Christmas Tree 2010

Happy Friday! How was your week?! Did yours fly as fast as mine did? The only time I felt like the time had stopped was whenever I looked at our Christmas tree that we put up last weekend. It’s been making me happy every single day ever since! This year, it’s not against the wall so we can see it 360º and that means more ornaments to hang :) I wanted it to be really full so I put up all the ornaments from previous years plus I got some new ones for the year!

New this year: Chinchilla ornament (well, I think it is a rabbit, but it really looks like our chinchillas!) from Anthropologie.

and Dachshund ornament from Jonathan Adler. (A second I saw it came out, it was already our new ornament for the year!)

I got few polka dots glitter ornaments from Crate and Barrel. They are so cute :)

and stars, too.

A back of our tree:

and this snowman sitting on a snowflake is still one of my favorites :) I got him in Hayes Valley shop in San Francisco, they had the best ornaments every year, I want to go back there for the holiday season someday again…

If you have your Christmas tree photos up somewhere, I’d love to see, please tell me the link in the comment section! Happy Tree decorating!

Letterpress Things

Today, I’ll share more pictures from my visit to Letterpress Things in Chicopee, MA. Come this way!

The entrance…

After going up the stairs… it’s a letterpress treasure land! We met the owner, John Barrett, he says he bought 17 letterpress shops this year alone and he never throws out anything. It is literally filled with “Printing Junque” I wasn’t kidding yesterday :)

Wood furniture cabinets. Never seen this many all together before…

Lots of metal types…

and borders and ornaments…

Stars!

I love all the art work that was on the wall in this place. This one is great, too!

It’s like a museum of old printing blocks…

More types in package.

John took us to the printing room. So many cute table top presses, do you see the really tiny one here?

and presses for sale — tabletop presses:

and floor models:

It only opens few times a month or less, so if you ever plan to go there, which I really recommend to go if you are looking for printing supplies, please check the open dates first. John also supports the museum of printing in MA, I would love to go check it out someday soon…

Happy Letterpress Printing!

Platen Press Workshop 2

Continue from the Platen Press Workshop day 1 post… Here is my day 2!

We learned how to operate a floor-model, which I’d been so wanting to learn. It can be dangerous so I was a bit nervous, but you know, I got the hang of it real soon and I printed without losing any of my fingers :) It was so fun, too, I loved it!

For the second day project, I decided to hand typeset a gift tag by using ornaments — as soon as I saw these manicules (the fingers), I was inspired.

It took me for a while to do this! Such a tedious work. More respect for the real printers who always do this.

Adding spaces…

Lock it up on the chase…

and put the chase back into the press.

The Center has 2 floor model platen presses and I used this guy:

Adjusting, adjusting…

and print away!

I printed vertical ones and then, re-set the types and printed horizontal ones, too. These will be used for my clients and customers, I think! :)

It was a great workshop, thank you so much, Center for Book Arts!!

Cross Stitch Ornament

Aren’t these cross stitch ornaments (by Julie Ellen) so pretty? Very unique and personalized for your Christmas tree for sure. I would actually decorate them on my wall after the holidays, they will make such cute little typography on my wall :)

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