merriment at the malt house

I shipped these powder blue & chocolate brown invitations off to London last week.  I love printing projects for lovely people in far off places…  :)

letterpress economic indicators

NPR has been running a great series for the past year called “Uncommon Economic Indicators” in which they ask people for unusual signs of how the economy is doing.  I have my own indicator that I’ve been following this past year – the amount of business cards I’m printing.  New orders usually mean people are starting businesses or expanding, and re-orders usually indicate that companies are hiring.

2009 was slow for business cards, but I have to say that orders are on the upswing since November – maybe that means we’re heading in the right direction.  Now let’s see if Wall Street rallies tomorrow based on my report.  :)

pink berry

I’ve been in such a blogging black hole this month, my apologies!  I’m busy designing a number of wedding projects in between trips to the new house, and it has left little time for anything else.  But I should be back to my normal schedule soon, thanks for your patience.

In the meantime, here is a sweet Texan wedding from last week…

breathing room

This month is a big balancing act, between fixing up my home for the move and keeping up with printing projects.  Yesterday was spackling, today printing, tomorrow spackling, Saturday painting and Sunday printing.  Its a lot of work but I’m loving every minute of it.  I can’t wait for the move.  I’ll take some interior photos this weekend, for now here are some shots from my front lawn, this last one is the house taken from the hay field next door.

notecard printing

Today I worked on business cards and custom stationery.  I like this simple ‘S’ design.  Tomorrow is a big DIY day at the new house, things are really shaping up for the Feb 1st move.  I can’t wait!  :)

sample sorting

Every now and then I make a sincere attempt to go through my project bins and update my sample book.  This week is the beginning of the wedding invitation season for me, with back to back appointments some weekend days.   I spent a better part of yesterday pulling new samples from my shelves to update the book.  Happy to say this year is off to a relatively sane start.  :)

afternoon light show

I’m working from home today, catching up on a bunch of design work and preparing for January jobs.    :)

PS: My site was down for part of the day yesterday (grrrr…) and it disrupted my email for a short time.  If you tried to email me and didn’t hear back please try again.  Thanks!

happy new year!

I couldn’t be more excited for a fresh start this New Year.  I’ve had a wonderfully lazy Christmas break and and in a few days I’ll be back to work.  I have some changes to make on my site and perhaps some style edits on the blog, and then I’ll be starting work on Spring wedding invitations.

But I do have some big news to share.  This autumn I was fortunate enough to buy a small home in one of my favorite places on earth, gorgeous Bucks County, Pennsylvania.  For years it has been a dream of mine to spend half my time in Brooklyn and the other half in a rural setting.  My new town is a beautiful farming community nestled on the Delaware River, about 80 minutes from my studio in Brooklyn.

Starting February 1st I’ll be spending equal amounts of time in each place.  The new commute won’t affect my work schedule much, but if you’ll indulge me I’ll be sharing some photography from my new home on the blog.  The above photo was taken of my house by my good friend and new neighbor, Kathleen Connally.

Thanks so much for reading the blog this past year!  Have a safe and happy New Year!

holiday contest: day five

For today’s last day, we’ll make the contest a simple one: in exactly 5 words, describe what your wish is for the world. The deadline is tomorrow at 10am. Good luck!

Today’s winner:

Kristine:  Dream, love and be free

holiday contest: day four

I love your entries so much, keep em’ coming!  As an extension of yesterday’s theme, today’s contest is also about a bright future next year.  Today you must explain in exactly five words why 2010 is going to better than 2009!  Winner gets the fourth calendar of the week, good luck!

Today’s winner:

Chrissy: ten fingers and ten toes