Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash

Often, recipes don’t work out the way you planned when you first try them. You might have an idea in your head of how ingredients will work together, only to find out that reality doesn’t agree with you, and you have to throw the idea (and a drink) out. Or maybe your ingredients are right but your proportions are wrong, and you have to try and try and try again until you get it just right. But sometimes, a recipe presents itself so fully formed in your head that it works just right the first time. This was one of those times. And this also turned out to be one of my most favorite cocktails of all time: an Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash. – Andrew

Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash Cocktail Recipe Card / Illustration by Shauna Lynn for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Illustration by Shauna Lynn for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash

2 oz Blended Scotch
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
1/2 Lemon, Quartered
1 inch-long piece Vanilla Bean
2 pieces Orange Peel

Muddle the orange peel – thinly sliced to avoid the bitter white pith – and vanilla bean in the bottom of a cocktail shaker until the bean is pulverized. Add the simple syrup, lemon, and Scotch. Then finished with a few ice cubes, the bigger and more even the better. Shake hard to smash up the lemon, then strain into a tumbler filled with crushed ice. (You should see specks of vanilla bean in your drink; don’t worry about these.) Garnish with a lemon and an orange wheel and enjoy!

Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

This drink is so, so good. The vanilla and orange are an amazing combination, and they both play together with the smoky woodiness of the Scotch in some really interesting ways. We used a mellow blended Scotch without a huge amount of peaty smokiness, and the result is a tremendously smooth Smash that’s very easy to drink. Just the right amount of sweetness, too, to balance out the spice and citrus.

Orange-Vanilla Bean Scotch Smash Cocktail Recipe / Liquorary for Oh So Beautiful Paper

One of my favorite aspects of a Smash like this is the way it incorporates that citrus. When you shake up whole pieces of lemon, you get just just tart lemon juice but that intensely flavorful lemon peel oil too. So there’s an extra added depth of flavor that mellows out the drink even further.

(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

Fresh Cut Paper Flowers: David Austin Roses

A little more hot pink to jump start your day! Is it just me or does pink look good with just about anything these days? The David Austin Rose seems to wear it best. Known for its layered petals and intricate centers, these crepe paper David Austin Roses provide some much needed eye candy this Wednesday. Now let out that deep mid-week sigh, ahhh….and surround yourself with pink paper blooms! –Rachael

Fresh Cut Paper Flowers: Crepe Paper David Austin Roses / Appetite Paper for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Fresh Cut Paper Flowers: Crepe Paper David Austin Roses / Appetite Paper for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Fresh Cut Paper Flowers: Crepe Paper David Austin Roses / Appetite Paper for Oh So Beautiful Paper

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress

Delegating to a team is no easy task when running a small business. It takes a huge investment in time and money, and 10x the amount of trust. Kristen Ley from Thimblepress has a strong team of women behind her and I am so thrilled for her to break it down for us on OSBP today. She’ll be sharing about the different elements of her business, roles of each team member, and (of course) a few fun facts on their signature Push-Pop Confetti! –Megan

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Hi guys, Kristen here! We’re not even to the end of 2015 yet, but this year has been a huge year of progress and change for us at Thimblepress. From expanding our staff and our space to include the upstairs of our historic downtown building, growth has been the name of the game, but let me be the first to say, no complaints here. We have been more than blessed and are taking on the challenges of growth day-by-day as a team – and I’ve got to brag, we have an AWESOME team of talented ladies. Often for interviews and Q&A’s, I get spotlighted, but there is so much more to our company that makes it possible and keeps it functioning each day.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

To build this company, I had to do each of these responsibilities at some point, but as you grow you realize you cannot do it all in 24 hours. That is where hiring a great team like mine is crucial to the success of any business. Today, we’re beyond excited to take you on a behind the scenes virtual tour of our studio and our daily operations including all the girls (and pets) that make the Thimblepress® machine run. Welcome!

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Our studio is on the main drag of downtown Jackson, Mississippi and is positioned directly across from the Old Capitol Building (now a museum) and the WWII Memorial – it’s quite a fun view. The front section of our studio operates as a store front where we carry our full line of Thimblepress products as well as many other stationery and celebration lines. Though the bulk of our business is wholesale, we really love having a space where our local community and supporters can come by, visit with us and shop directly.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

If you happen to find yourself in our shop or order with us online, you’ll be in touch with our Retail Sales Manager, Kate Freeman. She tackles customer service, packaging, shipping, post office trips, store displays, merchandising and more things. Order something from us and it’ll almost certainly go through Kate’s hands and wow, does she make a pretty package. Visit our local shop and you will see her smiling face right when you enter!

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

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Just behind our storefront is our Wholesale office. Celine and Marielle (pictured above) make up our wholesale team – they process and assist all of our wholesale customers. From communicating with rep groups and wholesale clients, packaging, loads of paperwork and number crunching, sending samples, processing international accounts at the speed of light, these gals work non-stop to make sure our wholesale customers are happy and the ship is running smoothly. There are so many pieces to the wholesale business, and so much that we could write a book on it, and these ladies rock it out!

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Lauren is our Print and Manufacturing Buyer and Production Manager. She is constantly researching new product and printing options for us, production for all of my crazy ideas, and managing the supply buying and sourcing for all of our products and shipping supplies. She works hand-in-hand with Kate, Celine, Marielle and MK to make sure we can predict ordering down the pipeline to help streamline our inventory, assembly, and shipping supplies!

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

When you see our products stocked at a local gift shop, or at larger stores like Anthropologie, Paper Source, Nordstrom or Urban Outfitters, know that these gals have been the middlewomen between our brand and wholesale customers making things happen. Customer feedback is HUGE to us. These ladies keep the lines of communication open which is so important, constantly translating customer feedback helps us evolve and improve our brand every day.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

And, as any product-based business knows, production is a big part of our business. We package and assemble all of our products here at the Thimblepress studio, and consistency and quality are of the highest importance. Mary Katherine Sharpe (pictured above) is our Inventory Manager, and along with her sweet pup Frankie, she takes on the responsibilities of inventory count and also Team Leader of our Assembly Team.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Our rotating part-time Assembly Team Staff ROCKS. Everyday is different for them, but they’re always working together to keep our products stocked and ready for customer orders. We put a lot of emphasis on product quality and consistency, and it’s important to our business and brand that everyone on our team (not just our Assembly Team) knows how each and every item should look and be packaged. Whenever there’s a lull in any department (which is rare, but it happens) we all join in on assembly as there’s always something to be done, and to be honest, making Push-Pop Confetti™ is strangely therapeutic! (And, yes, we really do make all our of Push-Pop Confetti™ by hand!)

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful PaperIMG_6232

We are always testing new things and trying new systems to see what works and what’s most effective for us as a team as we grow. We definitely don’t have it all figured out, but we are taking it one day at a time, and when new changes and challenges pop up we take them in stride. Communication in our space is a tricky thing we’ve had to tackle as our space is an old row building– super narrow and long, and not that great for shouting out a message and being heard.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Joy Parikh, our Systems Manager, is constantly testing and fine tuning all the ways our business works. From the way we communicate to all the software we use, she gathers information on what works and what could be better to keep us operating at full capacity. We are putting a fine toothed comb to the business to make sure it is and will always run as efficiently as it can!

Most recently, we’ve been testing out Asana, an online task management system which allows us to each keep up with our own tasks and calendars, but also allows us to tag one another if a project includes someone from a different area in the shop. Other systems we’ve found that work well for us are ShipStation for integrating our selling platforms to a single shipping station and StitchLabs for inventory management.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, we are all about sharing the knowledge! Again, we don’t know it all, but we love to share and exchange our experiences and opinions with other makers. There’s that old phrase, when the water rises, everyone’s boat is lifted and we truly believe that in terms of sharing knowledge so we’ve started a new blog series called Biz Tip Tuesday where we’re doing just that. I’ve shared our story up until 2014, the process we are taking to overhaul our systems, and most recently a six week series on branding, core values, target customers, and plans of action.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

And, in this back space of our downstairs shop, Joy and I share a space and often chat business and life while I’m printing on our 1925 Chandler + Price letterpress. I am still the only one that prints all of our letterpress product. As we grow, it has slowly become a challenge to find time to do it with running the business, finding time to be creative and develop new product, but I love it so much it would be hard to let that go.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful PaperIMG_6272

The upstairs of our building houses two offices in the front, one of which doubles as our photo studio and a meeting area, and also a large meeting space for us to have meetings with clients. The remainder of the upstairs is my living space (see a full tour here).

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Our photo studio doubles as the office and home away from home for our PR and Creative Projects Director, Bekah Bohlen. Social media content, Thimblepress blog features, custom projects, press & public relations, events and more fall under her umbrella of responsibilities. She takes on the task of keeping our brand image content consistent daily.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Anywhere I go is an automatically shared space with my two golden doodle pups, Willow and Henry. Can you tell we are pet friendly? Might as well call it Puppy Palace up here some days with all our Thimblepets.

Behind the Stationery: Thimblepress / Oh So Beautiful Paper

Everything we do here at Thimblepress is a such a collective effort and we love that our brand and workplace environment promotes happiness and positive vibes between people. We are so so glad and thankful to the sweet team of OSBP to have had the chance to share a bit about our inner workings and the whole team that makes it happen today. Cheers!!

Love, Kristen and Team Thimblepress!

All photos courtesy of Thimblepress.

Interested in participating in the Behind the Stationery column? Reach out to Megan at megan [at] ohsobeautifulpaper.com for more information.