i am obsessed with you tube and vimeo.  it tops the cake when the video is about letterpress, typography, anything to do with book arts, or showcases the workspace of a letterpress printer.  i've been dragging with getting a video done, but i finally tidied up a little for some footage to be shot.

vince of stizo media put together the video... {i met vince and his wife 16 years ago in college and we've remained good friends ever since.  geez, i feel old}  vince has ridiculous talent.  he's a graphic designer by trade but has his hands in all aspects of design, from motion graphics, screen printing, to branding/logo design, and the list goes on.  if you follow the blog, you might remember that i printed his "certificate of authenticity" for his hand painted sneaker line {yep, he's a sneaker artisit too.  crazy.}  you can read that post by clicking here.  visit stizo media when you're done watching it and show him some love.

behind the scenes at penelope's press from penelope's press on Vimeo.

disclaimer: the last scene with the type spelling out "goodbye" was reversed to read properly by stizomedia

hello blog friends!  "where have you been", you ask?  on vacation and it was fantastic!  i'm not one to get really personal on my blog, but here's a little sneak peek into my family's 14 day vacation...

the first half of the vacation, we {my entire family- my folks, my siblings and their families, my younger brother, and my family- 18 of us in all!} were on the m.s. eurodam of holland america.

{all of these photos were taken with my iphone.  that iphone, it's pretty incredible.}

we had 4 ports.  grand turk, turks and caicos...

san juan, puerto rico...

st. thomas, virgin islands...

conch fritters, yum!

and half moon cay, bahamas...

in between our ports of paradise, we stuffed our faces with food.  we ate like this every. single. day.  yum...

i've sailed on royal caribbean and princess cruise lines and in my opinion, the food on the holland america line was out. of. this. world {i'm not even going to talk about their top notch customer service}!  can you imagine dining like that every single day?  goodness.

after the cruise was over, my family and my sister's family did the whole disney thing.  we went to magic kingdom {let's keep it real, jessie looks a little scary here}...

and animal kingdom...

and there you have it.  it was nice not having to check email or package orders, but now i'm back and fully submerged in wedding season, orders, and custom projects.  i have some new stuff to show you that i am sure you will love {including an awesome video that i'm posting tomorrow}... stay tuned!

the weather is unseasonably warm here in chicago and spring has officially set in!  i'll be taking a short break from blogging for some quality family time.  i'll be back in april to let you know what we've been up to here at penelope's press.  see you in april!

{any orders placed online or at the etsy shop will start shipping april 1st}

yesterday i celebrated my ahem "24th" birthday {sure... i wish, add a whopping 10 to that number!}  i have realized as the years pass, the lower key the celebration is, the more i like it!  gone are the days of dressing up to the t's and having a night out on the town.  instead, i spent the early part of the day working on files for photopolymer plates for some new designs and custom projects. the husband took a half day and gave me a break from my normal routine of juggling the kids and penelope's press.  then, the husband, children and i ate lobster {at red lobster, haha, let's keep it real}, put the kids to bed, and spent the remainder of the night on the couch catching up on dvr'ed episodes of our favorite shows.  i also treated myself to a birthday gift {the husband's gift to me is the new ipad, woot! i cannot wait for it to arrive} and finally splurged and bought some fonts that i've been pining over for some time now... here are a few that i purchased.. i cannot wait to use them on some designs that we're conjuring up here.  you can pick up some awesome fonts for yourself or a friend at myfonts.com  

{thank you lynda of greenstar creative for introducing me to "samantha"... love it!} 

well folks, i did it... i took a photo a day {with the exception of 4 days, because it was allowed} of a-z for the entire month of february.  here are my final 4 photos that i took.  {i'll let you know when the next class is so you can join in on the fun}

in case you've just started following the blog... i am participating in souvenir foto school and will be posting all of my photos.  

the assignment:  to shoot a photograph a day for 30 days, using the alphabet as your guide

my theme:  close up shots of print/book/paper related items

W for wood type

wood type from my collection placed on top of more wood type

X for xylograph

xylograph is an engraving on wood.  in collecting all of my letterpress paraphernalia these past few years, sometimes things just get thrown in because the seller wants to get rid of it.  these are the only engraved pieces in my collection.. an "s" and a really large percentage sign symbol.  engraved blocks differ than milled wood type because the engraving is done by hand... you can see the marks and nics left by the engraving tools {no, i did not know the word xylograph until this class} 

Y for yesteryear

i took this picture with my iphone and instagramed it because i am clueless on how to use filters or presets in photoshop and wanted to give it that sepia-ish look.

Z for zig zag

a zig zag border from my collection