first times

I just received my acceptance email...to my first craft show! It's Saturday May 5, 10-5, in Burlington, VT. I know it's a month away, but it was juried entry, and only 35 spots available!

Friday Happy Hour

This weekend sure has snuck up on me!

Two pieces of happy friday news: Power Cuffs are sold out! They went into the Gladiator at the Langdon Street Cafe on Sunday, and as of this morning are all gone. Pete & I are working on a V2, possibly involving vinyl...

One of the super-est things about etsy is Friday Happy Hour specials. Today only, from 5-9pm eastern time, when you buy a BINGO Book from my shop, you receive a FREE letterpress noteset. Check out my shop for more details!

What to do...

...when you're supposed to be working (or blogging)--but you just can't get motivated?

So I've been taking lots of pictures of the things I've been doing when I should be working.

Item one: Googling yourself. You know you do it. But do you spend two hours doing it, looking up all possible combinations? And now with the business, there's even more to do. But that's how I found a fantastic thing! The design*sponge guest designer blog featured (drum roll please) me! Guest designer Molly Symmonds has a great eye, and titled her Tuesday Feb 20th post "splendid stationary," and filled it with beautiful paper treats harvested on etsy. I've got this blog on my links--and you should too! I'm working on a few more journals made from this paper, so stay tuned!

Item two: I bought a new couch. As in New. And the placement of a large piece of furniture in my living room-slash-print studio meant a major rearranging needed to take place. So I moved the living room around, which inspired me to actually put some stuff in my bedroom, which meant some stuff had to go in the kitchen. In the end, I had a bookshelf with nothing on it! And having recently perused the winter issue of Adorn magazine and seen the pretty workspace all brought together with paper...I thought I should get around to covering my storage boxes and lining the back of the shelves. My new color scheme is pink/orange/red/brown, and so I dug out scraps for covering the fronts of boxes, and found a pretty orange polka-dotty paper and a graphic flower print to do every other shelf. The effect is just lovely. I want all my shelves to look like this!

Item three: I posted a little while ago about the Bingo card album that I gave to Cecilia as a gift. Well, she took it to New York with her, and gave it to her publicity people, and it's in the works for publication in a magazine. The upshot is that I have a heck of a lot of paper to cut. This is just the beginning of it!

Item four: So this one is actual work. Kind of. My friend Sian finally broke down and decided to let me print her some business cards. But because she's a designer, she has a yen for perfection. Which means that I didn't have her typeface in the right sizes to hand-set her text. And while I'm waiting to receive the Ludlow slugs with her text, she nudged her partner Eyrich to get cards of his own. I got to mess around with a new paper (yay!) and get paid for it! I think they came out beautifully--and Eyrich actually had something with his name on it to take to a woodworking show.

Item five: I needed a "no-stress" art project to do while I contemplated money-making projects. So I decided to get on my project for The Gladiator, the super-duper art vending machine at the Langdon Street Cafe. It was, at least to everyone else, pretty obvious that I should make something with paper. But who wants to be obvious? I decided that Power Cuffs would be the best use of my time. There's been lots of talk about Wonder Woman lately, and I thought that declaring your art/love with felt and pretty cotton print wristbands might be cool.

Item six: Taking silly pictures of the cats. Because they're the only kids I'm going to be allowed to have for a while.

Here's Punk looking perplexed (or perhaps annoyed) at my pile of Power Cuffs.

And Sasha being very patient while I make her a spiky Lettra collar. (n.b. It didn't last very long. She nibbled the ends and then batted it under the couch.)

Finally Punk gave up, and just gave me the evil eye from the end of my work table.








Well, I guess that's all for now. But coming soon to my etsy shop: spring-themed letterpress cards, more bingo books, and more pocket journals like the one in the design*sponge feature.

And maybe, just maybe, a new blog.

The Latest Workshop

Yup, these hardworking ladies know all about letterpress. Or at least what one could learn in 6 hours. That's me on the left, with Milly, Michelle, and Erica, and our sweet chapbooks. Want to peek insidethe chapbook? Take a look here.

This was the third in what will hopefully be a long line of letterpress workshops at the Letterpress Things print shop. John B. wrote this amazing copy to advertise the workshop:

The cool touch of decades-old metal type. A firm two-handed
impression roll for a copy proof. A deft transfer from composing stick to
imposing stone. A gentle tap of the planer. Two quick twists of the locking
key and the chase with form is secure. The press is inked, the guides
aligned, the chase slips into position, paper is correctly placed and your
very first impression is ready to print.

Seductive, no? I have been totally amazed with the ingenuity and creativity of all of my students thus far. With this workshop, I set the challenge of printing all 4 sides of the page. Michelle set her quote, and then hunted through John's stock of image plates to put on all four sides. Milly set type. And then more type. And then added images, too. Erica whirled through the print ship, printing on all of the available presses (3 Kelsey Excelsiors, a Nolan Standard, and a C&P Pilot) and forgot to eat lunch. Luckily, I set the type for our covers the night before, so only had a little bit of printing to do while they worked madly. What fun!

For those curious folks, my next workshop is scheduled for March 17. Email me now, because there are only 4 spots available!

Let it snow!

I've been stuck inside all day, but we're officially getting a *@!$load of snow. Brent was apparantly out taking pictures in front of the cafe this morning--so here's one to whet your tastebuds:


Also, last year this brilliant thing happened on Valentine's Day--and it happened again! We (heart) Montpelier.

Along with every good thing must come a big downer, right?

I was wasting time yesterday, reading other people's blogs and so forth, and discovered that i love letterpress has put me up in her directory. YAY! Also, Shelley at Albertine Press wrote me a comment (I love comments!) and I discovered that she has a blog, too, and I've spent many mintues reading her posts. It's nice to know another young-ish woman has a hankering for old metal!

And so, to rectify my hours on the computer, I decided to file my mounds of important and less-important paperwork. And discovered that I had to file business taxes as of the 25th. Oops.

I've spent my morning reading the Business Tax guidebook, and still can't make heads or tails of it. Looks like I'm getting up at 7:30 to call the tax office and beg mercy. And maybe ask for some help.

So I haven't been keeping up with my resolutions...but for a good reason.

My friend Cecilia has an online shop selling beautiful things for kids. She was one of the first to buy a BINGO Book, and recently asked if I'd thought about doing a little something for her shop. How could I say no? The result is a one-of-a-kind (so far) BINGO album. I just finished it this morning and couldn't wait to show it off!


Please be kind. Respect my ideas--but comment all you like!

Busy hands!

I've been working on these 99% recycled journals for a few weeks now...had to let the project "marinate"...and finally :

7 journals, different sizes, different paper combinations. Made from scraps of other projects (thus the many sizes), with covers from a 2005 Cavallini calendar that I couldn't bear to throw away. These are off to Black Sheep Books in Montpelier for happy viewing and fondling.

Also, some new paper I've accumulated more BINGO Books--I've been hording the green BINGO cards for lack of cool paper. Not anymore!

This has turned out to be a *very* long day. But look what I have to show for it!

John B. is attending the Letterpress Guild of New England's event tomorrow, and wanted to have a handbill to show off the workshop (and moi of course). So I was up at 5:30 this morning, arrived at Letterpress Things at 9, left about 5, and have spent the remainder of my evening coming up with this beauty.

Thanks to the letterpress manuals on Boxcar Press's site, I have that stud smoking a pipe and trying to figure out his Kelsey!

a new year, and now what?

So today at work, slinging coffee and bagels, I decided that nothing says 'Happy New Year' quite like a new post. Oh, and a few resolutions...

A#1. I am A#1. I am A#1. I am A#1. I count more than you do. So phooey.

The biz: something's gotta happen soon...I feel like I'm at a peak on a roller coaster, and I don't know if it'll go any higher, or if it'll cruise into the station for a refresher. I'm hoping for option number 1. To that end, I've busted my bum to get nine new journals up on Etsy, because the rest of them sold out! Yay! Take a peek at the pictures below.

Walking is good. I am trying to take at least a short walk every day, even if that just means walking to work--which I should do anyway.

Keep posting on the blog! My goal is for 3-4 a week, since my fancy new digital camera is so awesome. Now I just need to get better at taking pictures!

So I guess that's it for resolutions. Happy New Year to y'all!

My first sale!

So fabulous...my friend grantatee in san francisco bought this BINGO book from me--on the same day I put them on Etsy. He's a serious journaler (and you can see his blog here) and I'm sure will fill up that fat little book in no time. Hooray!

Countdown to launch...10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1. Blast off!

I just "opened" my Etsy store with 6 items, including the BINGO Books that everyone is loving. I'm very excited--I want to be mother hen and sit here at this computer until I sell something. Realistically, though, I'm just super excited to have finally taken pictures of my work.

Thanks to mom for the digital camera!

Here's the group of BINGO Books that are up for sale--more to come soon.

Hooray! The letterpress class at Letterpress Things has been advertised-- and is full! We'll be spending December 2 working on the Kelsey 5x8 tabletop, setting type and images, and finally binding a little chapbook of everyone's work. Read more about it at the Letterpress Things website, and call to sign up.

The next date will be Saturday, January 20, from 9-3:30.

Well, fall is here--sort of. Today is bitterly cold, and I left my mittens at home. Check out the weather at wunderground if you don't believe me.

Need a lesson?

May Day Studio (aka Kelly) is teaching all over the place. It's said that those who can't do, teach. I manage to do both!

Check out my bookbinding classes at three (count 'em--three) Paper Source Boston area locations: Wellesley, Brookline, and Cambridge. My favorite? That's a tough one, but Japanese Side Sewn books are pretty cool, and you learn 4 or 5 in 3 hours! Go to Paper Source online to sign up and peruse the details.

Also--cool stuff happening here in Vermont. I've recently partnered up with Studio Place Arts in Barre, VT, to offer a one-day Case Binding for Beginners, and a three-session Introduction to Non-adhesive Bookbinding. I'm very excited about working with this arts-oasis in the middle of Vermont.

Stay tuned for more workshops here in Vermont--and (on the hush-hush) I'm working with John Barrett at Letterpress Things in Chicopee, MA to create some Intro to Letterpress Printing classes.

Awesome news! May Day Studio has been working with local granola maven Nutty Steph on a fantastic new product--YOURBAR.

Nutty Steph and her crew handle the granola-making and chocolate-smothering, of course (and thank goodness!), and I did some lo-fi design work and printed the labels.

YOURBARs are available (for a small setup fee) to be customized with your own name. Check out Steph's superduper site here: www.nuttystephs.com!

P.S. Also check out the Unders with Nutty Steph's logo on the bum!