When the October exchange rolled around, I thought - gee - maybe I should do my version of this envelope for everyone on the exchange. I had 28 people sign up. So, I started working on them and after three, I got curious about where the quote came from - so I googled it and discovered that LEGGEDDY only has on D - should be LEGGEDY.
Also, there is another & - which was helpful with spacing.
With each envelope I did, I would make a mistake - but each envelope took so long that I knew I would be sending them with mistakes. Finally, after 15, I burned out. I switched to stealing Jannie's skull design. And then I burned out on that one and switched to other ideas. Since I had a class on Tuesday, I thought the students would enjoy seeing these so I took the stack to class. It was a super humid day (the 15th day of a rainy spell where there was measurable rain for 15 days in a row... at least that's what I heard) and $%^&*$%^#$%^#$%^ .....the ink, which had seemed dry - softened up and they all stuck together.
$%^&#$%^$%^#$%^ - while they stuck - at least they did not smear.
We brainstormed ideas in class and I said - maybe I will try microwaving one of them to see if that helps. You heard it here first - do not microwave your mail. I only ran it for 10 seconds and nearly burned my fingers. Very bad idea. It did appear to cook the ink. So, I pulled out a hair dryer and hit the rest of them with the highest setting and that seemed to dry them. I am not sure if it baked them sufficiently.
I am going to take them to the PO today. Three or four of them had stamps - and I have alerted those people to be on the lookout for their mail. The rest of them - I put in plain white envelopes - with no stamps. So - if you get a plain white envelope - I hope your black envelope is not stuck to the inside of the white envelope. If it is - maybe hit it with a hair dryer or iron it. And then choose a stamp that you think goes.
While Lynn reported that they were selling last year's pumpkins in New Jersey - I did not find any in Des Moines. The dragon stamps look nice - if applied horizontally. I left space for a landscape orientation stamps.
All in all, it's been another 50-50, yin-yang exchange. Half the time I was in nib-heaven. The other time I was muttering. The world is full of stories about difficulties being our friend and helping us to be better people. OK, if this the worst thing going on in my life - I should be grateful.
Oh, wait. I have another story. And then in a couple days, I promise I will post the really fun story I mentioned. This started a few weeks ago. A pregnant woman who is such a control freak she is doing all the planning for her own baby shower asked if I could address in pale pink or gold. I did not talk to her directly - but my favorite shop owner asked - as she was lining up the invitations and addressing. She assured me that she talked the mother-to-be into black ink. I'll leave out the part about how it took me two trips to pick up the envelopes - and how the shop owner was insisting that she could drop them off at 5 pm - but my older wiser self said - nope - I want them at noon - I will come get them. So she says, just double park and I will run them out. OK. I double park - she runs out, opens the door and says, "You're going to kill me."
That's not what I want to hear. She has 3 gold pens - at least they are Gelly Rolls, the most reliable. She says, "The client really wants gold ink." I smile and say - "That's fine. I will try to not puke on the envelopes as I am addressing." We laugh, cuz we've been through a lot together. I go home, start doing some testing to see how to do the addressing - and all three pens stop working. Luckily, I have some spare pens and find a couple that look like they are going to work. I call the shop owner and warn her that the devil-pens agree with me that gold gel pens are ugly - and that I have other pens that look like they will get through the 30 envelopes. But, I must warn her that if my pens decide to stop - there is a chance that there might be some slight variation in the look of the envelopes. No problem she says.
Remember the part where I knew it was bad to wait until 5pm to start the job - if I had waited, I would not have had any spare gold pens and would have been driving around looking for them. And would have been cranky. Somehow - there is no good way to punish clients with a *hassle fee* when the schedule gets tight and the materials do not cooperate.
So, the addressing is going well. I start at the end of the list - so that I am warmed up by the time I get to the top of the list which is usually the list of *important* people. Top three names, expectant parents and expectant grandparents. So, I have the top three left to do - and the pen acts like it is going to stop.
Oh, NO. To have just those three different....might send a pregnant control-freak over the edge. I don't want to be responsible for an early labor - or worse. I press down really hard and will the ink to come out. And the envelopes are done. Ugly - but done. I soooooo wanted to address one the way they would have been pretty and enclos it. Happily, I will never have to meet this person in person.
The shopkeeper assured me that they are lovely and that the client will be thrilled....
it's not the first time I've deferred to clients who do not share my aesthetic sensibilities.
Here is a close up of the halloween envelope - and my version of the font.
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| At one point, I emailed Rachael and asked if her lettering was based on a font - and she said it was Black Cow from dafont.com...which was really funny because I actually had that font downloaded on a computer that I don't use much any more... |
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