Stephanie and I emailed each other for the first time in the spring of 2005. We saw each others blogs (in a world where there were very few blogs, really) and sort of thought, “oh I want to know this person!” So, we reached out.
We had our first in person meeting a few months later in Portland, Oregon in the fall. We were both terribly nervous to meet each other. I know my hands were literally shaking. I remember leaving feeling happy and saying, “she has no idea how awesome she is!”
Jump to the end of 2006. I saw two photographs of ours that had the same vibe (on Flickr!) so I emailed her, “how about we do a blog together where we post a photograph of our mornings side by side?” Steph said, “yes!” With that, a simple email exchange and a “yes,” our first project came to life. We did not even talk on the phone about it. We just did it.
I remember the same “yes” when we thought up our 3191 Quarterly. It was 2010 and we had published A Year of Mornings and 3191:Evenings and we were itching for more. We started simply with a few ideas and a small format. We shipped the issues from our living rooms in Portland East and Portland West.
3191Q has changed over the years, as have Stephanie and I, but one thing has remained the same: our dedication to bringing you real moments in our real lives.
I remember one comment we got consistently on our Mornings blog was, “Your lives are so perfect. Where are all the dirty dishes?” Stephanie and I always chuckled to ourselves about that sort of comment. We were giving our viewers a tiny slice of our mornings. A singular, small moment we found, in mostly chaotic times in our days and lives, where we found some peace or comedy or beauty or calm. Sure, we had dirty dishes! Who doesn’t? But in that morning, on that day, we were not inspired by our dirty dishes (would you be?). We were inspired by some other real moment off to the side of those dirty dishes. As the year went on, we found, in those real moments, some kind of connection to more than the relentless dirty dishes in our days. We found a connection to our own creativity and eventually to yours. We found that the small moments we shared reminded us that we were connected to something big.
After 7 years of “collecting” those small moments side by side we are now, almost, addicted to it. Seeing something and sharing it together has become the fuel in dark times, it has become the thread that ties us to each other and to you. This real energy and commitment to keeping things simple is something we promise to continue to bring to you as a part of all of our 3191 Projects.
As we open 3191 Quarterly 2014 Subscriptions today, we do so with true enthusiasm and excitement! We have a lot in store for you:
3191 Quarterly • 2014
4 Print Issues / 4 Supplemental Digital Issues / 4 Ideas
No. 13 — Out & About (February)
No. 14 — Home & Work (May)
No. 15 — Create & Make (August)
No. 16 — Eat & Drink (November)
Plus all subscribers also receive our exclusive THANK YOU PDF download when they subscribe. This special PDF features our favorite four recipes as well as a full week of Mornings and Evenings diptychs and more. This THANK YOU PDF only goes out to subscribers! A link to the download will arrive in your inbox shortly after we get your order.
We have brought the price down, added special digital content that will ONLY go to subscribers, and concentrated our four 2014 print issues around a certain theme. You will continue to see tons of photographs and simple content. You probably won’t see dirty dishes (hee hee) but regardless, we hope you will be able to connect with the every day moments we really love sharing with you from 3191 miles apart.
Join us for the 2014 season of our beloved 3191 Quarterly, won’t you? We would love to have you in the family. Thank you!! xo