Circus Fever

It's no secret that we love everything circus. We find timeless inspiration from the peppy colorways and the wild patterns, especially when we find one of a kind vintage circus themed items, like this fabric (above via Cherry Tomato).

The images inside Circus Alphabet from Whitman Tell-A-Tale-Books are packed with hilarious illustrations of the circus days of the 1950s. We can only imagine the excitement of such a fantastic event!

And we can't forget precious Jude's first birthday party invitations and circus party decor!

It doesn't end there! We have our beloved Circus Photo Birth Announcement!

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my! So many wonderful ideas!

Letterpress love: Menus for Chez Panisse

Ahh, the world of letterpress shines again. Menus for Chez Panisse is a visual record of forty years of food, love, and appreciation for fine printing. In this unbelievable collection of letterpress menus printed by Patricia Curtan, you will find images of hand carved linoleum block illustrations and lead type text describing the mouthwatering ingredients from the early days of Chez Panisse. In the early 1970s when Alice Waters first opened the iconic Berkeley restaurant, Patricia printed the menus. by hand. for years. and we are gushing.

It's almost painful to imagine how many restaurants treat menus these days, when Alice Waters presented her guests with hand printed art at their dinner plate. It just goes to show how a nice quality menu really enhances the dining experience!

Be sure to purchase your own copy of Menus for Chez Panisse here or here.

Photos from Mint

Craft inspiration from Felt & Wire

Calling all crafters! Felt and Wire is an excellent source for sprucing up your paper products and gifts. We piled a few of our favorites, but there are endless choices! Check out their shop here.

(above: Paperphine twine)

Paperfinger stamp

Top Hat tape

Visit to Kansas City!

Letterpress lovers take note! Recently, one of our intrepid employees took a trip to Hammerpress in Kansas City, Missouri and came back with some great photos of their lovely studio!

Check out their very organized shelves of metal and wood type, as well as the impeccably well kept presses.

In their impressive brick and mortar storefront, they sell greeting cards, posters and lots of one-of-a-kind goods.

A closeup view of their beautiful wooden wall and display.

Thank you to Brady, Matt, Eric and Jenn for the tour around the studio!

You can purchase their awesome posters here.

Sunshine at the Curiosity Shoppe

The Curiosity Shoppe, a local San Francisco boutique that carries quirky home decor and funky personal accessories, is hosting a letterpress poster show that features a print (above) by our very own printer, James Tucker! We couldn't be more excited for him!  The show opens July 8th and also showcasing some of our favorite fellow Bay Area letterpress artists, like Pie Bird Press and Dutch Door Press. For more information about the show, please click here.

James' double-sided print, "Who Loves the Sun" was produced in a limited edition of 50 and is available for $40.

Fabulous Wedding Gift Guides

Feeling wedding gift blues? Want to give something other than kitchen platters or silverware? We feel your pain. Although wedding registry's are super helpful and a guaranteed success, there's something special about wrapping up the perfect gift for the happy couple. Refinery 29 recently came out with two brilliant gift guides that will have you feeling gift bliss. Here are a few of our favorite suggestions!

Custom Mugs by BROOKLYNrehab (above)

Custom return address stamp by Paperfinger (ideal for sending thank you cards!)

Ideal Bookshelf print by Jane Mount (for their new home together!)

Diana F+ Kirameki Lomography Camera (perfect to capture honeymoon highlights!)

More great gift ideas can be found here: The Ultimate Wedding Gift Guide and Best Host and Hostess Gift Guide

Thanks R29!

Jude's French flash cards

At craft night, Eunice has been working on French flash cards for her son, Jude. They are pen & ink illustrations with a watercolor finish - absolutely fantastic for any aspiring bilingual babies!

Eunice is trying to raise Jude bilingual in French and English, so she's always trying to find fun ways to teach him new vocabulary (ok, so he doesn't speak yet, but!) as well as adding to her own French vocab.  She has a love for making flash cards - the words really stick and it's a fun and quick excuse to doodle.  It's also a great excuse to play around with painting/watercolor techniques - the perfect platform to practice on (being the raging multi-tasker that she is!)

Her inspiration for each card is to find things Jude has seen, or words that are just plain amusing (like the fact that raccoon directly translates to "a washing young rat" more or less!) - both the raccoon and the otter are animals they saw at the zoo recently.  The kites are from a recent outing to Crissy Field and the race car is a noise he's learned to make lately.  Next up are a horse, gorilla, tiger, cow and duck - more noises he's been making lately (for the gorilla he pounds his chest!). Once he sees a cow and starts mooing, he will moo for the next 20 minutes!

Beautiful Decals by Shanna Murray

We are huge fans of Shanna Murray and found this  post on Creature Comforts about her new decal collection.

We think a customized decal would be fantastic as decoration for a wedding, such as "The Smiths" or " Eunice & Daniel"!

Or maybe a sweet note on the wall of a baby's nursery or playroom...

How darling!

James L. Tucker's Prints on Hall Ready

One of our esteemed printers, James, has been busy making prints on off hours at Hello!Lucky.  He recently had a solo show in Aspen and Hall Ready featured his work yesterday.

Love the historic Americana. Who doesn't love Babe the big blue ox? (titled Lumber)

If you're in San Francisco, check out his work at The Perish Trust at 728 Divisadero.

Rock on, James, and keep that cylinder rollin'!

Check out his statement and bio, and see more of his work here.

Kitty Andrews Millinery

Easter bonnets and spring have put us in the mood for millinery, and we are agog at the extravagantly sculpted, yet surprisingly affordable offerings from Kitty Andrews.

If you prefer something a little more understated, perhaps a pillbox:

The one on the left would be a delightfully demure, mod alternative to a veil, no?

And wouldn't this be just decadent to wear to a Derby party:

Enjoy more gorgeous designs this season on the Kitty Andrews Millinery site.

Commemorative plates

It may seem as though we are just a wee bit obsessed with The Royal Wedding, but when we found these plates designed by our most favorite, Jonathan Adler, we couldn't resist! They are part of a series of designer commemorative plates that will be auctioned off on April 29th to benefit Shelter, a British housing and homelessness charity.

Alternative Wedding Invitations

R.S.V.P.H.R.H is an exhibit of re-designed wedding invitations for the royal wedding at the Rag Factory in London. What a dream project!

Read more about the exhibit here.

Beautifully Embroidered Classic Book Covers

More to make us swoon today! Behold these beautiful embroidered book covers that Penguin Classics commissioned from Jillian Tamaki:

Makes us all want to curl up with cocoa and re-read these classics!

Japand-aid

Our SOMA neighbors, GAMA-GO, had a brilliant idea that we were honored to help produce!

Japand-aid! All proceeds for the sales of this limited edition letterpress print will go to the Red Cross in aid of disaster relief in Japan. Here is a link to the GAMA-GO website where you can find more info and order the poster when it goes live today at 1PM PST.

Here's GAMA GO's initial sketch

GAMA- GO implementing the inspiration in Illustrator

Max the master printer manning the Cylinder

And Eunice autographing the finished collaboration!

Hello!Lucky was thrilled to donate its expertise and elbow-grease, and GAMA-GO will donate the shipping. Each poster costs $50, so the entire sum will go to help the relief efforts! How great is that?!

Again, here's the link. And thanks so much to GAMA-GO!

Handmade for Japan

Some great crafts-folk have curated a beautiful auction as a benefit for Japan. Their project was featured on the New York Times Blog today. The auction starts March 24th, so have a look if you get a chance.  Here's a sampling of some of the exquisite objects in the auction:

From top left to bottom, artists shown are Kristin Kieffer, Naomi Dalglish, Jun Kaneko, Justin Rothshank and Shoko Teruyama.

They have had such a huge outpouring of people wishing to contribute work, that they are unfortunately unable to take any more submissions.

But check out their Facebook page and show your support. Thanks!

Teeny Hand-Blown Bottles

How gorgeous and adorable are these! Hand blown borosilicate glass bottles, made from the same sort of glass as Pyrex and your everyday run-of-the-mill scientific glassware. Amazing!

We have a weakness for miniature things anyhow, so we really have a shine on these. Love green glass!

Lordy! A wine bottle and a teeny Erlenmeyer flask!  The maker is a pro and has a degree in scientific glass blowing, but the work is surprisingly affordable. The etsy shop is called Kivaford. Imagine our surprise! Wouldn't these be fab as wedding favors, for wee bud vases?

Fun with Parallels!

Wow! We realized what Julia Rothman's new wedding invitation design, Daydream, reminded us of. A potter friend of Hello!Lucky makes whimsical work that coordinates beautifully with this design!

See what we mean? Pretty swell, huh? Jana Evans is the creator of this fun and funky porcelain— all hand made! She wheel-throws and hand-builds and then etches all those fine lines. Beautiful and fascinating stuff! But the curves and lines just made us draw parallels (so to speak!) to Daydream.

Jana is doing an artist residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. It's a mecca for clay and ceramic enthusiasts and pros. Check out the Bray website by clicking on the link above if you're interested in seeing more amazing work!

Had to share this fun pitcher, jar, and bowl set too. Can't get enough of that drippy green glaze! Gorgeous!

Design By Leftovers on Design Milk

Good Morning! Wow! We needed a pick-me-up with our coffee and these VIVID pieces did the trick. Aren't they gorgeous!?  Found on Design Milk— their creators are a Swedish group called Design By Leftovers. The above piece is called San Francisco Leftovers. Yes, Ma'am!

We'll take two, please. They're small.

Sometimes one just needs a triple shot of color to get going in the morning, no?

designworklife

Love this blog, designworklife.  We found they had posted about our Jude Turns 1 party invitation, and in the process turned up all sorts of beautiful things!  Foremost in our minds today were these amazing wee artist books by Elsa Mora (click on her name and be awed at her cut paper creations!)

Be sure not to get completely derailed by Elsa's amazing stuff, though, as there are all other sorts of goodies to see on designworklife.

Enjoy!

Papercraft

We spotted Papercraft over on Book by its Cover - incredible! Obviously, we love all things paper, and this book is no exception. Let the crafting begin!