JAN to Gavin and Juliana

Gavin's isn't the winner. I was OK with the colors. But the flourishing is a little clunky.

I thought I was down to the very last envelope and I thought, "There is no way that this style would work with a brush marker. I looked through my stack of interesting antique paper products that I need to part with and found the yellow envelope with an invitation. Then I saw the stamp. Bingo.

I knew that Juliana was a good recipient for this experiment. She, too, experiments and often encloses comments about how things went. I enclosed a note telling her that she'd need to read the blog for my commentary. I wanted to get the envelopes in the mail.

I was surprised how well the brush marker worked with this style.  The only problem is that the two vertical strokes on the N should be parallel. But, I think it is bouncy and fun and has lots of potential.

The yellow antique envelope was in my stash of leftovers from the days that most of my jobs were coming from a stationery store. It's a leftover from a custom order from Lallie, which was a high-end brand of invitations. They were very contemporary and it was sad when they went out of business.  I'm glad I did a search. They must have switched from catalogues in stationery stores to an online business. It's not Lallie.com - if you do a search for Lallie - it takes you here:

https://www.stationeryworks.com  It looks like they absorbed Checkerboard which was another high end company. The new company has not maintained the aesthetic of the original companies - but that is to be expected as new people are going to be younger and what I thought was stylish in the 90s and the 00s is way out of style. 

Who sends actual invitations to cocktail parties these days? Maybe people in the south - and a smattering of people in Nantucket - but I bet they are few and far between. 

It was nostalgic for me to see this invitation again. I had forgotten that I actually know the guests of honor.  [story below]

Here is the copy - in case it's not legible in the photo

mingle

chat

nibble

flirt

relax

catch up

giggle

gossip

meet

sip

munch

show off

dance

toast

celebrate

laugh

party

with us

saturday

night

4/22/06

7-11 pm

suites of 800

locust street

des moines

wedding shower

for

eve

&

adam

hosted by

jane & john doe

I know I have already told this story on the blog, but I can't find it - so I'll retell it and add a label in case I ever need it again which I probably won't but I would like to put off my chores just a little bit longer.

I renamed the bride and groom - Eve & Adam above - so I'll just stick with those names. Adam's mom had me address the invitations to the rehearsal dinner. I can't remember when I met Eve, but she hired me to paint a really nice contemporary quote on the wall in their front hallway. She sent her husband off with the kids for a couple hours while I painted. When they returned, Adam said something nice about my work and then he said, "My penmanship is so bad that there is no way it could be fixed." 

"I accept that challenge," was my reply. Adam's mom offered to babysit while Adam and Eve came to my studio for a penmanship lesson. It only took one lesson and he caught the bug. Eve told me later that he was a little bit *too obsessed* with his penmanship practice.

Later, I found out that the people he worked with were very impressed with his improved penmanship. His family owns the nicest jewelry store in Des Moines and all the job tickets were written by hand. So Adam's poor penmanship had been the cause of a few issues with some of the jobs. You can imagine how frantic people get if a diamond or treasured heirloom is misplaced.

I was very proud of him and glad to know that there was a practical benefit to improving one's penmanship. It was fun to find the invitation and send it along as I continue in my hoard reduction.