Maine-ly Maine

Paul B.

Lobster Roll

Salem, MA

Fenway Park, before the Red Sox unfortunately choked...

Desert of Maine, Freeport, ME (amazing tourist trap!)

Portland Head Lighthouse, Portland, ME

Dave at MAGPIE!!

Cooperstown Brewing Company, Cooperstown, NY

The Dead Frog Circus in Holyoke, MA


We just got back from 10 amazing days on the east coast. And we must say that we're impressed. New England is filled with lots of our favorite things: Good food, Paul Bunyan Statues, Tacky souvenir shops, and lots and LOTS of very good beer!

We tackled this trip naturally, by car. We drove through upstate New York, making stops in Cooperstown and then explored the beautiful city of Boston. We then traveled north, making stops in Salem, MA, and towns in Maine like, Ogunquit, Portland, Freeport and Bar Harbor. We unfortunately didn't see much of Acadia National Park, due to lots of fog and rain, but managed to hike up Gorham Mountain despite the rain. After leaving the coast of Maine, we traveled through Bangor, and made our way through New Hampshire and then Vermont, making stops in Waterbury and Burling, VT. We traveled back through upstate New York and headed home.

Some highlights of the trip:
*Fenway Park, Boston, MA: It's going to be hard to go to Miller Park and not fantasize about being at Fenway-that's how amazing this ballpark was! Anyone, no matter if you're a baseball fan or not, you should visit this historic ballpark.

*Cooperstown, NY: Cooperstown is home to the baseball hall of fame, which was definitely cool, but the town itself is tucked away in upstate New York and is kind of like a trip back in time. It's also home to two fabulous breweries.

*Desert of Maine, Freeport, ME: This place was a trip. It's a tourist trap in every sense of the term, which drew us there. It's basically an area of land covered in sand, and you get a guided tram tour by a 75 year old man, whom we could barely understand. It was hidden back in the woods and looked untouched by time.

*Portland, ME & Shipyard Brewery: Portland was one cool city, not too big, but definitely not too small, all with cobblestone streets downtown and picturesque views. Despite it's Maine-y vibe, it was pretty urban and reminded us of Milwaukee. Portland is also home to Shipyard Brewery, which was super cool and surprisingly big. It also brews one of my favorite new beers: Pumpkinhead. We stocked up on this before we left.

*Lobster!: I've actually never had lobster before this trip, so I was pretty excited to feast on it, and feast we did! Not only did we try a tasty lobster roll at Spragues in Wiscasset, but I also tried steamed lobster, and I must say that I was a pro at crackin' those claws. It was tasty!

*Secret Caverns, NY: Ok, this place is tucked away in nowheresville New York, and while driving there, I thought we may get murdered multiple times, but boy was it worth it. This was by far the coolest cave I've ever been to. We had a very small tour group, so the guide (who was a perfect amount of corny) turned off all the lights and gave us all flashlights to navigate our way through the pitch black cave. SUPER COOL.

*Salem, MA: Witches galore! I love me some crazy witch souvenirs, and this is the place to get 'em.

Overall verdict....we love Maine, and can't wait to visit again!

New England

You may be thinking, wait, didn't these guys just go on vacation? And you'd be right. September is apparently the month of vacations for us. We are taking one of our of favorite types of trip: a roadtrip!! Our roadtrips tend to always be packed full of destinations around every turn, and this one is no different. We are headed out tomorrow and will make stops in Cooperstown, NY, spend a couple days in Boston, MA, Salem, MA, Portland, ME, Bar Harbor, ME, Burlington, VT and then make our way back home. I've never been out to this part of the country before, so I'm really excited to visit, and eat some yummy lobster. Even more exciting, is that this part of the country seems to be packed with tacky roadside attractions. Holla!

We closed down the Etsy shop during this time, but will be back to open up shop on Monday the 26th. Happy Travels!

Wedding Invitations: Dave & Deb

I had the pleasure of working with Dave & Deb on their wedding invitations earlier this year, and I am really into how their final invitation design turned out. Dave & Deb had a vision for what they wanted their invitation to look like, and it was exciting to design a pattern that closely matched a turn table design that was specifically important to them - without me even knowing it!

Not only was I really diggin' their color scheme of orange and grey, but I loved their overall feel of their Pier Wisconsin wedding celebration, right on the lakefront - simple, hip & elegant. Dave & Deb are a smart & loving couple with a great eye for design, and I couldn't have loved working with them more!

(The final invitation I designed for them was letterpressed at Bayview Printing Co., and was then put into a grey tri-fold pocket and wax sealed by the couple.)

San Fran Love

So don't get us wrong, we love Milwaukee, a lot. But there is something pretty special about San Francisco, it keeps drawing us back, and with every time we love it more. Why oh why is it so freakishly expensive to live there? Sigh.

Anyways, we had a great time, and it was our first official family vacation: Tara, Adam and Mr. Beckett! Beck was a pro on the plane (for the most part), and we had a super fun time exploring the city- from old favorites to new places. Some highlights were:

*AT&T Park - a really beautiful baseball park right on the bay, but we think Miller Park has it beat!
*Speakeasy Brewery - an amazing brewery we discovered in a not so great area, but who cares when the beer is that good!
*Sausalito - a quaint little town just a short trip from San Francisco. We had a very yummy breakfast at Cibo Cafe.
*Lagunitas Brewery - Ah yes, this was our second trip to Lagunitas, and dare we say, our favorite brewery ever?! Since we were last there it has expanded into an even cooler brewery, complete with a restaurant & beer garden (all kid friendly too!)
*Musee Mecanique - This place was super cool and right on the pier, kind of hidden away from the other tourist-y places. It is a museum of old arcade games & antique coin operated machines. The best part is that you can play with all of them! It was so cool, we could have spent hours there.

Well San Francisco, we love you and we can't wait to go back.

San Francisco Bound!

We are going on vacation for the next 5 days out to sunny...er, foggy, San Francisco! San Francisco is one of our most favorite cities. We definitely left our hearts there when we visited 4 years ago, so, needless to say, we are super excited to go back. Even more exciting, Beckett is going on his first plane ride! Let's hope it goes well...

We closed down the Etsy shop for the next 5 days, but don't fret, it will be back open next Tuesday the 6th. Happy Travels!

Pabst, my love

A few weeks ago, Adam was traveling for work, so I decided to play around and design a card for him for when he arrived home. Let's face it, we both love Pabst, a lot. What's not to love? They're cheap, tasty and come in 'Tall Boy'. I hand drew the Tall Boy can and kind of love it, I think I'm going to post it up in my office.

Lovely Love in White Bear Lake

A HUGE congratulations to Pondie and Mark as they get hitched up in White Bear Lake, MN today! I had the pleasure of working with them on pretty much all of their wedding stationery, including these fun mark-the-date bookmarks!

It's always really refreshing to work with a couple who has a unique vision for what they want their invitations to look like, and it's even more awesome when I'm able to successfully capture that and bring it to life. Anyone who knows me, knows that I LOVE maps of all kinds (especially vintage), so I was thrilled when Pondie told me she wanted to incorporate a vintage map of White Bear Lake. The invitations were complete with a vintage WBL map printed on the reverse side of the card, as well as a special WBL map envelope liner.

Pondie and Mark (and MOB, Nancy too!), it was truly wonderful working with you, and I hope I was able to capture your sweet love of Minnesota, nature and each other, on paper.

Like Us

Do you like us on facebook yet? Well you should, duh. Our facebook friends get a special anniversary discount this month, so get over to facebook now!

Weeeee're back!

Phew, it has been quite a crazy few weeks around these parts! Wedding season has been in full swing, which means things can get backed up. Not to mention, we are remodeling our upstairs unfinished attic in our house (which houses my office!), so things have been stressful trying to work + keeping a toddler occupied while construction workers go in and out of the house is quite the challenge. But thankfully, things are getting back to normal and the construction upstairs is just about finished. The good news is we have opened the Etsy shop back up, hooray! We are also working on some new designs, which should be up in the shop in the coming weeks. Hooray for normal-ness!

'Keep Calm' sign on Etsy by: Oh Dier

Real Simple Daily Finds

Hooray! Our journey journal is included in the '8 unique travel journals' on Real Simple daily finds! See it here