I love this shirt and it totally loves me!
Wouldn't it look perfect under this jacket? Too bad we don't have an Urban Outfitters anywhere near here! And too bad I'm feeling broke.
New threads
I love this shirt and it totally loves me!Wouldn't it look perfect under this jacket? Too bad we don't have an Urban Outfitters anywhere near here! And too bad I'm feeling broke.
Pre-order
The calendar is coming along well! Here is a detail shot of the month of May. We will only have 200 limited edition calendars. The size is 4.25" wide by 11" tall. The calendar is printed on Crane's Lettra paper in fluorescent white, which is 100% cotton and makes a beautiful impression! Each piece is hand printed on a Vandercook printing press.
Pre-order a calendar (or two) right here.
My day in pictures
1200 pieces printed yesterday, 800 printed today, craft fair tomorrow. Massage tomorrow night?
Whew!
Well, today was a long, long day of calendar printing. I'm totally exhausted, but I'm still a bit wired. Tomorrow I'll have to remember not to drink so many Mountain Dew's. I'm also quite inspired. I got to see Abbey's new work this afternoon and it's awesome. She's been working on several huge drawings for an upcoming show and is almost finished with them. The image above is from her new work, but you have to see it in person to really take in all of the layering and meticulousness. Also, make sure you check out Abbey's recent interview in Book by it's Cover (hooray!!!).
2008 INK+WIT Pistachio Press wall calendar
I am so excited to announce that Tara, from INK+WIT, and I have collaborated on this new 2008 letterpress calendar {above is the sneak peek, see Tara's Flickr for more images}. Tara designed and illustrated the calendar and I will be printing everything. These will be available on INK+WIT as well as our Etsy sites mid November. We will have 200 limited edition pieces. I'm going to start printing this weekend and will post updates when I can. Contact us for more info or to place a pre-order!
I bought an amazing guillotine cutter from Genesee Book Arts on Saturday. It had to be moved up from the basement of the center with a refrigerator dolly and loaded into my friend Sara's van, which took four strong men. Then today Jake, Luke, and I moved it from the van and into the studio. It was a bit harder with only three of us, but we managed to get it in place and I have already trimmed 800 sheets of paper! It's soooo awesome. I'll post pictures soon. In the meantime, our dogs just laid around and loved each other all weekend :) And after seeing the Simpson's movie Jake played "Spider Sue" with Susie.
I also made another treasury this morning. I like making these lists because it helps me find more work to be inspired by, like this great piece from Michele Maule. She has a beautiful color palette and I love the subtle line work in the background.
Instructoart
I love the work of Matthew Vescovo, creator of Instructoart. His illustrations are hilarious {mainly due to his dry humor and slightly uncomfortable subjects}. His work is especially interesting to me because I love his use of simplified line, which is something I try to use in my own work.
The Dissident
Last night I took my drawing class to an incredible lecture by Nell Freudenberger. She read a passage from her new book, The Dissident. I am rarely so fixated when hearing speakers read from their books, but Nell was a wonderful speaker and the passage she shared was beautiful {about a Chinese political artist who was awarded a residency to teach at a private high school for girls}. Obviously, her novel is on my nightstand now and I'm looking forward to some good reading.
Sucker for stationery!
I did the impossible...I made a treasury of my own! Spots for the treasury are usually impossible to snag since everyone wants to make one. But...I was up late working and decided to check the treasury on Etsy and lucked out. Check it out {right here} and buy some awesome stationery!
Total slacker
Arrrg. So it appears that I've been quite a lame blogger lately. But, this is only due to the fact that we've been pretty busy around here...
We've repainted the bedroom. Again. Finally. For the last time! I love the new blue {very soothing} and I made the curtains from fabric from a recent Ikea trip. Gone forever is the green apple paint and the wicked-old pink curtains. That green had been an overcompensation from the avocado green I had painted the bedroom when we moved into the house. Third time's the charm!
Apple picking {my first time} for Kelly's birthday, followed by ice cream and Mexican food.
We also had a very fun Sunday a few weeks ago. We met my dad in Geneseo for lunch and then went Geocaching in Letchworth Park. This is the first time we've gone where I've actually found the cache. The other times the cache was missing or we gave up!
We've repainted the bedroom. Again. Finally. For the last time! I love the new blue {very soothing} and I made the curtains from fabric from a recent Ikea trip. Gone forever is the green apple paint and the wicked-old pink curtains. That green had been an overcompensation from the avocado green I had painted the bedroom when we moved into the house. Third time's the charm!
Apple picking {my first time} for Kelly's birthday, followed by ice cream and Mexican food.
We also had a very fun Sunday a few weeks ago. We met my dad in Geneseo for lunch and then went Geocaching in Letchworth Park. This is the first time we've gone where I've actually found the cache. The other times the cache was missing or we gave up!
Hi, my name is Rachael...
I am so addicted to making piles that Jake sent me this web comic the other day! I even have virtual piles on my computer and constantly hide all of the crap on my desktop in new folders. I wish there was a super fast way to get organized, but I haven't found it yet! For Blog Action Day, this post is dedicated to recycling old papers and reducing waste. I'm going to try my best to stop collecting stuff I don't need and live a clutter-free life. I'll keep you posted on how this works out :)
Another treasury
One of my cards made it into another treasury. It's not on the front page, but it's a great grouping of work. Here's the link.
{And here's another one. Treasuries are so fun!}
Contemporary Landscape
Here's a great drawing by artist Caroline Falby. Her work is currently on display at the Tower Gallery in an exhibition titled The Contemporary Landscape. You know that I've been interested in the idea of landscape, so I was very excited to see this show open! Caroline's work looks even better in person and I really love her use of repetition and muted color palette. I'm a sucker for pattern (duh!) and can appreciate her use of decorative paper elements, like the tree in this piece.
Lisa Kokin
Happy belated...
I forgot to post about some great puppy news from the last few days. Cassie celebrated her second birthday yesterday and Susie finally got her splint off. What a great day!
A fun surprise
Today I Googled Pistachio Press {don't act like you don't Google yourself, too!} and I found that the press had been blogged about by someone I don't know! Thanks Cher Ami, I'm so excited about this :)
I'm also waiting for this beautiful anne:made shirt from anniecarter to come in the mail. This is my first Etsy trade and I really can't wait to wear it. The pattern is paint-by-number birds!
I'm also waiting for this beautiful anne:made shirt from anniecarter to come in the mail. This is my first Etsy trade and I really can't wait to wear it. The pattern is paint-by-number birds!
Poppytalk Online
Poppytalk Handmade is now up and running. I hope you'll visit my page and then check out all of the other wonderful vendors! I'm already thinking about buying Christmas goodies for everyone {and myself}.
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?
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.
lots of new stuff
As promised, here are a few things I got at Second Storie, although I wanted many more pieces!
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!
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!
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