mmm...can't wait until he's back.

I got a package! I had requested one of these posters before Christmas, but it came a couple weeks ago. A new axe company called Best Made. Makes me want to find a reason to cut wood. I love the graphic design...

I'm lone woman this week. I dropped off Cree at the airport on Friday for Manila, which made my heart all sorts of hurt. To keep my mind off missin my man, I decided to explore a little. I went to Ypsilanti and explored some antique stores. I found these little gems, new table cloth included. I game myself a big pat on the back.

Good news!  

I found out today that I was accepted into the Handmade Detroit Craft Fair in April!  

I have a lot of work to do before then, but I'm excited!

Thanks Louella Court for the shout out!  

and thank you everyone for voting!

Keep it up!  :)

Vote for me!!

I designed this series of posters for a local contest that the Detroit Institute of Art is hosting. We were instructed to create WPA style inspired posters that would economic growth in Michigan. Two of the three were chosen. The winner gets $1000 and the top 25 will be put up in an exhibit in correlation up with the current exhibit. If you have a minute go vote for my two posters. They are next to each other on the first page. You can vote once a day until March 15th! Thanks!!

Ps. My plan is to eventually letterpress them. They should be delightful little prints.

On Friday is was the Ann Arbor Addy Awards. It was Mad Men themed, so of coarse, true to form, I went all out. Vintage coat, vintage broach, vintage dress, vintage purse, vintage gloves.....I even ratted my hair into a french twist. I felt like the real deal. We get there and the only other people in their 60's garb seemed to have mixed up their genre's by wearing feather boa's, rhinestone encrusted cat eyes and a tiara? It reminded me of the time I was 15 and went to a 70's themed party in my mom's mauve polyester pant suit with my hair curled and ratted well beyond Richard Simmons status, arriving at the party and finding myself the only one not wearing a pair of American Eagle bell bottoms and striped top to match.

At least this time I had a handsome man on my arm.

I just entered some of my letterpress into the Detroit Craft Fair.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I have lots of new stuff to print.....so I'm hoping it will work out.

If not, there's always next year right?

Best Valentines Ever.

Yesterday Cree surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and told me that I needed to be dressed and ready for a nice dinner by 4:15. I was dressed and ready, but we didn't get out the door until 4:30. Cree was trying to tie his bow tie. After driving driving past Detroit (50 minutes away), I got suspicious. He had made reservations at a dinner jazz club!! I almost cried. It was beautiful....really truly beautiful. The place was called The Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe. Hardwood floors with gorgeous black and white photos of old time jazzers like Count Basie and Coltrane. The show that night was a woman by the name of Thornetta Davis. Her version of Etta James's At Last was to die for. I was mesmerized. Cree knows me so well. I was tickled pink.

Cree gave me the sweetest gift of all, photographs below. Soon, he is going to the Philippines for a week. He bought a cute stationary set and used a typewriter to write a memory for every morning he is away. Each one is dated so I won't sneak ahead, but it will be hard not too. What a treasure.

Ever since I was a little girl, my dad has made my whole family individual handmade valentines made of construction paper. I think it is so cute. My dad is such a doll.

My mama sent us a beautiful napkin set that was embroidered by my great grandma, whom she called Mo-mo, with an awfully sweet note that said, "I'm sure you'll have fun celebrating; but, when you are really in love every day seems like valentines doesn't it?" Ain't that the truth.

Biff and Rosie sent us an adorable handmade valentine with an updated photo of sweet Hazel, which we promptly put on the fridge.

This card was from my friend Colleen. I LOVE it! She just started her own letterpress company called Cleanwash. She is such a doll. I met her while working in Philadelphia, so if you are in the area...give her a call. She knows everything there is to know about letterpress.

Here is our cute little Valentines dinner. I'm trying really hard to experiment with new recipes, so we had sweet potato risotto. We both decided it was a keeper....

Deborah sent us a video of old 8mm film footage she had of the Jones family. Cree and I loved watching them all....lots of giggles. She also sent us a bag of M&M's, which I'm embarrassed to say were consumed in 24 hours of receiving them.

I felt so loved this Valentines weekend....

and you want to know something awful?

I didn't send out any Valentines!! Because of this I've decided to send out spring cards (when I get the letterpress kinks all figured out) to make up for it. It's been blogged, so it might as well be written in stone. :)

I hope everyone had a lovely Valentines! 

I'm lovin my new work space.

We found the cute + colorful crates last weekend at a thrift store.

Only $2 a piece!

I think they fit perfectly.

I saw these on SimpleSong. 

I think I need one to letterpress in.

It snowed today!  I thought this photograph from etsy was beautiful.

Anywho, I got into work today and my boss asked if I had a new phone....I had forgotten to give him my new number. He had tried to call me to tell me it was a snow day!!!

Since we were both in already, he figured we'd just go ahead and work. Now I can't concentrate.

I keep thinking about the pajama time I am missing out on.

He did buy us some hot chocolate....

Exciting news!

My boss entered the Poster/Invitation series I designed in to the Regional Addy Competition and we were notified that each piece won an award!  We find out which awards they received in two weeks at the Gala...I'm pretty excited.  

My mama just sent me this photo she took last year.  The Uptown Theater is what brought Cree hitch hiking across America, to Kansas City so many years ago.  Who knew the young man I met on July 3, 2005 would be the man I married on April 25, 2009?  Life works in funny ways sometimes.

Our new letterpress equipment makes me giddy.

We can't quit staring at it.

I love it that the owner kept the original packaging.

A man after my own heart.

My mama had this photo booth taken shortly after I was born.  It makes my heart hurt every time I look at it.  I think it is so cute.  The next time I go home we should take another one.

This is a book I designed the grid/concept for at work with my boss (savitski design).  It was for the UMMA, the University of Michigan's Museum of Art.  I went and saw the exhibit with Cree last week over the lunch hour.  It was pretty impressive...the scrolls were massive.  It was fun to see them in real life after staring at them in pixels for so long.

I've been telling Cree I wanted to make tree prints since September, but never went out and got the trees.  At Christmas I had two very heavy presents under the tree.  Cree had found two stumps, sanded them (both sides) and wrapped them up for me.  So thoughtful.  I finally made the prints last week... it was really fun.  They turned out okay...I learned as I went and can try again.... possibly with smaller stumps.