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?

So very intrigued by “the Airmail,” a rum and champagne cocktail that I first came across on a blog based out of the UK.  I’ve found several variations on this recipe (just tweaking the ratios a bit) but very little on the origins of this drink.  According to Esquire’s “resident cocktail historian,” “[the Airmail] simply turns up, as if by spontaneous generation, in our 1949 Handbook for Hosts. The name, at least, isn’t much of a riddle: Way back when, airmail was the last word in getting something from point A to point B. And in fact, this one’ll do just that to you, but quick.”  That reference to a 1949 book is all I could find.  Anybody know more?

Once I obtain some rum, a liquor we tend no to kep in the house, I plan to test out this recipe from Imbibe magazine:

1 1/2 oz. añejo rum
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. honey syrup (1 part honey to 1 part water)
1 oz. prosecco
Ice cubes
Tools: shaker, strainer, eyedropper
Glass: coupe
Garnish: eyedropper of Angostura bitters, mint leaf

Combine rum, lime juice, syrup and ice in shaker. Shake vigorously. Strain into glass and top with prosecco. Garnish by dragging mint leaf through bitters to create an attractive design, then laying mint leaf on top.

Many thanks to the British Postal Museum’s Twitter feed for
sending me down this cocktail and mail history path…

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.

I Like Americans
Edna St. Vincent Millay

I like Americans.
You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.
They sleep with their windows open.
Their bathtubs are never dry.
They are not grown up yet. They still believe in Santa Claus.

They are terribly in earnest.
But they laugh at everything…

I like Americans.
They give the matches free…

I like Americans.
They are the only men in the world, the sight of whom in their shirt-sleeves is not rumpled, embryonic and agonizing…

I like Americans.
They carry such pretty umbrellas.
The Avenue de l’Opera on a rainy day is just an avenue on a rainy day.
But Fifth Avenue on a rainy day is an old-fashioned garden under a shower…

They are always rocking the boat.
I like Americans.
They either shoot the whole nickel, or give up the bones.
You may say what you will, they are the nicest people in the world.

(Pssst… you may have heard this poem on The Colbert Report.)

Some very dear friends will be married this August… Their save the dates are playful, charming, and a perfect summation of their equally playful and charming relationship.  I’m so proud to say that I consulted with them while they put together these save-the-dates!  They are deceptively simple to do: custom stamp, stayz-on ink, and a reasonably well-padded mailer.  I don’t think everyone got one, just their friends “cool enough” (or young enough) to know a) that Legos are awesome and b) to be willing to put together a small puzzle to learn about the wedding.

Rumor is, the wedding tables will have big bowls of Legos on them!  Personally, I think this is a brilliant idea to break the ice and give the more shy of their friends something to focus on.  Plus, how fun will it be to see what folks come up with?

Here is the thing, as a soon-to-be full time student, I feel that I shouldn’t just agree to spend $38 per month every month.  And yet, here is this awesome thing called Lost Crates that promises:

Each month you will receive a “crate” of items, ranging from classic notebooks from the best known brands, to hidden gems from undiscovered boutique brands and individuals. You will get anywhere from one to four products in your crate, including notebooks, travel journals, pens, pencils, tape dispensers, etc.

Has anyone out there signed up yet?  What sorts of things have you received?  I’m so intrigued… It’s just expensive enough, however, to put it out of the price range I’m willing to commit to right now.  After all, $38/month is very nearly $500/year!

(Thanks to Ariel for pointing me in Lost Crates’ direction)

I loved the book jacket description of Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: “A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.”  I picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend who, rightly, thought I would love the philatelic angle. The story of the “orange avenger” is fascinating and a great plot device. Plus, I loved that the tools of stamp collecting– typically seen as a dull hobby– were used in the crime.

Sadly, I just didn’t care for Flavia as a narrator. Although I’m generally fond of precocious girls, Flavia was just a bit too clever for her own good. Plus, I felt that her knowledge of Chemistry didn’t read as believable or even especially helpful. If it had been an interest, something that comes out of her in passing I might have been okay with it, but an 11 year old with a full-on laboratory who rattles off chemical compounds for no apparent reason? No. Not for me.

Still, without the stamp angle I’m afraid there would be nothing here for me. I don’t plan to read the next books in the Flavia de Luce series.

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?

Thank you!  I’m just $20 away from raising $375 for the Komen Foundation!  If you have a bit of spare cash, please consider donating to this great cause.

The Dallas Rock-n-Roll half marathon is just about 2 weeks away!  I’m excited but really nervous, I thought that signing up for a half in late March would force me to keep training after the full back in Dec.  And that’s true… but it’s also true that it is cold, and dark, and lonely running in the winter.  Back in December, when I signed up for this race, I was gunning for a personal record– 13.1 in 2 hours flat!  Ha… suddenly, just finishing is looking good.