almost open!

i hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break! we are so excited to launch our 2nd store--online! within a few short weeks, we will have an online shop as well as a shiny new blog, image gallery, and new website all together. stay tuned, we'll run a few specials to get people online to check it all out! until then, i'll be reading more about dedicated ip addresses, ssl certificates, website propagation, and a bunch of other things never thought i wanted to know.

oh, and my webmaster? B-E-N. with his new mac, camera and rearranging his office, he's ready to add items from the shop to the online store and manage the orders!

october

here are a few pics from the last month. i know i have been terrible about posting so here it goes....went to renegade craft fair in chicago and fell in love with this teepee, if i only needed one. what a great invention. there were a lot of cool indie crafts there including jewelry, clothing, scarves, etc. I had a great time with my mom, aunt shirley, erica and laney.vacationed here for a few days with ben. we had a great time and great weather. we stayed in boca raton and played golf in west palm & jupiter, fl. (well, i read people magazine while ben golfed.)printed new business cards (finally). simple but they get the job done!we now carry a new company called Red Letter Words, get it, like red letters from the Bible?? This lady is from Grand Rapids and has some really cool prints. The middle one at the top is for my nursery and the one on the left already sold. They are awesome, not too "in your face".norm has already begun stealing baby toys. notice him sleeping with a rattle. I'll spoil him just a little longer...we have a bad habit at home of calling norm anything but his name. Sometimes we call him bubby. well, the other day i found his car! who knew he could drive and be at hobby lobby the same time as me!!got some inspiration from a tablecloth at anthropologie. well, i couldnt exactly make that but i did make what is pictured below for holiday mart, which starts this week! yikes!and on friday we welcomed Remy Laine Davidson to the family! Congrats Ashely and Ted, she's gorgeous!!!

what a busy month! Next month will be full of Holiday Mart and Christmas Cards!!

until next time!

finished project no. 2

this project almost gave me a heart attack last week. i spent the majority of the labor day weekend in my sweatpants, in the basement, drinking orange crush and printing these invitations, with my mom and ben's help. this one was definitely a team effort and by far the most in depth, intense wedding invitation ever produced on the old c & p (not to mention the most difficult). loved the final product but so relieved to be done with it. and that handwriting? unbelievable. I have a new bff named kathy laporte and she is my idol when i am in my 60's. she and her dog willow sit in her front room of her house down on 79th and allisonville and peacefully make these little works of art. there is never a tv on, no one running around the house, just she and her little pal, one envelope at a time....

finished project no. 1

love these wedding invitations. 2 color bleed on 3 pieces. it took a little patience but we cranked out 200 of them for this wedding at the end of october. and, for a little bonus, check out the bride's inspirational story. its great to do things for such wonderful people.

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?s=10342815&clienttype=printable

he works hard for the money....

setting gauge pins & mixing ink. that is what our life is coming to here at the davidsons these days. thank goodness i married this guy who is a trooper and is willing to work until 10:30 p.m. to get the job done so i'm less stressed. poor ben, then he has to clean the machine every time because i'm trying to keep myself away from mineral spirits. i figure mineral spirits and fetus' don't go well together, so baby wins. he even says tonight "you know, even after you've had the baby, i still don't think you'll clean up, do you?" hmmmm.... he's got a point. i'll post pics in a few days once the order is picked up. until then, happy printing!

summertime...

a lot has happened since my last blog post, which seemed like forever ago. here is a little recap of my world the last month:

-my dog norm has eaten several things off the counter including an entire loaf of bread, cinnamon bagels, cinnamon rolls, he has gotten chips ahoy out of the pantry and tonight off the counter: 3 pieces of bbq chicken in the 20 mintues that ben and i rode our bikes to cvs. and we don't even have food on the counter very often!

-i found out i'm pregnant: 12 1/2 wks to be exact. so excited about that!

-sam (my new nephew) seems to get bigger each day

-i went to fort myers, florida for my friend kristen's bachelorette party. we had a great time while getting some sun, pedicures, and eating tons of food.

-broke down and got the iphone 4, which i love.

that's about it for july. can't wait for the cooler months ahead!

the store was closed today...

because of this little blessing. Samuel Jonathan Oliver was born this morning at 9:49 weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches long. Jon and Stacie are doing awesome and we just can't get enough of him. From the out of control head of hair to the itty bitty fingers and toes, he is simply perfect.

letterpress recap!

Here are some pictures of our recent letterpress jobs. We've worked on these over the past few weeks and we are planning on doing three more projects in the next few days. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

meet this guy.

his name is rob (our ups guy) and he's about to make oliver's twist a better place. today he brought a new shipment of crane & co. imprintables as well as an order of greeting cards from gina b. designs. they are super cute and are only $2.25 each. it is our first of many NSS orders for this year. more tomorrow!

NSS 2010

So much to talk about, so little time! We just got back from the national stationery show on Monday night and had an absolute blast. We went to the show Sunday and Monday and did some shopping, eating, and play watching in between. There were so many brilliant ideas at the show it was almost overwhelming. Who thinks of this stuff? Geez, people are so talented. Everyone says the show gets smaller every year but with 1500 booths of adorable paper goods, how can you complain? There is no shortage to choose from. I'll be posting about our new arrivals as they arrive in the store. Can't wait for you to see what we found!

hand made (and written) with love...

I am so excited to have a new niece or nephew. Therefore, the invitation had to be super cute. My pal Erin came over for a "craft minute" as we like to call it and we put our handwriting together and hand wrote the artwork for this invitation. I then sent it to have a plate made and at 7 a.m. this morning, cranked these beauties out on the press. I love the authentic hand made look of it. I'll post more pictures of things we are doing for the shower as I do them.

Coasters

Sunday night we tried coasters for the first time on the press. After brainstorming how NOT to hit the gauge pins with the base, we finally figured it out and I love them! We made these peacocks for favors for a baby shower this weekend. We also made a flower design that we'll be selling in the shop. Ben said they are super easy to feed in the press so I'm sure we'll be making more soon!

photo shoot

I've been meaning to post pics for some time now and am finally getting around to it. Here is our printing studio in our basement. We've added countertops and cabinets since these pictures but these will do for now.

love + toast!

i love this handreme that we just got in today. is is made my margot elena, the same gal who created Lollia. this stuff is unbelievable, and unbelievably cute. with 6 different "flavors" and at $9 ea., it's kind of a no brainer, right?

available in pomme poivre, honey coconut, gin blossom, sugar grapefruit, mandarin tea, and my personal favorite: paper flower!

p.s. thanks linda for bringing me that adorable little stool, works perfect for the testers!

pretzel mania

Last night I had a wave of craftiness come over me. This happens on occasion and last night it was to make these pretzels. I saw them at a party last week and thought to myself: I like those. I actually really like those. They just need some thick natural hemp rope in a nice vintage basket. With a trip to my aunt's house to borrow a double boiler and a quick visit to Kroger and Michaels, I was ready. So I made them into my Grand Opening gift for my brother and sister-in-law, Jon & Stacie, who are opening a kitchen showroom in Noblesville called Indiana Kitchen Company. Their grand opening is this Friday and Saturday. Hopefully I'll see you there!

adventures in letterpress

our little letterpress is teaching us a thing or two. patience for one. we've had fun over the last week and a half "playing" on our machine. up until Saturday night, we were spinning the wheel by hand. Then, my very handy dad came over and wired the motor and now it is like it is on steroids. we figured out how to slow it down and printed a few things tonight. I'll keep posting pics as we make more!

back to school we go...

Ben and I had a blast this last week learning all kinds of things about printing and the art of letterpress. We went on a little road trip to Chicago for a class that was 4 days long from 10-5:30 each day. The first day we talked about different methods, equipment, and techniques. We also did our artwork to have film made and placed our paper order for the week.

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th days we printed independently and could ask our instructor questions as we worked. Needless to say, OLIVER'S TWIST IS NOW OFFERING LETTERPRESS!

Our press was delivered last week and we are so excited to get started.

be mine.

I had a few extra minutes in the shop today so I whipped out a few of these.