Chicago - July 01, 2008

City Sickers

Pinecone+Chickadee Cards

You always bitch and moan about city life.

But something about wide open spaces makes you queasy.

Live vicariously through Amy Teh and Noah DeFilippis, who moved from Brooklyn to Maine, set up a silk-screening studio in their basement, and started Pinecone+Chickadee.

The couple now creates charming cards on 100 percent recycled paper using bright colors and a childlike aesthetic: Birthday wishes are delivered by dove; a green elephant welcomes baby; a yeti momma and child trudge through a snowstorm; and a caterpillar says, “Um, hi” to a birdie.

The cards are blank on the inside, so you can wax poetic all you like.

That’s the sort of open space you can handle.

Available at Renegade Handmade, 1924 West Division Street, at Winchester Avenue (773-227-2707 or renegadehandmade.com); online at pineconeandchickadee.com.