2013 National Stationery Show Recap

I am honestly feeling a little down and blue now that that National Stationery Show is over and I'm returning to work. I took off the entire week of NSS and I am SO glad that I did. Last year I only took one day off, and I regretted it BIG TIME. So this year, I took off an entire week, and I still don't feel like it was enough time.

I spent three days with some of the most amazing people - from familiar Minted friends, to my virtual stationery buddies - I can say that, without a doubt, the stationery industry houses the most talented, genuine, kindest people that exist. It's so humbling to be a part of the community.

While I could gush for hours about how much I love everybody, I thought instead you would prefer to read a few highlights.

NSS started off with a casual designer meet-up that I organized at The Jane Hotel. The room we were planning on hanging out in was mysteriously closed, so we took over the entire bad instead. It was kind of a "just hang out and catch up" type of get together, and that's exactly what we did. We chatted, laughed, snacked, laughed, and even ended the night playing subway roulette (you know that game, the one where you try to take a NYC subway on the weekend, and it turns out it's going along a different line, and then you end up in who-knows-where and you try to guess which subway might take you back to where you want to go? Yea, that game).

Here's a group shot of almost all the designers that came out Sunday night. We're missing a handful, but we're all here in spirit:

Back row, from left: Hailey, Anita, Kristen, Kimberly, Carol, Melanie, Lori, Chelsey Middle Row, from left: Carrie, Aspacia, Jill, Lauren, Amy, Nam, Kristie, Dawn Bottom Row, from left: Jen, Hannah, me

I got home that night well after midnight, which, for me, is crazy late (remember, I'm usually conked out on the sofa by 9pm). The Mexican we ate at 9pm gave me heartburn, so I crashed on the sofa for a few hours before driving into the Javits Center for my first day of walking NSS.

My favorite part of walking the show is seeing all of my paper pals kicked butt in their own booths. While I don't think that exhibiting is the right thing for me or my business, I really admire all of the ladies (and gents) that do it. The effort they put in is absolutely insane, and I love seeing the creative booths and amazing art they display. I have to admit, I am pretty crumby at taking pictures while I walk the show, so I'll send you over to Oh So Beautiful Paper to see all of Nole's recaps. She rocks, and thank goodness she captures all of the amazing stationery!

Anyway, after walking the show all day on Monday, Minted hosted a part for all of the Minted designers that were in town. It was at KTCHN Restaurant and was the perfect way to end a day full of walking (read, good food, comfy chairs, and great company). I'll also add that, thanks to Natasha from Minted, I had my very first (and oh-so-amazing) macaron.

After another late night (although, this time sans the heartburn), I was back and ready to go bright and early for day two of walking the show. One of the best parts of NSS is all the awesome swag and goodies that vendors give out - it's like the stationery version of trick or treating.

Hands down, my most favorite goodie came from the fabulous ladies at Ladyfingers Letterpress. Arley-Rose is one of the most talented hand letterers, and her live demos at their booth were mesmerizing. I caught them during a lull and she whipped up this awesome piece for me for my upcoming anniversary. She literally created it in under 2 minutes. I die.

The only way to end yet another awesome day, is with yet another awesome party. Thanks to Nole (and Minted + all the other sponsors) for throwing the kick-ass Paper Party '13. An entire room filled with everybody in the stationery industry + a photobooth = great times.

Here, again, is why I so love this community:

I'm so sad that it's all over, but am incredibly grateful for the time I got to spend with friends new and old. The outpouring of love and support for Sincerely, Jackie was heartwarming, and was exactly the encouragement I needed. I left feeling empowered and determined to keep working harder for my little business. So much has changed since last year's NSS, and I cannot wait for next year to see where I land and to catch up with everybody again.

Sincerely,

Custom Recap: Emma's Birth Announcements Featured on Oh So Beautiful Paper

Oh my goodness, I'm not even sure where to start with this post. Last week was both a rough and an amazing week, all in one, and so many things have happened in such a short amount of time. First things first, thank you all SO much, from the bottom of my heart, for all of your love and support around my first newsletter. I cannot believe how many of you signed up and showed your support. The emails were pouring in, and it sounds like you're all almost as excited as I am about my new business name and logo! In fact, you all showed SO much support that my subscriber list doubled in the 12 hours after I sent the newsletter! I ended up sending a second email to everybody that signed up late and missed the first one. Wow, I am just so overwhelmed, thankful, and excited to be starting my new business chapter!

And in fact, the newsletter leads me into this here post. I wrote in the newsletter how I had submitted a special design to Oh So Beautiful Paper for feature, and that I had my fingers crossed that the design would be picked. I've submitted plenty of things to OSBP before - it's THE blog for stationery design, and it's also difficult to get a submission featured - so I know better than to get my hopes up. However, I was really hoping that the custom birth announcements I created for baby Emma would get picked.

Anyway, after the newsletter went out, somebody tweeted me to congratulate me on my Oh So Beautiful Paper feature. To be honest, I was mortified - I didn't mean for the newsletter to sound like I had actually been featured, and I was afraid my friend has mis-interpreted what I wrote in the letter. So I quickly tweeted back to her that I was not featured, but keeping my fingers crossed for a future feature. She quickly tweeted back with this link. I swear to you, I had NO idea that the design was picked up for the feature, and the timing of it couldn't be better/more ironic! I nearly fell off of my chair when I saw it!

My very first Oh So Beautiful Paper feature, and I am so, so, so excited - not only about the feature, but to share the design and story.

So without further adieu, please meet Emma.

These sweet announcements were inspired by both my Aerial and Falling in Love designs, and they were printed on shimmer paper and paired with lovely pink metallic envelopes.

Aside from how beautiful the invitations came out, the story behind them is even more beautiful. If you look really closely at the design, you'll see two dates, the date Emma was born, and the date she was brought home from the hospital. I asked Emma's mother to share her story, and here's what she wrote to me:

Emma Claire and her identical twin sister, Gabriella Hope, were born 16 weeks premature at 24 weeks gestation on Friday, July 13th, 2012. Gabriella’s lungs were too immature to survive and she passed away 2 hours after she was born in our arms. We were told it was not likely that Emma would make it, but she continued to defy all odds with each day she spent in the NICU. After 6 months in the NICU, Emma came home on January 11th, 2013. Since we were so consumed with having her in the hospital when she was first born, we didn’t get a chance to send out birth announcements. When she started getting close to coming home, we decided we would send out a coming home announcement. It was important to us that the announcement illustrated how far she had come in her first 6 months so we knew we wanted to include her birth stats as well as her coming home stats. Jackie took our ideas and created the perfect announcement to celebrate our brave little girl! - Karen, Emma's mother

After hearing little Emma's story, I sincerely think we created the perfect announcements. I'm not sure if Karen selected the Falling in Love design for this reason, but I absolutely love the way the top of the design starts out with teardrops, which slowly fade into falling hearts. I think it's such a sentimental and special way to really capture little Emma's journey and both the sadness and joy that the family has been through over the past year.

Please join me in sending lots of love and hugs to baby Emma!! And thank you, Karen, for letting me take, even just a small part, in little Emma's journey!