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THE GOOD. Oh February, why don't you have more days? Though this month has been a blur (and a bit stressful as a result) I have mostly good things to report. To start, we got to celebrate Valentine's Day! We decided to spread the love by surprising some of our favorite Boston-based customers with hand-delivered brownies and cookies. We’re fortunate to work with fantastic stores and people and Valentine’s Day was a perfect day to show our appreciation. 

The holidays may be a faraway memory for most but here at Smudge we're already gearing up for the 2017 holiday season. In fact, we’re printing new holiday designs to ship out to our sales reps in a couple weeks. I've said it before and I'll say it again: seeing new cards come off the press for the first time is ridiculously exciting because after months of hard work we finally have a finished product.

This month we also donated supplies to Solidarity Sundays to help out with their writing campaigns. We had a bunch of paper and envelopes leftover from a few years’ worth of custom projects (shown above). When we saw Design*Sponge’s callout looking for donations, we were thrilled to be able to put all the materials towards such a worthy cause!

THE BAD. Like I alluded to earlier, there was a lot to do this month and not much time. Our next release is pretty huge and staying on top of schedule has been daunting. On top of that, we rearranged the office this month. Ultimately this is a good thing but the process wasn't pleasant. It took a whole weekend to move the desks and rewire all electronics. There was some cursing involved and SO MUCH. DUST. But now that we're on the other side of all that work it feels pretty cozy in here!

THE UGLY. Who knew the Oscars debacle could be a good lesson on the power of typography? 

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THE GOOD. Business-wise, it's been a good month. Customers have been ordering from our new catalog, and we have two new fulfillment assistants filling those orders. Welcome, Haley and Allie! At the same time, we are excited to announce Erin's promotion to Shop Manager as well as Sarah's new role as Sales Manager. We couldn't ask for a better team!

I especially love this time of year when we're shipping lots of Valentines out to stores. I'm absolutely smitten with these cards, and I get such a thrill when my favorites are packed up in an order. I never knew what my spirit animal was until I saw this beaver.

Last but not least, our print room is getting a makeover! George is reorganizing everything, and it's pretty cool to watch the transformation. There's something about moving furniture around and cleaning out every nook and cranny that adds new energy. Good feng shui, perhaps?  

THE BAD. For the most part, things in the office have been pretty great this month. It's the outside world that's been a real challenge for so many of us. We're sad and angry but it has been encouraging to participate in the Women's March, letter writing and phone calling campaigns, and protests. As a country, we seem to be rediscovering what civic duty means and we're coming together. It's going to take a lot of work. 

THE (NOT SO) UGLY. Check out this feed for a dose of pure joy.  

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Like so many people, I use the beginning of the year as a time to plan for the next 12 months. It's exciting to put goals down on paper and to review what worked and what didn't work last year. So, with no further ado, some plan and goals for Smudge Ink in 2017:

CONTINUE STAFF LUNCHES! We started this in the second half of 2016, and it was a lot of fun and a great bonding experience for the whole team.

LOOK FOR MORE WAYS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY. This includes finding alternate or additional way to store inventory and packaging supplies.

MORE PLANNING. In 2016 we started planning our Instagram posts a few weeks out and doing batch days to take lots of photos at once. It's been great! I'd like to 1) continue doing that for IG, but also apply the same idea to some other aspects of the business (planning ahead plus batch days to get it done).

OPTIMIZE OUR WORK SPACE. 2016 was a year of transition for the company and for the staff. We've done a lot of reorganization in the main office and fulfillment area, and this year we're going to tackle the print room. We're going to move a few things around, bring in some new equipment, and embrace change where it's needed.

DEVELOP A STANDARDS MANUAL. We're always in design meetings working on new card ideas and thinking about potential new products. It's a lot of fun, but it can be challenging to stay focused on our design goals and aesthetic with so many creative minds in a small space. This year we'll be putting together a standards manual to help us stay true to our design goals and to our mission as a company. I'm excited about that (even though a manual sounds a little boring)!

That's a little of what we'll be working on this year!

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THE GOOD. December sure went by quickly! We celebrated the holidays (not to mention the many orders we packed and got out of the door) with a Monday night office party! It was great to unwind over fish and chips, meet everyone’s significant others, and just say thanks to the team. Every single day I feel lucky to work with these great people. :)

We also put our wrapping skills to the test this month. We set up a gift wrapping station over at The Paper Mouse one Saturday afternoon. Our friends at Felix Doolittle run the shop, and it’s full of charm and wonderful stationery and gift items. Sabrina and I enjoyed our time there talking to the many customers and squeezing in a little holiday shopping ourselves. The following weekend, four of us headed over to The Boston General Store’s pop-up location at the Legacy Place shopping complex. Talk about another gorgeous store! Despite the morning snow, more and more shoppers showed up and we wrapped many, many cylindrical things.

I'm happy to say that our final product release of the year was completed right on schedule! Thanks to George all of the new cards were done in time for us to fold, package and send out to our sales reps all over the country. Now we're busy photographing all of the new products so we can get them onto the website and have them available early in the new year. I think you'll really like what's coming!

THE BAD. Sad face. This month we said good-bye to Deb who along with Kate started the company 14 years ago. Even though I took over early this year, Deb stuck around to help out with the transition. I really enjoyed working with her and was thrilled she would still be a part of the team. Now that the year's over, Deb's ready to move on. It'll be a little (okay, a lot) weird without her here. And the treats probably won't be quite as beautiful. I think we're all pretty sad, but we'll adjust. Besides, we're really excited to see what's next for her. Good luck, Deb!

THE UGLY. Only 115 days to go until the perfect date, guys!

via GIPHY

P.S. From all of us at Smudge: HAPPY HOLIDAYS! We hope your days have been filled with the people (and the food) that you love most.

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THE GOOD. We started the month with a visit from fellow stationery addict, Kristina Burkey! Kristina is the sassy and sweet girlboss and snail mail Instagrammer extraordinaire behind Calliope Paperie. She and her husband, Rob, stopped by the studio (with a box of Union Square donuts in tow!) to get their hands dirty and learn some of the basics of letterpress printing. The best way to learn is to jump in so Deb walked them through how to operate Cookie (our Vandercook) and then Kristina took over and printed an entire envelope job like a pro. Check out her blog post about the visit!

The following week, Clayton and I headed over to Waltham for a photo shoot with the talented Lara Woolfson of Studio Nouveau. We sought Lara out after seeing her incredible work with other brands and companies. We’ve been working hard to put together our 2017 wholesale catalog, and we really want to step it up by including some top notch imagery. Luckily Lara was game to collaborate with us and help us think through our ideas for how we wanted to style and photograph our products. The shoot itself went really smoothly, and we had a lot of fun (and made a big confetti mess)! We can’t wait to show off the photos once the catalog is final! Outtake shown above.

Last but not least, it was just Thanksgiving! Everybody here spent quality time with their families and ate lots of good food. We also spent some time thinking about how lucky we are to do what we love—we couldn't do it without you, so thank you so much for following along and supporting small businesses. You totally rock!

THE BAD. I think we can all agree about what was bad this month. I'll leave it at that.

THE NOT-SO-UGLY. Gilmore Girls is back! Have you finished it yet?! (No spoilers—some of us are still in the middle!)

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