One of the most recent letterpress invitation projects I completed was for my dear friend and cousin’s November wedding.  I was so excited to work on this project after working with them for their Save-the-Dates.  The location and time of year gave me a lot of inspiration to draw from.  The wedding will be at a historic and old New England inn and grist mill, and in late November the autumn foliage season is long gone but winter’s snow has yet to fall.  It’s a time of year that has a particular beauty to it; the starkness of the bare trees, grey cloudy days, and faded, dried flower blossoms.  We tried to capture that feeling while maintaining the historic charm and elegance of the property which will host their early evening nuptials.

As someone who really swoons for a balanced color scheme, the right typefaces, and the perfect illustrated border, I was thrilled that Caitlin wanted to finish the suite with calligraphy and vintage stamps.  We found a mix of vintage and contemporary postage stamps to compliment the design, and the talented Li Ward of Fat Orange Cat Studio did the calligraphy on the outer envelopes.  I have never been so excited to receive an envelope in the mail!

(*Yes, there was a full address written on this envelope, and I assure you, it is beautiful!  I just didn’t want to leave my full address.  My apologies for not being able to show you all of Li’s work!)

I’ve already told Caitlin this: I not only did I enjoy working on this particular invitation suite tremendously, but I think I love how it turned out more so than my own wedding invitations!

{for more of my letterpress work, check out my Flickr}

I really love all of these bookmarks from stationer Felix Doolittle!  I’d love to get some as gifts for the holidays, but it’s hard to pick a favorite…

{images shown belong to Felix Doolittle}

Wanted to share with anyone visiting or living near the Portsmouth, NH downtown area (which is fantastically cute with a plethora of shops and restaurants) that my letterpress paper goods are now being carried by Gus & Ruby Letterpress!  A little “big” step for me, and I am so pleased to work with Samantha & Whitney.  Stop in if you can; they have such a wonderful store and if I lived closer, I’d be in there once a month… or week.  Seriously, it’s gorgeous in there.

*If you’re interested in carrying my products at your retail location or website, please contact me for my wholesale information.

{image shown is via my iPhone, when I visited Gus & Ruby in August}

This weekend was a good mix of work and play.  I didn’t get as much work accomplished as I would’ve liked, but I certainly enjoyed myself (and isn’t that the point of life anyway?).  Started the weekend by visiting a friend in her hometown of Marblehead (the land of Katy Elliot!) and she showed me all the best places in town.  It was a perfect New England coastal weather: cloudy and cool.  Marblehead is so charming with the world’s most amazing houses and yards, I wish I could’ve stayed the whole weekend… but will be back.

Then we had SoWa on Sunday.  The weather was a bit more summery than fallish, but no rain to be had.  There were the nicest, friendliest people shopping as well as showing; I swear that each SoWa we do is getting better and better as we wind down to our last two (*which are October 9th & 16th).  Also ate the best food during the day from the food trucks, including a chickpea fritter sandwich from Clover that I am still dreaming about.  Such a nice weekend.

PS:  Yes, I do love Hipstamatic and I’m not ashamed to say it.

I’ve known for about a month or so that I’ve needed to have my holiday product ready to go for the beginning of fall, but somehow the month of September snuck by me.  All of the sudden, I’ve got to work my you-know-what off in the next two weeks to design, print, and package to prepare for the holiday season.  I’m also in a wedding next weekend for two of my favorite people, and have a bridal shower in three weeks for my cousin and dear friend, and am fitting in all the to-do’s for those events with all of my design work.  I’m finding at the end of this week that I need more hands, more time in the day, and more of my brain to accomplish it all.  Somehow in the nuttiness that is this type of work, the type where I’m working all hours of the day (and late into the night), I have so much creativity (more so than usual) and enjoy “riding the wave” while it lasts.

(Oh, and on a personal side note… I decided to train for a half marathon at the end of October, just because I apparently like having too many things to prepare for and accomplish.)

I have a few exciting things to share with you all next week, a project dear to my heart and some tiny but big news (for me, at least).  Can’t wait to tell you all… hope you have a restful weekend, lovely readers!
- Colleen

PS: Hot cocoa and soup-making season have begun at our house!  I’ve been having a cup of homemade cocoa as my treat at the end of a long day.

I’m already short on wall space, but if I had a plethora of walls to decorate, these prints would be on my must-buy list.  Bookmarking for the future…

{images shown belong to Panteek}

Doing some research for a project this past week, I came across the work of UK illustrator Emma Block.  I’ve been swooning over here, going through her entire website.  I like how she incorporates collage into her illustrations.  The book she illustrated about Tea looks right up my alley (hope it will be available in the States)!

{images shown belong to Emma Block}

This is a tad late (they officially opened last week) but Suann Song’s Fifteen Eleven is open for business!  Read an article about the new paper goods shop in the DC area here.  A big congrats to you, Suann!

{images shown belong to Fifteen Eleven and Simplesong Design}

This weekend’s Hyde Park Open Studios was a nice diversion from all of the fairs I’ve been doing lately.  First and most importantly, I didn’t have to drag my tent along with me (or the tent leg weights, which are 50 lbs each, I’ll have you know)… hooray!  I did however, miss my comrade that I usually show with but I think it was good for me to do an event completely on my own.  The space was really cool, a huge warehouse; I showed in a tremendously long, tall, and green hallway.  My friend Calla showed her work in the print shop where she works out of (EES Arts) and it had such great windows with tons of natural light.

The open studios was a great mix of friendly artists, printers, and crafters, and honestly the people that came through the space couldn’t be nicer.  Even if people weren’t buying anything, so many people gave me lovely compliments and positive feedback on my work.  I mentally told myself to listen them and store the quotes somewhere in my brain, so that I can retrieve them on days when I’m feeling down about my work or that I haven’t “made it” yet.  Such a great Sunday sharing what I do with lots of wonderful people.

{for more of my fairs and events photos, check out my Flickr}

This Sunday I’ll be participating in Hyde Park Open Studios at 65 Sprague Street in Hyde Park, MA from 11 am to 5 pm.  Many thanks to my dear friend, Calla, for the invite!  If you’re in the Boston area and looking for something to do this autumn weekend, please stop by and check out some amazing prints from talented artists!

{image shown belongs to Rob Villegas}