While our dreams of traveling will never go away, the idea of removing ourselves from our home, budding business, and dog for an entire year began to feel less appealing. We still want to go all of the places we had planned to go – but now spreading those places out over our lifetime seems to sound better to us than cramming them all into a year.

So seven months ago we started planning, building and growing. Now, here we are, six months pregnant with a gorgeous studio in the backyard.  Things can happen quickly when you decide what you really want, I suppose.

Alex designed the studio and then built it with the help of his dad, a contractor, and lots of helpful friends and family members. Have I mentioned he’s the best husband in the world? He gets off work everyday and works on painting, sawing, hammering, calling inspectors and permitters, talking with locksmiths and electricians – whatever he needs to do to make it a reality. Not only that – he actually seems happy to do it. Of course it’s a huge project that comes with frustrations, but he’s excited to see it all come together. His level of commitment to this project astounds me. How many people get to spend their work week in a structure that was built just for them, with love in every nail and board? I’m a pretty lucky lady, that’s for sure.

So here it is. Eventually, the outside will be painted grey to match our house. Other than that, it’s pretty much done.

Before. It’s hard to remember our yard looking like that!

Digging the foundation. Our yard was once the neighborhood dump – you wouldn’t believe the things that we pulled out of there. Everything from car parts, to tricycles, to mattresses to a 1964 World’s Fair snow globe.

The completed concrete slab.

Alex and his dad, Bob, in the early building stages.

And we’re vertical!

I’m just putting this picture in to prove I was there (even though I was 8 weeks pregnant and napping and puking every moment aside from this one.) Also pictured is Bob’s lady, Marty a.k.a Handywoman Extraordinaire

By the end of that first building weekend, framing was complete, all windows and doors (found at the Habitat for Humanity Home Store and Craigslist) were installed, and the whole thing was wrapped in Tyvek. We had many helping hands that weekend, and are still trying to figure out a way to pay back that debt.

Over the course of the next few months, we were ready to go with insulation, drywall, power, internet, lighting, trim and siding. We moved in my press – which was far easier this time but still gave us flashbacks of our first move. We moved the paper cutter, paper drill and cabinets. We painted the walls and furniture and hung some posters.

All moved in:

the press and storage

The paper cutter and consultation/lounge area

office/design area

Now, I’m working here all the time and could not be happier with the way it all came together. Feel free to pay me a visit!

The card can be purchased here.

UPDATE of last year’s post:

Eleven things that I look forward to in 2011:

1. Quitting my day job (???… ok, maybe 2012)

- last day at the law firm: 10/20/2011.

2. Finding a perfect paper cutter.

- found a 1889 Challenge guillotine paper cutter on ebay, that had survived a town fire in 1920. It worked for the local newspaper. It’s exactly what I had been looking for, and, like my press, comes with it’s own history and stories. Alex and I often look at our dog and wonder about the life she had before she knew us – all of her stories that led her to the Buncombe County pound. She, like my press and paper cutter, have a history that they can never share with us. I imagine all of the words documenting events on all of the newspapers around the turn of the century – all of the history that skimmed across its surface. Alex and I made a 14 hour round trip to pick it up, along with its sibling, an industrial paper drill.

3. Seeing the work of Erik Minkin on TV.

My crazy talented big brother worked on the backgrounds of this past season of Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans.

He’s been busy working on music videos, shorts and other projects as well, and is finishing up his Masters of Animation at SCAD Atlanta. He’s pretty much every animation studio’s dream employee, and I think they’ll be knocking his door down to come work for them come graduation. I’m so proud of him and inspired to watch him make his dream a reality.

4. Seeing Alex Minkin’s Thesis Photography show.

My crazy talented little brother finished his Senior thesis at Guilford this May. He was inspired by a barn built in 1945 by Germans POWs in Greensboro, and took the most amazing pictures in it. Some of the pictures are printed on waterslide decals and mounted on glass, which allows for shadows and interesting cracks to show through – essentially turning the photograph into a sculpture.

We have this bad boy hanging in our living room.

I’m jealous and excited that he’ll be going to Cuba and India this year, and can’t wait to see the photography that emerges out of his travels.

www.alexminkinphotography.com

5. Lizzie and Ben’s wedding (posts with their save the dates and invitations to follow in the coming months!) 

Are they not the most gorgeous bride and groom you’ve ever seen??

Their invitations and save the dates.

6. Celebrating Melanie and Scott’s engagement all year.

- Our BFF Andrea and I threw a little engagement party for this wonderful couple. I can’t wait for this spring when all of the festivities begin!

7. Working on the wedding invitations and other projects I have been entrusted with designing and printing.

8. Martha Stewart knowing my name (I’m ok with this one carrying over a year or two).

- carrying over a year or two. Though I will find out in a week or two if Mink Letterpress will be featured in Country Living Magazine for the Pitch Your Product special. I wouldn’t be surprised if Martha reads Country Living…

9. Learning more about printing.

- ongoing.

10. Drawing more.

-sorta kinda.

11. 11/11/11

- anticlimatic. I’ve been looking forward to this date since I was little, only to miss both 11:11 am and 11:11 pm on 11/11/11. Plus I wasn’t even invited to any awesome 11/11/11 theme parties. Bummer.

And number 12. Something that I didn’t know I was looking forward to at the beginning of 2011, but by the time it happened I realized I had been looking forward to it my whole life. Alex and I found out in early October that we are having a baby, due in late May, 2012. I’m just starting to feel the baby’s little kicks, and am  fascinated and amazed everyday that there is a human life growing inside of me. I’m so glad that my studio will be fully set up at home, and that I’ll be able to work and be at home with the baby. This baby definitely tops the list of things I look forward to in 2012.

2. having a busy spring filled with letterpress and design. Weddings, weddings, more weddings!

3. Melanie and Scott’s wedding. Will be posting their save the dates and invitations!

4. a year full of firsts – first baby experiencing everything for the first time, watching my parents become grandparents for the first time, first full year being self-employed…

5. Moving into my new studio – photos and updates to come!

6. Finding a second press?? I’ve been lusting over some Golding Jobbers that I’ve seen listed lately….

7. Finding out if we’re having a boy or girl – we’ll know in a week and a half!

8. Babymooning, and vacations with family and the new baby.

9. Spending another year with my wonderful husband. I can’t wait to see him step into his new role as a father – I know he’ll rock it.

10. Launching my new website, which is in the process of being designed by Brendan English.

11. Surviving the apocalypse.

12. Thriving in post-apocalyptic Asheville.

They’re available for purchase here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/86715736/2012-vintage-handkerchief-letterpress

Thanks for looking!

Alex and Connie have been wonderful to Mink Letterpress – we’ve worked together on thank you notes, kiln announcements, posters, advertisements and business card designs. I’m really happy to be able to do work for such a great and growing art business.

Alex and Connie will be hosting a soiree with food (incredible, amazing food as Connie is behind it), drinks and beautiful pottery. They say this is their most successful firing yet, and while I can’t imagine better pots than the last round, I’m gearing myself up for my mind to be blown. Below is the information for the event. You won’t be disappointed!

Before beginning the design process, I met Steve out at the farm to take it all in. I even got to meet some of the horses! We talked about what they wanted to include in their logo, and thought bringing the horses, mountains, rivers and fish into a simple landscape would fit the bill. After finalizing the design, we decided on a thick paper and started the printing process. Here’s what we came up with:

I’m not printing many of these, so please email me (nicole@minkletterpress.com) if you’d like to pre-order one for $42. They’ll be finished and packaged in time for you to give as a gift this holiday season. Have I mentioned that they’re gorgeous and your wife/girlfriend/friend/daughter/sister/mother really wants one? Because she does. It’ll make her happy all 2012 long, and when 2013 rolls around, she can cut off the bottom and frame her handkerchief prints.

Now, everyone in Asheville has bear stories of their own, as these big boys love to come down into the valley for Asheville’s gastronomic delights. Alex and I spotted these two bears in my parents yard. This picture was printed in the Asheville Citizen Times (double extra credit points).

So, this card goes out to my fellow Ashevillians. This bear, Bruce, is often seen around town, snapping photos and collecting human stories. Extra credit points (in my book) if you buy a card! Free shipping this week with the coupon code BEARFREESHIPPING.

When I walked in for the first panel, I started spotting some craft, letterpress and blog celebrities. I mostly kept to myself but it was super cool being in the presence of other printers just starting out, veteran printers with established businesses, and top tier printers whose work I know and admire. Panels focused on topics like starting a letterpress business, using social media to share and promote your work, and what the future holds for letterpress.

In addition to the panels, there were also various demos and events held at Bookworks, including paper making, tabletop press printing, and die cutting. I’ve heard that die cutting can tear up your press, so I’ve been debating looking for another press that’s not in great shape so that I could dedicate it to die cutting. But I learned how capable my press is of this kind of work – and it really opens my world up in terms of what I can create on my press. After seeing the demo on a press very similar to mine, I’m confident that my press can die cut without harming itself.

On Saturday night, a classy reception was held at the Venue, where the keynote speaker, Judith Berliner of Full Circle Press, gave her speech. It was moving, entertaining and inspiring. She printed broadsides for all of the attendees, with the following words by Beatrice Warde. I will hang it in my new studio that my handy husband is in the process of planning.

“This is a Printing Office. Crossroads of civilization. Refuge of all the arts against the ravages of time. Armory of fearless truth against whispering rumor. Incessant trumpet of trade. From this place words may fly abroad, not to perish on waves of sound, not to vary with the writer’s hand but fixed in time, having been verified by proof. Friend, you stand on sacred ground, This is a Printing Office.”