In the studio today

Today we have printed the second colour for the gorgeous Joe& Jen wedding package as seen here. A divine steel blue/grey compliments the dusty vintage pink. I loved mixing the ink for this blue, its such an amazing colour!!

Its time to choose colours...

2008 saw the year of the mass house internal renovation (you can read all about it here, here and here) and 2009 is going to be the year of the outside renovation. A new veranda, new awnings, an additional carport, fencing, painting and gardens all to be done!


For the last 18 months every week or so I change my mind about exactly what colour scheme we should do the outside of the house. Obviousally I have quite a love affair with white, so that goes without question, but exactly what to put with the white? Some days I think a dark charcoal blue/black, other days I think a more neutral grey, other days I think, bugger it, lets do it all white!

But after seeing this image on one of my favourite new blogs Brown Button ( my mum will be so chuffed to see her gorgeous gift wrap on Kimberlee's blog!) of this gorgeous house with small touches of black im thinking we go all classic and go black and white, and then mix it with sandstone for the garden beds and driveway and then an abundance of green tropical plants to set it all off??

What do you all think?

Image from Australian Country Style Magazine January 2008 photography by Prue Ruscoe styling by Lara Hutton

In the studio today

Today saw us start the process of printing wedding stationery for one of our clients, the gorgeous Joe & Jen who are having an elegant garden wedding in the beautiful senate courtyard of Old Parliament House in Canberra. With colours of vintage pinks, dusty steel blue and ivory, their wedding sounds just beautiful!!

We illustrated and designed their stationery package featuring elegant peonies and vintage David Austen roses for a very delicate vintage, but simple design. Today we printed the first colour, a lovely dusty vintage pink, and the illustration looks just gorgeous with its lovely deep letterpress impression.

Although, not all beautiful things are produced without a drama and we did manage to have a wee incident. We dropped the chase on the ground (followed by an awfully loud swear word). The chase holds a very expensive metal base that we attach our printing plates to and without a base, or a chase you are severally stuffed. Thankfully only the chase broke (the base was saved!) and after a quick rush to a metal fabricator our chase is now back together and we are printing again. Phew, it almost nearly was a disaster.

Out with the old

We have a huge amount of left over renovation goods which im slowly finding new homes for with the help of our friend ebay. Yesterday we pulled out a massive pile of old queenslander timber windows to sell. I got a bit carried away with the photos, such lovely textures, im sure it will go unoticed on ebay so I thought today I would share it with you instead!

Morning strolls

Photos above from our walk along the beach today. Usually my husband is up at the crack of dawn and takes Ruby our Toller for a one hour run (see previous post about how much I don't do mornings and you can see why its a one man adventure).

At the moment my husband is in training for an ocean swim so Ruby and I head down for a morning stroll (thats stroll, not run, and its not the crack of dawn!) and watch Haydens head out bobbing in the ocean. It really is such a beautiful time of day and the beach is so still and peaceful. Although stopping every 3 minutes to take photos surely doesn't count as exercise but it really is a nice time of day to relax, prepare for the busy day back at our studio and count our lucky buttons that we live in such a glorious location!

Loving Little Jane St.

Im one of those people who stay up until 2am working everynight. Crazy I know, but I just don't do mornings.

Although Im starting to think I might have to change this as most mornings my routine goes something like this: Get woken at 8am by couriors knocking on our door and Ruby (our previousally sleeping dog) barking with mad oblivion. After almost falling out of bed in fright its a mad rush to the door, while trying to throw a dressing gown over my shoulders and open the door with beautiful bed hair and a dog deterimined that the courior needs a kiss. In turn, the courior isnt impressed he has been waiting, he throws the parcel at me, and tries not to laugh at my beehive hair do. I don't know what it is about 8am, But the couriors with out fail, do arrrive. You think I would learn...

Usually our deliveries are paper stocks, printing plates and other studio items we are expecting. Today our package was a most unexpected surprise by the gorgeous Alarna at Little Jane St. I met Alarna last year at the Southbank Young Designers markets and not only is she a gorgeous thing but she is a beautiful illustrator and designer. She had sent our way a gorgeous pack of greeting cards, christmas cards and the most sweetest screen printed little pouches you have ever seen. I am totally in awe of her products, her sense of style and her beautifull illustrative work. She has a fabulous blog, and online shop here.

Thanks Alarna, your the sweetest!

In the studio today

Have I ever mentioned that our printing presses are human power operated, just like they were supposed to be when they were built in 1893?

Before the invent of motors, big tough strong printing men operating these presses at lightening chop off your finger speeds. These days, we are never in that much of a hurry (and value our fingers too much) but using your foot to treadle and set 600kilos of cast iron in motion surely isn't for the faint hearted!

Your thigh muscles get pumping, your abs start crunching, your arm muscles start pulsing and you have most ladylike sweet dribbling down your legs. Trust me, its not at all glamorous. And did I mention the distinct perfume I now wear of mineral turps? Im positive it will surely will be the next big thing on the perfume scene.

Ruby our press dog, watches on with much amusement. From her comfy spot in the most coolest part of the studio some days I look down at her watching me and think damn, she must think im crazy!!

A sneak peak into our studio!

New Years Day saw the start of a new year and a new office space for Bespoke Press!

Late last year I mentioned that my dear husband was building us a studio table out of heavy mdf board and turned pine legs. Over the christmas break he surprised me by organising the table to be 2pac painted at a local spray booth and installed into our new office. It was a beautiful surprise to come home and see our 300x60cm table installed all shiny and white!

This of course promted a mass office redecoration and organisation! New Years Day saw us up bright and early bring the office to life! After a mass buy at Kikki.K, a gorgeous desk calender by Nora Whynot Press, a wall calender by Frankie (you can never have too many calenders!) and Eames era chairs a bargain for $30 each off ebay recovered in Amy Butler fabric, we now love walking into our office each day.

The table was looking beautiful, the views out the windows to Moreton Bay are gorgeous, but then we turned around and the book case was attrocious! So a whole another day later, 2 massive garbage bags of books for donation, and several more visits to purchase stationery the office is now complete. Viola!

The cost of producing our table was
$100 for 30mm MDF board 3000x600mm
$120 for pine turned legs
$50 for decorative mouldings & screws
$30 for router blade
$330 for 2pac spray painting
Total $630.00