Vintage cookbooks

The other day I bought some vintage cookbooks on Etsy for some 1960's inspiration. When they came in I found that the typography wasn't that interesting, but that the styling of the images and the images themselves were. I mean, look at those photos! Grotesque but designed, fascinating but utterly unappetizing foodwise. Mostly they make you giggle. But I started perusing them and became surprisingly, bizarrely, excited.

I am going to have a 1950's sandwich party.
I am going to make sandwiches that look like teacakes, frosted in cream cheese.
And I might make them look like this:

which are actually mini tiered fruit and herb cakes, found on Studio Diy a while back.

Here's a quote from the sandwich book:

"Today's sandwiches are served for almost any purpose and on all occasions.... They are as familiar to the social butterfly as to the man who carries a dinner pail"


A dinner pail! Time to update the sandwich. I know I personally am tired of typical little tea sandwiches, crustless and white-breaded. Or rather I always snarf them down when they're around but it's high time to revisit or reimagine these little snacks into the fantastic again.

The British knew how to do a street party

I came across a photo of a British street party in the most recent issue of Elle Decoration UK (that's right, I freely spend ten bucks on a British shelter magazine), and was so taken by the beauty and energy. What looks like an infinite table stretches off into the distance covered in tablecloths and pots of wildflowers. Bunting swags back and forth between buildings and every resident has come out to celebrate the Jubilee. These people know how to do a proper communal party.

In Brooklyn there are annual block parties, where the street is closed off from traffic for a day. Neighbors bring out snacks onto their stoops, kids play basketball in the street or sometimes someone will even set up a badminton set. A great one we went to was on our old block at 1st street in Park Slope, where not only did residents set up tables outside their buildings with tons of italian food, but our next door neighbor had trays of tequila shots! I'm not advocating public drunkenness, just a little wildness injected into a quiet affair.

But there always seems to be something lackluster about these block parties. Everyone is still kind of separated as they sit on their stoops, only chatting with the people they know. The kids are the ones having the most fun and perhaps they do some bonding, which knits together the mini-neighborhood. Blocks in Brooklyn can be their own microcosm in the best of ways. Still, I wish there could be these acres of tables covered in linen and flowers, with kids in jaunty paper hats and bunting simply everywhere, probably put up by lots of dads on ladders yelling at each other across the street to "Hang it higher, higher!"

Top to bottom:
Photo from Elle Decoration UK, June 2012 (no attribution)
Children's Peace Celebration 1945
A coronation party on Herriot Hill (I'm guessing the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth)
World War II street peace party

Why not ask a groomsman?

I actually have no idea if guys out there believe in asking a best friend or brother to be their groomsman with a card, but I liked the bridesmaid shoes I did so much that I think dudes should do these too. And I think this is a pretty fun way to do it—I'd be someone's groomsman. In fact, I've been a "Best Man" before.

Go here, download, print and cut out. And tie to something cool.


All designs copyright A Printable Press, do not sell or redistribute

Masking tape dress

Gasp-worthy. 80 hours of work, 17 rolls of tape. By Esther Boller, images courtesy Esther Boller, found on BurdaStyle via Craftzine

Fortune Cookie uses

If I had thought of these custom fortune cookies in time for August's 1 year birthday party, I would have jumped on this for favors. We don't have a chinese restaurant in our new neighborhood that  gives you fortune cookies and I find myself, oddly, forlorn. Who knew I would miss generally cardboard-y cookies and not terribly enlightening fortunes? But I do.

If I had thought about it in time, I would have baked fortune cookies and filled them with messages. Here are some of the fortunes/directions I would have written for my cookies:

—Take a walk in the woods
—Go and kiss a wookie
—Pet a nice-looking dog you see in the park, let it lick your hand
—Stand in the sunlight for at least 2 minutes with your eyes closed
—Turn off your internet for a full day
—Cook tater tots with melted cheese and jalapeños
—Make sure to look at the next full moon

Of course you could also just order these cookies from Ladybug Fortune Cookies (especially that last silvery one!) and have a custom message put in such as "Thank you for making our wedding so sweet" or something equally tacky. Perhaps add a "ha ha" at the end.


Images courtesy Ladybug Fortune Cookies

Personalized Viewmaster

I posted long ago about an amazing Viewmaster wedding invitation, and I got thinking about Viewmasters in general. I started poking around online and found a place where you can get your own custom Viewmaster reels made—Image3D. Can you picture a loved one opening this box on their birthday and seeing photos of their favorite events from the past year? Or for your parents' 50th anniversary? Or your favorite photos from your honeymoon as a surprise anniversary gift?

For some reason I am enchanted that this company was founded by this guy who looks exactly like what I imagine every National Geographic photographer from the past 40 years should look like. Earnest.

Images courtesy  Image3D

The perfect kraft paper envelopes

It may come as a surprise, but the perfect kraft paper envelope is not easy to find. Not one that is the color of kraft paper, but has that soft/rough feel that's like an oddly appealing cardboardy velvet. I don't think I have a better way of describing it. Available at Besotted Brand.


Image courtesy Tristan B.

Vintage paper decorations

These made me gasp.

From Ethanollie, found via Frolic

Twigs & Honey and bravery

I would love to be brave enough to wear something like this every day. I am sort of a minimalist in dress, but my heart is the opposite of minimal. My heart is filled with fantastical detail, sticks and feathers and tendrils, my house is too. I would like to have the bravery wear things like these for no occasion whatsoever.

Images courtesy Twigs and Honey

Oscars Inspiration

Despite the Academy Awards purportedly being about film, it seems like there's nothing that excites people more about Oscar Night than... the dresses! Best-dressed, worst-dressed, all for our delectation and inspiration and critique. I went into my favorite coffee shop yesterday and they had a newspaper laid out facing towards the customers and were asking each one, "Which is your favorite dress?" I have to admit I feared the personality-test they must have been conducting behind the innocuous question. 

Then this morning I happened upon the blog The Inside Source, and clicked on an image of Rooney Mara because I looooved her bangs and lipstick. What I discovered was that not only were they making a playlist of their favorite dresses, they had links to dresses with a similar sensibility on eBay. How do they know?? What was their decision process?? There were many dresses both in the Oscars and on eBay that I wasn't crazy about, but here and there something a little flirty peeked out, something a little eye-catching...

Inspiration is everywhere. 

All images via The Inside Source, photo of Rooney Mara by Michael Buckner/Getty Images

Boots

Boots are the only way to go. I saw this photo on OnceWed (by Richard Israel) which made me think of my own wedding after-party boots (seen here on the subway, photo taken by my friend Noah Landow).

Twee and delightful

Happyy Monday! Mondays should be celebrated with fun things to ward off any work fears. This one is for the kid in all of us. The online shop The Small Object is the cottage industry of artist Sarah Neuberger. Her love of tiny objects comes out in wedding toppers, rubber stamps, and little prints. You can get a custom wedding topper showcasing your outfits-to-be! And I am mad for the Stick 'Em Up Scratch Pad.

All images courtesy Sarah Neuberger in The Small Object

Painted wishbones!

These little faux-wishbones would be an amazing wedding or party favor! A chance at a wish for everyone. Made by Something's Hiding in Here, who also make awesome one-of-a-kind bowties perfect for that special guy on that special day.

Photo courtesy of Something's Hiding in Here on Etsy

Oo, what an invitation this would make

I am drawn more and more to the idea of full-color wedding invitations—you wouldn't be able to letterpress them of course, but if you're printing digitally why not make the most of your medium?

This print by Matthew Kavan Brooks, sold at Society6, would be an amazing invitation.

Photo courtesy Society6

Found via Miss Moss

Mountaintop wedding with Starry Night by us

When you see photos of a wedding like this, you can't help but feel honored to have been even a small part of the couple's day. Frances and Ben had a zen ceremony on a mountaintop near San Francisco and used our "Starry Night" design for their stationery. Ah those fields... I believe running through a field like that could solve the world's woes...

As featured on the fabulous wedding blog Ruffled, all photos by Delbarr Moradi

Wedding websites by A Printable Press are here!

We are so excited to announce that we have partnered with Glösite to offer several wedding websites and online invitations. We translated some of our most popular stationery designs into web-friendly designs, here's a peek at a few:

All Lit Up

Amor

Carved Initials

If you're interested in a paperless option for your wedding, check out A Printable Press on Glösite now!

All images courtesy A Printable Press on Glösite

Definitely should be a new trend

You know what should be a new trend for wedding attire? CRAZY HAIRPIECES.

Found via Black and WTF, which everyone should visit regularly

Book design, old and new, is always inspiring. I am more and more drawn to the idea of wacky wacky invitations. Couldn't any of these be wacky-great?

Clockwise from upper left: "Milk" designed by Barbara DeWilde, "Raising the Perfect Child though Guilt and Manipulation" designed by Jeff Miller, "Everything Matters!" designed by Isaac Tobin, "Japan; A Pictorial Interpretation" by unknown

Found via Book Cover Archive

Loving address stamps

Sometimes you just don't want to hand-write your return address. Or use one of those sticky labels. Sometimes you have 100 envelopes you need to address, for your wedding, for your extensive list of holiday card receivers, for that newsletter you're sending. And perhaps ALL THE TIME, I would want one of these personalized address stamps by MaeMae Paperie!

Found via Parcel Post

Tape art

I'm sure this is one of those things that is harder than it looks, but how wonderful would it be to decorate just with colored tape? Here are some of my favorite images I've found. Don't you feel there must be a fast way to decorate your house, your party, your wedding, with giant graphic outlines and words in bright fluorescent tones?

Top two from BurkeandPryde.comhttp://www.burkeandpryde.blogspot.com/, the fabulous team behind the Bergdorf Goodman windows this year, the second from a random google search that led to CasaSugar