Daily Drop Cap

Daily Drop Cap - Jessica Hische

Great new pet project Daily Drop Cap, from illustrator/typographer Jessica Hische. Each day she’s uploading a new one, best of all they’re free to use on your own blog and come supplied with the code to paste into your post. Looking forward to getting the whole set.

The problem is you have to write a fair bit of text so that the word wrapping doesn’t look too weird.

’77 Gibson for a ’77 Gibson!

Engagement Guitar - 1977 Gibson Less Paul Artisan

Sorry I’ve not been bloggin’ much lately, been a bit preoccupied with popping the question to my missus. Did the deed yesterday, Nicky said yes! Rather than get a diamond ring, which to be honest I think is probably the least interesting thing you can spend a lot of money on, I got her a guitar instead!

Neither of us play guitar, so at first sight it seems quite a random choice.. But her maiden name is Gibson, same as the legendary guitar makers, so I thought I’d get her something to remind her of that when she becomes Mrs Cookie.

I wanted to get her a vintage Gibson (this sort of thing just gets better with age), preferably a 1977 model to match her birth year (and mine). After a lengthy bit of research I decided on the Les Paul Artisan model, it’s basically a Les Paul Custom with hearts & flower inlays on the headstock and fingerboard. Beautiful looking thing, thought Nicky would appreciate all the detailing, they didn’t come in many colours, but this walnut finish was my favourite.

The fact that it had quite a short production run (1976-1982) didn’t help any, I couldn’t find a single one for sale in the UK. Only the states seemed to have any Artisan’s that people were prepared to part with, some way too pricey, some played to shit, but when this one popped up it seemed a good price and in good nick, so I rather nervously wired my money across the pond and hoped for the best. Well Neals Guitars did us proud and it arrived safe and sound.

I think I made the right call, Nicky loves it and has no plans to trade it in for a diamond! More pics on my Flickr »