Page Holiday Special

Page Stationery, the queen of perfected simplicity, is offering 10% off their letterpressed Holiday cards through October 1st.

I know that this coming weekend is Labor Day, 

but you know what they say...

The early bird gets the worm.  

In this case what you're getting is actually SO much better than a worm - it is maybe the loveliest holiday card money can buy!

New from Julie Holcomb Printers

Julie Holcomb Printers, which was established in 1982, is located in Emeryville, California.  Julie Holcomb has been doing letterpress printing for the past 25 years and is a fore runners in the surge of popularity of letterpress printing for invitations and stationery.  I actually had the pleasure of meeting Julie many years ago in New Orleans (that's why I think that I can refer to her by just her first name).  She is very much an artist and speaks softly, but passionately about her trade.  Her papers, which are 100% cotton, are milled to her specifications.  Her invitations and stationery are always lovely and understated.

At the end of last week I received a box from Julie Holcomb Printers with all sorts of new goodies.  One new item is a "Royal" sized invitation (6" x 7 5/8").   In addition, they have now come out with envelope liners - and when I say envelope liners, I mean a huge selection of colors and textures and patterns.  You can see the "Lines" pattern in the above Lilly Green liner. 

 Finally, to add to their huge selection of edging colors, they have come out with Dark Gray, Blue, Kelly Green and Mahogany edgings.  Edgings are something that can't really be seen on a computer screen (which is why I can never imagine trying to order invitations or stationery on-line).  The above invitation has a beautiful Pewter edging, it's a shame I can't really show it.  You may wonder what font is on this invitaiton - it's no font.  It is calligraphy by Maria-Helena Hoksch, who lives in New Orleans and actually did the calligraphy for my wedding invitation!  She is a wonderfully talented women as well.  A master copy of the hand calligraphed text was sent to Julie Holcomb Printers so that they could then letterpress it.  In addition, it looks like Maria-Helena (who I really do call by her first name) did the bride and grooms initials which were then letterpressed into the envelope liner.  What's not to love about this invitation?

I Loved it so much I had to show you the

reply card and envelope as well as the reception card. 

Even if you are not in the market for wedding invitations you should stop by to look at all of these invitations in person.  They are each striking in their own way and the craftsmanship is so lovely.  Click HERE to visit Julie Holcomb Printers website. 

All of this makes me want some Julie Holcomb stationery (which I don't "need") - maybe as a gift to myself for Christmas...

Saturday Lagniappe

Disclaimer: This has absolutely nothing to do with stationery

(but, hey it's Saturday)

Did you all get your September J. Crew catalogue yet?

I can't help from gushing over the pictures of the ballet dancers from The Mariinsky School in J.Crew sweaters.  I'm not sure if it makes me want to buy a cashmere sweater or just get in shape...

Have a good weekend!

I Love Le Pens!

For the new school year I ordered every color of Le Pen the company makes.  Which FYI - the best thing about a new school year is new school supplies, but I digress.  If there is anyone out there that has not had a Le Pen I feel sad for you.  Basically, they are an inexpensive fine point felt tip pen that comes in a rainbow of colors.  I love a Le Pen! They are great for addressing invitations (obvious choice). They are also perfect for color coded class notes.  Truly this is one of my favorite products in the store - that's right the $2.50 pen is one of my favorites. 

Onto another non-related topic - Turley got groomed yesterday.  He always acts kind of crazy the day he gets groomed.  But he has had SO much energy today it makes me think that he is just feeling better because he is cooler and not weighed down by a black fur coat.  Doesn't he look like he is smiling in the above picture?  

Finally, now that summer is winding down I'll need some more help for the fall.  If anyone is looking for a part time job in a super cute store, email me your resume.  If you have retail or graphic design experience that would be ideal.  If you just LOVE (and I mean LOVE) stationery and invitations that would be great too!

Happy Monday!

Today is the 1st day of the new school year around here.  So it may seem strange that English Paper Company is having a sale on photo holiday cards - but it will certainly be here before we know it.  This week English Paper Company (which includes Whitney English and French Blue Designs) is offering 50% off their holiday photo cards!  The sale ends Friday, August 26th.  So, grab a fun photo from one of your summer vacations and place an order for your holiday cards at a deeply discounted price!  

Hope you all have a wonderful Monday

and good 1st day of school!

Check out Hayden Avery's Post

I don't usually post on Saturday - but I was so excited to check out a post on Style Me Pretty Texas about Hayden Avery I had to share!!  Click here to view the post.

TGIF

There are lots of new fun fall invitations here at Hayden Avery!  Maybe now that we have some fall invitations we'll get some fall weather (o.k. - I'll take anything under 100 degrees).  The above invitation is a new one from Inviting Co. and I love the yellow and gray together!

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

30% Off PicMe Notes

PicMe Prints is offering 30% off their folded notes and flat correspondence cards through August 23rd.  They have great basic stationery for both adults and children.  In addition to stationery they also create fabulous birth announcements with digitally printed photos. 

Hayden Avery Ring Dish

I am super excited to present a Hayden Avery exclusive -
a hand painted (by Ann Marie Murray) ring dish in the Hayden Avery signature blue!  I ordered these back in January and am thrilled to have them (obviously it's time consuming to hand paint 20 ring dishes by hand).

I've blogged about Ann Marie Murray and her hand painted items before (Here and Here).  We sell so many of her ring dishes and I know that there is another store here in Austin that does too.  So I asked Ann Marie if she could make a ring dish in the Hayden Avery blue and she was so sweet to say yes. If you know anyone who's recently engaged or just needs a sussy - this is the perfect gift. 

P.S. - ended up closing the store early on Thursday (as it got up to 90 degrees in the store).  So Friday I was playing catch-up.  Good news is our new compressor works very well!
Hope you all are having a good start to your week.

NEW AC

You know how in all of my posts recently I've discussed being lazy and hot...I am getting a new AC unit/compressor while I type this.  However, I decided to take a bad photo of my thermostat so you could what I am complaining about.   If you can actually see the picture you will notice it is 11 a.m. when I took the picture and although the air is set for 72 degrees it is actually 83 degrees in the store!?!  I need to ask these workmen how long they think it will take to cool down - because I may just need to close the store for the afternoon (with high temperatures today being 105).  This isn't pleasant for anyone.  Does this explain any of my laziness and lack of creativity?  Hope you all have a cooler day than me!

Advertising on Style Me Pretty

I would love to tell you all that the reason I have not been good at blogging recently is because I've been insanely busy.  The truth is I've been hot and lazy.  The store AC unit has not been cooperating with the 105 +/- degree temperatures - so it's been averaging about 80 degrees in the store in the late afternoons.  When sitting indoors at 80 degrees all productivity comes to a stand still (at least for me).  They (the landlord) is replacing the unit in the next day or two - yippee!!!  The true test will be if I am any more productive once the store is cool...

This morning I had a fun project though!  I'm going to be an advertiser on Style Me Pretty Texas and so I worked on an ad.  I came up with the 3 above options and let the staff at Style Me Pretty select the one that they thought would be the best.  It was super fun and a little challenging to design something so small that got the point across and made an impact.

Click here to find out which one they selected.

Cute New Calendars

Dabney Lee has some new designs for their desk calendars that I am loving.  I'd previously done a post back in November show casing their desk calendar (HERE). In addition to the new desk calendar designs, Dabney Lee also just updated their albums.
I keep adding to my list of "I want"...

Dauphine Press August Sale

One of our lovely letterpress companies, Dauphine Press, is offering 20% off their wedding invitations in the month of August.  They recently started incorporating colored edgings and foil stamping to their already fabulously designed invitations. 

Love a Chevron Liner

One of our customers just ordered this stationery from the new Crane & Co. stationery album.  I love the new chevron envelope liner.  It still has the classic Crane & Co. look, but with a more modern feel.  I hope she loves her stationery as much as I do. 

On a completely different topic - I noticed on Sunday that I've posted the Prentiss Douthit Flask invitation before (in October 2010).  Sorry to cheat you all of seeing somthing new.  Clearly there is some sort of deep emotional tie with
Fridays and Flasks for me...