Adventures in homeownership and a sneak peek into my new bookbinding studio

A few months ago my husband and I purchased our first home, a cozy little bungalow built in 1935. Since moving in, we've been happily spending our days getting settled and enjoying our new surroundings. 

The picture above was taken just after we finished signing all the paperwork and were handed the keys to our new abode. As soon as the house was officially ours, we picked up our dog, Riviera, and brought her over to explore her new yard and house for the first time. I think she was just as happy about the new house as we were.

Although I haven't been blogging much lately, I've still been keeping busy.  Most of the rooms in the house are unpacked, organized, and decorated, and now that the weather is warming up we've been starting to do some gardening in our new yard.

I've also been getting settled into my new studio space. My studio is located in a downstairs bedroom in the house with a big window overlooking a flower bed with peonies and lilies. 

While getting my studio set up is still a work in progress, I'm pleased with how it's all coming together so far. I've hung up my collection of art show posters from Porter Flea and Handmade & Bound above my worktable, along with a few other posters by local printmakers. 

I also invested in a some new shelving to get things organized in my studio. All of my inventory now gets safely stashed inside the glass cabinets, and the open shelves display some of the first books I ever made while studying in Italy, prototypes of new styles of books I'm working on, and other lovely little books that I've collected from other book artists. 

My studio is also full of plenty of books in progress. I've been creating new styles of journals and photo albums in preparation for the upcoming marketplace at Thistle Farms next weekend and the next Porter Flea on June 7. I'll be posting more updates here in the coming weeks, but in the meantime be sure to check out my Instagram photos for more images of the new house, our garden, and of course, beautiful handbound books!

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Vacation photo on display

The newest addition to our new apartment in Nashville is this tropical flower canvas print.  I was contacted by the folks at Easy Canvas Prints, a photos to canvas company, who asked me to review their product in exchange for a canvas print of my own.

I chose a photograph I took at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden on a recent trip to Hilo, Hawaii for my best friend's wedding.  The botanical garden was truly a wonderland, filled with waterfalls, ocean views, an orchid garden, tropical birds, and so many varieties of plants that I'd never seen before.  I was snapping photos non-stop during my visit (you can see some of my other botanical photos in my flickr photostream) and I was looking for a way to display some of my favorites once returning from our trip.  This canvas print was just what I needed.  

Ordering a canvas from EasyCanvasPrints.com really is, as the name suggests, easy.  The website is simple to use, and it guides you through the step-by-step process of designing your own canvas.  And this handy guide shows all of the options and pricing so you can pick out exactly what you want.  

You can choose any sized canvas (mine is 8" x 10"), and you can either upload your own photograph like I did or you can choose an image from their gallery.  You also have the choice of upgrading to a thicker canvas or opting for photo retouching.  For the edges of the canvas, you can have your image wrap onto the edges or you can select a solid color for the border. 

I opted for a bright orange border for the edges of my canvas.  My print is displayed against lime green walls in my apartment, and I wanted it to tie into colors of the room but still pop against the wall color.  I debated the borders of my canvas for a while before placing my order.  I really like the look of the canvases where the images continues onto the edges, and I think I would probably choose that option next time, but for this particular print the bright orange border worked out best.

The option of wrapping the image around to the edges of the canvas would be best for a picture with a background that's not crucial to the composition.  If you choose this option, the photo will appear slightly larger on the front surface of the canvas so there's enough leftover to wrap.  I didn't think the composition of the tropical flower photo was quite as strong once the whole image wasn't visible on the main surface of the canvas.  The orange border worked out better in my case because I could better control the composition of my print, while adding an extra pop of color.

I do wish there was a better way to select the color for the edges though. It would be a nice touch if the website allowed the option to sample a color directly from your photograph, like you can with the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, rather than choosing a color and hoping it matches.

My husband and I have a fairly extensive art collection (including artwork made by friends, family, and ourselves, as well as original work by professional artists, and a collection of vintage photographs), and we're pretty particular about what we put on our walls.  If we don't love it, there's just not space for it.  That said, we were happy to include this canvas print into our home decor.

And another perk of this canvas is how easy it is to hang on the wall. One nail will do the trick.  My husband and I have lived in four apartments since college, and we've hung our artwork on the walls of each one.  This is by far one of the easiest pieces to hang.

Overall, the vibrant colors and high-quality printing makes it evident that this is a high quality product.  I love having a reminder of our trip to Hawaii on display for me to see each day.  The look of our particular print is contemporary and casual, which is exactly what we wanted for our vacation photo.  But I think these prints could be a great choice for displaying wedding photos too, especially a larger canvas print placed in an elegant frame.  If only I'd known about these two years ago!

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Anniversaries, the traditional way

Earlier this month my husband and I celebrated our two-year wedding anniversary. We exchanged gifts made of cotton. Last year, we exchanged gifts made from paper. 

We've decided that we're going to follow the year-by-year categories of traditional wedding gifts. Since I'm a bookmaker, I was especially excited about year one's paper gifts and that's probably why we started off with the tradition. I think the themes make the gift giving so much fun. The materials give us a place to start with the gift-giving brainstorming, and then we get to come up with a contemporary idea to fit within the traditional boundaries.

Last year, Tony surprised me with a little handbound book made by Ruth Bleakley. The book features hand-drawn jellyfish illustrations, which was especially fitting because jellyfish are some of my favorite creatures and they often appear in my own artwork. (Ruth is a book artist and illustrator living in Cape Cod. To see more of her work, visit her etsy shop or her blog.)

I know I've mentioned before that my husband loves maps. (He couldn't resist getting one of the East Nashville maps at Porter Flea a few weeks ago.) So for his paper gift last year, I got him a silkscreened world map from These Are Things. We also own their map of Europe, so between all of these we have quite the map theme developing in our home decor. 

This year, the theme was cotton. Tony picked out a bird pillow for me, which is now adding a lively splash of color in our new living room. The pillow was made by Janae Easton of Platypusfile, who I met back in May at the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa. Each of her bird pillows is made from vibrant fabrics and a vintage button, and each one is named after an opera singer. My bird's name is Josella Ligi. 

I got my husband two cotton t-shirts from Out of Print. I settled on the To Kill a Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye shirts, because I liked their designs best, they are some of our favorite classic novels, and because we read them together in high school back when we first started dating. The shirts from Out of Print are based on book cover designs, and with each shirt sale they donate a book to a community in need. 

Next year our theme will be leather. I've already got my eye on these lovely handmade leather bags...

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Inspired in Athens

While I was in Athens, GA for the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa I had the chance to meet some extremely talented and inspiring artists.  And I'm always looking for ways to improve my own booth set up, so it was also nice to see such engaging booth designs.  I've featured a few of my favorites here, ranging from fabric design to pottery, that all really appealed to my love of bright colors and bold patterns.

Sara Lee Parker

These first two images show the work of Sara Lee Parker, who designs her own patterns and handprints them in rural Georgia with the help of her husband.  I first came across her work on Design Sponge back in January, and was thrilled to see it in person at the show in Athens. Her display was absolutely gorgeous; it was eye-catching yet simple and allowed her work to shine.  Check out her website here and her visit her etsy shop to pick up some lovely handprinted notecards or textiles. 

Platypusfile

I was a huge fan of the Platypusfile booth.  Janae Easton of Tallahassee makes these amazing one-of-a-kind bird pillows from vibrant patterned fabrics and adds a vintage button as the bird's eye for a finishing touch. She also makes necklaces from small pieces of fabric, and displayed them resting on an open book.  It was such a nice experience to walk into Janae's booth and to be surrounded by her cheerful aesthetic. For a similar experience, visit her etsy shop and be sure to check out her mini bird paperweights.     

Jeanette Zeis Ceramics

Jeanette makes cupcake stands and cake stands that would be perfect for weddings or other celebrations, and she also makes some adorable berry bowls. She even has a special line of vegan pottery.  Her booth was just a few away from mine in Athens so I had the pleasure of glancing at her work often throughout the day.  For more information, visit her website and online shop. 

Liddabits Design Shop

Liz Jahn (the designer behind Liddabits) and I met while studying graphic design at the University of Georgia.  She was a semester ahead of me and I always really admired her work, especially the series of wrapping paper designs that she created as part of her senior thesis show.  Liz launched her etsy shop earlier this year and it's been refreshing to reconnect as two small business owners.  Plus, it was fun to catch up in person at the Athens Indie Craftstravaganzaa in our college town.  Liz's shop features her custom banners (perfect for birthday parties and weddings), and she also designs stationary and custom invitations.  And if you still need a father's day card, she has some great options in her shop. 

Jordan Grace Owens

I really enjoyed chatting with Jordan when I stopped by her booth.  She's an illustrator based in Greensboro, NC and she was selling quirky magnets, pins, and paper dolls.  I was drawn to her work when I saw it, but it wasn't until I was back home and perusing her website that I realized that I'd come across her work before.  On a trip to Greensboro not too long ago, we stopped by a coffee shop downtown called the Green Bean where some of Jordan's work was on display.  If you'd like to pick up a paper doll for yourself (or even a personalized one!) be sure to visit her online shop. 

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Mantel Makeover

Ever since we moved into our apartment, the display of artwork and objects above our mantel has been in a constant rotation. We'd never been quite satisfied with it, so my husband and I would rearrange it every few months, only to decide that it was still in need of a makeover. I think this time we've finally got it right.

As part of a wedding gift for my husband, I bought a Dolan Geiman gift certificate (which came with some neat coasters -- see top right photo -- because of a special promotion they were having at the time.) A few months after the wedding we finally had a chance to sit down, browse Dolan's Etsy shop, and pick out a new print for our apartment. We selected the print "Map Blue Highway Yellow Cornhusk." Since getting it framed, the print anchored the design of our mantel. (By the way, Dolan just launched his spring line of artwork, as I wrote about yesterday. Check out his new work here.)

The colors in the Dolan Geiman print nicely compliment the color scheme of my mom's painting, so we moved it above the mantel as well. The framed photograph on the left is one that my husband bought from an art student at Hillsdale College. The red vases are from Crate&Barrel, which we bought with a wedding gift card. I made the raku-fired piece of pottery during college and the vintage camera came from an antique mall here in the Shenandoah Valley. The two glass jars are filled with antique letterpress type (which was part of a wedding gift from two great friends, along with an antique tabletop letterpress machine).

Above you'll see my husband, Tony, and our dog, Riviera, checking out our new arrangement. Tony and I adopted Rivi in August from the animal shelter. She's a seven-year-old brindle bullmastiff, and she's truly the sweetest dog I've ever known. And yes, she's almost always sticking out her tongue.

Some other highlights from the odd little zone in our living room that once housed a fireplace include:

• an antique projector found at a Michigan rummage sale;
• a stack of old books from Athens, GA and Baltimore;
• a vintage fan from Detroit;
• one of my mini monoprints, an old photo of the Brookfield Zoo, and a letterpress postcard held in place by button magnets that I made;
• and a letterpress poster featuring a Vonnegut quote. It was made by Tony and Chase on a recent trip to Typecast Press in Baltimore. You can read all about it here.

Tony and I have also been thinking about photographing the rest of our apartment and putting together a photo tour to post here. It would be sort of like the Design*Sponge sneak peaks, although I'm not promising our apartment can compare to any of those amazing homes. I've also been thinking about posting pictures of my little studio as well. What do you think? Would you be interested in this?

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