Our next NSS sneak peek comes from the one and only Wild Ink Press (Booth #2071)! Rebekah always has the most beautiful booth designs and tons of gorgeous letterpress stationery to match. This year Rebekah is debuting over 33 new card designs along with a letterpress calendar, notepads, and gift wrap. I’m particularly loving two of her new card series: Garden Greetings and Quotations!
 
 
Thanks Rebekah!
Photo Credits:Â Wild Ink Press
Happy Monday everyone! With only a few more days before the 2013 National Stationery Show officially kicks off, it’s pretty much going to be all NSS, all the time around here – I hope you don’t mind! Today I’m thrilled to be sharing sneak peeks from two of my favorite returning exhibitors. First up, the fabulous ladies of Sugar Paper (Booth #1943)! As far as I’m concerned these ladies create pure stationery magic, from their bright and colorful greeting cards to their pretty gift wrap and art prints. Some of the new goodies this year include note sets, holiday photo cards, greeting cards, and brand new notebooks and journals. I can’t wait to see it all in person!
 
Thanks Chelsea and Jamie!
Photo Credits: Sugar Paper
Last night, I was playing around with some cocktail recipes (as you should also be doing), and came up with one I thought was really tasty: rum, St-Germain, and Aperol. Robust and complex, bitter and sweet at the same time, I was a big fan. Nole was…less than enthused. So I tweaked one ingredient, replacing the Aperol with a sweeter orange liqueur, and voilà ! A whole new drink that Nole loved; light and sweet, floral and fruity, with just the right amount of kick. Consider this his and hers drinks, together an ode to the cocktail, that beautiful concoction that’s always changing to suit your tastes or your moods. Goes to show you, there’s always a perfect drink out there for you. – Andrew
Illustration by Caitlin Keegan for Oh So Beautiful Paper
His and Hers St-Germain Cocktails
His:
1 1/2 oz Dark Rum
3/4 oz St-Germain
3/4 oz Aperol
Combine everything with lots of ice, stir well, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist and enjoy!
Hers:
1 1/2 oz Dark Rum
3/4 oz St-Germain
3/4 oz Orange Liqueur
1/4 oz Lime Juice
Combine everything with lots of ice, shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist and enjoy!
 
Both of these cocktails are very similar, using a rich, dark rum as their base and adding the floral, fruity sweetness of St-Germain. But they end up very different. His has a deep, dark red color that matches its oaky, bittersweet flavors. It gets a lof of its character from matching the rum and St-Germain with Aperol, a light, orange-flavored Italian Amaro, that highlights the rich flavors of the aged rum and the more complex floral notes of the St-Germain. Hers is light and sweet, with lots of fruity sweetness from the St-Germain and citrus from the orange liqueur (and just a bit of acid from the lime juice to balance all that sweetness). They satisfy very different tastes (or hankerings), even though they’re nearly the same drink, swapping an orange Amaro for an orange Cointreau. But that’s how this whole thing works, right?
 
These names are a bit of a misnomer, and there’s no reason why men can’t enjoy the sweeter, more citrusy drink, or women the darker, more bitter drink. (I actually enjoyed both of them, though Nole has a much lower tolerance for the bitterness of Aperol than me). So give both a try, then play around with your own combinations.
Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper
This post is brought to you in collaboration with St-Germain. All content, photos, recipes, and words are our own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that help make Oh So Beautiful Paper possible!
Happy Friday everyone! We’re in the final mad dash to the National Stationery Show, which makes me happy because it means lots of gorgeous mail coming into the mailbox! But this weekend I’m looking forward to slowing down and taking a short break to celebrate my very first Mother’s Day. I’ll share an update on Sophie once the show is over, but I’m really, really enjoying this stage with her. At almost 8 months old, she’s just the happiest and smiliest little baby – she makes even the most difficult days so much better! I hope any other moms out there have a wonderful Mother’s Day! But in the meantime…
 
 
Photos by me via Instagram
…a few links for your weekend:
This week on Oh So Beautiful Paper:
Check back soon for this week’s cocktail!  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and I’ll see you back here on Monday! xoxo
Our final NSS sneak peek of this week comes to us from Kate & Birdie (Booth #1755-1757)! Gloria and her team are debuting a new collection of notepads at this year’s show, along with new greeting cards, holiday cards, and gift wrap. The notepad collection includes four designs: two lined, two blank, and each with a hand illustrated design on each page. Each 70-page notepad is printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based ink. I’m so happy to see that they included a market list in the collection – I always need more of those!
Thanks Gloria and Julie!
Photo Credits: Kate & Birdie