Pink of Perfection

“Live What You Love” letterpress print on etsy by hijirik

Originally, I meant to score one of the very cheap calendars at Muji and add a bit of rick rack trim to give it more personality. But when I finally made it to the store of Japanese minimalism and thrift on the 11th of the new year, there were no more planners to be had. “We sold out very fast this year.” Yes, I see that. But you see, my life needs planning, and I’m nothing if not a jotter: I scribble down each dollar I spend, appointments I have, assignments to complete, exhibits on the horizon, movies to add to my Netflix queue, ideas that strike when I’m falling asleep. Without a planner to scrawl all this in, I’m like a cowboy without a horse — utterly lost and not all that effective.

Rather than going to another store and plunking down more cash than I had initially intended to spend, I bought a plain notebook of graph paper for $1. How hard can it be to make a planner out of blank paper? Turns out it’s not hard at all, though it does take patience and a straight-edge. The reason, in fact, that today’s post is appearing so late in the day is that I have been steadily drawing lines and stamping out dates, creating order and delineation out of blank pages. This also gave me the perfect opportunity to catch up on this week’s The Bachelor. Nothing quite like crafting to cheesy entertainment!

Sometimes life buzzes along with so much excitement and celebration that the idea of sitting down to the sort of slow, methodical work that requires little more than counting and a steady hand is a welcome respite. Today, this was just what I needed. And now finally, twelve days into this new year, I feel equipped to take on the days.

It is not very fashionable to admit one isn’t in the holiday spirit. As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is packed into Tupperware, there seems to be a widespread belief we should all be decking the halls and checking our lists twice, instantly transformed into a state of merriment simply because the calendar calls for it.

I admit I have not been feeling particularly holiday this season. Maybe it was the way the mild fall hung around my neighborhood so long, but I have felt myself standing in the drugstore aisles listening to Blue Christmas with the cold detachment of a scientist observing rats. I’m aware the holidays are swirling around me, inspiring peers and passerby with mirth, but I haven’t yet been moved myself. There was a moment yesterday, a Monday which turned into a day of fun without pre-meditation, when I spooned hot and sour soup, stopped to lean down into the fragrant boughs of Christmas trees for sale outside a bodega, and watched as an errant snowflake sat in the seam of Sebastian’s collar before melting. I felt a whiff of it then, but only for a moment.

There are some years when we jump to buy eggnog as soon as it appears in the deli aisle and plot the baking of Christmas cookies weeks in advance. Sometimes we have even been knitting thick, loopy scarves for loved ones since September. But there are other years when the magic of the season, for whatever reason, doesn’t come over us in quite the same way. I share my own feelings this year less as a whispered Scroogey confession, and more as permission, in case you need it. It’s okay to not be making wreaths, to not have started your shopping, to not even want to shop for presents because frankly, there are expenses more pressing. It’s fine. Maybe we’ll feel merry and bright in a couple weeks, just in the St. Nick of time. Or maybe, instead, we’ll find ourselves embodying the holiday spirit — which includes the seasonless sensation of gratitude, love, and wonder — on a dark evening in January. Whatever works.

Continue reading “Super Simple Silhouette Christmas Cards and The Absent Holiday Spirit” »

Our favorite online fabric store, Reprodepot, has teamed with one of our favorite publishers, Chronicle, to bring us a very awesome giveaway.

• Reprodepot Pattern Book: Flora Includes a CD with ready to print images of 225 vintage-inspired fabrics and step-by-step instructions for 10 craft projects. Forward by Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge.



• Reprodepot Pattern Book: Folk Includes a CD with ready to print images of 225 vintage-inspired fabrics and step-by-step instructions for 10 craft projects. Forward by Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge.



• Reprodepot Folk and Flora Notecard Book Features 24 different folk and flora textiles patterns for all your devastatingly witty thank yous and love notes.

Leave a comment about how you bring creativity into your life before Sunday, November 8, 12 midnight EST to be entered in a random drawing for one of these great prizes. Prizes can only be shipped to addresses within the United States.

Results:

Congrats to Tiffany, Adrienne, and Kristina!

When embarking on a large scale project that will involve countless choices and decisions, it helps to have an easily applied litmus test to decide what’s in and what’s out. Ideally, this barometer will help us to see the big picture, again and again, and keeps us from getting bogged down in the details. I have a new such test when it comes to making decisions about an upcoming wedding. I answer a question with a question: Will it affect the marriage?

Should we have a calligraphy wedding certificate? Should the rehearsal dinner be a buffet? Well, will it affect the marriage? If the answer is no, I’m inclined to take the most economical route possible. There, question answered. A greater woman than I, one who excels at details and delegation would probably weigh each of these considerations carefully. But I’m keeping my eye on the prize: the next morning, I will wake up having pledged to be with someone else through good times and in bad. That is big. Much bigger than splurging on letterpress escort cards and table numbers.

I hope there will be day months from now when we will look back, so glad we had this event with all our friends and family. We will appreciate the big picture for what it hopefully will be: a really unique and meaningful night spent with people we love. But the truth so often is, with a wedding as in life, it’s the smallest things that mean the most. Like encircling the bride’s wrist with an antique bracelet while she’s getting ready, the advice an older relative gives about a long and happy marriage, and what the couple whisper into each other’s ears while they’re dancing. You can’t plan those moments, and you certainly can’t pay for them.

So far, my favorite wedding moments have been sort of smallish in the grand scheme of the event, capital E: finding the dress, trying on wedding rings, and sitting at the kitchen table with my little brother for a few hours making escort cards and table numbers. He is a young guy, usually flitting here and there in his exciting life. But for three hours, I held him captive, cutting out print-outs of 20-point Georgia numbers to make homemade stencils. And because there were no distractions — no waiter interrupting us, no parking space to find — we got to talk about all topics great and small. Not only what’s happening in our lives, but how it’s happening, and what that means and how we feel about it.

It’s a feeling that women must have had in quilting circles. Focused on the task at hand, the background of life drifts out of focus and you’re left with needle and thread, a piece of fabric, and the company of those around you. Time feels forgiving; you can really talk. It’s a couple of hours I never would have had with store-bought cards and numbers. The cost was less, but it was worth infinitely more.

Feeding people graciously and lovingly is one of life’s simplest pleasures: a most basic way of making life better for someone, at least for awhile. –Anna Thomas

On a sunny Saturday, on our way to the farmer’s market, we popped into Paper Love, a sweet shop, perfectly edited, walls lined with charming letterpress cards, notebooks, and other paper delights. I immediately fell in love with these miniature books from Brookfield. The size of a deck of cards — but infinitely more delightful — each letterpress book is filled with quotes and tiny illustrations on a given topic: “Cheerful Thoughts,” “House and Home,” “Incomplete Book of Dog Names.” I picture a pretty bowl on the coffee table, home to a stack of loose photographs, crowned with this gem. Also, what great hostess presents!