the garden - second week of may

Every time we go to the garden, we're amazed at how well everything is doing! We thought we did pretty well for ourselves last year, since it was our first year, but since we started planting before May this year, everything is doing even better. We've also had a lot of warm days and sunshine, which is slightly unusual for this time of year.



Our romaine lettuce is getting huge! We were going to pick one but decided to wait until later this week. We cheated a tiny bit and bought the lettuce as seedlings - tiny seedlings, but still seedlings! The stuff in the background is all grown from seed - our radishes are nearly ready. The escarole is coming up really well, as is the red leaf lettuce.



Snow peas! We're still behind some people in our garden, who obviously planted them in early March, but we're way ahead of where we were last year - we didn't even harvest any until late June last year. The tinier ones on the end are a different variety that we planted a week or two after the taller ones because we ran out of pea seeds!





Our beans are coming up nicely! We told ourselves we weren't going to plant as many as last year because we had so many beans last year...but we might have actually ended up planting more. Last year, we didn't realize how closely they could be planted (4-6") so we spaced them out really far. This year, Matt built a little bean arbor that goes over one of the garden paths, instead of an a-frame like last year. The whole middle of the a-frame was wasted space so this year - no wasted space! We planted the same two types as last year - Kentucky Wonder, a green one, and Purple Podded.



And - our first harvest of the year. Only alliums today! Garlic scapes and chive blossoms - two things I've never eaten in my entire life before. Garlic scapes come out of the top of the garlic plant and curl around before flowering. You're supposed to cut them off to encourage bulb growth, but they taste really good too. Chive blossoms are supposed to make a delicious pink vinegar, so we're going to try that. They also look pretty in a vase!

Last but not least, here's a comparison of where our garden is this year compared to exactly a year ago (last year is on the left) -



We're just a little bit ahead this year!

crafty wonderland spring 2013

We had a booth at Crafty Wonderland here in Portland last weekend - there was a big turnout! Even though it wasn't a dedicated wedding show, we had a lot of interested people stopping by our booth. It was great to talk to everyone and get some feedback about our work. Walking around the show was inspiring - there were so many vendors selling amazing things!



We brought a case of type to drive home the point that we use metal type instead of plastic and it seemed to work - we got lots of people telling us how they loved that we use metal type, or they used to print with it (or still do!). It was nice to hear that people are interested in the things that make our shop unique!



We had a great time at the show and are thinking about returning for the winter one (right before Christmas). We'll apply for that one with our art and prints in mind, though, not wedding stuff!

Thanks to all that came out to Crafty Wonderland - hope to see you again soon!

hiking - horsetail falls, triple falls, and the oneonta trail

For the second week in a row, the end of the week coincided with absolutely perfect weather so we took advantage of it yet again and did another hike! Another gorge hike, only about a half an hour from our apartment (we have to keep reminding ourselves of this). It started at Horsetail Falls, which we've visited many times when driving the historic highway. Like our hike last week, the trail quickly took us up and over the falls and we spent most of the time hiking well above the Columbia River, with lots of nice views.





Not too long after the initial climb, we came upon the first of many waterfalls, called Ponytail Falls (or Upper Horsetail Falls), and we walked behind it as we passed. Soon after that was the first of a few great views of the gorge - this one looked to the east, and we could see all the way to Beacon Rock and Bonneville Dam.





We followed Oneonta Creek, from high above (you might remember when we hiked into the creek itself right after we moved here), until we came to a metal bridge that crossed Oneonta Gorge. After we crossed the bridge, we had to decide whether we wanted to continue on the loop, down the mountains, or whether to take a side trip up to Triple Falls - another 2 miles and 300 feet of elevation gain. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity to see yet another waterfall, we opted for the side trip.





The climbing was steeper here - and much rockier. As we climbed higher, a nice breeze picked up and we noticed how high we'd climbed. So far, our hikes in the gorge have been in shady dells far below the tops of the mountains with very little sky around, surrounded by trees. As we got toward Triple Falls, the trees thinned out, the sky got bigger, and there was a very different feeling about the whole trail - we were excited that we weren't that far from the tops of the surrounding mountains. This was our first "moderate" hike, and we have a ways to go before we scale any big mountains, but we're looking forward to getting out of the undergrowth and exploring different parts of the gorge!





We reached our destination after passing by a number of small waterfalls created by melting snow. We sat down for a break next to the bridge over rocky Oneonta Creek. There were far more people on the trail than we encountered last week, but it still felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. Sitting in the sunshine next to a babbling mountain stream - we probably would have stayed forever if we didn't suddenly notice that we were really hungry! Next time, we'll definitely pack a picnic.



On the way down, we passed another great view of the gorge - this time to the west. I don't think we could ever get tired of seeing it. I'm not sure which hike we'll do next - there are still plenty within a thirty minute drive - but I'm sure it will be wonderful; it seems like there just aren't any bad trails in this state. Here's a GPS map of where we hiked:

introducing - editor

This is our brand new Editor suite - the first of three sets that we've designed using our typewriter font. This one is ultra-modern, simple, and classic. Although we tend to gravitate toward minimalism in a lot of our designs, this is definitely the cleanest of them all. Inspired by the look of typed poetry and artist statements, it's formal and informal, modern and retro at the same time.







Unlike some of our designs that have been percolating for months before we print them, we designed this suite and printed it right away - we were too excited about it to hold off! We think it's important to return to designs over time, so that we can look at them with new eyes and make sure that they're exactly how we want them. Editing is a very important part of our design process. With this one, we knew right from the beginning that it was perfect as it was - something that rarely happens.





We've also started a Pinterest board to highlight our inspirations for this suite - and ideas for a wedding that uses it - here. We'll make another post here later in the week as well!

early spring garden

Although we had grand plans of having a winter garden and harvesting year round from our little patch of land, we didn't anticipate being quite as busy as we were in the lead-up to Christmas. We hardly had a spare moment to think, much less take care of our garden! Needless to say, we abandoned it for about four months (sorry, garden!) but finally steeled ourselves and faced what we thought would be an overgrown mess.



It was indeed fairly overgrown, but the weeds were easy to pull out. We spent a few hours weeding, adding compost, and planting seeds and now our garden is ready for spring and summer! Our first visit was about three weeks ago, so we've already got plenty of stuff popping up - arugula, lettuce, radishes, peas, spinach, chives, and green onions. Plus, we had a bunch of garlic and herbs from last year. We're so excited for the huge amount of garlic we're going to harvest, starting in a month or less!