Cards get the message across for invitationally-challenged
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Staff Writer
"Shall We Prey?"
"I'm tired of sitting home waiting for the phone to ring. I know! Let's put on some tight clothes and go pick up men! I have a skirt in my closet that's about as big as a strip of bacon. You know that lipstick you have that makes your lips look like refried beans? Can I wear that?"
Get your date up and going with this invitation card by Studio Z Mendocino.
That's the message on a card for "the invitationally challenged." The clever missives come from Studio Z Mendocino, a family-run business based in Mendocino, California. This company of 11 employees devotes itself to creating and printing cards, one at a time, on an old-fashioned press.
Each is printed on high-quality card stock with a charming vintage image embossed or foil stamped in black or gold.
There are invitations for celebrations from the sublime to the ridiculous, from "Shall we shop?" to "Let's do lunch" to "Dress up, baby, I'm taking you out on the town (wear something dangerous)." The language is cute yet sophisticated.
"If nobody falls in love with us, we can drink Margaritas and dance with each other! (Girlfriends never lie.)"
There's a romantic invitation to "let's stay home" for the couple too busy to spend time together without an appointment. Also a request for a "girl's night out. We simply must get together while our guys do whatever it is they do on boy's night. Activities will include carousing and flirting ... " There's a gentle apology: "I don't want to be mad any more. Let's forget about it and be us again."
The spring line, due out any minute, includes creative approaches to apologies (we all need help with those sometimes), birthday and anniversary greetings, thank-yous and cards celebrating a newly adopted pet.
Here's one we all could use:
"Let's do lunch. You know how we're always saying that we should 'do lunch' sometime and then we never do lunch? Please meet me for lunch! This is not a 'special occasion.' It's just a really good way to get you to myself."
Studio Z Mendocino cards are available in Honolulu exclusively at Fawcett-Miles, 614 Cooke Street, Suite 201, 589-2737. They sell for $2 each.
