A Kentucky Mule

This month, we thought we’d have some fun with bourbon cocktails. Bourbon, that most American of spirits, is rich and sweet and brown and ideal for fall cocktails. We had in mind lots of dark, brooding bourbon cocktails for fall, but suddenly we find ourselves with temperatures near the 80s in November, so we’re starting out the month a little differently, with a drink that fits this weird in-between weather we’re having, the Kentucky Mule. – Andrew

Kentucky Mule Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The Kentucky Mule

2 oz Kentucky Bourbon
3/4 oz Lime Juice
4-6 oz Ginger Beer

Combine the bourbon and lime juice in a copper mug or highball glass filled with crushed ice, then top with the ginger beer. Give the drink a stir, garnish with a mint bouquet, and enjoy!

Kentucky Mule Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The Kentucky Mule is a descendant of the Moscow Mule, a drink invented in the 1940s as gimmick to convince Americans to drink more vodka. At the time, American drinkers were apparently more discerning and had not yet fallen in love with the Russian spirit that is – by U.S. law – odorless and colorless and flavorless. (In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not a fan of vodka, because I wouldn’t drink a tasteless spirit any more than I would eat a flavorless steak.)

The combination of tart lime and spicy, zippy ginger beer offers a smooth and easy template that you can apply to spirits with actual flavor. Like bourbon. The Kentucky Mule has those rich, oaky notes of the bourbon, but is a refreshing, effervescent drink with a lot of pep to it.

Kentucky Mule Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Bourbon is a whiskey made from at least 51% corn. That corn lends bourbon a sweeter profile than other whiskeys, that same sweetness you get when you bite into a roasted ear of sweat corn on the Fourth of July. Not all of it is made in Kentucky, but a lot of it is, and it gets its name from the eastern part of Kentucky that was once called Old Bourbon and contains, fittingly enough, Bourbon County. This is where American colonists found huge tracts of land perfect for growing corn, and bourbon eventually would come to outstrip rum and rye whiskey, the original American spirits.

(Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, where we’ve been posting our experiments before they make their way onto this column!)

Glassware by Liquorary

Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper

 

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday everyone! We’ve definitely entered cold and flu season here in DC – my entire family has been through the ringer over the last week! Today it’s poor little Alice’s turn to have a cold. So I’m off to snuggle my sweet almost toddler and hope that she feels better soon! But in the meantime…

June Letters / Maya Angelou Quote via Instagram / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Lettering by Jess Levitz via Instagram

…a few links for your weekend!

This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:

That’s it for me this week! Check back a bit later for this week’s cocktail recipe – and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I’ll see you back here on Monday! xoxo

Productivity and Daily Routines

Hi Everyone! Today I thought I’d do something a little bit different and share a glimpse into my everyday routine. It’s a fairly new routine, since it has only been a couple of months since Sophie started preschool and Alice started full time daycare, and I’m still trying to figure out what works best for me as a mom and creative entrepreneur.

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

My day starts with getting the girls dressed and ready to go to preschool and daycare. We’re a single car family, so I drive and drop everyone off in the morning and then pick them all back up at the end of the day. In between I work out of my home office/studio. The round trip drop-off and pick up commute usually takes about an hour, which is tough since that’s a good chunk of work time. Sophie gets out of preschool at 3 pm every afternoon, so my challenge is to squeeze in as much productive work time as possible before I go pick her up. I normally work for a couple of hours at night after the kids are asleep, but I try to get as much done during those daytime hours as possible!

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

If you talk to any creative entrepreneur, they’ll tell you that email is one of their biggest productivity challenges. There’s just so much of it! Responding to incoming emails, organizing and archiving messages, and sending outgoing messages can eat up a huge chunk of my day. I use a service called Unroll.Me to help clean out my inbox and keep it manageable. Unroll.Me allows you to unsubscribe quickly and easily from unwanted newsletters and combine the rest of those newsletters – the ones you want to receive but don’t want crowding up your inbox – into a once daily email digest called “The Rollup.” I’ve actually used Unroll.Me for a few years now and I absolutely love it. I was thrilled when Unroll.Me reached out about helping to spread the word about their new iOS app!

Unroll.Me for iOS / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Unroll.Me is fast, simple, and totally FREE – and it really couldn’t be easier to use. After you sign up, Unroll.Me will scan your inbox to identify subscriptions. Then with a simple click of the mouse you can choose to unsubscribe (Unroll.Me does it for you), add the email to your Rollup, or keep it in your inbox. I even use my Rollup to keep all the newsletters from my favorite stationers and artists in one place! The entire process seriously takes about five minutes. When I first signed up for Unroll.Me years ago I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Unsubscribing from those emails –instead of having to delete them every single week – got them completely out of my mental space so I could focus on the things that matter. It sounds silly, but that kind of mental weight can have a huge impact on your productivity!

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

After responding to emails and sorting through any editorial submissions that came in overnight, I turn my attention to my to-do list for the day. Every day is different when running a blog depending on what’s on the agenda for that particular week. Some days involve DIY project production and taking photos, while other days involve searching for cards and products to feature in round up posts. I like to keep a colorful notepad on my desk for jotting down reminders and ideas along with a desk pad calendar to keep track of things like doctor appointments and visits from out-of-town relatives. I also find that I’m more productive if I keep a few pretty or inspirational trinkets on my desk, like vintage stamps and business cards from my friends that make me smile every time I look at them.

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Productivity and Daily Routines / Oh So Beautiful Paper

That’s my day! What do you do to stay productive during the day? If you want to give Unroll.Me a try you can sign up right here! I’ve used Unroll.Me to manage over 1200 subscriptions over the years – I’d love to hear how many subscriptions you find!

This post was created in partnership with Unroll.Me. All content and opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!

Rustic Moonrise Kingdom-Inspired Wedding Invitations

Rubber stamps are such an underutilized method for printing wedding invitations! Michael of Anticipate Invitations created these Moonrise Kingdom-inspired wedding invitations for a rustic wedding in Maine – and almost the entire suite is printed using rubber stamps! I love the attention to detail in these wedding invitations, right down to the vintage postcard hexagon tag!

Rustic Rubber Stamp Wedding Invitations by Anticipate Invitations / Oh So Beautiful Paper

From Michael: Alexis and Brian drew inspiration for their custom wedding invitation from Wes Anderson films (think Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest Hotel) and the vibe of their rustic venue, Josias River Farm in Cape Neddick, Maine. It had to be colorful—but not bold, vintage—but not campy, and modern—but not unwelcoming. Although with the venue being a farm it could skew rusticly romantic, the couple requested something a bit more unexpected. We were happy to accept the challenge and the couple was a breath of fresh air to work with. They were able to articulate what it was they wanted their guests to feel, and that was a great starting point from which to jump from.

Moonrise Kingdom-Inspired Wedding Invitations by Anticipate Invitations / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Since materials were just as important as the design to the couple, we turned to the beautiful handmade quality that only rubber stamps can give for printing. The printing was done on large sheets of paper and then later cut down to size so that less precision was needed to ensure they were printed straight. Aside from the full-color vintage postcard hexagon card, all the pieces were printed using this method.

Moonrise Kingdom-Inspired Wedding Invitations by Anticipate Invitations / Oh So Beautiful Paper

The invitation card was printed on pale blue paper, backed with an off-white, speckled recycled paper for thickness, and then printed using an extra-large custom rubber stamp. The coral RSVP postcard was cleverly written in a Mad Libs style and was also backed with a contrasting paper color to give it rigidity and cohesiveness. All the pieces were packaged together with coral bakers twine and a hexagon card made from a vintage Maine postcard. A brown kraft pastry bag stood in for an envelope and added just the right amount of quirkiness and vintage flair.

Moonrise Kingdom-Inspired Wedding Invitations by Anticipate Invitations / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Return address labels were printed on the same blue green paper as the invitation and sealed the pastry bag closed for mailing. A collection of nature-themed, vintage postage stamps were sourced by the bride and completed the whole package.

Moonrise Kingdom-Inspired Wedding Invitations by Anticipate Invitations / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Moonrise Kingdom-Inspired Wedding Invitations by Anticipate Invitations / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Thanks Michael!

Check out the Designer Rolodex for more tal­ented wed­ding invi­ta­tion design­ers and the real invi­ta­tions gallery for more wedding invitation ideas!

Photo Credits: Anticipate Invitations

Finding the Paper: Type Twenty Seven

When Parse & Parcel settled into our sample studio we made sure to carve out a space conducive to Friday happy hours with our office mates. We knew after a busy week of making mockups, packing parcels and shipping samples we’d be ready for a cocktail (or two). Of course it’s stocked with all the necessary essentials – booze, barware, mixers and ice – all that’s been missing is the perfect coaster set. Then we came upon The Mixed Up Alphabet of Cocktails. In this installment of Finding The Paper, we’ll see how Type Twenty Seven combined their love of type and print with cocktails. – Jill

Finding the Paper: Type Twenty Seven / Parse & Parcel for Oh So Beautiful Paper

On the second floor of a converted, mid-town Cleveland warehouse is Type Twenty Seven, a graphic design and letterpress studio. Type Twenty Seven is known for mixing modern technology with lead type and vintage printing presses. It’s little wonder that when it came time for the studio to do a self-promotion, a type driven design would be at the center of the concept.

Finding the Paper: Type Twenty Seven / Parse & Parcel for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The Mixed Up Alphabet of Cocktails incorporates unique illustrations and custom typography to showcase classic and modern cocktails for each letter of the alphabet. That’s twenty six different cocktails, or six months of weekly happy hours. This self promotion consists of poster, coaster set and packaging design that showcases the beauty of letterpress printing. The use of a toothy, cotton paper adds a layer of tactility to the piece and is a perfect choice for packaging design. Haptics (the science of touch) has become a hot topic in packaging design of late. Did you know that packaging featuring tactile papers and print techniques like letterpress actually increases a product’s perceived value?

The Mixed Up Alphabet of Cocktails features a limited edition poster and packaging sleeve letterpress printed on Reich Savoy 100% Cotton in 92# Natural White cover stock, produced using a 1967 Vandercook Universal III printing press. This process produces a highly tactile feel where the ink is pressed into the surface, creating an impression. Savoy is a bit different from some other 100% cotton papers commonly used for letterpress printing in that it works well when scoring and folding – something that can be troublesome on bulkier, softer stocks. The choice of basis weight was smart as well, just enough heft to give the poster and box sleeve body and sturdiness, but not too heavy so as to create print production difficulties.

Finding the Paper: Type Twenty Seven / Parse & Parcel for Oh So Beautiful Paper

The coasters were letterpress printed on a high absorbent, heavy 2.0mm coaster stock with black ink. Produced on two vintage presses, a 1924 C&P Pilot printing press, and an 1890’s C&P hand-feed printing press. They’re almost too pretty to use!

The inspiration for the project was fueled by Type Twenty Seven’s love of cocktails. The idea that anybody can mix and match ingredients to make their own cocktail led to creating a set of coasters that would encourage people to try new recipes. They wanted it to be fun to read, playful, and—most of all—perfect for any party. Showcasing some more unique and lesser known cocktails might encourage people to interact with their drink coasters more often.
Finding the Paper: Type Twenty Seven / Parse & Parcel for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Finding the Paper: Type Twenty Seven / Parse & Parcel for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Not only are they a fab print sample to have on hand but they also do double duty for our Friday happy hours!