Front page!


I was checking Etsy this morning when I realized that one of my cards {the blue birds} is on the front page! I've never been included in a treasury and this one made it all they way to the main page! I've seen some treasuries that aren't that great, but I really do love all of the items in this one, which makes everything even more exciting. This totally makes my day :)

She had always preferred plaid.


It's been a while since I posted any of my work. This is a screen-print that I finished at the beginning of the summer and finally got around to scanning. Although work has been slow around here, I'm pretty sure that this is the new direction my work is going to take {using patterns as more than wallpaper to create "landscapes" and continuing with silhouettes}.

I'm looking for artists who use landscape as a base for their work {and a bit non-traditionally}, so please send interesting links my way!

great decorator


Congratulations to my dear friend Abbey for making it into Domino's decorating contest slide show! That's awesome news...her living room is definitely worth it.

Busy weekend


Lindsay's fifties-themed birthday party was a blast on Saturday. Tons of great food and drink, a pinata {in the shape of a record, of course}, bowling, and the bar. To round out the group, we had several housewives, a Bible salesman, an engineer, a newspaper reporter, and a few greasers.

Then on Sunday we got up and went straight over to Paws in the Park, a dog walk to raise money for some fenced-in dog parks in Rochester. Our ladies had a great time! Cassie tried to slalom and Pancake went through the agility tunnel. Tonight we have two very content and tired pups.

new purchases

I bought a Nikon D40 digital camera today. I had been thinking about it for a while and decided to do away with my point and shoot. I had gotten used to using the Nikon D50 this summer and just couldn't bring myself to use my old camera any more. It's charging now, but I'm really excited to use it! Will post pictures from it soon.

I also recently got this vase from a thrift store in Buffalo. It was handmade and has the inscription "Carm 1978" on the bottom. I love the color and the birds carved into the base. It totally brightens up my mood every time I look at it!

more furniture


Hooray, my dining room is no longer the mess it used to be! The buffet and hutch that Jake's mom brought up a few weeks ago fit in really nicely. And now I'm able to hide all of the junk that was piled on the chairs! I'm on a mission to find something to hang above the hutch. Any ideas?

Happy Birthday

A very happy birthday to my sister, Lindsay! Have fun at Flash's.

new pipes

Look at these brand new pipes! It's odd to be so happy about plumbing, but I am! We just had our plumbing fixed on the first floor of our house. This means that we can use the small bathroom and do laundry without having the whole house smell. The person we bought our house from hired an awful contractor to do the plumbing work and they didn't pitch the pipes correctly or install a trap for the laundry. We've been stupidly living with it for two years now, and it's finally fixed. I must have flushed the toilet 10 times, just for fun! And check out that new circuit breaker box from work last summer...what a sweet basement!

{Those of you who don't own houses yet, someday you'll be this excited about flushing toilets and working lights!}

Exciting news!

After a short blogging hiatus, I'm excited to let you know about the launch of Pistachio Press! The site is officially up and running and I only have a few kinks to work out. I'm really happy with how everything has turned out so far, but feel free to let me know if you have any suggestions!

In other press-related news, I was recently chosen to be a vendor on Poppytalk Handmade! As it's founder Jan states, "Just like a real street/flea market, indie makers of all kinds will be able to rent a virtual table at Poppytalk Handmade for an opening date of early October/07 (just in time for the Christmas season)!" I'll keep you posted when the market opens.

Some new cards


I've just added a few new cards to my shop and thought I'd post them here, too.

lots of new stuff

As promised, here are a few things I got at Second Storie, although I wanted many more pieces!

These beautiful earrings and a matching ring from Megan Auman.

A great hand-sewn journal from Paperoot.

A very sweet drawing from Marlene, similar to the one above.

A set of fun matchbook jotters from Freshly Blended Press.

Yippee ki-yay!



After such a long weekend we went to watch "Live Free or Die Hard" and it was...AWESOME! I absolutely love action packed movies and Die Hard is way up on my list. I might actually put action movies above Romantic Comedies, mainly for the bad-ass quotient. Going into it I thought that maybe Bruce Willis would be past his prime, but that was not the case. The movie was hilarious {and I think it meant to be} and Timothy Olyphant {the above pictured bad-guy} was just as hot as always. Seriously, he's way hot as the villain! I think I might even see it for a second time since it's now at the dollar theater, but only time will tell.

What a week!

second storie opened Friday night and I had printed tiny t-shirts until 2am that day, slept for a few hours, got back up, printed more cards, packaged cards, heat set the t-shirts and set up my table by 5:30 that night. The heat was unbearable {it was over 90 degrees outside and must have been well over one-hundred on the third floor of VSW}, but we had a ton of people show up. The response to my new line of cards and t-shirts was so heartening! One woman recognized my work from Etsy and my friend Jen even came up from NYC to check it out {well, really to visit family a few hours away, but she also made the trek to Rochester}.

All of the other vendors were amazing and I wanted something from every single one of them! It was so exciting to make such great connections. Even though it was an exhausting weekend, I feel totally emotionally and artistically rejuvenated! I'll post my trades and purchases soon.

Trash Luxe

I was really excited to stumble upon Trash Luxe {via designTURF, which is also a nice site}. The work in the exhibition showcases designers who make furniture and jewelry from used materials. I absolutely hate waste and have an incredibly strong desire to "rescue" furniture and other trash on the roadside, to Jake's dismay. I even have a hard time throwing out scraps of paper that could still be used, but will most likely just sit in a box for the next five years. It's great to see designers who have the same obsessiveness that I seem to. I'm particularly drawn to the work of Karen Ryan {above} and Stuart Haygarth {below}.

second storie} indie market
a place for art + craft of another sort
visual studies workshop | 31 prince street, Rochester, NY

Friday, September 7, 6-10pm} live DJ, food, and shopping!
Saturday, September 8, 10am-6pm} more shopping!

second storie} indie market opens in two days! I'm excited to debut my new line of stationery and will be happy to breathe again on Sunday when everything is finished. Spread the news far and wide!

And here's one more because she's so cute!

Ahoy Matey!

I can't believe I haven't written in a week. So much has been going on! My poor little Pancake Sue somehow fractured one of her toes this weekend and now has to wear a splint. For 6-8 weeks! We're going to call her Peg-leg Sue from now on in honor of the stump she now has for a leg. I feel so bad for her, but she seems to be getting along just fine. As long as Cassie stops trying to eat it I think we'll be ok.

In the rest of the last week...Jake's mom came up for a visit and brought us some beautiful antique furniture for our dining room {hope to post pictures soon}. She also bought me some plants for the garden and helped with weeding, which has fallen to the wayside.

Jen and Jim were married this weekend and we had a great time! There should be plenty of pictures of Jake dancing {or trying to do the lawnmower} in their wedding album. The ceremony was really beautiful and seemed to fit them perfectly.

On Sunday Jake put my letterpress back together. Now I just need to have one part fixed and the motor can be attached. I'm so happy to finally have that giant heap of metal put back together and close to working! And rounding out my blogging hiatus, yesterday Lindsay and I printed our little butts off for Second Storie {and on the holiday reserved specifically for no labor}! The cards look amazing and I'm so excited for this rapidly approaching weekend. I hope to see you all at Second Storie!