my real estate license expires today and marks my official departure from the real estate industry.  before my letterpress life, i was a real estate agent with baird and warner, the oldest independent brokerage in the country and the largest in illinois.  i worked out of the lincoln park office, which was the #1 office in the state.  we had an awesome office and extensive sales training.  over the course of my real estate career, i saw a lot of homes- mini mansions with elevators, posh high rise condominiums looking over lake michigan, white picket fence homes in the suburbs, to beautifully rehabbed four squares {let's not mention the handful of rat infested, poorly maintained, dilapidated properties i saw, even a condemned property a client was trying to view, sheesh!}  so, when i passed through a nearby downtown suburb over the weekend and verbally expressed to my husband how it would be perfect to open shop in one of these vintage homes, can you imagine how my draw dropped when i saw this perfect little place?  for sale and zoned transitional for work+live/live/work!  it was built in 1907, the perfect little home for my 1900's old presses and some sweet retail goodies.  sigh... day dreaming.

i've known the mister for 14 years and today marks 7 years of marriage!  since i'm in the business of designing and printing wedding invitations, i thought i should share some images of our special day.  it was {besides the birth of my children} the happiest day of my life... so cliche, but so true!  i still remember how my face hurt from all the smiling!

our wedding was traditional... the roman catholic church, the grand ballroom reception, and all that jazz, infused with some filipino {me} and chinese {the husband} cultural traditions.  i loved all of it, good times!

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}