THIS IS HOW I FEEL EVERY DAY

THE GAP by Ira Glass from frohlocke on Vimeo.

Also this:

Picture found via: HERE and the shop is amazing so you must check it out.

Isn't that image delightful? That's the kind of thing that keeps me in this game. I LOVE PRETTY THINGS. I can't stop creating, thinking, exploring and encountering new well designed and thoughtfully edited images, products, and experiences.

What drives you?

50th Anniversary Party - Gold Gold and more Gold!

Meet Mom and Pops. Aren't they just adorable for being almost old people?  These two have raised 9 kids, lived in a Utah, California, Florida and Illinois and are leaving Monday to be missionaries for a year in Reno, Nevada. To celebrate their 50th Wedding Anniversary this year the sibs and I decided to throw them a farewell party to rival all farewell parties - and it was a blast!

First we sent out this invitation:

Having all my immediate family together is no small task, but they all flew out for the festivities a few days early and we crafted, baked, chalked and hung out. It couldn't have been a better weekend. Then when party time drew near all the sisters went into overdrive and helped get everything organized and decorated without a hitch. Thanks for all the help!

Photo Credits: Emily Smith & Robbie Collett

On the porch we had a sign-in tree made by my brother John. This thing is amazing. I sent him a picture of what I had in mind and he just took it the extra mile. Made out of wood and foam and spray painted branches from his own yard, this thing was stunning. Guests were asked to write well wishes on some tags that we decorated with glitter and washi tape (American Crafts). That glitter tape is amazing stuff and I am slowly bedazzling everything in sight with it.

Once the guests headed inside they had a chance to visit with the matron and patron of honor and then they preceded into the dining room to be fed. If there is one thing is this world the Smith Family loves-- food--and lots of it. Every event has loads of delicious goodies and we didn't want to disappoint seeing as Mom had thrown great parties like this for each one of us a time or two in our lives. So we baked and cooked and tossed and stirred and it all turned out fabulous.

For the food we served:

Pulled Pork on Homemade Rolls
Vegetable Platter with Dill Dip
Crackers and Spicy Jalapeno Dip
Orzo Salad with Feta
Bow-tie Salad with Broccoli
Shrimp Cocktail

Mom's Brownies with Glitter Sprinkles
Mom's English Toffee
Glitter dusted Meringues
Sarah's Shortbread Cookies
Glitter Dusted Sugar Cookies in the shapes of "5's" and "0's"
Grandma Boyd's Chocolate Pound Cake (the best ever)
Grandma Boyd's Coconut Cream Pie (with my own special alterations)

How could I not end on that cuteness!?

If you are interested in where I sourced the decor:
Tablecloth: Just an old un-hemmed swash of fabric from Ikea (to my mom's chagrin) $20
Serving Platters: Things we had on hand or bits and bobs I found at the thrift store.
Pedestal Frames: Ikea and spray painted with gold. $1
Flowers: Myself and Blooms by Brittney (my friend's new floral venture)
Pinwheels: DIY with American Crafts paper
Garlands: DIY tissue and crepe paper projects
Pumpkins: Pinea Farms
Food Fancies: Orsen Gygi

New Work - Crate Paper Close Knit and Maggie Holmes Flea Market - CHA 2013

Check out the rest of the line HERE along with Maggie's wonderful blog HERE.

I started this great job last November at American Crafts working on their Crate Paper line of scrapbooking supplies. AC is this fabulous company that creates all sorts of scrapbooking and crafting stuff. Although I am an avid anti-scrapbooker I have managed to find the greatest place to draw all day and drink copious amounts of diet coke (free soda!) with fabulous co-workers and an even greater boss. It's wonderful. We designed these lines this Spring and are working on some even more adorable ones to come out in January.

The papers and embellishments were designed along with my amazing hand lettering partner in crime Jill DeHaan who shares MY EXACT SAME BIRTHDAY. We were meant to be friends. Seriously go spend your afternoon perusing her website and dreaming about all the t-shirts or posters she could letter for you. She's AMAZING. We worked on this line together along with the wonderful Maggie Holmes. It's screaming girly and gold and I can't get over all the foil.

Jill and I also worked on the Close Knit line of products that were released for CHA Summer 2013 at the same time. Enjoy the rest of that line HERE.

Principles of Design - A Mr Collett Video

Husband made another awesome video about the principles of design. We have had many a lively discussion about what constitutes an element and what is a principle. Oh to be married to a non creative would be so blasted boring.

Elements of Design: A Mr Collett Video

Husband recently designed and animated this video about the elements of design. Talented guy.

A Lava Ring & Cheesecake

With our engagement anniversary rolling around the corner I thought it might be a good idea to finally blog about our wedding and the events leading up to it.

And it all started with my birthday, April 12th 2012.

I woke up to a lovely surprise of some delightful daises, a Diet Dr Pepper, and a bag of homemade snickerdoodles (husband makes the WORLD'S BEST snickerdoodles) waiting for me on my car.

Let's note that the weekend before we had spent in one of my favorite places on earth, Goblin Valley. It was the greatest—hiking, eating, hiking, eating, repeated multiple times—with my absolute favorite people.

There were some obviously great ultra romantic moments in which I thought, "yea he's going to do it now" and then...

nothin'...

Bless his heart he even thought about doing it there but he didn't want to lose the rings in the dirt.

Yes I said rings...

Anyways so then my birthday rolled around, and husband, well, isn't one to do something expected. I knew he was like this and would therefore never propose on a holiday. So all in all it was perfect because I was pretty shocked when my birthday ended with an awesome rainy proposal looking over the SLC valley.

He picked me up for dinner and we headed to The Cheesecake Factory (my birthday pick). We walked around City Creek as we waited for our table and then enjoyed a very filling meal of fried chicken bits and sweet southern succotash.

We took our cheesecake to go and drove up to the capitol building (where we had many a date) to eat it on the steps. It was rainy and freezing so we vetoed that idea and ended up driving up in the Avenues to try and find a nice lookout while we chilled in the car. We passed our friend Katie's house where we first met and we talked about how it was a good thing we ended up connecting over ultra dorky design-y jokes that night.

"Photoshop is my mistress, but Illustrator is my true love" - husband

"Why can't I just use Adobe shortcuts in real life? Ugh I ate too much...Apple Z." - me

It was a miracle at all that the golden eggplant I was holding didn't scare him off immediately. (We thought it was a good party idea to spray paint a variety of gourds.) In fact, that was the night both of my loves began taking root: gold covered anything, and husband.

Wait a second, this gives me an idea. Gold covered... husband?

Anyways, we found a nice spot to sit, dug into the Anniversary cheesecake and wished we had each bought a piece rather than split one between us. When he said, "would you like your present now?" I thought, "you bought another cheesecake?!" But no delicious confection presented itself so I knew he must have decided tonight was the night. He asked me to pick from one of two pockets. I pointed to the right—still kinda hoping for a cheesecake. 

That's when the shock really settled in as he got out of the car and came around to open my door. The best part of it all was that while he did each bit of the proposal process he told me exactly what he was up to. Nervous energy I suppose, but as he was telling me that he was, "now getting out of the car" and "getting you out of the car" and "now I'm getting down on one knee" I couldn't help but start my ultra giggly nervous reaction as he proposed with the sweetest ring on the planet. A beautiful simple gold band with a delicate diamond. Then he pulled out my "other" present. His grandma's ring he inherited that we endearingly termed the "lava ring." Gorgeous isn't it?

Actually I probably would have loved to keep the monstrosity if we hadn't planned on melting it down into our custom design together, but the new one turned out so amazing that I don't regret it. While the new ring was being made I wore the placeholder (his mom's original engagement ring he proposed with) and sincerely had the hardest time giving it up. We especially loved the cross-hatched texture of the gold and decided that it would be replicated in the new engagement ring as well as on husband's ring. Not only did it symbolize our mutual love of art and drawing, but it also carried a sentiment from his parents.

But isn't the real deal the best? Melted down from Grandma's treasure with recycled diamond and all.

This time around we'll get two cheesecakes.

Ink Run Press Annual Valentines Sale!

My art showed up in Target one day...

Isn't it though?

So if you aren't already sick of me talking about seeing my artwork pop up in the ol' Tarjay well then sorry folks because I have to document it somewhere and especially if nothing else exciting happens to me in the next 10 years then I will definitely need a blogpost to look back on it in a "look I think I did something with my life once before I became old and boring" kind of way.

Anyways for the quick lowdown, about a year ago at my old place of employment DCWV I started a project with my Pam-boss that involved me doing whatever the heck I wanted for a possible typography endcap with the Target Home Decor department. It was a fun, torrid 2 weeks that I got to design some inspirational quotes/cute box-like typography solutions that I thought would probably not go anywhere but I still had high hopes. I never got to design anything that wasn't totally art directed there so it was a blessin' to just be let loose on a project.

So we sent them off to Target for review for which Target came back and asked for 10 more designs by the next morning. THE FREAKING NEXT MORNING. So I spent 4 hours on a blustery January morning bursting my design brain out and by some miracle sent them the remainder ideas by noon the next day. Which they loved! Woohoo! It still makes me tired just thinking about it.

So of the 30 or so designs they ended up picking 12 to go into all Target stores starting Dec 26th. Of course they picked some of my least favorites... why is it that the client always, always picks the cheesiest/plainest/fillerest design you include in the bunch? Oh well, no biggie, who cares when you get picked for Target?

Fast forward a very, very long year later to December 26th 2012. Christmas came and went and that's when the stalking began. Dragging husband to every Target Home Decor department along the Wasatch Front in hopes of catching a glimpse. 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, no luck. Husband began to believe Wife had made up this "my art is going to be in Target" thing. Then we just stopped looking cause meh, whatevs who cares anyways. Target probably nixed it. Then one day I just decided to look again for funsy.

And it was a very happy day. The End.

Old Work: Logo And Branding - Does Knot

Awhile back I did this logo for a new company, Does Knot. Selling crocheted slippers, they wanted a very classic, clean look.

Very simple and classic

Business Card Mockup

-If you didn't hear I'm playing catch up for the last 6 months of lame blogging. I'm periodically updating with work that I've done and projects that I've completed. Check back often!

A BIKING POST

Photo Credit: Public Bikes

With the recent heart pounding, squeamish inducing, Joseph Gordon-Levitt swooning, and subsequent viewing of PREMIUM RUSH, the NYC bike messenger tale of heartache and woe, the Teacher and I have been discussing getting bikes. We live close to everything we need and feel terrible about our carbon footprint and want to do our part to lesson our emissions on the world.

The upcoming Frontrunner opening in Utah Valley, along with these AWESOME posters by Mother New York to encourage biking has got me ready to purchase.

Let's pause for a moment to appreciate the ingenuity:

// Found via Black Eiffel from Mother New York

Great right? So I am on the prowl for a great street bike. Not a racing bike, nor a cheesy beach cruiser but maybe something a little more sophisticated yet hardy for everyday wear and tear. Once the Front Runner opens I will be able to bike to the station (if I get up early enough) and bike from the station in Provo to work. How great does that sound?

Plus a basket and maybe a rack on back to take groceries home in would be so charming!

 Here are my out of my price range loves:

// Sources: Public, Public, and Velorbis

Anyone know of a great bike that doesn't cost a gagillion dollars? Preferably in a blush pink or pale minty green? I don't need much. :)

New - Andrew Bird Tour Poster

Decided to take a stab at designing a tour poster for Andrew Bird. We went to see his concert last week with some friends (Thanks Annie! Best wedding present ever!) and I was inspired to create some Bird art. I still feel like it's not completely done but hey might as well post while I have the energy to do so. I started off in Photoshop, brought in text from Illustrator and some colored pencil drawings and texture.

Inspired by the song "Sifter"

sound is a wave like a wave on the ocean
moon plays the wave like a violin, pushing and pulling
from shore to shore, biggest melody you never heard before, no

what if i were the night sky? if i were the night sky
it's my lullaby to leave by

Me and the Teacher, tickety tickets, the always gorgeous sun-kissed Tracy, Andrew in his blurry magic

Old Work - A Texas Howdown

Doesn't this make you jones'n for some beef brisket and baked beans? Designed last March for my sister, the best client there is. Basically she loves anything I do so it makes me want to design anything she wants at any time. Apparently this hoedown is a big deal in Texas, and they take their square dancing quite seriously.

-If you didn't hear I'm playing catch up for the last 6 months of lame blogging. I'm periodically updating with work that I've done and projects that I've completed. Check back often!

Old Work: Set Design for Houston's Grand Opera - Opera to Go!

So in the pursuit of trying to be one of those regular blogger types I have decided to go away-s back and then work forward chronologically with old work so that I can catch up on the all the fantastic projects I have worked on in the last year.

Backdrop Image for "The Clever Wife"

When I was contacted by the producers of a traveling children's opera out of Houston I was a tad intimidated by the idea of doing set design, but when I found out they were flat images mounted on portable rectangle boxes well then I couldn't say no. The following images are the sets I created for an opera set in a Chinese town - specifically in a noodle house and Emporer's quarters.

The noodle house - a courtyard shot

 The Emperor's bedroom interior backdrop

This last one was a particular challenge because they needed a solution that could be turned upside down to become a different set. So I made this backdrop "set-ambidextrous" if you will. Viewable right side up and upside down. Here they are side by side with the different views:

Still not sure if it was believable enough... those lanterns don't make great floor lamps :)

Anyways this was a really fun project to work on and Kade from HCO was a great client. When he emailed me this morning asking for me to work on their next one I remembered I had never posted about it and how fun it was. Kinda out of my norm but I still snuck in some definite Ashley-isms to the design. Swirly clouds anyone? He also sent me some production photos and it was fun to see it in action. I just wish I could have seen the background all blown up. That ended up being my favorite piece.

It's odd seeing your stuff a year later and noticing all the things you would do different the next go around. Ah well, live and learn.