letterpress class

Hi all!!

I am beyond excited because I just signed up for my first basic letterpress class here in NYC. I'm going to learn a ton in three hours, and will leave with 24 personalized note cards. This has been something I have wanted to do for a long time. I had originally wanted to complete a more intense course based on digital images that were then transferred to photopolymer plates, as this is something I am interested in, but those courses just did not seem to fit into my schedule. This basic class will teach me how the original operators of these historic pieces of machinery actually used them - setting the type and composing by hand. Fortunately, I think the basic idea remains the same regardless of the method, and this course is about 1/4 of the cost of that more intense one, so that's good.


And for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, here is an image of and old letterpress:

source

Also, here is a series of short clips from Boxcar Press on how it all works.

The course is August 3, so I'll post pics of my completed cards once they're complete!

from my email, but click here for their site

Merry early Christmas to me!!!!

april 2010

Sorry it has taken forever to finally get around to this! Life is crazy as usual in the big apple, and my computer died (and was fixed very quickly, thanks to the amazing people at the 5th Ave. Mac Store - and $150 of my hard earned cash). I also wanted to take some time to play around a bit with new ways to frame images in Photoshop or Illustrator. I finally just figured it out! So - at last, here is some of what happened in the weeks before our big day :)

the beautiful dyson vacuum

my parents got us for an

early wedding present

derek "putting the vacuum together"  :)

easter sunday at our church in hoboken

neff family pictures in freeburg

for dave and lisa's 30th anniversary

a fun night in the NJ

apartment - 4/2/10

(making margaritas!)

lunch break on the steps

of the main NYC post office

at 32nd and 8th

working on table place cards

for the wedding reception

norma from work made me

a handmade "bride" card... 

...and some for all of

my bridesmaids (made to

resemble their dresses) - so nice!

More to come soon!

cranky at kinko's

With only 11 days until the big day, life is flying by full speed ahead (except when I'm at work). :) BUT.... we (here in the soon-to-be-Mr.-and-Mrs.-Neff house) are feeling calm, cool, and collected - all because we're getting everything accomplished in advance. Last night I finished the table number designs in Illustrator & Photoshop then back to Illustrator, then back to Photoshop (they about drove me crazy), as well as some miscellaneous signs for the reception. Today after work I headed over to Kinko's and got them printed on my spiffy 'intense kiwi'-colored paper from Cardstock Headquarters. I was a little bummed because the ink doesn't seem to want to stick to the cardstock, but such is life. And after $16, a slew of really cranky Kinko's employees, and some random guy asking me if I was getting married, who I was marrying, whether it was my first marriage... AND if I was nervous, (really bizarre...) I wasn't about to re-print them. So, if you're at the reception, don't touch the table number cards until every has found their table. :)

Every day, there is a moment where I re-realize I'm going to be getting married.... REALLY soon. Today, there were a couple:

-One happened when my boss, who just returned from a vacation was going over our calendar for the next couple of weeks. She gets to May 11, and goes, "Oh! And Emily will be a married woman by then!" haha   My heart jumped a beat, but it still made me smile, so that's good. :)

-The other happened just a moment ago when I typed out a list of pictures we'd like taken at the church and reception for my aMaZiNg* photographer's "month before form". I'm a little late on the month-before part, but... that's what you get with me! Anyway, just filling out that section made me realize (for probably the 1400th time how excited I am for Derek's entire family and group of friends to be under the same roof as mine for an entire day). There is going to be so much love at St. Peter's church and at my farm that I just might burst.

oh! and i picked out a nail polish color... take a guess.

i know you're just dying to find out. :)

So much more to update this little blog on - including my very own bridal shower and bachelorette party. What. An. Amazing. Day!!! More on that later :)

*just ask her - I've already asked her if we can be friends after this whole shin dig is said and done. she said yes! :)

friends, food, and fedex

Oy... rough day at work. The cure? A nice cold Bud Light Wheat, Derek's home cookin', and a good ol' blog entry...

(where I spend 40-50 hours a week)

This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend time with two of my best friends & bridesmaids, Lisa & Corinne. It was just so nice to spend the whole day together. I always feel revived after seeing them. It was also so nice to see Justin & his gal Jordan, Lisa's boy Jim, and meet Nick (Jim & Lisa's awesome friend)! Definitely need to plan another trip immediately after the wedding. We've been doing a pretty good job of meeting up every so often, whether it's here in NYC, at Justin's in Southern NJ, or Baltimore, at Jim & Lisa's current home.

(the whole crew - minus me - out on saturday night. pardon the iphone quality)

So let's see... where are we in wedding planning land? Only 25 days until "the big day". Yesterday was the RSVP-by date, and we still have about 55 people to hear from yet. So... that will be a fun project next week - calling the stragglers. If you're reading this and haven't sent back your response card - please do! :)

Over the Easter weekend, Derek & I stayed in NJ to just take a break from our long drives home. Granted the drive is only 3 to 3 1/2 hours, but it wears on you after a while. And our trips home have been so packed with wedding craziness that it was nice to just go to church and relax at our own apartment. I look forward to post-wedding trips home so we can just veg out with our families and friends.

(Pictures taken on my iPhone on our last trip home)

(Singing to the pup... or trying to get him to howl)

:)

Our Easter feast? Italian Dinner at Benny Tudino's in Hoboken. So good!! We shared a huge plate of bruschetta (none of that wimpy hors d'oeuvres business), and I ordered a crab raviolli a la vodka. Oh my gosh. I definitely recommend it!

Earlier that weekend we tackled a bunch of wedding projects that had been on the 'to-do' list for many weeks. I finally stopped playing around with the ceremony program design and actually printed them. I think in the end, I had about 20 different versions. So I hope you like them! :) We lucked out at FedEx/Kinkos. They printed all the ceremony programs and table menus (1 per table), AND cut them for under $50!

I also picked up some special wedding makeup at the Benefit counter at Macy's with a giftcard I had leftover from Christmas. I'm not one for expensive makeup (Covergirl works just fine for me baby!), but it really was fun getting a little mini makeover and actually buying the things the girl lathered on my face. It didn't hurt that she threw in a bunch of freebies. :)

Also... picked up the bachelorette party dress (also at Macy's - gotta use that discount!). It's a little black and hot pink number. Can't wait to wear it this weekend!! I got a dress for the shower at Target a couple months ago.

(bachelorette party get-up!)

We're not going to really nail down seating charts or those sorts of things for another week or so, but I got really excited after we'd gotten a good chunk of the response cards back and started writing out table place cards without the table numbers. I think (and hope) everything will look really nice when it's all finished. It's been a lovely year of planning, and it will be so rewarding and exciting to see it all come together.

(getting a start on the place cards)

Next weekend - home for a jam packed day of bridal shower & bachelorette party amazingness!!! Can. Not. WAIT!

2 months to go!

Derek and I just finished up a great weekend full of city exploring and good company.

The future in-laws and another couple of family friends came to visit us in our tiny apartment. Our sleeping situation was: Derek, Jake & I in our room, two on the living room floor, one on the lazy-boy, and one on the couch. Quite a full house. Definitely can't wait until the days when Derek and I have a spare bedroom. :)

We went to Macy's in Herald Square to see my brand, JM Collection, in-store. Then I took them to the design floor at 11 Penn Plaza, where I work. Then we headed to Ground Zero to check out the construction site. After weaving our way around the subway system (why do the trains always have to be under construction on the weekends?! it's confusing and embarrassing when you can't figure it out and have guests following you around. hello!) it was off to dinner at an awesome little italian restaurant (I got the veal marsala with portobellos and mashed potatoes special... yum!!), followed by drinks at Derek's and my favorite NYC bar, Barcelona Bar.

In wedding news, tomorrow will mark two months until the wedding. I am so ready to just be Mrs. Neff (the second)!

In closing, I just came across this blog, Marta Writes, and I have... Fallen. In. Love. What a talent! I love finding blogs that are the actualization of everything that is going on in my head. It's hard for me to totally express to friends and family what it is I want to do, but it's easy to show them. My head is screaming, overflowing, bursting with ideas. How can I channel that?

Here is her office. This looks like... creative heaven!

source

I liked this quote from one of her recent entries:

I'd say life is too short not to follow your passion. Start small - start by setting up some time to create your goods or prototypes and take photographs. Then start selling your goods on etsy.com, then go to a regional craft or market tradeshow, then approach some local retailers who might have an interest in carrying your products. Create some space in your schedule to "create" or work on your business. It might be for only an hour a day. But that's better than nothing.

- jenny | LobotoMe.com

G'night for now,

Em

time.... is not on my side!

Hello! I wish I had more time to post - and I have so much to post about - but I don't! Macy's is keeping me busy, busy, busy (in the form of 50 hours a week, plus 7 hours of commuuting) and no where near my dear blog and huge audience (hehe). Fortunately, last week was "slow" at work, so I was able to get a bunch of things done for the wedding.

Derek and I packed up the car with mason jars, dog food, and Mr. Jake and drove back to good old Freeburg on Friday morning, as we both had off work due to the snow storm (yes - we drove home during the blizzard... yes - it was crazy but we got home safe... yay!). We had three appointments and a big day of invitation addressing planned for Saturday, so it was nice to get a head start on the weekend. Since we arrived home so early, we made a quick stop at Dagles to see if we could find Derek something that he'd like to wear on his left ring finger for the rest of his life. Sort of a daunting task for a man.


We looked around at the mall two weekend prior but left frustrated after getting a lot of conflicting information. Having one jeweler tell you 'yes you can cut tungsten off your finger if it gets smashed' and another telling us the opposite, we decided we should consult with real professionals on the safety of my man's hands. Because he works in "construction" (a vague term for what he actually does), he needs to wear something that can easily be cut off (God forbid) if his hand were ever to be smooshed. Poor guy. But... success! We found one at Dagles, and it was actually a very special moment. It brought me back to the day we secretly put a down payment on my engagement ring in March of 2009. Gave me butterflies! The style of ring he chose was one I had pinpointed as my absolute favorite before ever telling him. We're just that good. :)

First thing Saturday morning, Derek and I met with Mayor (and DJ) Fred Moyer to go over music selections for the reception. I am so, so excited about the music for the reception and think Fred is going to reflect our love of great music along with favorites of our friends and family. Having a DJ who knows almost all of the guests will help, and I'm sure his lovely personality will play a huge part in the awesome-ness of the entire night. Can't WAIT!!

Then I met up with Court and.... off to my hair run-through appointment with Tina at Expressions. Let me tell you what, that woman knows how to do hair. She turns my thin, lifeless hair into something worthy of a wedding in no time at all. Within 45 minutes she had done, redone, and REdone my hair (count 'em - three up-do's!), and I'm still not entirely sure how I will end up looking because they all looked so lovely. She's a miracle worker. :)

Then... off to the florist in Richfield. Evelyn at Evelyn's Designs is amazing. She knew I wanted peonies but said that they might not be in season. Fine with me. She suggested garden roses instead, and mums in the place of dhalias (also a later-in-the-summer flower - according to her). I think it's all going to look gorgeous. I think she really gets the vibe we're going for. Can't wait to see the whole reception tent when it's all said and done. Here is some of the inspiration I've gathered along the way that I showed her:

Then, it was off to put together and address 120 or so invitations. We won't be sending them for another couple of days, but they are totally and completely finished. Such a relief! Somewhere between the DJ and the florist, Derek called from the post office asking if it was alright to put a dolphin stamp on the invites. He was trying to do me a big favor by picking them up, but Court and I quickly discussed and decided we weren't too keen on the dolphin - as we are going for a "rustic, vintage farm" feel, not a "rustic, vintage... ocean" look, but he wasn't too happy about that (one of my pickier moments of the last year of planning - I am ashamed to admit). It just cracks me up that the biggest wedding planning controversy to date has been over this:

After a unanimous vote (among the below-mentioned ladies), we did not end up using the dolphin stamp. :) Thank you Dave (future father-in-law) and Mrs. Doak for your help at the post office!

Such an amazing team effort on the invitations. Helping were: My sister (Court, a.k.a. Maid of Honor), my future sister-in-law (Kelsey, a.k.a. beautiful bridesmaid), my future mother-in-law (Lovely Lisa Neff), Derek's Aunt Rose Ann, Mimi (a very close family friend/second mother), Shawnee (Mimi's daughter-in-law), and Derek even stepped in to help stuff envelopes at the end. Oh, and Dave (future father-in-law) made us dinner. Couldn't have done it without him. And it only took 2 1/2 hours.**

Pictures from this day coming soon.

This wedding is really coming together, and I have loved planning every moment. Can't wait to see what the next two months holds in store. Love, love, love... Emmer.

**You may be wondering where MY parents were during this crazy day. Let's just say I don't feel bad that they missed out, as they were on a beach in Puerto Rico most likely with a coconut drink in hand. Miss you guys so much!!

3 months and 13 days... and counting!

I have a countdown on my MacBook that tells me everyday exactly how many days are left until the wedding. I know you all were just dying to know. :) So this will be a monster catch-up post for the work that has been done over the last couple of months!

There has been so much wedding planning going on! It's been tough to get a lot done with Derek and I both working, but a couple of weeks ago, it hit us that we are getting married in 4 months so we'd better get back into the planning.

The bridesmaids dresses are in and waiting for the girls to pick them up and take them for fittings. The guys have all been measured for their tuxes. The mason jars are all collected, clean, and boxed up for safe keeping in my parent's attic. My mom and I shopped at a new thrift/antique store in Selinsgrove over Christmas and found tons of little antique jars for centerpieces to sit with the mason jars.

In a couple of weekends, I'm going home to hang out with my sister and put mason jars and other centerpieces together so we can get them to the florist. The burlap that will be wrapped around many of the mason jars has arrived, along with the paper from Cardstock Headquarters that will become the table numbers, programs, and menus. I still need to get over to M&J Trimming to pick up the velvet ribbon that will also decorate our mason jars.

My mom did an awesome job finding a guest book that wouldn't just require guests to stand in line before the ceremony to sign their names. Guests will receive a little card while walking into the church to sign and write thoughts and well wishes on while waiting, then I will compile them post-wedding (and probably post-honeymoon) in the guest book scrapbook-style. I love it!!

Our homemade thank you notes and table place cards are now as complete as they can be, and the programs are almost ready to print.

For grandparents we have lost, we will have a small memorial at the church and the reception. I found small frames to hold each of their pictures, and they will hang with twine from a little jewelry tree I have. We will certainly be thinking of them and knowing they're looking down on us that whole day.

I tried on my actual dress the day after Thanksgiving, and it is just lovely. I cannot wait to wear it that whole day (and maybe again every couple of months?). :) I have my next fitting on March 27.

Apparently bridal shower and bachelorette party plans are well underway, but I have no clue what the plans are! I love surprises!!

Derek and I completed the LED "throwies" for the reception lanterns quite some time ago, but here is a good picture of our work. These little guys took hours to put together! Back story: the reason they're called throwies is because they are often attached to magnets that people throw at metal objects!

The invitations have been drafted (over at My Gatsby) and are about ready to be ordered. Here is a little preview of the colors:

More to come soon.... :)

projects and postcards

So much getting done in the land of weddings. While I was in New York City for some interviews last week, I picked up blank flat cards (as opposed to folding ones) and envelopes so that I can make my own thank you notes. I went with the flat cards because it uses less paper, and they were a lot cheaper. I also got a stamp from impressrubberstamps.com, as well as ink for the project.

I also picked up velvet ribbon from M&J Trim that will most likely be tied in a nice little bow around the mason jars that will be planted here, there, and everywhere around the reception tent and farm.

The cardstock I ordered from Cardstockheadquarters.com also arrived, and I am cutting each sheet myself into 12 table place cards and stamping them with the above-mentioned stamps. After we send out invites and get all responses, I'll hand-write each card and we'll be hanging them from twine and mini clothes pins in little trees we're renting from the caterer. I love working on these projects. They're mindless, so I can watch my newest TV show obsession, "A Lyon in The Kitchen", while working on them, and I really love seeing handmade things at any party, wedding, etc.

Derek and I have also already finished making about 125 of the LED "throwies" that will be used to light up the lanterns in the tent! Only about 100 left!

In other news, I think I'm going to work on this project someday soon (using all postcards that were sent to me over the years... yes I've kept all of them!) and hang them in our new place, wherever and whenever we move:

source

Also, I totally just hit the jackpot of do-it-yourself projects!!!! Check this out!

mapage

Just found this lovely little site where you can create your own ceremony and reception map by just dragging the icon to the locaton. This is so handy for us because my parent's address (aka the reception site) doesn't turn up on googlemaps or mapquest. This way, I was able to just show people where it is in relation to the church. Gotta love technology... sometimes. :)

escort cards

Some inspiration for our escort cards:

(http://snippetandink.blogspot.com/2008/06/real-wedding-saturday-karima-aaron.html)

Love the twine. Love the paper quality and printwork. Love the font. Was thinking about using places D & I have been for table names, but why not K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid), as my dad always says. We may rent a couple ficus trees from our caterer and sort of string them in the trees so guests can go up and unclip them... I'd love to use the twine to tie in the natural, country feel with the mason jars. So perfect. I think I could do this for a living. :)