Thursday, February 23rd, from 5:30pm – 7:30pm, we are having a Love the Skin You’re In event showcasing two of our Soirée Boutique professionals, Marie Shramke with Rodan + Fields Dermatologists, and FitBride NW.  Whether you are getting ready for your wedding day or simply want to look and feel your best for 2012, this event is full of fantastic tips, techniques, and products to help you Love the Skin You’re In.

We have fantastic Goody Bags waiting for you which are filled with special offers and discounts from all our professionals including a deal from FitBride NW and complimentary services from Marie Schramke of Rodan + Fields Dermatologists.

To learn more about any of our Boutique vendors, check out our Soirée Boutique webpage.

You can’t pass up this great opportunity to Love the Skin You’re In!  We’ll see you there!

I have been waiting YEARS to do this piece - and of course I could only get to it the first thing on New Year's Eve day 2011.  It's a reworking of a piece I did years ago.  It's actually black on white, but when I scanned it I hit "invert colors" and it came out pink - a lovely color for the end of the world. Thanks to R.E.M. for the lyrics - and since 2011 saw their breakup, a million thanks for everything through all the years.

(once again, I am the best advertising a professional photographer could have. Don't try this at home. Do as I say, not as I do ;-)

I was commissioned to letter a stanza from a poem in English, Spanish & German.  I'm fine with English most days.  Spanish? Once upon a time I was fluent, now random things come back.  German? See above paragraph.

I do know a few things about written German, one of which is proper nouns are capitalized.  FUN! Especially with Pointed Italic, the capitals are very dramatic! The 3 pieces will be matted in one piece with 3 windows and then framed.  Estoy muy emocionado!

Helene did an ecofriendly tablescape scene.  She asked me to contribute chalkboard signs which tell how & why the elements are ecofriendly. She also asked me to cover tin cans with something with words on it. Did I know of 100% recycled paper? Uh, yes, grocery bags! (I ironed the bags before I lettered on them, but first I had to take an inch of dust off my iron ;-) The words are love in different languages. One last ecofriendly touch on my part, napkin rings made out of plantable paper.

Now enjoy the pretty, pretty eye candy!

For artists who may have come across this, I did the lines and letters with a 6b pencil with pressure and release on a feltweave paper (the song is about a rough subject, I wanted the paper to reflect that.)  Then I used Prismacolor colored pencils.  It was very therapeutic, now on to the actual planning!

*Surely you're not expecting me to actually explain the meaning of time. I get a little headache in the middle of my forehead just thinking about it.

**No official video for this so this youtube link will have to do.

Abernethy Center has 2 beautiful gardens and a lovely ballroom - and now they're building a chapel on their beautiful grounds.  To celebrate, they're giving away a dream wedding and I'm so happy to be contributing envelope addressing for invitations provided by The Wedding Cottage, and then table markers & place cards for the day of the wedding, which will be coordinated by Champagne Weddings & Events.

To find out how you can enter, go here!

Crane & Co. makes beautiful invitations and stationery and I frequently work with their products.  It was nice to go to the source. Sorry, other calligraphers, they don't make Letra envelopes on site so there wasn't anyone on which I could take out our collective frustrations.

Crane also has wonderful etiquette information on their website.  Their Blue Book is a must!

What not everyone knows is that all Americans work with their products every day as Crane is the exclusive supplier of the paper the U.S. Treasury uses to print money (dammit! no free samples!)

I managed to carry on.

This is the building that houses the musuem.  It used to be the rag building, where rags were broken down into pulp for paper.  Hence, the paper reference "rag content."

I love this plaque, the lettering is darling!

Here's Zenas Crane himself.  Doesn't he look like a New England 19th century party boy?

Of course not, I don't think they existed back then.

Here's one of the cutey-patootey figurines that shows the process of paper making.  The entire display was made by Dard Hunter, a prominent paper maker and printer in the 20th century.  I have crazy friends who love to make paper and I direct them to The Friends of Dard Hunter to find more crazies like them. I have made handmade paper and it's as back-breaking as this model illustrates.  I will happily buy handmade paper and not even blink at the cost.

Oh! If you're a Portlander reading this, the word is "coucher" pronounced "coocher" like our crazy street.  It's really a word, that's why I took this particular photo.

And now the word "Vatman" has entered my head and I have the "Batman" tv show theme going through my head. 

And now so do you.  Mwahahahahahaha.

Mark needed a penmanship lesson or two! I'm sure he had such brilliant things to write he couldn't take the time to write neatly. Here's one of the samples I used to construct my version. 

Click on the finished piece and it should come up in a pop up window.

I did clean it up a little bit, but I tried to keep the general flair of his writing.  I have a long way to go as a forger!