Monthly Archives: July 2010

how to interview your plants…

Megan from Forget Me Knot Weddings Blog probably thinks I am a crazy person. In my interview, I talked about talking to pressed leaves and plants and once again personified my presses. (Good thing I didn’t mention that I am a like a single mother to my only child, TPP… and I spoil little TPP. ok. this IS sounding kinda kooky)

But she was sweet enough to post the interview despite my silly typed out answers. And I am very proud of being featured on her blog. It makes me smile…

Here is a photo of a plant application. This one was adhered to wood veneer (hey, that rhymes!). I really did let the energy of this little plume guide me on all the invitations.

Ok. that’s enough kook for any blog post.

ps photo by Gia Canali

It’s tea time tiny pine!

Here’s the thing about coming from a creative clan…. you get crazy good presents on your birthday!

My little brother is not only a musician (frontman of bluegrassy americana band Thomas A Minor and the Picket Line), leather worker (Foak is his company name), letterpresser, he is also quite the carpenter these days.

Last time I visited Oscar in Louisville, I spied a his girlfriend’s tea box…. I casually mentioned that I wanted one.

OK! maybe it wasn’t just casually mentioned. I laid it on pretty thick…

Ask and you shall receive! On the eve of my birthday, there was a sweet package for me on my doorstep. written in LARGE letters was Happy Birthday in very familiar scraggly handwriting…. so haphazard its a miracle I even received the package!

Inside was a carefully crafted wooden box (made of cherry, I think) which had been carved and then filled in with the wood filler stuff creating the matte and low contrast look. The cherry wood is curly and shiny. A glance at this piece of functional art really comforts me and sends me back to my home in Appalachian Mountains of southwestern Virginia…

I was very very excited. Although I kind of knew it was coming when Oscar asked me how many different teas I liked…. I had NO idea how sweet it would be. It really shows off oscar’s illustrating skills… and his silly sense of humor. I LOVE IT! He told me that he was the rabbit, offering up tea to me.

Sooooo, It’s Tea Time, Tiny Pine. Come on over and take your pick. There are lots of choices including Licorice Mint, Bedtime, Peppermint, Everyday Detox, Chamomile, Immune Support, and Cucumber White.

Now don’t you wish you had such a great little brother??

a little antiqued and a lot lovely.

I was so happy to be mentioned on Style Me Pretty for Negar and Peter’s wedding invitation… We worked together last summer to design the perfect invitations that would set the tone for their romantic nuptials at the California Club in Los Angeles. What they really wanted, and I think we delivered, was a very timeless invitation that was subtly romantic…. and not at all “cute”… something that they will love as time passes…. something very classic.

To get there I used hand calligraphy for print for their names and charcoal grey ink (I liked the idea of it being grey instead of black as if years had taken their toll and faded the print) with just a little bit of victorian floral embellishment… popped in my inked up press and mashed on a textured but cleanly cut stock…. et voila. It did just the trick.

thanks to Gia Canali for taking the pictures… again! check out Gia’s blog for some other photographs of this wedding and invitations…

Brown Paper Bag Packages

As I was printing some brown paper bag envelopes yesterday for a wedding invitation, I was thinking there’s a lot of thinking time in printing, but also I was thinking about where I got this penchant for the good ole grocery bag.

Tiny Pine was started 7 or 8 years ago when I sewed presents onto chopped up trader joes bags and then sewed those onto cardstock for last minute birthday cards. I sold those for a while and made a sort of card line. They were cute and quirky. I know where the sewing thing comes from… , my mom and several aunts and uncles worked at Mr. Casuals for 30 years – a sewing factory in southwest Virginia that produced Ralph Lauren and Osh Kosh and lots of sort of high end jeans and pants and such. My grandma made many many quilts (my mom too). It’s almost genetic.

But why do I love the brown paper bag?

Well, I got a delivery on my doorstep yesterday for my Birthday Present. Every package from my mom looks like this. She literally puts everything in a brown paper bag and wraps it with tape and addresses right on there. The shape doesn’t matter (I’ve gotten round packages) AND she also sticks crazy stamps and stickers on it. I almost don’t want to open it I love it so much.

PS Here is another good example of reusing. That paper bag got a good work out before it got to me.

Thanks Momma!