Letterpress love

I've spent a lot of quality time with my letterpress printer lately, including two things that were a lot of fun for me. Most recently, I printed 300 invitations for an open house at a law firm.



The invitation had fine text and a large monogram, so I had to print them separately to be able to get a nice impression for the monogram. I cut the monogram out of the plate, and printed the first set with just the text.

Then I removed the plate with the text, added back the monogram, and printed them all again.

Yesterday they were sent off to their new home in Alabama. I hope they have fun at their party!

The second project I really enjoyed was a set of custom cards for a friend. A while back I had a contest among some friends to develop a caption for a card. AJ won the contest, and her prize was a set of cards printed with her own message, "from the unpredictable mind of aj furay."

I used hand-set type for her message. I'm getting pretty good at reading backwards!

And I mixed the ink to match the same color of green that was used on her wedding invitations.

These cards now live with AJ in her home in Maryland (and I hear that they love the crab cakes out there!).

Water features

We're planning to include a water feature once we finally get around to the landscaping in our backyard. Here are a few of my favorite ideas that I've collected.

I love the idea of water that comes right up to the house. It isn't practical for our current house, but maybe someday...

From Turnbull Griffin Haesloop Architects via Materialicious.



A house in Key West via Lime in the Coconut.



I also love natural looking ponds, with or without a little creek, that are lined with boulders of all sizes. I think we'll probably do something like this if we can find the time, energy, and enthusiasm.

Another photo from Key West via Lime in the Coconut.

I absolutely love this one, found on Cyndee's blog, The Journey.

This one, from Sunset, combines the patio and water feature, and the water goes under the patio. I love that.

Another stunning creation found on Sunset.

Letterpress studio

Last weekend I was at Home Depot with my husband. As we walked back to the car and passed by their pre-built sheds, I told him that I thought I was going to need my own studio for all my letterpress stuff. At this point, I have one small letterpress printer, three paper cutters (one of which will be about 5 feet tall once I get it put back together), two large cabinets for the metal type that I'm slowly accumulating, plus lots of other goodies like paper, ink, cleaning solutions, etc. Letterpress printing is the type of venture where you find that no matter what you have, you always need more. Or want more. It's insanely addictive.

When I told him this new need I have, it was a bit like saying to him "I'm going to need my own live-in maid and masseuse." So, imagine my delight when he said "I saw that coming that weekend we went to Denver." (He's referring to the trip when I picked up the 5-foot tall paper cutter, the two large cabinets of metal type, etc.). In my world, that, my friends, is pretty much all the approval I need to start working on the plans for that little studio.

I saw this little summer house this morning over at Remodelista, and it is perfect! Wonderful natural light, a woodburning stove for stupid mornings like this where it is 22 degrees (bye-bye, plum blossoms!), and plenty of space for all my stuff. So much space, in fact, that I wouldn't be limited to just one little press...

Sarah's letterpress cards

I had fun this week printing some customized cards for the lovely Sarah. I printed some in peony and some in blueberry. They're packed up and ready to be sent off to Sarah, who lives in Cameroon in West Africa. I hope my little cards enjoy their trip abroad!

Parachuting pig

This is the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. This is Edith, the parachuting pig. She's made from felted wool. Adorable.

Found at BossysFeltworks on Etsy via The Haystack Needle. Also check out their selection of other felted farm animals. The sheep are also pretty darn cute.

Garden woes

My gardening plans are at a bit of a stand still at the moment.

We're planning to remodel our house and convert the garage to a master suite. We live in a rural area and have a septic system rather than a public sewer system. We recently discovered that our current system isn't big enough to accomodate an additional bedroom (i.e., additional people). And the system was installed in 1971, and is probably due to be replaced anyway. Not that anything from 1971 is that old and decrepit (harumph!), but, you know. It's old.

If you've never had the pleasure of installing a septic system, it's not as easy at it sounds. First, you of course have to buy a permit from the county. Then, you have to pay them do to a test to determine how well your soil drains. For them to do the test, you have to hire a backhoe to come to your house and destroy your property to dig several trenches and holes up to 10 feet deep. Then the county determines the specific requirements for your septic tank and leach field, and then you have to hire the backhoe again to come destroy more of your property to dig a giant hole for the tank and giant trenches for the leach fields.

I said all that to explain my latest garden woes: I have no garden right now. And I can't even think about preparing for my garden until the septic system is in, because one of those patches of property that will be torn up is precisely where my garden is going. Drats.

Needless to say, I'm feeling sorry for myself, and especially for all those seedlings in my window that are homeless right now.

I needed a little pick-me-up, so I just spent some quality time with the fruit trees we planted last year. They aren't letting a little septic chaos get in their way. They are budding and blooming like there's no tomorrow.

I love the green and yellow of the plum blossoms.

Just a few more days, and I'll get a front row seat to my own cherry blossoms.

Many years ago, someone threw a peach into the wooded abyss at the back of our property. Last fall when we started clearing out the area, we discovered a peach tree growing among the vines and tamarisk. We saved it, and I think it's delighted to finally get some sunshine now.

We have two quince bushes in our front yard. Over the weekend I snipped off a few branches and brought them inside, and now they're starting to open. They are such a beautiful shade of pink.

Paris bathroom

I love the idea of a shower that you can walk into without having to open and close a door.

We're getting ready to finish remodeling our house, which will include converting our attached garage to a master suite. I originally wanted to have a separate tub and shower, with a shower that you could walk into, but we just lacked the space for it.

Now that we've been dealt a minor setback (we have to put in a new septic system before we can get a permit to add another bedroom), I have more time to go back and second-guess our decision to do a tub/shower combo. And I've been obsessing over this bathroom (from an apartment in Paris) since I saw it yesterday over at Lime in the Coconut. I especially love the stone wall and the neutral colors. Not to mention the enormous windows and all that natural sunlight!

Love it.

Tiny houses

When I was younger, I used to collect miniatures. I love the idea of small things. So it's no wonder that I'm fascinated with tiny houses. My husband and I talk occasionally about how nice it would be to have a secluded piece of property up in the mountains where we could build a tiny house as a weekend retreat.

Better Barns cabin from Tiny House Blog.

I thought maybe we were the only ones weird enough to want that, but in the past few years I've realized that there are lots of folks out there who share my passion for tiny houses. In fact, there are blogs all about tiny houses (the Tiny House Blog has a great gallery of photos), and I just found this new book, coming out next month, and I think I might need to get it...

Happy Spring! Nau Roz in Afghanistan

This is Mr. Ashraf. He was my driver.




After all these years, that's still fun to say! :)

Between 2003 and 2005 I had the most amazing and spectacular opportunity to work in Afghanistan. I was working for a nonprofit at the time, and they were one of a group of organizations selected to basically rebuild Afghanistan's entire health care system. After years of civil wars and fighting, they were basically starting over from scratch.



My work as an editor focused on helping them create the materials used to train the country's midwives. It was awesome, awesome work.

The first day of spring marks the day of the new year--Nau Roz--in many cultures. In Afghanistan, the holiday is often celebrated by a buzkashi match--a game played on horseback that is sort of like polo but played using a dead calf or goat instead of a ball. If you've never seen the 1971 movie, "The Horsemen," with Omar Sharif and Jack Palance, please do rent it one weekend. The acting is a little slow at times, but the scenery and horsemanship displayed in the movie is stunning. (You can watch clips of it on YouTube).




People also celebrate Nau Roz by leaving the cities and having large family picnics. Our office took advantage of the occasion to travel about an hour north of Kabul to the beautiful village of Istalif, which is nestled in the foothills of the famous Hindu Kush mountains.




The village consists of narrow dirt roads that wind up a steep hillside dotted with mud brick homes. Growing up in New Mexico, this reminded me so much of our southwestern adobes.




The day we visited was one of the first nice days of spring, and several women from the village made their way down to the stream at the bottom of the valley.



Afghanistan is such a photogenic place, and the people in particular are so beautiful. The children especially loved having their photos taken with a digital camera so that I could show it to them on the camera's screen. They were always posing, trying to get us to take their photos.


Like much of Afghanistan, Istalif has seen its share of damage.

But places like Istalif are rallying back. Istalif has become quite famous for its pottery. We met a very nice potter who took the time to explain the process to us. See that blue bowl on the table in the right of the picture? The one with the scalloped edges? It's mine now. :)

Now, back to that platter of grass that I mentioned earlier this week.

One of the great things about working in Afghanistan was the opportunity to meet other people from so many other cultures. One of my housemates, Sepideh, was a midwife from Iran. And one of our project's doctors was Nassim, an Iranian-American. In their culture, the celebration of the New Year includes growing sprouts of lentils or wheat grain on a platter. Nassim and Sepideh said that on the day of the New Year, this platter is then taken to a river and the sprouts are thrown in as part of their celebrations.

Sepideh started this platter of sprouts in our house, and we took it with us on the day we went to Istalif. We didn't want to disturb the women who were down by the stream, so we instead found this group of three children, and Nassim handed the platter to the girl.

You can tell by the look on her face that she was less than excited about it.


In fact, she was really quite skeptical.

But after Nassim explained its significance, and that it was our gift to her, she was happy about it and we even got a small smile out of her.

May you enjoy this first day of spring, wherever you live and in whatever way you choose to celebrate!

Amazing dishwasher

I'm gonna have one of these bad boys in my next house! I can't believe how many dirty dishes you can stuff into this thing.


Asko dishwasher, found via Remodelista, available for $1,449.00 at Homeclick.

More March favorites

A few more from my random collection of favorite things that have been lurking on my computer for awhile.

Great exposed beams. That rug seems so snuggly. I'm sure my dog would love it... From Livingetc.



I love this calming bathroom and all that natural light. And I of course love the photo with all the beautiful bottles with lotions and liquids and other goodies. Almost too good to be true packed in that old wood box. Both from Alexia Biggs.

I could spend all day in this space, which is built on a rooftop! From Mountain Living.

And I'd love to sit around one of these copper fire pits one night this summer. From Smith & Hawken.

March favorites

It's time to start cleaning out my "favorites" file on my computer. So here are a few of my favorite things from around the internet lately.

A gorgeous farm table in a bright white, airy room. Via remodelista.

I love everything about this rustic kitchen in Sweden. The wood table, the wood floors. And those exposed wood beams! And what a fun light fixture, made from an old industrial whisk. The kitchen is so bright and airy, with a beautiful little pop of blue that makes me think of bird eggs, especially now that the robins have returned. Via remodelista.

If you're looking for a DIY project, you can even make your own whisk light fixture.


Speaking of robins, I love these metal garden stakes from Caroline Zoob,




and these glass balls encased in old fishing net, from Baileys Home and Garden.



And I just love this photo from Plantstuff. I found it awhile ago and I find myself coming back to it and just staring at it. It plays right into my obsessions for growing things, collecting small terra cotta pots, and anything with wood.