{inspired} letterpress, again

It's no secret that I love typography and letterpress. As if my most recent art acquisition isn't enough, I've also posted about it here, here and here. 

A couple weeks ago I saw this letterpress wallpaper. And not to get all dramatic on you, but then I died.

Seriously. Amazing right? (Especially when paired with those amazing capiz chandeliers!)

Although I spotted it on Swiss Miss, it comes from Wall and Deco. I actually lost part of my morning on their site. They have some amazing wallpapers! Such as ...

 and ...

But, speaking of letterpress (yes, I'm ALL over the place today. It's completely indicative of the week I'm having!), I also ran across the amazing Letterpress Daily site recently and have to share with you guys. It's where designer David Wolsk shares his letterpress collection. LOVE. THIS. SITE!

There's a collection of ampersands ...

Font collections that include interesting tidbits and histories about the font ....

As well as individual letters in a variety of fonts. A lot of these also have an explanation of font histories.

If you love (or even just appreciate) letterpress and fonts in general, you need to check this site out. 

Do you have a favorite font? Mine changes every few months, but lately I'm really loving futura light. What's your favorite font?

{inspired} new art!

Don't you just love happy, sweet surprises? I've been putting off telling you what my husband bought me for Christmas (remember that holiday a couple months ago?!), because I wanted to get it hung first. Yep, it's new art! But, first the back story. You might remember that in December I went to Crafty Wonderland here in Portland. And I bought a whole bunch of amazing hand made gifts and decor. At the end of my wrap up post, I mentioned that I'd seen an adorable type writer print and hemmed and hawed and then left without making it back to the booth. Of course I thought about it later and really wanted it, but couldn't find it online!

Well, my completely fantastic husband called the artist, Jigsaw Graphics, and arranged to go pick one up from her house (a huge perk of buying locally!)!

I was so surprised when I opened *the one that got away!* Isn't it adorable? It came framed with that bright and cheery fabric mat.

While I was hanging, I took a moment to refresh our has-been-empty-since-Christmas mantle. I'm still not quite sure what to do with it. Maybe an afternoon of Shelf Styling 101 is in order again?

I also wanted to share this little card with you all, because it's just the cutest thing I've ever seen. I found this set of 12 cards in a very small stationary shop in Boston a few years ago. They were in the window display and I immediately went and bought a box. I love Florence, and this dress silhouette is just beautiful. When I got home from Boston I was kicking myself for not buying more because I couldn't find them anywhere online and LOVE them. (Do you see a theme in this post?! Or at least an insight into how my brain works! :) But, I really like it framed. And maybe since I have a *forever* version now, I can move on and actually use the note cards for their intended purpose. Which I'm pretty sure was not sitting on my desk collecting dust.

Aren't begonia leaves gorgeous?! So dramatic!

So there's my updated mantle and artwork. Do you love the artwork? Want to check out more amazing letterpress? You can visit their site here. Want to purchase this amazing piece specifically? Shoot an email here.

{inspire) dessert recipes + holiday gifts

Happy friday friends! It's been a crazy week and I have a couple sort of random things I wanted to share before the weekend.

First, the recipes from our party last weekend. Because they were all so good!

Left: Candy Cane Marshmallow, Middle: Fudge Kiss Cookies, Top Right: Cinnamon Star Cookies, Middle Right: Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache   Bottom Right: Cake Pops

The crowd favorite? The cake pops! They were such a big hit and everyone took some for the road. My favorite were the Fudge Kiss Cookies. They are dangerously rich and peppermint-y. I love that combo this time of year. The sleeper hit were the Cinnamon Star Cookies. I wanted a non-chocolate option, and these are naturally gluten free so I wanted to give them a try. They were amazing! I would make them again in a second.

And, what's a good party without a little holiday spirits?

Ingredients for a great mulled wine. Yum!

And that leads us to random point number 2 of the day. I forgot to follow up after Crafty Wonderland last weekend! I've talked about it enough ... I thought I'd show a few of the great Christmas gifts we came home with for our friends and family.

Clockwise from top: Portland pennant from bishop lennon art, Cuppie ornament from Cakespy, Letterpress print from Old School Stationers, 2011 Planner from Alex Wijnin, and a couple cute tees and onesies for the little kiddos in our family from Burdy Fly Away.

I'd been holding out on Christmas shopping until this show, and I am really glad I waited. I love what we bought, and know that it will be loved by the recipients. And, I'm excited that we supported local artists in the process! 

And of course, there's the one that got away.

There was a huge poster of this cute typewriter. We saw it at the beginning of the show and decided  see what else was there before we bought anything. Then we were tired and didn't go back. Kinda kicking myself for not buying it now. And, it's the poster version isn't on the website! Sad!

What are you all up to this weekend? I hope you have lots of fun holiday plans! Have a great weekend :)

{inspired} Hatch Show Prints

I love unplanned adventures. Chris and I purposely under plan vacations because the chances of spontaneous (and a lot of the time more memorable) adventures increases when we spend less time on a schedule. One day, on our recent trip to Boston, while having lunch near Boston University, we saw this poster across the street. Chris wanted to go check it out because it looks strikingly similar to a tattoo a friends of ours just had done.

What we found a Hatch Show Print art exhibit. Oh friends, it was amazing! Have you heard of Hatch Letterpress? Neither of us had and we both agreed it was the coolest thing we saw in Boston. We actually spent a couple hours in this little BU gallery.

Hatch Show Print, located in Nashville, is one of the oldest print shops in the U.S. They were letter pressing  posters in 1879! The company began as an advertising company, but is really known today for its concert posters. In fact, as you'll see from the website, Hatch is actually a part of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. The show, part of the Smithsonian's Art of the Letterpress series, featured a wide variety of posters and, my favorite part, actual letterpress blocks.

We weren't allowed to take pictures in the museum (sad!). And, I tried a few times. But we were the only people in the museum and it was really obvious. Luckily,  there is a  this flickr stream with photos from other shows!

Hatch actually does a few different types of posters.
There are Advertising posters:

Large wood block prints:

Monoprints (which were so awesome!):

And of course, the famous show prints. These are my favorite, I think (every time I look I find a new favorite):

 All these are more *current* and found here.

 We came home with a little souvenir! This is the official BU show poster. I ordered a frame for it this weekend and am so excited to find a place for it in our house! 

I also love that we came home with this small post card. The food letterpress print was both of our favorites, so it's fun to have a little sample of it.

I learned a few things from this show. 1. I want to go to Nashville, just to take a tour of this place. 2. I want more Hatch Letterpress posters! 3. I want to learn letterpress :).

http://www.bu.edu/today/node/11473