penelope's press welcomes another retailer carrying pp's letterpress goodness:  paper + stitch in old greenwich, connecticut!!!  i "met" victoria online in march when she sent me a message letting me know she was opening a new retail store carrying paper goods and monogrammed gifts and clothes and wanted to carry some penelope's press goodies {woohoo!!}.  if you're a "connectican", show paper + stitch some love and visit the store at 259 sound beach avenue in old greenwich.  if you're a facebooker, go "like" the paper + stitch page by clicking here!  thanks victoria and paper + stitch for expanding my little retail presence beyond illinois!!  {below are photos of some of the items carried at paper + stitch}

spring has sprung and the rain in the midwest has given us a little break... i'm a little late getting started this year, but yesterday i picked up a few things to plant in my veggie garden.  last year i grew 3 kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, and zucchini {i also tried lettuce, but that failed miserably} and was quite happy with the results.  i also had a mini herb garden and grew cilantro, parsley, and basil.  in addition to cucumbers and tomatoes, i've decided to add yellow and orange peppers, eggplant,  and yellow grape tomatoes.  if you ever plan on starting a vegetable garden, think twice about zucchini... it grows rampant and messy and invades on the space of the veggies.

later today i'm going to get down and dirty and pull out all of the weeds that have grown with all of the spring rain any plant my vegetables.  yes, those are weeds...

on a non-healthy note... this past weekend we celebrated my nephew's 1st communion.  his godfather brought over donuts for breakfast...

yep, that's bacon on top of the donuts!  it has got to be the most unheatlhy donuts out there.  i dislike bacon {not because it's fattening, i love fattening food, ha!} but my husband insisted i take a bite... it actually wasn't that bad.  these healthy gems were bought at the donut den in joliet.

it's late, technically not monday anymore, and instead of printing i'm blogging.  this past sunday was my third born's first easter.  since she's too small to indulge in the deliciousness of easter chocolate bunnies and egg filled candies, i had to find something appropriate for her easter basket... if you follow the blog, you know that i refer to our newborn as our "little peanut"... look what i found at target the other day...  score!  here's to hoping your easter weekend was filled with love!

a "push gift", a newer term that has gained popularity in recent years, is the idea of giving a gift to a mother for giving birth... really, it's just another reason for retailers to capitalize on life's special events.  i've been using the same macbook for the past 5 years... with coffee spills and food in between the keys and children slamming on the keyboard and over extending the screen, my beloved macbook has now gone to rest.  welcome my newest toy, my push present:  macbook pro

the best push present of all though, is the little peanut i birthed {who recently celebrated her 3 month birthday... hooray}!

in early january a woman emailed, "I love your blog and your designs!".  she went on tell me that her wedding would be in april and that she had a design in mind that she was hoping i could help with... she also wanted me to give her a quote for shipping said invitations to melbourne, australia.  melbourne, australia!!  that's the greatest thing about the internet, while i'm snoring sleeping peacefully in my bed in illinois, someone, somewhere in the world can be wide awake reading my blog or buying some stationery.  how amazing.  silvia wanted the affect of petals blowing across the page, blind debossed and a space for the names of their guests to be handwritten on the invites {what a great idea... i've never seen that done before on the actually invite}.  here are some photos of the finished invitations...

here they are... all ready to be shipped to australia!

Just a note to say hello and let you know that our wedding invitations arrived on Wednesday and they are perfect!  

Thank you so much for doing such a beautiful job, they are just as I imagined - understated, elegant and so, so pretty!