First Family Photo Shoot

Just after Claire turned 3 months old we had our first family photos taken by Pamela Quigley while we were visiting family and friends in St. Louis. We met early in the morning at Bee Tree Park on a hot day, heavy with humidity, but Pamela's photos look so light and airy that you would never know it.

I felt like we were totally on the same page in terms of styling the shoot, and style in general. I bought this fun picnic blanket from Land of Nod for our picnic theme and we also brought some special touches, like my late grandmother's picnic basket and the vintage letterpress blocks I bought for Claire just after she was born.

Check out all of the photos here, but I have posted some of my favorites in this post.

We are so happy with our photos and if you are in the St. Louis area, I highly recommend Pamela for any of your future photo shoots.

Vintage Bazaar & Letterpress Love

Despite the nasty, rainy weather in Chicago this weekend, my sisters and I headed to the Vintage Bazaar on Saturday in Pilsen to see what we could find.

One vendor had a bucket full of wooden letterpress blocks that was calling my name.

$5 later I walked away with inky hands and a unique way to display my baby girl's name on a nursery shelf:

Letterpress Necklace

This weekend, I ordered the sweetest, vintage Letterpress "S" Necklace from etsy seller 'GwenDelicious'...

Check out the rest of her Letter Press Necklace collection here, as well as her vintage Typewriter Key Necklace collection here. If she doesn't have your letter available, just convo her and she'll let you know when she has your letter in stock. (That's what she did for me!)

I think they make a great personalized gift with some lovely vintage charm.

A lil' bit of Lill for my Lull

It's that time of year again. The time of year that I will fall into a drastic post-holiday, missing-my-busy-season-CPA hubby, windy-city-winter LULL if not otherwise thwarted by a bright, shiny & new creative outlet. Luckily, my sister was kind enough to get me a gift card to the Lill Street Art Center which I can put towards a new class again this year!

Last year I took a First-Time Screen-Printing for Paper class there and made a few, fun prints. But I'm torn if I should continue in the screen-printing route or if I should try something new?

I could take the First-Time Screen-Printing for Fabric class and learn how to replicate these pillow cases I have been most recently coveting, among other cool fabric crafts.

Or I could jump on either the Sewing or Knitting bandwagon, but unfortunately I just don't think I can make it there by 6:30pm on a work night for the sewing sessions so the knitting course is probably more feasible.

Or I could really splurge for this 10-week course, Introduction to Letterpress Image And Text.

I think my hold-up with Letterpress and Screen-printing is that they are both very interesting to me, but I lack the at-home-studio space to put my new found skills into action once class is dismissed. And while knitting is a bit less interesting to me, it might be a more useful skill to have down the road and a more affordable, maybe even therapeutic, hobby to take up.

Decisions, decisions. What would you do in my shoes?

Leave a comment to vote for the next Lill Street class I should enroll in!

Leg Press & Letterpress

Today is the first day, in over 2 years, that I stepped foot in a gym-like arena and technically worked out. Yes, today was my first day of Wedding Bootcamp. Sure I've played softball and went on long walks, but I haven't actually pushed myself in quite some time.

This class is one month long and 3 days per week in the top floor of my work building. I signed up with 2 coworkers, but of course they flaked on day-one and I had to go at it alone. It took a lot of courage to even show up, but let me just say that while I felt like I was going to puke 10 minutes in to the class, I felt really good as I walked out of there today. Hopefully this means I'll feel much better in my wedding dress in a few months as well.

So after I soaked myself in sweat, I hopped in a cab and went across town to meet my new wedding invitation designer at Starbucks. I knew I loved her design aesthetic, but what I didn't know is that I hit the JACKPOT. Kate can do LETTERPRESS, she has studio space and can do it for fraction of the cost. WOO HOO. More to come, once I see the initial designs next week.