I finally get it.....

Well.  Its been over a year since I have posted.  I actually did things this year, and even sometimes took pictures, but I wasn't inspired to write, or I was busy, or tired....or not sure that I had much to say.  I never really got the point.  It may be that no one but my parents and aunties are reading this but that doesn't really matter.

So, I got an email from the National Stationery Show on Tuesday asking me to consider exhibiting.

Um, maybe they had empty booth space they needed to fill, but whatever.  Getting that email felt like a really big deal.

Photo: Southern Weddings

This will be a really huge leap for Lettuce Press.  I have kept the business small, afraid to take on too much.  I have a day job that takes up a lot of my brain cells, and I need the health insurance it provides.  I have MS and while I am well and feel healthy and happy, it is with me everyday in its ways.

A few years back, 4 or 5, as I was getting started, I was glued to the blogs of "real" printers and designers, in awe of their displays at the national stationery show, and loving to get a peak at the "grown up table."

The national stationery show.  THE show, as far as cards go, right?

The creatives: elum, may day studio, albertine press, ink & wit, sycamore street press, design sponge and so many others showed me what it means to go big if you really love paper, and I do.

Photo: Southern Weddings

So, can I really do this?  Am I ready?  What if I can't get inspired and its a bust?  What happens if I succeed and pull it off and have to start printing by the thousand instead of the hundred?  What are my booth walls going to be made of?  Lighting?  Giveaways?  Quantities?

This list of questions runs on repeat, like a news ticker, all night.

I play words with friends in an attempt to think of something else so hard it makes me tired.  3:00 am.  comforter tent.  iPhone brightness turned all the way down. #Alec Baldwin, I'm on your side.

I was reminded that there always has to be a first step, an imperfect first try and mistakes made to be learned from.

So this is my leap and I'm nervous.  It is all I can think about.  I realize I need to get it out.  This is why I get it.  Let us blog.