The best of New York gift, part 1

One of the best things about going to the big shows is meeting people that you truly respect and admire. We set the bar pretty high with our encounter with Jonathan Adler, but we were still more than thrilled to meet stationery icon, Anne Taintor.

Anne has been making some of the most clever and witty stationery and gift items for the past twenty some years. Her collaged cards, magnets, totes and other products bear such ingenious phrases as "I love not camping," "martinis....they're not just for breakfast anymore" and "someone was going to have to set a bad example." Anne's booth is based on the design of her kitchen, and it fits the retro quality of her products perfectly. She even has a section on her website that interviews the models (called Taintorettes!) used in her products. Anne is an inspiration to those in the stationery world and she was so kind and friendly - great to meet you Anne!

Featured Retailer: Broadway Paper

We always love catching up with Tracie Stier-Johnson, owner of Broadway Paper, and she recently e-mailed us to tell us about her brand new blog. It's a fun place to learn all about goings-on at the store (including celebrity sightings!) as well as musings about life and Tracie's wonderful family (we did her daughter Hunter's birth announcements what feels like ages ago!)

The shop is a paper destination in Milwaukee and carries some of our favorite fellow designers, including Egg Press (love their thumbprint note cards!), Snow & Graham, and newcomer Susy Jack.

Located at: 191 North Broadway, Milwaukee, WI (414) 277-7699 Store hours: Monday - Friday 9-7; Saturday 10-5; Sunday noon-4

Anatomy of a Booth, Part II

We're set up (finally!). We filled our frames with cards today, and it's looking pretty cute. Okay, so maybe we're a little biased, but we're quite proud of ourselves, given that we had less that two weeks to pull it together! It's a amazing what can be accomplished with a can of spray paint and a Sharpie. You can't see us, but there's some back patting going on! Tomorrow is the first day of the show, and we are (hopefully!) all ready. If you are in the New York area, we are in Pier 92, booth 36009. Stop by and say hi!

Hello!New York

We're off tonight to the big apple for the New York International Gift Fair. If you are going to the show, we'll be in Pier 92, booth 36009. Please stop by to say hi!

Prize

We just discovered these gorgeous photos of Prize, an eclectic shop in Ashland, Oregon, on the Paris Boutique Hotel blog (a favorite!) and we are frothing at the mouth! We want to drop everything and go, right now (unfortunately, however, we blew our budget for vintage ephemera at last month's Alameda Flea Market so we may need to postpone the spontaneous road trip!).

You can visit her adorable website here - just note that you can't shop online just yet. See more gorgeous photos here.

264 East Main Street, Ashland, Oregon (541) 482-0345

Store hours: Monday-Saturday 10:00-5:30 Sunday: 11:00-5:00

Featured Retailer: Magma

We paid a visit to one of favorite design shops and Hello!Lucky stockist, Magma in Covent Garden, the other day. As always, they had an impeccably edited selection of modern, design-led gifts which we coveted, fawned over, etc.

We couldn't get enough of these ridiculous Japanese soft toys, shown on the left and far right of this shop window vignette. We relate to the expression on both their faces!

And, in our persistent effort to build our brand in the UK, we couldn't resist these diva-esque business card holders.

Magma Books, 16 Earlham Street, Covent Garden, London (Covent Garden tube) Opening hours: Mon-Sat: 10am - 7pm, Sun: 12pm - 6pm

Truly hilarious cake toppers

Trolling Etsy is one of our favorite pastimes for wedding inspiration, and this quirky rabbit cake topper caught our eye:

Designer Jennifer Murphy specializes in wedding and baby shower products. You can visit her Etsy shop here.

Vintage Playing Cards

We discovered these delightful greeting cards made from vintage playing cards last week at an a little antiques shop in Camden Passage, London (near the Angel tube station in Islington).

The concept of these cards is brilliant: a graphic, vintage playing card mounted with photo corners (usually face-down to take advantage of the decorated backs) onto a plain ecru card. They're perfect for a DIY project and would make great wedding seating cards -- since cards come in decks of 52 it's easy to make multiples! Some of these vintage graphics are truly inspired, particularly of the Erte-inspired ladies with their dogs on the right. See the entire collection here.

Abigail Brown

We are huge fans of Abigail Brown, one of the artists who contributed to our upcoming book from Chronicle Books, Handmade Hellos (in bookstores in September!) and were so excited to hear that she has launched a blog so we can keep up to date on her latest delightful creations.

Her quirky birds are so charming and full of amusing character...love the color palette - it reminds us of an especially delicious cupcake!

Wall art that would be so fanastic in a nursery...the little fox with the one crazy eye is hilarious!

Matchbox Tweeters! Each Tweeter tucked into in his own little vintage match box, decorated with bits of fabric and stitching...

The gentleman pictured above is so very appropriately named Bostwick P. Federhut. Seriously, the tiny turquoise hat and upturned snout is just too much! You can shop for more darling critters and more at her etsy shop...

Scenes from a Gift Show

We just finished a busy week at the San Francisco International Gift Show. In addition to catching up with some of our favorite boutiques, stores and places to buy fabulous things, we made friends with a number of new and great vendors. We were huge fans of our neighbor, Tina, and her eclectic jewelry:

We also enjoyed visiting with fellow letterpress card designer Kim Austin, from Austin Press:

We have a soft spot for early California pottery. The new styles based on vintage designs from Bauer really caught our eye:

Ryantown

Last weekend we paid a visit to Ryantown, Rob Ryan's new shop in the Columbia Flower Market, London, which we heard about from one of our favorite London bloggers, Wee Birdy. (The market was heaving with people and we couldn't get far enough away from the storefront to take a decent pic so this one comes via Wee Birdy's fabulous post, as does the shot of the tiles below.)

We've long adored Mister Rob's work, especially his gorgeous, intricate paper cuts. But we were practically giddy at the sight of all the fabulous new bits and bobs to which he's applied is fanciful, organic, folk-arty style.

One of our favorites: these delicate one-of-a-kind vintage glasses, which Ryan has decorated with birdies, stars, flowers, people, and sayings. At £10 each, these make great gifts and perfect collector's items.

We also loved these new ceramic plates. This papercut, which reads "Thank you for everything" pretty much sums up the generous, whimsical spirit of Ryan's work.

One of the wonderful things about the shop is that you get to be surrounded by Ryan's quirky world: these etched glass doors sit at the back of the shop, while this "You can still do a lot with a small brain" (here, here!) tile mural greets visitors at the entrance.

And of course we adore his line of four laser-cut cards for Roger la Borde. The one on the left is quite possibly the best romantic cards we've ever laid eyes on!

And finally, we peeked in the shop window at some lovely new flower vases - love them! For ongoing news and updates visit the Ryantown shop blog. You can also shop for a limited range of Ryan's work online here.

Ryantown, 126 Columbia Road, London (Old Street tube) Shop hours: Saturday, 1 - 4 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

San Francisco International Gift Fair

We're thrilled to be participating in the San Francisco International Gift Fair. We started with a blank slate - white walls, which we painted a taupe stone color. Then, we installed shelving, as well as our fabulous new sign from Because We Can (thanks Jillian and Toast!):

We then went to work on the lighting and decor (including bright fuchsia cherry blossoms!):

And before you knew it (or, two days later) a fantastic booth appeared!

We are especially fond of our Jonathan Adler vase and fuchsia and taupe aprons:

If you are at the gift fair, be sure to stop by! We are in booth 6010 in the North Hall.

San Francisco Gift Fair, Moscone Center, San Francisco Remaining show dates: July 28 - 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.; July 29 - 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Open to the Trade only.

Hello!Lucky Shop!

The moment we moved into our new space, we fell in love with the idea of having a little shop area where visitors could purchase our letterpress greeting cards and custom invitations, which are all designed and printed on premises. We're thrilled to announce that it's finally happened, and our little shop is open to all!

Downstairs we've displayed greeting cards and boxed note cards (interspersed with vintage ephemera). Our custom studio and wedding-related items are upstairs (some examples from our baby collection are below).

The talented Francois Vigneault did our window display, based on our Birthday Cars card. Ridiculously cute!

So stop by if you're in San Francisco! We'd love to see you!

Location: 977 Howard Street between 5th and 6th (Powell St. Bart) Shop hours: 9:00 - 5:30, Monday - Friday and by appointment

Photos courtesy of Shauna Leytus and Sara Remington.

San Francisco Zine Fest

We took a trip to Golden Gate Park last weekend to visit the San Francisco Zine Fest. Some of our highlights were handmade books from Newlights Press (and Hello!Lucky printer Aaron Cohick!):

As well as zines from Family Style, and new cards from Motermouth Press:

One of our favorite booths was Pod Post, with their letterpress patch kit - too cute!

Delicious deco soap packaging

Since we're drooling over the new Claus Porto collection, we figured it was only fair to pay homage to the original designs, captured beautifully in this photo from Cologne & Cotton (you can also see all Claus Porto products here).

We also found this gorgeous soap set from a Spanish soap maker, Suavidad, at ALL-POP, a delightful online shop specializing in imported pop culture emphemra, tchotchkes and knick knacks - we love their "Good Luck" section!

Featured Retailer: Hide All

We popped in to say "hi" to the lovely girls at Hide All's lovely Tower Bridge boutique (and to make a delivery of our gift wrap and cards!). They showed us new Orla Kiely catalogue, which we nearly died over - the Fall collection is amazing, and we are eagerly waiting for it to be added to the website (in the meantime, shop the summer sale)! In a fit of passion, we found ourselves leaving with this lovely new Fall bag...

Renegade Craft Fair

Last weekend we participated in the first annual San Francisco Renegade Craft Fair at Fort Mason. Not knowing what to expect, we were blown away by the energy and excitement at the event! There were too many vendors to list all our favorites, but here's a start:

City-themed t-shirts from Campfire Goods :

Apple boxes and tea towels from Miss Natalie:

Mobiles and collages from Petit Collage, and jewelry from Nous Savons:

Not to mention, a fantastic performance from the Mucca Pazza marching band:

Thanks to everyone at Renegade and those who stopped by our booth!

-Shauna

Room

Last week, we made the thrilling discovery of Room, a brand new vintage store on Valencia Street, one of our favorite shopping streets in the San Francisco.

It is chock full of fabulous vintage furniture and ephemera, and we found ourselves jauntily humming a familiar Julie Andrews tune as we browsed through a brilliantly curated selection of our favorite things: old wooden rulers, vintage globes, and cozy arm chairs...

...lamps, cigar boxes, foo dogs and milk bottles...

...Matadors, school house tables, and Russian Dolls! We'll happily make "room" chez nous for any of these items (and, indeed, we did!).

Renegade Craft Fair

We're so excited for the first annual Renegade Craft Fair, coming up on July 11 - 12 at San Francisco's Fort Mason. We'll be there, selling our letterpress greeting cards and shopping for oodles of fabulous hand-crafted goods!

Chronicle Books Field Trip

Our friend Nancy Deane at Chronicle Books recently posted an entertaining blog entry documenting the Home Publishing Group's field trip last week to the Hello!Lucky studio in San Francisco. Above, one of the (slightly embarrassing!) photos she took of us tracing the roots of Hello!Lucky back to some of Eunice's original sketchbooks from circa Grade 2. I'm not sure if "Amos the Rat" or Mr. "Bone" the Dog have quite the widespread appeal of our beloved sock monkey, but it all had to start somewhere! Thanks for sharing, Nancy!