workday wednesdays: how to start a movement

Posted by debbie lee on

i have been trying to get votes for this small business grant i applied for.  a few days ago, my little brother sent me this email:

You've got 22 days to make everyone join in the fun in voting for you.

From my view, your true believer, and first follower, seems to be
 
Terence. Then it's Elaine Villaflores. You are the ember, teach them
how they can spark the revolution.

Morning motivation!
 

Check out this video on YouTube:

talk about motivation!  don't you love TED talks?  go out there and be that ember, or in this case, the lone nut! 

"if you really care about starting a movement, have the courage to follow and show others how to follow"

 

won't you follow my movement and vote for penelope's press to win a small business grant?  click here for instructions

 

*terence is my husband and elaine v. is a good friend  

Read more →

penelope's press needs your votes!

Posted by debbie lee on

hello blog friends!  i recently applied for a small business grant and could really use your help with votes.  while completing the essay portion of the grant application, i got choked up a bit.  i cannot believe how far penelope's press has grown in the past few years.  none of it would have been possible without the encouragement of so many.  i dream of opening a community print shop to offer letterpress workshops... won't you help me get there?

below is the email message i have been sending out--

 

Dear family, friends, clients, and supporters of Penelope's Press,

Penelope's Press recently applied for a small business grant. Chase and LivingSocial are sponsoring "Mission: Small Business", a grant program awarding $3 million to small business owners nationwide. Your support could translate into a $250,000 grant, but we need at least 250 votes {through June 30th} at missionsmallbusiness.com in order to qualify and proceed to the next phase of voting.

It only takes 30 seconds to vote!

  • Visit missionsmallbusiness.com
  • Click on "Log in & Support" with your Facebook account
  • Enter "Penelope's Press" in the business name field and click "Search" and then "Vote"

Please support Penelope's Press by submitting your vote today!

You have supported Penelope's Press in many ways because you have promoted or purchased, fanned or tweeted, pinned or liked Penelope's Press. We are a successful boutique letterpress print + design studio because of your support. Penelope's Press dreams of expanding and transitioning to a brick and mortar community print shop, where handmade goods from local artists will be sold, workshops are taught, and letterpress thrives! The promotion and preservation of print is important to us. Please visit missionsmallbusiness.com, your continued support means so much!

{If you are not already a fan, you can 'Like' our Facebook page here: facebook.com/penelopespress}

Thank you always,

Debbie

Read more →

national stationery show recap

Posted by debbie lee on

i recently returned from a quick visit to nyc to walk the national stationery show at the javits center, the biggest trade show for the industry.  how big?  there were roughly 800 some exhibitors, 11,000 some buyers from stationery, card and gift shops; bookstores; bridal shops; party stores; department, chain and specialty stores; large chains and "big box" mass retailers; online retailers and mail order catalogs; as well as special event planners, corporate marketers, importers and distributors, and 300 some members of the trade and consumer press {stats from the nationalstationeryshow.com}... that's how big!  the show is only open to those in the trade and press, not the public, so i was surrounded by true paper lovers, it was a fantastic experience!

i took the first flight in on saturday and with me, took my photographer friend elaine, and my flower friend, jackie for a mini "working" vacation.  upon arrival, we visited the flower district {on west 28th street between 6th and 7th avenue}, ate some food truck gyros, and oohed and aahed over all the pretty flowers and foliage.

the next day was the big show!  i only had one day to walk the show, sunday, but i arrived at the show at opening and stayed until close.  elaine came with me and was my official photographer for the day.  naturally, as a photographer, she wants to take pictures of EVERYTHING creative and interesting.  sadly, but understandably, some exhibitors didn't want photos of their booth or product taken.  the exhibitors that didn't mind though, were gracious, thankful, and welcoming!

enough "talking" already and on to the pictures.  all of these photos were taken by my awesome friend elaine.  she's having a new home built on the web, but in the meantime you can visit her here.  i do not like getting in front of the camera, but elaine insisted on documenting my whole experience. 

national stationery show steps

and thank goodness she was there to take photos, because most of the time, my hands were full, and my face looked like this {completely candid photo, ha!}...

pp at nss

as soon as we walked in, the first booth we saw was of b.t. elements... we were blown away!

bt elements at nss 2012

i had a long list of exhibitors i wanted to meet, so it was booth after booth after booth!  we started at 10am and took our first and only break at 3:45pm then kept going until close at 6pm.  this is only a sampling of all the photos elaine took!  first up was blue barnhouse

blue barnhouse

the ladies of letterpress {which i am a member of} had a combined booth showcasing 11 talented stationers.  among my favorites were seed house, moglea, and petal press...

ladies of letterpress booth at nss 2012

ladies of letterpress booth at nss-2

adrienne of dingat press and i in her super, fabulous, scalloped wall-filled booth.  

dingbat press at nss

dingbat press at nss 2012-2

 the cute husband and wife duo, garett + jessica, of wednesday 

wednesday at nss 2012

me with the ladies of sugarcube press

sugarcube press at nss 2012

the sisters of fawnsberg and i... they have awesome stamps that i must buy soon.

fawnswberg at nss 2012

fawnsberg at nss 2012

i met sarah of the permanent collection press last year at the ladies of letterpress conference where we chatted it up and quickly became friends.  this year she debuted at the stationery show... so proud of her!

the permanent collection at nss 2012

the permanent collection at nss 2012

allison of the social type with her refreshing + colorful goods

the social type at nss 2012

the awesome booth of one canoe two

one canoe two at nss 2012

rebekah of wild ink press with her ridiculously awesome ombre walls

wild ink press at nss 2012

wild ink press booth at nss 2012

super adorable kim of paper lovely

paper lovely press at nss 2012

paper lovely press booth at nss 2012

the nic studio and their awesome artwork {how many times have i used the word "awesome" in this post?}

the nic studio at nss 2012

the funny jodi of paisley tree press

paisley press at nss 2012

amber of flywheel press was so kind... she took some time to chat with me about exhibiting... she was so encouraging and offered to give me advice anytime!  incredible!

flywheel press at nss 2012

lisa of sapling press has the wittiest cards

sapling press at nss 2012

sapling press at nss 2012

pistachio press sans rachael who i heard speak at the ladies of letterpress conference last year

pistachio press booth at nss 2012

pistachio press at nss 2012

the incredible booths of blackbird letterpress

blackbird letterpress at nss 2012

and two paper dolls

two paper dolls at nss 2012

paper boat studios had awesome letterpress game pieces, dominos and checkers, so cool!

paper boat studios at nss 2012

paper boat studios at nss 2012

katie of kelp designs runs tradeshow bootcamp an awesome resource if you're looking to exhibit at the stationery show {i took one seminar last year to get my feet wet and cannot wait to take part in the upcoming series}

tradeshow bootcamp at nss 2012

egg press with their incredible line of cards

egg press booth at nss 2012

egg press at nss 2012

i cannot get enough of kate & birdie paper co.

kate and birdie at nss 2012

kate and birdie at nss 2012

this is me saying, "your stuff is so awesome!" {see there's the word awesome again}  to the sisters of 9spotmonk.  vivian thought she was being "punked" with ashton kutcher {that one show} because i kept oohing and ahhing.  she said people like me don't come into booths with my reaction.  i know, i was a big dork that day with either eyes of wonder or the goofiest grin plastered on my face.

9spotmonk at nss 2012

9spotmonk card at nss 2012

while at 9spotmonk, i ran into retailer kara of magnificent milestones where my chicago line of cards and notes that my sister illustrated are sold

magnificent milestones

and last, but not least for photos, is suann of simplesong design and fifteen/eleven.  i love everything about her designs, style, and inspirational style blog

simplesong design at nss 2012

simplesong design

simplesong design at nss 2012

phew that was a long post {that's not even a fraction of all of the photos that were taken}!  again, a huge thanks to elaine for taking all the photos!

the talent was amazing, products beautiful, and exhibitors exceptionally encouraging and kind!  it is incredible meeting the folks behinds the products that i've admired online, who's blogs i've read up and down, and websites i stalk {there were dozens more i wish i had the time to meet}!  i came back with awesome paper goodies and samples, made many stationery contacts, and have a renewed sense of creativity and energy!  thank you nyc for a fantastic working vacation!  i hope to return next year as an exhibitor!  cheers to you... i hope you do something creative this memorial day weekend!

Read more →

happy mother's day!

Posted by debbie lee on

wedding photo with mom

this is one of my favorite photos of my mom and i at my wedding, we're kneeling at the statue of the virgin mary.  wishing all of my mommy readers {and my own mom} a blessed mother's day!  

Read more →

things i'm afraid to tell you

Posted by debbie lee on

 

things i'm afraid to tell you

so, i follow a lot of bloggers for a lot of reasons.  their style.  good content.  great photos.  inspiration.  etc, etc, etc.  on one of the blogs i follow, ez from creature comforts posted about  "things i'm afraid to tell you", {inspired by this post here and here by jess of make under my life } and decided to rally other notable bloggers and encourage them to post about being transparent, real, honest.  it's incredible how this little campaign has turned a bit viral and how many bloggers, big and small have been brave and have written truthful, raw, honest posts {and some very witty} about the things that bring them fear, discomfort, anxiety.  so, in the spirit of the movement that ez and jess have started, here is my short list of "things i'm afraid to tell you".  i encourage you to visit ez's site to find a list of bloggers that have agreed to be open and share.

--i procrastinate, i do.  in everything in life.  even when given so much time to finish something, i still procrastinate.

--my house is messy 95% of the time and it drives me nuts.  if you were to stop by my house unannounced, i would probably detain you at the door and you would definitely not be able to go upstairs.  when forced to though, i can clean up like no body's business.

--it's hard being a stay-at-home work-at-home-mom- juggling 3 kids, keeping house, fulfilling orders, all the while keeping my sanity, or at least trying to.  i question myself and my mothering skills when i see other moms {including my own mom friends} so put together and polished and calm and patient with their children.

--speaking of children, mine bring me the greatest joy AND drive me crazy.  i tell my husband not to be surprised if he finds me embracing my legs and rocking in the corner one day.  it's not funny to make light of that, but i'm not being funny.

--i have a potty mouth.  i'm trying.

--i follow all of these letterpress and stationery folk and think, "seriously, how do they do it?  do they have kids?  do they have a nanny?  a cleaning lady?  a money tree growing in their backyard?  do they sleep at night?"  cuz dammit, i sure don't {not the kids part}.

--when i'm really in it, with packaging orders or in the middle of designing an invite, my kids take advantage that i'm preoccupied and literally snack on and do whatever they want.  then i snap back into mommy mode and catch them doing whatever they are not supposed to be doing and think, "i'm the worst mother ever".  working moms, outside the house have it hard too {don't get me wrong} but to be the primary care taker of your children is no walk in the park.

--i have a degree in english with a concentration in writing and my grammar is embarrassingly terrible.

--i don't consider myself a blogger, i'm just a letterpress printer and small business owner that has a blog so i assume that if you {meaning the teeny tiny handful of you that actually read and follow this blog} are here, you probably want to know about letterpress and print related things, but deep down, i wish i had an anonymous personal blog where i rant and rave about anything and everything.

--sometimes i like how i'm not really known among my stationery and letterpress peers and in the whole blogsphere and social media ramblings... sometimes it feels like high school or competing with the joneses or a really long rat race-- it's tiring and gets old fast.

so there.  some truth for you.  i could go on and on, {believe you me} but this is plenty personal for me considering i am not at all personal on this blog.  if you have a blog, i encourage you to do the same.  wear a little bit of your anxiety and fear and honesty on your sleeve {if you don't already} and then hit "publish post".  feels good. 

image by ez of creature comforts

Read more →