NSS recap - my first show!

it came. it went. it's over, and i'm here with my feet up. it was my first stationery show, and this is my story...

as you probably already know, the lead-up to the show for me was pretty rough. my dad passed away march 25, after an intense but short illness, and i did all my show prep after his funeral. and i mean ALL. all paper goods, all booth designs, all purchases for booth styling, everything. which pretty much guaranteed a stressful show setup. any time something went wrong, i lost it a little bit... my husband wasn't too thrilled with that! but in the end, it all came together.

the main plan for the booth was to make it comfy and homey. my work relates back to real life, and i wanted the booth to be personal as well, instead of feeling like a store display. we made walls out of masonite with a wood frame, got bookshelves and a table/chairs from ikea, curtains, and i made a custom pendant lamp with fabric i designed and had printed with fabric on demand.

 dave putting together the bookshelves.

 bookshelf up, and the wire hung for the lampshade.

the masonite walls weren't the best -- the masonite warped a bit, and we had quite a bit of trouble putting them up (a big shout-out to my friend where for helping with the walls on friday). next year we're going to do something different, but with all the window dressing, it worked out.

the final booth, all put together. the logos and booth numbers were vinyl decals. the shelves held my notecards and my invitation binders, and the walls had 3 frames each with my new invitation sets in them.

 we lost a little bit of wall space in the end, so we had to eliminate the frames from the walls that held my prints. i put two of them on my desk instead, with all of my promo materials and the recipe card giveaway.

 bike for two set.

 winter woods set.

 graffiti union set.

 destination wedding set.

 rainy day wedding set.

 closeup of my pendant lamp. couldn't have made it without the help of my friends danielle and aileen -- it took a whole afternoon!

moving onto the show itself... it went really well! the notecards were surprisingly popular -- and i only say surprisingly because they are a new venture for me and i didn't know how they would fare. but it seemed as though buyers and visitors alike truly related to the cards, which is exactly what i hoped for.

 i got seriously lucky with my aisle -- as a first timer, i didn't know who would be with me, and having a good row is helpful. well, was i a happy girl. in our little section, we had fugu fugu press, banquet atelier and workshop, and just eleanor. not only did we get along really well, but we also truly enjoyed each other's work. what a great feeling to be appreciated and helped by your fellow stationers, rather than to dislike, disapprove, or feel in competition with them.

there were so many great exhibitors nearby as well. mr. boddington's studio, a forever favorite of mine, were just down our aisle...

 loved their booth!

 get a load of this bike! made out of foamcore i think. insane!

claudia of fig. 2 design studio also premiered at this show, around the corner from me. her booth was yummy.

rachael of pistachio press did a great job with her booth, helped a great deal by her husband jake.

paisley tree press, right across the aisle from pistachio, had the best wine tags. i want one. (i almost stole one, no joke).

amber at flywheel press had a fun chalkboard-themed booth, also manned by her husband rich. amber also organized the recipe card promo with legion paper, which i will blog about this weekend.

lisa of sapling press has awesome notecards, and was the genius behind last year's sensation, the stationery/stationary totes. awe-some!

katie of kelp designs had her always-eco-friendly display, with the most awesome wood signs. loved the twitter/recycle/tradeshow bootcamp icons (katie headed up the tradeshow bootcamp, a HUGE help for us first-timers).

 and then it was all over! tear down was amazingly fast, but loading up the car sucked because of all the rain. still, it was a great show, and i'm already planning my changes for next year. thank you to my husband for all the support and for building the booth; my mom for watching our daughter so much while i was working trying to finish everything, and for helping in the booth; my mother-in-law for coming in to hang out with anna while i was being all professional; and to loren and carrie for keeping me company and manning the booth with me on sunday (extra-special thanks to loren for also helping in the design of the booth itself).

and of course, a huge thanks to all my fellow stationers, my lovely booth visitors, my buyers, and the press. you made it a great show for me, and i hope that i can see you all again next year.

stationery show, CHECK!

my first stationery show is over now! i really think it was a great thing. i'm still in recovery mode -- i'm pretty beat, my feet hurt, i want to just hang out with my daughter -- but i will be posting up a blog post later today, complete with pics and musings.

i hope all of my visitors really enjoyed what i did. i certainly enjoyed meeting all of you.  =)

nic•notes update! and an apology...

so sorry i've been away from the blog for so long. with my father's illness and passing, and then the great rush to get everything done for the national stationery show, i've been too busy to breathe, let alone blog.

but here's a bit of a treat for you! a sneak peek at my new nic•notes card line! i've come up with a collection of notecards and occasion cards that bring out the true nic style -- and sense of humor. =) this is just a small sample of what's to come in a mere 2 weeks! not even! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!

i truly hope that you enjoy the fruits of my labor, both with the notecards and with the new wedding collection (pics to come). it really has reflected a part of me and changed me as a person.

some good news: the nic studio on the knot tv!

in the midst of all the bad, there's always some good... this week it is in the form of the knot tv. i was contacted by jaimie dalessio to participate in this week's knot tv live, the theme being splurge vs. save. for my part, we would use a custom invitation for the splurge category, and a ready-to-order invite for the save category.

one of my most recent client couples, carrie and dave, wanted their invitations to include oh-so-many things. carl schurz park on the upper east side, the 59th street bridge, their world travels, their chuppah, and most importantly, their dog toobab. so i created two scenes that don't actually exist in nature. the first as a scene from the promenade at carl schurz park, with the 59th street bridge in the background, and a cliff and tree from a photo taken by the couple in israel. i then used another part of carl schurz park in the rsvp, but turned a lamp post into a wayfinding sign (also from israel) with directionals to all the places that the couple have traveled together. finally, toobab is front and center, and popped out in a different color.

we used this opposite my "scenes from a brooklyn wedding" invitation suite, available through my ready-to-order collection. this was actually the suite that most enchanted my clients and drove them to my studio. but it's also my most popular and most requested ready-to-order set. both obviously are illustrated, but custom illustration/artwork is all for you, and can be as specific as you want it to be -- and clearly, that can be very specific!

to check out what the knot tv had to say about it, follow this link (my portion starts at the 23 minute mark). i'll be posting up pics of the original custom invites very soon. 

in memoriam: a tribute to my dad

after a very sudden onset of illness that landed him in the ICU, which resulted in us finding out that he had lung cancer, my father, henry gagolewski, passed away on the afternoon of march 25, 2011. he was 73 years old.

dad was a character, to say the least. he led the most colorful life but acted as though he was a regular guy from down the street. my father was a cab driver, a bouncer, a retired NYC police officer, an exterminator, and a business owner. he was the father of 4 -- two children from his first marriage, and myself and my brother from his second (and longest, and last). he would tell random stories of stabbings, of drug dealers, of NYC in the 70's, of people he knew and met along the way, as though he were talking about buying a bottle of milk. he was my little girl's best friend, my mother's husband of almost 39 years, my brother's travel partner for weekend boys' trips, and everyone's favorite talker.

i am the first to say that my dad and i did not always have a good relationship. my dad was a flawed man, like so many of us, but as his young daughter it made me angry and resentful. we fought constantly through my young days about anything and everything -- his addiction, religion, the world. when my father got sober i was 20 years old, and we started to heal. the last few years have been good ones for us -- we could chat, we could laugh, we never argued anymore. i was older and understood more, and he was past his real demons. and while dad could still drive anyone crazy -- he never listened the first time you said something, he would interrupt constantly, he was still a very religious person that didn't understand my lack of faith -- he became more of a fixture in my daily life, and i was all the happier for it.

my dad had the best relationship with our daughter, anna jae. from the day she was born, there was just something about the two of them together. he could make her giggle, then laugh out loud. he would talk to her, and read to her, and joke around with her, and play with her as best he could. she would run to him the minute she walked into their home. she would do impressions of him. they just adored each other's company, and i can't imagine him not being with her anymore.

dad had a neuropathy in his legs, something that he had for about 10 years, was diagnosed with about 7 years ago, and something that he started to get treatment for about 4 years ago. for the past few years he had to walk with canes and a walker, and had a motorized wheelchair for certain trips. he was terribly stubborn about doing things for himself though, and insisted on still going food shopping, making himself dinner, and going up and down the many stairs at my parents' house. 

this neuropathy may have caused his first illness that sent him to the ICU -- a brain illness that came on so suddenly and that they could not find a cause for. but while looking for that cause, they found the cancer in his lungs. this was not a big shock -- the man smoked for over 60 years, we knew it was bound to happen. but the brain illness hurt his chances at treatment, and he spent the longest 3.5 weeks of his life (and ours) in the hospital. after bucking all odds, his body finally succumbed to the illness on thursday night. he was put on a ventilator friday morning, but we knew that there was no hope. and so we let him go friday afternoon, with his children, his wife, and two of his three grandchildren next to him.

i leave you with some photos of my dad from my wedding, and several of him with our daughter. i will always wish i had taken even more.

design lust: the new alexander wang flagship store

a good friend of mine was lucky enough to attend the opening of the new alexander wang flagship store here in NYC. designed by robin kramer and her team at kramer design group, the store is clean, luscious, luxurious, and welcoming, all at the same time.

all photos courtesy of alexander wang.

yes, that is a fur hammock you see! and according to an article in the wall street journal, alexander wang wants guests to be able to sit on it! (can i lay on it? just once?) mr. wang's goal was to have a space that welcomed customers to feel at home – a very nice home – from its leather couch to its fully-carpeted dressing rooms.

i once visited a friend's home in carrara, italy, the home of michelangelo's marble. his home was covered in marble, from the driveway to the bathrooms and everywhere in between. but there was also comfortable furniture, art covering the walls from artists of all different levels, and the familiar sounds of family. so the marble no longer felt cold or overly decadent, it just felt part of the space. that's how alexander wang's store feels to me. sure, it's opulent, but you can still touch.

hats off to alexander wang and the staff at kramer design group for their vision. now i'm off to pretend that my armchair is a fur-covered hammock. ahhhhh...

what's inspiring me tonight

hello all! it's me! in the wee hours of the morning! working! as usual!

i've had a bit of coffee...

i realized just a bit ago that i never post to my blog anymore. because i've run out of time my dears... out of time to research new posts. oh sure, the sporadic, "look what i just did!" post is up, but no more than that.

well, i'm going to try and remedy this situation. yep. since i'm up all night doing research often times anyway, i might as well post up my inspiration!

tonight's post comes from the invitation set i'm doing for my brother-in-law and his fiancée for their SECOND wedding in san francisco. yep, that's right, these lucky ducks get two. the first is in dallas in a few short weeks. but the second and much larger party is in SF, and that one of course needs invites as well.

the theme? central park meets SF meets street food. should be fun. =)

central park trees. by Roopa, via centralpark.com

central park cherry blossoms. by SES, via centralpark.com

love the light in this central park photo. © joel sternfeld, all rights reserved. via the punctum.

central park skyline. © marnie hall, all rights reserved. via biking-in-manhattan.

the painted ladies of san francisco. © JR Ona, all rights reserved. via city-data.com.

the view of the SF skyline from the golden gate bridge. via green car reports.

i just love the color palette of this painting of a SF tree. artwork © tim daniels, all rights reserved. via abbozzo gallery.

the couple is getting married at the westin st. francis. this photo via oyster.com.

lobby of the westin. i love "the clock", as it is apparently called! via buyoutsidethebox.com.

part of the ballroom space. © wendy maclaunn richardson, all rights reserved. via the westin st. francis.

this is part of off the grid in SF. via local savory.