the domino effect- it's crazy... so last week when i saw the launch of oh my! handmade goodness, i emailed {which i normally never do} a simple note saying congrats and good wishes on the new venture... then i received an email back... we exchanged a few emails, decided to meet, and yesterday i had the pleasure of meeting sara tams of sarah+abraham and oh my! handmade goodness. it was great chatting with someone that "gets you"... who knows about etsy, who's into the whole blog thing, that reads blogs, writes blogs, who appreciates the handmade goodness in things.. it was refreshing talking to someone who has taken the path that i'm trying to get on and has actually succeeded. i asked her a little about her story, i told her a little of my story, we talked a little business... it was great! and today i checked out the facebook fan page of oh my! handmade goodness and was pleasantly surprised that yesterday she posted a little blurb about our little meeting... penelope's press's FIRST little "shout out"! how exciting! become a fan of oh my! handmade goodness today!

over the weekend i printed 150 save the dates for my friend dawn and her hubby phil... and no, they were not printed using a letterpress {gasp!} that's fine with me though.. i don't discriminate. i think they turned out nice, especially with their wedding colors of deep purple and light green. take a peak...

resolution #1 for small business: go public with blog {done}

yikes! i've done it. i'm public now. people out there will actually be able to find my blog and read it. oh no. scary. i don't know what is more scary?? knowing that i'm officially exposed- this blog- with all my thoughts, opinions, photos, randomness, typos, lowercase typed rants, and overuse of ellipses- exposed to stalker blog reading people like myself, critical readers, mean commenters, or just pure crazies out there OR the fact that i could potentially be writing for no one but myself. i am liking the latter.

now that i am public, i am going to publicly blog about some resolutions i have for the new year for my little penelope's press:

1. go public with blog-- seriously, i have been posting to the imaginary reader long enough {done}

2. blog more-- be inspired by the movie julie & julia and blog more, if that girl could blog everyday, then i should at least try to blog once a week, right?

3. make myself some business cards-- how is it that i've made business cards for someone else already?

4. open an esty shop and actually list something for sale-- alright, i must admit, i've already opened up an etsy sellers account but have nothing to sell.. how does that make any sense?

5. stop buying so much stuff, unless you plan on using it-- why do i need so much stuff? i like to call it "supplies", but come on now, i need to be real with myself... what are the "supplies" for if i'm not making anything with it?

phew. that's exhausting. for now, i am impressed that i have taken the plunge and am now public. so, hello world wide web! be kind to me-- unexperienced blogger, newbie wannabe printer, and longtime paper fanatic can be quite sensitive ;)

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}