MARTHA STEWART FOR CRANE & CO.

by now, this huge debut has surely made the rounds. in case you aren't aware, martha stewart teamed up with american icon papermaker crane & co. to release a collection of custom wedding invitations. they launched at this year's stationery show and the very pretty lookbook can be viewed here.

reviews are mixed. i think most fans and retailers were expecting to be blown away, and the designs seem to speak more to ms. stewart's traditional nuptial sense than to any sort of trailblazing, trend-forward style.

perhaps this is evidence of the weddings editors doing a really great job of culling samples of talented, outside designers for the magazine, which is what we've become accustomed to anticipating and seeing, as opposed to items produced in-house? it does feel a little underwhelming which is confusing.

there has been much debate over collaborations like this, including vera wang for william arthur and kate spade for crane before that.

what do you think?


photos courtesy of crane.com

TYPE A

what's better than a lovely script typewriter?

ALPHABET SOUP

peter from binth was a treat at the stationery show, as always -- their new framed single letters are darling and i want to scoop 'em up. as if their original alphabet print wasn't cute enough. take a peek here.

similarly, it was nice to get an email from tara hogan at ink + wit promoting her poster sale. i love her alphabet print as well. just $45 here.


petit collage and sycamore street press and sweetbeets make some very cute ones, too. i'm crazy about the different color palettes. right now it seems all of our friends are pregnant and these would make super gifts for le bébé.

WHAT, AM I NUTS?

sometimes i think some things are my favorite things, and at the time, or for the time, they really are - reference 5/25/09, for example. but then i come across something that is (shazam!) my ultrafavorite thing, and i sort of can't believe i ever posted something else, those other things, as a favorite thing in light of my new "now THIS is my favorite thing" kind of thing.

either way, i gotta keep an eye on my use of absolutes...

behold. and watch it full screen. from a show at the walker art center last year, the superb martin dosh as bandleader and my pal, michael lewis, on saxophone. oh, and you guys know the violin kid on the left.

World of Dosh "circles and squares", set 1 (finale) from Chumm® on Vimeo.

ZACH BAROCAS: POET, PUBLISHER, NEW THING

i'm thrilled to post this from an article in the new boston review by poet and harvard professor, stephen burt. in it he describes what he sees as a new direction and collective in poetry, deeming it the New Thing (his caps). burt includes in this stellar company my husband's online magazine the cultural society and his first book of poems among other things... so, so proud of him.

an excerpt:

If the most important independent press for the New Thing is Flood, the most important magazine is Zach Barocas’s Web-based Cultural Society. Barocas entitled his own first book (itself surely part of the New Thing) Among Other Things. Barocas’s poem “Things to Do Today” makes a list of “things I’ve counted on,” among them “cigarettes, history, trucks, & trash,” “lapses, / flares, & lusty resolve”; disarmingly stark lines elsewhere in that same book promise to “abandon / elliptical things.” Among the first poets Barocas’s journal published, in 2001–02, were Peter O’Leary, Norman Finkelstein, and Michael Heller, prominent scholars of Objectivist writing, and Mark Scroggins, then at work on Zukofsky’s biography. Barocas has also published Johnston, Massey, Marks, and Foust; the Flood writers Philip Jenks, John Tipton, and Pam Rehm.

see the whole article here.
take a peek at zach's book here.

PUDDING + POP MUSIC

so maybe today three of my favorite things are:

1. this mark bittman recipe/video for chocolate pudding.
2. my new $2 red-orange bangles from earrings plaza. clank!
3. this song by i'm from barcelona. (about whom i purposely and uncharacteristically don't know a single additional thing. can't risk ruining it for myself.)

what's music got to do with stationery you ask?
well everything, of course.

ILEE PAPERGOODS

how fun it was to come across the ilee booth at the stationery show this year. i was familiar with their bright, colorsmacked designs after having bought a number of single cards from their etsy site, but didn't know they had grown into wholesalers as well. good for them! using etsy as a platform to launch a business is a topic thousands of us are interested in... i'd like to look further into this when i'm feeling more articulate and insightful. in the meantime, enjoy the saturation.

BROOKLYN FLEA

i made it over to day 2 of this weekend's brooklyn flea. lots of people cruising around dumbo -- it was a gorgeous, hot day. i was reminded of how much i like matt schwartz's photographs when i saw his table. (polaroids and watercolor paper -- who knew?)





we found some fun jewelry by a woman who sells on etsy under wish by felicity.
support local crafters in your area! it's good for everyone.
my friend, amanda, bought this cute necklace:

GOODBYE, MRS. STRONG

it was shocking and sad news to hear about the closing of one of my favorite shops here in new york, mrs. john l. strong. not only will i miss the 80-year-old luxury paper line and visiting their barney's boutique, in particular, but i worry so much about what this means for the 'state of paper' and our little stationery world, niche-y as it is. hopefully this will remind and inspire all of us to seek out the special, independent businesses, to support their hard work, and to use our buying power to keep afloat the shops we love so much.

GOODNESS, TRUTH, BEAUTY

this is one of my favorite prints from the good folks at the keep calm gallery. it's taken from typographer eric gill's an essay on typography which is a cool read if you're into that kind of stuff. hopefully you are. or maybe this will lead the way.

BITTERSWEET

i like this simple image from fueled by photos. swoony 18-yr-old-ness.

EAT YOUR HEART OUT, CHIP KIDD

we're type nerds. and book nerds. so it's no secret how talented my husband and i think our friend, jeff clark, is. what a fun surprise to find his kickass book design work mentioned at the chronicle books blog. see their original post here.

UPPERCASE GALLERY

oh, canada. i love your exciting news:
the talented women at uppercase in calgary have launched a quarterly magazine and the first issue (spring) is out now. it's a limited run, so get in touch right away if you're interested. there's a fun video showing the making of it, all 84 pages, and the cute cover features a piece by the excellent blanca gómez.

GUITAR HERO

how cute is this new wrapping paper from midori?
it's perfect for about 100 people i know.

BEST IN SHOW

we had a very nice time at the national stationery show this year. after what felt like my 89th trip to the javits over the past decade, it was fun to see familiar faces and catch up with good friends. check back for further, in-depth looks at some of my favorite designers there this year. for now, though, a special shout-out to stacy at pancake and franks for her breathtaking wedding album. i'm just nuts for it... (and if you're a letterpress geek like me you won't believe the registration on some of the images.)