tangent tuesdays: i'm back!

Posted by debbie lee on

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...

turks and caicos

grand turk

turks and caicos

turks and caicos

 

san juan, puerto rico...

san juan, puerto rico

san juan, puerto rico

san juan, puerto rico

 

st. thomas, virgin islands...

st. thomas, virgin island

 

conch fritters, yum!

conch fritters

st. thomas, virgin island

 

and half moon cay, bahamas...

half moon cay, bahamas

half moon cay, bahamas

 

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

holland america cruise food

holland america cruise food

holland america cruise food

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}...

disney magic kingdom

 

and animal kingdom...

animal kingdom

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!

Read more →

blogging break

Posted by debbie lee on

chicago spring

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}

Read more →

fancy fonts + another birthday

Posted by debbie lee on

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  

 

script fontscript fontscript font

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

Read more →

souvenir foto school wrap up

Posted by debbie lee on

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

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} 

wood type

 

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.

my little workroom transforms into a scene from the past... hence y for yesteryear!  these are two of my printing presses and guillotine paper cutter, circa early 1900's

printing press

 

Z for zig zag

a zig zag border from my collection

letterpress border

Read more →

souvenir foto school update, letters t-v

Posted by debbie lee on

here's my souvenir foto recap from the weekend...

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

T for tuscan floral type

i purchased this pretty and ornate set at the annual midwest and great northern printers fair this past year and cannot wait to print with it!

tuscan floral type

U for uppercase

just a few capital letters from my collection of type

letterpress type

 

 

V for  vandercook

 

so yah, snore.  i think this photo is so, so boring.  i took an unplanned nap on sunday which ran right into my evening plans so i literally assembled the paper model in the car on the way to our party and took this photo in the parking lot on top of the hood of our car as the sun was going down.  BUT, it did take care of my "V" word!

this is a tiny paper model of a vandercook proof press - a cylinder, flatbed press.  the vandercook is unlike the presses that i use regularly {i own platen presses w/ flywheels}.  the vandercook is like a porshe, range rover, bentley {what have you} of the letterpress world.  everyone wants one.  they cost an arm and a leg so this paper model is the closest i'm going to get to owning one, ha!  the paper model was in our tote bag of goodies from paul moxon at the ladies of letterpress conference i attended this past august.

{i should've placed something near it to show the scale of the model, the paper vandercook is a little longer than the length of your hand}

paper vandercrook

that's it for now folks.  only a few more days left of photo goodness.  have a productive {and creative} week!

Read more →