61 | THREE DAY WEEKEND

postcards from the perfect summer weekend in SF

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The Fillmore Jazz Fest was the perfect way to spend a lazy summer day.

Jello fruit made by Anne were perfect for the 80 degree weather...

and tanning, reading, and postcard-writing in the park.

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Of course, no weekend would be complete without paper

like new stationery, the perfect gift for a one-year anniversary...

paired with a greeting card: one year down, 99 to go.

and some of my favorite designs from my paper crush Hello Lucky!, my beau, and the Coit Tower gift shop circa 1950.

i hope you all had a safe, sunny, and perfectly summer 4th of july.

53 | Goodbye TwoThousand&Ten, Hello TwentyEleven!

Happy Birthday Blog! Since New Year's 2008, the L&A Blog has featured my latest paper/food/design creations, and this year will be no different.

New Year's Eve was a chance to combine all of those creations with a dinner hosted for Bay Area friends, the first of what I hope to become an annual tradition.

The food and decorations were simple - a handmade paper garland connected the kitchen to the living room, and labels made from black paper, leftover from the year, framed each of the dishes.

Post-NYE festivities, LOTUS&ASH welcomed in the new year with its annual calendar. This year's is a small matchbook, and a fun tribute to my font-loving ways. Each month is set in a different face, and the last page lists them altogether, making for a handy-dandy font reference, my version of a polly pocket.

: The 2011 L&A Calendar :

L&A wishes you a very healthy, happy, and delicious new year, filled to the brim with good design and hand-written correspondence.

lotusandash(dot)com

52 | A SCREEN PRINTED SATURDAY

Taking a break from this season's orders (and a new obsession: Neutraface), fueled by Ritual's Mira Flores AND a Blue Bottle NOLA done burly (less milk, more coffee),* LOTUS&ASH spent an entire Saturday learning how to screen print - the perfect holiday treat!

Because of limited resources, the chance of failure was high, but every challenge was met with a successful solution:

No printer to transfer images to transparency? Draw them with a sharpie.

No darkroom or lightbox to expose the images? Turn off all the lights in your bedroom, and use a construction flood lamp.

(so dark there aren't any pictures!)

No wash station? Use a shower!

No experience screen printing? Find a friend who knows how. ^

The result? Two sweet, hand-drawn, bay-area pride holiday cards... and entirely new technique that opens up a dangerous amount of possibilities.**

*The SF Coffee obsession has officially set in.  Don't tell the roasters that I'm tw0-timing them.

**Like my "cooking," until refinement and perfection, this will have to remain a LOTUS&ASH hobby.