changes are a-coming...

There are a few changes ahead for us, both personally and for presse - and this quote brings some normalising comfort right now.

http://pinterest.com/pin/252553491573862860/

deep breaths...x

the love shop...

Loving these modern, inspiring topography prints from The Love Shop in Melbourne, Australia.

If only I'd spotted them before Mother's Day, a couple would have gone straight to the top of the wishlist...

Hope all the Mums had a lovely day out there....xx

Balloons...

I've been researching birthday party ideas tonight, and found all these gorgeous images of balloons over at Pinterest that had to be shared! Yes, I may be procrastinating slightly but I'm sure you'll appreciate them :-)

http://pinterest.com/pin/85216617918637805/

http://pinterest.com/pin/85216617918628236/

http://pinterest.com/pin/85216617918628411/

http://pinterest.com/pin/85216617918685118/

http://pinterest.com/pin/37365871878576807/

http://pinterest.com/pin/78320480989229385/

http://pinterest.com/pin/101823641545118364/

http://pinterest.com/pin/275212227198330161/




up, up and away... x

more talent in paper cutting and folding...

ooh, two exciting finds to share today, how exciting!  Firstly, the divine artistry of Chloe Fleury, who creates paper magic with her cutting and folding skills amongst other talents!  Her work was just featured on the cover of the latest Antology issue - check it out!

Plus, some other work...
 

Found them through the second discovery, a very cool blog called The Jealous Curator.  Filled with artwork that is seen as inspiring and therefore, definitely worth admiring, it is filled with a huge variety of eye-candy, plus I really like her writing style too - fun and honest!

xx

We really really love Love Mae - here's the proof...

Our addiction to mt masking tape is hardly a secret, but here's another obsession that we have been harbouring recently - Love Mae fabric wall stickers!  We've both tried a few different types of wall decals over the years and the experience has been hit and miss e.g. colour from the decals leaking onto your walls.  We were a bit sick of the predictable shiny designs out there for children's rooms as well, so we were pretty excited to find the beautiful range of decals from the creative minds of Love Mae last year.  Since then, we may have brought one or two for our homes....

The colour and pattern of the designs were the first thing that grabbed our attention, because seriously, how cute are they!  The whimsical and vintage-inspired designs are super lovely for boys and girls, and most importantly, mums and adults as well.  It is a difficult balance between what little ones want up in their room and what you feel happy to have on display.   Plus, there are designs especially for adults anyway, and they look great in any room of the house.

And then comes the fact that what the girls at Love Mae promise about the decals is actually true - they really 'can be repositioned hundreds of times over, scrunched up, smoothed out, even washed and best of all they will not damage your walls'. Our mini decals are frequently taken off the wall by little hands and moved around into a different design and they really do handle it well. Falling onto the carpet can affect their stickiness a bit, but simply wipe the decal carefully to remove the fluff, and you're away again!

Since we took the above photos were taken, the flying swallows and making monsters minis have made their way into the house as well...oops ;-)

Of course, the range of gift wrap by Love Mae is equally gorgeous - printed on 100% recycled paper, it is lovely to use creatively and to wrap gifts. 

Check out the range we have at presse here.

And the icing on the cake? The girls behind Love Mae are lovely and really do provide the friendliest customer service - it keeps you going back for more everytime!

p.s. we are having a Love Mae special in our upcoming newsletter so make sure you have subscribed to our mailing list.

Homestyle magazine

Did you see the April issue of Homestyle? Charlotte's gorgeous family home was lucky enough to be included, which was lovely :-)

There is a wonderful pic of our dear Nan to complement the story about her influence on our passion for letter writing, and you can spot a few products from presse around the place too.

Love any chance to see my dear nieces too :-)

xx

our Melbourne trip...

Well we've finally found some time to share our recent trip to Melbourne.  It literally flew by in a talking, eating, shopping haze, but we loved every minute!

Aside from running presse together, we first and foremost are sisters so you can imagine we always have a lot to talk about! Children, family, friends, general life, the list is endless.  And these days, we rarely get to hang out on our own [actually the last time we did that was in fact in Sydney for New Years in about 2005!], so we had a lot of catching up to do.

Our highlights were: macarons and coffee at Chez Dre in South Melbourne (thanks for the tip Jennifer), cocktails at Cookies bar (hmmm, 4 drinks and $80 later but completely worth it!), divine breakfast with views from Level 28 at the Crown Metropol, shopping in the city centre and Brunswick Street, and a little unexpected tram ride to St Kilda and back!

True to our paper and stationery addiction, we stocked up on new mt masking tape at the local mag nation store, as well as lots of cute cards at Card & Caboodle!

We also chatted about the joys and challenges of running an online business together from 2 different countries.  Similar to other businesses starting up, we were endlessly optimistic about our living arrangements 'it'll be fine', 'it's online anyway so it will totally work for us both' or 'maybe Liv will be home soon anyway'!  Optimism is all well in good, until reality knocks on the door!

So it was good to be able to chat face to face, remind ourselves about why we started presse in the first place, and talk about ideas moving forward. 

We're hoping to make the trip an annual thing although this might be pushing it ;-) x

Easter eggs + mt tape - DIY craft

We had an mt masking tape crafty morning yesterday, so thought we'd share some of the pics.  The boys love any opportunity to play with 'mummy's tape'!

Tips:
- hard boil the eggs first - makes them less fragile to work with, and especially essential if your little ones want to join in the fun!
- cutting or tearing your mt tape into little pieces helps in applying it to your egg - otherwise you end up with bumpy tape.
- be mindful how long the eggs will last if you want them for Easter :-)

happy taping x

Easter hunt {competition}

Confession time...we didn't come up with an easter + mt tape competition in time for Easter!! We're so sorry for those who were looking forward to it - we simply ran out of time (the trip to Melbourne didn't really help but of course we'll leave our fabulous tales for another post!).

To make it up to you, we have come up with our own Easter Hunt :-)  Super easy and with a fabulous prize at stake - we hope you'll come on the hunt with us.

This gorgeous picture seen below showcases the versatility and beauty of mt masking tape {courtesy of Teip}.

For the Easter Hunt, we have gone and hidden it amongst 15 of our products over on presse's website.

The simple rules:
1. find 10 of the 15 images and email us the product names.
2. all entries containing 10 product names will gain a single entry into the Easter Hunt draw.
3. for every individual product name you provide over the 10 products (ie 11-15 products), you'll receive another entry to the draw!
4. draw closes next Thursday 5.4.2012 at midday, and winner will be notified through their email, and also announced via facebook and this blog.


The prize:
- Paper Runway Issue 3 - Made by Hand valued at $27.95 NZD
- 2 single rolls of mt masking tape (your choice of design) valued at $5.95 NZD each
- bragging rights of course :-)


Happy hunting everyone xx

bunny boxes + mt masking tape...

Easter has crept up very quickly this year!  So much so, that we sold out of our popular bunny boxes before we actually opened our Easter shop.  Not to worry, we have more on their way hopefully arriving at the end of the week.

We love all the handmade details on these guys - a cute cottontail bottom, little paws and their ears that stand up tall (perhaps listening out for Mr McGregor!)

We found a couple stashed away from last year, and decided to make a His and Her version using MT masking tape to colour them up.

We would love to see what you or your little ones do with your bunny boxes this year so please send us some photos! x