Little Birdies Are Back

Hello friends! Just a quick note to say and let you know that some pink bird notecards are back in our Etsy shop. Limited quantities are available - enjoy!

Taking A Break...

Hello friends!

Just a quick post to let you know that I will be taking a bit of a hiatus from work and the studio for the next little while. Some health problems have brought about the need for some down time, and so I will be focusing on recovering and family for now.

Projects underway will be completed as promised and Letterpress Lovers Club subscriptions will not be affected (except for the March mail out, which has been delayed).

Thanks again for visiting our blog and I will be sure to post updates once I return to work.

Desert Time

Last year I was contacted by a great couple from my hometown that are getting married this March in Palm Springs. I was excited and loved designing their invitations because I totally dig the whole Palm Springs modernist vibe and arts scene - and this was my chance to try to capture a California wedding destination on paper. I haven't photographed the whole suite yet since we haven't had a good clear sunny day for lighting in a while (Yay for living in the Pacific Northwest [not]). Anyways, above is a photo of one of the pieces with the wedding logo I created for the couple. I thought two palms together would tie the wedding and the destination together into one motif with names and the wedding date.

My family just returned from Palm Springs and while we were visiting we had a night away sans kiddies (thanks Mum and Dad). When I was sitting at the hotel pool I saw two palms staring back at me and it made me think of the invitations. So, I snapped a shot poolside.

This week we are just finishing up the menus and thank you notes for Celia and Jonathan's wedding. More photos to come!

As a side note, if you are ever in Palm Springs I highly recommend Birba Restaurant on North Palm Canyon Drive. Holy yum. And a Negroni Sbagliato that will blow your mind. The fact that it was Modernism Week meant lots of interesting people and clothing (I didn't know Pucci designed men's suits...but I'm pretty sure I saw a few vintage ones at Birba).

We are back to the sunshine in a few weeks (to HI) - maybe for good this time :)  I am looking forward to leaving all this rain behind!

Jobs and Workshops at Sunlit Letterpress

Hello friends! We've been getting a lot of emails lately about jobs and workshops at our studio, so I wanted to just take a minute to answer your emails en masse.

I love knowing that many of you are interested in jobs/internships at Sunlit Letterpress - but unfortunately we don't have any openings right now. When we end up in our permanent studio it will be something to consider. Either way, I will be sure to post any updates regarding jobs and/or internships here on the blog.

I've also received a number of emails about letterpress workshops and letterpress training. I would love to offer something along these lines in the future, but right now there is just not enough time – especially since baby #2 arrived! In the future when there is more time and a bigger studio space, I would like to be able to offer some sort of letterpress experience for those interested. Again, stay tuned to the blog as any updates will be posted here.

Thanks again for all your interest!

Valentine's Letterpress Love

Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

Subscribe your honey to our Letterpress Lovers Club - the letterpress-of-the month club where the subscriber receives a unique letterpress stationery item once a month for the duration of their membership. Three-month, six-month and yearly subscriptions are available for purchase from our Etsy shop.

Each month the item(s) are different (a fun surprise in your mailbox!) and will include an assortment of stationery items such as notecard or greeting card sets, art prints, gift tags, letterpress packaging items, seasonal stationery pieces, and more.

Buy a membership for your Valentine or as a gift for yourself!

Three-Month Subscription
http://www.etsy.com/listing/46694579/letterpress-lovers-club-membership-3

Six-Month Subscription
http://www.etsy.com/listing/50949069/monthly-letterpress-subscription

Twelve-Month Subscription
http://www.etsy.com/listing/86357503/monthly-letterpress-subscription

A limited number of memberships are available for sale.

Your first month will ship at the beginning of the next month after purchase (i.e. buy in April and your first mailing will ship at the beginning of May). Mailings are sent at the beginning of the month.

XOXO,
Sunlit Letterpress

Happy New Year!

Hello friends – I hope this post finds you well and enjoying the holiday season! Since 2013 is about to arrive, I thought I would do an end-of-year post with a few updates.

First, I am happy to announce that Sunlit Letterpress was a finalist for Best Wedding Stationery for the 2012 British Columbia Professional Wedding Awards. The photos below are of the invitations that placed us in the top three for the British Columbia.  These invitations were for Sharon and Faizal, a great couple from Vancouver that was married in Waikiki, HI, earlier this year.

This was the most technically difficult invitation I have designed and printed to date – with envelopment printing and very tight (hairline) registration for the pieces with the background pattern and borders. Forgive the printer jargon – when one color is printed first and the second color is printed on a separate pass, and the two colors meet exactly at a point and the inks cannot overlap or be separated by a gap – this is hairline registration. With a 100+ year old Chandler and Price printing press, getting the registration right is nightmarish to say the least. Although you can’t see it on the paper or in the photos, there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears in these pieces!

A special congratulations to my friend and fellow invitation designer Tammy of Uniquity Invitations who was also a stationery finalist this year!

Although I had hoped to get back to work in mid-December, I have not quite made it back. As I mentioned in my previous post, we welcomed our second daughter in mid-October. As wonderful as having a second child has been, I was unprepared (or just had unrealistic expectations) for how much less time and energy I would have left for work/studio time with two young children. Most days I struggle to find time to fit in a shower, let alone get any work done. Our baby girl has had some gastrointestinal issues that have made things much more challenging than with our first. I am hoping that as we settle into more of a routine after the New Year that I will find a bit of time to head back to the studio – just in time for the start of wedding season. However, this year I will definitely have to cut back on the number of projects/clients that I take on because I just won’t be able to handle a heavy workload like before.

This year has been a very tough one for our family on a personal level, and I am very much looking forward to it being over. Other than the birth of our second little girl, watching our oldest daughter grow and change, and attending a private party in Vegas hosted by Michael Jordan and Alan Thicke (a story for another day!), this year will go down as one of my worst. I have experienced struggles and challenges in many areas and they have tested my strength and resilience. I am very grateful to those who were there for us during the hard days – especially when my husband was very ill - and who continue to be ready to help. We are working with a neurologist and hope to have more answers about my husband's condition soon.

I hope 2013 will be better for us all!

Best wishes to you and Happy New Year!

Studio News and Maternity Leave

Hello friends! I hope this post finds you well and back in the swing of things for the Fall season. Above are some photos of wedding invitations that we printed for Emily and Kate many months ago for their wedding today, the 9th of September. We wish Emily and Kate a wonderful day and all the joys of married life! My husband and I were also married on September 9th, 6 years ago - Happy 6th Anniversary honey!

Studio News + Maternity Leave

I wanted to let everyone know that as of the end of this week, I will be starting a brief maternity leave for approximately 3 months. I'm not sure if I mentioned that we are expecting our second child this October on the blog, but I think I might have...In any case, my posts this year have been very sporadic and I did take approximately 5 months off during this pregnancy due to hyperemesis gravidarum - which if you know anything about it, it is a living hell. During my first pregnancy I had moderate to fairly severe morning (all day) sickness, but hyperemesis is not anything like that. In fact, you shouldn't even use "morning sickness" and "hyperemesis" in the same sentence, since they are in no way comparable. In addition to extreme nausea and vomiting almost all day, it got to the point where I could no longer function as a human being, let alone work or watch my 2-year old daughter; and I was lucky if I could hold down a couple of tablespoons of water at a time. Printing was certainly out of the question, and thank God for my parents and a handful of great friends that were willing and ready to help my husband and I out during those awful months. I was eventually put on medication (ondansetron - in addition to a host of other meds) that helped slow the vomiting. Ondansetron was created for chemo patients to help them during chemo treatment (when they are unable to keep food or water down). The medication helped me stay out of the hospital; and thank goodness we have good prescription coverage as a 10-day supply of just one of the medications would have cost approximately $900!

Anyways, around 5 months I was feeling well enough to start working again - and I have been working up until this point. With my daughter I printed until a week before her due date - but this time we decided that this would not be something I would do again. Printing is quite physically demanding, even though at first glance you wouldn't think it would be. But when you are heavier than normal and this extra weight is in the front of your body - standing for long periods of time, leaning over the press, lifting ink discs, cleaning, and pulling levers on paper cutters etc. can get difficult and uncomfortable. At this time I have 2-3 more print jobs to run and that will be it for a little while.

I am hoping to be back at work in mid-December - provided everything goes according to plan and I am physically able to return. Our personal lives are a bit more complicated right now as my husband is suffering from some serious neurological health issues that we are trying to get to the bottom of, all while preparing for baby #2. We are currently visiting a variety of specialists and having many tests, and I unfortunately cannot guarantee that I will be back in the studio in December as I would like to be. At this point my husband is not able to work regularly and cannot drive, so everything else is taking a backseat to his needs right now. I will post updates on the blog and our website as we get closer to December with regards to the date of my actual return.

If you are getting married in 2013 or will need letterpress stationery next year, please be in touch as soon as possible. We have bookings for mid-December already, and January gets very busy as wedding season begins - so to avoid disappointment, we look forward to discussing your stationery needs early.

We wish you the best for Fall 2012 and hope you will keep following the blog over the coming weeks as I will still try to post photos of some of our other stationery and design projects from this year!