12 Days of KLP

As I head into two weeks of zero brain activity, KLP Designs gives thanks to a busy holiday (and holiday work) season in true Christmas spirit:

12 (x3) press releases

11 set of Ho Ho Hello sold on Snapfish

10 very late nights working

9 website pages

8 rounds of website revisions

7 custom Christmas card designs

6 hush puppies consumed while photographing Christmas card

5 star Yelp review

4 dog costumes

3(00) twitter followers

2 custom stationery sets

And 1 food truck launch

The ricotta made me do it

Saturday, I decided to give a nod to my (married-into) Italian roots and make cannolis for a dinner with friends. With a HANDMADE ricotta recipe*. It was like the most incredible science experiment-meets-cooking show in our house yesterday afternoon, and the cannolis turned out so perfectly that they inspired THIS bit of handmadeness on an otherwise lazy Sunday afternoon.

*Thank you, Catherine for sponsoring Saturday afternoon!

PMS or political commentary?

Not the normal optimism at the otherwise confident (though odd) Hamlin's Pharmacy this Monday afternoon. There's a prescription to help that, just sayin'.

Lassie, come home

KLP Designs moves AGAIN for the third and final time in a year. And while one could ask if I'm really picky about office space or whether I enjoy having life in varying degrees of chaos, I'm going to plead the fifth. Especially if the question relates to the new pajama-friendly business environment of my newest office space.

Ho, ho, hello there Holidays!

I realize my blogging has been pretty lackluster over the last month, but I finally feel like I'm back in the creative swing of things so hopefully will be posting more regularly. And what a better kick in the pants of inspiration than when I opened up the Snapfish holiday catalog over the weekend and one of my card designs was in there! Check out more designs at Snapfish.com.

Something...happy

 I haven't had a chance to photograph all the invitation components yet from our wedding, but I loved this little montage that Jenny put together of the wedding bits. The mason jars Staci and I painted made me giddy to see all decked out, and scouting the perfect nature trail was a total success when paired with Jenny's amazing eye.

Something blue... ribbon

Woohoo for the Texas State Fair and an enormous congratulations to Anna for her First Place photography ribbon today.

Now if she could only photograph some fried butter so I could REALLY be impressed...

Afterglow...and afterglow photoshoot

I couldn't have imagined a better wedding day than Saturday; with all of my best friends and family present; gorgeous weather after a stressful weather report for the last week; and the most amazing wedding photographer and friend by my side through all the stress, smiles and tears.

And after a day of fun, we set out for a (very short) day of work yesterday for an afterglow shoot without the wedding nerves present. I had to laugh at this shot we planned for the invitation details: I've definitely never art directed a shoot so decked out before!

A tasty photoshoot

The Diner on Glenwood just hired a new chef and is being reborn as a modern take on the classic diner concept. Case in point, the insanely delicious fried green tomato app and chicken and waffles I got to sample during our Very Serious food photoshoot. KLP Designs is definitely up for more freelance as tasty as this was. And look at my menu design on the cook line!

Is it too late to get a real wedding cake?!

I've been in the cupcake camp for my wedding dessert since the first day of planning, mostly because I'm usually that girl crowding around the table full of extra slices, and that's plain awkward at your own wedding. But today I found something that makes me want to turn back the hands of engagement-time and take a mulligan:

Miniature wedding cake replicas!!! 

Jessieraye, you may be the coolest designer around. My champagne glass is tipped to you.

I can't wait to make it big some day...

I just can't imagine Bethanny is having to tarp up her office in case of inside rainshowers... Sigh.

Oh come ON, Irene!

I just got word from my office landlord that I need to bag up my entire office because apparently the building is not, shall we say... weatherproof. When I asked where the water could come in, he said "anywhere and everywhere".

And since 90% of my office is paper goods and the other 10% computer equipment, I suppose I should get to tarping!

I would like to dedicate this post to my computer

Business whoa man!

Also entitled: I think I may throw up again

Showered with love...and new recipes

The wedding planning has just taken a turn for the delicious with our amazing new shower and early wedding gifts. I honestly have never been so in love with chopping vegetables in my life.

Tuesday August 9: the lobster night of all lobster nights

I was in Montauk earlier this week for an abbreviated beach trip which coincided with my future father-in-law's birthday... could there possibly be a better way to say happy birthday?

Give me a Summer Break

I apologize to any readers for my slackness in the past month in posting. I'm not sure if it's wedding craziness, work craziness or the general 100 degree heatwave lethargy that ruined my posting momentum, but I promise I'm now back.

Thank you everyone who has been waiting patiently for the next post.

I may throw up

From million dollar campaigns to million dollar smiles

I don't know how this blog title could better describe the changes that Anna and I have gone through since our big bad NYC ad days, but I was excited for the opportunity to collaborate as art director / copywriter for the Waco Fourth of July Parade, and this time I KNOW the client was happy with the result.

Interestingly, the art director hat (literally and figuratively) went to Anna this time and I wore the copywriting one.

Christmas in July!

My very own scoring machine.... let the card-making begin!

WORLD O' DOG™

Yesterday may have been the best fourth of July ever. Mike and I decided to pay tribute to the melting pot that is America and have a little fun with the nation's favorite food. He's with me tonight to guest-blog our creations (and to remind everyone that these creations are copyrighted. Please see us for usage rights and franchise opportunities)...

Fresh pico de gallo with chopped up grilled hot dog served in a toasted bun, with a spoon for messy eaters.

Grilled hot dog topped with melted mozzarella cheese, parmesan and gravy atop a toasted garlic-bread bun.

Raw and uninhibited, this dog is served with pickles and a wasabi ginger sauce.

A hoisin-infused dog grilled to a crisp and topped with sesame seeds a special sweet and sour sauce with a kick.

A hot-meets-cold delight: a hollowed-out cucumber meets panko, wasabi and grilled hot dog.

So what if Real Simple gets the credit, at least we're in the same idea ballpark

I'd love to think that Real Simple stumbled upon P as in Peter and got inspired for their gorgeous mason jar shoot. I'd love to think that 100 Layer Cake did too (courtesy of Brides magazine). But while I can only dream for that to be the case, I am happy to think that the creative bubble of southern thinking that these two powerhouses are a part of is large enough to include me too.

Excited for a day at the beach...and type class!

This Friday we went to Wilmington for a mini vacation, and while Mike was most excited about getting some beach time, I got (probably too much of) a kick out of the name of our hotel. The Clarendon Inn uses the Clarendon typeface for its logo! (chicken or egg on whether the hotel chose it's name based on the font or not)

Curiously, the bed and breakfast across the street also uses Clarendon font; isn't that Competitive Branding 101?

You say 'Crazy', I say 'Creative'

But if I were obsessed enough with the typeface and OBVIOUS font size difference in the logo of the driver in front of me today (the 'olin' is definitely larger than 'fairweather'), isn't that a testament to how meticulous I will be when I design an invitation?

The reason I design stationery and invitations

Because I can only hope something I design makes someone feel as good as these cards made me feel when I opened my mail yesterday.

One small step for a bride, one giant leap for one who designs her own invitations.

I really never thought about how much I obsess about every detail until attempting to hammer down a design for my upcoming wedding. After months of sitting and mulling over the big things (pantone swatches and design icons) and the not-so-big ones (going cross-eyed over kerning dilemmas that only I would ever notice) I finally said 'I do' to a design. I look forward to a much easier one to say on September 24.

 

UPS: the time traveling experts

If I ever wanted to travel back to 2001 and my glory days of faxing, it was today!

A blast from my advertising past

Five years after my Glenlivet ads debuted, I finally made One Magazine (a respected industry publication that no one in the real world has heard of) which praised the look of this ad campaign and the typographer who I hired for the project. My only other time in the mag was in 2000 when one of my student pieces declared me 'a woman to watch' in the ad industry. And while the ad industry and I have stopped watching for each other lately, it WAS a nice feeling to get a wink from them in 2011.

Throw in a donut, and it pretty much sums me up.

Thank you, Mike, for my birthday goodies and for not only loving my quirks but finding birthday presents that support them.

I heart Steven Heller, who hearts miniatures too.

 

read the entire book on The Daily Heller

The newest Bernard Christianson catalog: now sans paper.

Open publication - Free publishing - More casegoods

Saturday night, it hit me

I realized where my obsession with miniatures came from: The Incredible Shrinking Woman!

Miniature photo exhibit & the final touches on KLP Designs (at least for now)

Friday night, I opened my doors at First Friday in the Carter Building and displayed my photo exhibit from Montauk that I had shown in High Point last year.

Here are a few photos of how it all came together (at about 5:55pm).

Thanks so much to all my friends and visitors who stopped by. 

Kismet, fate, serendipity: whatever you want to call it, Jane Austen would find the symbolism.

Not three hours after I posted about the amazing cameo shoes I saw online, I was shopping in the (truly great) vintage jewelry store Preen in Greensboro--who just happens to have an entire case dedicated to cameos. Do I need to reconsider having them in my wedding now?

(Note to self: Karen, walk away from the cameos...suggest to a future bride-to-be)

Jane Austen, circa 2011.

I've been on the hunt for wedding shoes and trying to find something that that just hits me as perfect--and while these don't totally do it, I LOVE the new take on an old fashioned cameo.

Canfora shoes

Pimp My Office

Having completed the main things with my office makeover (other than solving the 'there's a hole in my floor that leads to the tenant below me' issue) I decided to work on the fun details. And by fun details I mean 'making my office into my very own man lady cave.

Who says a wedding only lasts a day? These mason jars are with me for the long haul.