The Lost Art of Letter Writing

Also known as, The Bride has a million thank you notes to write...

Miles and I recently celebrated the all-important milestone of FINISHING OUR WEDDING THANK YOU NOTES. It can only be expressed in all caps, ladies and gentlemen, because it was a BIG deal. We wrote hundreds of them. It felt like millions.

When we (I) first started writing them, I was using imprintable cards by Snow and Graham. Snow and Graham makes really beautiful cards, and I could print them up as I went along. After the honeymoon, however, I started making my own stationary using plain cards and envelopes from Paper Source. What started as a procrastination tool (oooh, I can't write any more notes today because I need to make more, ooooh) turned into a really satisfying hobby. I think thank you notes should be as personal as possible, and what better way to do that than to hand make each card? No two were alike. Once I got rolling I made some for Mama, too (she thought I was being thoughtful, but really, I was just procrastinating). Take a look:

I printed out my name on the bottom using the Mac Pages program and my Canon printer. Then, I added stamps from Paper Source along the sides. Later on, I discovered heat embossing; I really wish I figured that out earlier. You use a slow drying ink, sprinkle embossing powder on it, then heat up using this thingy that looks like the love child of a hairdryer and a chopstick. The heat raises the ink up from the page, giving it nice dimension. I also bought a desk embosser and embossing plates at P.S.-- one plate had my new monogram (RHK) and the other had a swirly design that I used around the edges. I'll put up pictures of that one later.

Here's the latest incarnation of my stationary craze:

I love this little bird. I call him Martin. Doesn't he look like a Martin?

Spray Paint Magic Part III

In addition to painting glass vessels, I've also discovered the utility of spray paint and picture frames. Combined with a few dots of puff paint (yes, Mama, PUFF PAINT-- that stuff that filled up your downstairs cabinet for years), and you've got yourself something that I think looks pretty fancy. I know I've said it a million times, but I think glossy black spray paint makes things look so much cooler than they actually are. You shall see.

First, I gathered up supplies from a few of my favorite places-- Goodwill and Target. I was looking for preferably wooden frames that either were interesting enough that I could just paint, or plain enough that I could adorn with puff paint and spray paint. Let's start with the puffers: this was a clearance frame ($1.99) from Target:

I added some dots of puff paint around the frame-- nothing too fancy.  Then, once that had dried completely, I spray painted it a glossy black:

I suspect I may be biased, but I think that's pretty! I frame on the left is from Goodwill; rather than fuss up the frame anymore, I just sprayed it a glossy black. It was pretty trashy looking before, but now I think it looks modern... and maybe just a little well-loved. Here are some more pictures of the frames project:

The bottom photo is of a refurbished goodwill frame. But in it is a silkscreened print of my family's little wooden sailboat, Spindrift, on it's mooring in Smith's Cove, in Maine. Smith's Cove's beauty is rivaled only by Spindrift's, and I made this print for my dad for Christmas. I love how it turned out!

Christmas presents

To liven up this page a bit, here are some pictures from some of my Christmas undertakings. Whether they liked it or not, most family members got something from the "Sparrow" collection from this elf.

My sister-in-law Cheyenne got the coolest present in my humble opinion, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of it before I mailed it! Grr. I hand-printed 2 pieces of canvas fabric, then made a reversible tote bag. The top picture is of one of the fabric pieces. In this picture it looks like a dirty black, but I have witnesses (1 husband and 2 cats) who can attest to the fact that it is actually a quite cool plum color. I would be remiss (and probably in trouble with the law) if I didn't mention that the pattern for the stamp I used came from Printing by Hand by Lena Corwin. I am in love with this book. Many thanks to Heather at Graze Organic for bringing this book to my attention. More on that later.

this set of placemats and napkins was for Moogie. The fabric for the mats is "Birdsong" by Alexander Henry. They're reversible; the flip side is a plain red linen/cotton blend. The napkins are a linen/cotton blend with a handmade bias tape edging (fabric: Chocolate Lollipop by Anna Maria for Free Spirit. That's a mouthful.). I am relatively new to the sewing world, and unfortunately for Moogie (Moogie is my wonderful mother-in-law, on the off chance that someone I am not related to ever reads this), this is one of the first projects I undertook with my new machine. If she looks closely, she will probably notice that a) very few seams are straight, and b) there is cat hair sewn into the seams. Whoops. But I think from a distance, the placemats and napkins look pretty darn cute. I kind of wanted to keep them, but Christmas was fast approaching and I didn't have time to make her anything else!

this is Chandler, being helpful as always.