Update: life's at it again

Ahhhhhhhh!
Since my last post, I have been busy as all hell. Got a new job which I absolutely love and have just been enjoying summer. Outdoor free concerts, picnics, gardens, pools, and baking ridiculous amounts of goods. Just yesterday, I baked homemade cheese its and today got the vegetable strainer out of storage and using goods from our own garden canned homemade pasta sauce (rendered above by the adobe ideas app on my iPad -which I'm using to type this post!). Delicious!

Hopefully things slow down enough that I can have time to update more and post to the 30 days of creativity, but we'll see.

Happy summer!

Art for Joplin

Moosylvannia, a Marketing company in St. Louis, working with All Along Press, a nonprofit screenprinting and art studio on Cherokee Street came together to use ART to raise money for Joplin. Art for Joplin is a compilation of posters designed by local artists in the St. Louis area where all proceeds go to the United Way in help of Joplin. Pretty cool idea, ay???

A very talented designer and photographer and collage artist, Fran Foster - whom I also went to High School with:) - designed the poster below. I just love her work, and now I get to own it! 

You can too if you follow the link and help out Joplin as well! Its really win win, I think.

You should defintely check out the site and help out the cause!

30 Days of Creativity: Day 2

Per the 30 days of creativity calendar, June 2nd's inspiration was ice cream, so I just doodled a little diddy inspired by Munch's Scream painting. I then played around with it in photoshop adding saturated colors. Just messing around. Kind of fun to break from the work of the day.

30 Days of Creativity: Day 1

So, I was very excited to start on my 30 days of creativity yesterday, especially while going through everyone's postings during work. I was amped to get home and make something. I got off work, worked out, tended to the garden, played with the dogs, and got down to making fresh banana and oat bread (seen below).

It turned out pretty amazing. I followed one of my old recipes for it adding a few things like oats, which I love and even though its summer - a dash of pumpkin spice.

Packed up some bags for me and my husband to take to work today and got a delightful email from him telling me how good it was - always fun to hear :)

Now, for a preview of things to come!

One of my New Years resolutions was to learn to knit and crochet. Well I've begun teaching myself with the help of youtube videos and hopefully will have some fun things to make within this 30 day assignment! YEAH YEAH YEAH!

Memorial Day: Remembering

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Thank God for my life. For the Stars and Stripes. May Freedom forever fly. Let it Reign.
Salute the ones that died. The ones that give their lives.
So we dont have to sacrifice all the things we love.

My Family has a tradition (its about the only tradition we really take seriously or even have) on memorial day to visit graveyards and place flags on sites of those who served in the military as well as family members. We visited 6 in all, ending at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetary - which is by far the most overwhelming.

Grandpa Joe, Great grandfather to me.

Grandma Lodyce. I miss you everyday.
She drank Stag everyday, all day, until she went to bed so we always leave one for her.

And then there is Andy.

I cannot believe its been 3 years. I remember being in my cube when I still worked at JWT and getting the phone call of his passing. I remember hanging up and just feeling absolutely stunned like the air was unable to gain entry into my lungs. He was a year younger than me and yet he gave his life for our country.

What have any of us done that is even remotely of such value?
Try to think of him or the other 4,000+ soldiers killed in action in the Gulf, the next time you complain about something insignificant. Believe me, it will pale in comparison to their sacrifice. 

So, to Andy:

I think of you often...

Chesterfield Amphitheater Grand Opening

Attended the Grand Unveiling of the Chesterfield Amphitheater with Adrienne last weekend. With an all day festival ending with a FREE Edwin Mccain Concert - Party likes its 1997! To quote my husband "I have heard the name Edmin Mccain more in the past 2 days than I have in the past 10 years" haha, it was pretty awesome though.

The amphitheater was very well built for its intended use. Very open and surrounded with trails overlooking the ponds and waterfalls. I guess these are the kinds of things a city gets when you have rich people tax money.

Anywho, the Chesterfield Parks will sponsor free concerts all summer - and you are free to bring picnics and coolers. Fun and Free! My 2 favorite things. All I can say is, I will be back!

Currently Reading: Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

 So we met last week for Read Wine to discuss Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter on the day of the severe weather in St. Louis. Everyone shared how they were trapped in their basements at work all day, but never to miss an opportunity to get together - Read Wine still met, although missing many members who had undoubtedly good excuse.

The book was okay to say the least. As an appreciator of history and Abraham Lincoln, I enjoyed the historical accuracy with bits of fantasy. There were a couple things I found to be lazy and could have been better (towards the end) but it was still entertaining. I wont give it away because you should read it :)

Thirty Days of Creativity

 

 JUNE 1-30 - I pledge to create something everyday! This is such an amazing idea and its got me all aflutter with creative madness!

Twitter was abuzz with all the design and craft blogs I follow going insane with #30daysofcreativity love. All their information from @createstuff can be found on their tumblr where they have inspirational videos and a calendar of ideas to get you started.

I just want to go home and break out my sewing machine and start on all the projects I have been putting off. But I shall wait...maybe take to the weekend to come up with some ideas and watch some knitting tutorials.

Mindsnacks, a language learning program iphone app

On another note in my life, I recently decided to take up Italiano and have spent a lot of my free time studying just for the fun of it. I went to Italy during college for a summer study abroad and would love to go back with my husband sometime in the next couple years - only more fluent. With a bunch of Italian apps on my iphone (I even changed the language setting to Italian which has been a slow start to getting used to) to borrowing some audio and study guides from my local library. My goal is to be able to have basic conversation and understand basic Italian by the end of summer.

Lofty goals, my friends. Lofty bilingual goals...

Thought of the day: Devour

"When life hands you lemons"

Never understood the saying "When life hands you lemons make lemonade" cause to me lemons should never be associated as a bad thing. They are delicious! I can eat them raw, or with salt or with pretzels. I cant get enough of them.

It is probably why my teeth are so white, even though I will have no enamel when I'm older to fight off tooth decay. But we're talking about the lighter side of things today. Always one with a positive look on life, I can't help but radiate my wonderful mood today. Am I glowing? Its just bronzer and a tan, but it's just a lovely feeling for sure.

Been playing a lot with online tutorials lately just to pass the time and see if I can learn anything new about the programs I use daily. I was going a little mad trying to figure out more complicated wordpress and web tutorials so took a break to play with more light hearted stuff. The lemon above comes from an illustrator tutorial from Spoon Graphics. Boop.

I hope everyone has a glorious weekend. Cant wait for the St. Louis Renaissance Faire this weekend.

I love turkey legs.

I am Ashley Scroggins and I approve this message.

Thought of the Day: Wonderful

"Things Really are as Wonderful as They Seem."

Doodled this at work and just took a picture of it then played around with the settings on the app
FX Photo Studio. Its $1.99 but I think its kind of fun and worth it. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some Instagram, but I like to play with layers upon layers and get something completely ridiculous.

And you know what...Things really are as wonderful as they seem.
Hope you have a fabulous day and keep the optimism flowing :)

Thirsty Thursday!