oh my.

My goodness, how has it been a week since we last blogged. I know I must say it all the time, but life here in the studio can just get so hectic! We've got so many big and wonderful plans for 2012, but making them happen is sure taking up a lot of time. Beautiful things don't happen easily, I've got to keep on reminding myself that.

If you follow us on intsagram or twitter you might have seen our crazy flooding photos of the last week. The rain is wonderful and it sure makes it feel like summer, But I am putting out the request into the universe that I think we have had enough for one summer already. We came about 5mm short of a flooded studio, thank fully we were saved at the very last minute and we've now got some sumbergable pumps action in place so that hopefully it cannot happen again. Fingers crossed.

You might have also seen that we got a new purchase for the studio - a Lelit Espresso machine. Thankfully it came with a 2 hour lesson - as goodness, the craft of coffee is almost as tricky as the craft of letterpress. Well, maybe, that is a slight exaggeration, but their is so much to learn! Thankfully even though our coffee is yet not fabulous, our vintage teacups sure are loving the work out.

Do you espresso? Have any tips and tricks? ?

xA

maree homer :: letterpress business cards

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting the very talented photographer Maree Homer when she visited our home and studio last August (exciting news which I can share soon!). It is always a pleasure to show talented creatives our working studio and Maree loved our beautiful old beasts of Herbie, Helga and Charlie so much so that she commissioned us to design and letterpress print some gorgeous business cards to suit her new website. We instagramed some shots of our work in progress - and even managed to dribble ink all over our pantone book in the process - printing is always a messy job!

Can you believe that that spilt orange coloured ink actually prints the final yellow colour as shown in the middle swatch of the pantone book? I always think that colour mixing has got to be one of the trickiest letterpress tasks - you can never believe what you see until it prints on the press!

It was so lovely to work with Maree and we hope that the lucky receivers of her letterpress business cards will love them just as much as we loved making them!

this week...

This week started off all a bit wet and miserable. The little Miss above was all too unimpressed. She pulls me these sad dog eyes all the time when she is bored. Maybe her hanging lead in the background is all too much of a reminder for her that it is all too wet outside for adventures.

And then later this week - The sun started shinning, all the big fat wet puddles started to disappear and someone is most edgar to get out and about - NOW!!! This is standing near the pathway to the back gate and out into the world. She bounces between running to the gate and then running back in view just to make sure that we are following. Talk about persistent.

So we went down here to our local beach for a few walks. We enjoyed some fresh sea air, watched the kite surfers and even had someone else's dog develop a love obsession with Ruby and followed us almost all the way home.

And we even did this for a bit... Only for a bit though, it is a bit of a love/hate relationship for the precious lady.

Happy weekend my friends, I hope the sun is also shining where ever you may be!
xox

featured stockist :: inkwell boutique - canada

Image by Daniel MacDonald

Today we have a very special treat for you - a visit to the gorgeous Inkwell Boutique in Hallifax, Nova Scotia Canada. When Andrea got in touch with us last year to ask if we would be interested in stocking some of our letterpress goodies in here gorgeous store, we were terribly excited and could not wait to send a bundle of letterpress love across the seas to Canada to this gorgeous shop!

Inkwell Boutique are purveyors of specialty paper and handmade goods - all handmade with love by talented artists found locally and right across the world. And if this doesn't sound like the perfect sort of shop already - it is even better as they also offer custom letterpress printed stationery as well. My total idea of perfect!

A big thank you to Andrea for sharing with us some photos and information about her lovely store below... Now if only we could arrange a visit to fly to Canada to say hello in person!

Image by Daniel MacDonald

Tell us a little about your store and its philosophy?

Inkwell is a recent addition to downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The shop specialises in handmade paper goods and other goodies from around the corner and across the world. Items most commonly found are art prints, greeting cards, pottery, jewellery, calendars and tea towels. We also offer custom design and letterpress services to the public. Custom work is small scale, small batch - business / calling cards, stationery, cards, announcements and invitations.

Image by Daniel MacDonald

What are some of your favourite brands in stock? What makes you choose these designers to showcase?

It's tough to choose a favourite, as everything in the shop is curated by myself and are things I personally covet. Some of my favourite brands currently carried are: Bespoke, Sycamore Street Press, Pearl & Marmalade, Old School Stationer's and Wrap magazine. New artists are added often, I basically order what I like and would want for myself.

One thing you love the most about your shop?

The reactions received from first time visitors. Visitors are so grateful for a shop like Inkwell to exist in the city - 9 times out of 10 they proclaim it to be their favourite shop ever!

Image by Daniel MacDonald

Left Image by Mark Neil Balson, Right image by Daniel MacDonald

Tell us about design in Nova Scotia? Favourite things to do?

Design in Nova Scotia is quite prominent. Halifax, the capital, has the oldest art school in North America called the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design University (NSCAD).

I am a graduate of NSCAD in graphic design and there are many creative businesses that employ other graduates of the university. There is a lot of great talent and a whole section of the shop is dedicated to local artists.

I am also a member of the Letterpress Gang at the Dawson Printshop, which is part of NSCAD. We meet on a weekly basis to help maintain the collection and to organize events for letterpress awareness within the local community.

My favourite thing to do in Nova Scotia would probably be escape on my day off, to antique shops and restaurants outside of the city.

Contact details:
1658 Market Street, Halifax, NS B3J 0B4
phone:  (902) 405-8309
email: hello@inkwellboutique.ca

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 P.S Now those of you who are big fans of our adorable Ruby Tuesday might know that the gorgeous part of the world that is Nova Scotia is actually our sweet hounds homeland - Serendipity indeed!

why hello

Hello friends! How have you all been? It has been a little quite from us for a few days. Last week we left the farm (very sad, even the cows came running after our car as we drove away) and travelled back to Brisbane. We had hoped for a little longer holiday, however with an almighty busy end of January and crazy February booked in the studio we came back to give the presses some loving again.

I must admit it has been a little hard to get back into the work swing of things again. The weather has been quite miserable here of late, and the studio has been almighty quiet with my lovely helpers having a little break.

We have still had some excitement here though - we've had brand new spanking computers arrive this week, so we are a little excited to get our Mac Nerd caps on and celebrate our new arrivals. Although, It is always a little sad to say goodbye to old computers - my trusty lovely friend above has been so good to me and I am sure I will be sad to see it go. Is it silly to feel this way about computers? I feel like this Mac is the pathway that leads me out into the world, it shares my thoughts, it spreads my wings and  helps me fly. I am sure I am not quite normal?

We also had a break through last week - after all these years of sweating it out in the print studio, we now have air conditioning to keep us cool and crisp when we are printing. Miss Ruby Tuesday did not fail to miss its arrival and she has now found a new spot to undertake her studio management - Smack bang in front of its path of cool aircon comfort stream.

Well my dears, I should really go get the new computers out of the box and make friends with the new model. I am sure no doubt, in a day or two and we will be the bestest of friends already.

xox

old friends

Ruby: Hey Nigel, How you been?
Nigel : Good thanks little red dog.
Ruby: You've grown a lot since last summer.
Nigel: Do I scare you now?
Ruby: No. well, maybe, just a little. You've got big horns now.
Nigel: Don't be afraid, it's me, your old friend.
Ruby: I've missed you.
Nigel: You too sweet friend.

snippets from the farm

hello 2012

We welcomed in the New Year with a cliff top barbecue upon the farms cliff top. With views out across the Mid West New South Wales wine region, a perfect sunset, laughter, much merriment - It was a beautiful country night to remember.

 Did you celebrate? I hope that your welcome to the new year was just as special as ours. xox

from the farm

Nigel sends his regards. xox

a most lovely Christmas

We are a little behind with our Christmas post - please excuse us. Our old trick of standing on the cow fence down on the farm in our annual summer January farm holiday has failed us this year, as Telstra no longer wants to play that game! It talks a 30 minute drive into town to get some much needed reception to connect us back up with the world again. The sweet life of the country.

Currently I am sitting at a sweet little art deco cafe, drinking coffee and doing my best to pretend that I am not doing work whilst on holidays. Next trip back in town I will make sure that I am more prepared with more photos of our fabulous cliff top New Years country party and sweet photos of Ruby and the cows.

Until then I hope that you enjoy the above photos of my Mothers fabulous Christmas decorating. We had a lovely lunch with a beautifully styled table. I love the last photo - it shows the table mid party full of champagne, our annual Christmas scratches (so australian), silly bon bon games, and loads of bubbles from our christmas lunch bubbleathon. Wonderful times. I love Christmas and hope that yours too was full of merriment and much laughter.

xox