Best. Day. Ever.

I suppose it's consider "in bad form" to be a braggart, but after the day I've had I simply can't resist - sorry. Oh, and I totally understand if you want to stop reading right now, but if you're intrigued, please continue on.

It all started bright and early this morning, when Darcey (aka Gal Friday) and I hit the road for San Francisco to take our first letterpress class. The class was taught by the ever-so-talented Jordan Ferney (of Oh Happy Day!), and was held in the studio she shares with her artist husband, Paul Ferney. Jordan was super sweet and did a great job giving us a truncated history of the letterpress as well as showing us her first letterpress attempt (which really wasn't that embarrassing). Then, she gave us all a play-by-play of how to use a letterpress before setting us off to give it a whirl. I love, love, loved the class - and now I have 250 Bows and Sparrows business cards that I designed and printed myself. Yay!

Jordan was gracious enough to permit me to snap away during class - and, being the shutterbug that I am, that's just what I did. Here are just some of the many photos I took:

{Jordan's letterpress, a Vandercook 4}

{Darcey takes the helm}

{My turn to give it a whirl - by the way, I totally made that apron from pillowcases about 10 years ago.}

{Jordan's corner of the studio}

{Close up of Jordan's inspiration board}

Ok, so you probably think that the letterpress class was all I had to brag about, but wait, there's more! Darcey and I also got to see our friend Brian, who joined us for some coffee at Ritual and a little shopping in the Mission - where I scored these awesome arrow earrings! Yup, still bragging.

At any rate, we said our goodbyes to Brian and headed off to 4th Street in Berkeley to meet my lovely friend Jasmine (see below).

{Jasmine and me, pre churros}

See, here we are together, right before we ate some delicious churros. I have pictures of us eating the churros, but found them to be a little too suggestive - if you catch my drift.

Think I'm done bragging? Not even close! Next, I get a phone call from a little lady by the name of Vanya, who happens to be one of my favorite people, ever. At any rate, she is on 4th Street coming to find us, and she does. Thus rounding out the: Best. Day. Ever.

{Jasmine, Vanya and me - I seriously love these ladies}

Pick A Card, Any Card

Several months ago I signed up for a letterpress class with Jordan Ferney, a San Francisco-based events planner, letterpress printer and blogger. During the class we were slated to print our own business cards - yay! Unfortunately, the class got cancelled - boo!

Well, the classes are being offered again and I just enrolled - yay! That said, I need your help picking out a design for my business cards. I've already created (and blogged about) a couple of designs, but I have new readers and I want to hear what everyone thinks. If you have a second, let me know which design you like best and why. Thanks, guys!

Make It Official

Every time my friend's daughter looses a tooth, they sprinkle "fairy dust" (aka glitter) where the tooth was left for that little winged tooth thief. That's pretty adorable, huh? Well, the folks at Notion Farm like things a little more official - hence their official tooth fairy kit. Each kit comes with a letterpress "certificate of record," where you can record your child's name, age, which tooth they lost and, my personal favorite, the compensation details. Simply slip the certificate in the bag, go to sleep and let the Tooth Fairy work her magic. Fairy Dust sold separately.