Our community of neighbors, families, and small businesses was rocked last summer when a young husband and father was victim to a shocking and violent crime. TC Maslin’s wife, Abby, has displayed unbelievable strength as her husband struggles with — and recovers from — brain injury. The entire neighborhood has been following along as Abby chronicles her family’s journey bravely and openly. Recently, she’s decided to focus more purposefully on her writing, starting a new blog and entering writing contests.

For Abby, writing more includes writing more letters. We have several mutual friends and she got in touch a few weeks ago asking if I could put together some stationery for her. Abby was open to design ideas so I read through her recent writing to come up with some drafts. Immediately, she chose the one I designed based on a quote from her blog and I got to work printing them. I am so grateful that our community allows me to meet the most incredible people every day, and that my work allows me to help others to connect with loved ones. I can’t wait to see where Abby takes this new path; she is certainly one to watch!

I’ve got lots of new goodies coming to the shop next week once the Valentines are cleared out. I can’t wait to share them here on the blog, in the shop, and at the market! xoxo

What parents do on Valentine’s Day

Truthy Valentine’s Day

Make an awkward night more fun

And these, for you DC-loving Valentines!

DC Love

On Sunday, I’ll be teaching an Introduction to Tabletop Letterpress workshop at Pyramid Atlantic. It’s a full class and I’m excited, as always, to meet my students. I love sharing that moment when a new printer sees her work on paper for the first time.

Next week I’ll be printing a few more Valentine cards and cleaning the press in the new studio. I’ll have more photos to share of the press and the new space soon. Happy weekend, all!

I’ll be sharing a large booth at the show with several other letterpress printers, organized by Ladies of Letterpress. After the amazing experience I had at the show last May when I was just there to look around, I’m beyond excited to be part of it this year. I’m also thrilled for an opportunity to venture a bit farther into the wholesale world. I love craft fairs and my little space at Eastern Market, but I also like the idea of spreading letterpress cheer farther than I can currently reach on my own.

The gift tags are available now in my etsy shop. Maybe later this year you’ll be able to pick them up at a store near you! Speaking of stores near you, if you’re in DC, pop into Pulp on 14th Street to check out my DC flag print, neighborhood love letterpress goodies, and an assortment of my greeting cards.

Then I went in search of studio space as close to home as possible. The whole idea behind getting my own press was to avoid the half hour (or more) commute and to enjoy dinner with my family more often. The previous owner of the press was itching to make more room in his studio and the perfect space here on Capitol Hill became available.

The story of the press move deserves it’s own post. In fact, I think a whole website should be devoted to press moving stories. So I’ll leave those details out for now. I’m just excited to share that the press is now living happily in my new studio. I still have a few details to resolve to get her up and printing, but it won’t be long until my “in the studio” posts will show new work from my new (to me) press!

In other aspects, I couldn’t wait for 2012 to end. Despite the busy market, the steady stream of friends and family, and the delicious food we ate together, I still haven’t been able to shake my sadness over the school shooting in December. No doubt many non-parents felt deeply sad and empathic over the events, but I know that a lot of my feelings were tied and are still tied to my identity as a mom. It doesn’t happen often, but my world view shifted that day. So I welcomed the new year with all it’s hope and promise as a time to make sense of my feelings.

Early in December, I was listening to the radio in the car. Lemony Snicket/Daniel Handler was giving an interview on Fresh Air. He talked about how his books are based on the premise that sometimes bad things just happen. “…the notion that terrible things can happen for any reason, and not – they’re not punishments for bad behavior, just as good things happening are not rewards for good behavior.” I keep coming back to the interview in my head; it’s really helped me sort through some of the sadness and come up for air. I wanted to share it here in case it’s a solace, or even just a fun way to spend an hour, to anyone else. Go have a listen. Or a read.

Peace. Empathy. Joy. For everyone. Here’s to a brighter year!

Or find the full schedule of letterpress offerings here.

This card is part of a new set, All the Cards You’ll Need in 2013. In each set, you’ll find 2 birthday cards, 2 thank you cards, and 6 cards for other occasions that you’ll surely use throughout the year. Keep the box on your desk and you won’t need any last minute trips to the stationery store.

Or, if you’re like me, keep going to the stationery store because this calendar will help you write a letter every week in 2013. The prompts listed for each week will keep you writing and the air mail stripes will remind you to get to the post office.

And this card is perfect for us DC city dwellers! One more sneak peek tomorrow and then you’ll have to come check it out at Union Market on Saturday!

Most recently I finished up some new business cards to share with clients and some bookmarks with my new tag line (write more. on paper.) to share with craft fair shoppers.

And the main reason for the busy – on Saturday I’ll be sharing a booth at Crafty Bastards with two of my very talented letterpress friends: Sarah from Fancy Seeing You Here and Deirdre from Lennah Press. As if sharing a booth with these two ladies wasn’t enough, the Washingtonian’s Shop Around Blog featured us in their Crafty Bastards Shopping Guide! So you have it on good authority that our booth will be stocked with the finest letterpress goodies at Union Market.

The plan for the rest of the weekend is to be at Eastern Market on Sunday, so if you can’t make it to Crafty Bastards I’ll still be taking holiday card orders for an extra day. Orders placed this weekend will ship by December 10th. Keep an eye on my facebook page – I’ll confirm there whether I’ll be at Eastern Market on Sunday.