Homemade Wine Holder

In celebration of the first Read Wine Meeting I started researching little wine holders to help bring in the grown up feel of book club. So I found this template to create your own on Design Sponge where you use the leg of an old pair of jeans. Since I was lacking in the "old jeans" department, I decided to modify the template a bit and just used 2 mitch-match patterns and this is what I came up with:

I think it turned out pretty good. Mmmm, Riverboat Red.

I really like how it turned up and it was a very talked about accessory at Read Wine so I'm thinking about making more of them for gifts and what not. I think it would work well for winery trips or birthday and bridal shower gifts.

Fun stuff.

Fun Bridal Shower Gift

I always like to be different for wedding gifts. Like I usually give games or something that has some sort of memory of the 2 of us. But when I saw this, I thought it was adorable and thought I would give it a go...

Denny and Rachel are always bbqing and entertaining people, so when I saw this salsa mortar and pestle gift idea in a Martha Stewart Living magazine and thought it was really cute. I decided to take it a step further and give it some identity by designing these little personalized recipe cards.


I hope they enjoyed their gift and their wedding was amazing.
Congrats guys and hope you guys have an fabulous life together.

See you at the Illini game!

I Want To Ride My Bicycle, I Want To Ride My Bike

Introducing, the newest love of my life...

Yellow Thunder

Urban Assault

Last year was the inaugural year of the New Belgium Urban Assault Scavenger Hunt in St. Louis and Me and Adrienne volunteered at the mystery location (which was the art museum in Forest Park). I had been hopeful of getting a bike before the next year's event so that I could participate. Alas, the time of the year came and I ordered my bike just a week too late. Oopsies. So I did the next best thing, Volunteer again.


My husband did it with me this time too. It wasn't too hard to convince him when I told him you got free beer. We went to a wedding the day before so this was the perfect breakfast. It was supposed to be another smothering hot August day in St Louis but it actually wasn't that bad.

The object of the scavenger hunt is to promote biking in your city and the race is actually 10 different locations around town and you have to figure out the best ways to get to each of them. Its a very creative way to help you find out new trails in your area.

Our job was at the finish line this year, telling the bikers where to put their bikes and to run to the obstacle course for your finish.

That will be Me next year! I already have my bike...

For more pictures of our Urban Assault adventures, click here.

Read Wine Book Club

One of my new years resolutions was to read more. Well I haven't exactly done that since the weather turned to spring, so to get myself back on track, started talking it over with some friends about getting together a book club. Well Me and Adrienne can never do anything without turning it into a personal design project so this is what we came up with.

READ WINE BOOK CLUB!
(pronounced Red Wine Book Club)

First rule of book club, wear high heels.
Second rule, bring a bottle of wine to the meetings that inspired you from that week's book.
Third rule, occasionally read.

And there you have it. We even started a blog to rate the wine and books, but also to inform people at want to join our ranks later on. Our first meeting was this past Wednesday and it was a pretty good turn out. We had 7 high heeled ladies with wine and ideas. Our first book was chosen out of a bowl and my choice actually won, Flashforward by Robert j. Sawyer. Spoiler alert, I already read this book but I just REALLY wanted someone to talk about it with because I liked it so much. So sue me.

Next meeting is September 8th where we discuss Flashforward (yay) and pick out our next book.
Happy Reading,
Smash

Resolve Hair and Vein

One of the newest clients of Farfetched Studios is Resolve: Hair and Vein. Been working on a lot of rebranding for them lately. And it all started with a new logo and business cards.

As well as a brand new website, linked to all of their social media sites that we also created. Cindy wanted something that was very gender neutral because a lot of her clients are in fact men and she didn't want to scare away any other potential male clientele with a feminine look and feel. It was a fun project and we look forward to working with Resolve in the future.

Working with Black Twig Communications

Spent a couple of days with Black Twig Commications as they needed help making a bunch of web banners for a cable company in New York. I just thought it was cool to work with the images of some of the movies I saw this summer.


Percy Jackson was AWESOME! And I love my superheroes, even if they are DC comics (I AM SOOOOO GOING TO COMIC CON NEXT YEAR!). Ha. Couldn't do anything about the type. That was supposed to remain consistent with the Cable Company's Brand. Just thought I would share some of what I've been up to lately.

Portland (Sauvie Island) Marathon

Went to Portland, Oregon for fourth of July Weekend to run the Sauvie Island Marathon. It was an absolutely amazing race. Flat and gorgeous. The island was made up of strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry farms. I wanted to stop while running just to eat the stranded berries by the side of the road. I totally recommend this race to any first time marathon runner or someone trying to set a PR. If I would have actually trained for this race (and the weather wasn't so freakin hot in St. Louis), I might have done this very thing. Actually ended up running the last mile and a half with my shoes in my hand, crossing the finish line barefoot.

The next day, we set off to explore the glory of Portland, Oregon. The International Rose Garden was a favorite. It had the most amazing views of the mountains and downtown Portland. The Vietnam memorial was very reminiscent of the DC memorial. Hard to believe Maya Lin got a B on that project because it always gives me goosebumps staring at your reflection through the names.

On the third day in the Pacific Northwest, we trekked north through Washington State to get to Mount St. Helens. We actually climbed all those stairs just days after running a marathon! AND proceeded to hike a good 10 miles or more to see the magnificent sight of Mount St Helens and her destruction.

This was a wondering vacation (if I can call a marathon that). There were so many visitors centers all the way around the mountain with all kinds of interactive things for people to do and learn about the mountain and 1980 eruption. Yep, this year is the 30th anniversary of that eruption which killed 57 people. It was absolutely amazing.

The Fruits of Our Labor

Started an indoor garden back in February and really got her going outside back in April. Tilled up a 9ft x 13ft lot in the backyard and made way to corn, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, onions, carrots and cucumbers. Proceeded to pot a bunch of cherry tomatoes and pepper on the deck so that they were ornamental as well as a delicious treat :)

Cherry Tomatoes potted on the deck

Sweet corn on the cob

Got a vegetable strainer as a wedding gift from a friend and made salsa using all the ingredients from my back yard. It was the most delicious puree, restaurant style.

Here is another view of the tomatoes being pureed.

And then the aftermath of a lot of hand cranking

HOMEMADE SALSA