For the past couple months, I’ve had the immense pleasure of working with the ladies behind Play Date Cafe and I’ve really enjoyed it.  Even though it was only for a short time, creating alongside this team has been awesome.

So it’s with a bit of sadness that I say goodbye to my time as the Private Blend Designer for The Play Date Cafe.  I have some pretty busy (and exciting) things going on, personally and professionally, so it’s better for me to scale back on some of my commitments right now.  THANK YOU so much to the players, the sponsors, and to my wonderful Design Team.

Backing away from the speech podium, it’s time to share one last color challenge and project.  These colors (grass, rose petal, hibiscus) feel like a cottage garden, or creamy sherbet to me.

I don’t make a lot of cards unless it’s for a special occasion, but my fellow Designers are crazy talented card makers.  So following their lead, I thought I’d share a sweet card with some hand stitched arrows and bakers twine from our sponsor this week, The Twinery.

Again, thank you to everyone.  Please check back in with me from time to time to see what I’m up to.  I promise, there will be lots.  :)

♥, Ashley

Imaginisce was kind enough to send me their Childhood Memories collection for this blog hop, and you can find it here.  I’m not much of a scrapbook person, but these sets are great because everything you need is already there, perfectly coordinated, and it’s pretty much fool proof.  I paired the collection with bakers twine from The Twinery, which has colors to match just about everything.

Prizes and Details

The Twinery is giving one winner their choice of 3 spools of twine!

And Imaginisce is also giving away a great prize package!

To Enter: Leave a comment on each blog along the hop.

Over Christmas, we gave our Star Wars loving son a green winter hat with long Yoda ears.  He loved it and wore it the entire day.  The first day back to school after winter break, he kissed me good bye as I dropped them off at the school entrance, wearing his hat.  But as he walked up the path to the building, I saw him put it in his pocket and pull out a different cap.  After school, I asked him about it.  He hung he head and said he was afraid people would make fun of him.  Oh man.  I told him, “in this house, we don’t hide who we are.  We fly our freak flags high and loud.  Do not be a sheep, do not blindly follow along.”  I told him that with all the things he can’t hide, like his prostheses, his hands, or his freckles, hiding a love for “the Force” is silly.  And if someone didn’t like his hat, oh well.  That wasn’t on him.  The next day he wore his Yoda hat, and everyone thought it was awesome.  The kids in his class and in the hall were all mooning over it like it was the greatest thing ever.  Sometimes I know what I’m talking about.

So to remind my boy to be his own person, I painted him this canvas sign with the slogan, “Go Your Own Way”.  It’s a good reminder; plus who doesn’t like a little Fleetwood Mac floating around the brain?

To make this piece of art, I used a 7″ x 14″ canvas that I bought as a pack of 3 at Michaels.  I cut out a vinyl stencil using my Silhouette Cameo and then adhered the negative space of the stencil to the front of the canvas.  (The arrow shape is “dear lizzy chevron card” – and I love anything by Dear Lizzy.)  This was a little tricky because the vinyl didn’t want to stick tight to the canvas, so I just did my best.  To keep the vinyl from peeling up and to give it all a sort of rough and tumble look, I used a pouncer brush to fill in the paint, and I didn’t really care to much about filling in the shapes all the way.  When it was all painted, I peeled the stencil away, let it dry, and hung it up.

It just so happened that the colors for this week’s challenge over at The Play Date Cafe, matched the colors of my son’s future room design – midnight, aqua, and terracota.  The colors are so striking together, and they match pretty nicely with a quilt I started for him.  Stop by The Play Date Cafe for more inspiration from the designers and play along for a chance to win great prizes, sponsored this week by Simon Says Stamp.

When my kids came home from school today, I told them to go see if there was anything different in the house.  They foud the sign right away and read it outloud.  When I asked Matt what he thought it meant, he said, “don’t be a sheep”.  Atta boy.  :)

♥, Ashley

Once the snow fully melts, we will transform our yard from a swampy, ugly mud pit into a pretty little oasis.  We will clear the gunk and watch the grass grow.  We will sit around the fire pit every night, we will live on nothing but grilled food, and we will plant a garden.  Really liking this vertical pallet board garden, featured on A Beautiful Mess, one of my daily time eaters.

Once I sift through all my favorites and decide on a fabric collection, I’m planning to hop on board the Virtual Quilting Bee going on at Diary of A Quilter, the site that helped me plan my very first quilt.  I’m hoping that posting it here will force me to get my act together and actually start this.

My Amazon wishlist is FULL of books I have my eye on, but this one is definitely on the top of my list.  Camille Roskelley of Simplify is one half of the ridiculously talented duo Bonnie & Camille, and is a seriously awesome fabric designer and quilter.  I can’t wait until her newest book, Simply Retro, arrives on my doorstep in May, preferably while my husband isn’t home to see I bought another sewing book.

We’re trying to eat better around our house and working on incorporating more fresh produce into our meals.  And with summer not far away (assuming Spring ever really decides to make an appearance) there’s no better time.  Really wanting to dust off the blender and set up a smoothy bar, with daily recipes and ideas from Prudent Baby.  Much better than the generic Captain Crunch we’re all scarfing down now.

This handstitched ABC book is highlighted and underlined on my crafty to-do list.  Damn you Nana Company.  I already had too much to do.

As if this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt wasn’t badass enough, it’s now exponentially so thanks to Emily McDowell.  Her illustrations and hilarious truths are spot on (and I’m crushing on her a bit lately).

I’ve been having dreams about the Driftless Region.  Literally.  And photos like this, by Krystal Muellenberg Photography, make it worse.  So, so pretty.

Have a beautiful day all!

♥, Ashley

Today I’m chiming in from my lovely seat as the Private Blend Designer for The Play Date Cafe.  This Design Team position has been such a blessing.  It’s connected me with really wonderful people and forced me to get creative (and post on my blog) regularly.  And color stories like this one make me even more excited to be a part of this team.  Check out these colors – Cappuccino, Slate, and Burlap.

This week the ladies at The Play Date Cafe are joined by the talent of the Jenni Bowlin Studio, who also provided really pretty vintage stamps for us to use.

This week I took my inspiration from the color story board, which was put together by our talented Jax Miller, who is also the newest designer to join The Twinery!  I wanted to create an elegant place setting that would be perfect for date night at home after the kids are in bed, or even coffee and danish with a friend.  And I think I managed that!

For this setting, I paired a burlap napkin with a coffee color fabric wrap that I cut with pinking shears to mirror the chevron in the card.  The corner of the place setting card has a doily stamped with one of the Jenni Bowlin stamps, and I also used the stamps for the background wording and even the little tag.  For some extra detail, I added some vintage postal stamp washi tape, buttons from my collection, and some shimmer bakers twine.  A bow of grey twine and a vintage key bring it all together.

Head over to The Play Date Cafe for a double dose of inspiration with these beautiful colors and a chance to win a great prize.  And check back for more updates on the custom work I’ve been doing and some pretty personal projects!  And for some sneak peeks, visit me on facebook!  And now I’m of to put this babe to bed and wake up my sleeping arm.  :)

♥, Ashley

I’ve been busy thinking about our remodeling project, which really means I’ve been thinking about how I’ll decorate after my husband does all the work.  :)  There will be embroidery.  And I think this tiny little piece with its little arrows will be perfect for the wall above my desk.

I usually try to keep my backs neat and tidy, but I love the messiness here.

I hope you’ll stop by The Play Date Cafe and consider entering a project to play along.  This week’s challenge is sponsored by Ribbons Unlimited.

I look forward to visiting your blogs!  And if you’d like to leave me a link in the comments, I’d love to see what you’re up to.  :)

♥, Ashley

Until later -

♥, Ashley

Today I’m sharing another project for The Play Date Cafe Challenge.  This week the theme is a color splash, just like the one in my first PDCC post, this time with a splash of coral.

For this color challenge, I decided to sew a hand painted placemat, using lyrics from one of my favorite songs, “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.

To paint the lyrics on the placemat, I cut them out onto vinyl and then used the negative space as a stencil.  A foam brush, fabric paint, and a hot iron were all I needed to finish it up and I love the way it turned out.  For the back, I painted a few diagonal lines onto to of the corners, using the rest of the coral paint I had mixed up and masking tape to get smooth, straight lines.

Once the paint dried and I had heat set it, I made my reverse quilt sandwich with the batting, sewed around the edges, flipped it all right side out, pressed it all smooth and then top stitched.  Then using the diagonal lines on the backside, I quilted the placemat so that the lines would show on the front too.  So simple!

I have so much to show you guys so I’m really happy to be back up and running!  If you want to see some sneak peeks of what I’ve been up to, you can follow me on instagram.

♥, Ashley

I’ve been meaning to make a thank you card for a sweet friend of mine, and when I sat down to pull it together, I found that the colors I had chosen fit perfectly with this week’s color challenge.  I’m not much of a card maker really, but I find that my friends are always a little miffed when I send them a store bought one.  ”What?  You couldn’t make me a card?  Aren’t you supposed to be crafty?”  Touché.

For this card, I used sentiments from SRM Stickers, who is sponsoring this week’s challenge.  The patterned papers I used here are from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan Collection and they are so pretty that I had a moment of hesitation before I cut into them.  I also added in some bakers twine from The Twinery, in Mandarin, Cantaloupe, and Seaweed.  I think presentation is always a huge part of anything handmade, so I slipped the card into a glassine bag with a sweet label (also from SRM) before sealing it up in a coordinating handmade envelope.  Never take the details for granted.

Wishing you all a beautiful rest of your week and hoping to see your spring colored projects over at The Play Date Cafe.

♥, Ashley

Next month both of our girls will celebrate their birthdays and I’ve been busy working on their gifts.  (I have a goal this year to ONLY give handmade gifts.  Wish me luck.)

The beautiful fabrics for my sister’s book bag….

An embroidery project….

And working with Meggie on a sewing project.  This girl.  ♥

I also had the opportunity to attend a Moms & Cameras workshop with Dani Stephenson Photography.  Dani is an incredibly patient and thorough teacher, and graciously invited us all into her home to learn to take better photos of our children (which was one of my 2013 goals).  It was awesome.  These are some of my shots from that day.

And one of our crazy haired youngling.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone.

♥, Ashley