Ashley – Page 5 – the MAD creative

FINDING INSPIRATION in ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:October 22, 2015
Post category:DESIGN
Post comments:0 Comments

We have a blank wall that stares you in the face when you first walk in our front door. It’s nakedness makes me uncomfortable and the issue needs to be addressed. The solution? We’re going to slap a big abstract painting up there. But that means I need to paint something. And recently, unwinding at the end of the night has been a bit shy of artistic production– involving dark chocolate, graham crackers dipped in milk, and pinterest. If you follow our pins, you have recently been bombarded with colorful, saturated paintings that I hope liven your senses. At least that’s what they do for me. Or maybe it’s the sugar. But I’m going to say it’s the inspirational art.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

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PLANNING a BLUE SPARKLY BIRTHDAY PARTY

Post author:Ashley
Post published:October 20, 2015
Post category:DESIGN KIDS LOVE PLAY
Post comments:1 Comment

Mya turns 3 in less than a month and she definitely has more opinions in the party planning than the past two birthdays. Whenever I drop her off at preschool, she usually has a request, such as “Please get me chocolate milk and applesauce at the store.” But recently, the requests have been centered around her blue sparkly birthday party theme: “I think I need a blue sparkly bow for my party” or “I want all my friends to dance with me” or “We’re going to paint at my party… but don’t worry, we won’t make a mess” or “Everyone will wear blue!” So yeah. She definitely has inputed some ideas and I love how she’s so into it. I’m also pumped as to the ease of planning a one color themed party!

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PONY BEAD SUN CATCHERS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:September 27, 2015
Post category:KIDS PLAY PROJECTS
Post comments:4 Comments

With little effort, these turned out pretty cool. I won’t lie, though: They sat on our counter for a good month before I finally sanded them down and drilled a hole in each. But hey, they’re done now and oh so colorful. They’re similar to the perler bead bowls that we did earlier this year, except they’re semi-transparent which makes for some great sun catchers!

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DIY T-SHIRT RUG

Post author:Ashley
Post published:August 28, 2015
Post category:LEARN PROJECTS
Post comments:1 Comment

If you have a lot of old t-shirts and some serious down time, then this project is for you! A couple months ago, you would’ve found me on our living room floor every night– either making t-shirt yarn or crocheting. As it turns out, it’s a very therapeutic, mindless activity that you can do while watching “Million Dollar Listing New York.”

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WE’RE HAVING A…

Post author:Ashley
Post published:August 26, 2015
Post category:LOVE
Post comments:2 Comments

GIRL!

You know how people put pink or blue balloons in a box as a gender reveal? I totally wanted to do this for Mya because what kid doesn’t like balloons, right?! But when we found out the gender, we knew pink balloons just wouldn’t do it for her…. because they weren’t blue (still her favorite color!) And anything that isn’t blue just wouldn’t be acceptable to our decisive girl. So instead, we just talked about how the baby in Mama’s belly is a girl and this is how the conversation went:

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MYA’S ROOM

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 20, 2015
Post category:DESIGN HOME KIDS PLAY
Post comments:2 Comments

Welcome to Mya’s room. As she is growing up way too fast and her room will also be ever-changing, it’s fun to document her little space. It’s difficult for me to pinpoint a specific “theme” for the room, except that it’s filled with color and feel-good things. Many items are from my childhood and we were able to save a lot of money on furniture. Her crib is from Ikea and the white cabinet/ shelving unit was given to us. Every picture, blanket, and stuffed animal is meaningful to us and probably won’t be to you; but we hope you enjoy the tour nonetheless!

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SHELVING FOR KIDS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 15, 2015
Post category:DESIGN KIDS
Post comments:2 Comments

One of my favorite things to find are inspiring kid rooms. Probably because they’re whimsical, colorful, and anything goes. Since my Kid Decor Pinterest board is getting out of control, I thought I’d narrow down some cool kid shelving solutions. Besides the abundant naked dolls on #4, these creative takes on storage are totally winners.

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ABC TOOLS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 11, 2015
Post category:KIDS LEARN
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Mya’s current go-to song to sing by herself is the ABCs. And if you try to sing along with her, you’ll get “Stop. I sing it myself.” And her favorite letter is “H.” I don’t know why. But up until the point of her very adamant alphabet independence, we used some fun learning tools to get the ball rolling. There are countless other alphabet toys than the ones we use, but these work for us… or I just think they’re cool.

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OUR ITALIAN EASTER

Post author:Ashley
Post published:April 8, 2015
Post category:FOOD LOVE
Post comments:3 Comments

Sure hope you’re not sick of Easter-related posts quite yet. Because I have one more for you this year! We drove up to Omaha to spend the holiday weekend with my Grandparents. My Gramps is a full-blooded Italian and my Gram is half Italian, half Czech. (She wouldn’t want me to forget mentioning the Czech part!) They always have more than enough for us to eat– my favorite being their homemade meatballs, Italian sausage, and spaghetti; but I wanted to cook something for them. I found a recipe for Italian Easter Bread and it’s just too good not to share!

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BUNNY BOOKS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:March 18, 2015
Post category:KIDS
Post comments:1 Comment

Mya and I love going to storytime at the library or a local toy store every week. Sometimes she gets overwhelmed by the library class sizes, so the toy store has been a…

“TAG ME”

Post author:Ashley
Post published:March 13, 2015
Post category:KIDS LEARN LOVE PROJECTS
Post comments:1 Comment

Today marks five years for us as a husband and wife team (8 years as an item). I can’t believe how lucky I am to have met the man they call Derek. And what better way to commemorate this than a pet tag! Ohmygoodness, as I typed that last sentence, I realize how lame it sounds. But if I say Mya helped make it, then he’ll cherish it forever, right?

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DESIGN TREND: BRASS ACCENTS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:March 10, 2015
Post category:DESIGN
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Metallics have been on trend for awhile. When given options, I was leaning toward silvers and golds. But it seems like I've been overlooking an equally as rich tone: BRASS! It has such depth and rustic…