We Shall Shortly, if we had our own coffee shop and the treats we’d serve up. Made with 100% reclaimed scrap paper.

Hello all! We’re still working away busily in the studio, but we’ve been (and will probably continue to be) pretty quiet about blogging ~ we’re cutting down as much as possible on the time we spend on the computer. 

In the meantime, we’re continuing to churn out orders over at our store, and the upcoming summer collection is taking shape. We’ll have more news about that soon! 

If you’d like to stay updated with the happenings over here at Five and a Half, sign up for our newsletter (scroll to the bottom) and we’ll let you know what we’re up to. Thanks!

I was fiddling around with some photoshop stuff (well, actually learning how to use it) and couldn’t resist matching the words (okay who doesn’t already own at least one version of this poster? We have a hand-drawn repro by Maira Kalman in the living room that I stare at every day) with these roosters we saw just hanging out on a lazy sunny afternoon (p.s. not in Brooklyn). 

I’ve had this glass jar sitting on my shelf since December. I set it up for the DWR Modernmart event back then and had it on my table for passerbys. What’s inside? Little paper fortunes, pieces of wisdom, well wishes. Whoever stuck their hand in the jar pulled out a nice saying, and a few lucky people ended up with a gift bag filled with Five and a Half goodies to take home.

I’d like to reenact the jar of wishes online, for all you who couldn’t be there to draw from the real jar of wisdom.  Only this time, it requires a bit of participation on your end. And yes, there are gift bags involved!

Interested? Here’s what to do:

Write in the comments section of this post your own original well-wish or piece of wisdom. (Include your name, e-mail and website.)

From the submissions we get, we’ll choose our favorite 3,  who will each receive a Five and a Half journal. Also, Shawn will hand-letter those 3 sayings into notecards (with each credited to its author of course) which will be printed and mailed to all of you who participate (we’ll ask for all your mailing addresses when the cards are ready, don’t put your mailing addy in the comments section for the world to see!).

To get you started, here are a few of the pieces of wisdom and well wishes that we had in the jar of wisdom (I was in such a hurry I didn’t think of any of my own):

“Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.” ~Mark Twain

“If life seems to have more questions than answers, try to be the one who asks the questions.” ~Lucy as Madame Fullcharge, Peanuts

“Do, or do not. There is no ‘try’.” ~Yoda, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Remember, these examples are by other people. We’d like to hear your own original sayings, created by you.

Okay, now it’s your turn!

{Update, April 22nd, 2008: Thanks for writing in with your quotes! We’ve picked our favorite three and are making them into notecards to send to the first 22 of you who wrote in with your original sayings. We’ll post pics of the notecards online soon!}

We’ve sent so many of our journals westward, you’d think we’d get them into some stores there a bit faster. We’ve been working on it and now, finally, we are thrilled to say, they are making their official California debut as part of the spring stationery collection in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Museum Store. Yay!

And in case you’re wondering why we’ve been so quiet over here, we’ve been working hard on some new stuff and we hope to be sharing the results with you really soon.

Traffic along the BQE, on the way to a meeting with Rachel and Tessa of the Brooklyn Collective. Afterwards, we picked up a few delicious Aussie DUB pies that I’m eating for lunch this week.

So I was going through the huge pile of mail that had collected while we were away, and I was really excited to find this newsprint mailing from Jack Spade. Illustrated in the style of those annoyingly colorful coupons and ads that are always falling out of the newspaper, the folks who work at Jack Spade are clearly not afraid to have some fun. Makes me think we here at Five and a Half should put together a little newsletter to send out to whoever might be interested!

Another beautiful winter morning. We’re smiling at our new sculptures by Chris Rom and Geoff Buddie that we brought home last weekend when we went to Greenjeans to pick up our plants that Amy took care of for us when we were away.

So I thought I was halfway through a big project I’ve been working on, until I did a bit of surfing online near the end of last week to find (to my dismay) that the dimensions I’d been working with are far too small! Suffice to say that I stomped around, fretted for a while, and finally accepted that I have to redo everything from scratch. Note to self, and to all who make things: make sure you do your research before you start, and get your measurements right. And if you’re like me and aren’t as good with numbers, then write them down in case you forget!

Above: a portion of the clutter on my table as I start over on some new pieces of work while listening to NPR and sipping a cup of peppermint tea.

Another place on my wishlist of countries to visit, and of course the journals get there before we do. We’re thrilled to announce that Five and a Half journals are now carried in Hello Beluga, a design store in Luxembourg. Here are a few pictures of the store, thanks to the shopowner Nirina. So, if you live in Luxembourg or happen to be passing through, remember to stop by for a spin: Hello Beluga, at 5 Côte d’Eich, L-1450 Luxembourg, Tel. 0035226201426. Wish we could be there too!