We’re getting hitched Friday!  Whoa.  Here is a super sneaky peak at the dress, necklace, and a few of the many pinwheel “flowers” I made this weekend.  I’m sure that this breaks some kind of wedding jinx… But, to be honest, Jon and I have broken pretty much all the wedding jinx/traditions/superstitions.  At this point, what’s one more?

A few years ago, in DE

Jon and I are sprinting towards an early August wedding– for lots of reasons a long engagement just isn’t for us.  When I realized that we’d be doing a courthouse wedding (weirdly, long before he even popped the question) I felt this great sense of relief.  When Jon said he agreed and thought it was obvious we’d do that, I thought, “this is why I love with this man.”  It isn’t that I dont want to shout from the rooftops how in love with him I am, it’s just that I’m much more interested in being in a marriage than in a wedding.  So, the DC central courthouse it is!  YAY!

Oh, right, even if you plan to elope there is still all this stuff you have to think about.  Some of it emotional, some of it logistical, and some of it fun (announcements! dresses! photographs!). I’ve been so happy to find the blog A Practical Wedding– it’s such a fantastic website and I can’t sum it up better than their own “about” page:

It’s about balancing feminism with weddings and married life; about wrestling with the cultural dialogue surrounding weddings and marriages; and about figuring out how to be a bride and a wife on your own terms.

Plus, their whole section on “reclaiming wife” is the kind of thing that makes me wish the Internet had a “yes” button.  Something I could just push to say, “this– all this” for pretty much every damn post. So instead of me just re-posting and linking to all the awesome, thought-provoking stuff over there, just stop by and read for yourself.  Okay?

The first, and to date only, Kickstarter project I’ve donated to is the super-exciting LetterMPress app.  I purchased an iPad2 a few months ago and while I enjoy it as a consumption device, I’m excited to have an app that might encourage me to create just a bit more.  Plus, I suspect that for most folks this is as close as I’ll ever come to having my own real, live letterpress to play around with.

On one hand, I worry that making an iPad app that simulates Letterpress is a horrible bastardization of the whole printed-material experience.  On the other hand, you do seem to be able to set the type upside backwards, and there is ‘furniture’ and you do get to ‘mix’ your own inks…  Still, you certainly wont come away ink stained or peeved because you’re one small ‘e’ short of completing the piece.

I backed this project because I am a huge fan of letterpress but can’t a) own my own or b) take classes/rent studio time regularly…  The thought of having a way to ‘play’ at letterpress really appealed to me.  And, I’m thrilled to see so much interest in the preservation of wood type.  Now, though, I worry that the thing I like most about letterpress is the thing that cannot be captured by an iPad app, no matter how well designed– the feel and the time.  What are your thoughts on this?  Useful as a creative toy?  A way to get the ol’ juices flowing?

Image via the super brilliant Peter Marks, Portland, OR

I’m only slightly less obsessed with the perfect desk than I am with the perfect calendar. I want something that has personality, the same amount of surface area as a drafting table, and tons of storage. Oh, and I dont want to spend too much. During my MA we lived in a teeny, tiny studio apartment and my desk was our kitchen table. This was fine… but Ikea Hackers may have come through with a reasonably priced (about $200) standing desk with a ton of storage.

Why a standing desk?  Well, sitting is killing us.  While all this research into the science might be new, apparently the standing desk itself is as old as the 18th century (or so says Wikipedia).  Thus, I can kind of justify my plans to build this epic desk by saying that it’s historical… a throwback, if you will.

Image via the super brilliant Peter Marks, Portland, OR

My only concern now is the transition.  From what I’ve read, it can be tough to get used to standing and typing, reading, or doing other desky things.  I do plan to get a barstool to sit on sometimes and maybe find a small box/bar thing to have to lean on– just in case.  Do you have any experience with standing desks?  When we build this, after the move in August, I promise to report back.

Image via Catoctin Creek Distilling’s website.

I spent Sunday touring the Catoctin Creek Distilling Company based in Loudon County, VA. Not only was it fun, I learned a lot and sampled some great liquor.  Did you know, for example, that there is a federal law that says distillers can only use their barrels one time?  It’s true!  Scott Harris, who runs Catoctin Creek with his wife Becky, spent well over an hour with me and some friends.  He talked all about craft whiskey, a little politics, and shared some of Catoctin Creek’s wares.

Holy cow.  I’d tasted their Mosby’s Spirit before but never the gin.  I know it might be sacrilegious to say that an American gin is better than anything from England… but look, their gin is the kind of gin you can drink without mixing.

Needless to say, we stoped at a VA ABC store on our way home from Purcellville.  In fact, I’m sipping some Mosby’s Spirit as we type.

Oh, and that reminds me, I just read this awesome book called Chasing the White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine by Max Watman.  It completely prepared me to ask loads of questions on our tour of the distillery.  I did hold back all my questions about what makes a person go blind, etc.  I’m sure that a distiller is probably so over hearing those.  Anyway, I loved this book– I went into it expecting a meditation on Moonshine in America. Parts of the book could have used diagrams, especially the technical discussions about still construction. On the whole, though, I really enjoyed the way the author wove together folklore, ethnography, history, law, and a little DIY spirit (pun intended).

This book is a quick read, full of interesting trivia, and well worth the read for any amateur booze hound.

Should you find yourself on a road trip in VA– let me recommend Catoctin Creek’s tour and wares coupled with a fun reading of Chasing the White Dog.

Ahem… um… is anyone still out there?

You’d think that with my obsession with calendars and planners and schedules I could keep up this whole blogging thing.  Sadly it’s been three months since I last stopped by this space.  I’d like to tell you it’s because I’ve been terribly busy with all kinds of productive, crafty things.  And that’s sort of true.  But it’s also true that a lot of life changes have happened recently.  Nearly all of them good, I assure you, but I haven’t felt like I can really share things until I am absolutely sure about them– fear of jinxing and such.

So, by way of apology explanation, here is a list of the excitement that’s kept me away from here for a bit:

• We got engaged!  A flash mob was involved.  I was very surprised.
• I ran (a lot)
• I volunteered at the Postal Museum
• I got accepted to a PhD program that starts this autumn
• My partner killed it in a DC improv tournament
• I read a lot too.

I suspect that I’m going to have to wrap this blog up more-or-less for good come September.  If nothing else, I’m going to have to come to terms with the fact that 4 days a week is unsustainable (clearly).  It’s been a bit hard to get myself back here– after 3 months away, what do you say?  Hopefully, if I can get myself to commit to 1-2 times a week, I can keep this part of my life present while I get terribly busy with school, a move, a (courthouse) wedding, etc.

Forgive me?  Can we pick up where we left off?  I’ve got lots of photos of stamps and other goodies I can share with you…  Please?

Hyejung Bae, a graphic designer whose work is new to me, made this great poster displaying the evolution of the QWERTY keyboard and the typewriter’s contribution to that evolution.  Plus, the post includes some super cool shots of deconstructed typewriters.  Sadly, it doesn’t look like Bae has prints for sale… Too bad, because this would look awesome on my future (perfect) office wall.

Also found this via NotCot

India Hicks’ Bahamas Hideaways (via Design Tripper).

It’s been cold, snowy, and dark in DC.  Most of my time is spent on the dreadmill, prepping for a few upcoming trips, and reading on the couch under one of my mom’s homemade quilts.  It’s been lovely, but not terribly crafty.  Just today, I stumbled over the incredible blog Design Tripper.  This is fueling my warm weather, pretty places fantasies.  Oh goodness, when is it going to be spring…

By the way, I found Design Tripper via NotVentures– another great travel and design blog.  Their tag line?  “Escapism at its best.”  Yes, these days that’s just what I need.

“Chalkboard” in Monika Hoinkis’ Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

We rang in the new year with a kiss while playing Rock Band 3, drinking martinis, and giggling.  Hope your 2011 is off to a silly, lovely start.  Sure, January 1 is “just a day,” but there is something refreshing about all the new calendars, uncluttered schedules, and sense of a new beginning.

I don’t really do “resolutions” per se, but I do do goals.  I love goals, in fact.  I think that’s why I enjoy running and training for races– the goal is clear, achievable, and public.  Anyway, so I’m not going to say things like “I will lose 10 pounds in 2011″ or “I will save a billion dollars.”  No… my goals for 2011 are perhaps a bit simpler and a bit more abstract.  Hopefully, listing them publically will make them stick– you’ll help me, wont you?

• Take my lunch to work more often (consider a new lunchbox).
• Write more letters on stationery I make myself– enough with the store-bought already!  Letterpress is lovely, but I make nice things too.  It’s time to get back to that.
• Keep running– in races, around the block, with Jon, whatever…
• Try not to over-commit quite as much in 2011.  I want to keep volunteering, running races (and training for them), seeing friends, traveling, and all that but… frankly, I also want need a lot of quiet Sundays at home.

And now, with the holidays behind us (in a blur, I might add), it’s time to get back to real life…

The year in review (in no particular order):

1. Produce, 2. Postage Tattoo: In Scale, 3. The barn spills outward, 4. Caution: Runners on Road , 5. Oakland Tribune Building, 6. Best Part of Visiting the NPM Events? Stamps Galore!, 7. Love and Football. WHO DAT?, 8. US: Airmail Stamp in Tweezers, 9. Getting to the Top of Ft. Totten felt like climbing Everest, 10. Half Marathon Paraphernalia, artily shot, 11. Congressional Stamp Exhibition Inside the Rayburn House Office Building, 12. SHARK! , 13. Boats on Short Beach, 14. Mile 12-ish, feeling good, 15. DSC01357, 16. DSC01370

Looking at the 2009 and 2008 years-in-photos, I can’t tell if I’ve changed much or not at all.  More running, less celebrating maybe?  That said, 2010 was a very good year for me.  Very good indeed.