Paisley Ann Design

Today’s Etsy crush was inspired by the grey grey March we are having here in Reno. It is grey, cold, and dry–a trifecta of blah. So I decided to get in the mood for spring by digging up the cheeriest wedding invites that I could find. I searched for over an hour, and then, I found this cute little shop. Etsy seller Inkylivie totally delivered today with her bright cheery colors, clean fonts, and folk art inspired drawings colored in deep jewel tones. Now I am pumped and ready to start planting some bulbs (if our new house ever goes through escrow). Ahhh, I digress again. We better get back to the cheery part of this post before I go off the deep end.

Here is a little bio on the woman of the day:
Inky Livie is Asa Montenejo– full-time mom to two munchkins by day, designing/illustrating little piggy by night! Born and raised in the Philippines with a background in Architecture, Asa combines her designer’s eye with her love for art to come up with one of a kind invitations, announcements and stationery for paper goodie freaks drawn to the not-so-conventional (just like herself).

Denyse Schmidt is one of the few quilters I can actually relate to. You see, I hate to measure. I hate to be perfect. I hate to use patterns. I do it, because sometimes, it is the right thing to do. That and a little voice in my head says, “Measuring is the right way to do it.”

Here is a pattern from her website that was flagged by Australian craft blog, Whipup. This is a free pattern that Denise is giving away on her website. Maybe if one of the Modern Mommy’s finishes early on her quilt, she can whip one of these babies up with the scraps.

We are totally doing this class…for the mums. A pieced and quilted teepee.
Holy freaking crumb cakes. I mean seriously..?!?!?! What the…?
And that thing is going in our backyard for the kiddos to play ‘cowboys and indians’ with. Maybe I will even supply some bows and arrows.

Check out the rest of Fanny & Bill’s photo shoot here

I just cruised by the modern quilt guild’s website. The L.A. branch is my favorite. I was totally energized for the Modern Mommy Quilting Class we are starting next Thursday at Rockabye, in Reno. I can’t wait! the first Thursday we will be checking out the Gee’s Bend Quilt Exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art, and making a trip to JoAnn to make sure we have all of our supplies.

Download the patterns here:
Pattern One
Pattern Two

Last night we went to Rainshadow, the alternative sort of school down the street. It is sort of the new venue for the Holland Project’s shows. Sweet little place. Rocky Votaloto played the first show of a cross-country tour to promote his new album. Did I mention that I HEART the Holland Project? Above you will see a collage I made of all of the different show posters that they have designed over the last year or two. Rediculously competent musicians, artists, and industry management types that run that show. They do a kick-ass job. Where else can kids who are into the arts, perform and do their thing around the downtown area? Not to mention they bring in acts from out of town. I am seriously considering tithing to them.

FOODs I aM TryinG to StaY AWay From
1. Chocolate Donuts.
2. White bread with jelly.
3. Cupcakes.
4. Chocolate Cake.

Eggs are good. I don’t stay away from eggs. I HEART Protein and Fat, baby. that’s what I had for breakfast, with my coffee +heavy whipping cream. Yum! Next step is to buy them eggs from local farmers.

Etsy Featured Seller Regina Panzeca of Soapopatumus makes the most mouth-watering soaps (see pictures above). How does she do it? I thought that food was real, yo.

A little update on how I am doing on my new years’ resolution to ‘change my diet significantly.’ I never weighed myself before the change in diet took place, or after. So I can’t really measure if I have lost any weight. But man do I feel more energetic. I have been trying to follow the The Primal Blueprint. I still eat junk, but a lot less often. I try to stick to organic fruits delivered by Basket Case Organics and veggies, fresh deli meats, chicken, steak, bacon, and the dairy (cheese and whipping cream), nuts, and mostly water. And am being more conscious of my need to walk. The water part I am having trouble with, and if there is a canned diet coke anywhere within 5 ft. I almost always take that over water. Death by aspartame….muahhhh muuuuuaaaaahhhaaahhaa. I still have a few glasses of wine on the weekends. Ok, let me be straight up with you. I cheat almost everyday in some way..and yet I still feel better. The goal really is just to try to keep the sugar intake low, that includes processed carbs. And it is pretty easy. My husband has noticed that I lost my love handles. I would say that is a pretty huge improvement in a month and a half, especially with hardly trying. Not only that, but I don’t feel like I am on a diet, I just feel like for the first time in my life, I think about what goes into my body. Not only that but when I do feel like eating something sweet I just go for the most fattening thing I can find. Not too shabby. I have to recommend, if you are contemplating a lifestyle change. I totally recommend this. I can’t do diets. But I can do this. No pressure just little changes over time that are improving my diet. Baby steps! (ala What About Bob?!?) Enough about me. How are your New Years’ resolutions holding up? What has worked? What hasn’t? I would love to hear your story in the comments.
On another note, you may have noticed that I blog much more frequently.
Love,
Ashley

p.s. Stay tuned. Monday we will have a free pattern/tutorial in light of President’s Day.

Dude, 12South, I mean seriously….?!?!?!did you have to go and make something that cute to carry my notebook in? This company took the apple, “minimalist– Form married Function and made beautiful love children look and ran with it. All of their computer accessories are sleek and their relative size and select items, will take you back to good ole days, before apple got too big and when ordering was made easy– In-and-Out burger style….well you know the story.

pauline forster – artist and land lady of the george tavern and toby penrose – artist at the george tavern and at home – london – july 28th
sylvia farago – photo director; and christopher simmonds – art director
at their home – london – aug 26th 2009

You can thank the Selby for this sweet stuff. This-is-London. Fu%* that! I am going there someday…not to the stuffy part. I wanna do London prince and the pauper style. Forget the Queen. Oh shoot…are the red coats gonna come find me for saying that? If I gave them the bird after they found me, would they even know what that meant? Off to a meeting with the chief geek.

I see you. Yes, you, the ‘pregnant women everywhere.” So I know there must be some baby showers going on very soon. Check out this tutorial by Laurie Cinotto of La La Laurie courtesy of Ez at Creature Comforts. How cute would it be to string up 30 of these and have them hanging over the food table? Ooh I am picturing a cute little table cloth trimmed with pom-poms and vintage milk jars filled with plastic sporks…and maybe some cute pots of baby roses scattered around. Very clever, Laurie, very clever. Seriously, nothing says Spring like birds, just ask my husband who curses every time he goes out to the car and finds that the birds christened the windows. And now I have something to do with the pastel yellow gingham scrap book paper and its constituents. You know that my rainbow pretty much consists of these colors: black, white, creme, red, grey, charcoal, and kelly green.