Every once in a while you hear a story that just sticks with you. Jack’s story is one of those. Smock’s Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, recently helped out an event for I Back Jack, an organization dedicated to the relentless pursuit of a cure for neuroblastoma, a high-risk from of cancer that occurs in infants and children. Jack, a good friend of Amy’s son Graham, is an eight year-old 2nd grader living in Hartland, Wisconsin. Jack and his twin sister Annie were happy, healthy children until Jack was diagnosed with Stage IV, high-risk neuroblastoma in September 2005. He successfully battled through treatments that included high-dose chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and immunotherapy, and by the following summer was effectively on the road back to a “normal” life.

Unfortunately, as most high-risk neuroblastoma patients do, Jack relapsed in May 2007. Chemotherapy and radiation once again returned Jack to stable health but despite a variety of treatment protocols aimed at keeping his disease in remission, routine scans confirmed a second relapse in December 2008 forcing Jack to continue his battle. Jack suffered subsequent relapses in October 2009 and January 2010 and remains in treatment today. The relentless pursuit for a cure leads Jack and the I Back Jack Foundation to back research, build hope and beat cancer.

At the latest I Back  Jack event, Amy helped with the handcrafted decor, including cute paper flags and strings of bunting made using our eco gift wrap in our Julep pattern. She also donated a big box of Smock paper goods and we sent along a bunch of our new jotter notebooks, which were used as a fundraiser. To learn more about supporting I Back Jack, visit the I Back Jack website.

Today’s Smock Design Contest honoree is a great custom folded save the date design created for our friends at Byrd & Bleecker in Fort Worth, Texas. We offset printed this design in pewter and papaya inks and used a fun seahorse motif perfect for a wedding in the Bahamas. The envelope is lined in our seneca pattern in papaya and we love the unique look and feel of this custom design. Congratulations to the folks at Byrd & Bleecker for being an honoree in our Smock Design Contest and thank you for sending us this great design!

Brought to us by Perfectly Personal by Jen in Chappaqua, New York our next Smock Design Contest honoree is a fabulous custom letterpress bar mitzvah invitation. Printed on our white bamboo paper, the design is letterpress printed in blind deboss and midnight ink, corner rounded, and features an envelope lined in our sinclair pattern in taupe. A letterpress insert invites Mikey’s friends to celebrate with him at a party later in the evening. We love the look of this set – it’s masculine, youthful and sets the perfect tone for this celebration.

Like so many of you, we were stunned by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf Coast that dominated the news this spring and summer. While the spill has now been contained, the environmental impacts of the spill and the threats associated with offshore drilling persist. Oceana, an inspiring advocacy organization, has taken an active role in the movement against offshore drilling, and we want to help – this Saturday and Sunday (9/18 + 9/19), go to smockpaper.com, purchase any cards, lettersheets, or gift tags from the Isle suite and we’ll donate 100% of the Isle purchase to Oceana. Printed on bamboo paper, our Isle suite is inspired by art nouveau and (an oil free) underwater beauty, and includes our bestselling “thank you very much” whale card.

You can learn more about how to get involved and sign the petition protesting offshore drilling on Oceana’s website. And don’t forget to shop our Isle collection on Saturday and Sunday when we will be donating 100% of sales to help further Oceana’s cause.

Today is Tuesday, which during the summer and early fall months means it’s CSA day at Smock! Smock proudly subsidizes CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) memberships for all employees through a local organic farm, Grindstone Farm. Once a week, a big van full of freshly picked organic veggies shows up at our door and we always love digging through the boxes to see what we have that week. This year we’ve been eating a lot of rainbow chard, kale, bokchoy, a variety of lettuces, onions, garlic, lots of beautiful tomatoes, potatoes, and zucchini galore.

Here is a quick peek at today’s share – parsley, patty pan squash, three varieties of tomatoes, baby carrots, two varieties of radishes, lemon basil, lots of tomatillos and the first of this season’s apples.

With tomatillos greeting us week after week, we’ve all been sharing ideas on how to best use them up. The verdict is that a great roasted tomatillo salsa can’t be beat. We love this recipe from epicurious – it’s simple, quick and tasty. Does it get much better?

Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

1 1/2 pounds fresh tomatillos
5 fresh serrano chiles (or sub the peppers of your choice; remove the seeds for less heat)
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons coarse salt

Preheat broiler or grill.

Remove husks from tomatillos and rinse under warm water to remove stickiness. Broil chiles, garlic, onion and tomatillos on rack of a broiler pan 1 to 2 inches from heat (or on the grill), turning once, until tomatillos are softened and slightly charred, about 7 minutes. Peel garlic and pull off tops of chiles. Purée all ingredients in a blender.

Allow to cool to room temperature and serve with your favorite chips or Mexican fare. Enjoy!

Rounding out all of our exciting new releases, we’re happy to introduce our inspired new letterpress social stationery designs, available now at your local Smock dealer. Perfect for letterpress baby announcements, bar and bat mitzvah invitations and save the dates, our latest designs showcase fabulous colors, bold patterns, our exclusive calligraphy fonts, and can even be designed to fit a wallet size photo. Looking for truly inspired letterpress baby announcements, invitations, moving announcements, or calling cards? We’ve got you covered.

For those of you in warmer climates, it may still feel like summer in your neck of the woods, but here in Upstate NY fall has arrived and shows no plans of leaving. Which, of course, gets us thinking about falling leaves, fresh apple cider and all of the pretty custom letterpress holiday cards we will soon be printing. Believe it or not, it’s never too early to start planning for your holiday cards, which is why we’ve sent all of our Smock dealers a ton of fresh inspiration for beautiful custom letterpress holiday cards sure to wow your friends and family.

Our new calligraphy fonts and ink colors are perfect for the holidays! Mix and match them with your favorite embellishments (patterned backing, envelope liners, edge painting, calligraphy accents, monograms, corner rounding + more) for a truly custom and unique look.

We love the combination of letterpress and a great family photo! These letterpress holiday cards hold a wallet sized photo that your family and friends are sure to treasure.

We also love holiday cards in our new square shape! This size is perfect for the holidays, cute save the dates, baby announcements and so much more.

With tons of embellishment, ink color, font and motif choices from our Social Occasions album, the possibilities are endless! For all of the latest holiday inspiration from Smock, visit your local Smock dealer and check out more great custom letterpress holiday cards previously featured on our blog.

We’re excited today to introduce you to the latest letterpress wedding invitation inspiration from Smock! Now available at a Smock dealer near you, we’re happy to unveil our latest design – Piedmont. A sophisticated and fun new take on modern wedding invitations, the Piedmont suite features a whimsical graphic pattern printed in blind deboss letterpress and boasts Smock’s exclusive (and new!) Bescal calligraphy font, a vibrant hot pink patterned backing and a striped envelope liner in our sherbrooke pattern. Piedmont also introduces our new square invitation shape, also available as inserts and reply cards.

On trend with the latest styles for upcoming 2010 and 2011 weddings, we’re also thrilled to introduce six gorgeous new ink colors; violet, peach, hot pink, aquamarine, pumpkin and royale. These colors are bright, vibrant and perfect for celebrations of all shapes and sizes.

We’ve already hinted about our two new exclusive calligraphy fonts, Harrison and Bescal, created by world-renowned type designer Richard Kegler featuring the hand lettering of calligraphers Patricia Mumau and Kelle McCarter. (Read more about the calligraphers here and here.) They join our existing calligraphy fonts by calligrapher Debi Zeinert, Spencerian and Clermont, as part of our exclusive font collection available only through Smock.

For all of the latest inspiration from Smock, visit your local Smock dealer!

Today we’re extending an overdue shot out to two of our favorite shelter magazines for featuring Smock! First up, Smock’s Creative Director, Amy Graham Stigler, was featured in an incredible interview and fashion spread in Better Homes and Gardens. She was whisked off to New York City where she was a model for a day, sharing her love for vintage accessories and her inspiration for all things Smock. You can read more about her Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot on our blog.

That same month, our Bourbon letterpress thank you card was featured in a great round up of thank you cards in House Beautiful.

Thanks so much to two of our favorite magazines for including Smock in such fabulous issues!

These letterpress save the dates are printed in classic black ink on ivory paper in our Sabion design, featuring a pretty dotted border. The envelope is lined in our Seneca pattern in black for a timeless, elegant look. A big thank you to Salutations in Charlotte for sending us this beautiful customization!