I made my own sawhorse desk (it was easy) and now so can you!  Please, please, please visit me over on The Brooklyn Limestone and see how it was done!

I get about 12,000 emails a day asking if we do custom logo stamps in the shop and the answer is YES, SIREE!  It’s in my FAQ but I understand you are too busy running a small booming business to read my FAQ, so I decided to make it easy and just let you know that I do indeed.  I love making them, but they are a little trickier than the ones I have in the shop as I have to evaluate the logo / artwork to make sure that it will translate well to a stamp.  Unfortunately, not all logos are created equal, super thin lines or script tend to get muddled, but lucky for you I am a great evaluator and can usually assist in discussing what needs to be done to create the perfect stamp.  This here custom stamp was created for Jamie Simon the very talented woman behind Intertwyned Photography (she supplied these amazing shots).  We both loved how it came out, which is always a bonus when you are doing something custom. If you are a small business this can take your branding + promotion up a notch as suddenly you can make your own stationery (thank you notes for customers), create your own gift tags, add to the outside of your packages and the list goes on and on.  If you are interested in getting one made for your business please drop on by!

Cumulonimbus (Cb) is a towering vertical cloud (family D2) that is very tall, dense, and involved in thunderstorms and other inclement weather. Cumulonimbus originates from Latin: Cumulus “heap” and nimbus “cloud”. It is a result of atmospheric instability. These clouds can form alone, in clusters, or along a cold front in a squall line. They can create lightning and other dangerous severe weather. Cumulonimbus clouds form from cumulus clouds (namely from cumulus congestus) and can further develop into a supercell, a severe thunderstorm with special features.

I have gone from a Los Angeleno that could not fathom rain in the midst of the summer swelter, to someone that is regularly in the eye of the summertime storm. On Saturday we had guests over for dinner for the first time at our new country abode.  My husband wanted to wait until we had furniture but it’s been slow going in the furniture department so I convinced him that it would be fun to have a picnic in our huge (bug-filled) backyard. We told our guests to bring their own blankets (and bug repellent), which they thankfully did.  The day was  gorgeous, not too humid and as it rolled into early evening we even had a slight cool breeze. We played frisbee and grilled chicken for what my husband has deemed ‘our best meal’, which is actually just chicken burritos. Then we heard the thunder, but it was still bright and beautiful outside we were hopeful that it would pass. The first droplets of rain fell, but they were delicate and sparse, it could still pass we thought, but then the sky darkened and the cumulonimbus clouds became dense, hiding the sun and having all our guests scurry inside. Just when I was ready to start wagging my fists at Mother Nature and shouting ‘why, oh, why?’ I had my answer, Mother Nature obviously knew I was lacking good new photos for this here blog and she was right.  We laid picnic blankets in our empty livingroom and had my husband’s ‘best meal’, accompanied by some of the most amazing chips, guacamole and salsa (yes, I fell off the chips and gauc wagon for the evening). It even made our two year old guest Charlie remark with an enthusiastic, “Yum, yum!’ after his first bite.  I had no problem picnic’ing on the floor and it seemed like our guests didn’t mind much either and to top off a near perfect evening the electricity only went out once!

Do you ever do something and then realize after the fact that you did it all wrong?  I did just that the other day when I was putting together an Ikea nightstand and used the wrong screws, it was so obvious yet I did it any way. I sat there with half-made drawers and no more screws and then had the pleasant job of taking them all apart and starting from scratch-grrr!  The same thing happened with this stamp design.  The sample image was wrong which I obliviously (and happily) sent off to the factory to be made. You would think once it arrived that I would have noticed the mistake, but no, I actually stamped it + photographed it not noticing that anything was awry.  I brought the photos into Lightroom to edit and was pleased as pie with them. It wasn’t until I brought the photos into Photoshop (for detail work) did I realize the text on the bottom of the stamp was upside down.  Yes, I am a genius.  You can see my mistake here.  What makes this story more mind boggling was that this is not a new design; I have had the postmark stamps since my first Etsy shop many moons ago and have made hundreds of these stamps prior, here I am with this veteran design and I was able to confidently re-create it upside down?! Thankfully, I finally caught my mistake and promptly re-made it.  This newly revised (and quite perfect now) stamp was made for Kate & Simon the winners of SS08, the postmark style stamp.   I love the simplicity + cleanliness of it and am very happy to gift this to the winners.  Congrats Kate (and Simon)! For those that would like to get their own postmark stamp you can order yours this week for 50% off by using the code SS08 at checkout.

P.S. If you would like to be a winner too, there’s more designs to be made so visit this post and throw your name into the running!