Giveaway on Facebook

We're giving away three items on Halloween Friday, November 2. The 2013 Letterpress Calendar, the Birthday Calendar and a set of Post Cards. Enter here.

Note: Like most Facebook contests, you'll have to let the Sweepstakes app connect to your account so don't forget to accept that when prompted or you won't be entered.

My Little Fireman

I took Griffin to a Halloween party yesterday & it was so much fun. Kids bobbing (or just grabbing as my fireman did) for donuts, decorating masks and eating mini hotdogs - all signs of a great party! Griff was a real sport wearing his fireman costume (thanks to his big cousins F&H for lending it to us!). The red suspenders underneath were my favorite part :)

Quilt Calendar on Design Sponge

I've been a Design*Sponge reader since its early days & have been a faithful reader since. Grace has built an amazing team & I am always inspired by the artists and work she features, so I was super excited to have our Quilt Calendar featured on Friday. This calendar had been in my head for almost a year, and then it took many many months to bring it to life. And even when it was done & I loved it, I still wasn't sure that others would love it or get it. So it really made my day to have the support from someone like Grace who sees beautiful work every second of every day. It's an honor for sure.

Read the feature here.

And of course, big big thanks to Grace at D*S.

Quilt Calendar: July's Stars & Stripes

Each month of the 2013 Quilt Calendar features a quilt print inspired by a traditional quilt pattern. July, seen here, is the only one that's derived from an actual quilt: the Stars and Stripes Quilt in the Smithsonian (see bottom image) made by Mary Rockhold Teter for her son George who served in the Civil War. The family donated the quilt to the Smithsonian in 1940. It's a beauty.

[Stars and Stripes Quilt image courtesy of Civil War Quilts, an excellent resource tip from a friend's mom who is an avid quilter. Thanks, SD!]

Quilt Calendar

You may remember me talking about the Quilt Calendar debut at the National Stationery Show back in May. Well, it's here! The 2013 Quilt Calendar is now available in our shop! 

After working on a small letterpress calendar for years, I was eager to work on a larger scale, and the quilt patterns I've admired & loved for so long seemed like a great fit for the size. While I wanted this calendar to be big & fabulous (lots of bright inks!) while hanging, I also wanted the artwork to be saved/framed/gifted after the month had passed. So each month features a 19" x 19" quilt print that is designed to be trimmed & fit into a 20" x 20" frame (thank you, Ikea Ribba frame!) or larger. 

 

A calendar this big took a big effort to complete. It measures 26" x 40" & is entirely hand screenprinted - a feat for one print at this size, let alone 13. The paper is 100% recycled cover weight stock (a nice sturdy weight for preserving & handling your prints) and hung by custom made oak bars, fastened with brass wingnuts. A keyhole slot in back allows for easy hanging on one nail or screw - an important piece  that was not so simple to figure out. (I really dislike the double nail hanging requirement - the measuring, the leveling - not for me.) 

 

It was the hanging device that took the longest to figure out - and the whole process depended on it. The months couldn't be printed without knowing exactly how these would hang. I owe a lot of thanks to a certain woodworker friend for sitting with me for hours sketching out possible options - which ranged from simple bull dog clips (but then where do you store the rest of the months - under the bed?) to an oversized coat hanger (took up too much room at the top - and it's already pretty big). The result holds the weight (nearly 10lbs), mounts flush to the wall (paper hangs perfectly parallel to wall - no awkward leaning), and allows for easy changing of the months (unscrew the wingnuts while on the wall to take off the top bar & then the month).

 

Above: September (the wedding quilt pattern), shown here trimmed & framed in an Ikea Ribba frame.

 

Above, a close up shot of the oak hanger & brass wingnuts.

Above, reverse side of hanger: recessed screw & keyhole slot allow hanger to mount flush on the wall.

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Top two photos by the super sweet & talented Karen Mordechai 

Ta Da! The 2013 Quilt Calendar is here!

We are excited to announce that our 2013 Quilt Calendar is now available online! Here's a fun little video we put together to help us launch this big guy. Enjoy!

More details on the calendar to come, so stay tuned.

[Photography & editing by Zak Hawley; Music: "I Spy" by Siobhan O'Malley - visit her Facebook page here]

Gray Malin Photography

Photographer Gray Malin's work is on One Kings Lane right now. I love this "XO" one. I love balloons so much and this print just makes me smile. Wouldn't it look great in the 44" x 32" size in a baby's room? I think the nesting phase of pregnancy has officially begun.

See more of Gray's work here & his collection available on One Kings Lane here.

Cowboy Griff

We were in Wyoming last weekend for my best friend's wedding - the most beautiful wedding I've ever attended, including my own. It was everything a wedding should be - so much shared love, committing to each other, supported by & cheered on by the closest of friends & family, a casual come-as-you-are vibe that puts everyone at ease. No dress code - other than the suggested Carharts & hoodies (she's run a horse ranch for an outdoor education program for the past five years) - the preferred dress out in WY. A sign-up board for bartending (John & our good friend took the 10:30pm shift) and a potluck dessert table (that included our friends' awesome homemade butterfingers!) helped keep it intimate & super special. We stayed in one of the only heated rooms on the ranch & Griffin was in absolute heaven - sticking his fingers in the horses' nostrils, giving the miniature baby donkeys lots of kisses, hamming it up in the cook house. Wyoming, we miss you. Congrats J&L - we love you! 

Birthday Boy

Griffin turns two later this week & we had a little party for him over the weekend. It was so fun seeing him better understand the concept of his birthday. Last year, he gagged on his cake & this year, he was so excited, he ate a candle. (The other kids were licking the icing off theirs, but he really went for it.) Last year, he didn't really understand presents or have much interest in opening them. This year, he was suuuper excited about them (see below), save for a brief pause when a gift included a gigantic lollipop that was so enticing, he up & left the gift-opening to try to eat it through the plastic. I have no idea where he gets that from.

PS - 

Two things: First, birthdays should always include balloons. They're the happiest & simplest decoration - big bang for the buck. Secondly, collared shirts on little boys age them by years! He looks so big.