to everyone who commented here, on flickr and on l'aux about my cards: i really appreciate your compliments! I was pretty happy with the way the announcements turned out but unfortunately there were THREE ERRORS that I overlooked (I was pretty sick and with a cold when I sent the files to be printed) and I have to reprint them all again!
Oh well, lesson learned! Practice makes perfect and all that junk!
They're finally finished and I'm pleased with how they came out. Click on the image to see a few more pictures. The color is a teeeny bit off in the pics, it's more of a mossy, olive green than a chartreuse but either way, I think they look alright.
sketching ideas for some reduction printing. (if you're interested in knowing what i'm talking about click here.) none of my ideas are working, though, so i've got no imagery to dazzle you with this morning.
feelin' kinda pooptastic because I got about 1 hr of um, rest? I know I didn't fall asleep, but darnit, I was nearly there before Jon woke me up bein' all cute and whatnot.
ikea needs to restock some things or I'm going to lose my mind. In particular I'd like to go there and pick up some of those delicious ginger cookies, and also a couple VIKA ARTUR tressles and get this organizational show on the road.
I know it's early, but I've changed the masthead. The weather was so weird last week that I'm already in fall mode. School shopping is done, and fall organizing and cleaning has set in, so I guess I'll just go ahead and make it official.
Oh, I've also been knitting something adorable, but it'll stay private for now.
I want so badly to be a morning person. I always have. But I have a really hard time sleeping at night. Last night I went to bed at about 10:30, and kept waking up all night long. I woke up at 8:30 this morning and yet I'm awake now (3:30am) I tried to sleep but I just lay there. It's so obnoxious. I just want to be awake and alert!
I just got a really good idea that I'm not going to tell you about. I've been struggling lately. Thoughts on my letterpress and art and design and life in general. Trying to find a way to make it more personal and suddenly I had an idea. When I get a chance, I'll show you/ tell you more.
I'm itchin' to sew something. I picked out an apron from Lotta Jansdotter's book Simple Sewing. Now, to find a minute to make the darned thing. Devan's got half days for the rest of the week, and mon-tues, which are really silly when you're in kindergarten.
Oh yea, I took some pics of some recent letterpress things:
Most of this stuff is for sale, with more details at my etsy shop and there are more photos, with more details here.
I just spent the last hour adjusting old, stuck, weird bolts on my press to get a more even impression. It's hard work. I'm sitting here now with my pajama pants hiked up to my knees with a fan on (even though the A/C is on 68 degrees) and I'm hot as hell.
If you own/operate a tabletop press (mine's a C&P Pilot) and have any insight as to why I can't seem to get a consistent impression on all four sides (top & bottom, left & right) drop some comments this-a way. I considered posting it to the briar press discussion forum but I feel like I should be able to work this problem out on my own. What I've got at the moment is a deeper impression towards the top, that gets fainter - but there's still some impression - so I've left it like that for now. I get bummed when I think too much about this because one of my favorite things is a deep crisp bite in the paper with no ink, and I'm afraid my press won't be able to accomplish this to my satisfaction. (I can do it with bits of wood type and small cuts, but not with a larger plate.)
Anyhoo, I think I'm gonna do some more printing tomorrow. Dandelions again, on flat, fabriano stock. I'll post pix if I actually do this.
I just came back from mailing some packages and dropping Devan off at the bus stop. Would you like to see my packaging?
and a shot of some of the tags I pressed last night (no ink, wood type. One of my favorite things in the world):
I just checked the mail and luckily my yarn has arrived. I'm trying to settle on a nice lace pattern now. Hopefully I'll have made up my mind and started by the end of the week and can show you a picture.
In my last post I said I'd be back tomorrow. I lied. I was busy. My brother and my Mom came to visit for the weekend. On Saturday we took the train into the city, and from there we took the subway to Coney Island. We ate hot dogs at Nathan's and walked around on the boardwalk for awhile. It was a really nice day, but a little too chilly for the beach. I will say though, I LOVE sitting and listening to the waves. Someday I need to live near the ocean. It's one of my favorite things, listening to the waves break. Why I only do it once or twice a year is a complete mystery to me. Life's too short to not regularly do the things you enjoy doing.
And here's a picture of Devan (and part of my thumb, whoops!) by the gigantic tulips near the boardwalk.
After our long afternoon in the city, we went out to this nice restaurant, Attilio's Kitchen. It was so cute inside, and the food was pretty good. We couldn't stay long, but it wasn't a problem.
After dinner we came back to our house and watched a movie, and then I was pooped so I went to bed. Sunday we went out to breakfast for Mother's Day, and then my family had to leave.
Now everything's normal and boring again. I put another card up at my etsy shop. I'm kind of 'meh' about this one. I've also been working on packaging, to get everything just right before I send out the orders. I planned to use my gocco for a couple small things, and my last 4 bulbs were duds so I'm not sure what to do while I await the arrival of my new bulbs from Japan. Maybe I'll just send them out without the extra embellishments. I don't know.
I bought some yarn. That's always fun. It's Opal Tiger stripes.
I've been working on jaywalker socks. I haven't had batteries to take a picture. No, they're not for my sock pal, they're for me! I'm also working on another pair of socks for me:
I'm still waiting for my yarn to arrive for my sockapalooza socks, but it's coming from England so I thought I'd keep myself busy with socks for myself.
These yellow socks are from Debbie Bliss Living Simple or Simple Living, I can't remember the title. I've used Baby Cashmerino and I'm using PGR short row heeels and toes, and I've made the leg quite a bit longer than the pattern says to.
Just checking in to show you what I've been doing today:
Last night I adjusted the platen to get a deeper impression. I need to adjust a little more so it's a consistent impression all over. Towards the top it's a little lighter and that's annoying me. I also just designed a knitting related gift tag that I'll show you soon.
Today, as I said early this morning, was the anniversary of my wedding. First I gave Jon his presents (I already bought myself some presents so there wasn't an exchange) I knit my sweetie some gray tweed socks.
and I made a little gift tag and matching card (anniversary pres) on my letterpress. The more I look at this the more I love it. It's so striking. I might make a few more, and actually cut them correctly and put them in my etsy shop with a letterpressed 'to and from' area on the back. What do you think?:
Here's a pic of the card (which contained 2 tickets to see Ricky Gervais at Madison Square Garden Theater in May! (excellent gift, if I may pat myself on the back a bit)
After the present exchange, we had delicious soup and watched The Pursuit of Happyness. It was pretty good. We had to stop in the middle so I could go get Devan from my in-laws, they were watching her so Jon and I could chill together for a little bit. (thanks!)
In other knitting news, I'm working on a pair of debbie bliss baby cashmerino socks from her book, Simple Living for Jon's grandmother who is sick right now. These socks are really simple. I don't know why I was so reluctant to try them. Plus they're knitted on size US 3 needles, which makes them go super fast. I think any stitch pattern where you're building a pattern goes fast. You want to keep going and going and you make little mini goals for yourself to finish pattern repeats. It's so much fun to watch the pattern grow. Anyways, Gotta finish these by Sunday, when we'll celebrate her birthday/Easter:
Here's another, closer pic of the leg/cable. I love these socks. They're soooo soft!:
ANNND, I started that thermal sweater. Here's the sleeve. I love the stitch pattern. This is another one I love to watch grow. I've just been busy finishing other projects, so I have been neglecting it a little. Pretty soon it will be too warm for such a garment, so I'm not in any hurry to finish it:
I'm making an effort to not use flash, and to take better quality photos, (with a little mood) to showcase my knitting and other crafts. I hope you can see the difference, and that you like what I'm doing. Good photos are the main thing that attract me to blogs. Speaking of which, 3 of my favorite bloggers are either stopping, distancing themselves, or have already quit blogging! No fair. I hope they change their minds!!! darnit.
Any photography tips? I'm working with natural light (which was not really present today, as it was so gloomy.) But I'm trying not to use flash, and only doing the teensiest bit of editing, for sharpness. I was really shaky for some reason when I was taking the photos this afternoon, so a good deal of them were blurry. I wouldn't alter them in any other way though, because, um, that's cheating.
Today I (just barely) moved my letterpress out of it's little dusty corner in my bedroom and made a little collage of wood type in one of my chases.
I think I'm going to press it, you know to test out the ink color I have in mind for my first print block that I ordered Monday. That freakin' press is so heavy. I'm using my last paycheck from my old job to purchase a desk and shelving for my bedroom. I'll also be buying some sort of sturdy cart/table to hold my press.
I'd like to paint my room before all of this gets set up, but I don't know if I'll have time. I'm having surgery to remove my gall bladder next friday. I can't really lift anything for a few weeks afterwards.
Also today, I was feeling really down and out and when Jon got home he surprised me with flowers- pink tulips :)
In closing, Devan's got a kitty puppet to show you.
I've been pretty busy. I was in Ohio over the weekend, picking up my press, and doing the tiniest smidgen of visiting. I saw Katie and Rick and I actually saw Mike and Tif, and of course my mom. I didn't even get to see my little Grandma, or my sister, Abby.
Sometimes I wonder which is worse: Seeing my family/friends for a day, or not seeing them at all. Going back to Ohio is kind of bittersweet for me. I like to take a few minutes out of my visits to drive around (especially in the springtime) with the windows down, and just kind of look at things and think, and just be back. I did that this time too. It was nice.
I'm feeling DEEP tonight. Just thinking and planning. I do that alot. I've started keeping a big book full of my ideas and inspiration because I'm a little bit OBSESSIVE with my ideas. I think and think and overthink, and paralyze myself with all of my good and bad thoughts and all of my excitement. I sit up all night thinking and planning and never actually DO anything. Now that I'm writing things down and making diagrams and whatnot, it's much easier to see how little progress I actually make.
As far as my letterpress and all the little things involved in that, I have to just WAIT. I have to force myself not to start going crazy buying supplies. I have to just plan and prepare before I can really start doing anything. I don't have a space for myself. I'm spread out all over the house, and I need some order. I've already decided that a storage facility, for all our extra things and furniure has become a necessity. I need to be able to think and breathe in here. I need to organize and know and see what I have. I need shelves! bins! baskets! cases! oi! I'm making myself crazy all over again.
I'm not going to update this until I've done SOMETHING or made some sort of progress. And hopefully I'll have a picture.
Well hello kiddos. I know it's been awhile. I've been kind of busy. And by busy, I mean actually doing stuff, not sleeping. So shut up.
I've got sprouts galore upstairs... just waiting for the weather to stop freaking out every other day and getting cold and shitty out (like it will be doing later today/tomorrow) to start putting those little guys in the ground.
So in my 11 days of nonblogging, I bought 2 really cool things for myself for being so responsible. Behold numero uno:
I've been meaning to pick up a Print Gocco for awhile now. Unfortunately, there are not TOOOOOO many of them around. I got mine from Japan, along with some extra screens and bulbs.
Dos: i tracked down my baby:
Jealous?? It's a Chandler & Price Pilot 6.5x10" letterpress. It's in Michigan. My brother Mike is going to pick it up tomorrow, and I'll have to go out and get it from him next time I'm in Ohio, or Bret will take it to my mom's. Either way, I'm psyched.
I've also been doing a bit of knitting. I started Devan's denim pinafore:
almost done with the front..
can't get enough of the picot edging, so i started the back too.
speaking of picot.....ahh. so neat and cute.
Wednesday I had a really good, productive day. I dropped Devan off at school, and then I went to Wayne to return some clothes to Old Navy (+ $195 for me) then I had some tacos, drove around listening to the White Stripes with my hair blowing in the wind, and then I went to Denville to visit Jon and have some ice cream with him. I returned more clothes to Target (+ $92.00 for me!) and then i rewarded myself for being so responsible:
I guess I'm not supposed to get a letterpress. I'm not supposed to make beautiful things. Well one thing's for sure: I'm not supposed to spend $600 dollars on one. I lost yet another auction. This one was in Morristown and I could have gone to pick it up this week since Dev's on vacation. Poopapoopapoop.
Tonight I drew a picture for Jenny of a little bird and a nest. I think it's cute. Click Here to see it.
I just got out of the shower and I'm drinking Woodchuck Draft Cider's Granny Smith. It's kinda delicious. I watched that movie Crash, and found it to be less than awesome. A. It was really depressing B. It was like real life racism amplified by about 100000000 and it put me off right away. I mean who goes around having these conversations... ugh.
Tonight I went to an auction over at Castner's in Branchville. It was a printing supplies auction and I wanted a letterpress. Someone outbid me by 10 buckaroos and I couldn't justify going any higher... So I guess I'll go back to scouring the internerd for someone's discarded press. F a duck.
I want to redo my bedroom. It's ugly as a mother (not you, mom) but perhaps some other ugly mother (not you either, Pat) This afternoon I bought a night stand and a lamp for the bedroom finally. We've lived here HOW LONG without a nightstand???? Ridiculous. I couldn't take it any longer. Getting up and walking across the room to turn off the light when reading in bed, or walking across the room to get water in the middle of the night??? Stupid. Now if only I didn't have to walk upstairs to use the bathroom at night, and could use my downstairs bathroom. I wish the toilet fixing fairy would visit us.
my spouts are outta control. I can't wait to get them in the ground! Maybe someday I'll take a picture!! ! ! !! !
-(8-08) LIKING:
baking, my bed, sleeping in my bed, indian food, my birthday, Ricky Gervais, tenament museums, linen, Air (the french band), Hugh Laurie, Intervention, babies, Iron & Wine, Clive Owen, buttered toast & strawberry jam, letterpress, Yeats,
Robin's egg blue, Fabrizio Moretti, 30 Rock, mini-pigs, hotel chevalier, steak, Paul Rudd, spring cleaning, tea, young Paul Newman, pigs, Quebec, Foreign Films, ginger ale, Rohinton Minstry, Montclair NJ,
modern simple quilts, sewing animals, summer, hating infertility, white on white, paper, cute french & japanese things, stamps and ink
