’mon, come see this: The Art of Hatch Show Print. This current favourite video of mine also made me curious to want to find out more about these smashing people at  Hatch Show Print. If you’re reading this thinking ‘OH! There’s one of those places in……..’ (fill the gap with somewhere in England) then please email me and let me know – I would be your friend for life.

And thennnnnnn, I found this other Letterpress video, after it was tweeted by Print Magazine. Let me tell you, it gave me goosies. And since I watched it for the first time I can safely say I am OBSESSED. I even commented about it. *Cringe. If you love letterpress, you may have seen it. If you haven’t seen it, take a look. You may see where I’m coming from.

Photo via Andrei on Flickr

Some day soon, I will have my own letterpress printer. Vandercook. Adana. Heidelberg. One or all of them. We shall see. I will be printing wedding stationery, posters, notecards, party stationery. I know I will have one, because I dream about it in my sleep. I think about it at every spare second. I drive myself nuts with my musings.

Alas, until then, all I can do is to keep on absorbing, so that on the day I take delivery of my own press, I am ready.

A Mothers Day Greetings Card

*Whispering. Let’s hope mama isn’t peeking at my site tonight, because here’s the card I made her. And, it’s sitting on top of part of her gift. The other part (A Raymond Blanc Apple Tart) has just finished caramelising in the oven. Over and out.

P.S I know my photos are terrible in quality, I’m just holding out in the hope we might get a new snapper soon. Watch this space.

Can I share a moment of pride?

Can I do the proud parent thing? Is that ok? Here are my baby girls first words she can read. My heart is bursting.

My Ray Of Sunshine.

A little treat popped into my Inbox yesterday. An email from the little ray of sunshine we like to call Badger. She’s not had it easy lately. I won’t go into details – its not my place. Despite this, she still manages to display a sunny disposition. I truly admire people who have this quality. There’s nothing worse than wallowing in self-pity, for the person doing it and for those who surround them. So, she wrote me this lovely mail, of the electronic variety, filled with snippets of news and wondering if there was something up astronomically on Wednesday. I can wholeheartedly confirm that, yes, there was something up because like Badger, I too, lost something on eBay I was chasing. Isn’t it, like, a monumental anti-climax? The adrenalin is pumping. Your heart is beating. FAST. HEAVY. You’re thinking ‘Its gonna be me. I’m going to beat anonymous bidder S*****10’. 3 seconds. 2 seconds. 1 second. Big. Fat. Red. Cross. ‘You have been outbid’. Harumph. Whatever, I didn’t want it anyway.

Back to Badger. She’s done me proud. She’s no longer chasing her dreams, but actually fulfilling them, as we speak. Isn’t that great? I think so. Aaaaand, she says things like ‘bad ju-ju’, which guarantees miles of smiles from the Lovebird, making me realise how much I loves her and how I never tell her. So, Badger, if you’re reading, get the message? *Nod *Nod *Wink *Wink. I dedicate this post to you.

Its a bit early, but since I may not be blogg-a-raming on Sunday, the award for The Lovebird Mummy Of The Year goes to……*awkwardly opening envelope….BADGER! *Global applause. The End.

Image courtesy of Forest Wander. Sketch via Trees For Life

P.S I realise I’m making a big statement dedicating a post to someone, but sometimes, you just have to do these things, otherwise how will anyone know what you think?

P.P.S If my own Mummy is reading, I love you too, I know you know that already x

P.P.P.S My apologies to you for the schmaltzy tone to this blog. I hope I haven’t put you off your sandwiches.

New Greeting Card: Pastures Greener

Available to purchase. Printed greetings card on 12cm x 12cm 250gsm White Hammer, supplied with a 12.5cm x 12.5cm Kraft envelope.

I’m most excited.

For nearly two whole long weeks, I have, yet again, been excited about seeing the Postman. It was his task to bring me my first piece of Lovebird merchandise.

Today, he passed. May I proudly two sheets of Lovebird stickers. Ta-da!

Thank goodness the waiting is over. It was becoming too much.

Go on….let it all out, dear.

Ok. I’ve just sat my little self down, with a cup of coffee and a slice of homemade banana cake. Yum. First of all, I just need to say, the coffee I’m drinking is a free sample of Starbucks VIA® Ready Brew . Its revolutionary, let me tell you. As they state on their website:

“This is not instant coffee as you know it. This is rich, flavorful Starbucks® coffee in an instant.”

And, y’know what? I agree with them. I excitedly tore the top of the sachet off, poured it into my favourite cavernous polka-dotty mug and thought curiously. “It looks like filter coffee”. I wondered if I was going to be sampling a mouth full off coffee grains, as I was drowning the pungently scented powder with boiling water. With a little squirt of Agave Nectar to sweeten my cup, I guzzled down my cup of comforting, steaming, sweet coffee like a builder (sorry to all builders out there, can’t imagine any reading my blog, but this is the 21st century). It was delicious. I almost forgot about my warm, spongy slice of banana cake. Crazy.

Moving on. Lately, I’ve been feeling a little low. I don’t really have any reason to, when you look at the bigger picture. I’m healthy, my family are healthy, I have a job, my husband is working (very) hard for us all, we have food on the table. I mean, really, what else do you need? Oh, central heating. Yes, of course. But what else? Sometimes, even when I reflect on how fortunate  I am, doesn’t help lift my spirit. I’m tired, my skin and my diet are suffering, there are hardly moments to breathe. I know my job right now is to bring up my children. I know my job is to look after my family, to make sure they have everything they need. And all those things, naturally, come before my needs. Thats how it is when you’re a mum, right? Please. Correct me if I’m wrong. Every so often, I struggle. What about me? What about what I need? I know. Change the record. Yawn. Believe me, I bore myself with this arguement. I try not to talk about this particular dilemma, because I’m conscious that everyone has similar feelings, and that our circumstances and feelings are relative to our own lives. For example. Haiti. I can’t begin to imagine. The Thailand Tsunami…..again, for me, its incomprehensible. If I do decide to try to chew over how I’m feeling with people, I imagine them rolling their eyes. So I try not to even take that breath. But then sooner or later, it explodes. Because it has to escape eventually. So I guess its a good job I have this blog.

Time to re-focus. What’s my point? I’m frustrated. I have so much going on in my head, so much so, that I can’t concentrate, I can’t focus. So much I want to do. So many patterns, and ideas and fabrications. I want to sit down at my computer all day, every day and let it all seamlessly pour out. But I can’t. I have a full time job, and I have two children and a husband. And I have to prioritise the most important tasks over  my needs. Don’t get me wrong, I love looking after my family, I wouldn’t change a thing. This particular feeling won’t last forever, I’ll probably be all thrown off balance when I have no one to look after, I realise that. Its just sometimes the juggling act has too many balls.

This post isn’t one I would normally be inclined to publish. I relish all the fluffy, pretty, far-away thoughts I have like a kitten bathing in the warmth of the afternoon sunshine. But I also want to relay that I have down days, and I get annoyed, just like everyone else, by…well…..life, y’know? People, the news I hear on the radio, selfishness, incompetent human beings. Stuff you’d normally share with your Gran. But I can’t because she’s no longer with us.

Anyway, rant over. Next stop: Positive Street.

French Connection S/S 2010

Mr Postman delivered me a lovely looking brochure last week. It was the new French Connection mail order brochure for Spring/Summer 2010. Despite their ups and downs, I’ve always tried to stay true to the FCUK crew (that rhymes. bonus.) and buy from them regularly, simply because I dig them. Their brand. Their threads. Their ad campaigns. And this brochure in particular, I think, is my favourite. Its printed on lush, thick paper. It has a spine. No staples. Its A5. And its clever. See for yourself.

Some nice things to look at on a Friday

I stumbled across some images I’ve been keeping on my computer. I kept them because I liked them and thought I would use them in moments where I’m struggling to come up with something original. The reality is I haven’t looked at them since I stored them away. Some use that theory was. So, instead, I share with you. Voilà.

I don’t know where I got this image from, but I love it. So simple. If someone reading this knows, please get in touch so I can reference them.

A beautiful antique Victorian calling card design. Amazing penmanship.

I think I came across this when I was looking for inspiration for designing my Lovebird logo. Again, sorry for not referencing the source but if anyone can help out on this, please let me know.

Dreamy Sonoma County in Northern California. Mother to the Mayacamas Mountains and the Sonoma Mountains. I would give my big toe to be bouncing along on a bench seat of an old Chevy pickup, windows down, picnic on board. Yes please.

Lovely Luisa.

Lovely Luisa is getting married next year. To the lovely Nick. And she asked me to come up with some ideas for her wedding stationery using baby blue, turquoise, silver and snowflakes for a potential Christmas nuptial-celebration.

Here are three initial designs created for Luisa and Nick.

My aversion to Luddism

I don’t know about you, but I get a feeling of happy satisfaction from writing with a pen. I almost feel, now don’t laugh, like I go into slow motion the moment I lift up my faithful cartridge pen. Its quite a modest pen. A plastic blue one I relied heavily on at school. I actually think its my sisters, but sssh, don’t tell her. She might want it back. When the black ink starts flowing steadily from the nib, all I hear is the smooth movement of the sound of words being written. There’s no scratchy noise of the paper being dragged under the pen tip. There’s no shaking my pen furiously in an effort to release more ink. Its very cathartic. And especially satisfying  when the words just keep oozing out of my seemingly idle imagination. Before I know it, I’ve scribbled out a whole page of my notebook and I see more black than cream. And these words are all mine, just for me. As a general rule, anyway.

But hold on a minute. I digress. I also abso-freakin-lutely LOVE technology. Thats the reason for this post, thats my point. I’m totally torn between the art of writing versus the simplicity of signing up to a new form of social media. Twitter. Facebook. Blah Blah Blah. Its all hurriedly thrown at us and I just can’t say NO. For the simple reason there’s always a good arguement to come up with a new Username or a new mail or messenger account.

I have notebooks coming out of my ears. Not literally, no, but I’m trying to paint a picture here, so please, just work with me. I love making lists. I love buying new notebooks. I love having the same size notebooks lined up in a drawer, primed ready for filling with more drivel. And bring back letter writing! Hands up who likes getting handwritten letters or cards in the mail. Exactly. You’ve all got your hands up.

But I also love my Apple iPhone. The amount of Apps I seem to be able to download because I convince myself there’s a valid reason for another one. The fact that I can do so many things in one place. I’m so totally impressed that we just keep improving. Of course there are negative points, but I’m taking a positive spin on this today.

So, before Mr Sandman catches you out, lets move on. What this is really all about is Twitter. Yes, I’ve done it. I’ve signed up. Big deal, I hear you say. Well, actually I agree with you. I mean, who knows if I’ll keep it up. We’ll see. I have good intentions. Isn’t that something? I’ve heard its going to be around for a while, so I thought I’d jump on and experience the ride. You can come with me if you like.