Inviting!

I think the invitations went out long enough ago that this won't be a spoiler...

When we started planning, the only certainty was that I wanted to make my own invites. I knew the typewriter would be involved, but beyond that I just saw endless craft possibilities, with little project certainty. Then, this summer a wonderful local stationary store, Scribbles, in Burlington went sadly out of business. Sale on paper. Dangerous words. Their remaining inventory determined the color scheme. I wanted to use some metallic, but didn't want it to go kitsch. I tried to walk the line. The envelopes were delightful and I just bought a box of various papers up, hoping something would come to me.

Drew claims it took 6 weeks. That's an exaggeration, but not much of one. My mom was a life saver. Joining the assembly line at the surface formerly known as our kitchen table.  Here's the final product:

Can't get enough of that typewriter. Or those king & queen stamps...

Isn't that the best envelope lip? I was afraid that the post office would read it as the addressee line and after mailing I'd get 50 envelopes back, but all seems to have worked.

Would I do it all over again? I'd say no, but I'm already anxious to get started on your Valentine's Day cards. Old habits die hard.

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.

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.