The other day my boys and I went ‘fishing’, complete with a handmade fishing rod (I had to improvise a bit with a hardware hook!). We’re lucky to be able to walk about five minutes to reach the forest and a short hike along the trail led us to a small stream. The fish weren’t taking the bait, but we had fun anyway.

You’ll read at my ‘About Sweetbeets’ page that watching my children play provides much inspiration behind the illustrations on my cards. I thought you’d like to see an example of what I mean!

Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, inspiration

The pure simplicity of Parma Lilac really resonated with me when I first saw these lovely images at Marta Writes the other day. I really love this pared-down style, though I’d have to add some splashes of green like in this image below via decor8.

Technorati Tags: decor, simplicity, minimalist, white, pure style

I finally joined Flickr! Click here for a sneak peek of my home. My style is definitely minimalist! I feel most comfortable and happy in spaces that are decluttered and serene. I’m very inspired by this quote: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” (William Morris, 1882). I’d like to update the color palette now that my sons are getting out of the drawing-on-walls phase. I’m envisioning a white, airy space with splashes of chartreuse and other shades of green! I saw the perfect inspiration photos on one of my new favorite blogs so stay tuned while I put together a post about it…

I’ll be sharing more images of Sweetbeets cards on Flickr in the coming weeks. I think I’ll do another photo shoot to get fresh images of my cards when the new designs are available in September.

Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, flickr, workspace

Here’s a peek inside my design studio where I create all of the Sweetbeets illustrations. I’m working on new designs and plan to have them available in September. I made this inspiration board by placing felted sweaters inside three embroidery hoops I found at the thrift store.

Technorati Tags: inspiration board, Sweetbeets, letterpress design studio, sneak peek

I love how these Sweetbeets cards are displayed at O! baby baby, a children’s boutique in Berkeley that specializes in eco-friendly products that are good for your baby. The O! is for organic! You can find more photos of the shop on Flickr. There’s a brand new store blog too!

Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, letterpress, greeting cards, card displays, merchandising, baby boutique

Three sets of Sweetbeets boxed notes are up for grabs at Marta Writes. The contest closes today. If I’d been more on the ball I would have written this post earlier, but it looks like you still have a couple of hours to enter for your chance to win! A big thank you to Marta for hosting this giveaway and for such a wonderful post about Sweetbeets. Thank so you much to everyone (all 176 of you so far!) who have entered the giveaway - reading through all your comments has really made my week! Psst…even if you see this post after the contest closes, I highly recommend checking out Marta Writes as she seems like such an interesting person and her amazing gift for writing will draw you in.

Technorati Tags: Sweetbeets, letterpress, stationery, note cards, giveaway

So many more very kind bloggers have featured Sweetbeets during the past couple of months. I usually leave a comment on their blog or send a quick email to them them know how much I appreciate their support, but I also wanted to link to everyone here. I hope I haven’t left anyone out. A big thank you to all of these bloggers!

Poppytalk
Hazel and Clio
Little Ida
Happy Cavalier
Paper Crave
Got the Knack
Jacky’s Noir Planet
An Anthropologie Life
Crossing Stitches
Vivid
Design Sponge
Tangled and True

Technorati Tags: letterpress, stationery, made in Canada, Sweetbeets, illustrations, greeting cards

About a year ago I heard rumblings of new biodegradable sleeves for packaging cards, but I could not find a supplier. Fast forward a year and Biodegradable Clear Bags™ debuted at the 2008 National Stationery Show and even won the Best New Product Award in the Think Green: Paper Craft/Scrapbooking category. My shipment arrived this week and I’m thrilled to be switching to these biodegradable sleeves. They are 100% compostable because they are made from corn (an annually renewable resource and therefore sustainable) rather than petrochemicals.

I had also been searching for 100% post-consumer recycled paper for the Sweetbeets envelopes. It’s surprisingly more difficult than it sounds as options are limited for 100% recycled paper, especially colored paper (most colored paper is at most 30% recycled). I’m happy to report that after a few hours reviewing all of the materials I picked up at the Supply Side at the National Stationery Show, I found the perfect paper for envelopes to accompany the A2 cards. It’s a smooth 100% post-consumer recycled paper with flecks throughout and the biscuit color will coordinate perfectly with all of the Sweetbeets designs. I tracked down the Canadian distributor for this paper, placed an order for the envelopes to be made especially for me (they are not a stock item!) and waited 3 weeks for them to ship from the manufacturer. The envelopes arrived this week and I couldn’t be happier. I never thought I’d be so excited about envelopes!

While at the National Stationery Show I had the pleasure of meeting Marichelle of Heart Handmade. I confess that I had not heard of this blog before but after checking it out I quickly subscribed to the RSS feed and it’s one I always check first in my Google Reader when there’s a new post. She has a regular column called “Retail Therapy” where she interviews shop owners and “finds out what really goes on behind the register”. Today Stem, a new Sweetbeets retailer, was featured. Click here to read the interview!

Today was the last day of the National Stationery Show! The photos of my booth are not the greatest but you’ll get the idea. I couldn’t resist incorporating the Nomad System by Mio into my booth design and I was pleased when a few visitors said that they stopped at my booth because the display caught their eye.

Lots of business cards have been exchanged and I’ll go home with only a couple left over! Yesterday I thought I’d grab some extra business cards from some of the press kits I’d left in the Press Room but was very happy to discover that all of my press kits have been taken. Good thing I had a few extra press kits in my booth for when Grace of design*sponge dropped by! Meeting Grace was definitely a highlight as I’ve been reading her design blog every day for a couple of years now.

Another highlight was when an independent market consultant hired by a well-known NYC stationery boutique described the Sweetbeets line as “fresh” and also a UK distributor who said that while he saw a lot of letterpress at the show, much of it is quite “samey” whereas Sweetbeets is “unique”.

It has been wonderful to meet some of the retailers who picked up the Sweetbeets line prior to the show including Cecilia of Craftsbury Kids, Mindy of Cotton Idea Studio, Tracie of Broadway Paper, Andrew of Paper Papier and Amy of Noteworthy.

I should note that Cecilia of Craftsbury Kids has been distributing Sweetbeets along with other unique children’s products and it was such a pleasure to meet her (along with her husband and youngest child) in person after many email exchanges over the past couple of months.

I also had the chance to connect with a few of the people I’ve met online via the Paper Peeps discussion forums, an invaluable resource for independent stationery designers. I must say that the other exhibitors my husband and I met were very friendly and supportive. This is especially true of Laurie (and her sister!) of Motormouthpress who I’ll definitely keep in touch with after the show and also the wife and husband team from Pikku whose unique screen-printed calendars are even more lovely in person (I know I’ll be splurging on one of these calendars when the 2009 page refills are available). My husband and I also really enjoyed talking with the very sweet and down-to-earth Jennifer of Hazel Wood Children who stopped by as promised despite being 8 months pregnant!

It has been quite the experience here in NYC and overall a good one and worth attending to exhibit Sweetbeets. I have lots of follow up to do when I return home next week!

Technorati Tags: National Stationery Show, Sweetbeets, stationery, trade show, letterpress cards