11.25.2009

Going Somewhere, Sweethearts.

The best part of any mass mailing is the mailing. Holding plump little packages in your arms and imagining all of the doorsteps they'll cross. When I was living in DC, I took a stack of valentines for post. A woman asked me if I was getting married. I said nope, they're just valentines. She said "well, you've sure got a lot of sweethearts." It was one of the nicest things a stranger has ever said. I think about that every time I drop 50 some-odd envelopes into the mail. There's something so rich and sweet about real mail.

Generally, with the valentines the envelope is an exhausted afterthought. For these invitations, the envelope set the scheme. The innards took some serious time to wrangle and might have been way more labor intensive than I assumed, but the satisfaction of seeing them all together was worth it.*  By chance, the teal scrolling on the stamp matches the envelope and the little orange heart matches the reply card. Little twists of design luck. Delicious.


Not all of the invites have reached their doors, so I won't post the entire design, but here are the envelopes, each tip-tap-typed by hand (a few with the help of a 5 year old! The typewriter, in all of its glory continues to be an object of fascination).
All of the insides also lined up richly with their golden bobbles. 




















*NB: The mailing of these envelopes in any capacity would have been impossible without my Mom, who drove up here special to join the assembly line to get them out.  She's the best.

11.22.2009

Going Somewhere?

File this under: things I wish I bought but didn't because I don't really have anywhere to put them, but now picture all of the things I could do with them. Also file under: Things that probably look better all together.

11.19.2009

Bike Parts & Little Orange Hearts

My camera's broken. Drew's camera runs out of batteries. And frankly, they take dull photos even when they're working. I want to get a nice camera, but no breath is being held on it. Since I don't believe in telling without showing, I don't have much to show. I do want to share all of the fabulous blogs I've found. Amazing people out there, super aesthetics (if only I could be a super hero). [See new blog links to the right].

I don't usually think about design. I just make and hope the design falls into place. Then I had the super idea to make my own invitations. Seemed simple enough. I make my own valentines by the dozens every year.  It's not the same.  I spent time scrolling through magazines and blogs. Good ideas ended up in pieces and in knots. I bit off more than I could chew.  I kept measuring once and cutting twice.  I got frustrated. I had a loving man often wondering when we'd get our kitchen table back.

Luckily, something clicked a few days ago and I'm on a roll. The rsvp envelopes matched the tiny orange hearts on the stamps.  I was off.  Hopefully.

In the mean time, I dug deep for some good old photos of my own that make me want to make something. This is from a trip to Brooklyn in 2008. I love double bikes, though I never want to be the person in the back.

If I had to do it over again, I'd draw a little pen and ink of this bike and use it for invites. Maybe for Valentine's day.

11.10.2009

Making Silk Flowers Out of a Swine's Flu


Everyone in the house except for me and the girl dog has the flu.
That's two boys and one man down.
We sent everyone to bed early and made flowers.


Ingredients:
White flowers with linen, silk, white parchment & pearl beads.
Green leaves of silk and pages from an antique book about wildflowers.
&
an early bedtime, a juice medley and some of that oscillococcinum.
 
All together now!