merry merry

The most beautiful of gifts from the sweetest of sweet friends.

My goodness friends, it is hard to believe that the time has come for us to sign off for the year.

What a wonderful, crazy, beautiful and wonderful year it has been. A very big thank you to all our gorgeous wedding clients with whom we have been able to share a part of our journey with this year - thank you for letting us into your lives and sharing your most magical of magical days.

A very big thank you to our growing list of stockists, we love seeing our letterpress goodies heading out into the world to be shared with your customers. We have adored venturing more into this area and we have got some big plans for 2012, so a most lovely thank you. It is such a joy to share our letterpress love with you.

To all our lovely online shoppers and market visitors, oh how we adore you. Your beautiful emails, sweet whispers of love and support is beyond amazing. We love being able to grow and build letterpress love and appreciation here in Australia and your amazing support makes it all possible.

To my beautiful studio girls, studio boy and sweet canine studio manager, how hard you work and how much you are loved. It has been such a busy year and yet with coffee and cake, we have made magic happen! Next year we will be growing, and are looking forward to welcoming another another member  to come join in our crazy little studio team.

And you too dear blog readers, my goodness, how chuffed I am to know that you are out their reading our journeys, sharing in the studio love and continuing to read our wee blog after 655 blog posts, and 364,266 visits over the last three and half years. This is such a magical community, we are blessed to live in this age of blog love. I could not imagine running Bespoke without this little blog ticking in the background. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So as we sign off for the year, we wish you and your families a most magical of magic holiday season. We will be closing the Brisbane studio whilst we travel interstate, but will be back up and running from the company of Nigel and the cows at our family farm property for a few weeks on January. We are bound to have some photos and more adventures of Ruby and Nigel's blossoming friendship for you again - although do excuse us if we are slow, as we do have to stand on a cow fence to get reception!

Much christmas love, Alischa
xox

dark chocolate, pear and pistachio cake

One of my favourite things to do at Christmas time is to head into the kitchen and do some festive baking. This season has been quite busy so my collection of cooking chocolates and nuts are gathering dust in the pantry. However a few weeks ago one of my all time favourite food and photography blogs by Jillian Leiboff put out a call for her readers favourite christmas recipes, and I submitted my favourite  recipe - Dark chocolate, pear and pistachio cake.

Their is a little story behind these cakes - Quite a few years ago while staying at gorgeous little resort at Lord Howe Island (we won the holiday, a most fabulous surprise, and even more fabulous that they spoilt us with amazing food!) we were served this gorgeous little cake which I devoured, and do believe went back for seconds. Upon our return home I searched high and low and found the recipe which I have since baked more times then I can count since. It is a bit of a messy recipe, the sort where you have chocolate and nuts flying across the kitchen, but to me it has a distinct Christmassy feel with the pistachios and rich chocolate all balanced out with the subtle pear inclusion.

Jillian has done an amazing job and I am beyond words with her gorgeous photography and styling of my favourite little sweet cakes. I will tell you this, mine look 100% less dignified and 100% more messy, plus my kitchen does look like a disaster zone, but we still devour them never the less.

This week Jillian is featuring a week long celebration of her readers Christmas recipes (and a few of her own secret recipes), such a beautiful idea and do make sure you pop over for a visit.

Thank you Jillian for choosing our recipe, you have made me distinctively itching to crack open a block of chocolate and get into the kitchen!!

in the studio

It has been quite busy the past few days in the studio as we finish printing our last orders of the year. Today we are printing one last print run, and then at the end of today we will be giving our presses a good oil, many pats of affection, and then letting them have a small rest whilst we bring in the new year. How hard they have worked this year, our beautiful, beautiful one tonne beasts.

friday rambles

Hello friends! How have you all been? I feel like I have not been around here much on the blog of late - this time of year becomes so hectic here in the studio! Our Free Shipping in our online store has been keeping us most busy with beautiful Christmas wraps, tags, cards and gifts heading out into all little pockets of the world. Our Free Shipping promotion ends on Sunday evening with all orders received before this time posted in time for Christmas (Australian orders only).

We are also in the middle of peak wedding season designing and printing beautiful stationery for lovely couples who are having Autumn weddings. We are working on some real beauties at the moment with many designs now ready for printing, and quite a few others in the design stages. We love weddings so much, it really is just a joy to design for the happiest day in peoples lives. Talking of happy days, this video blew me away yesterday. It is eternally beautiful.

Tonight sees the Graduation of my students from Shillington College who I have had the joy of teaching in the world of graphic design on Wednesday and Thursday nights this year. What a fabulously crazy, fun and talented bunch they are. It has been such a joy to see them blossom into amazing designers, and I am so excited for each one of them to embark on their new journeys into the land of design. Another great joy in my life is sharing my love of design, to teach it, to lecture upon it, to inspire, it is such a honour.

Into news of the silly season, It has hard to believe that Christmas has snuck up upon us so quickly. Not being one for watching much television, the other day I sat down for a rare hour to watch the news. I was shocked that all the tv commercials were for Christmas, How did this happen? We have been printing and selling Christmas stationery for months, so you think I would be at peace with the fact that it is almost the end of the year. But it was still such a shock that goodness, it is just around the corner.

Do you have some lovely plans for over Christmas and the start of the New Year? We are headed interstate to visit family and the Little Miss gets to come with us too.

Have I ever told you that Ruby's all time favourite thing in the world to do is go for car trips? So much so that she has been known to jump in the car and not budge all day just in the hope of an adventure. This year she may be a little disappointed to find out that her car trip will only be a short one to the airport. But I am sure she will maintain all her excitement again when after Christmas (and that dreaded plane trip) when we load her back into the car and out to the family farm out Mudgee way. Do you remember Ruby and Nigels friendship from last year? I am sure they will be tickled pink to see each other once again.

Well my friends, have a lovely weekend! As the last one before christmas we will be doing lots of printing and also my all time favourite - Christmas wrapping. One of my other great loves.

See you again next week!
xox

life in the land of now

 

anett & russell :: save the dates

We recently had the pleasure of designing and printing this gorgeous save the date letterpress stationery for Anett and Russell. Anett is an Australian girl who fell in love with an English chap and together they have shared their lives both here in Australia and in the United Kingdom. With a wedding planned for October 2012, we had the joy of designing save the dates for their English cocktail reception to be held in London.

With guests travelling from afar, Anett and Russell's requirements for their save the dates where that they were classically sophisticated, with a hint of regal styling in their design. We designed a custom monogram which was letterpress printed with stunning typography on our white 100% cotton stocks. Teamed up with printed envelopes we adore this stationery suite and cannot wait to continue this theme into Anett and Russell's wedding stationery!

we are hiring!

We are on the hunt for a new team member to join our little but passionate team. The position is a Part Time Administration Coordinator role based out of our Brisbane North Side studio approx 20 hours per week. If you offer amazing Admin and Customer service skills, are letterpress lover and would love to make beautiful stationery happen we would love to hear from you.

Full details of the job position are available here.

snapshots from sydney finders keepers

Our letterpress christmas tree

Typecases of letterpress swing tags

The most beautiful scarfs by Good & Co. It took me a good half an hour to choose my favourite and I have worn it every day since. Love!

Gorgeous colours and textures Kanimbla Clay

Beautiful ceramics by Kanimbla Clay

Free shipping & our latest newslettter!

Hello friends! Have you heard our news? Our Christmas newsletter was sent out today and to celebrate we are offering FREE SHIPPING in our online store for all orders over $30.00 placed before midnight the 19th of December in our online store!

All orders placed before this time will have immediate shipping to arrive before Christmas. Simply spend $30 or more, and enter the code FREESHIPPING upon checkout. Valid for Australian customers only.

International customers can receive $10 flat rate shipping (excludes twines and gift wrap) - no code upon check out required.

You can read our full newsletter here and if you would like to subscribe for future newsletters you can sign up here on our website.

Happy Shopping!

sydney finders keepers this weekend!

 

Tomorrow morning we are off to Sydney for the ever fabulous Summer Sydney Finders Keepers markets, We are most excited as it is one of our all time favourite events of the year! 

Carriageworks throbs with excitement on Friday night where the mood is always electric and the atmpsophere magical, especially at this Christmas time of year. Saturday morning we stop at the Eveleigh Farmers Markets and stock up for sweet treats and yummy goodies for the day and then from 10am we kick it all back off again with another day of Finders Keepers wonder. This market we are also super excited to check out the Zine Society and Leeloo's On The Wall exhibition.

If you are at the markets, don't be shy - we love saying hello!

Details:

Carriageworks

245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh

Friday 2nd December 6pm to 10pm

Saturday 3rd December 10am to 5pm

p.s how gorgeous is the artwork by Beth-Emily? Love love love her work!

catherine & joel :: order of service booklets

Earlier this month we completed these super sweet order of service booklets for Catherine and Joel who were married at All Saints Chapel, Hamilton Island. We illustrated the sweet motif of the weatherboard chapel and competed this with typography to suit the invitations in which we had previously designed. Letterpressed on white 100% cotton paper in a mid tone grey ink, we then digitally printed the internal service pages and machine stitched the spine binding. Just lovely!

airmail and candy stripes twine

We've got exciting news - We've got two gorgeous new twines available in our online store!

Each of our Airmail and Candy Stripe rolls is full of old fashioned twine goodness and features 220m of 100% cotton 4ply twine. Available for $18 per roll here and here.

LOVE!

GoMA christmas market this saturday!

Brisbane folks - this Saturday is the gorgeous GoMA Gallery Store Markets. These are our last event in Brisbane for the year, and we are most excited to be showing our letterpress goodies amongst some of Brisbane's finest including Paper Boat Press, Loose.Leaf Paper, Penelope and Pip and more.

We might just see you there!

Saturday 26th November
9.00am to 4pm
Gallery of Modern Art
Stanley Street, South Brisbane.

showstopper

This little lady steals my heart every day. xox

letterpress kraft christmas tags/ornaments

Back by popular demand this year are our letterpress Christmas large kraft tags/ornaments. Letterpress printed on super heavy weight 600gsm kraft board our tags have been letterpress printed in two colours white and red and then die cut into the sweetest festive shapes. Measuring 86mm x 86mm they come with red and white bakers twine and are available in our online store as 6 packs for $15. Limited numbers available.

featured stockist :: shelf / life

Back in the summer of 2009 we started to work on building letterpress products which we could make available for retail stores. At the same time we were contacted by the most delightful Jess who was starting up her homewares and lifestyle store Shelf / Life in Sydneys Surry Hill's - it was a simply delightful case of perfect timing. One of our very first batches of retail goodies went off to her lovely store and over the past two years we have been tickled pink to send lovely parcels of letterpress goodness off to the Shelf / Life's shelves.

As our retail range has expanded, we have cherished the support from Jess and her team, and for us, it has been such a joy to watch the developments and growth of Shelf / Life (as well as Jess's house renovations and amazing wedding) over on their blog. It is also wonderfully exciting news (especially for us interstaters) that Shelf / Life have also just launched their own online store! 

The gorgeous Jess had a recent chat to us about Shelf / Life, and you can read the full details below.

Tell us a little about your store and its philosophy?
shelf / life has been open for almost 2 years now and we have recently launched our new online store as well. We offer a range of homewares, stationery and lifestyle products with a focus on ethical design and production. We believe that great design should encompass quality, integrity and longevity, and our intent is to provide products for everyday life which reflect this.

We support independent designers and artisans from around the world who can ensure traditional craft skills will be kept alive for years to come. We love to hear and share stories about how things are made - the techniques, the materials, the ideas behind a design - so that others can be inspired to make
considered choices.

What are some of your favourite brands in stock? What makes you choose these designers to showcase?
Too many to mention! I do love stocking products by The Dharma Door as their fair trade bags and baskets are not only beautifully designed but help to empower women in Bangladesh by providing employment. I adore Bespoke Press (of course!) for the tactility of the letterpressed cardstock and yummy colourways and Rifle Paper Co for their beautiful loose painterly designs. I also have a soft spot for Perch! Designʼs Mason Jar - probably my all-time favourite object in the shop.

Usually when choosing designers for the shop I consider a number of factors but obviously I have to love something to put it on my shelves. After that initial little burst of excitement that I feel I then ask
questions about functionality, quality and the designerʼs process to work out whether it will be a good fit for our store.


One thing you love the most about your shop?
Itʼs a tie between receiving and unpacking new boxes of goodies for the shelves and chatting to regular customers who always say the nicest things!

Tell us about Surry Hills, what are some of your favourite finds?
Our little pocket of Surry Hills is a friendly neighbourhood with all its little shops and cafes tucked in amongst beautiful old terraces. There are a lot of creative businesses in the area as well so you always get to meet interesting people. My favourite find, which is probably very well known to Sydneysiders,
is Single Origin Cafe - delicious coffee and great food... and dangerously close to my shop!

Contact details
shelf / life
Shop 1, 50 Reservoir St
Surry Hills NSW 2010
02 9211 2858
www.shelflife.com.au
www.facebook.com/shelflifestore

Opening hours
Tues - Thurs 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
(extended trading hours leading up to Christmas)

penny & glyn :: letterpress save the dates

 

We recently designed and letterpress printed these super lovely save the dates for Penny and Glyn from Victoria. They are planning a late Autumn 2012 wedding at the divine Stones of the Yarra Valley. With a chapel ceremony, converted barn reception, masses of white flowers with greenery and gorgeous rustic timber elements we love the plans they have for their day.

Penny & Glyn's brief to us was to represent their day through the use of rustic elements combined with classic styling and gorgeous typography.

We love their final chosen design - it's use of space and combinations of typefaces, as well as the vintage motif perfectly presents the letterpress impression and has resulted in a beautifully tactile save the date card. Just lovely!

love

Gosh I love our paper twines a hundred times over, Love, Love, Love. 

Now instore for you to love too.

aleisha & karl :: letterpress wedding stationery

Last Friday was the magical date of the 11th of the 11th 2011 - A pretty special day as far as numbers go. We had a few gorgeous couples getting married on this day and one of the was Karl and Aleisha from Western Australia.

We designed and letterpressed their wedding set several months ago to be classically beautiful yet tactile and beautiful to the touch. A blind impressed pattern was printed on our 100% cotton paper and teamed up with our sweet love heart and strong and simple typography. The suite included invitations, printed and lined envelopes (with address scalloped labels) reply postcard, gift cards and placesettings. 

We simply adored the blind impressed pattern - its simplicity yet small intricacies made it perfect for letterpress - blind impressed patterns are best suited with strong areas of negative and positive space inside of the pattern itself - so this one was perfect. We loved a hundred times over!