sorry...

i know i promised ICFF pics and reviews. but i haven't had a chance to post them yet, and i'm pretty busy today. so i have a feeling they're going to have to wait until tuesday.

have a wonderful holiday weekend everyone!!!

portrait of... your cake!

an anniversary portrait of the artist's wedding cake.

so, i know that all of us worry about certain things regarding our weddings -- the dress, the flowers, the reception location, and the cake! more and more, that cake is taking center stage at the wedding. my clients sometimes go as far as have me design their cakes to align with the rest of the wedding design, tying everything together.

but the biggest problem with the cake? after you eat it, it's all gone! you don't get to preserve it like your wedding dress, or press-dry it like you can with your flowers. so, other than that famous pic of you and your hubby cutting the cake, how can you preserve it's beauty forever?

enter artist jennie traill shaeffer, and her wedding cake portraits. jennie is an artist (and college friend of mine) located in new jersey, who has recently become quite the hot commodity. she realized -- after her wedding and a number of friends' weddings -- how much everyone loves their cakes and how great it would be to have them preserved forever. so she started doing wedding cake portraits for both clients and friends, and they've gone over like hotcakes (ok, i know, corny, but i couldn't help it).

now she's launched a new site, where you can place an order for the cake portrait of your dreams. you also have the option of dropping by the artist's new studio in newton, nj, to see her work in person and order directly from the master. =)

these portraits make amazing wedding gifts (just make sure to order right after the wedding to avoid a gift-etiquette faux-pas), an anniversary gift, or a wonderful memory of your own wedding.

go to wedding cake portraits for all the information you'll need.

a portrait of michelle and david's cake, which i had designed for the wedding. (this was fun for jennie and myself.)

stationery show 2008 -- BEST IN SHOW

hey there! well, here's the last part of my review. the best-in-show. i have two "winners" for this category -- one for the work itself, and one for best booth.

let me just preface this by saying that so much of the work i saw was beautiful and amazing. so i hope no one gets offended by this post... frankly, i'm jealous of all of you. i'm not yet at the point where i'm ready to release a line, so i'm in awe.

ok, now that the PSA is done... the first best-in-show "winner" goes to old school stationers. i met brian reed, the illustrator and designer behind the line, at the stationery show. my first statement was, "wow, how refreshing to see a male stationer at this event!" it seems as though everyone else had the same reaction as well. but while brian clearly adds a certain je ne sais quoi to his work, they are not overly masculine. rather, they are colorful, interesting, and sweet, without being overly flowery. forgoing the current trends, brian creates using a pencil and paper and seems to draw what interests him. i appreciate that. and, being a fan of rich colors, i am a huge fan of his palette.

so, my hat's off to you, brian. i was extremely impressed with your work, and i think you should be really proud.

the work of old school stationers stood out from the crowd with great illustrations and bold color choices.

the next best in show is for best booth. now, i can't express to you how important i think a great looking booth is. while the work may be outstanding, people may never stop to see it if your booth doesn't draw them in. and while i understand how expensive this show is for the exhibitors, i do feel as though they could get creative with their remaining funds to outfit their booth accordingly.

always aware of the value of presentation, i thought delphine press did an amazing job with their space. without the use of too much furniture to get in the way of the visitors, delphine managed to get the punch out of the space by using an eye-catching yellow-green and heavy ornate frames for their stationery pieces. there were also graphics on the walls to draw the visitor's attention to important pieces or information. i thought the hook display for the tote bags was especially lovely. not to mention that orange poppy that kept, well, popping up everywhere! i want the tote. and the print. and the notecard.

of course, it doesn't hurt that erika firm (the founder of the company) and john arquette (director of operations) were extremely affable and fun to chat with upon visiting.

congrats guys. great work.

the booth by delphine press is so gorgeous i want to live in it. with the poppy. =)

stationery show post tomorrow...

tomorrow, stay tuned for my best in show picks, as well as my ICFF photos. night!

stationery show 2008 -- part two

and so it continues...

egg press had so much new, great stuff!! i loved the holiday cards they had at the show, but it's not quite the season to post about them. so i went for the thank you and birthday notecards instead. =)

it's easy to tell egg press's new stuff at their booth!

fellow brooklyn designer liz libre of linda and harriett launched both a wedding album and a redesigned album -- a limited edition of letterpress misprints, reconstructed by hand.

linda and harriett's inventive redesigned goods.

emily at orange beautiful has been posting about her new launches for over a week at her blog. they were fun to see in person, especially the new TYPE line.

orange beautiful's lattice and type lines.

always a favorite of mine, the L|2 design collective is, as was said at their booth yesterday, the "bad child" of the show. and why not! it's refreshing to see something a little different, colorful -- less pretty and more silly. i always enjoy taking in the view.

the L|2 design collective cards -- a feast for the eyes.

night owl paper goods is guaranteed to have something to make anyone smile. from eco-friendly wood veneer cards and notebooks to their always lovely letterpress cards, the booth is going to please. plus, they always have a great tote bag at the show (didn't take it this year because i still have mine from last year!) and are just the nicest people.

night owl's calendars were my favorite part of their booth.

a somewhat-youngin' in the scene, alee and press showed off two sweet collections -- a wedding collection and a baby collection. i especially enjoyed the use of the blind deboss as it mixed with bold type treatments and colors.

the blind deboss treatments didn't photograph as well, but the above cards from alee and press are lovely nonetheless.

i love a good pattern treatment, especially in wrapping papers. press play stationery had some interesting papers -- beautiful without being especially feminine.

the locomotive paper from press play would be great for a father's day or groom's gift!

stationery show 2008 -- part one

i'm going to have to break up my stationery show posts into several parts. there are just a ton of photos and info to give. let's start here...

the stationery show this year was great. i was really impressed with much of the work and the attitudes of the exhibitors. everyone was happy to be there, and clearly excited by the turnout and response. and i was happy for them.

let's start at some local favorites.... one of the must-see booths at this show is the mixed co. booth. it contains the work of Allymoon, Good on Paper, Laurel Denise, Linea Carta, Mateo Ilasco, and Nantaka Joy (happy birthday joy!). these ladies were all the biggest sweethearts in the world, and excited to be together. their work speaks for itself -- joy's pieces are always the ultimate in taste, meg mateo ilasco's type treatments are fun in simplicity, and good on paper's lisa jackson has sweet and lovely accessories. so much fun.

nantaka joy's beautiful journals.

mateo ilasco's happy notecards.

good on paper's sweet notecards and adorable baby t-shirts.

allymoon's notebooks.

another joint venture was between the great lakes goods and pearl & marmalade. fun stuff, whimsical and humorous.

pearl & marmalade's gnome card was my fave on her side of the booth.

TGL's mushrooms on both wood and paper.

i love the idea of joining forces in a booth. maybe myself and some of my fellow stationers can do it in a couple of years....

ok, i digress. onto single booths in the next chapter of the reviews...

intern needed

image by andy singleton, via don't panic.

so, i'm quite overwhelmed by the amount of work i have in front of me. not that i'm complaining at all... but i need help. i'm finishing up my home studio and as soon as that is done, i'll need an INTERN!!!

yes, you lucky kids, i'm looking to hire an intern. unfortunately, i am not in a position to pay my intern (i am a one-woman company after all), but i would be more than happy to give college credit and recommendations for jobs... and happy company all day long.

my intern would only be necessary a few days a week, and would be responsible for the following:

1. filing and billing.
2. research for projects -- images, inspiration, colors, etc.
3. email checking and responding
4. general organization.

i would hope that this could be mutually beneficial for myself and my future intern. i would like her/him to learn about design, stationery, printing process, etc. i'm not going to ask for actual designing, but definitely all other aspects that go into the job.

the internship would begin in mid-to-late june. if you're interested, or know someone who is interested, please feel free to email me at internship@nic-events.net. please include a link to your work (preferred), or a small pdf.

thanks guys!

ICFF and Stationery Show recovery!

phew... i'm exhausted! i attended both shows this weekend and man, am i pooped. but they were great! i'm going to cover the highlights over the next 2 days. tune in later for my updates. =D

for the love of the ampersand

poster by conor and david, via the ampersand.

the HOWblog has reported on something that i have a great respect for -- designer stephen gose's love of the ampersand! and now he has a whole blog devoted to it. i love it!!! because a good ampersand is hard to come by. =)

busy show weekend!

view into the national stationery show, via their website.

yay! the weekend dave and i wait for all year (ok, we're not that into it, but we do love it)... this weekend is both the ICFF and National Stationery Show!

dave in a wegner chair at 2007's ICFF.

the icff is always a lot of fun. furniture, fixtures, rugs, wallpaper, accessories... le sigh. it's a dangerous show to go to if, like us, you are obsessed with these things. we always want what we can't afford! this year we'll be joined by my best friend, loren, who is an interior designer. fun day!

sunday is my annual pilgrimage to the national stationery show. i hope to cover everyone and maybe get some pictures this year... but we'll see about that. hopefully i'll be joined by my hubby and my good friends jon and whitney from brown sugar design studio.

to everyone i see at nss -- they sent me a free badge but mixed up my info with the info for icff. so it has my name, nicole block, but then it says "david block designs"... cracks me up. so, if i can't get it changed for the event, you'll have to look for that badge to find me. =)

stationery & skirts for spring

above is the finished invite for the spring stationery & skirts event! i'll be updating my website info for it in the next few days.

click on the image for a larger view.

thanks guys! hope to see you there!

momma's day giveaways

one of my favorite blogs, designmom, has been doing a week's worth of mother's day giveaways. she has some pretty amazing stuff on there. i especially like today's giveaway of custom stationery by papered together.

you lucky moms you!

elephant love

this print would let me continue my newfound obsession with elephants. from the orangewillow etsy store.

my wedding answers

me on my wedding day.

congrats to shauna, the winner of the wedding giveaway! and to all the runners-up, who got free wedding websites. =)

i thought that i would answer the questions for the contest myself. my wedding was just over 2 years ago, and i have certainly learned a lot about marriage since. but i had a great wedding experience, and my thoughts might be helpful to someone else.

dave and i on the terrace of bridgewaters, after the ceremony.

- What was the most useful piece of wedding planning advice you have received?
i remember being told by my mom that i should do what made dave and i happy, but at the same time not forget those who would be attending the wedding. simply put, put yourselves first, but don't leave those who love you out of your thought process. this made a lot of sense in our world -- we didn't want an over-the-top, "goomba" wedding as i called it, because it just wasn't us (even though that's what my italian family was used to). so we booked our location in manhattan, which suited us to a tee, but made sure that there was plenty of food for my trepidatious family. we made sure it was accessible by elevator and didn't have any stairs to be concerned with, for the older members of both families that had issues walking. and unlike a lot of couples who get married in manhattan, we made sure that parking was paid for and taken care of -- a lot of our guests would not have been used to paying for parking. all of this made our VIP guests happy, without interfering in our final goal.

me with my bridesmaids and maid of honor, before the wedding.

- What has been your biggest “lesson learned” so far during your wedding planning process?
not to sweat the small stuff, even if the "small stuff" is what i do best. i was never, ever a difficult bride. still, every bride goes through a fair amount of stress during planning, even if she doesn't let it show. as much as i care about details, i knew that if something didn't get done "exactly" the way i had envisioned it, it wouldn't matter. in the end, i was getting married, and that's all that mattered.

my favorite story to tell is about the day of the wedding. i walked into my venue with my parents and bridesmaids. as i'm walking to the bridal suite, i stop and take notice of the ceremony setup -- the candles, which were supposed to be arranged to form a faux alter where we were getting married, were lined up down the aisle instead. i said, "huh... the candles are arranged differently." my maid-of-honor jumped right in and asked if i wanted her to talk to someone about it. i just shrugged and said, "no. i'm sure there's a reason." of course, in the end, i was right -- the space was too tight for the original arrangement. either way though, it didn't matter. it was going to be beautiful, and i was getting married!!! nothing would have made me blink that day.

a passionate kiss from my hubby, after hearing "you may now kiss your bride."

- If you could do it over, what would you do differently?
i'm not sure i would have done anything differently. if i had a bigger budget at the time, we would have booked on a saturday night instead of the friday evening that we had. people were a little tired from work and there wasn't *as much* energy as there would have been otherwise. but in the end, who cares? it was a great night, we had an amazing time, and we have an amazing marriage. just thinking about it makes me grin from ear to ear.

dave and i joking as he's signing our marriage license.

all photos above copyright Mo Daoud Photography. all rights reserved.

the wedding memory giveaway

rhonda at our wedding plus emailed me this week, reminding me of her great contest giveaway! sandisk has created new USB flash drives called cruzer gators, which would be a great gift for your bridal party. and they're giving away 10 of these to the contest winner for their bridal party members. additionally, if you win, you get a free one-year's subscription to our wedding plus premium wedding websites, worth $72. here's what you need to do (from the wedding plus blog):

How You Enter: Leave a comment on this post answering one of the following questions:

- What was the most useful piece of wedding planning advice you have received?
- What has been your biggest “lesson learned” so far during your wedding planning process?
- If you could do it over, what would you do differently?

How You Win: I’m going to ask some other wedding bloggers to rank their top-5 entries, based on the usefulness of your comment to someone planning their wedding. I will tally the results and pick the most popular comment. This is obviously subjective based on each judge’s opinion and my selection will be final. If I can’t get any help in the judging I will select the comment I feel was most useful, based solely on my own judgment.

hurry kids! this contest ends tomorrow evening!!

blurbs

well, i was informed of this today on the HOW forums, and i just had to share...

blurb books is a website of build-it-yourself books. i know what you're thinking, there's a ton of those sites out there. but blurb is different. first, you get to design your own cover (even hardcover with a wrap). next, the quality is supposed to be amazingly good -- bookstore quality. finally, you can do such great things with it -- wedding albums, portfolios, even books from your blog!


i think i might have to use them for all of the above! =)

photos courtesy of blurb books.

sorry!!

i know i haven't been blogging as much as i should. i'm swamped with work!! i swear that's the reason. anyway, i plan to have something on here for later today. so keep your eyes peeled!

stationery and skirts -- part deux

i am happy to announce the second stationery and skirts event, hosted by yvonne chu of kimera, and myself, nicole block of NicEvents. you can check out the details of the original one on my website or on my blog.

this one should be lots of fun! it's going to be warm, everyone will be happy... ok, i'm going on a bit funny here. but it should be a great time!

joining us this time around as our featured vendor will be julia newman, photographer extraordinare. she will be with us on saturday the 31st of may. julia is also a local brooklyn vendor, with a great style and an amazing personality. you can tune in for her most recent work and news on her blog.

we are in the beginning stages of planning this one, so stay tuned for more updates.

a little hut making big waves

within a week, designer patricia zapata of a little hut has made two big announcements, which i am so happy to share here.

first, patricia has signed a deal for her first craft book, slated to come out in 2009. if you haven't seen her work, you should -- and then you'll know why she is authoring this book.

according to her blog, "The book will contain paper craft projects for the home and will reflect my typical clean lined and quiet style. I certainly hope that the book lives up to everyone’s expectations but more than anything, I hope to live up to my own worst critic - me."

and as if this wasn't enough, patricia also announced yesterday that she wrote an article for craft magazine, to be in the upcoming issue. it's an article on a diorama project, and seems like it is so much fun! the photo of said diorama is at the top of this post... how beautiful is it?! i'm not a crafty person, and i'm so jealous of patricia's skills.

for more news and project info, check out patricia's two blogs, a little hut blog and crafty synergy. and as always, you can see her beautiful work at a little hut's main site.

re-branding: julia newman

brooklyn-based photographer, julia newman, and i became friends through mutual clients (and two of my closest buds). julia and i both worked on carrie & ken's hudson valley wedding. she and i soon realized that we have very similar ideas on aesthetics, personality, and business in this crazy wedding world!

so when julia decided to re-work her branding, it seemed like a natural choice to team up for it. the fabulous photog wanted something that truly reflected her work: high-end, classic, with a touch of funk and friendly feel. with all of our inspiration, we got to work and came up with a logo we were both happy with.

there's still work to be done... and julia is working on launching her new storefront in williamsburg soon. in the meantime, check out julia's new blog for news and updates. and look for carrie & ken's beautiful wedding in the knot weddings ny/nj/ct magazine (i think the fall 2008 issue), which features julia newman's photography, my event design, and kimera's dresses!