Sunday Funday Yellow Vintage Finds

Had a low key sunday afternoon. Went to the carnival and flea market as well as checked out this local antique shop that I pass all the time and have never been inside. I wanted everything in the store. So much cute cheap stuff. Including this Yellow Vintage Shaker:

and this yellow Bird Candle Holder:

And here are some pics from the carnival. Turkey legs and games and crazy unsafe rusty looking rides. The smell of funnel cakes in the air. A glorious reminder of childhood fun.

This is me and Pallardy on the Ferris Wheel.

Happy Monday, Everyone!

Urban Assault Ride

This event was totally worth it. It was a biking scavenger hunt hosted by New Belgium and this was its first year in St louis. All proceeds went to help trailnet and promote bike-commute and exercise in the community as well as helping people getting accustomed to the trails in their own city that they may have not been before.

There were seven checkpoints and we were the "mystery" checkpoint over at the art museum in forest park. At the other 6 checkpoints, the riders were subjected to obstacles as well as clues to the mystery checkpoint. Other checkpoints included: the city museum, the botanical gardens, tower grove, clayton, the loop, and webster groves.

I was merely a volunteer this year. But these people have seriously inspired me to get a bike and do it next year. Or hell, maybe even try to learn another city :) But just volunteering wasn't so bad either. Since it was sponsored by New Belgium everyone got free beer (got to replenish those carbs) and then free food from Whole Foods. And for volunteering our time, we got a tshirt and a bunch of cool New Belgium stuff. All in all it was a great Sunday full of great times with new people.

Thanks for allowing me to be a part of your day.
Check out Trailnet for other local events.

Adveristing Mogul

Mad Men is a couple seasons in, but I only just recently got into it through my glorious Netfliix queue. This show is absolutely genius. And when I say recently, I mean mere weeks ago. Its so politically incorrectly delicious. Too young to be my parents - they were only kids but this is definitely how I imagine my grandparents who are also very young galloped through the 60s.

Anywho, in trying to learn more about the show I came across this:


Where you make your own 1960s avatar.
Here I am enjoying a martini with the Great Don Draper :)
Now you can join in on the fun

Designing for Your Worst Client

About 2 weeks ago, I updated and redesigned the scrogginsdesign website. It just wasn't cutting it anymore and I wanted it look more modern and sleek. I think it turned out pretty well all it needs is to have the works updated and I hope everyone can be patient while I compile some recent work.
However recently, I found this interesting article via alistapart about how to design a website for yourself and the obsticles that may arise and how to overcome them. This would have been so helpful TWO WEEKS AGO - haha. But I digress. The article is cute and talks about the writer's own toils in designing a personal website. Its a quick read and a little helpful as well.

All Star Day!

I remember back in the summer of 2004 when I was working my summer job at Bob Evans was the first time that I had heard that the All Star Game was coming to St Louis. And I remember thinking how far away 2009 felt (i also remember that same summer, that same job was when I found out that Conan would take over the tonight show in 2009 - my how the time passes).

If you are in St louis right now, you cannot get away from baseball, even if you try. Its really great. They've cleaned up downtown to look all artsy with the addition of a new sculpture park on market st. for what I'm assuming is so all the people coming from all over the country dont think we are a huge trash heap of murder, crime and homeless people.

I really hope the National League can pull this baby out. I really thought they were going to do it last year when they were winning the whole game and then the AL came back and tied it up only to go 14 innings - goo. But this year we are in St Louis. With the Best fans on earth. We love our baseball in the Lou and how fitting is it that the allstar game be in our great city and have them win it for the first time in 11 years! I'm so excited.

So here's the plan. I'm going to take a guess and say that it might be too crazy to even try to get downtown at this point with parking or even the metro. However, Clayton is closing off streets and displaying the game on a huge outdoor screen for everyone to enjoy. I just want to be a part of the st louis atmostphere right now.

Let the Baseball Coma Commence!

Another Year, Another Crease in the Crows Feet

"CHAOS," Picture from Cincinnati Marathon, May 3 2009

So I turned 25 this weekend. Had a pretty good time. Cant complain. Just wanted to thank everyone for the birthday wishes and those who came out to celebrate my immanent demise into adulthood. Goo. So with that, I thought it would be fun to post my 5 greatest achievements/memories of my 25 short years.

5. Attained a College Degree - and not only did I accomplish this, but in a field that I love and will be the most useful for my future. I love design and the past few years using these skills have definitely been a blast.
4. Spent an entire month in Italy - I was an Art History Minor, and the Roman empire is my favorite time period to study (tied with WWII for being wicked awesome) and when in Italy I finally got to see all the things I had been studying the previous 3 years. Not to mention the people I was with made the entire trip legendary. oh, and I got to see Sting in a free concert in Milan :)
3. Getting best artist award in Kindergarden - How can they even tell?
2. Running 5 Full Marathons - After completing number 5 in Seattle in June, I cant stop thinking about it. How many people can say that they've run 5 marathons in their life. I cant explain it, but the feeling is amazing. I must continue this adventure to get to all states out of the way, then I think I might do one on every continent. DC in October!
1. The Night of Dane Cook - will always go down as the greatest day of my life (april 8, 2005). Sure most of it was spent in the car trying to get to Springfield, MO and sure it wasn't my finest hour of displaying intelligence (like going north on hwy 63 and almost ending up in Iowa trying to get to SOUTHWEST missouri) but it was a bonding experience with me and my best friend Adrienne and at the end of it all, we got to meet Dane Cook - once on accident, and then for real a second time - and maybe even scared him a little. Hands down, greatest day ever.

Thanks again for the birthday wishes. From dancing to T.I. on stage at the Piano Bar with Griz, to exchanging stories and antidotes at Kilkenny's, and reliving the story of my birth from my mother again - she tells it to me every year and how when it was all over she looked at my 25 year old father, who was peeking over the doctors shoulder, what it looked like only for him to reply "Have you ever gutted a deer?"

- it was a blast!

Self Promotional Stickers

They're Here!
Just an idea to spread the joy and my name. Since I travel a lot for marathons and stuff. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to get traffic by using these stickers. Kind of a stolen idea from a not so great mandy moore movie, chasing liberty. If you haven't seen it, which you probably haven't, she backpacks through Europe and meets a guy who uses stickers to bring people together and have a connection with people that they dont even know. You take a sticker and place it somewhere and then you forget about it. Then when you go somewhere else, you see the sticker and BAM! are instantly connected to someone you dont know and youre only common interest is this sticker.
Silly I know. But not so much - compared to all the other weird things flying around my brain - this makes more sense than most of that crap :)

If you are interested in spreading the joy, contact me at my website.
J.O.WHY...because we can!

Father's Day Present Getting Usage

I love my Pop.

Happy Father's Day!

I will be in Festus tomorrow celebrating fathers day in style with 6 hour smoked ribs, my pop's pride and joy. So I thought I'd enthrall you all with my father's day post today. It involved a home illustrated card and a brilliant flea market find.


hehe - That is how I used to draw my dad's head when I was little. He's a retired Marine of 22 years and even though he is now 50, he still sports the high and tight. He is obcessed with his garden - its devoted time he gets so he can get away from my mom ;) - and while exploring the flea market one day came across this guy who makes elaborate bird houses and plant potters out of cedar, as well as these lovely butterfly houses.
Hope it blends with the rest of his motif.

Happy Father's Day!

Link It

Stumbled upon some neat website as well as some useful ones.
We Make Words is kind of cool. Its just a blog of words made from everyday or not so everyday items. Its just an interesting idea. Its two girls taking turns making words and each word corresponds with the one before it. So maybe you should start from the bottom.

Another site that I found thanks to smashingmag posting it on twitter is very useful if you're a freelancer. I do a lot of work on the side, and I usually just go by the clock on my computer. But Less Time Spent helps track your time while you are working on your project so you dont have to...for free. Not sure if I'm going to jump onboard with this, but I thought I'd share since a lot of my friends also do a lot of freelancing.

And the last link of the day is for all my obcessive lost fanatical friends...like me!These are ads created for the Dharma Initiative. Pure Genius! I would just like to say that I just made my cohabitator watch seasons 1-4 on DVD and he is now just as obcessed as I. He is currently trying to find season 5 online, but ABC took it off their site. I guess they want some build up for when it also comes out on DVD. I just dont think I can wait until February 2010 to find out just what the eff is going on!

Oh well. Enjoy.
Smash

Etsy Shop Now Open!

Scrogginsdesign Etsy Shop

I would have liked to have waited to open shop when I had more screen printed stuff, but I was just getting too excited with all the other little things I've been working on. But here it is, the shop is now open. Inside you'll find some of the artist books I've been working on as well as some other little things. I'm excited to announce that the screen printing has been coming along swimmingly - ha. Its been really messy and fun. Some things to look forward to:

"I Dont Want To Be An Animal" posters
Running Inspirations
"Team Ritter" Tshirts
more greeting cards
more artist books
zine smashley
scrogginsdesign stickers

Stay tuned for more stuff!
Its about to go down!
In other news, Seattle in 9 days...

The Best Kind of Graffiti

Its like a piece of public art! "OHHHH YEAH!"

Friday, Schmiday.
Signed up to volunteer for USO.
Also applied for a part time design gig with the GO! St Louis Marathon.
design + marathon = my 2 passions blended smoothie
- Interviews next week!
Bonus Plus: signed up to volunteer for trailnet's Urban Assault Biking Scavenger Hunt in August in Forest Park! They still need volunteers (you get a tshirt, food and drink - and there's a party post biking part) so check it out!

Taking the weekend off from working to enjoy the lake.
Have the best weekend ever!

Preview of Things to Come

My First Screen Print.

This is my first screen print the cheapy DIY way.
I'll be testing another technique next week with
Photo Emulsion and home made screens :)
so much fun.

Also have some artist books and handmade journals
coming together pretty soon. As well as some other accessories
that will be posted on my Etsy shop hopefully pretty soon.

Just thought I'd give you a taste of some things I've been working on.

You're Next!

Comedians are my rockstars and one of my favorites is Demetri Martin.
He has this joke about flowers saying he doesn't know why people give them on occasions because they die. He says they should be more like a threat...like "youre next" haha

Well I came back from a weekend in Festus and Pallardy got me flowers and the cards reads:

"Ashley,

Youre Next

Love,

Dan"

Haha. Happy Thursday!

Tok Giant Foam Hand!

Created the design for Tok's giant foam hand.
Come get yours this Saturday at No Way Out Club
and rock out to some Railroad Spike!

Good Times.

NASCAR Vehicle Decals

I've never really been a NASCAR fan. And I used to live in Tennessee. I know. I know what youre thinking. But one of our clients at work, Landmark, decided to sponsor a driver in a smaller race and I got to design the decals for the car. I think it looks pretty sweet. But Chargers usually do ;)

Just thought I'd share since its not something I'd normally do. I know its just logos and such, but it was still kind of exciting to say that I did that.

Nano Biosphere

I've been getting into the gardening season this year since we bought a house and everything. Grape vines, lemon tree, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, flowers, etc. When I went to Cincinnati for the marathon, my grandparents took me to this cool quarry place where they let you dig for fossils and actually TAKE THEM HOME! Needless to say, I stocked up with some big 450 million year old rocks as well as a bunch of smaller ones. When trying to decide what to do or how to display the smaller of the rocks (the larger ones made their way to my garden), I went to the garden department for supplies and came across some moss and poof...an Idea! I've had this fish bowl for awhile. A thrifty purchase from goodwill that I just always knew would come in handy someday.

Anyway, it is now a cute little accent on the kitchen table by the bay window :)

Stationary for Mom

I made this stationary for my mother's birthday. She likes to write people letters in a world of email and to commemorate her effort and old school style, I made her this. Black and Gold of course - her fave colors because of mizzou.

Exterior.
Wrapped box with handmade paper.

Interior.
Includes envelops, handmade cards, a divider,
and a cd of printable designed stationary paper.

Each card is unique to each other
and made with left over materials used to make the stationary box.

This was just a fun project because whenever I ask my mom what she wants, she always replies "just make me something" ever since I was a little kid. This way there is time, effort, and something I enjoy to do involved to make her something that she enjoys to do.

Materials from Artmart.

The Answer To My Problems

I get inspired a gazillion times a day. I have a sketchbook, post its, pictures, random pieces of paper scraps, check lists, to do lists galore. It really is an organizational nightmare. But all that is about to change with one app discovery today.

Evernote.

This thing is amazing. I've even downloaded it to my Crackberry and away I go. I swear, I'm becoming quite the little tech savvy business woman...one app at a time ;)

Now if I can only find an app that would organize my home office...

Social Networking Seminar, i.e twitter

Went to a social networking seminar for work. It covered how to use myspace, facebook, and twitter to the advantage of your business. It was kind of interesting but me and Dustin were the youngest people in the room so it was more of a "showing you how to use these websites" tutorial than anything else. Non the less, I was inspired and immediately went home and...

...joined twitter...

haha. I've been trying to put it off for as long as I could. But I finally broke down yesterday. Time of death: 2:27

Anywho, now you can follow scrogginsdesign on twitter.
P.S. I downloaded twitterberry to my Blackberry Storm...and now I'm addicted.

FOUND Comes to St Louis

Found Magazine creators and brothers Davy and Peter Rothbart were at the Mad Art Gallery in Soulard in St louis last night as a part of their Denim and Diamonds tour. I have to say I had no idea what to expect. I thought that they were just going to be displaying some of their favorite found items. But I can say with confidence that the experience was well worth it. They are more of a comedy team, whose material was that uncreated by themselves but the world around them.Like Davy said "it is like a international community art project" as he read some of his favorite and albeit most histerical ramblings, notes, love letters, flyers and receipts. Peter engaged everyone with some songs he wrote inspired by the some of the greatest found items of all.

The crowd favorite as well as my own of course would have to be "damn, girl. the booty dont stop" which when put to jack johnson-esque music is quite delightful :)

I laughed so hard, my eyes leaked.

To check out more on FOUND, check out their website or you could see where they are performing next on their 57 city tour and make a road trip out of it. And the moral of this story is dont just walk by that scrap of paper lying on the street...pick it up, discover a new world, and send it in!

Lost Season Finale!

Tomorrow is the LOST season 5 finale and I have made no secret of my obcession with the show. So to pay my respects to the genius that is LOST, I decided to create Lost themed baked goods for my watch party tomorrow night. Not pictured are other cupcakes that I made to have the Dharma Logo on it...and you wouldn't know what that is unless you are a nerd like me :)

Tomorrow looks to be one of the greatest days of my life!
Woohoo!

Arbor Day!

Planted a tree in our front yard on Arbor Day.
It was a gift from my parents for Easter.
Apparently its a special kind of Elm tree that they used to Line the White House with.

Have the Best day ever, Green Bean!
Smash

Easter Art

Oh what festive spring eggs, you say? Well with the help of some rubberbands and stickers, I was able to create some pretty cool designs. I would like to thank Jo Stealy, my fibers teacher for teaching me the ways of shibori - a Japanese dying technique for opening up my eyes to the ways of dying creatively ;) Also having color theory in college was a definite plus.

No but this was a lot more fun than just dying them one or 2 colors. My fingers may be suffering the cruel aftermath of creativity - they are now black - but it was well worth it.

Happy Spring all!

Coolest Thing I've Seen Today

Speaking of Lady Gaga.



Poker Face - Lyrics + Electric Guitar = rock n roll genius

lovin it...

Lady Gaga

I am lovin Lady Gaga at the moment. Just bought her cd on itunes and have been listening to it while I work. Its just very innovative. Her music. Her fashions. Her attitude. Very 80s glam meets european techno meets futuristic robot. Its just awesome altogether. Anyway, just thought I'd share. :)

Freelance Logo Design for BEMAS

BEMAS Software, the company I designed the tradeshow booth for asked for a logo for their User Conference.
I'm in the works in designing something else for their webpage and they sent me the link to the site so I could see my logo in action.

Click here to see more from BEMAS, Software

Newest Addiction

This looks like it could be trouble...

I have to be very careful or I could get addicted. It's a font game. My friends reading this who are not designers might call me crazy, but this is what graphic designers call fun :)

hehe.
Too late. I'm addicted.

Lanmark Contest Logo

This is a logo that I created at my job and I just liked it so much I thought I would feature it on here. Landmark is a dealership in Florida and this is a little promotion they wanted to put together for their online newsletter to get people to go to their website.

Estrella Logo Design

New year, new designs!

My friend Jeanette is a very talented jewelry maker and sells her stuff at Maude's in Columbia. She asked if I could design her a logo for her line "Estrella" which means star in spanish.


These are some of her designs with the logo on the packaging. ..

She has some pretty nice stuff. If you are interested in contacting her for any of her designs, you can email her at jnbbq2@gmail.com.

Beer Lovers Crest

Oh Beer Lovers every where will be proud now that they have a crest that defines their cult of lusting after the best beers in the world. This is for you Marty, oh lover of beers. Enjoy your man logo.