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!