Six more days until we leave for the Philippines.

So many levels of exciting.

Also, Cree's last final is today.  Think some happy thoughts for him.

I imagine there is a big nap in store for him this afternoon.

Cree and I saw the movie Northface at the Michigan Theater this weekend. Really fantastic. I was on the edge of my seat the whole movie.  Highly recommend it.

My adorable little brother called me yesterday to chat.  His 16th birthday is coming up and I asked if he had any big plans.  He informed me that he'd spent the previous afternoon sprucing up the family vintage tandem bike for a date night.  I went off on how cute he was and asked why there weren't cute boys like him when I was 16.  He told me that because his other option would be the family Astro van, it was out of necessity.

Necessity or not, I think it is adorable.  I'm lucky to have such a cute brother. 

I finally finished Three Cups of Tea.  It only took me a year and a half.  I kept starting new projects or new books, forgetting that I was in the middle of it. It was  a great story, but I'm glad to be done.  I immediately moved onto The Help which I borrowed from Carrie. Loved every page. I was done in a week.  There are still parts that I think about and start to giggle.  A highly recommended read.

Any suggestions for what to read next? I'm going to need lots of new reading material on the 18 hour flight to Manilla. 

It has been a wonderful year.

Go visit our Jones Press blog for an update on the Detroit Craft fair!

Tomorrow is the day!

So when Cree and I moved to Ann Arbor, I immediately started searching the internet for people that letter pressed near by. I found Elevated Press, run by Michelle Baker. Early last year, she invited Cree and I to come take a tour of her studio.  She and her husband Pete (who is also a designer and photographer) own a great spot just past downtown.  They own three presses (shown below) and recently acquired a fantastic new (but very old) paper cutter.  Over the past couple months they have been hosting a series of art shows in their studio space which we enjoyed very much. 

I think they are a great couple and I'm very impressed with their work.  It will be nice to have them close by for our stay here in Ann Arbor. 

I have grabbed some of their work from their websites, links highlighted above, for you to take a look at. Isn't it great!?!

My friend Alpha mad me this book. She took an old vintage book and took out the interior and replaced it with new blank paper. She then took the illustrations from the inside and glued them randomly throughout the book. I absolutely adore it. We decided to take her idea and try one too! We found the book below (The Congressional Cook Book) at a thrift store in Burley, Idaho. We are going to make it our family cook book. Alpha suggested using manilla envelopes for recipe card holders and we found vintage graph paper for the interior. The next step is to bind it! I can't wait to see how it turns out!!

I found this here. I LOVE the clothes.

This is an exhibit announcement I did at work for Scott Hocking. His work is really interesting. He travels around downtown Detroit and photographs the old abandoned buildings. The announcement unfolded to a poster of a old book depository. Thousands of books...just left behind. He finds some pretty fascinating stuff.

Here are the photos of the book I recently designed as promised!

Happy Easter!!!

Cree and I had a lovely day. We watched conference, letter pressed until our arms were sore, went for a tandem bike ride and read books in the grass. The wind and sunshine was rejuvenating. I'm so happy spring has reached Ann Arbor.

The Ann Arbor Salvation Army (which is unusually pricey for a thrift store) had a 2 skirts for $5 sale...so I got four. All high waisted. It has completely revolutionized my spring wardrobe.

I've decided to start a blog for our letterpress gig. We are calling ourselves Jones Press and you can see the blog here! I expect to soon have a spot on my personal site dedicated to the Jones Press as well.

My boss designed a new website for the company.  I so prefer this one to the last one.  The programmer finished it up this week.  Check out the about us section.  There is a photo of the office...we had to re-take the photo twice because of my bad posture.  I don't know what it is about me and posture.  I decide to work on it...stand up straight...and then I forget almost instantaneously. In due time.

Exciting news!  Builder's Apprentice came off the press this morning and is already on shelves.  We received our copies this morning.  The printing is beautiful.  I'll take photos and post them soon!