You can ring my bell-lll-llll, ring my bell.

New York Stock Exchange, ringing the bell, with a frizz bomb on top of my head. More to come on last night...

Oh my.

Attending a party on the floor of the NYSE this evening. Here is my checklist:

Man-skirt* (check)
Wig fluffed (check)
Good girlfriends in tow (check, check)
cheese pizza preordered for late night delivery (check)
Advil made easily accessible for tomorrow a.m. (check)

(*short skirt that menfolk like)

Evite options

for my favorite, fellow Salt Addict---Jean the Bean

That. Just. Happened.

Goodness.... where to begin? I met the lovely Lucky ladies over at Cellar for a few martinis... and while in the middle of a good chatfest, we noticed a little to our left, a skank* litch-er-lee straddling a business man on a banquette... making out with him as if she were going to the chair the next day. Folks, this was at 7:45. Eastern time. Frightening evidence above taken with my iphone. Everyone had their jaw on the floor in disbelief.

From there I managed to strong arm Young Emma Bean and Sweet Al-Theny into going out for just. one. more. Sometimes I'm not known for my bright ideas. We happened upon a completely desolate bar (cue the blowing tumbleweeds) and managed to have a lady dance off, courtesy of jim beam. I'm not going to lie... It was nothing short of pure Thelma and Louise-like fun. Minus Brad Pitt.

*not the funny or good kind

Beach Wedding- Take One

My latest project is working on collateral pieces for an upcoming beach wedding-- the existing colors chosen were a vibrant orange and turquoise (I swear I didn't push for the turq!). Behold the fruits of my labor. And the reason for my hermitiness the last two days.

Fauxligraphy

Tonight am working on wedding invites... and attempting to channel the calligraphic master himself, Bernard Maisner, by manipulating computer generated script typefaces into looking hand-drawn. Tedious, but fun.

It's just like, it's just like... a mini... MAUL.

Be forewarned: This awful rap is highly addictive. I found myself humming it in the shower this morning. Also? Someone should let Carla from Top Chef know that she no longer holds the title for Craziest Eyes. Sorry Carls. Montgomery blows you out of the water on this one.

What I wouldn't do for a little cowbell and fog machine action to be added to this.

Taking a Night Off...

To create an emergency set of Baby Announcements... Catherine's little one decided to make his big debut 3 weeks early. Both mom and baby are healthy and happy-- and hopefully she'll be even happier when we get the design underway, and off to the letterpress.

Swaghound.... minus the hound

We thought perhaps focusing on the pooch in the logo would be too confusing, so Lizzie and I agreed on a more simple, graphic solution.

My new Thank You Stationery

Yes, I'm aware of my obsession with the color Tiffany Blue/Turquoise. I tried to give it up for Lent, but clearly that didn't take....
My new thank you card, front and back. Now I officially have no excuse for not writing them.

Best quote of the weekend

"Frannie knew all along"

Wine-themed Party in NYC (aka my kind of soiree)

The latest project-- a set of custom invites made to celebrate an engagement in the city, with a wine and food theme... so I playfully used the nyc cityscape as a design graphic.

A hilarious letter resurfaced

I think my father is currently going through old word doc files on his computer, and ran across this little gem, which he dutifully just sent my way. It is a letter written to my sorority on the eve of my graduation-- a tradition in which parents of theta seniors write sappy memoirs of their daughters, to be read aloud to the whole house. All the girls were crying while listening to the sweet memories that their parents penned for them.... and then my letter was read.

The Sophie Spotlight
March 15, 1998
She Loves Pets!
from Lee and Annie Askew

We are very proud of our daughter Sophie and her many accomplishments which will include, we hope, graduation. Past president of Theta, president of the student body at St. Mary’s Episcopal School for Wayward Girls (joking), good student, organizer of many events (some unknown to us), occasional designated driver, and lover of pets.

Sophie loves cats (and rabbits) and cannot, it seems, live without one. We find this amusing but like it better than if she couldn’t live without say, wild rides on Harleys behind something with lots of tattoos. Hey!

On many occasions she has brought home various pets, some of which we have kept. Some of you may remember Marley the rabbit, who ate our hotel bill after it was pushed under the door into our suite in Kansas City on our way back to Memphis. Marley probably thought it was the continental breakfast! Anyway last May Sophie brought us another one of her cats - a long hair Persian named Mimi (which Sophie affectionately called Booger). Good natured but noisy, this cat was not invited back by Sophie’s roommates Mollie and Luke. Mimi does talk a lot but has become a member of our household. Just before Sophie left for CC this year in January, she purchased another feline from the House of Mews, a sort of hip shelter for cats. This time she chose a neurotic white, long-haired Persian, which she has named BeBo. We know will soon inherit this crazed top-of-bed pooping cat and we just can’t wait.

I guess where all this leads is to point out Sophie’s sweet nature and her need for a friend. I know she will miss her great friends at Theta and I suspect she would, given half the chance, make all of you into her pets and take you with her. The bad news would only be that you would carry an unusual name and seldom have a clean litter box.

I know she has loved her time at CC and the many friends she has made there. I hope you all will try to stay in touch as we believe that the friends you make in college are many times the ones that last.

Good luck to everyone at Theta and always remember what we say in the hardware business, “this is not a drill.” Enjoy life and live it to the fullest.

oh, Pops. Thank you for the never ending comedy routine. And for informing a group of strangers that I named a cat "Booger". Cheers big guy.

Customized Stationery for AB

RB and Catherine, once again, came up with a great idea-- for their mother's birthday present, they wanted to give customized personal stationery. Here are the options we created. Can't wait to see what she picks.

Side note: Their mother, whom I just recently met for the first time, would smoke 20 year-olds in a beauty contest... she is just that gorgeous... like don't-stand-next-to-her-in-a-photo GORGEOUS because-you-will-look-heinous-guaranteed.

Mother's Day Pressie

Currently working on a cute project for children... Fathers who bring in their little nuggets, while shopping for their wives, will need a fun diversion for them, so we are presenting the idea of having little tissue paper flower packets that the kids can assemble, and then give as a gift to their mums.

Casa Mono

Last night we celebrated young Sbor's birthday at the 'Mono.... My first time there, and it was great. Pretty effin adorable spot... and it was packed to the gills, even on a Tuesday.

Logo work for RB and JB

A monogrammed logo that we will use on their wedding collateral-- more delicate than the cocktail hour version... this will look amazing on their menus and programs. More to come soon!

Exactly.

And then Karaoke....

After the party closed down, all went to a karaoke bar over on the west side of town. I blame this bar solely for my frazzled, tired state today. Damn you, live microphones and So-Co shots! Favorite picture of the night? Crums, belting out Sister Christian.

When drinking for a cause takes a nasty turn...

Goodness. It all started out sweet and lovely at the new, fab apartment of Kimms... We took a few "before" pictures (me, posing like captain morgan, for some awful reason), since we knew the "after" ones would be slightly incriminating (and they were). Please note the smiley-ness as the night progressed.

The Gift

I came equipped with Askew Design notecards, custom made for the birthday girl. Hilariously, a photographer shot the gift receiving moment, play by play. You could honestly make a flip book out of it.

Birthday Bash of the Century

Last night Crums (aka rebecca crumley), Kimms (aka rebecca kimmons), and I (aka drunkie) attended the birthday extravaganza of Julia Allison and Randi Zuckerberg. We knew we couldn't miss this-- not only were guests required to wear either pink or blue (all three of us had color appropriate dresses ready to go), but the event itself was held on a floor in the Men's Bergdorf Building overlooking the park and city ... and hey, all donations went to charity. We were drinking-- to help others... we are such amazing humanitarians.