I hate the forever stamps… I have no problem waiting until after they’ve hiked up that first class rate and forking over an extra however-many cents for cute stamps. Check out the new LOVE stamps — so adorable!
If I was a bride, I would be very tempted to over-stamp my invitations and put both a king and queen on each. Nauseatingly cute! You know you want to do it… (Thanks to C# for the head’s up!)
Happy stamping,
Tara
Here it is… the first fun gem from my Scary Box of Ephemera. For this to make sense, you have to know that one of my odd college part-time jobs was as a cake decorator. Actually, a cake decorating apprentice would be more accurate. Or maybe, Hey You Come Over Here And Wash This. On the whole, it was lots of fun, but utterly exhausting. I am still convinced working with food is one of the toughest jobs ever. I came home every day reeking of sugar. You might be thinking that sounds like a good thing, but you would be wrong.
Anyway, although this gig was most certainly what Wayne Campbell would call a “joe job,” my friends Lindsey and Alane were still way proud of me for landing it, as evidenced by this rad inkjet-printed and glue-stuck card wishing me well on my foray into cakedom:
Don’t ask me, I have no idea.
With support not only from the two of them, but also none other than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., how could I possibly fail?
And so it was that I entered into a period of cake-obsession. My friends, it was a little sad. There was a Sesame Street cake (featuring Ernie) for Alane’s birthday. There was a disturbing bloody heart cake for Halloween. There was the Union Jack bon voyage cake for when my roommate Michelle ditched me for a semester abroad. This was all going on in the late ’90s — IMHO, the golden age of the medical drama ER, of which I was also a little too fond. Behold:
That would be Noah Wylie, AKA Dr. Carter. I think Lindsey and Alane must have needed the calculator to determine exactly what level of dork they were dealing with.
Sledding down 26th Street at UT, MLK Weekend, 1997
I now live so ridiculously far away from these two, that we haven’t kept in touch as much as we ought to. But Lindsey recently called us out on it, inspiring their trip up to Seattle in January for a fun-filled faux-bachelorette weekend (Alane just got married a few weeks ago). We celebrated with a really great night out at The Pink Door, a late night horror movie and obviously… cake. Can you guess which one I made, and which one was at the wedding a few months later?
Miss you,
Love,
Tara
ps. If any of these end up on cakewrecks, I’m gonna be very upset.
Awhile back I posted a little bit about my long-neglected box of funny / sad / incriminating / treasured ephemera, and wondered what I should do with all that stuff.
Since then I’ve decided it belongs in some kind of unique hand-made book. I hesitate to use the word “scrapbook” because I’m picturing something more interesting and artistic than that… something like this beautiful handmade accordion book by Sylvia Yang made just for holding letters:
Pockets = genius.
I plan to document my progress here, slowly, one part of the story at a time. This means some of it will be going on the internet, and if you know me, you might find a little bit of yourself here. (Don’t worry… I’ll be very nice, and I’ll even ask you first.)
Yes, it’s a little personal, but I think it will be fun and cathartic too. I’ll still post most often about our recent projects and happenings, but I like to think this blog is evolving. And it’s starting soon.
Here goes nothing / everything,
–Tara
Today we’re doing a little contest over on Weddingbee… Go check it out for a chance to win some custom letterpress stationery from us! We’re also offering 10% off our our à la carte invitation prices to all Weddingbee readers who place an order on or before May 29th. Just submit an inquiry to get started!
–Tara
This is one of the recent projects I am really excited about — it’s our first booklet-style invitation. I’ll be blogging about it in depth later this year after I have some photos of the big day from the bride and groom. In the meantime, I couldn’t resist posting a little bit of it now!
It’s an orange and gray soft-cover booklet printed on bright white stock and bound with bright orange satin ribbon. Four pages tell the couple’s story, invite, and inform, while a tear-off panel acts as a reply postcard. The design itself is also really fun and preppy, so we’ll be adding it to our Ephemera collection soon along with a few others.
Fun!
–Tara
Source: Randy Heisch, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
We’re back! We were in the great state of Texas for a wedding over Easter weekend. It was a total whirlwind of activity, and lots of fun. The wedding was also totally blogworthy, so look for that on the horizon.
The Texas Hill Country was looking pretty spring-like with tons of bluebonnets and other native flowers springing up all over the highway. Dave and I took a drive to Austin to visit a few of our favorite places, visit old friends, and eat chicken fried steak (ever elusive in the Pacific Northwest):
Yowza.
On our drive around Austin, we passed a turnoff for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, which made me think of Ashley and Matthew, who are getting married there very soon. It’s sort of funny… Back when we had all that insane weather in December, the whole city kind of shut down and I snapped this picture of their poor little invitation stuck with me in the snow!
Not to worry, Ashley and Matthew… Spring has sprung in Texas! Actually I’m sure it’s been sprung for awhile down south. I think it’s finally arrived in Western Washington as well. Hopefully brighter evening hours will help me blog a bit more often this season. Lots to say! Thanks to all you loyal readers… I endeavor to deserve you 
.
–Tara
Hello! We’ll be out of the studio for a little break from Thursday, 4/9 through Tuesday, 4/14, and will reply to any inquiries as soon as possible when we’re back in the studio on 4/15. Hey, I might even blog…
Thanks, and have a lovely Easter weekend!
–Tara
This is the part of the story where you find out that my husband, Dave, makes awesome hand-crafted soaps! On one of our earliest trips to Orcas Island, he got hooked on some handmade soaps he found in one of the great shops there. He works very hard at his day job as a computer tech, and was in desperate need of a fun hobby, so a couple of years ago, he decided to try his hand at making some himself.
The first attempts were… interesting… (right, Dave? I still have a bar of the original batch in the shop sink downstairs!) He experimented over and over with different formulas for the basic mixture, adjusting this and that, and having his friends and family try them out. Over time, he has gotten REALLY. GOOD.
So good, that he just started selling them on Etsy last month. Behold:
I helped with packaging — each one has a label with the logo letterpress-printed in black ink on Hahnemuhle Bugra paper. The soap’s scent is hand-lettered by me in opaque white gouache. I’m glad I’m doing this for him — it is a good excuse to practice my own calligraphic style every once in awhile! I’m calling it “Casual Copperplate” because it’s basically just my own relaxed writing while using some of the rules of that traditional hand.
The soaps are all-natural, vegan-friendly, and the scents are incredible — my favorite ones are anything with mint (I think they are perfect for helping you wake up in the morning). He’s got some tea-tree mint and orange-mint coming out soon, and I can’t wait to try them out as soon as they are done curing. He also makes plenty of decidedly “manly” soaps. Don’t ask him to make anything with chocolate. He’s leaving that to Jessica Simpson.
They make a great gift — check it out!
–Tara
Sorry I have been MIA lately… Sometimes this blog has to take a bit of a backseat! Posting will be very light over the next few weeks.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I’d post this Irish eye candy — some personal stationery we did for a client with Irish heritage.
Hope everyone has a fun and safe St. Patrick’s Day. Sláinte!
–Tara
I have long admired Stephannie Barba’s work at Couture Maps, and have been meaning to blog about it for some time. She uses hand lettering, letterpress, hand painting and tons of other techniques to create these gorgeous, one-of-a-kind maps for her clients. They are so perfect for destination weddings in particular, but it’s easy to see that anyone would want their wedding maps to be this adorable:
Pretty impressive, right? Well, what if I told you she is also incredibly organized? Last year I received this paper delight in the mail:
That’s right. It’s one of her maps, but it features her vacation destination that year — the Seychelles. She must have brought all those cards and envelopes on vacation with her, and then bought the stamps and sent out a custom postcard of her very own! How rad is that? I’d like to think that someday I will be that together, but it is really unlikely .
Thanks, Stephannie, for letting us spotlight your work. I hope you’ll keep me on your mailing list!
–Tara
