Once upon a time in Europe, I met Jessica {of Greenleaf & Blueberry}. As roommates on our study abroad program, we immediately hit it off, successfully bringing out strange quirks in each other that rendered our fellow study abroad participants squeamish and confused. Jess’s affectionate nickname for me was “Pooky Bella” — “Pooky” because it’s the sort of name you just don’t call me due to my type-A, serious personality; and “Bella” because we heard it all over the streets of Italy from amorous Italian stallions. Once, we tried to survive on just leek broth for an entire day, that should have been three days, that actually only ended up being a morning. For several wonderful weeks, we shared custody of a small, plastic-bodied cereal box toy that must people would recognize as “The Joker” from Batman, but we christened him Edgar and hauled him around Europe, taking ample photos of him. {Edgar has now passed, but his memory lives on.}
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It sounds cheesy, but one of the best aspects of blogging is getting to connect with incredibly talented and inspirational people. Martine of iMake is one of those such people. I am insanely jealous of her knitting skills, culinary know-how, and {let’s be honest here:} British accent. Enjoy Martine’s tips on documenting life in a beautiful fashion using only your mobile phone; and her knowledge on photography apps, phoneography websites to visit, and photo sharing websites! Without prattling on further, I will hand you over to Martine:

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I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but if you’re in the northern hemisphere, it’s summer — and wedding and events season! With party season comes invitations, and with invitations comes invitation calligraphy.

It’s always been my philosophy that the envelope builds up anticipation for whatever is inside of the envelope. If the envelope is super-cool, just imagine what’s inside! Before I started selling calligraphy, I would look on Etsy and salivate at the amazing wedding calligraphy on the site. For months, I wondered, “HOW do they do that??” {as I used my cheating calligraphy method in the meantime}.
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Yes, I’ve been MIA for the past couple of weeks {I’m sorry!}, but I promise I have a good reason — these envelopes:

I created these gorgeous envelopes for a woman planning a baby shower for her sister. The orange of the envelopes matches the orange of the sumptuous letterpress invitations.

When she asked me to create them with white ink, I cringed a little bit. I knew it could be done — but how? The answer to my “how” came in a trip to Michael’s, where I bought Sakura white gel pens on a leap of faith. {Alas, the white dip ink at Michael’s is not opaque.} They worked beautifully! Gone are the days that I work exclusively on light-colored envelopes … bring on the black {or kraft, or purple, the possibilities are endless}!
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A couple of weeks ago, I was told about Ezebee.com. I decided to check out the site, and what I found was what Hernán termed “an international craigslist on steroids”. Think of Ezebee as a virtual {and highly international} farmers market for any small vendor. Basically, Ezebee gives you publicity and allows you to list your item {or service}, but you handle the sale. While upon first glance, Ezebee looks like a replacement for Etsy, many sellers use it as a means by which to get customers to their Etsy store {or their eCommerce website}.

I was curious about Ezebee, so I asked Christina of Ezebee for an interview. I hope that you can benefit from what I learned and add Ezebee to your mental rolodex of places to check out when you’re on the lookout for a special something. Without further ado, I would like to warmly welcome Christina to TPK!
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