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speechless and truly humbled! that about sums it up for me. now let me sum it up for you.
here is a little background story. i started this event 5 years ago with the idea of giving love back to my community. nothing more, nothing less, no strings attached. during the event, participants attend an open house where they compose original love notes on antique typewriters. each note is left with a recipient’s address and hand-delivered by volunteers on valentine’s day. it started small, the first year i ended filling 90ish bottles that weekend and set out to deliver them myself that valentine’s day. it was so much fun, i could not wait until next year to do it all over again, but even bigger and better. now fast forward 5 years later and oh my, how has it grown. it has grown so much that i am branching out with my idea to other businesses that want to participate in the coming years (more on that later).
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ladies’ night!! the time was 4pm on friday the 10th. we locked the doors, and began the last minute preparations for our private evening for ladies only. i thought to myself, would the guys stay away? (yes they did!) . flowers to put out, candles to light, typewriters to set out ,signs to hang, wine to uncork, cheese and cracker tray to set out and last but not least, rose petals to sprinkle out front just in case they could not find us. six o’clock came very fast and the ladies of lincoln started to trickle in, i was feeling pretty good about the turn out! then, before i knew it there were so many ladies you could barely get from one end to the other!
all i can say is…wow! they came, they stayed, they drank and. they. drank!! it was so much fun and a enormous hit. we were open for 4 hours and many of them stayed for 2-3 hours. as one women told me “what did you expect, we were greeted at the door with a glass of wine and cheesecake on a stick, of course we are going to stay”. none of us including my staff, the wonderful valenteers, or I could have ever imagined it would have been as fun as it was. so as the night came to a close i have decided that in the coming years ladies night will be a part of love on the run!
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nine hours later and i was back at it prepping the typewriters, meeting kristin from studio k so she could set up the wonderful cupcake bar, and sprinkling the petals on the sidewalk. once the doors opened it was a steady stream of people, young and old alike. children sending a note to their mom and dad, grandparents to grandchildren, friends to friends and of course lovers to lovers! it was wonderful. the support from the community was amazing and everyone was so excited to be a part of it all. and the mood was set with the great guys from dj ol’ moanin & the gettin’ hipper fun bunch, spinning the records the entire day! it was fun, it was lively, and i think we were all hoping that they would be back to fill our studio with some funky, groovy, and smooth sounds next year.
sunday morning came quicker than i had hoped! i for one was exhausted, and on a love high! (i mean how can you not be?) for the last two days we had done close to 250 bottles of love. 250!! at this point i was wondering if we would hit our goal of 500 (150 more than last year). The day started off right, another delivery from studio k, and coffee from meadowlark. now here is where you can tell i have started to lose my mind. i made a trip to our local big box electronic store and purchased a web cam. why you ask? “let’s broadcast the event live all day long” and man that was a bunch of fun! here is a few points to remember…
1. know that if your standing under it and the camera can not see you the voice recorder can.
2. make sure if you’re a vegan, don’t get caught eating a cookie that is not vegan friendly, you never know who might be watching the live video stream.
3. dancing to the music will be broadcast to anyone watching, so have fun and don’t be afraid to make a fool out of yourself!
we had a steady stream all day long. one after another they came. they sat at the typewriters and the sound of “click, clack” filled our studio all day long. one of the last two steps was to write the name on the outside of our windows, and that they did, they filled up all 90 feet of windows. the final step was to write a message in our book of love! this book comes out each year for love on the run and acts as a yearbook of sorts. once again, there was message after message thanking porridge papers for making valentine’s fun again! believe me, reading those messages brought me to tears. as they day went on i thought for sure we will have plenty of bottles. well, when all was said and done the number of bottles came in around 480, thats 20 shy of our limit. that was amazing!!! it is safe to say we were all very exhausted, even bartelby the cat was ready to call it a night. so at six o’clock that sunday we locked the doors, put the typewriters away, cleaned up the food, and did a little reminiscing about the weekend’s memories.
one of my favorite parts to ths event is the photo booth. the leekers set up a photo booth for all three days and took mini polaroids to include in the bag that was delivered. after all was said and done thy made a flip book video of everyone that got their picture taken. it is so fun, and amazing to watch. it just shows how much love was spread over those three days. my hat’s of to josh and aubrey for their continued support of this event.
and here is the video!
Love On The Run – Lincoln 2012 from The Leekers Photography on Vimeo.
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there is no way i could spread this much love without help and donations from others! i had such an overwhelming response, both from other business’s and from individuals. towards the end i even had to turn away people that wanted to help and some who even offered to deliver. really, when does that ever happen? that is amazing. lincoln is amazing. i would like to extend a special thanks to the 50 + valenteers that offered to help out, it could not be done without your help!
i must thank my wife ellen most of all for her support! you see for us, valentines day comes and goes without a relaxing, romantic evening that we can share. i start planning love on the run in december and by mid january my 50 hour weeks turn into 60-70 hour weeks. there are more nights i come home when my wife and kids are sound asleep then awake. by the time the 14th comes around it’s too late to plan a special evening for our own. while she supports me and knows how important love on the run is to myself and our community i do owe her her own valentines day, maybe for us it will be 4-28!
i would like to thank josh and aubrey leeker for putting on the photo booth and joining me for 20 hours of pure cheesy love and for all the amazing photos that were taken. also, to robert wurth with studio orange for being our resident photographer and capturing some amazing moments through out the three days.
what about the 500 roses, (yes i said 500 roses!) that we sprinkled all over south street, and the beautiful flower arrangements and candles? well, that would be our wonderful friends over at cutts floral! a shout out goes out to the great bunch over at screen ink for the valenteers t shirts, all 50 of them(t shirts that is), thanks guys! then there is the amazing food! i can always count on kristin from studio k to out do herself, you rock! karen and kevin with bread and cup once again came through with dozens and dozens of cinnamon rolls and baguettes. to all those ladies that enjoyed the cheese and crackers, wine (and more wine, 24 bottles!!), cheesecake, vanilla chocolate porter, ice cream, and the sounds of caleb baily you can thank, hillis and co., bin 105, the buxom baxter (our own samantha), modern monks brewery, ivanna cone and caleb baily! more thanks goes to meadowlark coffee and espresso, dj ol’ moanin & the gettin’ hipper fun bunch for the amazing tunes, a novel idea bookstore for sponsoring the library of love, and kevin with signature bindery for his amazing friendship over the years and his help, collaboration, and use of his space as we take over lincoln!
it does not stop there! we had even more support from other business’s that wanted to donate raffle prizes to all the valenteers that helped. i can not thank all of you enough!
iron brush, lincoln yoga center, pepe’s cafe, maggie’s vegetarian cafe, lincoln symphony orchestra, glo skin solutions, djedu massage, modern monks brewery, oobbles, varga drum studio
i love you all, see you next year!
Hello, Porridgians! And happy Monday to you! I’m really excited to be writing to you today… because, as you may or may not know, we’re getting ready for our 5th Annual Love on the Run event on this Valentine’s day!!! I’ll admit, I was a naysayer when it came to Valentine’s day. The idea of someone buying something for their lover on this day because they thought they had to was simply insulting to me. “Why can’t people show their love every day?” I wondered. “What’s with all of these silly thoughtless gifts?? Nonsense!” I thought.
WELL. Then Christopher went and started Love on the Run. I was only working at Porridge part time in those days, so I took part in the event as most people do, by coming in and typing up a note to my sweetheart that year. Maybe it was the typewriters (I have a thing for them) , or maybe it was the fact that it was so simple. It could have even had something to do with the fact that it was FREE- either way, my general attitude about Valentine’s day quickly went from being “begrudgingly obligated” to “fanatic enthusiast”.
Each year since, I’ve had the pleasure of helping this event come together. And year after year, it has grown exponentially. This year, we’re going to have 500 bottles ready to fill with love notes destined to be delivered around Lincoln on Valentine’s day. The few days preceding February 14th will be filled with click-clacking keys, sultry sounds, and warm fuzzy feelings. We’ll have more support from local businesses that you know and even MORE help from people in our community, spending their time helping to spread the love. Love on the Run truly is something you have to participate in to understand the magnitude of the impact it makes.
This year will be our fifth year of hosting Love on the Run, and now- more than ever before- we need your help! Volunteers are the fuel that keeps this baby movin’! So if you’re local, please consider spending a bit of your time giving us a hand! Become a Valenteer!
There are many ways to help. We are always looking for:
typewriter lenders- as you know, love on the run features the quirky click-clack of antique typewriters. if you have a functioning typewriter that you’d like to lend to the event, please just let us know!
helper cupids- there are many tasks that need extra love before and during the love on the run event. if you’re interested in helping with anything from bag assembly, typewriter trouble shooting, ushering during the open house, or anything else you can think of, we could sure use your help!
delivery cupids- know your way around town? we’ve got just the job for you! every year, we’ve delivered a growing number of love notes thanks to our fantastic delivery volunteers! whether you’ve got all day, or even just an hour or two- spending time as a delivery cupid is sure to be one of the best things you could do to get yourself into the mood on valentine’s day.
sponsors- each year we’ve had a variety of delicious treats, fun photos, and fantastic goodies that have added to love on the run to make it special. if you have a local business and you’d like to donate a service or product, please let us know!
if you’re interested in volunteering in any way- please contact us!
Have you attended one of our Love on the Run events? Tell us what you thought. Share your memory by emailing us or Posting to our Love On the Run Facebook Page! And be sure to check out our OFFICIAL love on the run Website!
DON’T LIVE IN LINCOLN???
Still wanna feel the LOVE???
NO PROBLEM!
We are raising money for trademarking Love on the Run. This event is, and always has been, a free event focused on giving love back to the local community. This year will be our 5th year of hosting Love on the Run, and our goal is to trademark the event for use in other cities regionally and even nationwide. The purpose of trademarking the event is to protect the charm and simplicity of Love on the Run and keep it free for the communities that participate. SO to get the ball rolling, we’ve launched a Kickstarter Campaign!! Check out our Kickstarter video for a bit more info.
When this Kickstarter campaign reaches its goal, we’ll have the funds that we need to create a how-to manual that will draw from our years of experience with this event. This manual will include everything from tips on locating and servicing typewriters that are almost 100 years old, to ideas on organizing delivery of each and every note in your community. The trademarking will help us ensure that the Love on the Run event and the ideas and values that it was created from will be upheld no matter how many cities participate.
Now- just imagine all of that momentum, energy, and love in your city. What would your love note say?
Please do what you can to help us reach our goal. We have less than 30 days to do it! And tell ALL of your friends, too! Let’s put some more thought and meaning back into Valentine’s day. One bottle at a time! CLICK HERE to help!
Happy Monday!
We’ve got a couple of quick and exciting things to share with you today, Porridgians! First of all, there are still a few holiday shopping days left before Christmas hits! Take care of any last-minute gift giving with something handmade or vintage from our shop! Check out some of these great ideas!
Of course, it goes without saying that we’ll also have our usual variety of letterpress holiday stationery for you to choose from. Just in case you need some extra special cards for some extra special folks on your list.
As always, our store hours are Monday-Friday from 10am-6pm and Saturday from 10am-3pm. We will be closed Saturday, December 24th as well as Monday, December 26th to spend time with our families over the holiday. We will also be closed Monday, January 2nd to wrap up our New Years’ celebrations.
Speaking of the new year, we’ve got some exciting events in the works!
For example, Check out our Saturday Pulp Kids’ Papermaking class on January 21st! Have you ever wanted to make paper with your kids, but didn’t want to have pulp all over your kitchen? Never fear! We’ve created the perfect solution!
We will supply lots of pulp, coloring, and other fun stuff to add to your paper. For only $10, you will learn to form and ouch your sheets of paper. When you’re finished, we’ll press it, dry it, and make sure it’s ready for you to pick up within the next week!
This class is limited to 6 parent/kid duos! (parents must be present) If you RSVP to the Facebook event, be sure that you also contact Porridge Papers (pulp@porridgepapers.com or call 402.742.5415) to reserve your spot.
If you can’t get in for the first class, don’t worry! We’re going to be having one every month!
AAAANNNNNND… those of you who are long time fans of Porridge, know all about our Love on the Run event that takes place every year… well I won’t say much, but I WILL tell you that this year’s event is going to be BIGGER AND BETTER THAN *EVER*! This will be our 5th annual Love on the Run and we’ve got some really great ideas coming along! If you’re interested in helping with this year’s event, please feel free to give us a shout! We’ll need more volunteers than ever before to help with everything from coordination, setup, typewriter help, and of course, delivery on Valentine’s Day! Participating is truly a warm-and-fuzzy feeling inspiring experience, and help from our fantastic volunteers and sponsors is what keeps the Love a-flowin! If you have any questions, suggestions, or ideas, send us an email at hello@ porridgepapers.com!
Happy December, Porridgians!
Lots of fun stuff is going on here at the studio lately! We’ve been shopping for all KINDS of holiday goodies! This year will be the best holiday season ever at Porridge Papers, for us AND for you .
If you haven’t been in since the remodel, now is a great time. We have just finished decorating the new(ish) space for the holidays and it looks AMAZING in here! Since the remodel, we’ve also started getting in a variety of vintage and handmade gift items in addition to our usual letterpress and handmade stationary. You’ll find new handmade bags, aprons, fountain pens, wooden watches, locally made soaps, antique magazines and many other nifty gifty things! For example, check out the pop-out plantable ornament cards, made right here!
It should also go without saying that you’ll be able to pick up some fantastic holiday cards while you’re here. We’ve got a great selection of cards from our usual favorite stationery companies, as well as a handful of designs that were printed right here in our studio!
OR if you’re looking for personalized holiday cards, we’ve got them! Check out the designs!
You can have your name printed on the outside or inside of the card at no additional cost. that’s 25 personalized letterpressed holiday cards for only $50!!! And if you want to save on all of these fun new things, come in this Saturday During our ”holly jolly” sale, complete with eggnog and cookies! All paper and cards will be 10% off and personalized holiday cards will be $40 per 25 (normally $50). AND if you spend $50 or more you’ll get a porridge papers canvas tote bag!
See you Saturday!
taryn and jon from 10/11 news stopped by yesterday to film a segment for the first anniversary of their show! why you ask? did you know that paper is the first year anniversary gift. we thought it fitting to honor them with a hand set print commemorating the success. but it was not that easy, taryn had to pull the print herself! after a few times practicing she was good to go live. you can watch the video right here!
it has been fun playing around with all the new type and cuts we picked up a few months back. we are still finding interesting fonts and old advertising cuts. in the coming months we will be hosting print sessions where you can come in on saturday and for a small fee have access to all the type and a few proofing presses. stay tuned for details.
What an amazing success! With all the help from the sponsors and volunteers we were able to hand deliver close to 300 bottles and an additional 60 delivered by the person that typed them. We had channel 8 and 10/11 both cover the event. Drive by South street and see all the names on the window and stop in to read the Book of Love! Here is a video that The Leekers put together of the event. Aburey and Josh donated they time taking mini poliroids to include with the bottles of love. More pictures and stories coming soon.
I can not believe how quick time has passed! We are gearing up for our favorite time of the year, Valentine’s Day!
You know what that means…
Love On The Run!!!
What is this you ask? Well here are the details…
Is this era of Facebook, Twitter, computer generated greeting cards, and cell phone texts, we are giving lovers a chance to say “Happy Valentine’s Day” with old-school methods and delivered in an unforgettable way!
We invite anyone to stop by Porridge Papers Friday, Saturday or Sunday to type up a note on our antique typewriters. Then they are rolled up and placed in small bottles which are put into handmade paper bags embedded with wildflower seeds. They are then delivered FREE of charge on Valentine’s Day within Lincoln city limits. The hour of events are -
Friday, February 11th, 5-9 p.m. Hors D’oeuvres & live music
Saturday, February 12th, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Cupcakes and savory snacks
Sunday, February 13th, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Cinnamon rolls, coffee & juice
We will also have a photo booth set up so you can include a picture as well!
We are always looking for volunteers so call ahead if you want to help out.
Why do we do this? Well this is our way of giving back to Lincoln! This is such a great community and we wanted to share the love we have with all of you. This year we have had an out pouring of help from local businesses, we would like to thank -
Thé Cup
Screen Ink
Studio Orange Photography
Hillis & Co.
Bread & Cup
The Lichen
Caleb Bailey
Signature Bindery
Cuts Floral
The Leekers
Pepe’s
Hey there, Paper People! I wanted to let you know about our Stocking Sale. Starting tomorrow, Deceber 15th through Saturday December 18th you can bring in your Christmas Stocking and pack it with goodies from our Holiday clearance section and any of our Paper-by-the-Ounce. Fit up to a pound of paper goodies for only $15! We stuffed a stocking yesterday and added up our pound, almost $30 worth of goodies! Awesome!
In other Holiday related news: our Holiday hours are as follows:
We will remain open for our regular hours (Monday-Friday from 10am 6 pm and Saturdays from 10am – 3pm) until the 23rd. We will be closed December 23rd – 25th and re-open on Monday the 26th. We’ll close again December 30th through January 2nd and re-open with regular hours on January 3rd.
Keep your eyes on us during the next couple of weeks! We have plans to offer you guys some HUGE savings in the store! We’re also EXPANDING into the space next door with Signature Bindery! This means that in the very near future we’ll have even MORE space for fantastic paper-related goodies in the shop!
Here’s the tricky part: We need YOUR feedback! What other kinds of stationery/gifts/paper goodies would you like to see us carry? Is there something you wish we had a bigger selection of? More imported papers? More journals? Invitation embellishments such as strings, ribbons, twine, etc? What about wax seals? Now’s your chance! Let us know by responding to this post OR e-mailing us here!
While we’re taking your suggestions and ideas, we’ll also be brainstorming on collaborative workshops that include bookbinding/letterpress/handmade paper arts, as well as new and interesting products to produce. So much promise to be found in the coming year! Snuggle up and stay warm, Porridgians!
Warm winter greetings, Porridgians! Hopefully you are able to leave the Humbug out of this year’s Holiday Season. Here at Porridge, we’ve been decking the mill with garland and lights and tons of paper snowflakes. We even have a train set running around our displays! It sure is hard to avoid holiday cheer with all of the pretty shiny things around.
We’re doing a few things to keep our holiday Spirit alive til Santa comes. First of all we’re featuring a Holiday card of the day every day on our Facebook page. We really bulked up on the greeting cards this year and the quality and creativity of our selection just can’t be beat!
We’re also featuring a Gift Item of the day every day. Keep your eyes on this one, as every day the featured item is 15% off! Its a great way to discover new and fabulous goodies that we have here in the shop!
Yesterday, we did a great Facebook giveaway where we asked our fans outside Lincoln about their obscure holiday traditions. We got a few great responses, but my favorite – by far- was the tradition sent in by Michelle. Her tradition is this:
“My husband’s family has a mannequin bodice and head, named Ima Vixen, that gets gifted to someone else each year. The receiver of Ima, will have her for the year and on Christmas she is revealed with a new addition (over the years she has received hair, ears, glasses, crazy stuff, etc.) The person that has had Ima, also writes a poem commemorating her year and the new addition. The next reciever of Ima reads the past 3 years poems and then the most recent one. Ima Vixen is quite the sight to see! 
”
Michelle was even Kind enough to send in a photo of Ima Vixen. Check her out!
Awesome! She really is quite the sight! What a fantastic (and hysterical) tradition! Thanks again to all of our fantastic Facebook fans for sharing!
Another great tradition that you may or may not have heard of is the sprinkling of Magical Reindeer Dust out in the yard on Christmas Eve. For those of you that haven’t heard, here’s the rundown of things. Magical Reindeer Dust is mixed and scattered in the yard by children on Christmas eve. This special dust attracts the reindeer to ensure they don’t pass your house, and helps them fly faster and higher for speedy deliveries to all kids! According to Santa, it’s also one of the reindeers’ favorite treats!
Fresh out of Magical Reindeer Dust? Not to worry, Porridge Papers is happy to help your kids mix up the magic stuff themselves in our Magical Reindeer Dust Workshop this Saturday, December 11th! Bring your kids in from 2-4 pm to make their very own Reindeer dust! We will have hot cocoa and treats. But parents, there is more to it, just don’t tell the munchkins.
While they are very carefully mixing the magical reindeer dust, our elves will be printing out a personal letter addressed to your kids on Santa Claus’s own personal stationery thanking your kids for the magical dust and for being good this year! We will quietly give it to you in a very special envelope for you to hang on to and put out on Christmas Eve after they have gone to bed! How fun is that! Few things are as heartwarming as children’s excitement for Santa each year. Bring them in and see their eyes glow with wonder!
Speaking of wonder, what could be more WONDERFUL than saving some cash at your favorite papermill when you buy your Holiday cards and gifts?! Nothing. So while you’re here for the Magical Reindeer Dust Workshop, get some shopping done and save 25% off all regularly priced items! All day THIS Saturday!
Don’t worry, that won’t be ALL for this Holiday season. We’ve got some other fanciful fun in the works, just keep your eyes peeled! Until then, stay warm and bright, paper people!
Greetings, paper people! Hopefully this lovely autumn season is treating you well and you’re staying warm and cozy!
We’ve had a lot going on here lately. Marketing meetings, special guests, loads and loads of papermaking, all on top of the usual PIY events and awesomeness maintenance. By the way, thanks to the folks over at Indigo Bridge Books, and all of those that came over to our Halloween PIY storytime event. We had a blast printing up masks and sharing spooky tales!
We also had a special guest stop by all the way from New York a couple of weeks ago. Joe Williams, dancer, Dervish, teacher of the Delsarte System, and lover of chocolate stopped by Porridge Papers during his stay in Lincoln to get the tour and learn to make some paper, porridge style. It was lovely having him and he had a blast playing in the pulp!
Autumn here at the papermill always brings much talk of holiday preparation. The holidays are oodles of fun for us here, there’s so much to do! Decorating, event planning, digging out last year’s holiday cards (now on sale 50% off!!!), creating displays, and printing up new seasonal cards and stationery.
Before I get to the Christmas nonsense, let’s take a minute to think about Thanksgiving. MMmmmmmmmmm…. pumpkin pie, turkey, cranberry relish… gratitude. SO much to be thankful for! I know that all of you are going over your endless list of things you’re grateful for. I’m sure you even have a long list of people that you’d like to stop and say thank you to. Maybe the only reason that you’re not calling them right this very moment is because, you’re like the rest of us and you’re super busy and you don’t exactly have the time to get into a long mushy-gusHy conversation about how glad you are to have your friends/family… FEAR NOT! Porridge papers saves the day- AGAIN!
Introducing the Gratitude Sale! Now through November 24th you can save %15 on ALL Thank You cards and Thank You card sets. Send Thanks. Send Love. Send Letterpress!
And if you wanna get a jump on your letterpress love for the Holidays, browse our fine selection of Christmas and Holiday cards while you’re here! Select cards are even 50% off!
Would you rather have custom personalized cards for the holiday season? No problem. Check out our great Holiday designs:
Personalize any of the above designs for $50 per set of 25! What a fantastic deal for handmade holiday cards!
That’s not the only great thing going on at Porridge Papers this holiday season. Bring the kiddos in for our Magic Reindeer Dust workshop! Bring your kids in to make their very own Reindeer dust! We will have hot cocoa and treats. But parents, there is more to it, just don’t tell your children.
While they are very carefully mixing the magical reindeer dust, our elves will be printing out a personal letter addressed to your kids on Santa Claus’s own personal stationery thanking your kids for the magical dust and for being good this year! We will quietly give it to you in a very special envelope for you to hang on to and put out on Christmas Eve after they have gone to bed.
If you are familiar with our annual Love On The Run event, this is going to be like that! we have a limited number of bags for the magical dust and like Love On The Run, it is FREE!! Why you ask? Well, we love our fans and we love giving back to the community.
See you soon, Porridgians!
Hello again, Porridgians!
The time has come for things of a spooky and scary nature! You know, ghosts, goblins, zombies, creepy spiders, and the like. And to celebrate these creepy crawly things that go BOO in the night, Porridge Papers is hosting a PIY event of the haunted kind. That’s right! Stop in tomorrow from 4-7pm for ghost stories, courtesy of Indigo Bridge Books, creepy treats, and limited edition masks that were designed by fantastic graphic design geniuses, Bennett Holzworth and Eric Nyffeler. When you come in, you’ll get to pull your own letterpress printed mask on our Vandercook all by yourself for only $5! wow! For more information on this festive, creepy, fun time, check out the Porridge Papers Facebook event! We’ve even got the studio all spookified! Check out these pictures:
You’ll also get to see Jarvis, the “strange-but-true” pulp monster! Created by our newest addition to the family, Allie!
EEEEkkk!
Speaking of Allie, our fabulous new employee, we’ve had her write a bit of an introduction for our fans. Here’s what she has to say about herself (in the 3rd person, of course):
“One word to describe Alley would be, “spooktastic”. When she’s not squishing paper pulp into marvelous sheets of paper, Alley spends her time writing stories, sewing whimsiful dresses, oscillating wildly, doing special effects zombie makeup, and practicing Misfits songs on her harp, Skullcrusher. She’s got a jangley walk, a mumbly talk, a feral tongue, and often keeps her charm set to Stun. Originally from the Pocono Mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania, Alley misses the mountains and the rivers of home and is still getting used to the Midwest.”
We think she’s getting along just fine! Stop by and welcome her to the family!
Can’t wait to see you all tomorrow! Again, that’s at Porridge Papers- 1422 South Street from 4-7 pm! Til then, keep it real, paper people!
That’s right. It’s officially fall. I don’t know about you, but this is one of my 2 favorite seasons. There’s just something about the colors, and the smells, the brisk wind on your face, and scarves and boots – my favorite fall attire. There’s a whole bunch of great stuff going on at Porridge Papers. Beginning with our first of many FANTASTIC holiday window displays! Thanks to our creative window team, Kim and Alley, we’ll have a spooktacular display complete with scary tree and pulp monster! They’re not quite finished with the display yet, but here are some pictures of the progress so far!
I simply can NOT wait til this display is finished. It is going to look FANTASTIC! Does the tree look familiar?? If it does, you’d know that it was inspired by the amazing tree inside of Indigo Bridge Books. Which is no coincidence considering that we’re pairing up with Indigo Bridge for this month’s PIY event! October’s PIY event will be October 23rd from 4-7 pm. We’re going to be featuring pull-it-yourself letterpressed masks, designed by local letterpress masterminds, Bennet Holzworth, and Eric Nyffeler. We’ll also have munchkin-friendly ghost stories being read from 4:30-5:30 pm and super scary stories for adults read from 6-7 pm- courtesy of the fine folks at Indigo Bridge Books! There will also be light refreshments and snacks so don’t miss it!
If you can’t make it in for the PIY series, but are DYING to get your hands inky, don’t forget that we have WORKSHOPS! Check out the dates and availability of our letterpress workshops by visiting the website here and e-mailing to sign up. These workshops are SUPER small which means more quality time for you and the Vandercook!!
Also, if you’re in Brownville this coming weekend, be sure to check out the Paint Brownville Autumn event on October 9th and 10th. There will be a Civil War reenactment, a first-rate quilt show, trolley and pony rides, a live concert on Saturday night, and more! Of course, we’ll be there with the shop doors open, so stop by and say hello! For more information on Brownville and it’s treasures visit the website here.
Lastly, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome the newest member of the Porridge Papers family, Allison Getz. Alley started interning with us several weeks back and did such a good job making paper that we decided to actually pay her to do it! If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and welcome her to the crew!
Brisk autumn greetings to you, Porridgians! Hopefully the cooler weather is filling you with excitement for autumns brilliant colors and roasty-toasty flavors of warm apple pie and spiced chai tea. mmMMmmmm
Speaking of chai, thanks to those that came out for our PIY Mehndi event and enjoyed chai and snickerdoodles while getting henna tattoos and pulling their leterpress prints! I hope that you all thought the prints came out beautifully, I know I sure did! Here’s a quick shot of the finished print:
So pretty! If you like what you see here, just wait! I’m sure our other PIY posters will be just as fantastic! For those of you that attended September’s event, bring in the coupon portion of your print for that discount on your shopping til the end of October!
October’s PIY event is sure to be tons of fun too! On October 16th from 4-7 (tentatively) we’re going to have spooky ghost stories and ghoulish treats. For the printing portion, we’ll have letterpressed masks that you get to print yourself! Keep your eyes on our blog and the Facebook page for more details!
Other Autumn events that we’ll be participating in is the Paint Brownville Autumn event on October 9th and 10th. There will be a Civil War reenactment, a first-rate quilt show, trolley and pony rides, a live concert on Saturday night, and more! Of course, we’ll be there with the shop doors open, so stop by and say hello! For more information on Brownville and it’s treasures visit the website here.
We’ll also be getting more and more great items in both of our shops for the holidays. Stop in through the coming couple of months to check out our new selection of imported papers, stationery, and greeting cards! We just placed a HUGE order for imported paper to be used in invitations, personal stationery sets, and sold by the sheet. The selection is going to be fantastic, I can’t wait till they arrive!
Those of you that live in the Nebraska area, may have already seen the feature on Porridge Papers in the Lance’s Journal segment of the 10/11 news, but for those farther away, we thought you should see it too! Check the video below to watch! Lance did a great job on the piece and it was really great having him in the store. He seemed to have a great time spending the afternoon here and we have already had several people come in after seeing the feature. Thanks, Lance!
Now I know the reason that most of you may be reading this post is because of the mention of WORKSHOPS! We’ve finally nailed down all of the details to offer Letterpress workshops!!! Wheeeeee! You can see the dates and details of the workshops from this page on our website. As always, if you have any additional questions or ideas, please feel free to contact us! We’d really love to make sure these classes suit those that are interested and feedback is always welcome! I can’t wait to get the first class rollin!
See you soon, paper people!
Happy Monday, paper people!
As you may know, we have some fun things going on right now at your favorite papermill. For example, we’re still having our $5 sack sale until this Saturday, so stop on by and stock up on some cute cards and oodles of paper scraps to suit your every paper crafting whim!
This Saturday, we’ll also be having our first event in the The PIY Series from 2-4 pm. The PIY Series this month will feature a Mehndi art print for you to print with *your own two hands* on our Vandercook letterpress! We’ll also have cookies and chai for refreshments and a brief history and henna tattoos by Samantha. So come in, mingle, shop, get decorated, become a pressman for a minute, and be happy! See you there!
We’re really excited about the PIY series, and we’ve brainstormed and started working on themes for the next few months. Ideally, we’d like to have an event every month that features and cooperates with a local movement, art, craft, or some other such awesome idea. Future workshops to look forward to will include: PIY masks, handwritten thank you notes, make your own reindeer dust for the holidays, wine tasting, flower arrangements, bicycle tuneups, and many many more! As always, we love hearing your ideas so if you have any brilliant ideas or themes for one of our workshops or a PIY event don’t hesitate to e-mail us at pulp@porridgepapers.com! These events are about our community so we’d love to know what you want to see!
For those of you that are just itching to know the details on our Letterpress classes, you’ll be pleased to know that the schedule, pricing, sign-up, and guidelines will all be available on our website for you to download and print out by this Wednesday! If you follow us on Facebook, keep your eye out there. I’ll also post a link in the blog so you can get the press rolling!
As always, we do our best to keep it fresh! We can’t wait to see what you folks think of all of our great events and ideas!
Until next time!
Hello again! Hopefully my favorite Porridgians had a fantastic Labor Day Weekend! I know I did! I actually got the chance to come in to work on Saturday to print some invitations on our Vandercook. I’m not usually manning the press lately so it was really great to get my hands inky. This was also my first time using the Vandercook and I LOVED IT! It was a VERY long day (ten hours!). To say the least, my arm was a little sore on Sunday, but I can’t wait to get rollin’ again! I also can’t wait to get pictures of these invitations up for you guys to see, they’re GORGEOUS!
A couple of other exciting things also happened over the holiday weekend. Christopher did a bit of work finalizing the pricing and guidelines for the Letterpress Workshop! The first of which is scheduled for the middle of October! The classes will be tiny to start (only 2 people per class) and they’ll be about 4 hours long. You’ll be able to come in and print your own personal stationery or business/calling cards. We’ll also be extending the press to the Letterpress Class alumni for rental so you can come in and print a special project. We’re also hoping to offer invitation/announcement printing classes before the spring so keep an eye out!
As you may know, we here at Porridge make our own papers, the most popular of which being our plantable paper with seeds in it. While we’ve made tons of different papers with a variety of seeds, the wildflower mix is still the most popular. In order to keep our quality up as high as possible and ensure results for our customers, we do regular test-germinations of our papers at different points in our processes. Over the weekend we had the most recent results sprout like crazy! Check it out!
These are just a few of the different seeds that go into our wildflower mix. Two of them sprouted within just two days! The rest all sprouted within 4-5 days of being tested. What a fun way to start the morning. Little sprouts are just so cute!
You fellas that follow us on our Facebook page may have seen the little blurb about our being published in Fashion Hangtag Design. Here are a couple of shots of our pages in the book, which features different unique and innovative tag and packaging designs. Check out the publisher, Artpower’s website here.
Its always great having our work recognized in such fantastic print and design publications!
Just a quick reminder: We have a ton of great stuff lined up for the month of September. Going on now until the 18th is our huge $5 Back to School Sack Sale. Come in and stuff sacks with cards, envelopes, and paper scraps and save a ton! You can also take 15% all notebooks, journals, and jotters! If you’re in Lincoln, stop by the Meadolark Cafe, The Mill, Bin 105, Indigo Bridge Books, Ivanna Cone and other locations around town where you’ll find a small flyer with our September events and a coupon for 15% off of any item in the store!
We’ve also got our first ever P.I.Y. (pull.it.yourself) event on Saturday, September 18th. Stop in from 2-4 pm and pull one of your own Mehndi art prints and get a henna tattoo from Samantha!
Also, all football season long, on Home games for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, we’re having Red Saturday Sales. Come in on Home Game Saturdays and save 20% on anything Red in the store! Hooray!
Until next time, enjoy the great weather and keep it real, paper people!
Happy Monday, Porridgians!
Hopefully you had a great weekend! The summer is winding down and the days are starting to cool off (finally) and school is starting back up again. Which can only mean it’s time for a Back to School Sale! Stop in any time from September 1st through the 18th and enjoy oodles of savings on our scrap papers and discontinued letterpress cards! We’ll have 2 sizes of bags to fill; a large bag for you to stuff as much scrap paper into as possible for only $5! Smaller bags will also be available to stuff cards and envelopes into for $5!!
You can also save some cash on Red Saturdays when everything red in the store is 20% off! Come on by Saturdays from September-November when the Nebraska Cornhuskers are playing a game to take advantage of these red-hot savings! ^.~
Some of our Facebook Fans may have seen this photo already, but we’re posting it again because we’re *super* excited to have our new intern, Alley with us! Alley will be joining us 2 days a week to learn whatever she can from us. So far she’s turning out to be quite the papermaker! She’s got a knack for it and made her first post on day 1! Its always fun to have a fresh new face in the papermill for a while and it’ll be a blast including her on some of the Porridge Papers antics around here!
Go, Alley Go!
You Facebook fans may have also seen our Jotter giveaway last week. We’ve been a little crazy over notebooks and jotters lately and we’re excited to be offering recycled chipboard box jotters and journals very soon! We also did a teeny giveaway for 4 lucky people that submitted their logos to be printed on some Plantable jotter covers! I’ll post pics as soon as they’re on the press! Congrats to our winners!
If you would like to get in on the giveaways, find us on Facebook and keep your eyes peeled! We often get the itch to spread the love to our fans and we usually have our winners within moments! It’s always such a blast to interact with you guys like that so keep it comin! If you have any ideas or questions, or if you just wanna share some Porridge Love, don’t be afraid to let us know! As always, you guys are the best!
Hello Hello, Porridgians! Long time no see! We’ve been very busy here at your favorite papermill and letterpress studio, and I’m writing to tell you about some fantastic things that are in the pipelines for the very near future!
The first thing I’d like to announce is our huge Sack Sale! This sale will be running from September 1st through the 18th! Come on by the store and fill a sack with paper goodies to save some cash! We’ll have 2 different sacks; a larger sack for you to cram full of our paper scraps (normally $1.00/ounce) . Fit as much as you can for only $5!!! There will also be a smaller sack for you to cram with as many select cards and envelopes as you can fit, also for only $5!!! So stop on by for splendid scrap savings!!!
Also coming soon is the first in our PIY series of letterpress events! The PIY (Pull It Yourself) series will be a unique pairing of letterpress and another art form as selected by the folks and fans of Porridge Papers. Our first event will feature the exquisitely intricate ancient art of Mehndi with a presentation and henna tattoos by yours truly! We’ll be selling prints of original art which you get to pull yourself using our Vandercook letterpress! This event is scheduled to take place on September 18th so stay tuned for more details!
Future PIY events will feature masks, wine, chocolate and more! If you have an idea for a PIY event, please e-mail us at hello@porridgepapers.com or let us know on our Facebook page!
Now, I can’t even begin to tell you how long we’ve been trying to get together Letterpress workshops and classes. We’ve had countless people ask when they could sign up, and we FINALLY have our ducks in a row (mostly). Beginning Saturday October 2nd we’ll be offering small letterpress workshops!! HOORAY!!!! If you’re in Lincoln and you’re interested in learning Letterpress, please stay tuned for more information on the class times and fees. We’re very excited to get the ball rolling with these workshops. Our goal has been to share the Letterpress love with Lincolnites since we moved back 4 years ago!
We’ve also got a TON of recycled notebooks, journals, and jotters on their way to hit our online shops and our Etsy store! so say tuned for those! These will all have recycled covers from boxes donated by fans of Porridge Papers! They come in a variety of shapes and sizes and are perfect for oodles of uses! Keep your eye out. Here’s a preview:
Hello again, Porridgians! Yet another month has passed since our last update! Time sure flies lately! We’ve been busy little bees for sure! If you go back to our last blog post for a refresher, you’ll read about our Ode to the coaster event where we had our fans design coasters and submit them for voting. From there, we chose 6 designs to feature and debuted them at our Ode to the Coaster celebration (which also just happened to be Christopher’s birthday party). The submissions were all fabulous and the winners’ designs printed beautifully! Here’s what they looked like:
and here’s a few mugshots of the designers wearing their handmade coaster jewelry (we’re missing one designer, sorry)
We also had a semi-last-minute opportunity to participate in a fabulous travelling art project called Marginalia. To quote the Marginalia website:
THE SHORT STORY:
This spring, we (Jimmy Riordan, an artist and Leslie Rosa-Stumpf, a curator) are taking an exhibition we organized last fall, which included works by over 50 international artists, on a road trip from Anchorage to New York City. The goal of this trip is to meet with all of the participating artists based within the United States, collaborate with various art spaces across the country on exhibition-related projects and mini-shows that draw tighter connections between the various artistic practices, host art dinners, document the trip, make prints, send post cards and construct a catalog of the Marginalia exhibition en route.
To learn more about the project visit the website here, or check out the blog. Our friend, Heidi, e-mailed us with details on the project and asked if we would be kind enough to host for the project’s book-binding portion. I think it’s safe to say that fun was had by all, and thanks to Leslie and Jimmy for giving Porridge Papers the chance to Participate! We had a blast! Here are some shots taken during the event.
The very next day we had to get prepped for our party! This included sprucing up the place, picking up the kegs, and stringing coasters from the ceiling, and preparing the snacks. We had a fantastic turnout and I really think that Christopher had a blast for his birthday. Since it’s not enough to have great people and great beer to celebrate a great boss’ birthday, the kids at Porridge and I went in on a couple of extra surprises for Christopher. One of which was an incredible Guinness Stout cake with Bailey’s buttercream icing that Kristin over at The Cup was kind enough to contribute. Let me tell you folks, this cake was TO. DIE. FOR. And the look on Christopher’s face when she walked in the door with it was just as satisfying. here’s more photos!
The other surprise was the set of beer koozies that we had Jason over at Screen Ink silkscreen with the Porridge Papers logo. Christopher has wanted Porridge Koozies for quite a while now and it shocked me that he didn’t think to have them done until a day or two before the beer party (little did he know… mwahahahaaaa)! It would have been far too easy to just give him the koozies. Instead, we started placing them randomly through the papermill during the party to see if he’d notice. We had at least a dozen of them out before he finally caught on. Needless to say, it was all we could do to keep from giggling hysterically every time he nearly touched one reaching for something else entirely. Again, the look on his face: priceless. And now we all have Koozies! I took the liberty of creating a collage with pictures of all of the hidden koozies as well as the look on Christopher’s face when he finally saw them. sheesh.
Again, great fun was had by all! Thanks to everyone that helped us with our good excuse to drink tasty beer on a workday! Here are a few more shots of the party’s goings ons.
In other exciting news, we have had the opportunity to collaborate with Jason of Screen Ink and Eric of Doe Eyed Designs to create some fantastic plantable pieces for the Crossroads Guitar Festival. Each piece featured plantable paper and musically inspired designs. Jason did a fantastic abstract lily with guitar head stamen, and Eric’s card had punch out plantable guitar picks! Now you can even strum with plantable paper!
One of my favorite things about making our paper is seeing what great minds come up with to put on it. Any time I’m looking for letterpress inspiration, I check out what the folks over at Studio on Fire are up to. They really set the bar with their creativity and quality of printing. I was delighted to hear that they wanted our plantable paper to use for one of their recent jobs for a landscaping company. Check out their blog, Beast Pieces, to see their fantastic work. Here is a direct link to the plantable postcard done on Porridge Paper!
gorgeous!And last, but not least, we had a casualty in the shop last week when our beloved Francesca bit the dust (again). Its always so traumatic when a letterpress breaks, or even when part of it does. Thankfully, though, Christopher and Blayne are MacGyver team of the letterpress world. So with a little work, Dr. Frankenstein style, we have an operational press again! But boy oh boy did they get their hands dirty in the process! Check it out!
Gross!
I think that about sums it up! We also got 2 new pieces of equipment but they’re worthy of their own blog post (besides, I need photos for you!)
Keep it Real, folks.
Woah! Can you guys believe that it’s been almost a MONTH since our last blog post?! I guess that’s a solid sign of just how busy we are around here lately! So many great things are in the works!
First of all, be sure to check out our Ode to the Coaster event. We’re having our Facebook Fans vote for 6 of their favorite coaster designs to be part of a limited edition run and to debut at our Ode to the Coaster party in a couple of weeks! To cast your vote on the coaster designs just visit this gallery and post your vote in the comments section of our choices. Voting will end on May 31st and winners will be featured at our Party on Thirsty Thursday, June 10th!
Some of you may know that Christopher justreturned from walking the National Stationery Show last week. He spent 3 days in New York City shopping for new and exciting cards, notebooks, journals, and other awesome paperthings for our retail shops. He placed over a dozen orders for more than 260 new items for your paperloving pleasure! I can’t wait til these new goodies start coming in, the catalogs and samples that he brought back looked very promising! Stop in though out the next couple of weeks to be the first to check out the new wares! And as you can see by Lady Liberty, here, Christopher also brought back some classic NYC souvenirs for us!
Awesome!
If you were paying attention, you will have noticed that in the previous paragraph, I said that Christopher was buying paper goods for our shops, meaning MORE THAN ONE!
On his way home from picking up our new Hollander Beater, Christopher decided to take a look at/pursue/lease a small retail space in the lovely little town of Brownville, Nebraska. I, personally, have never been to Brownville, but It’s my understanding that the tiny town is a growing art and literature community with only a few hundred regular residents and weekend festivals that draw hundreds of people all summer long. We signed the lease and the Porridge Papers crew will be closing up shop at our Lincoln location this Friday to go to pretty up the new space! I’ll make sure to post some photos as soon as I have some! It sounds like the residents are happy to have our humble papermill as part of the community, and we are delighted to participate!
Some of you remember one of our January posts about Kaelan Smith and Flatmancrooked. Kaelan is doing a zero emissions bike tour to promote his novel, “We’re Getting On”, the cover of which features a letterpressed plantable cover made by you-know-who. The seeds in the book cover are Sweet Birch seeds, and we’re excited to see them spout! Tree seeds generally take much longer to germinate than most of our usual wildflower, herb, and veggie seed mixes so you can imagine our excitement when we saw these sprouts come out of our test germination! Hooray! To follow Kaelan’s bike/book tour, or to find out more about the project, visit www.zeroemissionbook.com.
OK! Back to work I go! Lots of paper still to be made today, we’re crankin’ out the sheets like there’s no tomorrow, just look at this pile of paper which was just part ofyesterday’s shipment to a single customer! wowza!
Happy Monday, Porridgians! I hope all of you are enjoying the breezy early spring weather. We have a few fun things going on at the papermill lately, For starters, Christopher had the pleasure of giving a quick papermaking lesson to a handful of preschoolers from Saratoga Elementary last week. A few of the munchkins were a bit hesitant to get their hands wet, but after the first one did it, the rest weren’t far behind! Here are a couple of pics of the cuties in action!
Oh the adorable smiling faces of future papermakers! We’re looking forward to another visit from the preschool later this week! I’ll post more photos once we have them!
In other news, we’re still running our Black7 Business Card Special. Get 250 letterpressed business cards for only $60 (plus shipping) it’s really a fantastic deal! Click here for details, or e-mail us with questions!
And if THAT’S not fun enough, we’re still taking submissions for our Ode to the Coaster design contest! Details can be found here. You can also see our website for the template to base your design on! It’s available in both an Illustrator and an PDF format. So get crackin’!! What could be more appropriate for your summer barbecues than letterpressed coasters with your original art on them?! nothing.
Not hip on the coasters? How about coffee bags? Jon over at Cultiva Coffee is still taking submissions for his Paper or Plastic project which will feature original artwork by various artists letterpress printed in limited runs for his coffee packaging! E-mail Christopher or Jon to get more info or to submit work!
Hey there, paper peeps! Hopefully all of you had a fantastic weekend! I know I did, but then again how could it be a bad weekend if you make the first batch of homemade guacamole of the season?? I attended a splendid barbecue complete with hula hoops, tiki torches, fire pit, homemade mead, and lots of delicious grilled fare.
Anywho! I have kindof a lot to share with you today, there’s SO MUCH going on!
For starters, we’re still running the Black7 Business Card Special! All April long, you can get 250 letterpress business cards (or tags) for only $60!!! Its a fantastic opportunity for small businesses, artists, artisans, or just for a personal calling card. E-mail Christopher here to submit artwork or ask any questions you might have.
And for those of you itching for custom letterpressed stationery, but not necessarily needing business cards… the ultimate DIY opportunity is nearly upon us! Our tabletop presses have been getting spruced up and ready to roll! What does that mean for you??? Tons of things! Workshops! Classes! Independent press rental! Our lovely intern, Rachel has been putting a lot of TLC into our little guys to prepare them for good quality time with YOU! They’ll be painted and pretty by the end of this week.
In the coming months we’ll be offering different Letterpress classes, workshops, and the ability for you to come in and have a free-form day of play with a press! Think of the possibilities! Invitations, business cards, notebook covers, holiday cards, small prints- the sky’s the limit! Stay tuned for details!
Which brings me to our next topic… Letterpressed coffee bags for Cultiva Coffee Roasting Co! We’ve worked with Jon on some handmade labels and other items before, but this is bigger and better than ever before! He’s commissioning unique art to be letterpress printed on his coffee bags to celebrate his environmental switch from plastic to paper packaging! If you’d like to submit your original artwork for this project, contact Christopher or Jon directly. Artwork should be limited to 2 colors and an approximate 3×5 inch area. For more information you can read more on the Cultiva website, find Cultiva on Facebook, or contact the folks at Porridge Papers via Facebook or e-mail! We’re so excited to be part of another fantastic collaborative project!
Speaking of collaboration: we’re currently working on the kinks to another Porridge Papers collaborative effort : Ode to the Coaster. We’ll be posting details later on this week so I won’t say too much right away, but you can expect- original letterpress coasters, free beer, and free stuff. If you’re not excited, well, there may not be hope for you (I did say “free beer“, after all).
That about wraps it up! Thanks for reading! And thanks for making Porridge Papers more and more awesome every day!
Happy April Fool’s day, Porridgians! I wish I had a prank to play on you… sadly, though, I write bearing only great news! Firstly, our 50% off Spring Cleaning Sale is still going!!! Come in and save some money on cards, prints, envelopes, paper, and more! Sale ends this Saturday so hurry hurry! Come by on Saturday, if for no other reason than to say HI to Christopher while he’s working. Don’t let him be Lonely all day!
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While you’re here, be sure and take a peek at the Paper Peep Show! This is an idea we’ve had for quite a while now and we finally have found the right cards to make it happen! The Paper Peep Show is a hidden section of the store dedicated to the more “adult-humored” greeting cards and stationery available. We know that so many of our fans and shoppers have such great senses of humor, we can’t wait to see what you think of some of the new goodies! Stop in today for a great April Fools’ card! And, as always, if you have a suggestion or idea that you would like to see added to the mix, just let us know!
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Also beginning today, and for the entire month of April, we’ve got a *SWEET DEAL* on all custom business cards! Introducing the:
250$60 1/0 110# Black7 Special!!!
I know that’s a mouthful. Lemme ‘splain:
250 Business Cards for $60!
One sided printing in PMS Black 7 ink!
All month long, we’ll be running this great price on custom business cards! Submit your designs to Christopher or keep an eye out on Monday for the submission form. All cards will be printed on our 100% cotton commercially made letterpress paper in 110# weight. That’s right, folks! I know SO MANY of you have been asking lately about letterpressed business cards, and NOW IS THE TIME! We’ll be running cards around the 15th and again at the end of the month, which means early submissions will be printed first and folks that are really working on their designs will get their cards the first week of May. Give us a call 402.742.5415 with any questions! This offer is for EVERYONE- though you should note that if your cards must be shipped, there will be shipping fees in addition to the sale price.
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Finally, Spring has arrived! Which is a good excuse to do a lot of things. One of which is clean out all of the old stuff to make way for new goodies in the shop! Which can only mean one thing:
We have a TON of paper, cards, envelopes, notebooks, and more that have been around for WAY too long. Our sale started this past Saturday, and it went over so well, we’ve decided to extend it through this Saturday! Stop in and take advantage of the savings!
Like I had mentioned, this fantastic sale is happening to make room for some new cards, prints, and amazing imported papers that we’ve recently ordered. The new stock is already starting to arrive and we’re clearing space to give them the attention they deserve! Orders will be coming in this week from 5+ companies that offer cards that are everything from classy to crass! In order to accommodate some of the more adult themed cards, we’ll be constructing a “Paper Peep Show” area in the shop to keep little eyes innocent. Adventurous adults are encouraged to take a peek! These are sure to make you chuckle!
Here’s a sneak peek at the funthings from Oddball Press!
Some of your more devout Porridgians probably heard about the leather scented paper that was being made last week from our posts on our Facebook page. Here are a couple of shots of the notebooks being made with faux leather paper covers!
The creative folks over at Bozell in Omaha got their clients to go all out with a custom scented handmade paper that was letterpressed and saddle stitched to make these great notebooks for their 2010 Advisors’ Summit! Usually scented paper tends to be quite a nasty experience for the poor papermakers. The leather scent, though wasn’t as strong as some of the other smells we’ve come across, thank goodness. All in all, I would say the end result is pretty awesome! Only a few hundred more to make!
Keep your eyes peeled for more awesome custom paper that’s going to be made later this week. There may be *glitter* and crazy bright colors! Custom papers are always the funnest part of papermaking. Sometimes the colors can be tricky to get just right but the end result is always worth the effort!
Happy St. Patrick’s day, Porridgians!
It seems that lately so many things are green around here. It’s a good thing we’ve got this great holiday to put it all to good use! Some of you may not know, but we were hoping to reach 500 fans by today on our Facebook page, and not only did we do it, we did it with over a week to spare! As of today we have 640 fans!! So to celebrate we are doing {yet another} awesome little paper giveaway! We made these great coasters with real clover seeds in them! Now, this is awesome for several reasons:
1. Who doesn’t need a coaster for their green beer on such a holiday?
2. Clovers are LUCKY. And who doesn’t need a little extra luck?
3. Clovers are also edible. So when you plant this baby, you have a potential salad growing! For a little tidbit on tasty and healthy microgreens check out this article!
4. If you happen to be the gardening/farming type, planting clover in your soil has a variety of benefits! Click here for details!
Hooray! St. Patrick’s day is so much fun! Hopefully nobody out there is getting pinched today. I was still in my pajamas this morning and my 8 year-old pinched me before I got dressed! I quickly put on a green shirt and some eyeshadow (and pinched him back as he was running around in his white underwear). If you’re not really into celebrating this holiday for some reason, check out www.st-patricks-day.com for all kinds of Irish fun to inspire you to go green and spread the luck!
That’s right! Today I walked into work without gambling with my life on the solid sheet of ice that has graced our back door since December. With all of the melting- refreezing- melting – freezing that’s happened since then, there was a slick sheet of thick ice, on which I am proud to say I only slipped and fell once. Everyone else here has narrowly escaped close encounters with gravity and the ground. The Snow had been on the ground for over 78 days straight, and as much as I love blankets of white and gray skies with black tree silhouettes, I’m glad that it’s GONE. I’m ready for COLOR. I’m ready for moss and grass and flowers and leafy trees. So in tribute to my anxiety here are some photos of random green things found around the papermill:
And check out the progress on our test germination! I’m impressed! These guys are practically ready to eat! Okay, maybe they need a little bit more time, but still!
We had our Monday Morning Meeting today, as we do every week. Lately we’ve been brainstorming and playing with words and phrases for a new project that will hopefully launch this summer. I can’t say much but we’re toying with ideas of sidecards and tandem bicycles. Which leads us to ask you, our fans, our readers; Which do you prefer? Sidecars? Tandems? Why? What kind of imagery/ideas does each conjure? Tell us! We’re curious and excited!
We’re also going to be adding a few new items to our Facebook Store and our Etsy page, one of which is this super-rad little notebook with fantastic orange pages! Use it for shopping lists, doodles, a garden journal, cigar journal, or any other place to keep track of one’s awesomeness.What do you use little notebooks for?
Needless to say, we really like interacting with our followers. We like knowing what makes you tick, what makes you laugh, and what you like seeing and doing. In the spirit of fan-interaction, we’re going to start doing little trivia-type giveaways. We’ll ask a question via our Facebook page or our Twitter page, and we’ll have a sweet little paper prize for the winner! These exciting little events will start after our 500Fan givaway! Last week we gained over 500 fans on our Facebook page, and to reward them we’re sending out a little green something. Can’t wait to see what you guys think!
It’s Monday again. But at least that means we’re one Monday closer to springtime, right? Right. Actually this Monday is Monday Funday here at Porridge Papers. We’ve taken a break from our regular duties and are using today to explore some new projects and do some brainstorming. We’re also making room for all of the new equipment that is expected to arrive today.
I won’t say too much about our new toys, but I will say that they’re key players in a HUGE project underway here. Hopefully we’ll be able to unveil this new and exciting Porridge Project this summer. For now, though, I’ll just keep you satiated with pictures of our project and fun news and discoveries along the way. Everyone here is very excited to get the ball rolling on this one, and it promises to be very exciting indeed!
The new equipment will also enable us to add new and better items to our Facebook and Etsy stores, so keep your eyes peeled for new paper goodies!
Speaking of new goodies, check out the progress on the test germination of our TOP SECRET seed mix for our super fun TOP SECRET project, set to unveil March 20th!
Only 5 days and they’re just exploding! That’s a lot of sprouts! YUM YUM! (that was a hint BTW)
We’ve also got some wildflowers itching to get some sun:
If seeing new plants sprout doesn’t make you itch for springtime, nothing will.
We’ve recently been blogged about by Andrea over at Lincoln Green Scene. She wrote up the loveliest little post about our Love on the Run. Thanks, Andrea! Fantastic article!
GoodMonday! Gosh! So much is happening around here right now I honestly don’t know where to start!
I know I had mentioned several times why I love our Love on the Run event, but each year there are one or two stories that people share that really are above and beyond what we could have expected. Last week we got a letter from Dave, who came in to type a note to his wife. He was kind enough to send us a letter sharing their thoughts:
“Dear Porridge Papers
Thank you for delivering my love note to my wife this Valentine’s Day. I know the “Love on the Run” service was complimentary, but I saw it as a gift. It should have been obvious to anyone who entered your store that great effort and care were given to planning and implimenting the set up of the old typewriters, packaging of the miniature bottles and mapping of the delivery routes. The snow falling on February 14th probably didn’t seem exceptionally unpleasant to your couriers, but mywife, Marianne, and I recently moved to Lincoln from Florida and don’t particularly enjoy going out in the cold; your commitment to deliver the notes in spite of the poor weather was appreciated. The fact that your couriers were giving up time that could have been spend with Valentines of their own did not go unnoticed, either.
Undoubtedly, the dedications made on your store front will be removed soon, but at the time I’m writing this letter, Marianne is still getting a smile from slowing down while driving on South Street to see her name drawn inside a heart with yellow marker on your window. Thanks again, and here’s hoping that the fortune you have spread will be returned to you.
Yours Truly,
Dave”
Honestly, if that doesn’t make us want to keep doing this, nothing will. Thank you, Dave, for sending such a touching and encouraging letter. It really means a lot to us to know that we are doing something that people truly appreciate. Creating an event like Love on the Run was an attempt to inspire and encourage a small, thoughtful, token of appreciation from one person to another. To quote ourselves “we think handmade is better because there’s no real way to go digital with it (at least not as far as stationary goes). The simple fact that someone enjoys and is able to make something by hand every day for a living means that someone else (probably someone a lot like you) enjoys it enough to add their bit to it and share it with someone that they care about. That’s a big deal!”
We also got a short Thank You note from Joanna, who was volunteering her time and job shadowing with us during the Love on the Run event. She was SO fun to have around and a tremendous help! Thanks Joanna! We’re all glad you had fun and we hope you get to come back.
Each of us has had a lingering buzz from the great energy brought in over Valentine’s Day weekend. We’re all trying hard to keep the good vibes flowing, so we’ve been brainstorming on other little things to do for our fans and followers, and paper lovers in general. For starters, we’re having a small giveaway for our Facebook fans. If we can reach 500 fans by Saint Patrick’s Day (Wednesday, March 17th), we’re going to send out some goodies!
*Sales* are also a good way to share happy vibes so if you’re in the neighborhood, swing by and pick up a notebook or two. Today thru this Saturday, all notebooks are 20% off!!! Come and get them!
AND
We have the makings of a Top Secret plantable paper project in the works! The seeds arrived today here is a sneek peak:
This project promises to be superfantastic, and even good for you! Our ETA for the new goodies is March 20th- the first day of Spring! Keep your eyes on our Etsy site and the Facebook shop tab for a growing selection of new and fun paper yummies.
If you’re the curious type, check out our Formspring page! You can even ask us anything you want from right here on the blog page. Just type your question in the box on the right and submit! Now you can ask us all of those burning questions that have been waking you in the middle of the night. Hooray!
Hello there! Hopefully you guys had a great weekend and a lovely Valentine’s day! It sure was a crazy weekend around the papermill. The 3rd annual Love on the Run was a HUGE success! Thanks so much to everyone that came out and sent some love! As usual, there were some truly touching valentine’s going out. Several of the stories went above and beyond the traditional love note. Grandparents, children, and lovers alike were the targets of these tiny little love vessels.
We had over 250 notes composed in just 2 days! Here’s a quick glimpse at the mushy-gushy mayhem:
Like every year, we get a fantastic response from recipients. Some were touched, some were anxiously waiting, and some were completely surprised. One of my favorite things about this event is hearing some of the stories of the deliveries! We are always so warmly received! With cookies baked for us, warm drinks offered, and smiles aplenty, no wonder we had some tearing up. Here are a couple of happy recipients:
Thanks again to our sponsors: The Cup, Hillis & Co., Screen Ink, Indigo Bridge Books, Bread & Cup, the Lichen. They truly made this year’s Love on the Run bigger and better than ever before. And thanks to Caleb Bailey for playing some lovely live music to set the mood on Saturday, and to Studio Orange for some great photos. Of course NONE of this would be possible without the 18 fantastic volunteers who sacrificed a few hours on their Valentine’s day to help us get all the notes delivered! Thank you, thank you, thank you! We’re really looking forward to next year!
If you were the lucky recipient of one of these notes, or if you were a sender and got a noteworthy response, we’d like to hear it! Please share your experiences with us! You can comment here on the blog, or go to our Facebook page, or even Tweet your experience with hashtag: #loveontherun! Can’t wait to hear your stories!
Hey you lovely Porridgians! The time has come for me to remind you (not that you need reminding) to come in to the Papermill starting this Friday, February 12th at 11 am to type out your lovely love notes! The 3rd annual Love on the Run is just days away! We’re expecting the best turnout yet! If you haven’t experienced the joy of writing a letter on an antique typewriter, now is your chance. There’s just something about the click-clack of the old keys that makes anything you’ve got to say a little extra special.
Typewriters are available Friday, February 12th from 11am – 5pm. Or come to the Open House on Saturday between 10am – 6pm for great food, great music, and great fun!
Thanks to Robert of Studio Orange for taking these fantastic photos. Amazing, as usual
Can’t wait for Love on the Run?? Stop in today and pick up a card or two to scratch your stationery itch. All Love cards are 14% off now til Saturday! Great new designs in this year, sure to make you laugh, giggle, blush, and coo!
Also keep your eyes peeled for updates on Letterpress and Papermaking workshops this spring! We have 4 Kelsey tabletop presses that are being made over for their debut as stars in our Letterpress Lab! If you have any interest in working with these adorable little presses, either in a workshop setting, or on more of a free form basis, please don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know! For the papermaking enthusiasts, we’ve got a custom-built Hollander Beater on it’s way to us all the way from New Zealand! Hopefully we’ll be able to experiment and develop higher end art papers to offer in conjunction with our letterpress/printmaking workshops. We’re currently brainstorming on the best ways to let our fans have fun with our papers and presses. I’ll keep you updated with details as they solidify.
Stay funky-fresh, paper people.
<3
Some call it snow… we’re just gunna call it Love. At this point I’d rather not think about the snow on the ground, and why would I??? There are so many other great things going on around here!
Being a sweet little papermill/letterpress studio/card shop, we just have to get excited about Valentine’s day. After all, it’s a great card giving holiday, and we happen to like cards! And if that isn’t enough, we’ve gone and created Love on the Run, which, in my opinion, is one of the best things to happen to Valentine’s day yet. This fantastic event is only a week away and we couldn’t be more excited. Lots of work has gone into getting ready. Typewriters have been tested. Windows painted. Boxes made. Pink and red sparkly decor decorates the store. We just can’t wait.
In case you haven’t heard, Love on the Run is a free event, hosted at our little store at 1422 South Street. We have a collection of antique typewriters ready and waiting for you to come in and type out a note for someone special. After you have your thoughts in print, you’ll roll up your note, place it in a tiny bottle, and leave it with us (along with an address and phone number) so that we can deliver it for you on Valentine’s day. We’ll have the typewriters available next Friday the 12th from 11am-5pm and on Saturday you can stop by for an open house (10 am- 6pm) with treats, coffee, and live music.
What really makes this year special is the great collaboration that we were able to do with some other local businesses. Gorgeous posters have been designed by Ella of The Lichen and silk screened by Screen Ink and hung around town. This year we’ll have cookies provided by Kristin of The Cup, who also did our great Sweet 16 cake. Cafe Indigo will be donating Cultiva coffee, and a cheese plate will be donated by Hillis and Company.
Each year this event has grown and grown. Its been amazing to see the community response. People just can’t believe that we’re willing and able to do something so great for free! And for those of you that aren’t big fans of Valentine’s day, this event is not just for lovers. While there’s been a fair share of love notes from husbands and wives, boyfriends, fiancees, and the like; we’ve also had kids writing sweet notes to parents. Brothers, sisters, friends, co-workers have come in and fill our store to share kind words in a simple and thoughtful way. It’s really quite awesome. If you haven’t been in, I encourage you to come and check it out.
Unfortunately we are only able to deliver within Lincoln city limits. Now, I know that many of you have sweeties abroad. Don’t fret, darlings we have THESE:
Sweet little valentine’s just like the ones you used to send in gradeschool! They’re fantastic! Thanks to Melanie of Lucky and Lovely for creating these great designs for us. The best part is, each card features a plantable paper heart so your sweetie can grow a mini garden full of wildflowers! They’re sold in packs of 8 (2 of each design) for $8. Perfect to send to all of your friends! We also have a fantastic selection of other greeting cards and stationery here in the store so stop by and check them out! Come in the week before Valentine’s day and save too! Starting Saturday, February 6th we’ll be offering 14% off all Valentine’s day cards until Saturday Feb 13th!!! Come on in! We’re sure to have the most unique cards in town!
See you soon! <3
Hello again, Porridgians!
The time has come for us to plan for our favorite event of the year! The 3rd annual Love on the Run will begin on Friday February 12th from 11am – 6pm when we will have our gorgeous antique typewriters available to put your best sonnets to print. If you can’t make it in on Friday, stop in on Saturday between 10am – 6pm and catch some live music, and pick up a free treat courtesy of The Cup. On Valentine’s day, February 14th, we’ll have several generous volunteers flying around town spreading love to boyfriends, wives, fiancees, moms, dads, aunts, and the like- all free of charge.
You’ll soon be seeing posters and fliers all around town featuring designs by Ella of the Lichen and screen printing by Jason over at Screen Ink.
So now you’re wondering how we do it! The past two years that we’ve put on this fantastic event, we’ve seen Lincoln’s community pull together in such amazing ways. Our response last year was overwhelming, and it’s sure to be even more so this year. Love on the Run is, and will always be a free way for the people of Lincoln to let each other know they’re loved with the help of Porridge Papers and other gracious volunteers.
We’re anticipating a bigger and better Love on the Run this year, and we can’t do it without your help! If you would like to volunteer a bit of your time on Valentine’s day to help deliver love notes- or try to find another way to lend a hand, please attend our Love on the Run planning meeting, Saturday, February 6th from 2pm-3pm. We’ll be swapping ideas and signing people up for areas where we need help. By signing up, you’ll be supporting not only a few great local Lincoln businesses, but the Lincoln community, and good feelings abound!
We look forward to seeing you there!
Also, don’t forget to stop into the shop to pick up your awesome letterpress Valentine’s day card for friends, lovers, and family that might (sadly) be out of our delivery range. They need love too!
Cheers!
Samantha
t. 402.742.5415 p. 402.742.5411
a. 1422 south street, lincoln nebraska 68502
Hi again! Today’s blog brought to you by Blog Radio, featuring Brooklyn Vegan. Bringing sweet indie tunes to the ears, hearts, and minds of your favorite papermakers: Porridge Papers!
Now if you’ve been following us on Twitter or Facebook you probably already know that last Friday our doors were closed most of the day while we trekked over to the Durham Museum in Omaha to see the American Letterpress exhibit featuring Hatch Show Print. First of all, if you’ve never been to the Durham, go. The museum is inside of an old railroad station and the entire thing is completely decked out in Art Deco designs. I was totally smitten. here’s a picture from directly underneath one of the amazing light fixtures:
Gorgeous!
Of course, if you’re going to have a museum inside of a railroad station, you have to have tons of fun train-related goodies in the gift shop. A conductor’s cap, for example:
There should also definitely be several bronze statues of railroad workers and passengers to give you an idea of what the station would have been like back in it’s glory days. Kim got a little smitten with one of the bronze soldiers.
Such a heartbreaker, that one.
Unfortunately we were unable to take any photos inside of the Hatch exhibit. Believe me, it was difficult not to. The layers of color and the textures of the enormous woodcuts was completely unbelievable. We definitely left feeling inspired and excited to try some new ideas and hunt for larger format presses. We’ll see what the future holds. At the moment it feels like we have our hands full with so many other projects, such as the 3rd Annual Love on the Run. If you don’t know anything about our annual Love on the Run… you’re in for a treat! Keep your eyes peeled for details coming very soon!
Concluding our trip to Omaha, we went down into the Old Market and had lunch at Upstream Brewing Company. The beer and the food were incredible. Then, we stopped off to visit our friends over at Bozell to drop off the first run of their new business cards. They loved the cards and it was great to see the inner workings of such a large design and marketing firm.
All in all I would say that was a pretty satisfying trip. We should find good excuses to do things like that more often.
Hey guys! Happy Monday to you! Many many things are in the works here (as usual) and right now my head is spinning too much to tell you about ALL of them! But while I’m getting all my fancy ducks in a row check out this project that we did for Kaelan Smith and Flatmancrooked!
Kaelan asked us to make him a paper with spruce tree seeds in it for his book cover. He’s going to be biking from Los Angeles to Boston to promote his book. All along the way he’s going to be stopping for signings and readings. His tour is going to take place this summer and he’ll be blogging about it along the way! Read more about him and his amazing project here.
More awesome to come!!! stay tuned!
Happy 2010 Porridgians!
I hope the holidays were warm and full of family and friends. And hopefully you had a moment or two to relax and energize yourself to get ready for the year ahead. I know that here in Nebraska it’s been hard just to get out of a warm bed in the mornings! The weather here seems to be making some kind of statement! Its as if every inch of snow that was supposed to fall in the last decade needed to come back- all at once for a last hoorah. What’s worse is that we’re supposed to get another huge storm on Wednesday! We’re doing our best to stay bundled and warm until spring… in the mean time at least ice and snow make for some pretty stunning sights. I took the camera out to catch some ice around the building this morning. So Pretty!
and here’s a shot of our sidewalks last week before we got hit with another few inches:
and there’s more on the way!
As we mentioned before, we were hustling and bustling around here over the holidays to get out some last-minute holiday orders. for the last few weeks there has been paper EVERYWHERE! The dust is finally starting to settle and things are looking normal again. Its nice not to be buried neck-deep in stacks of paper. Here’s a glimpse of the holiday mayhem:
Now that the holiday season is over time to make room and start planning for what has become one of my favorite holidays – Valentine’s day. I was never really a big fan of this holiday, not until moving to Lincoln and doing Love on the Run every year. I honestly can’t help getting excited about this. I’ve been waiting for months to put some of my ideas into action! Its amazing to see the turnout that we’ve had. More and more people get involved every year, and this year we’re even branching out and trying to include some local businesses and designers. I’ll post more details as we get the kinks worked out but you can look forward to plenty of fantastic goodies! so much to do!!! First thing’s first:
SALE!!!
If you’re in the Lincoln area, stop by to say hello and pick up some of our clearance holiday cards and stationery for next year. Stock up and pack them with your holiday decorations and tree, then you’ll be one step ahead on your cards! We also have some great winter wrapping paper and a couple of fantastic 2010 calendars left! Come by this week and save 40% on our holiday items! The sale will last until Saturday.
This Friday, January 8th we’ll be closed for our late employee holiday party. Christopher is taking us all on a field trip to visit the American Letterpress exhibit that is currently on display at the Durham museum in Omaha! It’s sure to be a treat for any paper or letterpress lover. If you’re in the area you should check it out! The exhibit is on display until January 24th.
for the last week we have been neglecting our blog, instead we have been wrapping up last minute projects and spending time with our families. we hope that you are all enjoying the end of a wonderful year. 2009 was filled with many ups and downs for all of us! here at porridge papers we were blessed with lots of work, new clients and exciting projects. we made new friends, celebrated our 16th year in business, finished up our largest order to date (2 million pieces of plantable paper),re branded ourself with a new logo followed by updating our websites, expanding our studio, re painting our building (inside and out), buying a 10lb hollander beater and so much more. all in all i say it was one of the busiest years to date! for those of you that were apart of it, i want to say thanks! thanks so much for keeping my dream alive. with out my fans, clients, friends, family, local community and employees none of this would be possible. i am so excited for what the new year has in store for all of us! as usual it will be a roller coaster ride and i for one can not wait to see where it takes us!
will see you in the new year!!
christopher
Happy Monday everyone! (no, Monday is NOT a holiday… well sometimes it is, depending… oh you know what I mean!) I hope everyone is finding more and more excitement as the year is coming to an end. Holiday cheer is a tricky thing to muster up sometimes. Fortunately for those of us in Lincoln, we’ve got plenty of snow to remind us just what time of year it is. Even on the most hectic an stressful day, walking outside to quiet white blankets of snow and sparkling lights on houses makes you smile just a little bit. Then again, there’s the ice on the windows of your car in the morning… *sigh*
Anyhow, I just wanted to post a quick note regarding our Holiday hours this season. We bill be closed on December 24th-27th to observe the Christmas holiday. We’ll be back to our normal business hours (10-6) on Monday, December 28th. On New Year’s Eve (December 31st) we’ll be closing early at 1pm and will be closed January 1st do observe New Year’s Day. Saturday December 2nd we’ll be open for normal hours from 10am – 3pm.
And what would Holiday hours be without Holiday Sales?!?!?! Come in next week to save a little extra on those last minute Holiday cards and stationery! From December 21st – January 9th take 20% off of any holiday item in the store! Whether you’re stocking up for next year, or just running a little late- you can still have the most unique holiday cards around!
The year may be coming to an end, but great things are always just beginning here in our little papermill. Christopher has officially put a deposit on our very own 10lb Hollander beater! Thats TEN POUNDS of paper goodness. Before you know it we’ll be mixing up all kinds of paper-flavored trouble! Our new beauty is being custom built and shipped to us all the way from New Zealand! We really can’t wait to say hello to our newest family member, and what’s more, we can’t wait to explore new possibilities in our papermaking! I’ll try to keep posting pictures of the progress as Mark gets her built!
You can also keep your eye on us for fantastically new fun colors of plantable paper, and new letterpressed cards and ephemera to be sold in our store and online! As always, if there’s something in particular you’d like to see us order or whip up, don’t be afraid to ask! We’re always looking for new ideas and challenges to keep us on our toes!
Keep the wonder in your winterland, Porridgians!
I guess when I said “let it snow” the winter weather heard me and took me quite seriously! Boy did it snow! and snow… and snow… and snow! I have been lucky enough to spend the last couple of days stuck at home with my kiddo. Yesterday Porridge Papers was completely closed down. Tuesday Blayne, Kim, and Christopher braved the weather and got a little work done. Now that most of the roads are cleared, we’re all back and trying to get work done. I find that the more time I’m given to spend at home, the more things I can think of that I want to do there. I could have very easily started a number of craft projects that would have kept me busy well into next week! Instead, though, I settled for getting some of my holiday baking out of the way and scrubbing my bathroom. Yesterday was spent lounging around at Christopher and his wife, Ellen’s lovely house while the munchkins played in a HUGE igloo in the backyard. (Note to those with play domes: tarp + snow = brilliant igloo). Here are a couple of pictures of our fun day in the snow!
Hooray! There’s finally snow on the ground! I know for some people that’s less of a blessing and more of a curse… but at least it looks and feels like December now. Though, lately my mind has still been filled with daydreams of camping in July. *sigh* We’ll folks, we’re in this together and there’s a LOT going on between now and camping season… let’s focus on that, shall we?
First of all, thanks so much to those of you that came by this Saturday for the Pitter-Patter of Little Printmakers event! We had a great turnout and some amazing prints were created by young and old alike! Here are a few photos of the day’s festivities:
You can check out other great photos on our Flickr page. What fun! We really need to have more little workshops like this. It’s such a great way for the local community to come in and play around with paper and projects that they might not get to explore otherwise. We’re looking for more ideas and suggestions for other similar workshops that you might be interested in. If you have any ideas please give us a shout! You can always e-mail us, or find us on Facebook or Twitter to give us your ideas an opinions. If you were lucky enough to join us on Saturday, what did you think of the activities? We’d love to hear from you!
We also have a lot of other ideas and projects under way. We’re expanding our stock line of plantable papers to include more fun, bright colors, We’ve even started talking about Valentine’s day already! There are some great ideas in the works for the 3rd annual Love on the Run. We’re really trying to get a jump on things this year. Each year this event has grown and grown. We’re anticipating this being the biggest Love on the Run yet! And we’ve got some great collaborative projects lined up to make it even better!
Some exciting things are shaping up for next year. I can’t wait to make it all happen! So much to do!!!
Hey there! Hopefully all of our wonderful readers had a fantastic holiday weekend! We sure did! And just like that… November has vanished. Funny how that happens. Oh well, time to really get into the Holiday swing! Christopher and Kim spent Friday and Saturday sprucing up the place and putting all of our fabulous holiday goodies on display. Stop by and check out the festive decor!
And clear your calendars for Saturday afternoon! We’re hosting our first ever Pitter-Patter of Little Printmakers event. We will be hosting a printmaking party for children.Bring them by and let them draw their design on printmaking foam and ink it up! Use some of our great handmade paper for great gift ideas! This workshop is free, though donations are welcome. Don’t miss it! We all know that kids make some of the best art! Be sure to tell friends and family that you think would appreciate the workshop! Space is limited so try to RSVP or call with questions. 742.5415
Don’t forget Wednesday either! We’re havig a little get-together to kickoff the holiday season in style. Stop in for our Holly Jolly Jinglebell Jubilee this Wednesday, December 2nd for home-made eggnog and cinnamon rolls. Get your holiday card and some gift shopping done and get 20% off your purchase! This will also be the last day to submit any orders for custom letterpress holiday cards. Check out the great design options below!
If you would like to be the first of your friends to know about our little events, make sure you’re signed up for our mailing list here. Can’t wait to see you there!
Holy Cow! The Holiday season is upon us! There’s much hustling and bustling around here decorating and breaking out the new Holiday cards! We’ve ordered some fantastic new cards this year from great companies including: Oddball Press, Hammerpress, Dee&Lala, Two Trick Pony, Fugu Fugu Press, Wiley Valentine, and Studio Olivine. Come in and take a look! There are gift tags, boxed sets, and tons of little gift ideas for that stationery junkie in your life!
Also this year we’re offering Personalized Letterpress Holiday Cards in sets of 25. We’re featuring six fabulous designs from Melanie over at Lucky & Lovely. Just swing by the shop, choose your design, give us the names you’d like to have printed, then swing by between December 9th and the 11th to pick up your lovely letterpress cards! Each set of 25 cards will be $45 and will include a personalized card and coordinating envelope. All orders must be placed by December 2nd. Check out these great designs!
Clear your calendars for Wedensday December 2nd over your lunch our! Come One! Come All! Join us from 10am and 1pm as we kick off the Holiday season in style with home-made eggnog and handmade cinnamon rolls from Bread & Cup! Do some stationery shopping and save 20% on all retail items during the Jubilee. This will also be the last day to place your order for the Personalized Letterpress Holiday Cards in sets of 25. Treats are limited so get there early!
you know the holidays are coming when we have piles of paper in both the bindery and the print studio. sheets of handmade paper that have just been peeled. paper that is getting trimmed down. paper that is being printed. paper that is being die cut. boxes being shipped out day after day. yes the holidays are upon us. one more week of tight deadlines and then it is smooth sailing till the end of the year. that also means one more year that went by without us sending out a holiday card! we have thought about a january card but with our luck we might be better off with a may day card! i hope your holiday season is shaping up to be an enjoyable one. remember to take time for your self and remember the little things.
Now if you’re a fan of Blues Clues, you will have read that title in tune to the “mail time” song. If not, well, I’m sorry maybe I’ve watched too much Blues Clues. Regardless of how much children’s television programming you watch, it’s true! and it’s worth singing about!
We’re having a sale!
In case you haven’t read the Twitter or Facebook posts, Christopher just finished ordering a TON of great new stuff for the Holiday season! Dozens of cards, boxed sets, wall prints, journals, and the like are on their way to our little shop! The only problem is, shop space is limited so we’re trying to make room!!! This means that you can come in and buy yourself (or someone else) some fantastic paper paraphernalia and save 20% on all retail items in the store excluding custom invitations and announcements. Cards, notebooks, prints, paper! Its all fair game, so come and get it! This sale will last until our first box of Holiday goodies arrives, so shop while it lasts!
And while you’re in, don’t forget to ask us if we have any more of the truffle boxes for sale, we still have a handful left over from the party and they’re going fast so get your hands on some of these delectable delights for only $5!
See you soon, Porridgians!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! Getting feedback and hearing kind words from our fans and clients is one of the BIGGEST reasons that we love doing what we do. We recently got a very sweet letter from one of our mailing list recipients that was able to come to our anniversary party. Here’s some of what she had to say:
“I especially want to thank you for extending an invitation to your Sweet 16 party to a few extra people like myself. You and your associates are so tremendously creative, that it was an honor to be there. Loved all your black and pink decor…. your cake of cakes…. what a terrific event.
And the Shwag Bag — what a treasure!! First of all, what a great, creative idea — to invite artists to contribute a piece to your anniversary event, and then to also publicize those artists, by giving away their pieces to your party guests! I want you to know that I not only have enjoyed touching, looking at, and thinking about each piece, I also read each artist’s statements. Also watched the cool video by the lichen.
I believe one of the highlights was the truffles in their “seeded” box!!! I was DYING to eat them…. or even ONE of them…. but a good friend came down with a bad cold and I gave her this exquisite gift.
Thus, I am delighted that you have some more I can buy- for other gifts and maybe even one for myself!
And again, congratulations on 16 years of success!
Jeanne”
Jeanne has since come back in to pick up some more chocolates to give out as gifts. What a lovely gesture! I’m so glad that our goodies are really being appreciated by our followers! Thanks, Jeanne! And thanks to the rest of our fabulous fans!
Speaking of fabulous, it’s time to announce the winners of our Schwag Bag giveaway!! We posted to our blog, and to our Facebook page to see what people were willing to do for our goody bag and the most creative answers won!
Deb responded to the Facebook quote and offered to come dance on one of the presses in heels… while that may not be the safest thing, we certainly have a tabletop or two that would do the trick! I can’t wait for her to come in and we can post some pictures!
Lea was the winner from the blog post. She’s offered to take her bag with her everywhere and essentially become a walking advertisement for her favorite local papermill! We’ll have get a couple of shots snapped of Lea out and about in Porridgian style!
Congrats guys! How fun!
here is a new piece we just finished! it was a long time in the making but i think it was well worth the wait. what better way to promote your company or event that you are going green then to use plantable paper for your packaging! this bamboo plate was wrapped with our handmade paper embedded with lettuce and tomato seeds. the paper was printed on our 100 year old letterpress in 3 colors.
We’re getting ready to do some holiday shopping so you can do your holiday shopping! Is there something you’ve always wanted to see at Porridge Papers, but haven’t yet? Now’s your chance!
We’re asking YOU what you’d like to see more of in our store for the coming holiday season. So what is it?! More humorous cards? Boxed sets? Gift tags? Bags? Imported paper for crafts or wrapping? or maybe something else entirely?
We’re going to be placing our orders with or vendors by the end of this week, so let us know quick!
Also, if you’ve heard anything about the fantastic truffles that went into our Shwag Bag for our party… let your mouth water no longer! You can come by and pick up a box of 4 glorious handmade truffles for only $5! The box is letterpressed on our plantable handmade paper and contains 1 Cayenne Pepper, 1 Irish Cream, 1 Salted Caramel, and 1 Raspberry Rose truffle. They’re going quick so come and get them soon! We’ve got them in the fridge to keep them fresh so just ask one of us to grab a box or two for you!
That’s not all! You can also find a selection of the individual pieces found in our Schwag Bag for sale individually here in the store. Stop by and check them out. We had some amazing talent to work with when producing these pieces and they were all produced in a limited run for the party so get them while you can!
See you soon, Paper People!
Attention paper lovers! You know that bag we gave away at our party a couple of weeks ago? The one that’s filled with amazing letterpressed and handmade goodies? We know that you were sitting around wishing you had been here to get your hands on one of these sweet little prizes. Well… it’s your lucky day!
We’re going to be giving away two of our awesome goody bags, one through the blog and one through our Facebook page. The only question is: What is it worth to you? I don’t mean how much are you willing to spend… but, rather, what are you willing to do? Bake us cookies? Send New Mexican food? Burst in the door with song and dance? Send us one of your handmade greeting cards? Tell us a joke? You name it- and be creative! The most creative answers will win a bag!
If you’d like to see photos of the individual pieces in the bag visit our Flickr page. Remember, you must comment on *this* blog post to enter through the blog, and comment on our Facebook page to enter there. No duplicate entries, please.
We’ll select the winners on November 9th. Aaaaaaaand GO!
We’re not the only one’s giving them away, either! Check out what Richelle Albrecht over at Girl Metro in Chicago is saying on her Blog. She made the trip all the way from Chicago to celebrate with us, so we just had to make sure she could share with her fans too! (even if she didn’t want to part with the extra bag)
Thanks Richelle!
I’m sure some of you have been to our sister site, www.plantableseedpaper.com. After doing the huge makeover on our main site, we just didn’t feel right leaving plantableseedpaper the way it was. Not that there was anything wrong with it… but, well… it just wasn’t as shnazzy. so here you have it!
Hooray!
And since we put on our Sweet 16 party we’ve had a number of people tell us that we should go into the event planning business. Apparently, we put on a kickin’ shindig! It was so fun that our friends over at Nebraska Wedding Day just had to share! You can see their post here.
Okay folks! That’s about all from me right now! I’m still working on getting you the highly anticipated photos from our birthday bash. I’ll post them as soon as I can, promise! Have a great Halloween weekend! See you in November!
I couldn’t wait to post these photos of the cake from our party. So far only two of them are up, but they’re so fantastic I just have to share now! The cake was incredible! Kristin over at The Cup did such a phenomenal job creating a funky and fun work of art that tasted just as good as it looked. I just love how she incorporated the Porridge Papers logo on the second tier! Sheer brilliance! The photos were taken by Robert Wurth of Studio Orange. He’s incredibly talented and his photos are always so tactile and lush! You could almost reach into the photos and pluck the raspberries off the cake!
Now I just can’t wait to see the rest of the photos he took throughout the evening including some “James Bond-like” portraits of the Porridge Papers family that were very promising!
Stay Tuned!
Hello Hello paper people! I’m finally writing with more news and photos from the Sweet 16 Party! Let me tell you, what a dizzying experience! So many different projects, people, and photos to keep track of. But we did it! Months of planning, weeks of working, and years of building a fantastic business went into our celebration on Saturday. Throughout the evening I’d say we had 150+ friends, family, fans, clients, and customers join us for food, cupcakes, wine, and music. The papermill was packed and everyone had a great time! Like I said, there are TONS of photos go to through, so I’m going to start with some in-progress shots of the huge amount of prep work that went into pulling this thing off.
Getting ready for printing, painting, cleaning and assembly!
cleaning and printing here we go!
finally it was time to stuff all of our Schwag Bags! What a mess!
Thanks again to all of the amazing people that pulled together to make this happen. It was truly amazing seeing everything fall into place.
Stay tuned for more photos of the party, cake, and happy Porridigians!
Personally, I don’t think it matters how awesome your job is, if your boss is a jerk, you’re going to suffer at work. Luckily, we minions at Porridge Papers, have this guy to answer to. Granted, he’s not a perfect person, but as far as bosses go he totally takes the cake. I don’t want to get too sappy, but it’s been almost seven years and Christopher (or, as we like to call him, Headquarters) continues to make this papermill the best place on Earth to work. He sure puts up with a lot, and he does it oh-so gracefully which is really an important key to being a good authority figure. Awesome bosses like this should never go unappreciated. And he doesn’t.
Here’s to the best boss that I ever plan on having! Thanks, Christopher. You rock!
