The Settling Dust

Ah, it's been a crazy ride these last few weeks. As we mentioned- the pace was intense as we were moving invitation jobs through production and out the door before we left for the East Coast (sounds so glamorous, doesn't it?).

Finally, we arrived at The National Stationery Show in New York City!
The show was good- smaller, as expected (I'm shaking my fist at the economy right now...). We were actually very pleased to see the snarky meter was amped up a touch. Blame it on the economy, maybe, but it opens the door for us to return to the show next year and not scare all the little sweet store owners away with our biting sarcastic cards. Here were our favorites: Old Tom Foolery, Nuk-u-lur, and Mean Cards (it's good karma to give shout outs to the worthy competition).

And it was very exciting of course to see our invitation displayed at the show as a LOUIE finalist.

So back we went to the hotel to get cleaned up for the LOUIE awards dinner. It is fun to dress up every once in a while! When we got to Capitale (an old Bank building, with it's coffered ceiling lovliness- turned swanky party venue), we made a bee line to see our invitation displayed again... no, first we got drinks, THEN we went and took cheesy pictures next to our invitation again- and of the building, like the architect dorks that we are.

(see how pale we are from working so hard and never seeing daylight?!)

So after grazing on the fancy appetizers ("Top Chef" quality, as I described it) and earning back our ticket price in drinks, it was time to begin. The presenters read the teleprompter in expected awkwardness (I was imagining someone sitting at their cubicle writing the "witty banter" thinking, Oh yeah, this will get laughs baby...). And they zipped through the awards with the fantastic phrase, "...and the LOUIE goes to..." clapping, gasping, a bright spot light shined on a table, a humble designer stands up and squints into the light.... it was all very magical.
ESPECIALLY when the time came for our category, and after that famous phrase, they actually said, SPILLED INK PRESS! Wow. We stood, we squinted, and they clapped. It was a blur (it might have been the dirty martini's, granted). It was fairly early in the presentation that we were announced, so the relaxation set in early and we were able to enjoy the night comfortably. It was exciting when the big award at the end of the presentations was announced, "Card of the Year" and it went to our fellow table mates with Compendium, Inc. Apparently table 15 was the place to be.

After the award ceremony, we had our picture taken for... gosh, I'm not sure what. I was on the phone with my parents in Ohio screaming that we won (to my Mother's praise, "Oh my lands!"... that's Sue-speak for "awesome"). And then we hit the dance floor. No, we didn't. We hit the tables next to the dance floor and ate the equally as fancy desserts and watched the rest dance. This is us having our cake, and eating it too.
It turned into a regular wedding celebration at that point- which seemed oddly appropriate. There was a few guys dancing that shouldn't have been, a few that knew what they were doing, a cheesy DJ, the usual.
It was anything but usual that night, and let me tell you, it was amazing.