Oh hey, there you are

I'm now posting over here in the journal section of my new shiny website. Come join the conversation there! And while you're at it, stay awhile and shop. Loads of new stuff in, including these gorgeous indigo marble lined envelopes with luxe notes. 

pixelimpress Holiday 2013 Collection

We've been busy, real busy, here at pixelimpress. In our shop right now are 7 new designs in our 2013 Holiday Collection. Take a gander at the whole collection below. Shop here for the collection.

Folded cards, customizable. Sending a photo.... slip it inside.

 Can you tell I'm going through Breaking Bad withdrawals?

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Each card has coordinating hang tags.

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And holiday invitations are also available.

*** And special thanks to my friend Andrea, for all of her help styling and photographing pixelimpress products. The photos above with *** are courtesy of her special talent! We had a lot of fun at our photo shoot. Here's our lineup, via instagram.

let's talk marble

i'm sure at some point i've declared my love for all things marbleized. if not, i'll do it now. i love marbleized things. there, done. so i made some stationery sets recently with envelopes lined in marbleized paper. this is luxe, folks. thick cottony paper. shimmery envelopes. gorgeous colors. and elegant marble paper. all wrapped snug as a bug in a pretty silk ribbon and packaged in a pretty white box. great for gift giving. and as you know, the season of gifting is upon us.

Holla ... set of 10 flat cards and 10 lined envelopes.

in the mood for something a little more vibrant? how about curry and purple. 

found here.

and then i spotted these at west elm. marbleized boxes. how cool are they. the natural colored one totally matches my stationery. i think i'll ask santa for one.

New Stock at pixelimpress!

I'm back! With a post to tell you about some new goodies at pixelimpress. First ... the 2014 pixelimpress Desktop Calendar. It's always a labor of love. Wasn't sure I was going to make one this year. And then I had some past clients inquire about one and, well, that was enough to motivate me to get my act together. It's tough coming up with 12 unique patterns and color schemes! So, drumroll, here it is. The cover page sports August's design and also a new pattern at pixelimpress. I'll soon be loading new calling cards and stationery with this offset chevron design, which i love!

The back page sports all the designs.

March is one of my favorite patterns and color schemes. (And also my birthday month in case you were planning on buying me a gift.)

December's pretty sparkly, after all New Year's Eve is in December.

And July.

 

 The calendar can be purchased here. They make super teacher gifts! And if you purchase 5 or more, they are 10% off! Woohoo!

Also, these fill in the blank invitations are new. Sometimes you just wanna throw a party and send out pretty invites but don't have the time for custom.... here's your solution! You're welcome.

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4 pixelimpress designs. Pick your favorite. You can find them here .

hi sugarplum! calling cards

cassie, the popular and hysterical diy/lifestyle blogger (who now has the chicest bob in blogland) contacted me earlier this summer and wanted custom calling cards for her blog for a conference she was attending (and speaking at) in august. after several drafts i came up with these....  my suzani print in shades of aqua (to match her site) and her hi sugarplum! "logo".

and my favorite part.... her social media contact tags are brushstrokes! perfect for the diy'er that she is. (her last name is blanked out below)

and i also created some of her cards in my ikat pattern.

and being the great diy'er that she is, she took these cards to the next level and painted gilded edges on them! (after learning of the trick from camille.)

 she used this pen to create the edge effect.

how awesome are these! i think they're absolutely fabulous!

head over to cassie's post and see her step by step instructions for painting the edge. and you can get your own calling cards to gild over here! (leave me a note at purchase time that you're thinking of gilding the edges and i'll include some scrap paper in your package for you to test the gilding process.)

*** unless labeled, all photos are by cassie.

carry on

Dad on his submarine. He went under the arctic ice twice.

i got the first call when i was 29 years old. i remember it clearly. i had just returned to my apartment from basking in the sun poolside in atlanta. dad had a stroke. a massive stroke. he's in icu at the veterans administration hospital in my hometown.  my sister kim, living close to my parents, and mom spent the next few weeks with dad. i flew up shortly thereafter and spent a month with mom while dad was still in the hospital. he was paralyzed on the left side of his body. each day we went to his therapies... physical and occupational. he still had his speech. and only some use of his left hand. he was walking, slowly, ever so slowly, with a walker and leg brace.

as dad was learning to walk again, mom was learning to do a few things around the house and elsewhere that were dad's chores. dad was a mechanic following his retirement in the navy. he always took our cars to the gas station and filled the tanks. always. kim had showed mom how to pump gas on one of her recent visits home. mom drove the car back and forth and back and forth to visit dad until she HAD to fill the tank. i was there this time. after one long, exhausting afternoon visiting dad at the hospital, we pulled into the gas station to fill the tank. there was one car at pump #17. that tells you how many pumps there were at the station. plenty. mom pulled to the side. i asked her what she was doing. she said that kim had showed her how to pump gas on pump #17 so she had to wait until that one was free. i think i pulled out a chunk of my own hair. they are all the same i exclaimed. nope, i need to go to pump #17, we'll just wait, she said. so we waited.

dad was eventually sent home. his new role was patient. mom's was nurse. slowly any progress he had made in the hospital deteriorated. years passed. kim got married. i got married. kim moved. still nearby. i moved. 5 or 6 times. some of them cross-country. pets died. pets were adopted.  there were phone calls, oh-so-many phone calls, and visits to see dad. we brought pictures of the events in our lives.

18 years later i got another phone call. kim squeaked out the words, dad died. it was may 16, 2013. he was admitted to a local nursing home in march following a hospital stay for pneumonia. complications arose from there. my last visit home was in october. my next visit home was going to be may 29th.

Dad with Kim on the left and me on the right, Christmas, circa 1967

plans were made. flights were scheduled. photos were gathered. memories were remembered. either kim or mom told me of the coincidence. i don't remember who. dad was in room 226 at the nursing home. the funeral home was at 226 cumberland street. weird, huh? she said. before i went home for the funeral, i walked into the bank to deposit some cash. i grabbed a lump of cash for my wallet. $76. that's an odd amount, i thought. just make it $75. nope keep it at $76. i handed the leftover money to the teller for the deposit. she penned $226 on my deposit slip. i smiled. coincidence? i choose to think not.

if there was ever a time for time to be frozen, this was it. i couldn't fathom participating in a viewing, a service, and then a processional to the cemetery. steve and i arrived home the day before the viewing. i had packed some photos and pretty printed labels... husband, father, son, navy, in loving memory, friend. we made bulletin boards of memories. we put on our outfits. we went to the first viewing. i swore i wasn't going to look. i looked. he looked better than i thought he would. he was dressed in a flannel shirt with a u.s. flag pin on his lapel. people came. people wept. people consoled us. i hadn't seen some of these folks in 30 years. we laughed at the good times we had growing up. playing badminton in the backyard. playing wiffle ball. how the clothesline post was 2nd base. they didn't want to know where i lived now or what i did for work.... they wanted to know if i still ate macaroni and cheese every day. we laughed a lot. there was a woman who came who told me that her dad and my dad worked at the local army/navy recruiting office together. she said her father gave my father some $$ when they were overseas in vietnam and had asked my father to use it to buy a tobaggan for his children for christmas. he did.

we dressed again the next morning for the service. there was another short viewing and then time to sit down and listen. beautiful words were spoken. words to celebrate a life. people left. it was just family at the casket. kim and her husband spoke of the navy term "carry on". it means to resume. now we must resume. we said goodbye and i pulled the blanket up to his chin. the casket was closed, draped with a flag, and rolled out to the hearse. we followed. then a slow procession to the cemetery.

the cemetery was beautiful. beautifully decorated for the upcoming memorial day weekend. 7,000 small flags were staked at the entrance... one for each life lost in combat since 9/11. (that image and its meaning itself is staggering.) we made our way to a small shelter. words were spoken. taps was played. a 21-gun salute was sounded. the flag was precisely folded. more words. empty shells were passed along. the folded flag was presented. a painfully slow final salute was given.

we've settled into our routine lives again.  father's day is this sunday. it'll be different for us this year. as will christmas, which is also dad's birthday. there won't be phone calls or visits to dad. instead we'll look back on our memories of dad and then carry on.

renegade craft fair this weekend in austin tx!

gosh it's been so long since i've written a blog post, i almost forgot how. life's been busy. i've been spending my waking hours panicking prepping for Renegade Craft Fair this weekend, May 18-19, in Austin, TX. oh look, there's even gonna be booze.

it's my first time there and i'm thrilled that i was accepted to participate. thanks Renegade!

here are some snap shots from what's in production here...

marble lined curry envelopes with calligraphy script flat notes. 

my lotus pattern in corals with a cobalt HOLLA. (hubby called it hola last night... he's not in the loop on "holla". apparently he didn't watch enough of heather on RHONY)

 tons of new greeting cards. anyone need a hug?

and a snapshot of my dining room table right now, landing zone for all the stock.

so if you're anywhere near Austin this weekend, come see us. we'd love to meet you!

argo

i know i'm totally late to the game, but at least i saw one of the movies that was up for best picture at the oscars last night. (and since when are there NINE movies nominated for best picture.... seriously? didn't there used to be like 5 or 6....).

hubby and i watched argo saturday night. i was happy to see this scene not only because it's a phenomenal movie but especially since it meant the end of a boring awards show. i enjoyed their acceptance speeches. best line of the night was from the 3rd producer who said (sandwiched between clooney and affleck), "i know what you're thinking, the 3 sexiest producers you've ever seen." good one.

photo from here

but i still haven't recovered from the movie. it's tense. tense like if i wasn't sprawled out under a fleece blanket, ice pack, cellphone, and remote control, i would get up, leave the room, take a few deep breaths, and regroup. for me, it ranks right up there with the abyss, where for most of that movie i felt like i was underwater gasping for my last breath. i'm sure you've seen it and you know what i'm talking about. if you don't, rush right over to your remote control and dial it up on 'on demand'.