I love, love, love listening to podcasts while I work. I have tried to listen to audiobooks, but for some reason it isn’t as pleasurable and of course there’s cost factor, I would go through a couple books a day with the hours I log in the studio.  I am always interested in suggestions for new ones because I can go through a whole series in a week and then I am stuck listening to my thoughts, not as much fun at the moment as a podcast. When I saw a recommendation from Itunes for ‘The Dinner Party-the all- book’ episode I thought it sounded intriguing enough, I love books and have been known to partake of the party.  I was hooked show one. It has a really nice pace, almost course like, it starts with an ‘ice breaker’ a silly joke usually told by a luminary, a quick wrap up of the weeks news, an interview with a journalist from an indie publication that will inform you of ‘news you haven’t heard’. There’s a bit of history thrown in to coincide with the week the show is being aired (the idea being things you can discuss at your next dinner party), a cocktail created from this historical trivia, a guest of honor and my favorite ‘your etiquette questions answered’.  Listener’s write in with their etiquette questions and either Emily Post’s great, great grandchildren answer, or someone like Henry Rollins does, either way it’s enjoyable. The hosts end the podcast by asking an indie band to choose their dinner party music. It’s all very entertaining and informative. I listened to almost 200 episodes in a row.  There is one odd thing, there seems to be a lot of repetition of guests from previous episodes, not that they come back, but the same interviews. I don’t know if it’s how they edit but it makes me feel like I am going bonkers (and anyone that listens to a podcast for nearly 48 hours straight must be). I still think it’s well worth a listen, you can find it here. I hope you enjoy!

…And the winners of the tiny hand-lettered ‘to’. are Vanessa Correa, Chiara, Tanya M.  Please email me with your shipping address so I can get you your stamp in time for your holiday gifting:) Thank you everyone for playing!

Hello, and good Monday to you!  I am not here, I am being swept away by my husband to the Appalachian mountains, have any of you seen Deliverance?  If you haven’t do, but don’t, it’s seriously intense and disturbing. I will wax poetic another time about Jon Voight who stars in it (one of my top 3 favorite actors), but today on this fine Monday morn I think I should be giving away a set of the new stamps, no? I am adding an awesome stag silo, we have a ton here where I am currently living, so I felt duly inspired. For the record, they are much bigger in person than they seem in the media, the same can not be said about the Kardashian’s.  I met them last year (the Kardashians not the stags) and the tiniest one is absolutely miniscule and the one everyone thinks is ‘large’ is totally perfect; I digress.  I also have a snowflake in  the shop  I have a seriously cute striped bow that I haven’t had a chance to shoot for the shop (did I not mention I have been whisked away?).  I am kind of crazy for it, I did take a shot with my Iphone here. I have much more to shoot, I have some new wood box sets, and some super easy but chic d.i.y’s. Can someone please let me know how holiday came so fast?

If you would like to win both the stag and the snowflake together and start on your holiday cards + gift tags, then I shall choose one winner on Friday (time is of the essence, you need to get ready for holiday gifting and what not).  All you need to do is re-pin this or leave a comment below, I am easy, whatever you are up for.  Btw, I so want to see how crafty you get if you win, k?

Tomorrow I have a new podcast addiction that I think you will love being introduced to! There’s maybe 173 episodes and I may have listened to them all in one day, maybe. I will also announce the winners for the ‘to’. stamp, thank you to everyone that played!

This as some of you may know is my 3lb. dog George. George is a girl, in case you didn’t surmise that from her name.  I am celebrating because a week ago at this time we found a large marble size tumor on her side. We took her to the vet and the prognosis was grim. I allowed my mind to go to some very dark places while we got her ready to go into surgery and have the tumor removed. It was a surgery that was very expensive and something we hadn’t anticipated but this pup has been my constant companion for 11 years (her birthday is Monday) and if this lump was going to be detrimental to her health I would have sold my car to get it removed.  We got the call yesterday that she is going to be a-ok!  I couldn’t imagine my life without her and have often threatened my husband to have her taxidermied when in the very far future she passes on, he will have none of my crazy talk; I am kidding of course (kinda).  She looks a little like ‘Franken-pup’ at the moment as she had a few things removed and her side and belly have stitch marks all over them. So sad, yet I am so happy!

We are also celebrating our one year anniversary next week, I can’t believe it’s been a year since we eloped!  We are going away for a couple days to Asheville to celebrate, which we keep hearing amazing things about, I am so looking forward to the adventure. So much to be grateful for this week and as always I am especially grateful for you of course, that goes without saying, right?

In my hand-lettering journey I have found that being able to access specimens and try to re-create them has been such a great tool.  By re-creating I learn what I like about a specimen or what I would want to work on or  even what style I would like to riff on. I own a lot of antique type specimen books, I didn’t realize how many until I actually started to use them for practice; I suppose it has become an unexpected collection of sorts. Alex, a very thoughtful girl (and like me a lettering enthusiast), emailed me the other day and asked if I knew about Type. A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles, it’s a two volume work and she mentioned the best part is that you get access to thousands of hi-res scans from the book.  I didn’t know about it but ever since her email it has shot straight to the top of my holiday want-list.  I want need these books so badly.

It seems that it must of been my good fortune week because I also received a note from former Souvenir Foto School student Simone that mentioned her recent acquisitions. Simone lives in the South of France and was formerly a stylist in NYC, she runs an on-line Brocante and finds the best potential photo props. Everyone in class wanted to know where she got her props for her Food + Foto class. Simone had recently come into possession of a warehouse filled with antique French documents all hand scribed in the most beautiful calligraphic hand. I don’t know about you but I am a little coo coo for French script, I love the modern French hand as well as the hand of yore, it’s all beautiful, interesting and well, French. To have access to original documents that you can have + hold and use as a reference to re-create sounds pretty amazing to me. I don’t have any other French connections that are willing to get me these types of papers and I love that Simone has become a great resource.  You can even email her and tell her what period you are looking for and she will try her best to go through her treasures to find what you would like.  I am trying to convince her to be on the look out for vintage school lettering books that she can scan and make available for download. I would love instant access to these types of books without having to add another item to my studio (better to hide my addiction from my husband, yikes!).

If you have any lettering resources you want to share, feel free to email me or leave them in the comments I am re-designing the blog and will most definitely be adding some resource pages for you to easily access!