Wow, has it been busy around here. I am working on four websites, 2 logos, a catalog, a number of print projects and a few other random projects. I can't believe how busy I am right now! I am so grateful for all the fun projects. I have been working on a new website for Dunleith Historic Inn. It's looking pretty super. Check it out!

We also are almost finished with the new bathroom. So close to photo time! Meg planted ten trees last week, and we are in the process of putting down weed barrier cloth on the whole back yard. Then plan is to build a new flagstone patio in the middle of the back yard, and mulch the rest. We will be planting all sorts of new plants, mostly drought tolerant pine shrubs, and native grasses.

We are also almost ready to paint the kitchen floor. It's the original hardwoods of the house, we had hoped to refinish them, but it wasn't possible. Both of us are stoked to paint them. It's going to look very cottagey. Too bad that's not a word, maybe it should be. We plan on painting them a cool light green color.

Then next up, is to re-do the other bathroom and put down tile and paint the hard woods in the 3rd bedroom.

Yeah, we are super lazy fools! Don't worry we are having fun too. Last weekend the Women's final four was in Denver. We had a BLAST.

Well, hopefully, it won't be 6 weeks before I blog again.

My birthday is in about two weeks and we have a killer week long Crested Butte trip planned. I promise not to be too busy to blog that week.

I hope you all have a super day!

Road Trip overload!

Denver to Lawrence, KS to Saint Louis to Nashville to Asheville to Charleston, to Montgomery, AL to Baton Rouge to Tulsa, OK to Denver. We left January 17th and returned home yesterday February 16th.

We drove almost 4,000 miles. We had an awesome trip. Meg had a few photo shoots. I worked all along the way. We had a super busy trip, hence why I didn't blog like usual. I can't believe what we packed into a month long trip. We saw some friends, and family, flew a kite, ate gluten free falfels (here, best meal I have had in a year http://www.patatspot.com/) played on the beach, saw three lady tigers games, and helped Meg's mom get her hip surgery arranged and over with. Thank goodness Meg's mama had so many great kids. Meg's  three sisters and bro who live in Baton Rouge helped to get her to surgery and then are taking turns staying with her until she gets out of the hospital. She goes home tomorrow and it doing great!

We arrived back in Denver yesterday and I am so glad to be home. We have some exciting things going on around here over the next few weeks, so I promise to blog like a good blogger should!

Road Tripping Again!

Tuesday we drove from Denver, CO to Lawrence, KS. 562 miles of a wonderful day in the KIA soul with Meg. We laughed a bunch and listened to the XM radio. There was snow on the ground for the five hours east of Denver. About an hour outside of Denver is was snowing to the south of 70 west. The sky was grey and beautiful with sun streaming through the clouds. The ground was sparkly and amazing. It was a really beautiful site to see. I wish you could have been there.

We spent the night in Lawrence, KS. What a lovely little town. We had coffee and breakfast at the Merc Co-op, then took a nice walk around the JayHawks campus.

Then we drove 250 miles to Saint Louis. We have been spending the last two days with our friend, href="http://lisacolby.com/">Lisa Colby. She is an amazing jeweler, and she is about the sweetest person you will ever meet. Yesterday we hit up a couple of thrift stores and then had a great Indian/Korean/Napalese lunch in the grove neighborhood at  href="http://everestcafeandbar.com/">everest cafe. What amazing food. The neighborhood was super cute. It's called the Globe neighborhood. Why don't all neighborhoods have a super cute sign at the entrance?


Today it's a 300 mile day. We are off to Nashville, TN. We are going to check out the American Pickers store in Nashville because I am curious. Then we are going to have a late lunch at the Wild Cow veggie restaurant. They have loads of gluten free stuff and it's cheap. Then we are spending the night with some old friends of Meg. We are photographing their family in the morning, then we are off to my hometown, Asheville!! I am so excited to see all my friends. Look out Asheille, I missed ya!

The truth will set you free and be really awesome!

Today I wanted to write about something that has always inspired me. Truth. It may sound trite but from someone who hasn't always been able to be completely truthful about herself, it's a big deal to me these days. I knew I was gay since I was in pre-school, but didn't tell a single person until I was thrown out (this is a story for another blog post at a later date) of the closet when I was 21.

Today I am out in every aspect of my life. All my friends, family, &  clients know I am gay and I am married to my partner Meg. I am proud to be out. I know there are loads of little kids out there who are gay. Today they see all sorts of role models... from Ellen, to Elton John, we are everywhere. I was watching the people's choice awards the other night,  & in the first thirty minutes, there was Ellen and Neil Patrick Harris both openly kissing their partners on T.V.!!! It's so great to see opening gay, happy people. 

A fellow gay I have been super inspired by is Mondo Guerra. I don't know how many of you out there watch Project Runway, but you should start. It's an addictive reality show about fashion designers completing to win a load of cash to start their own fashion line.

Mondo lives his truth. In season 8, during one of the fashion challenges, Mondo reveled he was H.I.V. positive on the show. I was so impressed by this then and now.  I have had the opportunity to meet Mondo. He is a super down to earth sweet heart & is doing a lot of AMAZING work here with Colorado AIDS Project.


The Truth, it's where it's at. Take it from somebody who has tried it, it's awesome to be totally honest all the time.

I am off to finish up a few work things so I can start packing for our road trip. We leave next week. I will be blogging about our trip as always. We are going to be traveling from Denver to Saint Louis to Nashville to Asheville, NC to Charleston, SC to Baton Rouge back to Denver. Yes, it's a crazy trip as usual. While we are away, we are getting a new bathroom, complete with a clawfoot tub! Before and After picks in mid February. Happy Friday everyone!

hello 2012, nice to meet ya!

Wow, 2011 was quite a year. We decided to leave my home of 15 years, Asheville. I spoke in front of over 300 people. I helped organize a my first fundraiser with a lot of help from Meg & Leslie! Good work ladies!  We put our Asheville house on the market and it sold in TWO DAYS!! We sold the only place I ever felt totally safe, our Broad Street house.  We bought a new house in West Washington Park in Denver, CO. I drove a 28 foot truck from Asheville, NC to Denver, CO.  We moved to Denver less than six weeks after we put our house on the market in Asheville. I gained a son, Antonio, then we lost him. Heartbroken is the only word I can think to describe what this was like. We are still healing from this.

Things have been up and down since Antonio left. We miss him. He misses us. He could use any prayers or good thoughts if you have any to spare, so could we. Even with the tough times, there have been some really good times.

Meg & I love our house and neighborhood. Everything you could want to do is close by. We live just minutes from downtown Denver. We hit up the local goodwill pretty often. We found a new mexican place, called El Diablo, a couple of weeks ago. Amazing tacos! We saw our first Denver Nuggets game a few nights ago. AMAZING!! The Nuggets are really looking good this year. We had such a great time.

We are starting to make friends. We attended a Christmas party that was mostly southerns! We had a blast. We both miss the south, because let's face it, there it no place like home.

I gained an amazing friend & room mate. I don't know how we scored Justin, but if you have ever heard my talk about him, I know we are super lucky to have him. He is a handy man, figureouter of all stuff, & a major rescuer extraordinaire.

Mambo the cat is still in love with Denver. I attribute his happiness to two things. One he is having a bromance with Justin. They are such good buddies. It's so cute. Also, the cat to human ratio is perfect for Mambo. 3:1, cat perfection!

To start off 2012, we are doing some house renovating. By we, I mean Justin, of course! We are re-doing the hard woods we found under world's ugliest, cheap tile. (thanks to Brittany & Tate for checking to see if they were there, we had no idea!) We are getting a new renovated bathroom in January... complete with a claw foot tub, nice octagon white tile, bead board with a chair rail and a few other awesome vintage surprises. I will do a nice before (ugly shell sink and other ugly stuff) and after shot! We are pumped up to rid ourselves of the 80's shell sink that is there right now.

We have a number of road trips planned for 2012.

The first one is in late January. We plan to drive cross country back to Asheville, with stops in St. Louis, & Nashville. Then's is off to Charleston, SC to see the cutest kids in the world, Finn and Addie & spend time with world's best friend ever, Hilary!!! Then we will hit the road again to Baton Rouge. Then back to Denver. We will have little stops along the way and we will photograph our travels as usual. I love to blog when we travel, so I can remember what the hell we did and what fun we had!!

My plan to blog about what inspires me this past year was really fun. Overall, I was the most inspired by simple things. Hope, change, peace, love. I plan on continuing the inspiration blog posts, along with travels posts and whatever else I feel like talking about.
I learned a lot this year and I am sure that 2012 has big plans for me, just like I have for 2012.

Happy New Year Folks. Let's make the most of it!

Bad Blogger Girl!

I have been a bad blogger girl. I am hopeful that Santa does not read my blog. If he does, I am in big trouble. I always look forward to Christmas. I have a number of vintage christmas decorations, I look forward to pulling out of the boxes each year. See the nice view from my desk below.

Christmas is one of the few breaks I take each year. Taking a break to spend time with family and friends is very inspiring to me. I had an old friend lose his life partner in a tragic accident last weekend. Life is short! Work will always be there to be done, but someone you love may not.

As you all have surely noticed I have been neglecting my blog lately. I am super busy with graphic design projects. I have been working on two custom greetings cards, that I produce each year... in addition to my already full work load. I am in the midst of four logos, three websites, a catalog and a few other odds and ends.

Lately, (for the last year or so) I have been obsessing over Victorian everything. Advertising architecture, fashion, industrial design, even christmas ornaments. You name it, if it's Victorian, I am into it. I am working on a logo right now for a historic inn (see above), that was built in 1856. I have been doing research and working on the logo for over two weeks and I still have so many ideas!!

I wanted to show you guys a few of the images I found (mostly out of a couple of library books) that inspire me design wise. I am loving banners and how in victorian times, no type was on a straight line. Everything that was type had a curve it somewhere. Also, everything was designed to KEEP, not throw away. Interesting how times have changed, isn't it? I am more on the designed to keep side of that story.

The photo is of some vintage match book labels. I am amazed at how cool these are.

Alright, back to work. Hopefully, this post (along with a couple more before the holidays) will put me back in good graces with the big man at the North Pole!

purple & gold inspires me, like a lot.

Because I am an LSU super fan. Because purple and gold are awesome colors and happen to be my favorite colors all space in time. I know, I know, I am from North Carolina. Don't get me wrong, I adore my tarheels and carolina blue is a beautiful site for sure. I got into LSU women's basketball about 7 years ago, when Meg took me to my first game. I have been hooked ever since. We were at the first game of the new season last night in Baton Rouge.

Of course we always dress up for every game and this one was no different. The girls looked amazing. We LOVE the new coach, Nikki Caldwell. She does not mess around.
I could tell they everyone has been working super hard. The lady tigers beat Xavier 102-42. I like that score a lot, a whole hell of a lot. It's going to be a great season! We plan on getting to as many games as we can even living so far away. Southwest direct from Denver to New Orleans rules!

You can pretty much get anything you can imagine in purple and gold LSU versions, even tater chips. You can get who dat ones too. Someone would sell purple and gold air if that were an option. I would buy it if they did!

There is sort of an important game going on this Saturday, so the peeps down here are pretty fired up. (#1 LSU plays, #2 ranked Alabama, in football, if you live under a rock or if you just hate sports) We will be at a wedding Saturday evening, but I am sure we will find a way to see some of the game.... and we will be watching the whole game on Sunday!! GEAUX TIGERS!