THE WEDDING FILES: TIME OUT

I spent the entire holiday weekend DIY-ing my wedding invites and plan to finish up the epic task tonight. I will be back to regular posts (and will finish up the NSS posts, I swear) as soon as possible. Until then, here's a little invite teaser. I can't wait to share all my DIY how to's with you!

NSS 2012: THE WHOLE PACKAGE

This post is part of an ongoing series of wrap ups from this year's National Stationery Show. Please forgive any discoloration or graininess of the photos (the lighting in the Javits Center stinks!) and check out all the other NSS posts here.




    
    

    


One thing that struck me this year was high quality set-up of some of the booths. These guys really know how to go all out! The lovely ladies at the Belle & Union booth and I bonded over a passion for collecting all things vintage; their fabulous product displays really showed how good they are at it! Check out that tiny toy wagon and speckled lunch tray--awesome. This sweet & fresh decor style really captured the essence of their designs: friendly and colorful with a dash of southern charm. I am particularly enamored with the 'doodles' and 'lists' notebooks. Check out more of their goodies here.













Equally refreshing and impressive (in terms of booth design) was East of India's 'General Store' booth. Sticking to a paired down color palette of red, white, light blue and craft paper brown, the booth looked like super designy, captivating version of a local country store. It was full of wonderfully packaged products (check out those clips and tacks) and the perfect components for wonderful packaging (lettered tags, stamps and grosgrain ribbon), resulting in a strong personal urge to take every. single. thing. home. And did I mention the paper chain kits? No? Well they were awesome too. Check out more loveliness here.












Last year the Chewing the Cud booth last year was a favorite and this year it lived up to its good reputation. Packing a major punch of bright, bold patterns, the booth was filled with shelves upon shelves of reusable wrapping cloths, drawstring bags and (new for this year, I believe) an amazing array of circular 'bucket' organizers to corral your clutter in style. I am especially fond of the idea of using the small size for miscellaneous office supplies (perhaps some East of India clips!) as a pretty addition to an otherwise boring work cubicle. Also lovely? Those little zippered clutch purses; I'll take the polka dot version, please! See more of Chewing the Cud's products here.

NSS 2012: RAINBOW CONNECTION

This post is part of an ongoing series of wrap ups from this year's National Stationery Show. Please forgive any discoloration or graininess of the photos (the lighting in the Javits Center stinks!) and check out all the other NSS posts here.




    
    

I was drawn to the Semikolon booth for one simple reason: bright, bold color. I have long eyed the beautiful boxes and post its created by Semikolon (on sale everywhere from Barnes & Noble to Container Store), but there was something about seeing them all together in a perfect colorful array that made me want to buy everything immediately. I settled for the little book of colorful page flags (above), but still have my eye on those tiny orange gift boxes and beautiful pen cases. See more here.








Brand Node was a new-to-me booth that also delivered big on the promise of color. I was, of course, swooning over the shelves and shelves of vibrant leather notebooks but was also super stoked to see the  little metal gift tags they were selling too. Awesome! Not sure why it took someone so long to transform these museum entrance tags into gift toppers but I am so so happy they did! Learn more about Brand Node here.

NSS 2012: CROW AND CANARY

This post is part of an ongoing series of wrap ups from this year's National Stationery Show. Please forgive any discoloration or graininess of the photos (the lighting in the Javits Center stinks!) and check out all the other NSS posts here.




Along with Ladies of Letterpress, my other favorite 'collective' booth was Crow & Canary, which represents some of my favorite studios from last year's show. In fact I was blown away by the quality of their talent and found myself stuttering my excitement to C&C's lovely sales rep, Kimberley. Shall I give you a tour?






The designs from rock scissor paper were right up my alley. I loved the color palette and overlapping shapes that pervade each card; simple, bold, sweet. Check out more designs here.



    



I totally loved the options from a. favorite design, a new to me letterpress shop. The ticket-style style cards (both raffle ticket and concert ticket) were super adorable. I mean, really, who wouldn't want to see a "rockin' christmas, live at the north pole"? Awesome. Check out more here.





Also new to me is the studio pie bird press. Based out of Albany, NY, they have a great vintage illustrative style that reminds me us '50s era magazine advertisements. That lifesaver is a particular favorite—versatile and beautiful—and I would happily keep a couple stocked in my apartment just in case. Find your favorite here.






Last, and most certainly not least, I was pleasantly surprised to rediscover paper + cup design, a NYC studio that has always delivered on great design. And this year was no different! I was swooning over every row of cards—the ombre holiday cards are divine, the confetti thank you card is perfect, and the holiday tag cards are simple and brilliant—and had to fight off the strong temptation to swipe them all! Thankfully you can get your own without resorting to thievery by simply checking out their website here.