Greetings from the White House

Now that I've shared my holiday cards, I thought it might be fun to look at another family's season's greetings through the years - specifically, the First Family.

No word yet on the 2010 Obama holiday card, but it was around this time last year that the White House announced that the annual presidential holiday card would be produced by American Greetings. Last year's card featured gold embossed presidential seal surrounded by a wreath, with the message: "May your family have a joyous holiday season and a new year blessed with hope and happiness."

Photo Courtesy of American Presidents Blog

White House holiday well wishes date back to the Coolidge administration. When President Coolidge sent the first White House Christmas card in 1927, the story goes, there was so much clamor for the card that he eventually had it printed in the newspaper. Here's a peak at the original:

In 2005, President Bush made December headlines when he dropped the word "Christmas" from his holiday card, opting instead for the non-denominational "Season's Greetings."

Photo courtesy of 33 Rabbit.

Turns out White House Christmas cards are a major collector's item. WhiteHouseHolidays.com auctions off presidential holiday greetings. The rarest of them all is the 1963 Kennedy Christmas card, which features a photograph of the the Creche in the East Room of the White House, and is hand-signed by both John and Jackie.

Photo courtesy of the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts

White House Holidays explains:

"By the time the President and Mrs. Kennedy departed for their fateful trip to Dallas, a maximum of 30 of the cards bore their dual signatures. After the President's death, his personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, preserved them for posterity. Not located until 1985, these highly prized cards are now in the possession of serious collectors."

Here's a look at some more presidential Christmas cards:

Hoover, 1932 courtesy of the University of Mississippi.

Roosevelt, 1942, courtesy of Elementary History Teacher.

Nixon, 1970, courtesy of the University of Tennessee.

Clinton, 1997 courtesy of TheHolidays.net

Bush, 2008, courtesy of American Presidents.

This card is one of my favorites - it shows the view from the Truman Balcony looking out at the the Washington Monument and Jefferson Memorial.

As soon as the Obama's 2010 card is announced I'll write with details. And if any readers should be kind enough to add me to the invite list, I promise to post it here first!

Season's Greetings

Time to round up addresses and get our holiday cards in the mail. We haven't sent out cards in a while and I'm having a hard time picking just one. So, instead, I'm thinking of putting a hodgepodge in the mail - some old, some new, some handmade = more fun for me. Here's a sneak peak.

Photo Courtesy of Ratty and Catty.

First up - a lot vintage cards from Ratty and Catty,pictured above. These cards span 1924 to 1965 and come to us courtesy of the Hartshorn family from East Orange, New Jersey. I love the great font choices on these cards as well as the fine details of the images.

Is it weird that some of them already include notes (about the Depression, the war, the family....)?

I kind of like it. Anyway, I'll need to do a little creative repurposing, but I think the personal notes add to the charm.

For a more modern take on traditional Christmas cards, I like these vintage reindeer cards from The Spotted Sparrow.

Photo courtesy of The Spotted Sparrow.

Julia, the creative lady behind the Spotted Sparrow, digitally restored this vintage reindeer silhouette and then printed it onto pages of a 100+ year old German book. The whole thing is then mounted on card stock. Very festive.

For my family, I like the simplicity of these letterpress Hanukkah cards from Flora and Fauna, a print shop out of Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy of Flora and Fauna.

Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for purple, but I think what I like the most about these cards is that they're not traditional blue and white. The letterpress also looks really yummy.

One more for good measure - this one very modern.

Photo courtesy of Mossiere

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, and again, and again. Portland has the best paper.

Hands down.

This time I'm hooked on Mossiere, a Portland-based home goods and design shop, prints these beautiful mistletoe designs on 110 lb cotton Crane's paper (i.e. the good stuff). Each card is $10, but worth it.

OK - signing off for now, so that I can start filling out cards - send me your address and I promise to send one your way.

Blog Exchange

Photos courtesy of The Small Object

Today a few friends of mine assembled a quick blog exchange. Here's what we came up with (more reading on a quiet day-before-holiday day):

From Katie:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

http://smittenkitchen.com/

http://www.thewednesdaychef.com/

http://decor8blog.com/

I love food blogs way too much…

From Betsy:
My own favorites:

http://catalogliving.net/

www.damnyouautocorrect.com (not home related but so funny it makes me cry)

www.younghouselove.com

http://www.newdressaday.com/ (also not home related but fun b/c it’s hands on and crafty)

And a Few of My Own:

http://ffffound.com/

http://ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog/

http://www.designspongeonline.com/

apartmenttherapy.com

http://www.meettheshaffers.blogspot.com
http://emdashes.com/
http://blackwhiteyellow.blogspot.com/

And of course a pitch for Post!: blog.postboutique.com

Monday Reads: UPPERCASE magazine + Blog

It's a short week, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one who's having trouble focusing on work this afternoon.

How about a little afternoon reading diversion?

UPPERCASE gallery, books & papergoods is located in the Art Central building in downtown Calgary, Canada. They have a great blog and they also put out some super-creative magazines and books themselves, including UPPERCASE magazine, a quarterly publication for the "creative and curious." I'd like to think that I fit the bill here. Certainly the curious part.

Here's a peek inside their store with links to their blog, tumblr, and flickr feeds. Happy browsing.

Good things come in the tiniest letters

Dear World's Smallest Postal Service,

How do you pack so much paper-y goodness into something so small? Your letters are adorable.

Love,

Rachel
p.s. write back!

Photo courtesy of Ali Loves Curtis

Thanks to Haystack Needle for cluing me in to "The World's Smallest Post Service," a company that creates and delivers bite-sized letters and packages.

The WSPS began in 2008 as a quirky little social art project. Postmaster Lea Redmond sets up her tiny roaming office in cafes and shops in the San Francisco bay area and beyond and offers a teeny tiny letter transcription service to passers-by. At these appearances the letters are transcribed by hand on a miniature, wooden roll-top desk in the tiniest of script, [and] sealed with a minuscule wax seal with the sender's initial pressed into it.

Obvious first question: how are these letters mailed? By hummingbird? They're actually sent through the U.S. Postal Service in little packages equipped with a magnifying glass. (Note that in-person orders are handwritten, but online orders are typed - 3x smaller font, making the magnifying glass a necessity.)

Send one to a friend for under $10. Or enlist these tiny letters to announce big news. Have a little one on the way? How about letting Lea make birth announcements?