week forty-two 2025

Hey letterpress fans! We're officially in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. I have one more weekend "off" at the end of October, then it'll be non stop until Christmas. Fa la la la la...

I spent some time on press this week, doing reprints for wholesale orders. I also finally finished printing a card that I designed three, maybe even five years ago. I had the plates made and just haven't made the time in three to five years. Ridiculous, right? It's a Chicago Flag diagramming all the symbolism. All you Chicagoans are gonna love it. 

I also spent a day and a half designing more mercantile labels for our pals The Scent Queens Candle Co. I'm loving the St. Nick label the most at the moment. Here's a peek of the two finalists. One will be on their candles soon!

Our Halloween Mail Art Meet Up with Donovan was great. It's the second year we've done this, I hoping it's a tradition. I made several envelopes. I'm planning to get two in the mail this week. I haven't made envelopes since last year's meet up, which is wild considering how much I enjoy it. It's a very meditative process and so fun to explore patterns and imagery and figuring out how to center the image you want while leaving space for the address. It's a great use of both sides of your brain. I wonder if y'all would like a mail art workshop? Let me know. I've been considering it for years and perhaps this is the year we do it. 

Another task I worked on was creating and event calendar for the rest of the year. There are so many ways to shop with us in November and December! Not only are we booked with shows, we'll be adding Wednesdays to our shop hours. I'm considering adding Tuesdays in December too. Stay tuned!

Save the Date - our final Letter Writing Meet Up of 2025 is happening Thursday, November 6th from 5-7. Join us and share the magic of snail mail with fellow stationery enthusiast. As always, we'll have our vintage typewriters for you to use and a good selection of our pens to try out. You can shop our stationery, or bring your own. No RSVP required, first come, first served. Stay two minutes or the full two hours. BYOB. Again, this is the final one of 2025. We'll start them up again in March.

Random randomness...
•I listened to All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert on Libby this week. I really enjoy Liz Gilbert's voice and was pleased she read for the audiobook. This book was a roller coaster! It's filled with love, passion, grief, despair and addiction. I enjoyed it a lot and found it vulnerable, heartbreaking but also heart warming. There's a whole lot of emotion in it and I loved it. If you like dramatic memoirs, give it a listen. 

•The Mr. and I joined our closest friends - Jaime, Adam, Kim and Tony Thursday for dinner and a show. We went to Italian Village for dinner, in my 30+ years in Chicago, I've never been. It was delicious of course and we got to try all sorts of flavors, our group loves to share. After we walked to the Goodman Theater and saw Revolution(s). The music was incredible, of course, the music is by Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave. It rocked! It's a short run so get your tickets. I'm certain it'll be headed to Broadway next. 

•Friday night I headed to Nighthawk with my friend Myriam for a Whistle Zine folding party. We folded copies of the Pilsen Arts & Community House Whistle Zine. If you aren't familiar, these zines educate Chicagoans how to warn neighbors of any ICE sightings and alert any rapid responders to help document. After we folded, the zines moved onto another group who were pairing whistles with them. I've decided to purchase whistles for the shop and print our own zines. You can pick them up in store starting this week, free of charge. Let's help our neighbors stay safe!

•Saturday I went for a glorious walk downtown Chicago. My friend Kim and a friend of hers joined me in a peaceful gathering in Grant Park, followed by a walk through our beautiful city. It was a really joyful day and felt more like a celebratory block party than a walk. There were bands playing protest songs like "This Land is Your Land", the bucket boys were playing their hearts out where Wacker meets Michigan Avenue. There was dancing and inflatable animals everywhere, there were chants of "No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here". And so many wonderful signs. It was a celebratory, great day. Hopelessness has been creeping in, which is very unlike me but when my neighbors are under attack, kids are being targeted at school, journalism is no longer reporting the truth, it gets overwhelming. Saturday renewed my hope in my city, in my neighbors, in my country. I love Chicago. We show up. Even streets and sanitation were there, as well as Chicago's finest, making sure we were safe. It was a really great day.

That's it for week forty-two! I hope you all find a little hope this week like I have.