Happy New Year!

I can't believe 2010 is almost over. This has been an eventful year for us: Mike graduated from business school and started a new job, we vacationed in Las Vegas, Florida, and Bali, I continued to grow my own calligraphy and design business, we moved from Ithaca back to New York City and Navy remained as photogenic as ever. While many good things have happened to us, we also have had some setbacks. I suffered a miscarriage in July after a year of trying to conceive and we continue to fight the heartbreaking, gut-wrenching roller coaster of a ride that is infertility. I'm hoping that we will be able to overcome it in the new year.

An important constant in my life has been my blog and I'm so grateful that you have followed me throughout. Thank you for taking the time to stop by every day and for all of your wonderful comments and encouragement- I truly cherish every single one of you. I hope that you will join me in 2011 for all my calligraphy, stationery, cooking and design endeavors. I look forward to a productive and fruitful year and I wish you the same. Cheers to the New Year!


Love,
Janis

Shopping in the City: Paper Presentation

I'm so excited to share with you this post of Shopping in the City because it's my absolute favorite store in NYC. Paper Presentation is mecca for paper lovers like me and I usually go there at least once a week. Not only do they have every type of paper or envelopes that you can imagine, they also have stationery, craft supplies, pens, photo albums and gifts. It's a Michael's, Staples and high end letterpress stationery store all rolled into one and spit out as a paper lover's dream.

(Disclaimer: For those of you who aren't as interested in paper and envelopes as I am, I do apologize... as you may find the multiple pictures of the aforementioned pretty boring!)

First off, this store is huge. It runs the length between 5th and 6th Avenues!

Envelopements envelopes

Paper folders in every size

Paper Presentation has shelf after shelf of any color of paper and cardstock you can imagine with matching envelopes.

Mini envelopes

Envelope liners

Metallic envelopes

Metallic paper perfect for wedding stationery. I use it all the time for my clients.

Scalloped and regular die cut circles

Beautiful wrapping paper

The map wrapping papers make for cheap wall art that looks expensive. Especially if displayed in a Ribba Ikea silver frame.

The craft section of the store

Martha Stewart glitter

Wall of rubber stamps

Semikolon boxes... don't you love these? I want the desktop file box.

Pretty desktop accessories

Pens, pens and more pens!

Paper Presentation
3 West 18th Street (between 5th and 6th)
New York, NY 10011
(212) 463-7035

Store hours:
Mon - Fri 9 - 7:30
Sat & Sun 11 - 6

Scenes from a Winter Wonderland

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas! We East Coasters were blessed with a white Christmas due to a huge blizzard that passed through our way. Mike, Navy and I were in Newburyport at the time and this little city was transformed into a magical wonderland!

Merry Christmas!

Merry, merry Christmas everyone! I hope you have a delightful holiday with your friends and family! Mike, Navy and I are spending the day with my family in Connecticut and then we're off to Newburyport to spend a few days with Mike's family. I'll be back on Tuesday.... see you then!

Design credit: patrycja

Shopping in the City: Greenwich Letterpress

Last year I blogged about Greenwich Letterpress stationery. And this year, now that we're back in the city, I was able to go to the brick and mortar store. It's a letterpress wonderland, filled with Greenwich's own letterpress designs as well as stationery from other well known companies such as: Sesame Letterpress, Snow & Graham & Carrot & Stick Press. You absolutely must check it out if you're as obsessed with letterpress as I am!

















Greenwich Letterpress
39 Christopher Street
New York, NY 10014
(212) 989-7464

Store Hours:

Mon: 1-6
Tues-Fri: 11-7
Sat-Sun: 12-6

Decorating for the Holidays

I love decorating for the holidays. It just seems extra cozy when you bake some cookies and sit around and admire the Christmas tree. These cookies are my absolute favorite butter cookie recipe and I used the sanding sugar from the other day.



I ended up making some plain with sanding sugar and some with frosting and just a few granules of sanding sugar.





This year our apartment is too small for a regular sized Christmas tree so we decided to go with a mini tree and put it on top of the chest of drawers in our living room. Since it stands already stands on the dresser, I don't miss the height of the big tree. A ribbon bow tops it off.

I know I don't need to mention this because you already know, but I love wrapping gifts. I always use beautiful ribbon and I make special embellished tags. Tying ribbon can sometimes take a little practice. I used to crisscross the ribbon on the bottom of the package but then the box or whatever I was wrapping never stood perfectly flat. One day when I was at Tiffany's I saw them gift wrap a box so that the ribbon was perfectly flat on the bottom and that's when I knew I was doing it all wrong. The Container Store has a good step-by-step tutorial here.

Finally I made some paper ornaments and hung them in our window. Everything LEB posted about her favorite Christmas crafts and it reminded me of these ornaments that I made two summers ago. They were the perfect, easy project that added an extra special festive touch to my holiday decor.




Do you have any favorite holiday decorating traditions? Please share!