happy hale*days 2010: budget edition

because in the last minute holiday frenzy, it can be easy to forget that a good gift does not have to make your bank account shudder:

1 - big island peeps will delight in penning notes to friends and 'ohana on sig zane's hilo one greeting cards. ($15/set; shop online or in-store at the hilo boutique)

2 - joie studio's limited edition 2011 exotic calendar is letterpressed with love on bamboo paper. ($20; online only)

3 - spend $15 to gift an organik SMARTdeal and your favorite someone can scoop up $30 worth of eco-friendly style. (purchase online by fri, dec 24th, spend in-store by mar 31st)

4 - charm homesick jetsetters with a vintage hawaiian passport holder made by mu'umu'u heaven. ($12; available at the kailua flagship)

joie studio x shop toast

honey bunny

tina from joie studio recently sent along peeks of her recent collaboration with shop toast! the charming honey bunny first popped up at uniquela's xmas fair as a springtime preview, but just took up residence in the online shop a few weeks ago. we first met another shop toast creation splashed across their cheerful gift crates earlier in the year, and now the letterpressed emoticons double as sweetly designed shorthand to note your happy news or apologies if you have done someone wrong.

joie's antique presses, a golding pearl & vandercook, have been in constant production over the summer with many of the new designs requiring multiple passes through the machinery to print the two to four color illustrations. in addition to the shop toast cards, hawaiian style greetings inspired by tina's island home have arrived online along with a cheeky robot design destined to be pinned on the cubicle wall of your favorite geek.

cheeky cheery faces

hawaiian style

you can scoop up all of the featured designs in joie studio's etsy shop, and the shop toast note cards should be ready for your purchase at the kaimuki storefront this week.

also, cali readers up and down the coast have a few chances to meet tina over the next two weekends. (hint: word is a toast surprise is in the works for sf.):

{bizaar bizarre j-pop summit}

• when: sat, sep 18th - 11a to 6p
• where: japantown, sf
• tix: free admission to one & all!

{second annual l.a. printmakers fair}

• when: sat, sep 25th - 9a to 5p
• where: international printing museum, 315 w. torrance blvd, carson
• tix: $5 general admission / $4 students

paper chase

one of a kind

flicking through my stationery stash this morning reminded me that tina from joie studio recently introduced a few new letterpress designs in her etsy shop. good incentive to jot down a few notes to post in the mail in order to justify acquiring more pretty paper goods. especially since i am just loving the one of a kind note card and its bright combo of turquoise and orange.

the quail's little fluff of feathers perched atop its head is even more charming in a repeat, no?

and, fans of the endangered b&w bear will delight in a peekaboo panda offering which has been pressed into two styles on bamboo paper. eco-friendly and most appropriate for its panda inhabitant!

peekaboo panda

dogwood coaster

individual notes are priced at $5 while coaster sets are $10 so make your way to joie studio's etsy shop to peek all the latest offerings.

and, so/cal readers will have a chance to say hello to tina when she sets up shop during the o.c. edition of unique la's indie market next month.

• when: sat, aug 14th & sun, aug 15th - 11a to 6p
• where: the lab, 2930 bristol street, costa mesa
• tix: $10

p.s. the flat panda note (shown above) is not currently stocked online so convo tina to order.

your letterpress by joie studio

gorgeous multi-panel invite

my crush on letterpress is well established and one of my splurges for h|h's makeover was to have my lovely new logo dispatched to miemiko to be letterpressed. the design, which was already gorgeous in the digital previews sent by my designer (aloha john!), became even more charming once pressed into paper . . . the girly tagline typeface became a bit more ooh la la while all the little design details popped even more after its inky impression.

you can imagine my delight when tina from la-based joie studio recently wrote in with news of her latest project catering to diy brides and grooms as well as letterpress devotees armed with a design but lacking a printing press. the just launched your letterpress happily aims to make letterpress more accessible and puts tina's expertise and machinery at your disposal to produce already crafted designs made by you or your designer.

simply send along your print-ready specs over for review and, once approved, tina will handle all the details from ordering plates to custom mixing inks and pressing your invites. she'll even send along a video of your project in the midst of its creation and your letterpress plates as a keepsake upon completion.

invites designed by shop toast

monogram coasters

the menu includes flat and folded invites, save-the-dates, rsvp's, custom stationery and business cards. pricing is competitive with semi-custom digitally printed invitations, and tina also offers design services for an additional charge if you happen to be lacking a layout.

in other news, joie studio's etsy shop has reopened with a handful of new offerings including monogrammed coasters for your summer soirées and alphabet prints for your little ones.

were you lucky enough to send out letterpress invites for your wedding?

and the winners are . . .

emma from washington d.c. and carly from nyc! the two lucky lovelies will be among the handful of peeps enjoying joie studio's limited edition 2010 luxe letterpress calendars perched atop their desktops this year.

thank you to everyone who entered and for all the wishes for a happy new year! as expected, many readers coveted joie's fabulous calendars and, alas, i suspect that they are sold out for the year as tina only planned a small run since this was her first holiday with her little one.

my apologies for the delay in posting the winner list. i have been completely distracted by a project which will hopefully be revealed by month's end so posting on h|h will be intermittent until then. in the meantime, please click over to the official facebook page or twitter where sales will be posted until life settles down (fyi: you should still be able to take a peek even if you do not have a fb or twitter account).

happy weekend to you all!

{many mahalos tina!}