Whew! That was harder than we thought. With all of the new privacy on FaceBook, the random list we had made a couple of weeks ago was tough to access. We reloaded our page 15 times and picked the top left fan in each reload to achieve a fair list. Then when we went back to send everyone a message of their winnings, you can’t search for people who aren’t your friends, even if they are your fan. So, we had to reload the page until those folks came up again in order to use the “send a message” feature. It took a while, but you all helped us reach our goal and so you deserve some paper goods in return.

If you won, you have been sent a message on FaceBook. Let us know your address and we’ll send you a surprise! Thanks again and be sure and participate in our next goal of 1000 followers on Twitter!

How serendipitous that 2010 would begin on a Feedsack Friday!

So it would seem that last year at this time, I posted no assessment of goals or a how-far-have-I-come post and I am remembering that it was because I was moving into my new studio! That alone is just HUGE! Finishing up construction and painting over the holidays, I got my Chandler & Price 8×12 platen press moved in the first week of 2009 and there was no looking back. It has become a great little space for my creativity to take root, has been a wonderful meeting place for clients to come and get the whole experience and it is still evolving. In fact, I  hope to get in there tomorrow and finish a bit of reorganizing so that another press can be moved in soon!

I am once again exhilarated and overwhelmed all at the same time. Despite talk of a weak economy in 2009, it was a year of progress for the BirdDog Press. Trying to get everything squared away to hit the ground running in the new year has been a noble effort, and I haven’t given up yet. Among other planning madness, I have already picked all of the patterns for 12 more months of the letterpress Feedsack of the Month Club, purchased the lookbooks for the official launch of the bdp custom wood type stationery collection, finished up assignments for my Bakery Half Dozen biz e-course, and signed my life away to exhibit again at this year’s National Stationery Show!

ps. Happy First Feedsack Friday! It has been estimated that there were 20,000 feedsack patterns produced, so I figured it wouldn’t be hard to come up with 365 of them. For 2010, I will be revealing a Daily Feedsack via Twitter @birdmaiden. The first one {above} is from my Granny’s first feedsack dress, while it is the same pattern, she says hers was more of an aqua/turquoise – similar to the color of the year!

I met so many wonderful folks at the National Stationery Show this year. It is a joy to make new friends and make great connections. Upon arrival to the show floor on Monday, I went straight to Delphine for Monday Morning Mimosas – yum! – because I was so sad to have to leave before their scheduled get together on Tuesday night at TouchNYC, which I now come to find out was a celebration for Erika’s Birthday! John humored me with answers to many questions about the way they run their press, and the work they did for Strathmore. And as a huge bonus, I was able to meet Darcy Miller and her team from Martha Stewart Weddings. I was so excited, I forgot to tell them that we did stationery for the same wedding, Heather + Brandon had Delphine for your party goodies at a shower and I did their custom wedding invitations and guestbook.

I met up with two blogger friends through Twitter which was great to use since I was on the move on the show floor. Here I am with the lovely Carina of Crow & Canary where we met up at the Green Paper Company booth. What a delightful and insightful girl! Someday, I’ll talk her into adding me to the list of companies she reps ;) … More on the blogger front, Tuesday morning I met Nole of Oh So Beautiful Paper for coffee and I am so sad that I didn’t get any photos. Both Carina & Nole have done FABULOUS coverage of the show, so you should check their posts out. I am noticing that I missed a lot of great paper!

Most of the booths I visited were the small letterpress companies like me. But I just had to pop in to the Chronicle Books booth for a peep. There I met a senior designer, Kristen, who indulged me and met my propensity for the beautiful patterns they had on display from ReproDepot and new cutout animals from Junzo Terada.

Just as I met Joy of flybird press in the Chewing the Cud booth, the ladies of Strathmore/Felt & Wire showed up and gave me this cute “paper obsessed” button. If you haven’t seen the custom work that Chewing the Cud puts out there, I suggest you run, not walk.

The other buttons in this photo? Well they are from the highly organized & innovative Paper+Cup. I love the one that says “Have a Bonjour”. And while I was in the Paper+Cup booth, I had the pleasure of meeting Grace of Design*Sponge. See how things connect and keep rolling as you stroll the aisles? Now I am not only PAPER OBSESSED, but I am OBSESSED with PEOPLE who love PAPER.