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Apparently I can't bear the thought of any idle time whatsoever because I've been working on a perpetual calendar design this week. Here is a sneak peek {click to make it larger}. If I can, you know, somehow create more free hours in the day, I'll be printing these in the next two weeks, in time to bring with me to the Sunday Best Holiday Sale. These will be printed 2-up on 8.5 x 11 Lettra so each page will be a finished size of 4.25 x 11. I narrowed this project down to just 6 colors + black text – peacock, leaf, ochre, cranberry, thistle, slate and I paired month layouts to be able to print everything 2-up. So what you see above are months May and June, but these won't be printed together. May will be printed with August {thistle}; June will be printed with March {leaf}. I'm planning to print about 100 of these this round. I'm not entirely sure about the price yet, but I'm thinking around $25-30.
There was an interesting reaction to this calendar over at design sponge last week ... Form and function – I believe there can be a balance between the two; it's not an either/or situation, really, and why should it be? And isn't function is a subjective term? Couldn't you argue that beauty by itself is and should be a function in our lives. I hope so, even if we all have different notions of beauty ...
But, all the discussion aside, the beauty of the perpetual calendar IS its usefulness. It can be used a birthday reminder or perhaps as a condensed journal ... jotting down a few words that capture the day, which is how I plan to use on of these. Maybe you need a calendar meant for tracking your schedule {and I really, really do, but I use google calendar for that}; maybe you're looking for a print that is only very loosely a calendar and more a print, like Beverly's {or like this lovely one from Hello Handmade last year, which I have hanging in my house}; maybe you're someone, like me, who has never been very good at keeping a journal but could find time to write down a few words a day ...
{Thank you, Lia, for giving me that final push toward working on these. I hope you'll like it.}
New pretties, in my shops today, here and here. The gift tags – part of the collaboration with Heather Moore of Skinny laMinx – are so sweet. You get three of each color (cranberry, ochre, silver sage and leaf) and I think they're so perfect for your handmade/homemade gifts this season. They're pretty labor intensive – I print them 4-up but then need to cut them down, drill them, corner round and then package them up in glassine bags. I hope I've priced them well at $8 for a set of 12.
Rainy, rainy afternoon. It is so dark out right now, but this morning it was clearer and we went to an estate sale and then to the toy store looking for dinosaur bingo. Last night we went to Liam's elementary school for family game night, which was so cute. Liam ran off as soon as we got there to play with some kids in his class and so Ben and I played UNO with our neighbors. I loved seeing Liam so comfortable and having so much fun with his classmates.
These lovelies are up in my shops, here and here. These are reprints of a collaboration I did with Lara Cameron a few years ago. They were originally printed as such – japanese trees in teal, birch in orange, treehouses in leaf green – but just reprinted them in this lovely subtle silver. There is just the slightest bit of shine to these cards and I like how they look a bit like brocade, especially the Japanese trees one.
So, if you are a stickler for details, as I am, you might notice when you click on that second photo above that the text reads melbourne, australia + portland, oregon. Wait a minute. I don't live in Portland anymore. I realized this slight error when about half way through the stack. So I let it go. I do believe this is called picking my battles. And it's kind of a big deal for me to do this because as I've duly noted before ... I'm sort of a perfectionist. So, for the record, I live in Corvallis now, not Portland ... but I am still Lynn Russell and this is still Satsuma Press and the cards – they are still pretty.
By the way, it's been sneaking up on me ... I will be at the Sunday Best Holiday Sale on November 28th and 29th at The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel in Portland. Please come! This is the only holiday sale I've decided to do this year. I just couldn't pass it up; the company is so fine.
We had a busy weekend, but a good one in many ways. Our friend's son came for Halloween with his grandma and grandpa – this is the same friend who died this summer, so it was a wonderful and difficult time. Mostly wonderful, really, to watch Liam and Angus play together and to have time with our friend's mom and her husband.
On Sunday morning, we took Liam and Angus to the school playground and brought along our little neighbor, Olivia. My heart broke when I watched Angus and Olivia run ahead of Liam. It was put back together a little bit as we crossed the street, me holding Angus' hand, Angus holding Olivia's hand, Olivia holding Liam's hand. It broke again when the first place they ran to at the playground was one where Liam just can't participate – the climbing wall. None of this was meant to be hurtful, but these are lessons that I never really wanted to teach my child or other children. This happens often and it's not more than I can bear, but it was more than I could bear that day and at that moment. I know it was because of not just what was happening, but because of how intense it is to be with Van's mom and son and not him. It's because, also, this won't be the first time or the last – both for what happened with Liam and being without a friend. And it's hard, all of it. So my heart broke and I cried and I had to leave the playground and walk home by myself. On the way home, I picked up these leaves and I felt better.
I am having one of those days where the to-do list is very long and doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Even the little tasks for my day have yet to be crossed off. I discovered right as I was packing up a wholesale order today that I'd mistakenly printed the wrong design. Well, something like that – right color, wrong design. How do these things happen? Well, I am guessing it has something to do with being tired and just a wee bit overwhelmed with the to-do list these days.
This morning as Liam and I were headed out the door to school, Ben had to fix the Snappie again. It threw me off a bit as we were then rushing to get to school. It was made more pleasant by the ride Liam insisted he give me (just for one block, before we got in sight of school where rides are against the rules). And also by the beautiful leaves I picked up on the walk home.
Since my to-do list is still pretty much as long as it was at the start of the day, I've decided to just take a much needed break. I'm leaving to pick up Liam in ten minutes and when we get home we are going to listen to Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh on CD which I picked up at the library yesterday. I remember reading this story when I was a child and I loved it. And I am going to work on my sweater and cook some variation of this for dinner.
Tomorrow is a whole new day. I have new cards to show you and some photos from the weekend when I come back next.
I have a long to-do list today so this will be brief. A new stockist for my stationery asked if I had a photo of myself printing. I don't, but I tried to take a photo of myself just now using photo-booth on my computer. I hate hate hate taking photos of myself. I know the lighting is really terrible and I'll try again later when the afternoon sun comes in, but here I am. I realized that most of you don't even know what I look like! Not that this matters, really, but it IS nice to put a face to a name, right?
Today I am wearing my brand new most favorite dress ever. It's made by the lovely, patient and oh-so-talented Ursula of Modaspia. I sent her this rust colored fine wale corduroy that I've had for, oh, three years ... It's been sitting in a box with loads of other fabric I love, yet do you remember that I don't know how to sew? At all. Thank goodness for Ursula. She is the best. This dress is the best. I think I could fill my closet with this dress in different fabrics and never look back. (It's the Fiji Dress, if you are interested in the style.)
