Realtime hit counterweb stats
The Dingbat’s Agenda
  • Modern Calligraphy letterpress wedding invitation by Dingbat Press
  • Liz Ackley, calligraphy calling cards by Dingbat Press
  • Little Miss Emma cupcake business cards. Design + letterpress printed by Dingbat Press.
  • Rexburg LDS Temple Print, 14x19
  • Circque de Soleil Wedding Invitations, letterpress and design by Dingbat Press
  • About Me

  • August26th

    2 Comments

    First Day of School

    Posted in: About Me, branding

    We’ve been preparing for this for the last 2 years. A 504 medical plan for care, protocol and emergencies outlined to help manage David’s Type 1 diabetes while in school. Below are some charts I threw together: Diabetes for Dummies so his teachers can flip through their binder if they have questions or need help. Every child with diabetes has their own carb ratios, routine with their diabetes team (Endo, Educator, Pump Specialist if pumping, parents, and obviously child). Hopefully a child’s school will have a school nurse, however our Kindergarten Center doesn’t so we selected 3 people to be Trained Diabetes Personel for David while he is in school. After this week, I PROMISE I’ll be back to normal blogging and tweeting since it’s been kind of nuts with school starting and teachers wishing I could be in school every day with David.

  • August19th

    3 Comments

    Step 3: Painting Schmainting

    Posted in: About Me, Business, Studio Remodel

    It’s way too late for me so if this post is not a cohesive whole of good grammar please forgive my half working brain!! Following the drywall and texturing, we got to painting and the kids were more than excited to be joining in on the fun!

    KidsPaintingStudio

    Right before this, Evelyn was flinging her paint brush and dancing like a maniac to Green Day.

    BrianPainting

    My one and only sweetheart! He even rolled the ceiling. bleh.

    PullySystem

    Lastly, we got to move the press into it’s new spot. And to get it out of the basement, we had to anchor it to the wall and door jamb. My poor living room wall ;)

    StudioMovein

    The mess before it got cleaned – unloading the boxes!

  • August18th

    1 Comment

    Step 2: Organizing

    Posted in: About Me, Business, Studio Remodel

    Seeing that I’m partially claustrophobic it was important with the move to be meticulously organized and since we now have space, everything could have its own home. Over the years I’ve acquired skinny folding tables which are great as work stations because they are narrow, but still long enough to give ample workroom.

    A few Christmas’ ago, Brian built me a replica of the Pottery Barn craft table, however you can get one on Target for 1/2 the price – OR have your hubby build you one for practically nothing and maybe a little bribery ;)

    I added to my already growing supply of wire shelving. The main purchase was the EXPEDIT bookshelf and desk station. Time for a real desk, so that I didn’t stay up all night on the couch working on my laptop and start filling normal work hours again. This will also be the home for my ready-made goods.

    While looking through the EXPEDIT collection I saw the EXPEDIT side tables and thought they’d be perfect as an ink mixing station for each press. With glass and a dark color, they fit in well with the decor and I thought they’d provide close proximity to the pressman for quick and easy usage.

    Lastly, I think it was Craft, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco that was the inspiration behind a children’s station. I believe Meg was interviewing another artist about studio spaces to which the artist responded that the best studio is one where your children can have their own designated space. After reading that, I was determined to set aside a little corner for them. To compliment their work station, I couldn’t pass up the KRITTER chairs in yellow from IKEA.

    Stay tuned for painting tomorrow!

  • July25th

    4 Comments

    Holiday Preview

    Posted in: About Me, Holiday

    July 2010

    This was taken outside the new local creamery in Driggs. Serving fresh gelato daily, I’m hopelessly addicted! I feel sort of sick and twisted because now is the time to be enjoying summer, seeing that it has finally arrived here in Driggs. However, I just wanted to show you a sneak peek of the holiday collection launching in August (wholesale ordering) and mid-September (retail buying). Hopefully with the new product, we’ll have a new self-hosted Dingbat Press shop too!

    It is so beautiful, warm and sunny here. I feel that especially after this last winter, that I’m not ready for another winter. I told Brian the other day that he should open a fly-fishing lodge for the other half of the year in the Bahamas. I am sooo not ready for the summer to close except maybe so I can get these cards out to you.

    2010 christmas stationery collection. ornament letterpress greeting cards.

    What do you think? As I’m wrapping up the collection I want to know what you’d buy : photo cards, gift tags, greeting cards, recipe tags?

    All designs and rights reserved. ©2010 Dingbat Press

  • June9th

    8 Comments

    They say its my birthday!

    Posted in: About Me

    So I’m taking the day off. Enjoy a slice of cake if you have some around the house, or just imagine enjoying some cake.

    Biographical portrait, taken by Evelyn, and then she dropped my camera and broke my lens. Good thing I was smiling then because I wasn’t smiling shortly after. All is well that ends well. I’ve finally replaced my lens so you’ll be getting a plethora of new photos pretty darn soon! I’ll be back to email tomorrow to those of you who I am working with. Hooray for the big 28!

  • April30th

    4 Comments

    Baby Butterflies

    Posted in: About Me

    Okay – so those of you that follow the blog may know that David is Type 1 diabetic. While we manage the condition and have a positive outlook it was devastating when he was first diagnosed. Blood sugars are not so easy to manage – giving multiple injections to a child that just turned 4 seemed cruel. Brian and I stopped going out on dates because there was no one who knew how to take care of David’s diabetic needs (and I had trust issues). In addition, I was 5 months pregnant, expecting our 3rd child when he was diagnosed. Overwhelmed to say the least, I turned to two of the only people who I knew could help us though. Help me be calm, help David feel like a kid again. My cousin Katie is a year younger than me. She is an amazing elementary teacher, and she has a fantastic husband Marc. She has also been Type 1 since she was 11, but lives about 350 miles away from me. I shamelessly asked her to drop everything – begged her to – so I could deliver baby #3 in a hospital 60 miles from home (we live rural) with my husband in the delivery room and not worry that my other kids would end up in the hospital with us. Katie, being the woman that she is didn’t hesitate once. When I went into labor the kids spend their first night with my dear friends while Katie drove all the way up to Idaho. She then provided relief for everyone. David had someone to relate with finally, I delivered a healthy baby without losing my mind and I’ll be forever grateful for the service rendered that day. One year later Katie has given birth to her first, a beautiful and healthy baby girl. The least I could do was say, hey you rocked diabetes – and saved my life – can I design and letterpress print your baby announcements?

    Thank you to Katie, to my friends, to my family and to you my loyal readers for being there for me when I needed it most. I didn’t know then if I’d continue working, if I had enough passion to put more love into my work and this blog but you all encouraged me and nudged me along. To help my son, I had to help find myself again this last year. Thank you for all your love and support. I can’t believe baby Charlie is almost 1, it’s been 18 months since diagnosis, and I’m finally starting to forget what the before’s were like. It’s time to enjoy the after’s because isn’t life really all about having a happily ever after?

  • April6th

    2 Comments

    10 MONTHS – TEN!

    Posted in: About Me

    10 mo.

    So it finally happened. After two perfect children who never climbed out of their crib once until they moved into a big-kid bed at age 2.5, I now have a child who fears nothing. Easter weekend, Charlie decided he wanted to out-do the Easter Bunny this year and show his siblings how much of a dare-devil he could be. Ten months, a child that puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, likes to roll/climb/crawl everywhere – and now he dives out of his crib. Hippity hoppity hippity hoppity look at Charlie go! His mattress is now lower then the lowest setting. Here’s to hoping he stays put for at least a few more months before the next acrobatic trick.

    PS – like that sweet potato smudge between the eyes? We’ve got a picture of each of the kids with that look. Man, they love their yams!

  • March2nd

    2 Comments

    SpudNuts!

    Posted in: About Me

    People think us country folk aren’t refined and sophisticated but let me prove you wrong, I can’t tell you how many lovely people I interact with daily in my community. There are some really great friends to be made who will bake just about anything when you have a baby or just have a bad day (with crying babies in the background ;) -ENTER SPUDNUTS – I don’t like to get too personal because it’s not in my nature, but its been a rough few weeks with diabetes management with my 5 year old. High carb foods, especially things like donuts are the bane of my existence. Not because he’s diet restricted, but more because he’s sensitive to certain foods with carbs. Even when we calculate how much insulin needs to be injected, if the insulin hits his system faster than the food digests, he can have a serious reaction which we found out when cooking these. I feel like it is a complicated algorythm in which I’ll never learn no matter how hard I study quantum physics, molecular biology or advanced mathematics. So I just continue on being a mom and designer.

    Spud Nuts

    We made some SpudNuts from our famous Idaho Potatoes and crazy blood sugars ensued. DUH. Granted they were about 100 carbs each, so with David’s insulin to carb ratio that equaled 5 units of insulin. He usually has about 15 units a day so that was a ton more than he usually gets. That will be the last time that I’ll attempt to cover for something totally unreasonable for his little tummy.

    Spud Nuts Sugared

    Thankfully he wasn’t too keen on the cinnamon/sugar dusted SpudNuts so I got to eat all of those. However he really loved the sprinkled variety. So we decided to make mini-SpudNuts and survived the sugar-high and following insulin crash. Rounded out at about 26 carbs each, they were the perfect solution to our donut exploration. Although still high for some, I feel that in our house if we restrict all sorts of treats then it will only backfire. David is such a good boy, I just couln’t say no to the donuts when that was his request for the recipe of the week. And we survived with only one blood sugar reading above 200 for the day.

    Spud Nuts Sprinkles

    Look at that pink vanilla bean nutmeg glaze just dripping with goodness. Yea for smaller portion sizes and for smart country friends who really know how to cook in smaller portion sizes (I can’t take full credit for sizing the recipe down).

  • February17th

    1 Comment

    Texture in Design

    Posted in: About Me, photography

    I found this the other day when cleaning out my photos again. Shot in November while on a nature walk with the kids, I was reminded that texture can be applied in numerous ways to enhance design. Interesting how sometimes we forget that it’s all around us, often in the simplest form of nature. How cool would this pattern be as a blind impression in some yoga cards or something?

  • February9th

    2 Comments

    Natural Light Photos

    Posted in: About Me, photography

    I keep getting emails asking how I light my photos. I’m by NO means a good photographer, however since I’ve owned the Canon Digital Rebel Xsi I have to confess that although I’d like to take full credit for my photos, I really think it’s all the camera (and a little research on the side). I have a 50mm f1.8 fixed lens. I never shoot with my flash, and to learn the focusing and aperature/speed properties I shot in manual mode for a long time to try to learn to feel my camera. The lower the “f” number the more light is let into the camera (and the more bokeh). I like to shoot during the day in indirect light. It makes for the most true colors which is crucial for product photos.

    Christmas 2009

    My product and kids shots are almost always a little over-exposed because I like it that way. Generally I shoot with my speed between 1/80 and 1/400. Higher if I’m outdoors and it’s summer. My F-stop is usually set between 1.8 and 2.5. Sometimes I venture up to 4, and on rare occasion (like when I’m shooting the mountains beside my house) I shoot above 10. This is really jumbled up, but if any of you have a DSLR, maybe you are picking up on my ramblings. Anyways, to the point: if you have product photo questions feel free to ask, you can contact me on my about page. I’d be happy to answer! Thanks for listening to my babbling.

  • February1st

    4 Comments

    Personal: Cinderella Cake

    Posted in: About Me

    Yet again I find myself falling behind on this here blog! It’s been a busy month preparing for a few birthdays in the family and getting Valentine’s Day custom orders out the door. To pause a moment and give you a glimpse into my personal life, I’ve been catching up from the holidays, getting my taxes done for 2009, getting a plethora of new invitation inquiries (it’s wedding season officially for letterpress brides) and settling into the cold weather and snow that we are finally receiving. At the first of the month we celebrated Evelyn’s birthday which encompassed everything princess imaginable. I never thought I’d see the day where Disney Princesses ruled my household from top to bottom. However the only pretend play Evelyn will allow with my involvement is princesses. No school. or art class. No coloring or ballet unless the princesses are present. So for her birthday I thought we’d go all out and do a princess party for family. Original I know, but since it’s not about me I indulged her every princess fancy. My first attempt at a princess cake wasn’t totally fruitless and I can indeed confess that the frosting was the best part, vanilla bean paste and all! I’m just glad it was a success this year, because last year the power went out right when we were singing happy birthday and stayed out for the rest of the night. Not too exciting for a two year old who was afraid of the dark!

    The best part of it all? When Evelyn exclaimed, “Mom, Cinderella’s bum is on fire!” (when we lit the candle’s to sing happy birthday). Although mediocre in piping and craftsmanship, I have to say it was a fun first attempt at trying to create a princess cake. Evelyn notified me after her party that next year I will be making a Belle cake, so I better get working as her dress is much more complicated than Cinderella’s.

  • December16th

    2 Comments

    Free Dingbat tags + cards

    Posted in: About Me, GIVEAWAY

    So I missed posting yesterday, too much letterpress jobs going out the door! To make up for it though,  I’ve got lots of free gift tag and place card goodies (personal use) for download this holiday season. Click on the image to be directed to my flickr stream where you can download the original image file direct to your desktop – there’s more after the jump so head on over and get some goods!

    Dingbat Holiday Gift Tags, FREE!

    The original file is letter (8.5×11″) saved at 300% so just scale to size when printing out at home or the local print-shop and have fun! Cards measure 2×3.5″ when trimmed.

  • November25th

    1 Comment

    Thanksgiving Table

    Posted in: About Me

    I just love coming home for the holidays and seeing what my mom has up her sleeve. I think if my mom were 20 now, she’d be the other Grace Bonney. Always full of amazing fashion finds, ahead of the interior design curve and still there to offer timeless decorating tips – my mom was the go to lady in my world of fashion. She is the queen of mixing and matching things and somehow making it all work together. Check out her lovely table setting of Spode and randomly collected vintage glass.

    Spode Thanksgiving

    Related Posts with Thumbnails
« Previous Entries
Return to the Homepage