New exciting things

It's hard to reach your blog when there's so much going on in your life sometimes! In between our household gettting sick, a birthday, a birthday party, a birthday party cancelation (because of getting sick), gardening, and a few exciting projects around the house, it's hard to remember you have a blog!

Last September we got married, and a very handy friend offered to help out with any home remodeling project we might have as a wedding gift. As any home owner knows, there's always projects to get done! We live in a teeny tiny house (with a big yard) and we knew our garage needed to be converted into a room when we bought the place. Someday it will be a bedroom, leaving the two other bedrooms for the kids. Until then, the converted garage will be our studio. Our Mr. Fixit friend agreed to help us convert the garage into a studio, and the process is going to start this weekend! Walls will be replaced, insulation will be installed, and the garage door is going to get the boot in favor of a nice double paned window! Darling Press will soon operate in a studio rather than in our living room!

We also had a 330 gal. rain barrel (though, it's not a barrel, it's a giant plastic box in a metal cage) installed in our back yard! With some heavy mulching, we plan on watering the whole garden this summer with collected rain water. Last year we made this a priority when our water bill tripled! It's definitely an eyesore, but I plan on growing a pretty vining plant next to it, with hopes it will be covered in foliage and flowers.

A new card was added to our shop as well! Mother's Day cards! Actually, they also work really well as Earth Day cards. We're really proud of them, because we're getting used to registering many shapes and colors, and this was a challenge. I can't take much credit for them, however. Jason did all the designing and printing on his own! Good job Jason, they're beautiful!

Entitled "Love your Mother"

More exciting news! So exciting, I left it for the end. Our new studio is going to have a charming, hefty, over 100 year old letterpress delivered tomorrow!!!

This is big news for us! It means we don't have to print at the art school anymore! Since we don't drive, it takes us at least an hour on the bus to get to PNCA's studio, which means at least an hour long journey back. Usually we have to bring our daughter, who inevitably gets bored of the print studio and throws some kind of fit. This is the result, Jason printing while holding a toddler:

With a press in our studio, our bored little toddler can go into her own room and play, or at least we can just give her a snack.

It also means we can print whenever we want, at whatever time we have open! We don't have to sign in for a time period. Most of all, if we want to leave a big mess, we can. I'm predicting our business really picks up speed after this.

I just can't tell you how exciting this is! I promise to post photos of the press, she's a beauty!