Amy Nieto Photography + Design

Need to finish packing, so excited!

I hope y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

I am 23 years old and I'm living the life many can only dream of. I sure dreamt it countless of times, but I also worked for it. I wasn't just content with the bittersweet aftertaste of the dream, staring at the ceiling and dreading to step off that bed. Despite the comfort of the cold sheets, I got my feet out and walked, nay, ran towards that dream. Everything I encountered was so confusing but exhillirating as well. Then found out runnin' makes you really tired, so I turned my heels back to that comfy, appealing bed. Only to realize it was gone and so was the comfort.

So I needed to move on again. Just keep on runnin'. Stop every now and then to smell (or rather, photograph) the pink Magnolias, to say How y'all doin', to organize a craft fair, to inspire others with it, to laugh, to eat, to call back home, to write letters, to use and abuse the Vandercook press, to admire how with every turn of my bike's wheels the puzzles of my future fall into place, providing a steady ground for me to keep on movin', to keep on dreamin'.

And I don't ever want to stop.

I'm doing this all for Mami. Unfortunately, her generation never had the support that we lavish in. Times were just too rough back then. So we are her escape, the host for her to live vicariously through. I can only hope me and my brother continue to make her proud forever and ever.

Thank you everybody who has somehow bothered to read my little blog of love. I have thoroughly enjoyed your kind comments, especially those times when I was not quite feeling myself. Y'all are also a daily healthy dose of creativity, laughter and insight, and I appreciate it lots. Thanks to my Lolita who checks my blog every day and has never doubted my talent (even though I do most of the time). Thanks to my Puchungoto who's just simply adorable and that's all he needs to be. Thanks to Arnaldo who refuses to comment directly through the blog, but always cyber-high-fives me thru MSN. And neverending thanks to Him, because without Him I wouldn't have the strength to keep on runnin'.

Nonetheless, as I was trimming the cute letterpressed labels for my stationeries (on the far left), the scrap pieces sorta inspired me to do this neat little sewn designs with vellum and a very cool shiny textured paper.

I believe I haven't introduced y'all to Jellybrella. Jellybrella is a jellyfish who for some reason unbeknownst to us (but beknownst to her) carries an umbrella wherever she goes. Possible story to come soon. I was dumb enough to leave those cards at Alexander over the weekend, so I couldn't sell them at the fair. But all is cool.

Dear God in Heaven I'm obsessed with letterpress printing! ARGHHH!

Meet Owlie*. Owlie is pink and fluffy. Amy has to constantly resist the urge to eat Owlie, because unfortunately Owlie is not edible.

For more yummylicious felted animals visit Meghan's (my Mutation partner in crime) shop! You won't believe your eyes (or stomach)!

To have my humble notecards and stationery displayed among inspirational and uber cute letterpress companies, such as Chicago's Snow & Graham and Hello Lucky!

Currently packing. I hate it so much.

BTW, Mutation was fantastic! Thanks to everybody who stopped by and to all of you lovely vendors!

A major advancement in the Star Magnolia camp occurred today. My stationery will now be sold at the uber-adorable gift and home decor shop, @home here in Downtown Savannah, Georgia! How freakin' awesome is that! Along with the thoughtful email received this morning, this has turned out to be a rather eventful day!

There are some more detailed shots of the stationeries but I don't have my memory card with me, so here's quickie:

Hi Megan (and Amy)
I just thought you might like to know that you and mutation craft fair
have inspired me to start up my own market... all the way over here in
New Zealand.
We held the first one last week and it went amazingly well. Now were
planning on doing it bi-monthly after our christmas event.
There are alot of people here in Wellington, NZ that owe you gals some
thanks, because if it wasn't for you Bitchcraft would have just remained
one of those things I would hope someone else would do.

-Heather
www.bitchcraft.rottonpear.geek.nz

How bloody sweet is that. Totally made my day.

Plus I have to ride over there with all my belongings.

It's bloody 40 degrees outside. I really don't like this weather. :'(

Jellybrella!

Just a silly drawing I made yesterday morning while waiting for the bus. These will be a horizontal type stationery. Cute stuff. Can you believe I letterpressed 127 notecards plus about 150 stationery sheets?? Big stuff. All I have to do is score them and put them in their little bags. HOPEFULLY, the envelopes will come tomorrow in the mail. PLEASE. PLEASE. Or I'll be sorely screwed.

UPDATE:
Nov 17, 2005
9:42 P.M.

JACKSONVILLE, FL, US

A LATE TRAIN CAUSED THIS DELAY

Take a look for yourself:

Then there's Bob. Bob must always be peeking around somewhere in my art. BUT...I'm not quite so sure about these cards. I figured I would at least have one X-mas themed design. It would be great if his body and hat were different colors, but come on, who has time to carve another block solely for the hat and then fight with registration issues? I don't. So here it is:

I might carve two more blocks tonight, and that's it! No more! Still I'm afraid he's going to slander my project at critique. My classmates are doing some really ellaborate images and all I'm coming up with are silhouette sewing machines and silly flowers. Though I am printing about 20+ of each (the sewing machine stationeries are a 100) and he does know how obsessed and enthusiastic I am about this project and letterpress in general. So maybe that will help me. I hope.

By the way, my college has finally opened the online store for their student, alumni and staff boutique, ShopSCAD! You can check out my Mutation partner in crime's, Meghan, work here. Check it out!

HOW AM I GOING TO MAKE IT THRU FINALS WITHOUT IT!!! ARGHHHHH

Somebody Fed-Ex me one, nay, THREE, jars RIGHT NOW!

RIGHT NOW!!

*sigh* Somebody shoot me.

Last night I vividly dreamt my Mom had given me a colorful Polaroid camera complete with film and all. I've sorta been wanting one for a while now. Would like to shoot random NY street scenes with it next week, fancy 35mm film doesn't quite add the right attitude. Unless I use expired film, that might give it a kick. But right now I ain't got money to waste.

My math teacher made a valid point today about ADD. Basically, if you were a pirate in a ship and somebody diagnosed you with ADD, you'd go ARRR and then throw him off the plank because YOU'RE A PIRATE AND THATS HOW PIRATES DEAL WITH THEIR DENIAL.

No joke. No bloody joke.

That was the absolute highlight of my day. It's all downhill from here on.

Needless to say, this letterpress project is not turning out so hot and I'm runnin' out of time. I only have two cards done. Very frustrating. Anyways, today I decided to do a bunch (about a 100) of stationery sheets with the sewing machine image (which I adore).

I finally managed to get these ones right:

Oooooh, lots!

So here's to a bloody fantastic final week! I should get addicted to coffee. Instead, I'm addicted to letterpress! That will be my downfall!

Hopefully, my Super Ultra Awesome Stationery and Notecard Extravaganza Collection will be ready by then. Today I finally started printing them in the letterpress. Let me tell y'all something. You ain't complete till you've used one of these babies. It was a very exciting experience to print the little sewing machines on that lovely paper! h00t h00t!

And this is me crankin' that motha up. Ha, I match my prints!

Also today, Mr. Travis gave us the demo to properly use the new Hasselblad 22 megapixel camera back. It's a sweet little thing, I must confess. But 22 bloody megapixels!?!? Come ON! Raw files are roughly 40-60 megabytes each. My computer can't even handle a 4mega file, let alone 60!!! This technology is going crazy. Still, can't wait to try it out!

Oh, by the way, did I mention it costs a mere $22,000?!?!?

Yeah, I thought so.

Holy crap! The old people are burning American flags...with little kids by their side! BLOODY AWESOME! I grab my camera and snap pictures of these guys doing a protest act, which I was pretty sure at the moment was somewhat illegal, right?

In all actuallity, no. Days later I find out this was not, in fact, an act of violece or protest, but rather it is a standard completely legal procedure carried through to "retire" old ragged American flags, to give them a new life, to take them out of their misery.

I was sorely disappointed. Very. But at least nobody got arrested or feelings got hurt.