Margie & Morgen's Queen Mary wedding

Back in September, I posted about Margie & Morgen's wedding aboard the Queen Mary. It was a wonderful destination wedding and amazing venue. A great place to get away from the Louisiana August heat and for the marriage of two of our closest friends (and cousin!). Margie and Morgen are both amazingly talented. Morgen has an interdisciplinary firm specializing in architecture and technology, while Margie is an architect and the co-creator of Larks & Japes. Margie and I collaborated on all the paper elements. She visited one weekend last December and brought inspiration and fantastic ideas. I put it all together and letterpress printed the goods. Inspired by the 1930s architecture of the Queen Mary, a little vintage ocean liner flair (with our own twist thrown in), and a bit of Betsy Dunlap calligraphy, the suite included save the date cards to invitations to place card/tags to thank you cards.  The invites and wedding pics were posted on Oh So Beautiful Paper and 100 Layer Cake! You can read much more about the paper goods at OSBP, and see more photos of the beautiful day at 100 Layer Cake. The awesome photos are by Ben Christensen. This may have been my very favorite job yet!

I made the guest book as well, coptic bound, with cotton pages. The pages each had two sets of photo corners & vellum envelopes-to insert an Fuji instant photo and to insert a typed slip of paper with well wishes etc for the bride & groom in the envelope. (that's me and David in the pic).

And the super cute couple!

Here's to a super life together M&M!

Wagon, camper, and a Lookbook

Well another month has almost gone by. whew. I don't even remember September. ;)

Last week, we were so thrilled that Design*Sponge posted our letterpress DIY 3D station wagon and little camper cards. They are brand new and ready to ship in our etsy shop. I'm working on thorough instructions on how to put them together but really anyone can figure it out. A quick piece of advice is to give an extra score to the folds of the smaller tabs. (the "how to" will be posted on our website soon) They are great as holiday ornaments too, so add a little yellow and orange to your tree this season. A remembrance of visiting your favorite roadside attraction.

My grandmother drove a long station wagon for years. My favorite part was what we called "the way back", the seat in the back that faced out. In the summertime, the seats were hot and the back of your legs stuck to the seat. I've always wanted a teardrop camper, a little mini house, all contained and ready to go on adventures. A station wagon would be the perfect pulling vehicle.

And we're back on Poppytalk Handmade this month, in the Indie Love Market. Check out our little table here. So many amazing artists are exhibiting. Some of my favorites are a. favorite, you sentimental idiot, pumphouse studio, Puur Anders, among many others. Each month Jan puts together an awesome Lookbook with pieces from the whole exhibit. Take a look.

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Video: Creative Capitol of the South, Baton Rouge

Ha! Bennet Rhodes made this super fun video for Baton Rouge as the Creative Capital of the South.  I can be seen printing on the trusted C&P 8x12 (treadle driven of course) at minute 1:19 (haha). And the background at the very end is in my studio, note the Ladies of Letterpress Member sign! There are two videos and you can see his other videos here. Thanks for sending it along Bennet! Enjoy a little taste of BR...

New building! video

It was an exciting day yesterday, we closed on a new building. It's been in the works for a while (some may say years) but finally we can jump into the renovations. There is much to be done. The bottom floor will house the Blackbird Letterpress printshop, and maybe a small retail space. The plan for the upstairs is to one day be our home. It's gutted at the moment which leaves us many possibilities. I'll share the progress as it develops. It's gonna take a while. It sits adjacent to the Catholic cemetery that was established in 1824. It is quite beautiful and I look forward to getting to know our neighbors. I'd like to say our neighborhood is up and coming (the printshop and my husband's metalworking shop is just down the street, so we know it well) industrial? not really. It's an area that thrived in the mid 20th century with car dealerships and the largest department store in this part of the state. Now there are vacant lots and buildings, though slowly some are beginning to be filled again. One day, on the deck, we'll be able to look out over the old cemetery full of cedar and live oaks with the tip of the capitol building peeking over the trees. Here is a silly video of David christening the new venture. (yes, the bottle chipped the brick, oops)

Stock Project or Adventures in Rogue Numismatics

Stock Project or Adventures in Rogue Numismatics

Roadside Attraction #3 - The Queen Mary

Wow, it's September already. Last month was a whirlwind with one event as a particular highlight. Not only did we get away from the Louisiana heat, but we stayed aboard the grand ocean liner, The Queen Mary.

Margie and her beau Morgen (my cousin & dear friends) decided to have a destination wedding on the ship. Now located and docked in Long Beach, Ca, The Queen Mary was quite glorious in her prime (though she is still stunning). In 1936, The Queen Mary, of the Cunard White Star line, left the port in Southhampton and traveled across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. She was hailed as the fastest ocean liner of the time, arriving in a little over four days. During World War II, she transported troops until the end of the war (sometimes carrying 16,000 people-troops, crew, prisoners). In 1946, she made thirteen war-bride voyages transporting European brides and children to reunite with their husbands in the US and Canada. After the war, she continued as a glamorous ocean liner carrying passengers, up until her final voyage in 1967. She is now owned by the city of Long Beach and is a wonderful roadside attraction. The interior has been preserved and ongoing restoration projects keep the beauty of the ship intact.

Interior details. And I found the letterpress.....

Elements in our room and the elevators

Of course there were paper elements.... I was honored and excited to be Margie's personal printer. She is probably the best client I have ever had. She flew down to Louisiana for a weekend visit and we brainstormed the design. She came prepared with great ideas and I customized the ideas for letterpress and added a few design elements along the way. I'll post more photos of the entire invite suite and details of the other items soon. But here is a peek to a few.

 clockwise: Moleskine favors for the lady's luncheon, place tags/luggage tags, cake topper, coasters (Margie made the super fortune tellers)

 

clockwise: the guest book: coptic bound, with cotton pages. The pages each have two sets of photo corners & vellum envelopes-to insert an Fuji instant photo and to insert a typed slip of paper with well wishes etc for the bride & groom in the envelope. Table details.

 

 The bar was awesome! And on the weekends they have a quintet that plays 1940s standards. (David and I on the dance floor.)

 

 The loveliest couple, Margie and Morgen. And the always hungry seagull.

The entire wedding was so beautifully planned and put together, from the napkin wraps to the flags in the gazebo. Colors were unified and thoughtful. Can't wait to see all the photos of the day.

Wishing Margie and Morgen continued happiness and love and all the good stuff. Thanks for having us along on the Queen Mary adventure!

Stay tuned for more photos of the paper elements of the event, wedding suite, and all the small details.

 

magazine love

It's clear I am a huge fan of Uppercase Magazine. When it comes in the mail, I actually put it aside until I can spend uninterrupted time relishing every page. Usually this means that I bring it down to the camp, husband goes fishing in the morning, and I sit on the porch with coffee, Uppercase, and a really beautiful view. The quality of the printing, paper, and content is amazing, full of art, inspiration, design, beautiful graphic layout, & new discoveries. The last issue #10 was especially fun. I had submitted to a call for participation for pet portraits, and well... I have many of my old dear dog, Hayden. It was a great surprise when I got to this part in the mag and saw my sweet girl!


There are many calls to be involved. Subscriber profiles, flickr groups, community pages. There are some great photos of Uppercase in action uploaded by readers. One is the Flickr group "iloveuppercase" and a while ago I uploaded a pic of my favorite place to read and it turned up in issue 10! Here it is again, double take, double double... (just couldn't help but take this pic)


I could go on, but this is truly an exceptional periodical. I'll keep submitting and supporting them however I can. Janine, thank you, you have created a masterpiece!