I thought I would share some quick snaps from the studio.  My once pristine and very sparse office is now stacked from floor to ceiling with inventory and shipping supplies. It has come to both my attention and my aching back that I will need to replace my desk for something much higher, what do you think of this? Making my studio shipping friendly and my back not hate me.  I have lost my shipping chops, although my bestie Jules assures me that they will come back, I can only hope so.  You see, I take an awful lot of time and energy on each parcel. I want it to arrive and feel like a present and if it doesn’t I have failed.  I remember as a wee lass I would shop for Christmas gifts at a General Store, yes a real General store and I loved how they tied all their parcels with twine, wrapped in tissue and finished with labels–pure perfection.  I would watch in unadulterated pleasure as my shabby little purchase was transformed into what could only be called a masterpiece. With my $10 budget I would buy gifts for my entire family and would be smug with how pretty everything looked over their plebeian efforts at wrapping in commercial papers with synthetic bows.  My family never appreciated my fine taste and soon the General store was bought out by big business as it was considered a dinosaur in the new ‘modern’ age of the 80’s. I miss that store. I am convinced I would still be shopping there today if it existed, but instead I try to hold on to the tradition, an invisible torch was passed and I am the bearer. I can only hope that I make the General Store proud. I tried my best to keep the memory alive and as authentic as possible. Now if I can only get faster at it and my back would be a team player, I’ll be golden.

It is mere days until I tie the knot and I am in a bit of a panic. I am usually a very detail oriented person but it seems I have neglected many details of these upcoming nuptials. For one I forgot to order the Fancy’s ring, of course he would never remind me of this folly as he has already mentioned about 80,000 times that he doesn’t want to wear a ring. He plays a lot of tennis and is basically a jockety jock so I can see where a ring would be cumbersome, but it’s a non-negotiable item. I also don’t have a dress, shoes, or photographer–gasp.  We are eloping, I suppose if one is eloping you are sworn by a pinky promise to keep it more hush hush than broadcasting it to thousands of individuals on the interwebs, but I feel like we are close enough that I can tell you. We are picking up our license today, so the reality of the situation has really sunk into my thick skull–no dress, no shoes, no photographer, no crash diet or anti-aging remedy.  I also have broken out on my forehead, no time to even get an order of emergency Pro-Activ, what’s a girl to do?  I really like the make-up above, but I have heard that for photographs you should wear much more than you normally would, I don’t know if the no make-up, make-up look is going to fly. It’s a moot point if I don’t have a photographer there right?  I also have a very specific idea of how I want these images shot and so not any photographer will do.  I also have an almost non-existent budget, so good luck to me. I am sure I can pull it together in the next dozen or so days, right? 

Is it rude of me to think our new personalized stamp offering is the cutest? Because I do! These are my and the Fancy’s initials, pretty hilarious right? This has just been added to the shop, it’s a petite size which makes it perfect for favor bags or creating your own couple’s stationery.  I will be adding our plain cotton bags to the shop soon, because I have had an overwhelmingl number of requests for them. They will come in three sizes, the medium is the perfect size for favor bags, although the small bags are pretty darn cute. I think they would make a great alternative to traditional wrapping this holiday season and are re-usable which should feel nice and guilt-free.

P.S. Don’t forget about the D.I.Y. stationery giveaway on Hope’s blog.

I don’t need these domes, but I surely do want them.  I found a pretty nice resource for them at The Evolution store. They have a huge variety of sizes, I of course like the tiny ones, it’s just my thing. In a back issue of Lonny they had a link to Laura Day’s excellent butterfly in a dome DIY, which would look stunning in my studio. I hope to one day try it out, have you done anything with these domes or know of a better resource so I can add it to this post?

 

One of our winner’s in the launch contest designer/artist Hope Karney of Paper Relics wanted to spread the love. When she invited me to do a giveaway on her beautiful blog I was only too happy to oblige. Hope as I may have mentioned was one of my students in our Souvenir Foto School and at the end of class she graciously sent me some of her beautiful cards as a thank you.  I was so touched by how thoughtful the gesture was and truth be told the cards were so pretty in person I had a hard time parting with them. The DIY stationery kit seems to be a hit in the shop (hint, I will be adding more variety soon) and I would love it if you won, so please go over to Hope’s and enter to win.  Good luck!