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

melbourne here we come...

We are super duper excited to be off to Melbourne next month!  And 1) we're going together, 2) we're not taking husbands or children, and 3) we don't even have to pretend its a work trip as we have blatantly advised that yes, shopping will be done!  It's payback you see, as our hubbies got to go to the Rugby World Cup in October and this was our promised penance.  We don't think they were actually really listening when the deal was struck, but yippee for us!

We've both been to Melbourne a couple times before, but would love to hear any recommendations of must-see shops and activities.  Especially any gorgeous paper, gift and homeware stores!  We promise to bring back plenty of pics :-)

x

a tribute...

This is a difficult post to write, and yet we have been determined to some how find the right words and time to share this tribute.

As some of you are aware, our beloved Nana passed away at the beginning of August.  A very difficult time for our family, and a grief that we continue to grapple with on a daily basis.  Although such a private experience, we feel a need to share our loss - out of our love for Nana and the influence she had on our lives, but also because it feels almost wrong for life to be continuing as normal without trying to somehow acknowledge, tribute or respect her and the life she led.

Nana (aged 5, second from the right) with her siblings

For the first time in our lives, stories about our Nana do not come easily.  They're too painful.  But we can share a few qualites that we adored.

Nana was incredibly strong and independent.  Born in 1917, as like many from her generation, she witnessed great tragedy, revolution and change over her lifetime.  She saw the world during and after the war, had saved the newspaper article about the first man to land on the moon, and sadly lived through the recent devastating earthquakes in Christchurch.  Through it all, she remained an optimist and lover of life.  She kept up with new trends, and had recently lamented that she hadn't learnt how to send a text message.

She was generous in spirit, and yet so sensible with her finances.  She loved cups of teas and being a host for her visitors.  She adored her little home, and literally had thousands of photos around her documenting her life.  She had a wicked sense of humour, and a quiet bravery and pride that never left her.  She cherished and kept old letters and cards from loved ones.  She was the absolute best at crosswords, yet was frustrated by the new challenges of Suduko!

She taught us the loyalty of everlasting love.  Having lost our grandfather after only 12 years of marriage, she remained loyal to him for the remainder of her life.  We will never forget the twinkle in her eye when she spoke about what a wonderful husband and father he was, and how much she looked forward to their reunion one day.

Nana and Grandad on their wedding day

Our joy of handwritten letters can be tributed to Nana, as it was as little girls that we learnt to write to her and then excitedly await her letter in reply.  We learnt the manners and gratitude in writing a thank you note after birthdays, and are so grateful to pass this on to our own children.  We continued this tradition of writing to each other in adulthood, and in recent years would read Nana's letters aloud to our husbands and children over dinner.  We have saved most of these letters...precious memories of our relationship.

Nana was always supportive of our personal and professional adventures, including presse-papiers.  She had recently asked us for a 'price list' so that she could buy some paper goodies for herself, but we know really she was just trying to support us!  She was forever encouraging, and we feel so fortunate that she shared so much of our lives as adults.  She was always bragging about her grand children and four little great grandchildren to neighbours, friends and anyone else who would listen.  Her family was her life's proudest achievement.

Nana and her sister Myrtle at the races

She loved chatting, and shared stories about her life non-stop. We wish now that we had bottled up these memories and conversations as a way of holding onto her voice, her kindness and her contagious laugh.  Even now, it still doesn't feel real that we won't hear her voice again.

Nana on her 90th birthday

Today would have been our Nana's 94th birthday.  This date has been etched into our calendars and thoughts our entire lives and it feels wrong to have not sent a gift or called for a little chat.  And so we write this post as a birthday gift for her, and perhaps for us as a first step towards once again being able to share her story without tears. 

We miss you every day Nana, all our love xx

Family connections

Our sister Nadia made the most fantastic discovery a couple weeks ago.  She was rummaging through our Mum's cupboard (where 32 years of childhood memories are awaiting collection!), and found a very cute, very familiar collection of cards.

With excitement, she recognised it as being two of the characters from the Daisy Lane swap cards that we sell at Presse-Papiers.  As we already knew, Lark's Daisy Lane collection celebrates the work of Sue Adams, whose gorgeous images of young boys and girls were found on thousands of greeting cards from the 1950s to 1980s.

As it turns out, the cards were used for guests to RSVP to our Mum and Dad's wedding in July 1977, and as all brides do, Mum had kept them all and shared their story with us when we were young.

Mum's RSVP cards from 1977

Daisy Lane Swap Cards - available in our online shop 2011

There is something quite lovely and magical in this discovery...almost a reminder of the invisible threads that forever connect mums and daughters, long-time friends and different family generations. Although we couldn't remember them, maybe this is why we fell in love with the Daisy Lane cards in the first place, and imagined our own children collecting them and sharing them with friends.  Just lovely.

Do you or your parents remember these cards? What other childhood memories have revisited you as an adult?

xx