Kitchen Before and Afters
I’m always amazed at the changes brought on by a coat of paint. You can check out the before post here. Talk about a huge change, right? I’ve been basking in the airiness of my little kitchen. The cabinets were done in a white lacquer (which meant a lot of spraying as well as all [...]
Me and Bertoia
Despite all the holiday madness, I am giving myself some time to do a few things I want to do (emphisas on “I”). One of those things is renovating my studio (It’s almost there!) and buying myself something I’ve been drooling over eying for about 10 years now. And that would be a Bertoia chair. [...]
Winners of Baby Safari and Giveaway for Dress Up Fabric
Thank you to everyone who entered the Baby Safari Giveaway! Reading what everyone was doing this holiday season was so inspiring and touched my heart! I had a horrible time deciding, and I implore you to continue to enter the giveaways during this month since I wanted so badly to give every one of you [...]
Giving Thanks-Free Thankful Banner Download
Last year, we did a thankful tree on Thanksgiving day. This year, the girls have a jar of leaves that they can write or draw on whenever they want to add to this banner in our kitchen. I’m hoping it’s a great way for them to see what their parents are grateful for and encourages [...]
Delicious Fabric
I’m a sucker for fabric all lined up, ironed, and folded pretty (who isn’t?). So I took this picture of some freshly cut fabric my lovely new intern cut up for me to send to my mother. My mom, who is an amazing seamstress and quilter, is (thankfully) testing my next quilt design for our [...]
Sweetwater Frames
It’s the time of year when I scramble to make sure our family Christmas card photo is taken. I’ve been organized on just about everything…but actually getting the photo. Susan (yes, Susan does our family photos:) and I had tentatively scheduled a fall photo, but I kept pushing it back since we were fighting some [...]
Looky-Looky
So of course I should be working, but amid my procrastinated wandering on the ‘net, I ran into this and this and this and I seriously had to share. Love. Sigh.
Studio Renovation Continued
The shelves are up, and I finally have my second Low-Boy Farmhouse Dresser. Josh had to drive to St. George to pick it up (a very nice guy, isn’t he?). I still have a mile to go with support shelving and, well, the other 3 walls of the room. So here’s a question—I have an [...]
Studio Update
I’ve been slowly adding things to my studio, moving things around, and generally dealing with the space. I contemplated moving Josh and me into the studio space and moving the studio into the master bedroom (Josh nixed this idea. I can’t imagine why.). We’ve considered finishing the basement and making the family room my work [...]
Issue No. 5 of the Newsletter—Spraguefest and Tutorials
Wheww! Here it is! Our fifth issue of the newsletter. This thing just gets bigger and bigger! This one is 39 pages long with a huge section on Spraguefest, an introduction to Susan, a quilt pattern, a coupon code for Designer Workshop, and tutorials galore! Be sure and check out the calendar at the end…it’s [...]
I am reading…
Just My Type by Simon Garfield. It’s laugh out loud funny for those with a type-sense-of-humor!
Exciting New Upcoming Events!
There are two spectacular events that I plan on attending in the coming months. The first is Spraguefest! This is an annual event hosted by Jessica Sprague to further build (the already awesome) community. I know there are going to be a lot of awesome people at this event, and I’m pretty excited to attend! [...]
Favorites
Here are some of my favorites taken from the photoshoot with Susan that didn’t make it into the newsletter. I hope you enjoy too! Getting ready—I was pleased when Susan walked into my house and said it wasn’t as bad as she expected it to be! (We fixed that only moments later). Years of girls’ [...]
Carina Gardner Quarterly Newsletter (Issue No. 4)
FINALLY! We’ve finished our fourth issue of our newsletter! Better late than never, right? I think this is our best issue so far. First of all, there are a LOT of photos. And tutorials. And photos. And an announcement (which links to ANOTHER digital magazine). And did I mention photos? It’s seriously delicious! Susan has [...]
Playhouse to Clubhouse
We got a Costco playset in April, which has kept my kids outside most of the summer. I had this idea that I was going to make it more of a “clubhouse” by making curtains for it. Fast forward to yesterday (aka 4 months later). I picked up Amanda’s red polka dot laminate at Riley [...]
Typography
I’ve been knee-deep in writing Art of Digital Design II. That means wading through my library of typography books. Trying to pick out the essentials for a single lesson (when I usually teach an entire semester) is certainly a challenge. In the midst of writing last night, I popped over to my friend Melissa Esplin’s [...]
Pinterest-My New Favorite Site
I am new to Pinterest, but I’m already a big fan. Why do I love it? It’s like a virtual board for lots of great inspiration. Instead of spending all my time tearing out pages from my magazines, I can simply “pin” up my favorite inspirational pictures. The best part? It keeps track of the [...]
A Little More Conversation
I never get to post on my blog as much as I’d like to. That’s sad, because there are always so many fun things humming along in the studio! Sooooo, my amazing assistant Susan and I decided it might be fun for you to check out some of our projects in process. We’ll both be [...]
Spring Quilt Market 2011
I was a happy girl at Quilt Market this weekend. Susan and Emily walked the show with me and we have a fabulous time! It was nice to have market in town (here in SLC). Here’s a sampling of my Friday (prepare yourself for a long and picture-heavy post!): This was fun! My little bio [...]
Pinwheel Coquette Quilt by Emily Harris
This quilt was made by my good friend Emily Harris (the same that made that amazing chocolate bunny cake!). These gorgeous little pinwheels were made with a fat quarter bundle of Coquette™. Isn’t it wonderful? It makes me want to pull out the sewing machine right now and start working on a quilt!
Kathy Petersen’s Art Exhibit
Friday night, Josh and I attended Kathy Petersen’s art exhibit at the Phillips Gallery in downtown Salt Lake. I was a little hesitant to get out of the house after a neighborhood kid accidentally ran into me on his bike, which resulted in a black eye (the kid walked away without a bruise). Thankfully, it [...]
The Biggest Bubbles
One of our neighbors, Joe, brought over a monster bubble maker yesterday. Joe made it for a Science Olympiad at Weber State (where Joe works). It is completely shocking to see a bubble that big! I’m not completely sure how Joe made these bubbles, but the “bubble maker” is made from two golf clubs (that [...]
Patience, patience
The “patience, patience” is more to myself than anyone else. Josh always has said I’m impatient. I guess I am. I’ve been dying to spill all the work that has been going on in my studio for the last month and a half. We have been busy, busy, busy putting together a line of children’s [...]
Quilting With Kids
Tuesday, I spent the afternoon in Siri’s first-grade class making a quilt with the students for the Arts Night Fundraiser. As it turns out, even first-graders can quilt…and quilt well! Turns out that making a quilt has all kinds of math applications too (shocking! educational AND fun!). We looked for patterns and shapes (parallelogram, anyone?). [...]