sky blue feathers

Two new sets of cards in the shop now – sweet duos with cranberry red and sky blue, one of my favorite color combinations.

Also: the new website is up.

i'm still here, really

I know. It seems as if I've fallen off the face of the earth. I haven't – I am still here. The thing is I got pretty sick for two weeks with this very persistent viral cough and I'm only just now getting better. So I am behind on many things, but I'm pleased to let you know that I have Valentine's Day cards ready!


I think they're quite nice – sweet but not saccharine. And I think you could send them any time of year, really. In my shops right now – here and here.

In other news ...

+ My cleaned up website is almost done. Or I mean to say I am almost ready to make the leap. I'm hoping I like it. I'm hoping you will like it.

+ I am totally undecided on whether to move my online journal over to said new website (as it appears now, if you click over there) or whether to keep this one going. Thoughts? I am not very good at posting regularly, but I do enjoy it and I'm not sure the Cargo Collective platform really allows for online journal entries very well. Anyway, it seems to be that this blogging thing only gets harder if I put it off, if that makes sense. Case in point – my long absence from this space as of late ...

+ I think I mentioned briefly, at least over at the new site, that I might start – from time to time – to sell some of the other things I work on in my spare time, like knitting and felt wreaths and packaging supplies. But I have since re-evaluated this, at least for now, while I am playing catch-up with just about everything. I decided that the knitting that I so love to do will stay a project just for myself and those friends and family who receive goodies. Maybe, just maybe, when I feel like I have more free time I will offer up these things, if people are interested.




+ The first packages for Mailbox Monthly go out tomorrow! A little late, but oh-so-lovely.

+ Last of all, I was super excited to see that Satsuma Press was nominated for The Poppies Papergoods Section. Won't you please go over there and vote for me?

+ Last of all, for real – thank you for visiting me here. I wish you the happiest of days in this new year.

so many ideas

Oh my goodness. I am overwhelmed by ideas right now. To start, I should say that it seems that every January seems to get off to a slow start for me. This is not a bad thing, actually. I really need that down time after the holiday season madness.

I re-opened my etsy shop this morning. It's just the same as it has been before. I had some lofty ideas about restructuring my online shops, turning my etsy one into a space for on-the-side craft projects and keeping my big cartel one for letterpress only. Projects like pretty packaging supplies paired with letterpress tags, and handknit cowls and scarves:




But here's the thing – that idea has been replaced by a newer and bigger project. Although I may still offer some non-letterpress goodies, too; it may just take me a little longer to sort out the details of this.

Let me back up just a little bit. Have any of you checked out the new online space for Martha of Uniform Studio? It is so lovely, and it gave me some good, solid ideas of how to rethink mine. It's been bothering me for a while now how many urls I seem to have amassed over the past few years. I would really like to narrow it down to just one again, preferably www.satsumapress.com, to keep it simple. I love how Martha's new site falls somewhere in between a daily blog and a static showcase website. This is what I want, in part because the truth is that I neither blog daily nor update my main or wedding website often. I want a clean and simplified website, one which you can navigate easily and better represents my overall aesthetic. I did a quick sketch of how the home page might look (click to enlarge):




This is a beginning stage of my thought process, but my idea is loosely based on Martha's new site ... The images above would be clickable, leading to slideshows and/or bodies of text, but not a new screen in itself. No need for pushing the back button, everything would remain on the screen, just shifted around. A dynamic site, but crisp and clean for the new year. What do you think? Keep in mind that even though I use my computer and the internet an awful lot, I've managed to keep myself in the dark regarding programming and such things. Martha uses Cargo Collective, and I've sent an email off to them with lots of questions. Let's see if I can decipher their answers when they arrive!


P.S. It's officially a work in progress. I received an email back from Cargo Collective a while ago ... no instructions, but a link to set up a site. So I went for it and am playing around with how it all works and comes together. You can peek right here and watch me stumble along :) I won't be ready to switch this over to my main site til I know it's going to work out for me – or you, actually. I'd love to hear feedback.

hello new year

Well hello again. A new year, a fresh start – hurrah! 2009 was difficult – full of both sadness and joy. My few weeks of self-imposed vacation were lovely and necessary. I am back in the studio this week – not quite full time because, I'm finding, that it takes a bit of time to ease back into the mad swing of things. Trust me, I have a head full of ideas and projects ... and I'll get right on these, soon. In the meantime, I've been doing things like cooking and knitting and reading and organizing and sorting and making new music mixes for this first month of 2010. All good stuff.




Speaking of good stuff ... you may or may not know that I love the combination of gray and yellow, so I'm thinking these sheets were made just for me ...


Go here, listen to this. Thoughts on the new year on NPR by Ben Mattlin, a journalist in Los Angeles who also happens to have Spinal Muscular Atrophy, same as my boy.