Letterpress! Pressing Letters!

It’s 10:47 on a Friday night and we’re not out on the town, not at a concert, not at a basketball game…we’re doing something MUCH more exciting. (Well, I’m doing something more exciting…Jeff is watching the Thunder get their butts whooped.)  This is like wiggle around for 3 days exciting.

I have sent in a beautiful file to a wonderful company called Boxcar Press. This file will be made into a letterpress plate, which will get shipped back to me on Tuesday. I’ll be able to hand-make our very own letterpress wedding invitations! Oh gosh, this is going to be neat. 

(This is letterpress via OhHappyDay! – the design is pressed deep into thick, cotton paper, leaving a crisp, beautiful image. Ah, it’s so pretty.)

I’ll give you some background on why this process and product are so important to me – I am a very tactile person. I love getting/giving hugs, I love massages, my love language is touch, I feel my way through the store as I shop for clothes, I enjoy textured things, etc. Well, my sister, being the awesome lady she is, got me a littleDIY letterpress machine for Christmas 2010. I haven’t letterpressed anything too important so far…basically been practicing on scrap paper until I can get to our wedding invites. Since I don’t have too much experience, don’t judge too hard if your invitation has little imperfections. Consider them proof that I’m learning a new craft and someday I can make you neat stationery.

I won’t give any hints on the design because I want you to be surprised when you get your piece of mail, but know this…our wedding invitations are going to be really sweet, different, touchy, pretty and perfect for our shindig in May. I’m really excited to see them! Like, wiggle around excited! :)

Future.

Went to my second PRSA OKC chapter meeting this afternoon and got pretty inspired to make (pardon me) shit happen at work.  I'll be completely honest, after New Year's, I haven't been the most motivated, compelled or even excited to get to work in the mornings.  I would much rather scuff around the house in my robe, drinking a tasty hot tea.  I'm too young to be this boring. 

I think a good jolt of energy will come next Monday, when we're finally housed in our original location - a cool, old fire station.  Back in June, our offices got completely ruined by a crazy flood.  Crazy as in helicopter-people-rescues-crazy.  The flood day, the day of despair and tragedy for the Arts Council, was my first day of work.  Talk about a bad omen, huh?  "Turn baaaack!"  "Do not enterrrrr!"  Haha, I just imagine little ghosts flying around the old building yelling at me.

Here's a gorgeous photo of some flooded nastiness. 

So, back to this coming Monday.  We're moving into a freshly-renovated office space with all new Ikea furniture, great lighting, polished concrete floors, new paint, etc.  It might be just what I need to shake me up a bit so I don't get too far-removed from the duties of my job.  I really do enjoy it here - great folks, great events, even greater hours.  I'll be happy to have a 'new' home. 

Wedding Design Struggle

Out of everything involved in planning the coolest wedding in the world, the absolute hardest task for me is determining how to design our save the dates/invites/stationery.  Surprised?  Yeah, me too.  I've done plenty of wedding designs for friends, colleagues and even strangers.  I have about fifteen thousand ideas floating around in my head, but for some reason, I'm having a difficult time harnessing my thoughts and cranking out a great wedding suite.  Trust me, I am frustrated beyond my ends.  I even (gasp!) thought about asking a friend to do them so I'd quit racking my brain.  I think this comment from one of my design pals made me even more nervous!  (It honestly made me laugh/relax a bit...thank you, Jeff Clark.)

I had zero tough time figuring out my flowers, cake, dress (OK, maybe a little bit of searching!), the date, etc, etc, etc.  Finally, Mr. Level-Headed-Trotter said, "Em, whatever you make will be great.  You just need to sit down and actually get the save the dates done.  Then we'll work on the invitations."  Deal.

I've ordered our paper and envelopes, and, pat on our backs, they're made of 100% recycled materials.  Green is good, folks.  Then tonight I decided we needed a cute little return address stamp, which will be used long after the wedding is over.  And, friends, it's so much more affordable to order a stamp (think of all the fun colors!) than to print your return address on your envelopes.  The latter costs more because your print house has to run them through a special press - the cost could probably start at $55, maybe more.  Anyway, I love stamps and here's where I ordered ours.  I got 2 and my total was about $24.  Boom.

We're also giving away little treats at the end of the evening in sweet little bags, so we thought stamping on those could be neat, too.  While I won't show you the save the date design just yet, I will show you our two little stamps.  Simple, clean, yes.  At least my hamster wheel is turning...we'll see how it all turns out!  (Turns?  Get it???  Oh, nevermind.)

Kids.

No, I'm not prego, nor will I be for many years.  (Calm down, mom.)  This post is about kids in weddings.  I love watching kids in other people's weddings - they trip, they dance around, the kick things, they yell, they get paid to stand still.  It's hilarious to watch these little humans go nuts after putting on a cute and tiny outfit.  They're sent down the aisle with such freedom..."No one is holding my hand, OH MY GOSH I'm going to sprint now!  Then drop-kick this pillow!  Then probably scream a little bit!  YES!"  It is great.

Another darling thing about kids in weddings is this:

VIA Style Me Pretty

Those dresses are absolutely gorgeous.  What sweet little kids.  EVEN BETTER, you can have the kids in your wedding dress according to your wedding venue.  For example, my sister, Kelly, got married in sunny Mexico.  What better ring bearer to have than a pirate?  Yes.  A pirate walked down her aisle...sword attached.  It was genius and really special.  Everyone laughed. What a hoot.

Jeff and I had considered having kiddos in the wedding.  They could wear little Ray Bans and be rock 'n roll - a nod to our venue, the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.  We're just not sure if we'll do it - yes, we have some really cool kids in our lives (cousins' babies!) and yes, they'd be awesomely cool.  Just one of those little decisions that is in the back of my mind!  Anyone have any thoughts??? 

 

iPhone

Anyone know if there is a blog app for the iPhone? I'd like to update this thing right on my phone.

Dude Rings.

Lately I've been exploring the fun possibilities for kickass rings for Jeff. He gets a little circle of trust. Can't wait to give it to him.

Anyway, Jeff's in construction. He builds things. He gets dirty. His hands are man-hands with either paint, blood, glue or dust on them...always. He doesn't need/want anything fancy.

But look what I found today. This might be the most perfect ring for him. It's made of concrete. Yes, concrete. That says "man ring" all over it.

Best Sounds.

One of my all-time favorite songs.  Ryan Adams does a marvelous job covering Alice in Chains...that steel guitar just kills it.  Ah, I could melt every time I hear this.  Love it.