Sexy-Hardworkin'-Man Week Wrap-up

Hello friends! So I decided to end this week with what I call: "Sexy-Hardworkin'-Man Week Wrap-up." This week my husband Andy and a few friends took off for one super looooong bike ride (198.8 miles) in one day. They rode from Des Moines, Iowa to essentially the northern border of Iowa to Okoboji. They left at 5 am and finished at 8:15 pm. So proud of the guys for their hardworkin' efforts. Here is a few photos to enjoy! Nice work men! Photos courtesy of Brad McClure.

Well I also couldn't end this week without a shout-out to an old favorite: Texas singer (former rodeo boy) Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses (binghammusic.com). I've known about him for a little while but every time I got on itunes I would forget to download, so I did last night finally and got the Muscalito album…mighty good and I still want Roadhouse Sun! He also fits the Sexy-Hardworkin'-Man category (I mean check out these photos!)

Hot!

Last week I showed you the process of printing a card http://thepermanentcollection.blogspot.com/2011/07/hotter-than-a-list.html
Here is that card trimmed out with a coordinating envelope. This is perfect for reminding that friend how cool she really is…or for your love!

What-I-Want-to-be-Wearing-Wednesday!

I don't know about you, but I've had enough heat and humidity. I was sweating it out at the weekend cabin (no air, just good old fashioned fans!) and I'm already dreaming of fall. I don't want the cold just yet but a little break from the hotter than you know what would be nice…so I put together a little group of things I'd like to be wearing kind of wednesday…

Images:

Whimsy top: Anthropologie "Helping Hands Top;" 

Cool grey top + gold-ish skirtt: JCrew "the puff sleeve pop-over" and "Cavalry skirt"; 

Anthropologie "Pilcro and the Letterpress Straight Ankle Chinos in gold;" Pilcrow is the name for a paragraph marker this is what is listed on the description: "there is an adorable print of letterpress machines on the pocket lining." Of Course I have to have these! 

Steampunkfunk: Urban Geometric Chevron Etched upcycled Leather Bracelet/Cuff (etsy) 

Orangeis the Sun: COOPER double wrap bracelet (etsy). 

What do you want to be wearing?

Bloom Where You Art Planted!

Hello friends! Over the past three years I had been doing a lot of soul searching on if I should stay at my full-time assistant professor position or be at home more with my daughters. I went back and forth over three years. I had such trouble deciding because I really loved what I did…I liked teaching, seeing students grow and develop over the years. My student evaluations were good and I was getting positive feedback from my colleagues. But in the end— this past spring— with the birth of my second daughter Gemma I realized I just couldn't do it all: full-time professor, research/scholarship, University service, full-time letterpress printer/small business owner, momma, wife and friend and I didn't want to miss these fun/tiring years with the girls. So I resigned my assistant professor position to take on letterpress full-time which allows me a little more time with the girls but also new challenges. It is an exciting place to be as I continue to grow my letterpress business, so this print grew out of trying to find my own new place in the world…(by the way, this is in progress, hoping to print brown accent elements soon)! You'll see below, I think I made the right choice (some days though…)! Where are you blooming these days?

A Studio Tour!

As promised I thought I would share with you some shots around my home letterpress studio. Some of the things that you see is the Press, I print on a Vandercook SP-15 a 750 lb. press. It has been moved twice and hoping never again…as you can see not an easy thing to move. I mix the various ink colors by hand, lock-up the type on the press using "furniture" (the pieces of wood you see in the shelf) and print from metal and woodtype. I also have things like checking the heights of the rollers and making sure the rollers have the correct amount of ink on them. Hope you enjoy a little photo tour, images courtesy of Allison Marie Photography.

Deep in the Heart of Texas!

Hello friends! Something you may or may not know about Andy and I is that when we were first married we had the option (in 1999 after undergrad) to either go to Austin, Texas or Chicago, Illinois. My mom grew up in Chicago and my Dad grew up on a farm in North Central Illinois so of course…we picked Austin, Texas (much to the dismay of our families). We ready for adventure and we fell in love with Austin when we had our "first real job interviews." We had a fantastic time exploring the town, finding wonderful friends, good careers and awesome Tex-Mex. In 2001 we headed back to Graduate school in Iowa City, Iowa, but we've always had a special spot in our heart for A-town. This card is the result of that. It will come with a red envelope. Oh yeah, and I hope you enjoy an early-in-our-marriage photograph of us in Austin it was taken at The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (http://www.wildflower.org)…Where have you loved living?

Talking about a Shakedown!

Hello readers! Last week the press was a busy girl inking and changing colors left and right! Here is a job I was working on for a vintage scooter club in Detroit. In August they will have their scooter rally this year's theme is: Motor City Shakedown 7 so I printed a custom print/poster for them. I'll have a few for sale on etsy as well…check it out! I'd love to have a vintage scooter, something probably like this:

How about you? Are you into scooters or classic cars? I'd love to know!

Happy Friday + Happy Anniversary

Hello friends, I don't know about you, but this week has been crazy! The hubby was out of town on the coast all week and finally got home late last night…boy did we miss him! The upside to him being gone was that I had some really productive days this week with printing. I'll be highlighting some of the new work I produced this week and giving you a photo tour of the studio on the blog next week.

We're headed to a baseball game tonight with friends, my good friend Brooke from KC is coming up so we're gonna let the kids run wild, hit-up two parties saturday night (birthday + grad school graduation!) and winding the weekend down on sunday with a dinner date with good friends…hmm shaping up to be one fantastic weekend. How about you?

Hotter than the A-List!

Are you hotter than the A-list? This is…a card from my "Pop" line (I will feature text from hot pop songs)! Today I thought I would show you how I actually print a card. You'll see the steps below but usually this is how it goes:

1. I mix the ink
2. Align the polymer plate (this allows me to print things I design digitally- I have to get a plate made of the image but then I can print it).
3. Count out my paper, at this point I can pretty much tell that per inch I have about 40-50 cards…gettin' good eye-balling things!
4. Print the first part of the card then clean the press if there is an ink color change…
5. Realign the woodtype so it sits next to the image/type I just printed, sometimes this is fast and sometimes slow (this one was fast!)
6. Run them all through again for the woodtype.
7. Didn't show you a picture of them drying…just like watching paint dry!

I don't always mix woodtype and polymer sometimes they are all of woodtype and vice/versa…
I'm thinking about pairing this with a silver envelope, what do you think?

Whew! What a hot one!

Andy, the girls and I all headed down to Kansas City over the weekend. We went to see some of my old college roomies (totally like old times + kids + new homes…okay so totally different than old times!) and we had a great time. We stayed at our friends' home Tim and Michala and their lovely kids Ava and Jack– they were incredible hosts. Brooke, Brian, Dillon and Maddie hosted Mandy who flew in from Madison. Friday and Saturday we grilled-out, swam, talked and talked and talked, it was so great to catch up (for once I didn't care that I didn't do any shopping in a fun town like KC!) As you can see below, Andy got to ride on Tim's little bike…love that helmet!

On sunday I had booth at the Strawberry Swing Indie Craft Fair… it was super-hot, you know, TEXAS HOT (from my old days living in Austin) it was 105˚ + head index made it close to 110˚. Luckily I was inside an old barn that actually had air-conditioning…boy was I lucky, there were alot of vendors there that were outside. It was fun seeing other friends who had recently moved to KC and meeting new people. All in all a fantastic weekend can't wait for another one. Do you have long-time friends you're dying to see? I'd love to hear about your friends and if you have reunions as well…

Headed to Strawberry Swing…no, not the Coldplay kind…

What do you have planned this weekend? I'm headed to Kansas City to participate in an "indie craft fair" all day on Sunday, July 10th. I don't have alot of expectations but hoping to sell letterpress prints and cards! The other really exciting thing is that I get to see three fantastic women and hang with their families. Brooke, Michala and Mandy! We were all roomies in college (the undergrad years) we always have so much fun. We've all been busy the past few years so getting to reconnect is always fun.

Here are a few photos of what I'll be selling…stop by if you're in the area.

Roving!

Hello friends! I've been working with a group out of the north (Michigan + Canada) on a special edition woodtype poster for their vintage scooter group. Here is their logo, I added a scooter and will be printing some woodtype on it, not finished yet but I wanted to tell you about this cool group. Hopefully someday I can join a local chapter :)

We had a fantastic time relaxing and having fun in Colorado. We spent a few days hiking (easier trails than andy and I used to do- pre-kids!) but it was still fun and neat to see Charlotte exploring all along the trail. We also visited some small mountain towns, one of them Nederland, CO had a beautiful carousel you'll see charlotte loving every minute of it- she road at least three times in a row. For more info, go here:
http://www.carouselofhappiness.org/pages/about.html

We were also able to get to Denver to see the Sogard family (such fun) + our good friend felix (we love you!)

Overall we had fires, s'mores, good fun with family and wonderful weather! Here are a few photos…

Red, White and Blue + You!

What are you doing to celebrate this glorious Fourth of July? We will be laying low and contemplating our wonderful freedom. Here's to a fabulous America, family, friends, sacrifice and freedom!