Poppy Collection feature: Maidenhair

I have a maiden hair fern that sits next to my bathroom sink, so I look at it while brushing my teeth and getting ready for the day (which, with a baby, can be mid-afternoon some days). I've always loved maiden hair ferns, but I have a real black thumb when it comes to plants, so I've also killed a few in my time as well. In November last year I decided it was time to use the fern in a new design. Mainly because I figured I'd unwillingly kill the plant soon so I should make the most of it.

So I took some photos and got to work.

Then created the illustration.


The final design is actually one of my very favourites. It's feminine without being too frilly, and would be perfect for a mild spring or summer wedding. These ferns look so fresh, and I think that lends well to the design.

I'm not sure why, but the fern has taken off. It's now far too big to sit next to my bathroom sink, and I actually have to move it if I want to wash my hands. I think it just likes being the centre of attention.

Claire & Adam

Last year we worked with Claire and Adam on their engagement invitations. Today we finished printing their one-colour wedding invitations, accommodation cards and rsvp slips which we recently designed.

The calligraphy was done here at Poppy. Not something we normally do, but these guys are good friends of ours :)

And we're live!

Our brand new website is finally online. There's still a lot more work to do on it though, but once it's all up and running, it will have a few swanky new features.

The most exciting of these will be an instant quote feature. This will allow visitors to the site to have a look through our designs and services, decide what they'd like, and find the pricing for it immediately. However, it's the most code-heavy part of the site, so Adrian's going to be working his magic with it over the next couple of weeks, so you'll have to stay tuned for it's arrival.

Last night we uploaded the first 4 of 36 new designs as part of our new Poppy Collection. Until now, we have only offered custom design and printing, but have had many many requests for a template collection to choose from. The Poppy Collection is ideal for couples who:

- would rather not spend time working with a designer to develop a custom design

- would like to receive their final product sooner, and

- are working to a tighter budget, but would still love to have the luxury of letterpress.

So you will be able to choose your design, choose the items you require, choose colours to match your wedding, so that we can contact you to get started straight away. It couldn't be easier!

Every day or two we will be uploading a new design to the Poppy Collection. We'll be featuring each design on the blog, so you'll be able to hear all about them right here.

We also have sections on the website for custom design - which we'll still be offering as before - and information on how to supply your own design for printing. These will hopefully be live by the end of the weekend.

Also yet to come are a stack of photos. They'll be online in the next few days too.

Phew! Busy busy!

So even though there are still a lot more goodies to pop up on the site, we'd love to get your feedback on how it looks so far. And let us know if you think the text is too small. I, for one, like it, but we've had a bit of a debate here and I think I'm losing ;)

Emerging tomorrow

The pressure's really on now to have the website ready to go live tomorrow. It may be at 11.59pm tomorrow, but it will be tomorrow! I must say that I'm stupidly excited to have a new site. We've really needed it for quite some time now, and it's far more dynamic than the last one. You'll probably all look at it and ask, "What was all the fuss about?" :)

One thing that I'm looking forward to is updating it daily for the first few weeks. You'll see what I mean tomorrow...

Sprouting...

tease, tease

Isn't it always the way? You plan and plan, only to realise that your little dream of a new website is, in reality, a huge undertaking that requires far more time than you originally anticipated.

But fear not my friends, the new website is coming. In 3 days to be precise. So while Adrian and I are being busy little bees, here's a little teaser.

2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and had a fun night last night. Have you made your new year's resolution? I'm not one for them myself, but I'm really looking forward to throwing myself into the studio and producing some gorgeous new work. Bring on 2010!