Grey Moggie Press

road trip

After graduation and before I moved to DC my college roommate and I spent a summer in Burlington, Vermont. It was a half-step transition into the real world during which I got my first job in retail. There was an independent (they only had to stock 25% Pier One items and the owners had incredible taste) Pier One store on pedestrian, cobblestone Church Street. I worked in the front of the store, manning the checkout counter and restocking cards and photo albums all day. I loved it, especially in the mornings when I would sweep the entrance and wash the windows to make sure the store looked shiny and clean before our first customers arrived.

About a month into it, my manager was gone for a few days. When she returned, she pulled me aside for a chat. "Look at all these great things I found at the National Stationery Show!"

She told me that she had ordered certain items because she knew I would love them. I get these kinds of comments all the time now: a friend posts something about letterpress on my facebook wall with "saw this, thought of you;" someone else emails me about a shop they found, "it was so 'you,' especially the stationery;" or a friend calls and asks for a paper recommendation for a project. But this was the first time I remember someone picking up on my interests and tastes so quickly. She was a tough boss and sort of gruff with everyone, so it was especially surprising and touching and made me recognize her respect for me. We had a great working relationship and she even gave me good-luck-in-DC flowers on my last day at the store. I think we both had a tear in our eyes. During the more rat race-ish days I've had in DC, I've dreamily thought about why I ever left that cute store on that lovely street in that charming town. It's my favorite what-if game.

And wait a minute, did she say there was such a thing as a National Stationery Show? I knew nothing of trade shows at the time, but she described this magical place where stationers and purchasers and paper lovers came together for a few days. For the last ten years, every spring I've heard talk of the show and have wondered if I'll ever actually go. I've even been in New York, for other reasons, at the time of the show for at least three of those ten years.

Finally, this year (this month! this week!) on Sunday and Monday I'll be visiting the National Stationery Show for the first time. I can't wait!

spring thing sneak peek

Last night was a late studio night. I’m used to feeling pretty exhausted these days, but it’s more fun to wipe the sleep from my eyes when I get to think about all the delightful cards that are now printed, especially the custom jobs happily on their way to new hands. I also got a head start on Father’s Day cards, which will debut this weekend at Spring Thing. My buddy Julia and I shared a space at Spring Thing last year and we’re excited to do it again this year.  

 

meet me at the market

since january, I’ve been setting up shop at eastern market here on capitol hill in dc a few times a month. the outdoor market runs every saturday and Sunday. it's been a great way to meet letterpress lovers in my own community and to share ups and downs with fellow vendors. having a regular physical space to share my work also means that I try to come up with new products more often.

if you’re in the dc area, i hope you’ll come visit my booth at eastern market. Check out my facebook page for my most up-to-date schedule updates.

mommy monday: my new(ish) life

finding a new normal. creating space. searching for balance. when we face major life changes, we do all these things to try to hold on to the self we once knew while embracing the good parts of change.

before elsie came along, I was used to balancing my letterpress life with all the other parts of my life: I would take an occasional friday off from my full-time job to print, I taught letterpress workshops and did craft fairs on the weekends, I took design classes in the evenings. after elsie was born, I spent two months at home full-time with her and then went back to work part-time. balance was really hard. after a lot of family discussions about the many factors involved, I decided to leave the job and be a stay-at-home mom. or so I thought.

it turns out I’ve become less of a stay-at-home mom and more of a work-at-home mom. I feel so fortunate to be here for my daughter every day and that I’ve also found time to design, to print, and to teach. the arrangement takes a lot of planning, coordination, and the willingness to jump right into work mode the minute elsie falls asleep for a nap. it means that sometimes I reply to email at 1am and sometimes I wear elsie in a baby carrier while I print. it means that while i’m at the studio I feel guilty that the dishes are piling up and that while I’m doing dishes I feel guilty that I haven’t been to the studio in days. it means that eric gets some quality one-on-one time with elsie while I’m tending my booth at the market and that we really make the most of the time we three get to spend together.

I want to spend more time in this blog space, sharing my work and my new life. but I also want to be honest and open about what that life is like.  since being a mom is a huge part of who I am and how I spend my time these days, I want it to be reflected here. for the most part, I’ll post letterpress news on the blog, but I’d like to carve out a little corner to share mommy news, too. I hope you’ll stick around for all of it!

(thanks to jose for that last photo, which was taken on his phone while i was printing so forgive the blur)

 

Right now and coming soon

Right now: I've set up shop on the plaza at Eastern Market. I'm sharing a tent with the lovely Michelle of Babus Toys. We are waiting on the sun to join us.

Coming soon: This website needs a facelift. It's on the way!

2011 in paper + welcome 2012

2012 is off to a great start! saturday was my first day as a vendor at eastern market. it was incredibly fun, i enjoyed all of the other vendors i met, and the weather was perfect. this year will host a lot more exciting news and adventures, but for now i want to reflect on 2011.

the biggest news for our family last year was Elsie's arrival. we were so excited to become parents, but we had no idea how much fun it was going to be. of course there have also been many challenges (oh how i miss sleep) but we feel fortunate to be new parents with an incredible support system of family and friends.

we also bought a house this year. in march. and we are still unpacking boxes. i want to tackle some design and decor projects in the spring, but for now i'm happy that most everything we need is easy-ish to find. except for that one pair of pants eric hasn't seen since the move.

2011 was also a fantastic year for grey moggie. i found a press to call my own and named him augie. eric and i took a scenic drive to roanoke with our dog, tick, in june to pick up the press from a sweet librarian and book artist. i haven't gotten a chance to use the press at home yet, but i'm hoping for a few hours in the next month or so to get him up and running. he's a 5x8 Kelsey and therefore the smallest press i've used, which makes him perfect for my little studio at home.

i got some exciting exposure this year, too. i designed and printed invitations, programs, and menus for a wedding that was featured on style me pretty. my dc flag posters were featured on oh so beautiful paper. and my post-emily calendars were part of the calendar round up at paper crave.

teaming up with my friend, julia, from orange tabby press, i sold my letterpress goodies all over the place last year. we were at the roller girls bash, crafts & kisses, spring bada bing, spring thing, handmade mart, artscape, and crafty bastards. grey moggie was also a part of the adams morgan pop-up shop in the spring.

here's to 2012. i can't wait to celebrate every day with my incredible little family, spread more letterpress cheer, and turn this house into a home. i hope you'll follow along and enjoy the ride!

etiquette for a post-emily world::2012 calendar

During the spring and summer, I dreamed up ideas for two 2012 letterpress calendars. My goal was to design and print a small run of each calendar before Elsie arrived. I made these goals during the second trimester of my pregnancy when I had lots of energy and relatively little pain. I took full advantage of that comfort and filled my evenings and weekends with outings and to-do lists. Then, I started to grow much faster, sleep was difficult, I experienced more discomfort and I fought unexpected and sudden bouts of exhaustion.

Still determined to print the calendars, I scheduled myself in the studio and started designing. I went to the coffee shop after work to sketch and brainstorm. Late night hours found me at my home office, plugging all these ideas into Illustrator. In the end, I listened to my friends, my body, and my husband and revised the goal to one calendar. I finished printing it, with help from my friends and my husband (and much resistance from my body) just two and a half weeks before my due date and spent as much time as possible recovering in the bathtub for the next two weeks.

The calendar that came from these efforts is part of my Etiquette in a Post-Emily World line. Each month features a different etiquette note similar to those on my bookmarks and coasters (some are the same; a few are new to the calendar). It's a whole year of living thoughtfully!

 

I'll put a few in my etsy shop and will have a few on hand at Crafty Bastards next Saturday and the Monster Craft Mash on October 29th.

Upcoming Events

In October you can find me at two DC craft fairs. On October 1st, I'll be at Crafty Bastards with Orange Tabby and Bookish Lady. Then on October 29th I'll be at Monster Craft Mash with Orange Tabby.

I'll be back with posts highlighting new items that will be available at these upcoming events.

Welcome, Baby Elsie!

Elsinore Clara Karlins was born on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011. Eric got to stay home with us during Elsie's first week and all of that new family time made it the best week I've ever had. My parents were here to ease the transition once Eric had to go back to work, but this week Elsie and I are winging it on our own. I think we're up for the challenge!

Some random mommy ramblings: I'm happy to share our birth story with anyone who is interested, but my thoughts below are as far as I'll go on the blog.

As wonderful as it is to finally have Elsie here with us, I sort of miss being pregnant. I learned so much about myself and my body during pregnancy, and my pospartum self feels a little bit like a stranger still. I was pregnant for 9 intense months and I've only been Elsie's mom for two and a half sleepy, hazy weeks, so it makes sense. I got all of my prenatal care from midwives at a birth center just two blocks from home and I delivered Elsie at the birth center with the midwives and a doula after 10 hours of labor without pain medication or other interventions. Eric and I also took a Bradley Method natural birthing class. If you're in DC, I cannot recommend Lindsay Gonzales enough as a Bradley instructor. And because of rib pain, I started seeing a chiropractor during my second trimester. In addition to alleviating some of the pain, the doctor's adjustments also helped to ensure that Baby Girl was in the best position for an intervention-free delivery. I can't imagine pregnancy without any of these three elements: midwife care, Bradley class, and chiropractor care. The women who cared for me and taught me during my pregnancy made me feel strong and smart and confident. Those feelings are always welcome, especially at a time when most people just make you feel fat. 

I'll be getting back to more regular letterpress posting, I hope. Understand that most posts will be typed slowly with just one hand as this baby requires a lot of holding and feeding.

letterpress argyle stationery sets

i almost forgot a blog post today. oops! so real quickly i'll share a new stationery set that i'll have on hand at spring thing on saturday.

these argyle note cards are small, for jotting a quick hello or thank you. you can find them in my etsy shop if you can't make it to spring thing this weekend.

letterpress TRUTHnotes

Why do we write letters? Just because? Sometimes. Often, however, there is another reason that's just difficult to articulate. I've tried to capture some of those reasons in these letterpress TRUTHnotes.

They're simple and clean, white paper and white envelopes, so that you can speak your mind or spill your heart. Then, at the bottom, the sentiment that might capture why you're writing.

You can find them in my etsy shop. Or in person this weekend at Spring Thing in DC on Saturday and Handmade Mart in Silver Spring on Sunday (Julia, from Orange Tabby Press, & I will be at the Pyramid Atlantic booth on Sunday).

etiquette for a post-emily world::coasters

here's another new item you'll see if you're at Spring Thing in dc this weekend: my new etiquette coasters. i've run with the idea i started with my etiquette in a post-emily world bookmarks and applied it to coasters. i think they'd be great for a dinner party so i focused most of the advice around dinner party etiquette.

i moved away from traditional etiquette for the coasters. while i used my old etiquette books as a starting point, i really drew from the way i like to host dinner parties and the way i like to be treated as a guest at a dinner party. you can find them in my etsy shop online, or in person at Spring Thing on saturday!

letterpress gift tags for handmade gifts

You crocheted your niece a sweater. You bound a book of your best friend's favorite poems to give to her as a graduation gift. You painted a portrait of your brother and his new wife. You built a birdhouse for your new boyfriend (who likes birds, presumably). Then, you wrapped the gifts in handmade paper.

And you couldn't find the right gift tag.


These gift tags are for you. Each tag is letterpress printed with a note that lets the gift receiver know just how much you care, and how much you poured your heart, and your sweat, into this gift.


These gift tags are available on in my etsy shop, but they'll be making their craft fair debut this weekend at Spring Thing in DC.

letterpress congratulations card

there are a lot of misconceptions about letterpress. when i teach, one thing that surprises a lot of beginners is that letterpress ink is transparent. every day i see images online of letterpress wedding invitations printed in bold colors or letterpress prints featuring light inks on dark paper. i know how difficult that look is to achieve, but many people don't appreciate the fine line between overinking and getting bold colors.

with these new congratulations cards i printed, you can see just how transparent the ink is. i printed a repeating design in light grey on the background of this card and then some text in red. you can see the grey design peeking through the red ink. i should keep one of these around when i teach classes so my students will actually believe me when i tell them the ink is transparent.

welcome, baby letterpress cards

we are so excited to be expecting a baby girl in a few months! being parents was always part of the the plan, but so was spending a few married years on our own first. part of the decision to wait was based on the fact that i was in law school for the first three years of our marriage. whatever the reasons, i'm so glad we waited, because you really can't prepare for the changes that happen even before the baby arrives. we are trying to retain as much of ourselves as possible, which is a difficult task for parents-to-be. do you know how many people give me advice on a daily basis now that i have a big belly?

one piece of advice i appreciated, and it didn't have to do with my own pregnancy, happened at crafts n kisses in February. a shopper asked if we had any baby cards and suggested we print some. i loved the idea so i designed a baby card in time for the adams morgan pop-up shop and spring bada bing in richmond. they're in my etsy shop now, or you can catch them at dc craft mafia's spring thing on may 21st!

speaking of spring thing, for the next few bloggy days, i'll try to post some new items that will be in our booth (i'm sharing a booth with julia from orange tabby press). most of them are already available in my etsy shop but they'll be new to the blog! after spring thing i'll share some custom orders i've been working on and some new personal stationery styles.

more letterpress birthday cards

building on the card i created for pyramid atlantic's birthday fundraiser, I printed a few different colors of the same design. people really seemed to like the texture created by the blind impression swirls on the front of the card, so i carried that part into the design. and i kept the grey because, well, because i like grey! i switched up the accent color a couple times so now i have three different versions of the same card and i paired each one with a brightly colored envelope from French Paper.

they're available in my etsy shop now.

letterpress birthday cards from pyramid atlantic

to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pyramid Atlantic, Julia organized a group of 18 of pyramid's letterpress "regulars" and we put together three sets of birthday cards. it is so rare to get so many of our printers together at once, so these projects are great because they always end with an assembly party where we bind pages or box cards.

we all got together to package up boxes of six cards and i think they are all so beautiful. i had a hard time choosing which set to take home. all proceeds from the sale of the birthday cards support the letterpress studio at Pyramid Atlantic. you can purchase them on the pyramid website. More information here.

Moving Announcements

We packed up our little house on Rosedale and moved one block away. To another little house, but slightly bigger. The kitties and the pup came along and they seem to be enjoying their new home. I printed our moving announcements a few weeks before the move, but I just got them into the mail last week. Like everything else going on right now, that mailing was way behind schedule. This moving business is a lot of work!

I also discovered two new favorite things working on this project. First, steel blue envelopes from French Paper. What a gorgeous color! And second, Go Green postal stamps. They're a little cheesy but oh so cute.

Etiquette in a Post-Emily World

I traveled a whole lot for work in the fall, and everywhere I went I'd find a used book store and search for etiquette books. New ones, old ones, trusted books, hokey books, paperbacks and hardcovers (a pain to add to already overstuffed luggage). When I first mentioned my fascination with etiquette here on the blog, I threw out the idea of maybe trying to come up with my own definition for etiquette. I'm not there yet, but I have come up with a few of my own rules of etiquette, adapted for today's life and printed on bookmarks. A few people have suggested I just start leaving the bookmarks in books at libraries and bookstores, or on tables at coffee shops. If seeing these bookmarks reminds people to be thoughtful and kind, then I'm all for it!

i <3 dc

I really do love my city, but it's not for everyone and there were times I thought it wasn't for me. The politics, the humid summers, the crowded Orange Line trains at rush hour; seriously, what's to love? Well, lots. Like the music scene. Some of my favorite moments in DC have been during live shows. I saw Shout Out Louds at the 930 Club on a Sunday night before lots of other people had "discovered" them. I loved watching Torquil Campbell hang from the rafters (or pipes or something) when I saw Stars at The Black Cat. And back when I was a Howie Day fan, I think I was able to see him live four times one year.

I've also been able to take advantage of the arts and the outdoors in DC. I loved the Hirshhorn After Hours events I got to attend. Skating in the sculpture garden always makes me happy. I met my husband when we were both Sunday morning volunteers with the golden lion tamarins at the National Zoo. I've had countless heart to heart conversations with one of my best friends in the park at Logan Circle, many lazy days with a good book and a picnic blanket in Dupont Circle, and I loved walking home through Rose Park when I used to work in Georgetown.

Oh, and the coffee shops. It's not technically in DC, but I spent many hours at Murky Coffee when I was in law school which has led to my love of busy afternoons with good caffeine and good music at Peregrine and Mid City Caffe, and drawn out Sunday mornings with vanilla lattes and magazines at Sova or Big Bear. If you've been in DC a while and you still haven't found your place, I'd suggest giving one of these coffee shops a try. There is an intense sense of community in each one. 

And community is where DC really shines. I've never felt more at home in the city I call home than I have since we moved to our neighborhood last November. I love our block and all the people who live here. And beyond the houses on our block, I love that sushi and karaoke at Sticky Rice or mussells and fries at Granville Moore's means just a short walk.  My long runs on the weekends take me through Eastern Market, Lincoln Park, past the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress. Concerts at the Rock & Roll Hotel are even better when you don't have to take a cab home. It's great seeing familiar faces at all your favorite spots, and feeling like a familiar face when you're there.

I'll say that my little corner of Northeast DC is the best, but I know others feel just as strongly about where they live and work and play. And in honor of that love I know we all feel for our neighborhoods, I tried to include a whole lot of them in this new DC flag print. E and I are in the process of purchasing our first house, about 100 yards from where we currently live. I can't wait to hang one of these prints in our new home in our favorite neighborhood.