colors

Last week I was a guest over at Style Me Pretty! You can read all the posts by clicking right here, but I think the most exciting one will be the wedding line giveaway, which is open for one more week!

When I started reading through the comments left so far, I really wanted to show some examples of how much your color choices can affect the entire look of your invitations. Of course, there are a few designs that just seem to fit with a certain season – the ginkgo, for example, in the fall and the narcissus in the spring ... but even that can change with your use of color – the ginkgo in a bright green could suggest spring and the narcissus in silver ink could work just perfect for winter ... think of forcing narcissus bulbs in December and January ...

Anyway, I put together a few examples of color combinations for you ... Enjoy! (Click on images to see them slightly bigger.)

2010 calendar

Some sneak peeks of the drawings I've been doing for the 2010 calendar ... Click on images above for a larger view.

looking ahead

It's almost July and I'm starting to draw the 2010 calendar. My plan this year, if all goes well, is to finish all the drawings by the end of July so that I can have the calendar printed and ready to go by no mid-September. I know this might seem like a lot of time, but inspiration doesn't always strike in one go. I definitely have ideas, though; it's just a matter of putting them down and doing it well.



I'm curious to know, though, if you think it's necessary to have 12 brand new drawings – or if it's okay to rely on a few favorites? Or perhaps to use the same subject looked at differently? Hydrangeas, Chinese Lanterns, Ginkgo – these are ones that have been in past calendars, but that I'm thinking of using again. Either a new drawing or parts of an old one with a pattern incorporated in the background ... In general, I'm leaning toward botanicals and feathers for 2010. What do you think?


I spent a few hours today browing the internet for ideas. What I do is look at vintage botanical drawings, photographs and fabric patterns. I'm looking for shapes that translate well to letterpress, for colors that I'd like to build on for the whole year ...

surprise!

The guest posts are up at Style Me Pretty TODAY! There are some fun things to look at so please pop over there.

Don't forget: there is a fantastic wedding line giveaway over there right now. If you're interested in wedding invitations, you won't want to miss this. The winner, chosen at random on July 6th, will receive 50 two-color invites with printed envelopes and 50 one-color reply cards with envelopes. Also, EVERYONE who leaves a comment for the giveaway over at Style Me Pretty is eligible for a 25% discount off their wedding line order if placed before August 1, 2009.


And there is a calling card giveaway at Cup of Jo later today. OOPS, we just changed this: the Cup of Jo giveaway will take place NEXT WEDNESDAY, July 1. I'll give you a reminder next week!

calling card giveaway!

In my flurry of activity to get my guest posts done for Style Me Pretty, I totally neglected to let you know that there is going to be a calling card giveaway over at Cup of Jo tomorrow! I won't give away the details, but if you've been thinking you might like some calling cards of your own, pop over to Cup of Jo tomorrow – you just might win! Really, you might – there are going to be 3 winners chosen at random on Friday, but you only have a day to enter the drawing. Best of luck!

a peek

Here is a quick snapshot of the things I have been doing today to get ready for my guest posts over at Style Me Pretty. Even though I've been thinking about what I want to write about for Style Me Pretty over the past week or two, I've left much of the actual doing to, well, the last minute. I don't usually take or have the time to work on these crafty projects these days so I've really enjoyed my time with this – and I hope you will, too.

Here's what you'll find over there on Friday: a wedding line giveaway, a letterpress printed menu for some very special friends, paper cranes {with a tutorial drawn by the lovely Alyson of Unruly Things}, Japanese masking tape garlands, a bespoke wedding invitation {that began as a eucalyptus drawing and ended with a tandem bicycle!} for some of the best clients ever, some seasonal menu ideas for weddings ... Come visit over at Style Me Pretty on Friday!!

wishing

I am wishing I could spend all morning in bed, reading my book. I had a wonderful weekend away, seeing Ben and Liam and lots of friends, but I definitely didn't get a whole lot of sleep. With Liam and Ben still gone, today would have been a lovely morning for staying in bed – I never really get to do this – only I have a lot to get done. I'll be packing up a big wholesale order for Heath, cutting and finishing a wedding job and writing my guest posts for Style Me Pretty which will go up on Friday. Don't forget to come visit me over there. There is going to be a giveaway from the wedding line!

help out?

I know I've written about my friends, Ali and Evan, before. They own the Little Red Bike Cafe in Portland – and I miss both the cafe and them ever since we moved last year. Our old house was just a skip and a hop from the cafe and I really do try to stop by whenever I'm in Portland. Anyway, Ali and her sister, Tara, are applying for this job – the perfect job for them as 'lifestyle correspondents' – at family run Murphy-Goode Winery in Sonoma County. The nitty gritty details of it all are right here, in their own words. This would be an incredible opportunity for them and so I'm asking you to check out there video right here and vote for them!


Oh and speaking of my old house ... We are looking for new tenants to move in the first week of August! It's a charming mid-century house and it needs some lovely people to live in it. Here's the scoop.

Built in the 1940s, kitty corner from lush Columbia Park. The house itself is about 950 square feet with two large bedrooms and 1 small bathroom. There are wood floors throughout (except for tile in the bathroom). There is also a huge backyard, full 950 SF basement (unfinished but clean) with washer and dryer, big living room with coved ceilings, small dining area, very small but well laid-out kitchen with gas stove and dishwasher – and lots of big windows and picture railing throughout the house. There is a driveway and an attached garage with windows as well. The front walkway to the main house is ramped and there is also whole house a/c. We love this house and want to find the perfect renters who will love it, too.


$1350/month with preferably a one year lease or possibly rent-to-own option. No dogs, please. Interested? Please email me at lynn@satsumapress.com.

lovely

Aren't these necklaces so beautiful? I think so. I love the combination of simplicity and detail, if that makes sense. You can take a peek at all of them right here. I am working on a few projects around the (very quiet) house today. Ben and Liam left for a two week road trip to visit friends in the Columbia River Gorge and Ben's family on Whidbey Island. It's very, very quiet here, which I both like and don't like at the same time. I'm heading out tomorrow to see them and others in the Gorge, for our friends' annual Solstice party.

A little more about those projects ... I'll be guest blogging over at Style Me Pretty next Friday – come see! I've never done this before – hence the projects around here. They're a surprise, nothing fancy, but pretty and fun for me and hopefully you, too. There will be a great Satsuma Press Wedding Line giveaway included in my posts over there – and the lovely Alyson from Unruly Things is helping me out with a little something something, too! Happy Friday, everyone. Have a wonderful weekend.

farmers market meal

We've gone to the Farmers Market the past two weeks – and I've made this dish both weeks. We all three love it – and it's easy. Fava beans and wild mushrooms (I've used a combination of oyster, shiitake and maitake) with egg pappardelle and freshly grated parmesan. The most time consuming part is double shelling the fava beans – in case you don't know, you first remove the fava beans from their big pod and then you remove the thick outer casing from each individual fava. It takes time, but it's worth it.

pretty

What can I say? I think Poladroid is so much fun. I can't get enough ... It gives these pictures a whole new life.

poladroid fun!

I feel like I'm often a bit late to the table, but I finally checked out this cool (and free) program that turns your digital photos into (fake) polaroids. I admit it – I love it, partly because it reminds me of the polariods I do actually have from when I was little and partly because in college we had a polaroid camera floating around.




I know it's kind of ridiculous, but I want to turn all my photos into 'polaroids' now! Check it out, you'll probably have fun with it, too.

reading

I started a wonderful book yesterday – Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson. I particularly like this excerpt.

I can take one individual note out of the music I am trying to write at the moment, and it could belong anywhere. Yet where it sits, where I have placed it, it follows what came before and leads to what comes after. Without it the whole would not be as it is. As the composer I must know each individual note in order to make the whole. Like the colors on an artist's palette, on their own the notes are absolute, yet when they are placed in a particular work, their individuality becomes one with the whole. They have to be chosen for what they are – red, yellow, blue – but with the effect of their combined potential in the mind. It is necessary to know the parts in order to make up the whole. It applies to music, to art, and to life itself, I think. When you listen to the finished composition, or when you go about living your life, the individual components join to make a whole that can so easily be taken for granted. But it is not until you become aware of the parts that you can begin to understand the miracle. It took me almost a lifetime to start searching for the sounds, the notes that make my life's music. And it required a sacrifice so enormous that it did away with all that had made my life meaningful. But in the total silence that came afterward, I finally heard a first single note, and others slowly followed.

I am about half way through the book already – it's a short book, I'm a fast reader – and I don't really want it to end. I think I'll get the other book by Linda Olsson – Astrid & Veronika – right away.

3 things

1. Peonies are my favorite flower. I bought these almost a week ago at the Farmers Market and they're still lovely. In the background are some lovely yellow linen napkins from Elisabeth Bentz.


2. I made pizza last night – home-made crust with home-made pesto + orange peppers, ham, ricotta and pine nuts. I sort of followed the pizza dough recipe from here, but not very well because after I made it I realized I used active dry yeast instead of instant. It still came out beautifully. I definitely recommend broiling the pizza. It only takes about 5 minutes to cook this way and you get those charred edges and bubbles. I'm going to try another dough recipe today that includes wine and honey.

3. I am super excited to receive this print from Enormous Champion soon. We are trading which makes it all the better, as far as I'm concerned. It's for Liam (whose last day of pre-school is tomorrow!) – although really for all of us – but particularly for him because he got to see a baby whale and its mama over Memorial Day Weekend when he and Ben went on a vintage airplane ride at the coast.

rainy day tasks

Yesterday afternoon the most terrific storm came in – thunder and lightening and a downpour. Today it is still rainy and I am filling my time with little tasks. The first was to tidy up the studio and put things back in their rightful places. Then I spent a little time cutting down paper to print some calling card orders and making a list of studio supplies that need to be re-ordered.

Here are 3 things on my mind:

1. I'm so excited that the lovely Abby asked me to be part of her summer social + sale this July!

2. Liam got to visit his kindergarten classroom yesterday! His new teacher is wonderful – the kind of person who can spend his days with five year olds, but still speak to them {and other adults} without all that cutesy baby talk. I love that. I found out that at the end of the school day, all the kindergarteners leave using the door from their classroom directly to the front of the school, instead of the main entrance. I was so happy to hear that this door, which has one step down, is going to be ramped over the summer so that Liam can leave the class at the end of the day using the same door as all his class-mates!

3. I'm thinking of rainy-day food for tonight ... something I can make without going to the grocery store. I think dinner may be chicken thighs braised with scallions, shiitake and white miso.

P.S. I forgot to mention: there's going to be a great give-away from the wedding line next week on Style Me Pretty! Be sure to check back for details.

get involved, please

This is important – not just for my family, specifically, but for everyone. Please take a moment to read what my mother has to say – and take another moment to speak up for our rights. It matters so much.


A Message and a Plea from Liam’s grandma

As you probably know the national debate for health care reform is now heating up big time. And as many of you know – or can read about here – Lynn, Ben and Liam had a major shock and disappointment when their insurer, Assurant, denied coverage for Liam’s Snappie wheelchair. At that time, I took on the challenge of confronting Assurant.

After more than a year of their evasions and deceptions, Good Morning America picked up the story – where I proudly confess Diane Sawyer called me a “furious grandmother.” As a result of our “outing,” Assurant conducted an industry-wide study that resulted in a decision to cover power-mobility in the future -- but not for Liam! A small victory indeed.

But as a child of the 60’s, I was not done. Thousands of other people with individual policies (vs group employer-sponsored plans) make up a third category beyond the uninsured and under insured -- The Falsely Insured: those who are similarly denied coverage when a health care catastrophe occurs. They, and the rest of us, desperately need substantive national reform to make these egregious private insurers accountable for actually covering those whose money they so willing take each month.

A CALL TO ACTION

FACT: Because the state and federal laws that protect individuals with employer-sponsored insurance do not apply to health insurance sold in the individual market, quality health care is being routinely denied to many consumers of private individual insurance policies.

CAUSE: The private insurance industry embeds their individual policies with arbitrary and contradictory language to “legally” deny benefits. Likewise their grievance procedures are biased against the consumer, with a monolith of lawyers positioned to maximize company profit rather than equitably insure their claimants.

CURE: A ‘public’ insurance plan, backed by government regulations and oversight, that will give individuals not only a choice of reliable coverage at an affordable cost, but an assurance that they will indeed receive the health care they need, regardless of cost. Such a public plan will, by necessity, compel the competition needed to keep the private sector in the game.

MY PLEA

Please get involved, sooner rather than later. Spend a little time to learn the issues, knowing full well that in ‘these difficult times’ (don’t you just hate that phrase) you, or someone you love, could well be poised to join Lynn, Ben and Liam in the ranks of The Falsely Insured.

Then contact your Senators and Representatives and tell them to vote for The Single-Payer Plan, which will eliminate the private sector altogether! But since this is extremely unlikely, it is critical that we insist, at the very least, that the existing legislation that protects people in group plans, be extended to the private sector’s individual policies as well. (Be aware that although the industry has agreed to increase ACCESS to insurance, they have not agreed to actually PROVIDE THE BENEFITS they imply they are selling.)

If you’re not sure who your representatives are, it only takes a minute to go to: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov to identify them by state and use their on-line forms to send a strongly worded message. As a constituent you do have power, and your voice is essential to counteract the private insurance industry’s well-financed campaign of misinformation in their effort to maintain ‘business-as-usual.’

While we want to believe that catastrophes only happen to other people, my family knows otherwise. And you do too. So please take the time, at this critical time, to speak up. Your voice can make a difference, and all together… yes we can.

I thank you for reading through this rather lengthy message, and I’d be only too happy to correspond with any of you who might want more details.

Amy
mosamy2@gmail.com

letterpress workshop!

I've been meaning to figure out the dates for this for a while now. Here's the scoop, friends. If you're in the area, I'd love for you to join me for this! Letterpress printing + home-made lunch = day of fun.

Print your own calling cards!

Letterpress workshop with Satsuma Press

Saturday, June 27 + Sunday, June 28

10 am - 4 pm

Please come spend the day with me in my studio and have the chance to letterpress print your own calling cards from the new Satsuma Press Calling Card Line. This workshop is for people with no letterpress experience, but with lots of interest! It is helpful, but not necessary, if you participated in my first workshop.

I love to cook, so as part of the day, it will be my pleasure to provide a simple, seasonal home-made lunch – savory galettes and salad, most likely. Please let me know if you have any allergies or dietary restrictions and I will do my very best to accommodate you. The workshop will begin at 10 am and end at 4 pm – or sooner if we print quicker! We'll take a 45 minute break for lunch, too.

To keep things moving as smoothly as possible, the workshop is limited to 4 people for each day. The cost is $165 per person – each person will go home with 150 two-color calling cards, plus a happy belly full of good food ... The details on how to sign up follow just below. It is first come, first serve; if there is a waiting list, I will let you know this as well. Please be sure to let your friends in the area know, too! If you are local, please email for more information on how to register.

where i've been

Where I have been is not here ...

Liam came home from pre-school with a cough on Thursday and it got nasty so quick. On Friday, he woke up from his nap with a fever of 103 and a super high heart rate. We could tell this for sure because we have a pulse-oximeter, although I could also see that his breathing was too fast. Each time Liam is sick, I learn something new, I think. This time, I learned from his pediatrician that the high pulse goes hand in hand with his high fever. And from his pulmonologist, I learned that the high pulse will be the last thing to go, even after the fever has broken. Anyway, he was a really sick little boy this weekend, using his Cough Assist and BiPAP a lot. He is definitely on the mend now, for which I am so thankful. I think he is one of the bravest little kids I know.

I know all this medical equipment can seem daunting and scary, but the truth is that without it, we'd probably have had to go to the hospital this weekend. Without it, we wouldn't be able to necessarily gauge how sick Liam was – and that is far scarier ... That is exactly what happened last February when he developed RSV-related pneumonia in just two days and was taken to the Pediatric ICU. The Cough Assist we've had for a while, since the fall after we went to our first Families of SMA conference in July of 2006. We rented one for a while, but then was given one by FSMA after being on the waitlist for about a year. And the pulse-ox and BiPAP were new pieces of equipment that we got through our insurance after being in PICU for 5 days. As a short aside, I am very grateful that our insurance has provided this equipment – as, if you've read this blog for a while, you know they haven't always come through for us – but it's simply a matter of weighing the financial odds on their part – since it costs about eight thousand dollars a day to be in PICU ...

In any case, the most important thing, as ever, is that Liam is doing better today. Still coughing, still under the weather, but not in that terrifying place anymore. I'll be with him this week as needed, but back to printing as soon as I can. I have quite a few projects to print – although I also managed to trip and sprain my ankle in the middle of the night on Friday ... so I'm hoping it'll be all better by tomorrow. It's not the easiest thing to print with a swollen ankle – remember the two and half steps forward, two and a half steps back rhythm of printing ...

But I promise, there will be printing updates ... eventually!