i like to consider myself an avid blog reader {err, correction, "blog stalker"}. i have certain blogs that i read {stalk} daily and others weekly and sometimes my favorite bloggers do not post anything new for weeks at a time... and now i understand. it takes a lot of time to blog. to think of what you're going to write, to gather your pictures you plan to post, to downsize those pictures, let alone finding quiet time to sit down and think. so yes, i have the blogging blues and it has been weeks since my last post and now the holidays are upon us and life will get even busier and then i will really not know what to do with myself. sigh. one of the blogs i follow is gamewell press and maggie nailed exactly how i feel most of the time in her latest post "Musings on Monotony" read it here.

so, away with the blogging blues.

a few weeks ago i printed baby announcements for my good friend dawn. although they turned out good, unfortunately for me, i had sooo many trials and tribulations. it probably didn't help that it was my first time to do a lot of things.. it was the first time that i used the dampening technique- i literally dampened each paper before feeding them through my little craftsman and it was also the first time i had ever hand mixed ink-- i hand mixed both the blue and yellow used. here's a pic of the yellow-

let me back it up and explain why i had so many issues... for the announcement, the proud mommy and daddy wanted a poem that they had written included. i decided to save some money and use type that i was given when i first bought my press. i was given so much times new roman that i didn't even think it was going to be a problem, until i came across numbers in the poem and realized i didn't have any numbers! then i tried to be savvy and thought of spelling out the numbers, but how many people spell out the height and weight of a newborn on an announcement? zero. i know. so i called up mommy dawn, told her of the delay and quickly sent the poem out to have a photopolymer plate made. when the plate finally arrived i inked up the press but to my surprise, the impression was horrible. i had used photopolymer plates before, but never for small, fine lines such as the font i used. after reading several archived posts from briar press and the letpress listserve, the conclusion was people prefer using magnesium or copper for fine lines and details over photopolymer. so again, i called up mommy dawn yet again to tell her of the delay. i sent out for the plate to be made from magnesium through owosso graphics and waited yet again for it to arrive in the mail. when my package arrived in the mail, i ripped it open only to find the wrong plate inside! instead of the baby poem, it was a magnesium plate for a dentist's business card in springfield! oh my! the following morning i called owosso and they sent the right mag plate next day air. in the meantime, i called mommy dawn to explain yet a further delay! when the plate arrived the next day i was all ready to go-- magnesium plates of the baby poem, a star, and the baby's name and two custom hand mixed inks in baby blue and pale yellow. i stayed up all night, dampening each paper and pressing each announcement. when i was all finished, i closely examined the finished announcement only to realize that i had misspelled the baby's name!! instead of orion nathaniel i spelled it orion nathaniAl with an A instead of an E!! omg, just my luck! i got a few hours of sleep and called mommy dawn yet again!!  so with the correct spelling of the name and after many mishaps, here they are...

{printed with magnesium plates in custom colors, hand mixed, rubber based inks on 110lb crane's lettra in fluorescent white and matted on light blue 80lb cover, baby photos provided by orion's proud parents}

you've got to love unique names. this past weekend i finished up baptism invitations for a joint baptism for orion nathaniel and milan aurelia-- the first born children of two cousins- debbie & dawn- and their lucky husbands. of the two cousins, dawn is a good friend of mine, who also happens to be the executive director {among a list of hats she wears} of the ever so talented culture shock chicago, a non-for-profit professional hip hop dance troupe and youth outreach organization. they have saturday classes that are open to the public so if you want to get your dance on, you should give it a try!

{printed with magnesium plates in silver oil based ink on 110 lb crane's lettra in pearl white and matted on metallic silver 102 lb cover, paired with a soft white rounded envelope}

a few months ago i acquired gertrude, an old style gordon. this is her before shot-- all dismantled, sad, and pathetic

she's been out of commission for some time now... but look at gertrude now

she's still not all together yet, but she's feeling much better {you like how i humanize my presses?}. she still needs a new feed board, new motor, new rollers, and a heavy duty cleaning, but thanks to my husband and his newfound interest, gertrude should be up and running in no time!

i saw an ad on briar press for an 8x12 chandler and price platen press for a good price, but dismantled.. i of course jumped at the chance. after a lovely 20 minute phone conversation with linda miller, the owner of the press, i decided to go see it. so last monday the husband accompanied me to the small town of loves park, il. we drove through two hours of scenic grassland and had some windmill sightings, which perked the husband's interest.

when we got there, it was NOT what i expected. i thought maybe a few things were dismantled-- maybe a lever here, a lever there, a flywheel here, and an ink disk there. oh no. it was almost COMPLETELY dismantled. one good thing though is that the press was a 10x15, not an 8x12 like the ad stated. after looking at the press up and down- all sad and dismantled- i was ready to say my goodbyes, get back on the road and drive two hours back home. but when i looked at my husband and said, "so what do you think?", he gave me this look and said, "sure, get it" what?! i asked my husband warily, "you know this is all you, right? you're going to help me clean it up and put it back together?" the good husband appeased me and said yes. so after an hour of watching the amazingly strong linda miller and my husband pick up and pack the car with over a thousand pounds of cast iron steel in the blistery cold wind, we were ready to lug my new press home. this is what we saw when we arrived

and this is what the dismantled press and all its pieces looked like in the car

am i crazy or what? miss miller kept calling the press "fred", but i have a friend named fred and it just didn't seem fitting. my husband came up with "gertrude"... i like it... gertrude it is. so now gertrude is in our garage, waiting to be cleaned up and put back together.. a big project ahead of us as gertrude is covered with years of dirt, grime, and grease. i'll be sure to post on our progress and of course the finished product.

my good friend jackie, sole proprietor of flirtation flowers, asked me to make some business cards for her.  note to self-- make some business cards for myself!