I love tomatoes.

They're beautiful and delicious and they're in season. And, as luck would have it, there are several amazing tomato recipe's in the month's Gourmet, which I purchased completely on a whim because of the shot on the cover - blueberry ice cream sandwiches. Last night I made Tomatoes a la Creme and damn near ate all of it myself. It was all I could do not to lick the pan! It's super easy and incredible, especially with some good bread. While I was at it, I made the roasted tomato soup, too. Yum! Now I can't wait for the public market tomorrow so I can pick up many more pounds of tomatoes. Too bad for Jake that he doesn't like tomatoes as much as I do :)

{image from here}

Celebrating 100 years!

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the Vandercook proof press, the press I use in all of my letterpress printing! To celebrate, I created this print as part of an exchange, the goal of which is to exchange one hundred prints between one hundred Vandercook operators. I can't wait to see the rest of the prints from the exchange!! The bottom image shows a modified version of the print that is available in my shop. Happy birthday Vandercook!

Busily...

Printing lots of invitations this week.

Cleaning the presses and studio.

Drinking cocktails with the bride to be.

I haven't been able to get this top photo out of my mind since I saw it here. I'm so in love with the colors and photographer Mark Gong's work is just gorgeous. I think what I'm most drawn to are the bits of color and the rich gray background. And the paper cranes are wickedly sweet.

Yesterday evening I met Jake at the studio for a late night of press mechanics. Before he got there I waited by the back door and looked up at the rooftops of the buildings around me. And what did I see? The same pops of color against the gray sky. It was awesome. Working on the press was not awesome. It was actually a bitch. In my frustration, I made much progress cleaning the No. 4, so all is not lost :)

Awesomeness

I'm so excited to let you in on some exciting Second Storie news! Together with Made by Rachel, we'll be presenting two screenings of the indie documentary Handmade Nation later this fall. This will be the first screening in upstate New York and I can't wait!!

The first showing will be on Friday, November 27th at 8pm and will kick off our annual Indie Market. There will also be a panel discussion with some of our very talented vendors. The second showing will be on Saturday, December 5th at 8pm.

Head over this way to purchase your ticket for only $5.00! Space is limited, so buy your ticket soon and spread the word.

I know what you're thinking...

That I've disappeared! Looking back over my posts for the last month, it looks like I haven't been doing much work. Quite the opposite. While I may have taken a hiatus from the blog, I most certainly have been present in life...and busy :) I'm making some good progress on new designs and for the first week in July I taught a pop-up course at the Visual Studies Workshop. I had several grad students in the class and they made some really awesome and incredibly intricate books. Teaching a class like this is always so interesting because everyone intensely puzzles their way through mock-ups and technical glitches, making small adjustments to pull tabs and developing callouses from x-acto knives.

After the pop-up class we packed up the car and headed to our yearly fourth of July camping trip. There were many friends, lots of dogs, and a giant bonfire. I'll post some pictures later this week. In the meantime, Jim posted a great summary of the trip!

And this past weekend Jake and I went back to our hometown for a wedding (my best friend's sister was getting married). The rain stopped just in time for the ceremony and the reception was held on the shore of a nearby lake. It was so nice to visit with people that I've known for more than half my life and who feel like family. We ate and danced as the sun set. It was beautiful and Sarah and Rob looked so happy.

So, hello to a new week, which will be mixed with productive days of printing and a few lazy days visiting with Jake's family at a cottage near Ithaca.

Mysterious Letters

Sometimes when I'm driving I look at the other cars on the road and think about how close I am to these other people. But, although we may only be five feet from each other I will never meet them. I will probably not even have the chance to make eye-contact with them, unless someone is kind enough to wave me ahead of them.

Mysterious Letters is a project by two artists who sent a hand written letter to 467 people who live in a small Irish village. I love the idea of this, meeting every person in a single town. This makes the world seem simultaneously smaller and even more expansive than I can imagine.

100 Abandoned Houses

I'm not sure where I first saw this project, but I immediately fell in love with 100 Abandoned Houses. This documentary of sorts was started by Kevin Bauman, who writes poignantly about the thousands of houses that have been left for worse in Detroit. The images he's taken are nostalgic, depressing, and beautiful. Looking at these makes me feel somehow protective of the houses. I know that neighborhoods can transform, but I wonder if there is potential for there to be new life in these once magnificent homes.