As you may know, I've been obsessed with getting a letterpress lately and it's become deifficult to deal with. I am consumed by it: searching eBay daily to find that one Kelsey or C&P press that will finally be mine; scouring Briarpress.org for someone in South Florida with a pristing press that comes with fully functioning rollers and sifting through Craigslist in hopes that someone, somewhere has the press I've been searching for.

Of course, these presses are out there. I've seen them, on my computer screen. I've been tempted to bid on a few on eBay, but had to weigh what was more important: buying a letterpress machine or paying the mortgage. Having a home outweighs the letterpress...

After watching another letterpress sold on eBaysell for almost $2,000, I got irritated. Why can't I just convince myself this is a phase and I don't require a letterpress to live?

Then I came across the L Letterpress from Lifestyle Crafts (from the Quickutz people who brought you the Revolution Tabletop Die-Cutting Tool). It's only $149.99. But is it good? Will this little thing satiate my cravings to have my very own tabletop letterpress?

I've been researching the Internet for the past few weeks for reviews on the L Letterpress. Some are good, some are bad and then I went to one of my fave sites, Paper Crave, and found the answers I've been looking for.

Kristen Magee at Paper Crave bought an L Letterpress and then tried using it with some levels of difficulty and frustration. Great. Was this what was in store for me if I bought this thing? Would I just regret buying it and wish I bought myself a pair of shoes instead?

Thank goodness Kristin is one resourceful and smart girl. When she realized the ink was being distributed well and the plastic plates that came from Lifestyle Crafts were cracking she contacted Harold over at Boxcar Press. Harold bought an L Leterpress and with his years of expertise with letterpress machines, was able to provide a few hacks into the L Letterpress so that you can, indeed, create a pretty perfect print from this machine.

It's not what I originally wanted, but the L Letterpress will have to do for now.

So I needed to buy one. I saw a few weeks ago that A.C. Moore carries them so I went ot their site and found that they had the L Letterpress for 40% off for the week from November 29 - December 5th. Hazaa!

I immediately told C I wanted this for Christmas and he was like "We'll talk about it." What? What does that mean? I was like "Hell no, we're not talking about it. That's what I want for Christmas and you go get it now." Okay, so it don't quite go down like that. Of course I don't talk to my husband like that. Actually, when I told C told me "we'll talk about it" I knew I was getting it.

I've never been to an A.C. Moore and was surprised one was sort of close the house. So we packed up the family yesterday in the car and drove there. I was so excited, I ignored C's suggestion that we eat lunch first and then go buy this bad boy (I rarely turn food down). But when we got there, the store had been ravaged by holiday shoppers and they had no more letterpresses. Sad. I tracked the manager down so I could get a raincheck.

So a new stock of letterpresses are supposed to arrive by next week. We'll see. Maybe I'll be that annoying customer that calls everyday and asks if they have it in stock.

The wait continues... until then, I've had my eyes on a Gocco machine on eBay.