Grey Moggie Press

The December Book Cover

It's been a busy weekend. And it might be an even busier week. However, in keeping with my goal of posting every day this month, I leave you with this photo of the cover of my December book.

And this one showing the inside front cover and first page. More to come.

The Real Grey Moggie: She likes butterflies, too...and also chicken

On Thursday morning, my dear friend Mary came over for breakfast. We're both students with a lot on our plates, so early mornings before class seem to be the only time we can get together and chat. We had tried to do breakfast at my place a few weeks ago, but The Real Grey Moggie wanted none of it. When Mary walked in the door, TRGM's tail expanded to three times it's normal size, she started hissing and scratching, and then let out the most terrible screams. I had never seen her like that before. I was concerned about the cat, but it seemed better to leave her alone and we grabbed bagels a few blocks away.

After my morning class, I wanted to check in on TRGM. Feeling bad that she had been so distressed, I picked up some peruvian chicken (a food the whole family, including TRGM, endorses) and brought it home to share with the cat. She sat next to me on the couch and we munched happily, she on a few nibbles of chicken and I on bigger pieces of chicken, coleslaw, and the tastiest of french fries. After we were full, she curled up on my lap and purred, and I closed my eyes for a few minutes before having to head back to school to do homework and attend my afternoon class. 

This week when Mary came over, TRGM ran to the hall and began hissing through the door before I'd even let Mary in. Since the bathroom is the only room in the apartment with a properly latching door, and TRGM enjoys playing in the sink and the tub, watching the birds in the nest outside the window, and staring at the crack in the wall (no joke), I put her in the bathroom and closed the door. Mary came in, we had a nice breakfast of cheesy grits, eggs, apples with cheddar, and flowing conversation. Near the end of breakfast, TRGM grew impatient and let out periodic meows from the bathroom. Mary left a few minutes later and I let TRGM out. She ran into the living room to hiss at the spot where Mary had been sitting minutes earlier (again, no joke). It's very strange, since Mary used to be one of her favorite people, but she's a very fickle cat.

I knew that I shouldn't "reward" TRGM with her favorite treat when she had been such a brat (she scratched my arm quite nicely when I let her out of the bathrom), but I was reminded of our chicken lunch from the last time she had been so anxious and distressed. And I needed that kind of quiet moment on Thursday. So after class, I again picked up some chicken to share with my kitty and we sat and ate and both forgot about the stuff that makes the hair on the back of our neck stand up. Peruvian chicken: it's like our Calgon.

Friday Favorites: Butterflies (and lemonade)

Back in September, two crazy kids had the most fabulous New York wedding. Before their nuptials, the happy couple asked Mr. Moggie to make lemonade to serve during the garden wedding.  We knew a few things about the wedding: the ceremony would be held in an East Village community garden, there would be butterflies and bowties, and the colors would be warm. But we also knew some things about the couple to guide us in the lemonade project: they care deeply about the earth and treating it well, they are thoughtful about the food they eat and where it comes from, they appreciate tasty food and drinks, and plain just doesn't describe them.
 
A few weeks later, Mr. Moggie scoured the local farmers' markets and our herb garden to come up with possible lemonade flavors. We gathered up some tiny jars, lots of sugar, a juicer, and many, many lemons. Hours later we had 12 different kinds of simple syrup: plain, raspberry, spearmint, chocolate mint, basil, rosemary, peach, blueberry, cantaloupe, yellow watermelon, plum, and jalapeno. We had a delicious taste testing session and discovered that jalapeno lemonade is remarkably refreshing. Then, we packaged samples of each of the syrups for the bride and groom, along with a scoresheet, so that they could make their own lemonade and choose their favorite flavors.

For my part, I found some eco-friendly disposable cups. They were made of a (otherwise destroyed) byproduct of sugar refining and were biodegradable. I used a butterfly cutout, some biodegradable lotka paper, and wheatstarch to decorate the cups to match the wedding's theme. On the big day, we filled the earth friendly cups with plain lemonade for guests who prefer the traditional, rosemary lemonade for those with discerning taste, and jalapeno lemonade for those who were truly adventurous. The wedding was beautiful, the lemonade stand was a hit, and butterflies were everywhere!

And they continue to infiltrate my days. Somehow, I've collected all of this butterfly paper and butterfly project material. That paper in the background is the serenity paper I mentioned a few posts back. The 12'x12' sheets, the chipboard butterflies, and the pink felt butterflies were from recent scrapbook kits (maybe moshposh, maybe the sadly extinct cupcake scrapshop). I picked up the orange monarchs at Paper Source this summer; they're made of feathers and I wore one in my hair at the wedding.

I used some of my butterfly supplies to scrap a page for my song lyric mini-book. From the Ben Kweller song In Other Words, I pulled the line: "The butterflies are passive agressive and put their problems on the shelf but they're beautiful." Also, I noticed that even Pottery Barn has butterfly tree ornaments this year, but I'm really into cut paper right now so let me suggest this etsy shop instead.

Thank you muchly

It's been one of those weeks. I spent most of the weekend catching up on non-class school stuff and ended up behind in my reading for classes. So I spent the early mornings and late nights catching up on that reading. That schedule left me walking around in a daze during normal person wakeful hours and drinking lots of caffeine so I wouldn't fall asleep in class. Also, Mr. Moggie and I, along with some friends, are planning a very fun party for Saturday night. And I'm tempted to just throw myself into that endeavor because it's so much more exciting than school work, but I can't. I am taking the professional responsibility portion of the bar exam on Saturday morning. So between now and then, I need to be taking practice exams, reviewing an outline, and going over my notes from Sunday's study session. Note: Obviously, blogging breaks are allowed; it is NaBloPoMo, after all.

So, on this, the 6th day of NaBloPoMo, I tried to find a Grey Moggie creation to share. And I realized that I haven't posted these letterpressed thank you cards yet. Letterpress thank you cards! With butterflies! And while this week has been rough, there are so many things for which to be thankful. For example:

• The election is finally over!*
• Mr. Moggie made the most excellent chocolate fudge a few days ago, so dessert has been quite a treat lately.
• The semester is way more than half over (yes, I know that fact means exams are approaching; however, it also means that I am that much closer to my final semester).
• There are so many beautiful calendars out there.
• The usual suspects: family, friends, pets, health.
• While I have little time to carry them out, I have so many projects and ideas floating around in my head. That combination is so much better than too much time and no ideas.

I think I'll try to revisit this theme every so often. It's refreshing to be reminded of all the good stuff.

*I have a lot more to say about the election, but I'm not sure this little blog is the place for it. Maybe in a later post. I will say that I did wait in line to cast my ballot on Tuesday, that I had 5 different news websites up and refreshed each every 90 seconds that evening, and that I cried during both speeches that night.

Don't you love Sarah Haskins

This has nothing to do with stationery, paper, fonts, or even food. But she's just that good!

This post has nothing to do with the election!

I printed some postcards in the studio a couple weeks ago. I had some card stock that I wanted to use. I cut out two different postcard sized piles.

On some I pressed a simple "hi there." On the others I pressed "hello you. let's have a chat."  Once home, I printed an address and postage stamp blocks on the back so they would become real postcards. I even played around with some hot pink Hambly rub-ons. I think these postcards will be lots of fun to use in my correspondence project.

Holiday Stash

December always slips away from me. The holidays seem to creep out of nowhere, not to mention Mr. Moggie's birthday and all the holiday travel. And for the last two years, law school exams have threatened to swallow December whole and not share any of the precious month with me.

Not this year! With Ali Edwards' help, December will not disappear into a string of missed moments. My month will be captured on paper, in words, and with photos. I put my pages together during a study break Sunday, but I still need to work on a front and a back cover, and I don't have photos of the pages yet. What I can share is the paper I used to make the pages. It says December, no?

Want to make your own December book? Find Ali's tips here and here.

Letterpress woes

I was in the studio on Friday, working on a project I can't share online until after next weekend. I was really excited about it. However, on Thursday night after class, I went to pick up some paper to press for the project, and I just didn't find what I was looking for. It took me forever to set the type. Last time I spent a lot of time setting type, I was relaxed and happy to have my hands all over the letters. As the end of the semester (i.e., exams) approaches, I get very tense and nervous and anxious about everything, and little can calm me. In semesters past, I've tried everything: a warm bath, a good workout, comfort food, decaf tea or warm milk, sweet music. Sadly, i can add letterpressing to the list of normally therapeutic things that don't work when school stress sets in. I got even more upset when I realized I wouldn't have time to get to another project I was really hoping to finish.
And then the worst happened. As I was replacing the type after I had run my prints, I realized that there was an extra "l" in one word, and a missing "b" in another. Rats! Fiddlesticks! Other! Words! I! Won't! Type! Here! When I finished cleaning up and stepped outside into the warm Halloween afternoon, I decided I needed to cheer up before I attempted my hour-long Metro ride home. With $4 in my pocket, I walked over to the art supply store across the street from the studio. And there I picked up a large sheet of what I'm going to call "my butterfly serenity." I searched the paper racks for several minutes and I saw this one at the same moment I noticed a cat bathing in the sunlit space behind the paper racks. I smiled and relaxed. Maybe I should just carry a small patch of the paper around with me from now until exams are over.

Here's my own sweet kitty peeking under the sheet of "my butterfly serenity" when I tried to snap a photo this morning.
 

 

Beautiful

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better than a font made of food, I saw this Serious Eats post on Lou Dorfsman's artwork that was formerly displayed in the CBS cafeteria. How cool is that?

What's sad is that after some time, it was taken from the walls of the cafeteria. In a happy end to the story, it has been restored. See more photos from the team in charge of the restoration here.

Thanks to the Serious Eats folks for posting about this.  What a treasure! Be sure to head on over to their post and read the neat comments left about it.