Thursday, July 24, 2008

A New Identity











I have now been out of the corporate world for just over 8 months, seems like a lot longer, and have been relishing every moment of it. I have a lot of new opportunities that I am beginning to explore and am in need of a graphic identity, but basically just a business card will do for now. Luckily for me I am basically surrounded by people who make their living doing just what I need.











I am going to be working with one of my good friends to design a card, and hopefully eventually much more, but as we all know great things are not done over night, and seeing as once I get an idea for something I just got for it, I needed a fast solution to the situation. I was recommended to moo.com. This is such a great site for all who are new to it. Based in the UK, of course, you can have custom cards sent to your house in small runs in as little as 10 days. For just over $20 you can have 50 double sided business cards printed up. This is great because usually you are spending hundreds of dollars, and getting hundreds of cards, and lets face it not all of us have the money, or the demand for that amount of product. With this site you can upload up to 50 images, one for each card, or 10 images and receive 5 cards with the same image, well you get the idea. So if you are an illustrator you can upload your illustrations and have a mini portfolio always at hand. The site also has a half business card size, which was the only option until recently, and has proven to be enormously popular. For my first go I went very simple with some color floods and a few letters, no photo, and then my information on the back, or front, however you want to look at it. I will be sure to give my review when they arrive. At any rate I am really excited and can't wait.
















On the flip side of the business card printing realm, and the one that I hope to venture into soon is the high end custom card. These are the cards that you get handed and can't put down. They are well designed, printed on scrumptious paper and something that you want to put on your inspiration board at home. For me, when I am working with someone creative, from a hair dresser to an event designer the smallest details can make it or break it. A business card can definitely fall into this category. So this leads me to the picture above, which is from a company justly named Brooklyn Social Cards. I love the card featured above, and well most of the cards that are on their site. Really I am just a sucker for letterpress. So happy hunting for those of you who are, and those who are not, shouldn't you be?

Wedding Season Again...












I guess that if you really enjoy planning events, finding inspiration for them and seeing how excited your exceptionally creative friends get about planning theirs you will never really move out of wedding season.

Last week one of my bridesmaids got engaged and JP and I could not be more excited. I know that she will put together a unique, hand crafted, every detail thought out, event. Over the past few days, with the exception of when we went to the beach, I have been busy putting together a wedding care package for her. I can't wait to finish it and send it off. Hopefully I will snap some photos to share, I really have to get better about doing that.

I stopped in last night to chat with with woman who produced our invitations at Chelle Paperie, in Hampden, and was thrilled to discover that she had recently gotten engaged and has been feverishly, but totally under control, planning her upcoming wedding. Interestingly, both of these women are from the same area in Pennsylvania, I am excited to see the outcome of each of their visions.











And because I am on the subject of weddings, here are some picks from my wedding in Telluride, Colorado from the end of May. We are about a week away from receiving the professional photographs, but these are some of my favorites from family and friends. The top image was my mothers idea. When we were talking about ways to economically enhance the wooden structure that is at the wedding site, she drew out the idea of a wreath with an F in it, for JP's last name, and swag draping from it and down the columns. It was such a great idea. I found a huge F, and grapevine wreath, at a craft store in Baltimore on a shopping trip with one of my bridesmaids. I simply wrapped the F in some sisal twine, and handed it all over the the florist. It turned out to be one of my favorite things, and now the F adorns the front door of our house. The second image is again, from the ceremony site. Here you can get a better view of the snow capped mountain backdrop. And the third image is JP and myself signing the Colorado wedding license. (It was filled out in the courthouse on a typewriter)

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Oiseau













So it is no secret that birds are the things to have and hold these days. For the past few years it seems that everywhere you go there are at least 10 different pieces of bird merchandise to satisfy your need of your feathery friends. I have to admit that I have fallen into the bird situation, but have tried to limit my flock.

One of the jewelry lines that I work with has, I believe, done the bird well. Figs & Ginger is a husband and wife team based out of Asheville, NC who specialize in Eco-friendly sterling silver earrings, necklaces and soon a wedding line as well. Elijah and Rhonda try their hardest to use only recycled silver and gold to create their pieces.













On a side note...
When JP and I were going through the ring process, the jeweler who we were working with recycled the gold from the setting of the stones that had been passed down from our families. Not only did this save us some money, but we were happy to hear that the left overs were not just going to waste. It's nice to know that they might go into creating a meaningful piece for someone else.

So I encourage you to take a look at their site, at the very least their whimsical designs should put a smile on your face. And being a fan of all things woodland creatureish I have to give Figs & Ginger two thumbs up on their deer collection as well.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Jean Jack

When JP and I were on our honeymoon in Santa Fe, NM we stumbled upon the Jean Jack gallery. We were, well I was in love. JP liked it as well, but it really struck a cord with me. We tend to be fairly picky about art that we would have in our house. We go more for photography, drawings and some multi media work, but vary rarely do we get turned on by paintings. Jean Jack has lived in Santa Fe for the past 18 years, and hails from the east coast. She has been painting landscapes for the past 38 years. Her shop is meticulously put together, a fantastic mixture of found objects, art and white wash. We came away with a glorious little house with a blue roof, a found object not painting. But we know that one day one will hang in our house and we will be reminded of our journeys together since our trip to Santa Fe.

Rotten Bananas




One of our favorite gifts from the wedding was a bread maker. Up until last week it had been kept tidy and boxed up waiting until it had a home, or there was just the right opportunity to use it.

I walked into the kitchen last week and realized that I had three very ripe bananas that were very soon going to a feast for some fruit flies, yuck...

So I ripped open the bread box, literally, found a recipe on line and went to work. It was really quite easy and made the house small wonderful. For the most part it was successful. Might have worked a bit better if I had opened the instruction book and seen that there was a banana bread recipe that was suggested by the manufacturer. Oh well, my husband is the instruction reader, I am more of the figure it out as you go kinda gal.

At any rate, it tasted great, but the sides had some opportunities. You can see this from the photos I am sure. I have to mention the glass in the picture, I found it while antiquing in PA with one of my best friends before the wedding. Seeing as we were on a wedding antiquing trip I knew that I had to purchase the Colorado glass being as that is where we were having the ceremony. I forgot about it until I was cleaning and re-organizing when we got home and was tickled to find it.