Bee Mine

Here's another Valentine's Day card: Bee Mine.

Recently featured on Real Simple Magazine's website. I'm still pinching myself for making it to their site!

Test Print

When I look back at test prints I marvel at its raw beauty, mistakes and all. They often find their way on my bulletin board because in a way, one-of-a-kind art has been created.

This print takes me back to when I was printing these two-colored cards of a bridge over the L.A. River. In the process, I felt that the black was too harsh for the soft lilac color in the background. The press was scrubbed clean of the black ink and purple ink was applied instead.



The cards turned out better than if I had printed them in black but this test print brings out some other kind of beauty.

Love

New love cards are printed and available at the shop. Because your love is better than bacon. Or cupcakes.

Just in time for Valentines Day.

A Challenge

Working from home with no one to bounce off ideas with, I always second-guess myself. What am I doing? Is this good? Will people like this? And so on, the questions and doubts fill my head every day.

That's why joining swaps has been a satisfying endeavor. It makes me feel part of a bigger community, puts things in perspective and provides me with challenges and constraints.

This year, I joined another letterpress swap involving coasters and the alphabet and a quilting bee. More on these later.

Plus, my LAMQG group has provided each member with a challenge: to create a small quilt using these charm pack made up of solid fabrics and adding just one other solid fabric. A challenge indeed but I've started and so far, it's been a good exercise. Due in March, I'll show the end-result then.

Postcard Exchange, #5 in a Series

I love the humor in the Washington postcard from Darcie Cooper of Pedal Pusher Press. The postcard from Wayne is simply gorgeous making use of a really thick cardboard stock from Two Paper Dolls. And do you see the ketchup bottle on the Pittsburgh card? Simply brilliant from Clothes Peg Press.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all!

Aside from the usual resolutions like going to the gym etc. I try to add some fun stuff to the list. This year, I plan to send a postcard a month to an unsuspecting friend. Easy enough to uphold, right? Let's hope so.

Postcard Exchange, #4 in a Series

The smartly textured argyle cow is from Taylor Luke of Marzipan & Martha.

Florida's postcard reminds me of a bright, powerful sun and is from Ellen Knudson of Crooked Letterpress.

Washington, DC's entry is from Stephanie Hess and Camden Richards of Drop Cap Collective & Press. The text includes, "Capital was an adjective used to describe something excellent or first rate."

How interesting that each card represents their state so accurately and succinctly on a 4" x 6" piece of paper.

Postcard Exchange, #3 in a series

Printed on green stock, that opaque white ink in the background is a nice touch on the Louisiana postcard. I love the upside down exclamation point used as an "i" and Gutwrench Press includes a summertime favorite in the back:
Fill a pint glass with ice
Add 1-2 ounce of bourbon
Top with ginger ale - canned, bottled, or home-made
Garnish with lemon.
Relax. There's so much to be angry about.

Western New York postcard, oh how I love you. The image above does not do this postcard justice. The hand-drawn illustration is printed in 2 shades of green and is just lovely. From Carrie Kaser of Kaser Studio Workshop.

The rawness and complexity of the black and white woodcut entry is striking and is from Aaron Ardell of Dayton Printmaker's Cooperative.

Volunteering

Because I don't have enough to do (yeah right), I volunteered for the reDiscover Center to turn some industrial fabric remnanants into tote bags.

According to their website:
reDiscover promotes creativity in early childhood and elementary education while encouraging environmental responsibility.

reDiscover recycles everyday discards donated by business and gives them new purpose as hands-on learning materials.

I found the call to volunteer for this project from a yahoo group site and since I started sewing, I figured this is a good way to volunteer my time and help out a good organization that teaches children art and recycling.

Matchy Matchy

Imagine my surprise when I saw these Evergreen holiday stamps at the post office. They match my holiday cards so well you'd think I did it on purpose. Except I printed these cards over a year ago. I realized long ago that in order to be up-to-date with occasions and seasons, you always have to think ahead.

Postcard Exchange, #2 in a series

Lake Hiawatha, lakeless since 1962– from Birdcage Press has a 1960's vibe. I love the sparse grass randomly spread throughout this vintage-looking card.

Nothing says hello than an ice tall glass of Alabama sweet tea from Perkolator Press. The vibrancy of the colors used is simply stunning.

Postcard Exchange, #1 in a series

This postcard exchange is a collaboration of women printers from around the world and what better way to start off the exchange by these two beauties. The top card is from Sweden, slightly smaller than the required size but packed with a lot of wit. The happy postcard at the bottom is from the British Virgin Islands, hand printed by Sachkia Barness of Paper Cabaret.

Note: I will credit all the postcards with links unless the postcard is not credited in the back. Also, I am sharing these in the exact order of how I received my stack.

Christmas Came Early

Christmas came early for me last Saturday when I received my letterpress postcard exchange with my Ladies of Letterpress group.

A printed exchange is a tradition among printers and this was my first swap. Honestly, I felt like I earned my printer's cred when I received my package.

The premise for this exchange was a postcard swap in the tradition of the "Hello from..." cards from all over the world. Plus, the cards had to go through at least one pass on the letterpress.

Each card was a joy to see and touch. Stay tuned as I share all the postcards in future posts.

Favorite Shoes

I have worn these shoes everyday since I got them over a month ago.

I can't believe Converse improved upon a classic and they succeeded. I've resisted this new style for years now but find them so easy to slip into and works with everything I wear. A simply great design.

Craftsanity Magazine

I started listening to Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood's Craftsanity podcasts when I started freelancing from home. Feeling isolated, I got addicted to listening to podcasts and talk radio and Jennifer's interviews always inspired me in my creative pursuits. Listening to artists and crafters and their navigation with starting a business gave me hope.

This month, Jennifer and her husband Jeff are publishing their first issue of Craftsanity Magazine. Go here if you want to pre-order the magazine and get a discount. I have no doubt it's going to be good!

The first issue features contributions from Cathy Carron, Lindy Graff, Anna Hrachovec, Sarah London, Alessandra Hayden, Rebecca Green, Alyssa Thomas, Cydney Colvig, Linda Tieu, Steven Rainey, a generous knitter named Jake, Diane Morgan, and Debbie Bliss.

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Supporting The Walk

Every year for the past five years, my husband Mike does a walk in Los Angeles. He intended to walk the length of Wilshire Blvd. back in 2006 to commemorate living his ten years of living here. As a lark, he posted it on the blog asking people to join him if they wanted. To our surprise, people expressed interest and there were about fifty to sixty who joined in.

Five years ago, I had an 11-month-old who had just started to walk himself so I stayed back. I knew it would be hard to keep up with everyone and Mike couldn't help me since he was leading the group. We later joined everyone at Border Grill and had a fun time meeting the walkers.

Ever since then, this has always been my perspective during the walk:


As supporter, I'm usually in the "pace car" with a child or two in tow. Here's my recollection of other walks from past years:

Pico, 2007: We dropped Mike off at the Coca Cola Bottling Plant on Pico and Central that morning. Turns out, I needed to have an emergency Doctor's appointment so off the the doctor Evan and I went after the drop off. I later picked up Mike at the restaurant and talked to a few of the walkers hanging out.

Santa Monica Blvd., 2008: The meeting place was at Union Square and our cool friend Eric Lynxwiler sent everyone off. I had an almost-three year old in tow and walked with everyone in the beginning. I tried to keep up and reached the edges of Silver Lake up to Vermont where Evan and I took the Metro back to Union Station and picked up the car. We followed along in the car a bit and later picked up Mike and our friend Andrea in Santa Monica. We all ended up having dinner in Atwater Village with excited talks about next year.

Adams/Washington Blvd. 2009: My youngest Nathan was just born so I was truly the pace car with the little one on this walk. Evan wanted to join in and was mostly pushed in the stroller by Mike. After lunch, Evan joined me and Nathan as we slowly made our way west. Not without drama, our car stalled on Washington and Triple A did a quick rescue.

Back to Wilshire, 2010: This year was tough because it was also Evan's last soccer game and end-of-league after party. So off to Pershing Square we went to send Mike off. The rain kept a lot of people from walking but there was a healthy 100+ crowd gathered not letting a little rain get in the way. We drove alongside a bit leaving around lunch time to get to Evan's soccer party (the rain canceled out the game). We later met up with Mike at the Border Grill for dinner.

Maybe if we're still doing this five years from now I can truly join in on the walk.

A Winner

Thanks to everyone for entering the giveaway! Our winner (picked by our youngest son Nathan) is Loren Kantor who e-mailed this:

Here is our Thanksgiving Meal List

Roasted Turkey w/Shallot/Brandy Injection
Tofu/Celery/Carrot Mush in shape of a mini turkey for our 21 year old
vegan cousin (disgusting!)
Green Beans w/garlic & mushrooms
Mashed Potatoes & Garlic Butter
Roasted Sweet Potatoes & Cream
Bread Stuffing w/chestnuts & crushed mint leaves
Cheese & Herb Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms
+ a multitude of pies (apple, sweet potato, banana cream, pumpkin)

& 1 Newly Charged Defibrillator (just in case)

Have a Wonderful Thanksgiving!

Loren Kantor

I think I'd want to see a picture of the Tofu/Celery/Carrot Mush.

A Giveaway

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the first time I set foot at the Pasadena Museum of California Art was late last year, to see the Wayne Thiebaud exhibit. That first visit impressed me.

PMCA features smartly curated rotating exhibits focusing on California artists. Currently, the museum just opened their new exhibits. This post features a giveaway for two tickets to the museum, plus a couple of letterpressed cards sold only at PMCA's store.


To enter, send an e-mail (blog@mpresstudio.com) and tell me what you'll be making for Thanksgiving this year. The winner will be picked at random on Friday morning, November 19th.