LEARN – Page 3 – the MAD creative

FINDING INSPIRATION in ABSTRACT PAINTINGS

Post author:Ashley
Post published:October 22, 2015
Post category:DESIGN
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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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BASEMENT BUILDOUT : DRYWALL

Post author:Derek
Post published:April 27, 2015
Post category:HOME PROJECTS
Post comments:1 Comment

It’s been a month since we finished framing and hung the drywall for our basement project. We had hoped to be sharing the final outcome with you by now, but the finishing touches have been stuck in idle as we’ve turned our focus to knocking out a few outdoor projects while the weather is nice. So, for a quick project update and to hold you over until we complete the finish work we’ll go ahead and give a glimpse of the new and improved space. Again, we’ve compiled a list of our handiest tools to complete this phase of the project.

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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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LIVING ON THE EDGE

Post author:Derek
Post published:March 31, 2015
Post category:HOME PROJECTS
Post comments:2 Comments

Over the past two years, we have explored a few landscape edging options and have become proponents of the approach that “less is more!” First, we tried an easy-to-install, no-dig plastic edging. In general, we were pleased with the look, but over time this edging had a tendency to float where it wasn’t staked down and still allowed grass and weeds to creep underneath it. Second, we tried a limestone border using rock from a nearby construction site. We placed a temporary border next to the plastic edging last summer with plans of permanently installing this spring, but in the short time we had it we decided it wasn’t quite the look we were hoping for. So, on to round three with what we think is our best solution yet.

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BASEMENT BUILDOUT : FRAME OF REFERENCE

Post author:Derek
Post published:March 22, 2015
Post category:HOME LEARN PROJECTS
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With every home project, we’re learning that having the right tools makes things a lot easier. Ashley jokingly claims that I married her for her power tools because she owned more than me. (I guess that’s what you get when you end up with an Interior Architect — bonus!) And we basically have the best neighbors ever — who not only lent us a ton of framing tools, but spent an entire day helping us in the basement. So with the compilation of our tools and their tools, we really had no excuse to not tackle the basement framing plans. And since half of any project is prep time, hopefully the following will save you some time with your framing project. Here are some lists of tools and building materials needed to frame a wall:

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BASEMENT BUILDOUT : THE PLAN

Post author:Derek
Post published:March 17, 2015
Post category:DESIGN HOME LEARN PROJECTS
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Teaming up for a home construction project probably isn’t the way most couples envision celebrating an anniversary together, but we have never been too concerned about doing things the conventional way. Life is pretty sweet with Ashley, and seeing her excitement to break out the power tools and learn some construction basics together is just another item in the long list of reasons why. To get things started, and especially since we’re rookies in this business, we wanted to get a good plan in place before we tackled this project. After some quick reading on the right way to build a wall, it was back to SketchUp to design our closet. On top of giving us a visual of what our completed project would look like, it helped get an accurate materials list together.

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“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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