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,

Life Lately

The past few weeks have been insanely busy. Between all of the work that goes into a full out rebranding, to trying to keep up with having a life (what's that, you say?), I feel like I'm a bit frazzled lately. I've been spending every evening, after work, keeping up with current orders, and then I spend 24/7 on the weekends working on my new website, shop items, and general rebranding things.The good news is that I'm planning on officially launching my new business next month. I'm scared and excited and totally, completely ready.

Since I've been working so hard lately, I realized that I haven't been sharing the non-business things that are going on, so I thought I would give you a quick recap, and then some longer posts throughout the week.

So, for now, here's what the past two or so weeks have looked like.

FRIST ROW: I have mild Celiac's disease, which is a gluten allergy. I don't always follow a gluten free diet, but I have been really trying to stick to it lately. Aside from pizza (my ultimate weakness), GF living isn't that difficult for me, I love yogurt, smoothies, salads, and the occasional GF baked item.

SECOND ROW: Design work has been great lately. Lots of fun projects, plus all of the design work I am doing for my own new business.

THIRD ROW: Last week my husband was doing some work around the house when a picture frame fell and cut him down his forehead. I had to take him to the hospital, and luckily it was something they were able to glue back together. Fingers crossed that he doesn't end up with a Harry Potter scar on his head.

As I enter this week, I am hoping that there aren't any bumps in the road (or my husband's head) so that I can keep on moving along with the groove I've got going.

Thanks everybody, really, for reading this blog and supporting me every day!

Week(s) in Review

by You Can't Be Serious

I've finally learned the art of scheduling blog posts - so where I used to lack the ability to post during my work week, I now am able to flood my blog with fun posts!

You might have missed something in the past two weeks, so here's a recap of what's been going down:

A little recap of the National Stationery Show, and the Matchbook Notebook Hunt.
I gave a behind the scenes look at my life over the weekend.
Sneak peek of my new stationery line.
Custom Recaps of a Brooklyn themed wedding invitation, and a pretty pocket fold wedding invitation.
New Baby Shower Invitations for sale at Minted, and a winning Thank You card design on the way.
I shared a scary goal for me, which is to network more, that I am hoping to conquer over time.
You also got the lowdown on the "before" of my office revamping.
Miss Juliet was formally introduced to the world, and got some awesome virtual love.

And then, possibly the most exciting thing to happen for me was the launch of my wedding Save the Date line. You can purchase any of the designs in my Etsy shop.

I'm heading out to Montauk this weekend with my family for some fun in the sun in our annual camping trip. If you've never been camping on the beach, I highly recommend it! Hope everybody else has some fun weekend plans!

Custom Recap - Emily's Wedding Thank You Cards

It may only be the middle of March, but it seems that here in NYC Spring is in the air. Which means, to me at least, that it's time for Spring cleaning. I've been trying to clean up all of the folders on my computer, as well as all my pictures, designs, fonts etc. It's amazing how unruly things can become over time!

One good part of all this cleaning and organizing, is that I'm finding a lot of pictures of projects I did in the past and, for whatever reason, never ended up posting. So, as I clean up, I've decided to start a mini-series on my blog for "Custom Recaps" where I show off the custom projects I've created. I wish I could call the series "Recent Projects" but the truth is, some of these things are several years old now! 

Which brings me to my very first Custom Recap that I want to share. These thank you cards were designed for my husbands cousin, Emily and her husband Sal. You may remember them from the blog post where I shared the creative wedding gift I got them. Their wedding was amazing, and Emily was in my bridal party this past year, so I was honored and flattered when she asked me to create her wedding thank you cards. She asked for something simple, elegant and using hints of deep purple. We ended up with a simple photo card and accenting it with a lovely metallic envelope in a gorgeous eggplant color. 

I can't believe the wedding was nearly a year and a half ago! Time flies, but with Emily's amazing taste and this simple design, these thank you cards will still be amazing for years to come.

An Epic Weekend for Love

This past weekend my very best friend (since birth!) tied the knot to the love of her life. Sarah and Giancarlo have been together for 9 years and have known each other since elementary school, how cute is that?! Sarah was my maid-of-honor nearly five months ago, and I was honored to be hers this weekend. We've also been lucky enough that now our men have become fast friends as well. Her husband was also a groomsman at my wedding, and my husband was a groomsman at theirs. Such an honor!

For the past (almost) decade the four of us have become partners in crime. Mr. Law and I are so blessed to have such wonderful friends, and we were both so happy to be to be standing at their sides for their special day. We're all pretty sure that the rest of our lives will be friend filled, adventure packed, and incredibly memorable!

The newly weds are off on their honeymoon now, but I can't help but relive their day by listening to their first dance song. It's so unique and perfect for the two of them! It's called "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros....

And here are a few pictures of the beautiful couple that I stole from their amazing videographers, Moho Creative:

CONGRATULATIONS Sarah and Gian! I love you both with all my heart, may you enjoy icing for the rest of your lives!!

Back to Reality

Well sort of...

The wedding was absolutely the stuff dreams are made of - I'm talking perfect weather, everything on time, party-mania, and chock full of love. I plan on spending the next few weeks doing vendor reviews, because my people rocked, and I mean ROCKED.

In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite pics from the night (all sent to me by friends and family, as I am impatiently waiting for the professional pics to be leaked!!)

This is one of my favorite pictures. My dad was just standing back watching me the whole morning. So touching.

The dinner tent

My parents

And this is what a PARTY looks like!

I designed & printed all of the menus and the wine bottle labels. My dad makes wine, and he made the wine favors for all.

Much, much more to come soon! In a quick recap, our wedding was amazing, the honeymoon sucked (rained, no poured, the entire time in Jamaica), and I'm regretting not taking time off after the honeymoon before going back to work. I had about 12 hours from when I got off the plane and had to go back to work, definitely not enough time. My home is a disaster (every single surface is covered with either laundry, luggage or wedding cards) and to make matters worse we had an emergency last night that involved a large number of firemen & emergency personnel to go through my home. EMS kept asking how I felt, and I kept saying "embarrassed, my home is a wreck!". They laughed at me, but really, I was mortified....

Anywho - thanks for all your well wishes, I have recieved a few touching emails, which I appreciate greatly! Check back soon for more pictures, reviews and snippets of my design work!

xoxox
the new Mrs.