Immanuel (`immānū'el)

       (n.) God with us.          

I conclude it from your Word,

from your gestures of the past,

when you, hands cupped, limits set, gave rise

to all that is and was, so warm and wise.

You said "living" loud and "dying" low

and ever repeated: "Be."

But there came murder before the first death

And a sharp rip went through your circles so ripe

and a loud scream ran through

and tore the voices away

which had just assembled to speak

and talk about you and carry you high,

as bridge over any abyss.

And what they have been stammering since then

are but pieces

of your former name.

-Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours

"'The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel' --which means, 'God with us.'" -Matthew 1:23

This week didn't turn out exactly as planned. My goal was to have my Christmas cards printed, packaged and ready for orders to start coming in. Turns out when mistakes in printing are made, it alters your whole plan... But the good news is, hopefully not by much! And sometimes the imperfect can be beautiful, too (just look at the latest Kinfolk issue!). 

Therefore, I have added some cards to the shop. These are the slightly imperfect, not up to my standards yet, but still cute, cards. I'm selling them as samples for a discounted price. But I'm also perfecting the design and putting in an order for the final print soon- I've added a listing for pre-purchase for this final print. By pre-purchasing, you will reserve your order in the limited amount that I am printing before Christmas to make sure it gets to you in a timely fashion so you can do all your mailing early enough. You can order a single card, a pack of 4 or a pack of 8. Every pack contains an even number of each design.

And if you're not even thinking about Christmas yet, well, just keep in mind that it takes forever to mail anything from Canada and perhaps you will start thinking on it :)

You may have seen this little guy poking around instagram in his unfinished state, but I managed to finish this off yesterday morning and snapped a few more shots to show for it. I'm thinking ahead this year. I don't usually do that- generally, I'm a present or past thinker. I like memories and nostalgia so I often dwell on those, but this year I forced myself to think ahead when I was asked if I was going to do Christmas cards again. Upon a very small amount of thinking, I decided I was going to! I may be selling last year's designs, but it's time to expand beyond those, as well. So here it is: the first finished illustration for the Christmas season! All I need now is for a greeting to adorn the front of the card. Any suggestions?