Please keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for sunshine for this Sunday’s SoWa Open Market in the South End of Boston, where The Brocade Blackbird and I will be showing.  Our first SoWa was a literal wash-out with down pouring rain and winds all day long (not a good place to sell paper; unfortunately some of our product packaging was damaged, but we got through the day with the amazing food trucks!).  Our second SoWa event was canceled due to Ms. Hurricane Irene, and with this Sunday being our 3rd SoWa Sunday… there is rain in the forecast.  Ugh, mother nature you have got to be kidding me!  But thankfully, today’s forecast says it’s only a 30% chance of showers and it should only be before 9 am.  That means that the event should still be a great place to visit to check out some amazing handmade gifts and items, and of course try out all the food trucks.  If you’re in the Boston area, I really do hope to see you there!

SoWa Open Market
460 Harrison Avenue
South End, Boston
10 am – 4 pm

{image shown via my iPhone, deciding which food truck to visit during break in the rain}

For today through Labor Day (Monday, September 5th), enter “LABORDAY15″ when you checkout of my online shop to receive 15% off your order.  Please feel free to share!

This Wednesday I finally got to do something that I’ve been wanting to do for months… learn screenprinting (or rather, refresh… last did it in high school) and finally put my logo on my shopping bags.  The workshop was taught by my friend and colleague, Allison Bianco, and it was really a lot of fun.  Who knew seeing your logo on a kraft bag could make you so incredibly happy?  It was the same sort of giddy feeling I had when I saw my name on my first set of business cards at my first job out of college.

Really excited for the 2nd class for screenprinting: I’ll be working on a print combining screenprinting (and later on) & letterpress for a print exchange at the AS220 Print Shop!

Have a great weekend everyone!  I’ll be trying to stay afloat from Hurricane Irene and not holding too much animosity towards her for ruining my 2nd SoWa Open Market event, especially after my 1st one was completely rained out.  Argggh.
- Colleen

I’m so pleased to share with you the wedding invitation suite for my dear friends Colleen & Paul.  I’ve been lucky to be able to print their save-the-dates and both shower invitations (here and here), and was so excited to see the design for their wedding invites.  Everything was designed and illustrated by the bride and groom (both are amazing artists) and I letterpress printed the suite in a dark charcoal and an apple green.  The lovely calligraphy is by the bride (she is so talented!).

The invitation suite arrived wrapped in twine and stacked with the invite on top, in the middle an information card with cartography border illustrations, then on the bottom a map and directions card with an anchor and key border illustration (did I mention the hand-drawn map, too?).  It was such a great project to work on, and it was for people I love = the best.

It’s almost September and that means the wedding is just around the corner!  Seriously cannot wait.

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

Yesterday my cousin and I finally made it to the beach.  Hooray!  It was really a perfect beach day (with the exception of a wild and very bold seagull knocking my sandwich literally out of my hands with his beak – ouch!).  Felt super relaxed when I got home I stayed up late getting a lot of work done.  So, based on my summer to-do’s, I have four more things to go!

Trying really hard to switch out of vacation mode and get back to work today.  Just can’t shake Acadia from me yet.

{for more of my acadia national park photos, check out my Flickr}

Just a friendly reminder that I’ll be absent from this space all of next week, returning on Monday, August 15th.  Headed north to Acadia for a week of camping, hiking, and relaxing!  Yipee!

Hope you have a great week, everyone!

{for more of last year’s Acadia trip photos, check out my Flickr}

I feel like I write this list every year (and it appears here and here, so I’m beginning a pattern of doing so).  Summer is my favorite season, and it always takes me off guard when August rolls around and I realize my favorite time of the year isn’t far from being over.  Sadly, it appears a few of this year’s to-do’s are on past lists… guess I’ll have to make an earnest attempt at getting these things done in the next few weeks!  I’m keeping this one short so it’s attainable.

1. Go to the beach!  I have been going to a local pond for a swim this summer, but I still have yet to trek out to the ocean.  Sad, because this is one of my absolute favorite things to do.
2. Go to the drive-in!  There’s one not too far from me, and yet I’ve never been!  How crazy of me.
3. Make some terrariums!  I already bought some glassware from Ikea, just need to get my plants.
4. Visit the Cape!  One of my favorite places in the world, I’d love to do a few day trips here.
5. Read more!  For some reason, this one is hard for me to do.  I feel guilty ready during the day (“I should be working”) so I wait until right before bed, which always ends in me asleep after two pages.

What would you like to do with the remaining weeks of summer?

I cannot tell you how excited I am for next week… we’re going back to camp in Acadia!  This time we’re bring my parents, hoping to make some good memories.  Funny how this trip always seemed so far away, but all of the sudden it crept up on me.

{for more of last year’s photos to Acadia, check out my Flickr}

I’m very excited to announce that The Brocade Blackbird and I will be sharing a booth at the SoWa Open Market at 460 Harrison Avenue in Boston!  Dates of our attendance are August 7th & 28th, September 4th & 25th, and October 9th.  If you’re in the New England area, please do drop by to say hello on one of those dates… we’d love to meet you!

{image shown via SoWa Open Market}