Modern Calligraphy

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ Leave a comment

calligraphyIf you follow me on social media, you may remember the Laura Hooper calligraphy kit I received for Christmas last year. It took me three months, but I finally sat down and got started a few weeks ago!

To my own surprise, I’m completely hooked. I’ve spent several afternoons filling up the pages of my practice book until my fingers started to cramp and I feel like I’m starting to get a handle on my own particular style.

At first, it was all about consistency—mostly in width and height of the characters. I tended to start out with very large letters and they shrunk as the line went along. I also tweaked the forms of several letter forms—adding an extra loop inside letters like “a” and “o” and creating a completely different “k”—an important one since it’s in my name!

calligraphy_6087I’ve recently moved on to addresses, since being able to offer addressing services to wedding clients was the main catalyst for learning calligraphy. I still have some progress to make to figure out the layout and spacing I like, but things are coming along.

IMG_6154I also experimented with the white ink that came in the kit and created this lovely design below. I’m thinking I may sell it as a digital print in my etsy shop… stay tuned!

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Home Sweet Home

~ Bess Paper Goods & Gifts ~ 1 Comment

I love house hunting, so when our dear Bermudian friends bought their first home together, I couldn’t have been more excited for them! I’m being recruited to help decorate, but in the mean time, I wanted to get them a housewarming gift.

Homes have names here—thanks European colonization!—and they decided to change theirs to something more unique than the original (Bella Fiore is a little bland, no?) and settled on the name of the hubby’s Irish hometown, so I thought it would be neat to call attention to that with their gift.

Normally I probably would have gone with a letterpress print or the like, but I’m not sure they’re really large-scale typography people, plus you know how obsessed I’ve been with watercolors lately. So I painted a picture of their new home!

Ballyknock_6048I was a bit nervous about how it would turn out, so I didn’t tell anyone what I was up to. Only after I got the boyfriend’s reassurance did I pop it in a frame and ask when I could drop it off. They’re over the moon and I’m super happy with the results as well!

I’ve been thinking of offering commissioned pieces along these lines in my etsy shop—what do you think?

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I <3 Snail Mail

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Yesterday was a very exciting day as I sent out my first Card Club subscription package! An etsy member bought it for her stationery-loving friend’s birthday. Isn’t that so fun?

The subscription is twelve deliveries of handmade letterpress goodies sent right to your door. Each month’s delivery is worth more than $20 and will include an assortment of greeting cards, prints, coasters, bookmarks, recipe cards and more. I don’t want to give away the surprise of what’s all in there, but here’s a sneak peek—plus she also got an exclusive print!

COTM_415_6071Subscribe to Card Club here—and don’t forget it makes a fabulous gift!

Pinterest WINS! Food edition

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I’m sure all of you have spent a little time cruising Pinterest Fail: a blog dedicated to documenting Pinterest projects that didn’t quite work out (or crashed and burned miserably), or at least seen some of the best (worst) that have gone viral. If you’re like me, you’re the most skeptical the first time you make a recipe found on Pinterest—but lucky for you, I’ve had lots of time to experiment lately, so here are more than a few of the best!

Editor’s note: All photos in this post belong to the creator of each recipe, which are linked to within the copy.

daf62d8f28980ca7c789deaa201dbcafBREAD
I’ve been making Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits for so long that I no longer need a recipe—in fact I forgot I had even pinned it until I started putting together this post! They live up to their restaurant counterparts and are super quick and easy to put together. They’re a great accompaniment to soups and garlicky meat dishes.

Our family’s Christmas tradition is to stay home all day and spend the afternoon making and eating hors-d’oeuvres. We all have our perennial favorites, but we try to each bring something new to the party as well every year. A few years ago, my new app was Homemade Soft Pretzels and Beer Cheese Dip. They’re both putzy and time-consuming, but if you’ve got a couple hours, they’re great!

I love apple fritters—they might be one of my favorite doughnuts. So when I saw Apple Fritter Pull-Apart bread, I had to try it. Sure, it’s sort of semi-homemade, with the “bread” being Pillsbury biscuits, but it does contain fresh fruit, so that’s good, right?

160a996218f31918bebdc346a744c622PASTA & SIDES
Dining options in Bermuda are fairly limited when it comes to non-American or Western Europe cuisine. So to satisfy my cravings, I’ve been learning to cook Asian dishes—and this One Pot Thai Pasta is by far the easiest! I was skeptical because it seemed too easy, but the flavor was spot on and didn’t taste as though it had been created in 15 minutes with fairly mundane ingredients (I skipped the tamarind paste and fish sauce).

I love homemade pasta. I make huge batches of ravioli a few times per year so I always have some in my freezer. A few weeks ago, I had some girlfriends over for a ravioli-making party, but I wanted to make something else for dinner so we’d all have plenty to take home. In keeping with the theme, I whipped up some Lemon-Pepper Pasta. (Full disclosure: I didn’t really use this exact recipe, but melded it with my regular pasta recipe, which can be found here.) The lemon added a great hit of freshness to the tender pasta that went perfectly with a few shrimp and some pesto.

When I had had enough of my Thanksgiving leftovers (but still had a full fridge), I started searching for recipes that would use up some of the things I had the most of—including sweet potatoes. When used in Sweet Potato Gnocchi, they lend another level of flavor and make the fluffy little pillows even lighter and more delicious. Throw them in a pan with some browned butter and sage (you can even melt a little goat cheese on top—yum!) and they’re a truly delicious side or meal.

b974fce6386f4fe34710f8a705837157MEAT
I happen to live with a man who doesn’t consider it a meal if it doesn’t contain meat. While he’s happy with a simply grilled steak or chicken breast, I’ve been on the hunt for more interesting flavors—this Slow-Cooker Balsamic Pork is perfect! I’ve made it with pork tenderloin that I sliced to serve and a pork shoulder (butt) that I shredded for sandwiches.

A few months before I moved to Bermuda, Andrew took some house guests deep sea fishing. I’m not a huge fan of baked fish, but I needed to find something to do with all that frozen wahoo! Luckily, I had just stumbled across Baked Honey-Marinated Cod, which sounded sort of like the Black Cod dish from Nobu that I had been craving. Obviously it didn’t quite measure up to all that, but it was really good!

DESSERT
I have a pretty serious sweet tooth, but baking is really not my thing—all that measuring! So I’ve really just got one trusty, easy dessert recipe, and I’m sure you’ve heard of it: Three Ingredient Brownies. It’s not quite chocolatey enough for my taste, so I would recommend stirring in some extra chocolate chips. Or, for a fancier addition, I’ve also topped them with caramel and a sprinkle of sea (or Kosher) salt for salted caramel brownies! Now those are dangerous!