Hello!Lucky
Letterpress greeting cards, thank you notes, DIY projects, free printables and craft inspiration.
Jules of Brand Bird does these fabulous damask patterns. We love the fact that they are made up of bits of flora and fauna - a quirky take on a traditional damask.
How hilarious is the pattern above? Hilariously titled "Fancy Feast". Love the sassy fashionistas too!
The crafting party last night was a smash hit!
All of our demo stations were full of ambitious crafters–Hello!Lucky's snowy variation on Petra Boase’s Owl-y Friend yielded many colorful results! You can download the template here to try it out for yourself!
Our Handmade Hellos contributors demonstrated various craft projects. François Vigneault instructed guests on how to make postcards composed of found maps, a fun and easy project for anyone with a crafty eye.
Sarah Adler's magical banner project used dainty little boxes to enclose a quirky greeting one letter at a time!
Stacy and Nicole (above) from Pancake & Franks had a station devoted to their accordion card, which uses durable board ends to make up a booklet.
Jody Warshaw, Christina Loff, Kate Woodrow from Chronicle Books showing off their projects!
Happy crafters!
Jeffrey McGrew from Because We Can fashioned his card into part of his ensemble!
Nancy Deane from Chronicle Books shows off her owl.
Sarah Adler watches as one of her students displays her very own magical banner.
The Hello!Lucky staff were, of course, busy at work! Pictured above, Max Koch and Shauna Leytus were the studio bartenders while, below, James Tucker and Alex Ewers greeted incoming crafters!
Aaron Cohick, our lead pressman, was kind enough to demonstrate the ins-and-outs of our vintage Heidelberg presses throughout the evening.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Guys are notoriously tough to shop for, so we thought we'd round up some gift ideas for the boys! (We never shy away from a challenge!) Here are a few things we thought were cool, amusing, useful, or otherwise covetable. Audio Stuff
We don't know a single guy who doesn't have some level of audio fixation...
The iPod Gramaphone $395 Pretty pricey, but sooooo cool...
Areaware Magno Wooden Radio $275 mp3 compatible and made with sustainable wood.
iWood for the iPhone (also available for iTouch and iPod!) $100
Spiff It Up
In the words of ZZ Top, every girl's crazy 'bout a sharp dressed man...
Anchors Away! Pocket Square $14.00
Cabin in the Woods Cufflinks $25
Space Invader Cufflinks $70 Relive the '80's in style.
Evergreen wallet $125
Edwin Jagger Razor $86 This razor made in England by Edwin Jagger isn't just an ordinary shaving tool, but an elegant reminder of the ages-old art of a good and proper shave.
Red Wing Iron Ranger Boots $298 Red Wing Shoes recreated these boots from a 1953 ad for J.Crew. Super cool vintage style.
Instant Button $1.50 Admittedly equivalent to receiving a pair of white tube socks for Christmas, but how genius is this? It's a stick on button that (according to the packaging) will stay on for 30 washes and it actually buttons! Perhaps a candidate for a stocking stuffer...
Weapons T-shirt $20
This kid doodle inspired collection of weapons range from the practical whatever's-around kind such as rubberbands, a broken bottle, a cast-iron skillet, an ice pick and a brick to the made-to-kill-and-mame kind such as a sawn-off shotgun, a kitana, a mace and a sling-shot. Hilarious.
Whale Belt Buckle $54 Super cool on. Check out their other styles too - we especially like the pirate ship, feather, and erm, beaver (raised eyebrow and smirk) options.
Other Stuff
Stencil 101 $24.95
Compensation for Missing Limbs Poster $20 Who can put a price on the leg that's been replaced by a wooden peg? This poster sets the standard for compensation for limbs lost via treacherous sailing incidents and other mishaps. One of a series of brilliant posters by Office. Plus, the purchase of this poster benefits 826 Valencia, a fantastic writing center for kids (and pirate supply shop - we recommend pairing this poster with a tin of Mermaid Bait or Repellant, or possibly a handy bottle of Scurvy Begone). A great gift and the spreading of Christmas spirit in one fell swoop!
Princess Lea Limited Edition Lithograph $49.99
We don't know a guy who doesn't have a thing for Star Wars, or at least the hots for Princess Lea!
Ash Yo-Yo $30
Snake Bike Lock $34 Ssss..step away from my bicycle!! A super snazzzzy serpent friend!
Custom Beer Carrier $20. For the beer aficionado, have a custom beer carrier made, engraved with an image of your choice!
Catapult $10 (ok, this might be pushing the envelope in terms of ridiculous gifts, but it made us accidentally snort, so we had to include it!)
We always love an excuse to don a smart hat (don't you wish someone would bring back that trend? We do!). The charming, vintage-inspired chapeaux from Oakland-based Topsy Turvy make us wish that hats were a de rigeur fashion accessory!
This Oh-So-Flirty Cocktail Hat was modeled after a vintage headpiece found at the flea market dating from the 1950's.
We love this sassy, burlesquey number...
Kim Brown-Dye, the sometime costumier & full-time milliner behind Topsy-Turvy makes a wide range of beautiful hats, with nods to a wide variety of eras and suitable for everything from a swank evening out to an outrageous costume party. She builds each one from scratch using buckram & wire construction which is then covered & trimmed using the finest materials & hand finishing.
The Evelyn - Victorian Top Hat...makes us want to don our riding habits, slap on the side-saddle and ride off into the sunset!
Who wouldn't want to have an excuse to channel Marie Antoinette?
Leopard print pillbox! So rock-a-billy fabulous!
Leather Bell Hop!
Rhinestone Mini Top Hat! Glittery!
Ah, glittery AND feathered...who can resist? We are positively swooning - if only we could have one of each!
Check out a video on Kim's studio and her hat-making here!
We were recently introduced to the works of Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy (read his blog here), self-described Mammal of Paradise, a most amazing advocate for the benefits of a life of Grace and Beauty, which we, of course, are hearty champions of as well! His book, The Affected Provincial's Companion, Volume One, promises (and delivers, gloriously) the reader the following:
Feats of Sartorial Cunning! Jaunty Verse! Deftly Rendered Turns of Phrase! Witticisms! Unbridled Pedantry! Dust Motes! Icy Hauteur! Well-Muscled Hindquarters!
The book is absolutely gorgeous through and through (as you know, Gentle Reader, we are great admirers of the classic, vintage-inspired book), from its leaf-green hardcover stamped silver foil to the charming magenta endpapers with a hilarious pattern of woodland critters, to the multitude of charming and enlightening diagrams within. It was designed, illustrated and typeset by the author and we heartily applaud the results!
A must read for any man about town. Above, a jaunty diagram accompanying a chapter titled "On the Perils of Sportswear. Or, a Battery of Irrefutable Misgivings Concerning a Shambling Citizenery and Its Detrimental Effects on the Fostering of a Civil Society; Included is a Five-Point "Fopwa" That Might Spare Our Nation the Shame That Comes with Being a DEN of UBIQUITY." See also, "Get Thee to Haberdashery. Or, the GENTLEMAN as a Revolutionary Archetype and his Role in the Demise of the GUY (A Brief Meditation.) Diagram pictured below:
(Fig. 8: The Guy (and thus a rascal) Acne, coldsore; Fused vertebrae (guitar, girl trouble); Painted into a corner. Fig. 9: The Gentleman Perfect coif; Pockets full of the finest lint; Shoeshine seen from orbit.)
Diagram accompanying a chapter entitled "Now That You Are A Man. Or, a Young Gentleman's Guide to the Proper Grooming of Facial Hair."
Get thee to a bookshop (or order online here or here) immediately and add this wonderful book to your library - it is brimming with brilliant insight and amusing musings; a required volume for any aesthete. You will not regret the purchase! A far more civilized, beautiful life now lies within the grasp of your trembling fingertips...
This weekend we were peddling our wares over at Bazaar Bizarre, a fabulous (and busy!) art & craft fair sponsored by Craft Magazine. There were over 100 vendors selling all sorts of handmade goods from the lovely to the hilarious.
Piperoid was at the next table over with their fantastic DIY paper robot. They come flat packed in these ingenious little kits that require only a pair of scissors!
More robotic goodness...
I Heart Guts was there - they always amuse with their adorable plush innards, hilarious t-shirts and other gut-related goodies. One of our favorite items was the "When Urine in Love" t-shirt sporting two perky kidneys mooning over each other. Silliness is always so satisfying!
Eunice got this awesome crab necklace from our next door neighbor, The Brown Banana - Gabriel Colaluca, proprietor of the Brown Banana makes all kinds of fabulous-one-of-kind jewelery from recycled materials such as watch faces, silverware, Scrabble pieces and more.
Another member of the banana family, BananaSaurus Rex, had adorable reversable bibs, gorgeous totes, wine wraps and more, all made from vintage tablecloths and the like and were handing out free lavender sachets with purchase, to boot!
The always inspiring Mara and Anna from Dutch Door Press had a wide array of beautiful things for sale - our favorite was their new series of prints of birds and flora from all 50 states (this is a new release and so far only California, Illinois and New York are available here, but we can't wait to see them all!)
Being knitting junkies, we couldn't resist purchasing some hand-dyed yarn from A Verb for Keeping Warm (despite our ever growing collection of unfinished projects and piles of yarn yet to be used!) The colors were so enticing, the voice of reason was immediately stamped out in favor of a couple of skeins of "Pink Octopus". If you're in the Bay Area, they are opening their new shop in Berkeley on December 6th!
Jocelyn Nguyen of Nous Savons had (as usual) a fabulous selection of jewelery, hair pieces, and clothing. The Nous Savons aestheic can be summed up with these words: Like wandering in your crazy great-aunt's attic. Fabulous.
We also stopped by to visit the talented Sarah Adler of Hearts & Anchors. Her whimsical, victorian-inspired notes (available here) are always a favorite of ours! She is also one of the contributors to our new book, Handmade Hellos! We were thrilled to see that the books were selling like hotcakes!
Our grandma, Evelyn Wood Moyle, is an inspiration and one of our favorite people in the world - over the years, she's been an avid birder, gardener, biologist, and potter. She lives on Lake Minnetonka in Excelsior, Minnesota. Here is she is pictured as a young woman, across from a portrait of her husband, John B. Moyle, and there's one of her many birding notebooks!
Her house is full of wonderful things, including plants, books, musical instruments, pottery, and ephemera. Here are some highlights...
Grandma's greenhouse is where she tends to all kinds of plants and battles the occasional aphid infestation. She made pottery for many years, so there all kinds of ceramic friends peeking out from nooks and crannies...
Her front porch is a wonderful place, and has this fantastic painting of loons (an inhabitant of the lake where she lives) on a faded piece of wood.
Her house is full of vintage toys that she used to play with as a kid, and which our parents played with, too. This Eeyore doll was always a favorite.
Some balls, bobbins, and a boat. We used the bobbins to go fishing on the lake...
All of these items could be found tucked in a corner of the porch, where we used to hang out, have meals, read, and look out at the lake, which is beautiful in the summer time with sailboats everywhere.
In the winter, it's a little less inviting!
There are books, magazines and binders everywhere, mostly pertaining to our grandfather's studies of Minnesota lakes. He was a conservationist for the State of Minnesota where he helped protect its famous system of 10,000 lakes, including stopping sewage from being dumped into them! There he is in the portrait on the wall...
The sleeping porch upstairs is where we used to spend a lot of time as kids (when we weren't in the lake). It still feels like summer camp up there!
Down the hall is our grandma's room where she keeps a collection of vintage dolls from her girlhood. The big doll was given to her when she was born - her aunt won it for her at Coney Island!
Here she was as a girl, and here she is today! So on this day of thanks, we want to say THANK YOU to our grandma for being such an inspiration! At 94, she's still just a spring chicken! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
With the holidays approaching, we can't help but feel a wee bit wistful about childhood. So when we discovered that Lady Bird, the British children's book publisher of the 1950s and 60s, sells prints of its iconic illustrations right here, we felt a happy glow of nostalgia!
We especially love the simple still lifes of everyday things from their picture books by Ethel Wingfield & Harry Wingfield and Baby's First Book illustrator H. Wooley. They're simple and oddly modern - we'd love to use them to decorate around the house!
Grace from Design*Sponge posted about this gorgeous, gorgeous collection of classic novels from Penguin Classics. We are avid collectors of vintage books, so needless to say the beautiful patterns in matte foil and super old-school look of these volumes are making us swoon!
They are an exclusive to Waterstone's in the UK (cue weeping, fretting and deep, deep envy, here in the U.S.), but they are available online, and may very well be worth the shipping charges!
Sigh.
While were on the topic of things vintage, we have to confess our obsession with Vintageous. We love their selection of vintage dresses and accessories, and while shopping there takes patience (especially for those of us that don't have, ahem, a 20-inch waist!), it's completely addictive and there are some amazing gems to be found!
It's the perfect place to troll for bridesmaid's dresses, like these beauties!
We also love vintage dresses for their daring use of color; okay, some of the colors (puce, bubble gum pink) are a little dated, but there are some like this cute gingham number and this fab teal print, that'll never go out of style:
Of course there are also great vintage dresses to be found at flea markets and on ebay. Here are a couple looks we're loving from ebay seller Red House Vintage, on sale now! The gunmetal blue wrap dress is calling our name...!
We find that the 40's and 50's are the best for fun (and figure-flattering) party dresses, but we gotta admit we love the 60's 70's too...like this amazing Sarmi dress from Vintageous:
A couple of quick tips for shopping vintage:
- Find a seller whose taste you like and keep going back. Half the battle is picking through the duds (and the gorgeous dresses that were made for midgets!); working with a seller who has a great eye and selection let's you get to the good stuff more quickly.
- Get a good tailor. Even the best vintage garb will need little alteration to fit perfectly. It's worth spending an extra $20 or $30 getting it to fit just right - after all, the dress itself is usually a steal compared to current designer fashions!
Happy shopping!
We just love vintage cake toppers - here's one we found at the Alameda Flea Market a few months ago. Flea markets are by far the best place to look for these beauties - there are only a couple of sites online we've been able to find that specialize in them - Fancy Flours and Gulden & Brown but the prices are pretty steep (we paid about $75 for this one, and prices online can touch $300!)
Martha Stewart Weddings took elements from a vintage cake topper and incorporated it into the design of the cake - brilliant idea!
Love these parasol toppers - $65 for the set - we're tempted! How fabulous would these be for a bridal shower or bridesmaid's luncheon?
And how 'bout this cheeky and charming sailor boy and his gal? Just love it but at $295 it's definitely an heirloom piece!
And for all you beauty queens out there - here's a fabulous old-Hollywood-glamour inspired piece of fabulousness. Let me powder my nose...there, now I'm ready for my close-up, darlings!
In a never ending effort to increase our stationery geekiness, a couple of us made our initial foray on a quest to learn calligraphy. With the help of the talented Michele Papineau of Papineau Calligraphy (the go-to specialist for all H!L calligraphy needs) we learned the basics of letterforms, angles, and some tricks of the trade. Michele has been doing calligraphy for over twenty years - her work has been featured in Elegant Bride, Martha Stewart Living and
Cooking Light among others.
Her Oakland studio is full of beautiful calligraphed wedding invitations, handlettered poems and a vast array of pens, nibs, inks and paints.
Michele showed us some basic letters - she made it look so easy!
Calligraphy is definitely a lot harder than it looks. It's going to take a bit more practice for the rest of us!
Thanks for all your help Michele!
Hostess with the Mostess is a fantastic resource for ideas, inspiration and sources for hosting a fabulous get together. Makes us want to throw together a little party... just because!
We stumbled across this post about a lovely bridal shower hosted by Alison Donahue, a photographer, in honor of her close friend. There are loads of great DIY details and she used our letterpress coasters (yay!). Contact us if you are interested in purchasing them for yourself.
Go here for all the details about this stylish shower and be sure to visit Hostess with the Mostess for amazing (and tempting) inspiration for your next party.
We just love the pretty, whimsical, vintage-inspired aesthetic of photo stylist and floral & event designer Chelsea Fuss. She writes her own daily blog, Frolic!, which is a must-read for design and wedding inspiration. It's a gem!
This strawberry table setting with jam jar favors is just so darling!
Some oh-so-inspiring snaps from her photo styling portfolio - we're especially smitten with her color choices and use of vintage wall papers/fabrics! (Photos by John Valls). Chelsea's work has been featured in the UK's Easy Living magazine, and on some of our favorite blogs, such as Snippet & Ink.
Daily Candy London featured Katy Potts Tea for Two Vintage English China today, and we are smitten! All the china shown was created between the 1920's and 1950's and comes charmingly wrapped in a vintage-inspired hatbox.
How adorable are these butter dishes and toast racks? Not that we need anything else to covet!
The line is available for purchase at Liberty of London, the V&A Museum Shop, Orange Pekoe or by private sales (the next one is in November in central London). Visit the website here.
We came across this cute and relatively easy to execute idea for do-it-yourself table cards on Lovely Morning.
Kristina has taken vintage postcards with different images of Palms Spring (her wedding venue) and has mounted them to card stock. The actual table numbers are on the opposite side.
And, voila! A highly personalized table card. Of course, you can adapt this idea to just about anything. Patterned paper, wall paper, photographs, etc... could all make suitable backings. Nice to remember that a do-it-yourself project doesn't have to mean hours and hours of crafting and can add such a memorable and personal touch to an event. Check out more of Kristin's wedding planning and more here.
We just love these charming & eclectic mix-and-match table clothes from Piper & Mark's wedding via The Bride's Cafe. Zofia of Zofia Photography also did a splendid job capturing them!
This wedding was just full of gorgeous details - check them all out here.
We just wrapped up a photo shoot of our brand new wedding invitation series with brilliantly talented Sara Remington, and we couldn't help but get excited about all the neat props that some of our staff brought in to liven things up!
Before shooting, we lined all the items up, and there were some fabulous flea market finds in the mix!
We've got to say, though, that some of the best items were brought in by Alex, our new sales associate, including this vintage book on how to snag a man! Pretty hilarious stuff.
Also in the mix is this retro book on the wonders of San Francisco, which matches perfectly with our new destination wedding invitation series coming out!
Now we can't wait to see how all the photos came out!
Thanks to Ritzy Bee for bringing our attention to these gorgeous photos of Aleishall & Matthew's wedding by photographer Mel Barrow. When we met Aleishall, she was running Olive & Peach, a delicious food site she had co-founded with long-time friend Katie Lee Joel, so it was natural that food should feature in their wedding invitation design. We created this pen-and-ink illustration of two pears, complemented by Aleishall's own gorgeous hand lettering, and letterpress printed it on coaster board.
Mel captured these gorgeous photos of their nuptials in Golden Gate Park.
Love these romantic peony flower arrangements, and the sweet little hand-made ring box below!
The intimate ceremony was followed by dinner at Greens Restaurant, a mecca for organic, eco-conscious cuisine in San Francisco. See more photos here
We love how Brooklyn-based Tamar Mogendorff incorporates vintage fabrics and special details into her doll designs! We file this under just ridiculously cute.
At Hello!Lucky we specialize in Letterpress greeting cards, as well offer DIY step by steps & free printables. Led by sisters Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, our small team of expert designers and artisan letterpress printers specialize in creating neon & foil, holiday cards, birthday cards, & thank you cards, that are full of creativity and whimsy. We've been featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, Design Sponge, Style Me Pretty, Real Simple, and many other leading publications. Please feel feel to contact us via chat, phone or e-mail - we'd be happy to assist you!
Hello!Lucky | P.O. Box 17605, San Francisco, California
