thing #1: needing some retail therapy after we lost one of our furry friends last weekend, i went to pottery barn and bought the green weston trunk i have been eyeing, which was on sale:
although it didn't elevate my mood as much as i would have liked at the time, i'm still quite pleased with it. we're supposed to close on the new place tomorrow, so we'll be brining in the trunk, rugs, and a few other bobbles i've already purchased.
thing #3: a friend of mine recently introduced me to the making it lovely blog, written by nicole blackman of smart & lovely and pink loves brown. she also resides in the chicago area, runs a card/stationery shop, does freelance design, blogs about decorating her house, and apparently shares an abhorrence of the font papyrus. check it out.
thing #4: i'm considering attending the national stationery show in new york in may, to network for tweedle press and olive paper. if anyone is going to be there, let me know so i can come say hi!
we miss you.
a friend helped me decide that the green trunk and bench would look best in the bedroom - i was trying to be democratic about it, but green is definitely my favorite color. so, now i'm trying to figure out the curtain situation. i've put a few options from anthropologie into the diagram: the ulla looks really nice with that floor lamp, but i'm not 100% sure i'm going to be getting that. the bird reference nicely picks up the green hues from the trunk and bench, but might be a little busy with the quilt. i'm not sure why i'm considering illyria - i just like it. ulla also looks nice with the quilt.
...we salute you.
actually, this is for anyone who's interested in this mysterious "registration" process. i'm designing a flyer for my new chicago locavores
group (dedicated to eating locally), and i've decided to embark upon an
ambitious 3 color letterpress print. so far i have successfully
registered 2 colors - so why not try for a third?? here is the flyer
broken down into its 3 parts:
you then cut up your plastic so that the three images are separate, and load plate #1 (smushy blue text) onto the press. print a whole bunch, because you'll need extra (or "makeready") sheets to practice registration. after you've cleaned the press of your blue ink, you load plate #2 (green text) onto the press. you then run you blue prints through the press again, adjusting placement until your crop marks all land right on top of each other. clean up again, load on plate #3 (orange), and go through the adjustment process until your crop marks all line up again. theoretically, once you're done you'll have a lovely 3-color print like this:
all ready for trimming! and there you have it - the magic of registration. i'm going to attempt this print next tuesday - i'll post about how it goes.
for anyone who has ever wondered what the term "typeography" means, or who has wondered what us designers sit around doing all day (besides blogging), check out these great videos from youtube. cred to prairie mod for the finds:
i just want to show off what is going to be OURS by next week. i have already done the mental move in (clearly), i have already jinxed as many things as possible by talking about it extensively, so don't give me any of your hoodoo warnings. it's going to be mine, dammit, and here's how awesome it is:
i am a magazine whore, it's true. i have attempted to cut down on the clutter over the years by tearing out the pages from magazines that are interesting to me, which has succeeded in getting most of the leftover issues out of the house. but now i'm left with a box titled "magazine clippings" which is getting rather...large. so, now i'm going to attempt a further step in de-clutterization by making a list here of some of the things i have found interesting and then recycling the pages themselves.
these things from eco-friendly flooring are just cool. maybe someday when i have a house built for me, i'll use these as a kitchen backsplash or something. that company also has a bunch of neat reclaimed wood flooring and recycled glass tiles. OK, that's one magazine page for the recycling bin! next up:
OK, these are pretty much the greatest tables ever. who knows what type of room a cluster of tables like these would actually work in, but it's fun to think about. i tried to check them out on the maoli website (an extremely irritating adventure in flash), but couldn't find them. oh well.
just daydreaming about a kids room someday - and this stuff from oompa is sooo adorable. remarkably affordable too, not like all that "designer" kid stuff. finally:
well, at least this goes to show that i have consistent taste. the distressed trunk and bench i'm considering for our bedroom (see earlier post) are both very similar to this clipping from pier 1.
the last clipping i'm moving to the recycle bin is a list of local home blogs that i've been meaning to check out:
www.houseinprogress.net
www.urbangreenproject.com
www.prairiemod.typepad.com
www.chicago.apartmenttherapy.com
www.designboner.blogspot.com
that's all for now - ta ta.
well, since i've already planned the new living room / dining room area, i figured it was time for me to get on to the new bedroom (oh darn). i am SO excited to have a bigger bedroom with lots of light, access to a master bath, and ENORMOUS closets. we've already got our bed, which i love. we also have 2 matching side tables of which i couldn't find pictures.
i have always been enamored with the idea of having a bedroom big enough to have a small reading chair or writing desk in the corner. the trouble is - finding a suitable comfy chair without upholstering that justs screams for the cats to destroy it. i'll likely wait until we get into the space before i start any serious research on the chair possibilities, just to make SURE there actually is enough room. i definitely don't to want to clutter and defeat the purpose of a bigger room. i also think, since we have such gigantic closets, i may attempt to eliminate the need for dressers. there are so many options for hanging closet racks and drawers these days i bet we can find some good stuff for our folded items. anyway, here is the layout i'm playing with:
i'm trying to decide if having a reading chair/table is really necessary and if we'll use it. especially since our bed is comfy for reading in, and i'll probably want to have some chairs out on the balcony anyway. if it seems silly when we get there, perhaps i'll opt for a small writing desk instead. that could be useful AND adorable. here are the items from the layout:
i'm still trying to decide on the color for the trunk and bench - they all seem to go so well with the quilt. perhaps it will become clearer once i decide on the drapes. i've had my eye on those rustic, distressed trunks from pottery barn forever. and the benches are SO adorable. how awesome to have a place to sit and tie your shoes - and also a storage trunk for extra pillows and blankets! a perfect place to throw shams...
i have completed my first "official" tweedle press letterpress job. custom invites (especially of the traditional wedding nature) aren't really my cup of tea, but this was more of a favor and also a good excuse to practice registration on a vandercook press. here's how it came out:
i've blurred the crucial information, just cause i thought it would probably be weird to advertise someone's personal party info on a blog. obviously from this scan you can't see the neat letterpress texture i achieved, but i went for a pretty deep punch to give is that "new" letterpress look. i used paper source luxe cream cover stock because it's no nice and squishy and takes the punch really well. even though the registration between the dark brown and the lighter goldy brown isn't very tight, you can still tell that it's lined up well by the centering. and trust me, those crop marks were TIGHT, baby!
this was a fairly small run (only 40), and i managed to escape with only about 25% makeready (that is, "practice" prints). this was done using photo polymer plates, and i'm pretty happy with how crisp everything came out.
i received my love bird rugs from west elm the other day. here's what they look like
i loooooooooooove these rugs. they're so perfect for my new "outdoor/indoor" theme for the dining room/living room. here are some better pictures of the other items i have planned for the living room. first, the trovata sofa and lounge chair from crate and barrel:
OK. i think that's enough for now. :)
