I just came across these hand-made maple wood address files, far away mailboxes, and beautifully packaged stationery from Lovely mail order. The colors, design, and packaging just brightened my day.
Category Archive for ‘things made out of paper’ 
Nikki McClure
I’m a big fan of Nikki McClure‘s intricate paper cuts. She uses an x-acto knife to cut images from paper and creates images that depicts motherhood, hard labor, patience, and celebration. 
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life
I stumbled upon this book several years ago while I was searching through the biography section at a bookstore and was immediately drawn to it. Amy Krouse Rosenthal writes a quirky and random memoir about her thoughts, moments, coincidences and decisions in life and creates an alphabetized encyclopedia. Here are a few excerpts from the book… Ta-Da! Children get to say ta-da!, and I guess magicians, but other than that, it’s an underutilized expression. I’m trying to think—an adult might say it as she waltzes in with the turkey, or a homemade cake. But a self-congratulatory ta-da! would certainly be warranted for any number of daily accomplishments. I cleaned out the trunk of my car.Ta-da! I finished filling out the insurance application. Ta-da! I made the bed. Ta-da! Brother My brother, who grew up with three sisters, was I won’t say how many years old when he finally realized that he did not have to wrap the towel around his chest when he came out of the shower. Doing something It is so much easier to not do something than to do something. Even the smallest task, like filling out a Scholastic Books order form or putting away the butter, requires time, focus, and follow-through. It’s astounding, actually, that anything gets done at all, by anyone. Love If you really love someone, you want to know what they ate for lunch or dinner without you. Hi, sweetie, how was your day, what did you have for lunch? Or if your mate was out of town on business: How was your trip, did the meeting go well, what did you do for dinner? Jason will stumble home in the wee hours from a bachelor party, and as he crawls into bed I’ll pry myself from sleep long enough to mumble, how was the party, how was the restaurant beforehand? The meal that has no bearing on the relationship appears to be breakfast. I can love you and not know that when you were in Cincinnati last Wednesday you had yogurt and a bagel. Safire, William I look at William Safire’s On Language column in the Sunday New York Times Magazine every week and think, I should read this, this is about the English language, this is relevant and smart and useful, and I do like words. And then I turn the page.
But then, let’s say you finally are prepared and determined to do that thing, whatever it is, but you wake up to find that your basement has flooded and you must spend your day making phone calls to the contractor, plumber, and carpet people. Or not that but something else—perhaps you must stand before a committee for approval, a committee that neither grasps your intent nor appreciates your ingenuity, and anyway, they are in a bit of a hurry to break for lunch.Yet. Still. Somehow. I am encouraged to see that despite the colossal effort, despite the odds against one, despite the mere constraints of time and schedules and sore throats, houses do get built, pottery gets glazed, e-mails get sent, trees get planted, shoes get reheeled, manifestos get Xeroxed, films get shot, highways get repaved, cakes get frosted, stories get told.
Hammerpress
One of my (many) loves is letterpress. I can rarely leave a stationery store without falling in love with a letterpress card, poster, or print. I love the feel of the imprint on thick white paper and imagine an artist picking a specific font and hand-setting each letter onto the paper…letterpress also has a unique, vintage quality. One of my goals this year is to learn how to make my own letterpress stationery. One of my favorite letterpress businesses is Hammerpress. Just look at these fabulous creations! Hammerpress can design anything from CD packaging to a mural on a wall.
a bloat of hippos…
We’ve all heard of a gaggle of geese, a pride of lions and a nest of hornets, right? Well, have you heard of a bloat of hippos, a shoal of bass, a muster of peacocks, a parliament of owl, an unkindness of ravens, a business of ferrets, and a convocation of eagles? I was thrilled to come across this t-shirt that lists the collective names of over 100 animals! 
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=14616544
