middle eastern themed potluck

a few weeks ago we decided to have a potluck lunch since whitney just got back from pilgrimage to israel with her husband jacob:



they set up a slideshow for us to watch while we ate middle eastern themed foods in kat's studio:



i brought this really good rice and chickpeas dish, whitney made yummy falafels, our intern sheena made an amazing salad and kat made pomegranate drinks and the best baklava i've ever had (well, the only baklava i've ever had...but it was awesome).



whitney's photographs were just the icing on the cake; they were beautiful. the food was delicious and it made me realize that i could probably be vegetarian if i really wanted to (don't know how i'd get over my love for chicken, though).

d*s biz ladies meet-up: recap

the d*s biz ladies meet-up was fantastic! each of the speakers gave tons of helpful tips and advice about having a small art/design-related business. grace was kind enough to put a bunch of notes in PDF form on her website, so check those out.

at the event there were plently of snacks and sweets to eat:



grace stood on a chair to get everyone's attention:



here's kat about to give her second talk. each of the speakers gave their talk four times since there were four groups that switched around the room every 25 minutes:



and here i am with grace. i felt like a total fan girl nerd but she was a total sweetheart about it:



after the event we decided to eat out at rocket to venus where we knew our new intern sheena was working. she kindly took a picture of all of us at the table (at this point we had called our boys to come over to the restaurant to meet us):



and then cory took a picture of kat, sheena, and myself (we're just missing whitney--she was sick!):



it was a great night.

d*s biz ladies meet-up

tomorrow (thursday), grace of design*sponge will be at the american visionary art museum for the d*s biz ladies meet-up. she will give advice specifically aimed towards ladies starting up a small business or for those already running their own businesses. marketing, press releases, retail information, legal issues and more will all be covered. kat, the big boss here at gilah press + design, will tell her story of starting up a business she was passionate about that eventually became successful. the girls of double dutch boutique will also be speaking at the event.

again, the meet-up will take place at the american visionary art museum (3rd floor, jim rouse visionary center) on thursday, july 31st from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm. remember, it's free! if you decide to come please bring a small potluck-style snack or drink to share. see you there!

(rosie the riveter image from d*s)

justin's last day / sheena, the new intern

monday was our intern justin's last day at the studio. we took him out to lunch and then left a little early to enjoy some snacks and drinks at kat's house.

here's justin opening gifts and reading a card:



our delicious spread of cheese and crackers:



me and whitney enjoying some rosé inside the kitchen:



kat and justin hanging out on the front porch:



on wednesday we introduced our new intern, sheena, to the studio. we reviewed her fantastic portfolio, went out to lunch at miss shirley's to get to know her a little better, and then got her working for the rest of the day. great to have you with us, sheena!

we're on design*sponge

the gilah press + design studio is featured on design*sponge today! thank you to anne and grace for asking us to be included on design*sponge as one of your "sneak peeks." read the whole article here! wee!

national stationery show 2008

three weeks ago was such a whirlwind. gilah press + design had been preparing for our third time at the national stationery show for months and it was finally time to put all of our hard work on display!

we spent hours putting together dozens of press kits. they took up more room than we thought:



these little notepads were given away at the show. they were a hit:



about two hundred catalogs were put together by hand with help from our intern maggie:



whitney's husband jacob even pitched in and built us a pair of beautiful dollies:



and then it was off to new york...

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putting up the booth was relatively painless since we had the help of our intern justin and kat's husband adam this time around (usually it's just us three girls, or just two of us):



we put up all of our cards and made sure they were positioned perfectly:



in the end our booth turned out great!



after the show we wandered around times square...



...and met up with a great pair of letterpress people from australia that we met at the show earlier.



their company, chapel press, puts out some really beautiful letterpress work. it was so cool to share funny stories about our company with them and vice versa. all the little quirks and things about the letterpress business can be really fun to discuss when the other person actually understands what you're talking about!

all in all it was a fabulous show. we had a blast running into our regular buyers while also making some great new contacts. we're looking forward to next year!

gilah press on roadside scholar

this morning we were mentioned on the wonderful roadside scholar blog run by gigi leonard. she did a great interview with kat and showed off a lot of our favorite pieces. thanks so much, gigi. now go check out the write-up!

updated website / open studio

i can't believe i didn't mention this sooner! our website recently underwent a somewhat major overhaul/update. we've put up all new letterpress and design work, new locations where you can find our work, and--my favorite part--personal biographies! go check it out.

due to our success at the pcb paper show on march 27th, we decided to hold another open studio last wednesday night for all the new people we met. we had a great time getting to know all-new potential clients and students alike and had a grand ol' time eating, drinking and speaking with everyone. unfortunately i've got no pictures of the event since my batteries died, but here's a video of whitney giving a demo on our smaller chandler and price press at an open house that took place a few months ago.

packaging party / open studio

gilah press has a new rule: we must package our cards before they go into inventory and down into the basement. to help us catch up and speed things along, lots of gilah press friends came to the studio last wednesday to help us with the dirty work.





it was a great night with new and old friends alike, good wine, pizza, beer, and lots of laughter.

gilah press is having an open studio on wednesday, april 9. it will start a little after 6 pm. you should come! check out our website for the address and additional contact details.

hope everyone had a great easter!

happy st. pattie's day

we're a couple days late, but happy st. patrick's day! though st. pattie's day was technically on saturday, kat decided we needed to celebrate with a couple of black and tans anyway. here's to our very minimal irish heritages!

from left to right: tammy (friend of ours), whitney (right behind her), the mustache ride, kat, and justin (our monday intern).