Please Do Not Eat the Zines
As I mentioned in my last message, Leland and I are heading to the Seattle Art Bookfair, and I made a batch of promos for our zine library to bring along. They were deeply inspired by a story Maurice Sendak once shared on Fresh Air—one that’s stuck with me for years and continues to shape how I think about love, creativity, and making things for others.
Ever since hearing this story, I’ve believed the highest compliment you can give something is to want to eat it. That said, please don’t eat our zines—even if you love them so much you want them to live inside you. And while we’re at it, please don’t eat the riso ink either. Yes, it’s candy-colored and has the texture of cake frosting, but it’s decidedly not edible.
So! We’re headed to Seattle, and I’ll be away for two nights and three days. I already feel that familiar tug of guilt about being away from Hank for so long. But this current weekend is just for us: no meetings, no workshops—just a full-on mom-and-kid adventure. We’ve got plans to eat orange chicken at Phat Cart, hit the farmer’s market, do some grocery shopping, pick out treasures at the fossil shop, visit a thrift store or two, maybe a playdate, and work in the garden while he runs wild with the neighbor kids. Basically, our version of partying hard.
The last few weeks involved an 8th Birthday Party for Outlet and a 16th Annual PSUGD Be Honest Student Showcase. The Outlet party was sweet and small, and Be Honest was huge and hectic, and fun was had at both.
For Outlet’s 8th birthday, I went deep into the archives and pulled every Daily Purchase Drawing that referenced Outlet in some way. From there, I curated a selection of favorites and turned them into a one-color commemorative print to celebrate eight years of the creative chaos of running a small business. The drawings above represent about a third of what I unearthed. While combing through nearly eight years of files, I was once again reminded that my current “system” (a folder for each year, filled with months, and then the monthly folders filled with drawings named only by date) is... not ideal. I DREAM of a searchable archive—keyword-tagged, organized, and actually useful. You know, for the future me.
Friday night’s Outlet Birthday party was a sweet mix of old friends, new faces, risograph mischief, a plateful of old Peeps, and a deep, familiar love for this space that’s held so many memories over the years. Happy Birthday, Outlet. Let’s keep this going, okay?
The next day, over 100 PSUGD students took over the sixth floor of Wieden+Kennedy, transforming the space into a buzzing, floor-to-ceiling showcase of nerves and creativity. We welcomed hundreds of friends, family, designers, and design-lovers who came out to celebrate and explore the incredible work on display.
Be Honest is always a massive lift—months of planning, prepping, and pulling it all together. But it’s also one of the most rewarding parts of the year. There’s nothing like watching the students ride the emotional rollercoaster—from nerves and last-minute tweaks to the pure pride and joy that comes with sharing their work with folks they know and folks they don’t know. Let’s do it again next year, okay?
The last two weeks of Daily Purchase Drawings have been a grab bag of party prep and school chaos: tiny Miller High Lifes, clearance Peeps, 60 clown noses, 400 root beer barrels (which, sadly, didn’t go over nearly as well as the hot dog gummies), and 500 water cups. The undisputed MVP? A glorious 5-foot pink stretching bar that now lives in my bedroom and has become part of my daily ritual to uncrunch my spine. And the week’s absolute dud? The SAVAGE Supreme trimmer line that broke every 30 seconds while I wrestled with weeds in the backyard. Savage, indeed.
In my last message, I mentioned I hadn’t had time to make any new zines for the upcoming Seattle Art Book Fair. Well, status update: I’m in the process of updating and reprinting two older titles that have been out of circulation for a while. One of them is Other People’s Mugs, based on a project where I—quite literally—drew other people’s mugs.
The second zine I’m bringing back is And You Can’t Only Eat Cheese—a collection packed with cheese drawings from over the years. And yes, assembling it once again made me long for a proper, searchable filing system. While it’s not the shiny new zine I had hoped to debut, it is a step forward—and that counts for something. We leave for Seattle a week from today. Will I have these updated in time? Will they be printed and ready to go? What a suspenseful note to end on, I know. DRAMATIC CLIFF HANGER! Stay tuned—and thanks, as always, for being part of the ride.
🧀 KBB 💛
Delightful read, thanks Kate. May Seattle treat you well…🙌
Rip marge, 🫡