Cruise weekend

Rob and I just got back from a wonderful cruise vacation to the Bahama's with friends and family. It was a lot of fun and very relaxing! I did bring my camera to capture the wonder that is the Bahamas and as I go to take my first photo a message popped up "No SD card"....seriously? I brought my stinkin camera but no SD card, I had left it in my computer. Super lame. So the whole time I just took a ton of mental pictures. So no updated blog with tons of fun pictures....fail.

Anyways now that we're back we've been hanging out with the family and tonight me, Rob, and Johnathan (our little nephew) will be cooking calzones! We're really excited about it. And I believe sometime next week (probably tuesday) we will be heading to good ol' Alabama to spend about a month with my side of the family. This summer has started off so great and will only get better I feel :) Although we have to stay on a strict budget until we get to Canada we will be just fine spending time with family and cooking and having a great time.

I must say that although we've struggled the past few months, I've never been happier. I love spending every day with my best friend (the hubby <3) and visiting his family and getting to visit my family. It's great to have a bigger family now that we're married. Makes for never a dull moment!!

Thanks so much for reading my blog. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with it I'll try my best to update throughout our Alabama and Canada adventures!

Goodbye Kansas City (at least for now)

On May 15th we headed out of our apartment and said goodbye for 3 months to the lovely Kansas City. Although I occasionally enjoy the KC area I was so ready to be out of there, especially our apartment where our roommates will stay and we will no longer hop into the roommate bandwagon. Roommates are usually a bad idea. So we have learned our lesson and when we get back to the KC area we will be moving in to our own place! We are so excited!

Now we have made it safely to Florida and we've been hanging out with family and friends since we've been here. Rob's God daughter was baptized on Sunday and oh jeeze she is adorable! It was a great get together and there was tons of food and family and great times! I love spending time with Rob's family <3 Let's all take a moment to bask in her cuteness haha

 

She was the most relaxed baby I've ever seen

 

Proud Mom and dad

 

 

These pictures were all from her baptism. She had her own cake (as seen above) and is so very photogenic. It was great fun!

I knit her a cute sundress but of course I didn't take a picture of it haha so maybe I'll snap a picture of it soon. I still need to take a picture of all my knitwear. I'm so behind! 

We're heading out on a cruise soon and we're so excited to take a quick little vacation. Then after that we're heading to visit my family then to camp. This summer is going to be exciting and it's definitely starting off with a bang! I love being in Florida around family and friends. It's a nice feeling that Kansas City just doesn't have. 

I will soon start crafting, or at least posting pictures of things I've made so all of my lovely readers can see what I've been up to. 

Thanks so much for stopping by :)

<3 Ashley

Finals week

Things have been mighty crazy around these parts for finals week and the end of semester show. Last week I had my final critiques with the whole department and I think they went well I'm just at the end of my rope this semester so it was hard to stay focused. Then on Friday everyone was setting up for the end of semester show which is kind of a big deal around these parts. We get quite a turn out of people who are interested in investing in students art and people who just love seeing the new eyes of the new artists. I really enjoy the end of semester show a lot. I submitted 2 pieces in the show and both got in. It was part of my latest series which I will explain a little later in this fun filled blog. Rob (my lovely husband) got 9 pieces in the show and 4 of them sold! How wonderful! He is so very very talented and I get excited for him when he does well with what he is doing (which is often because he works so hard on everything he does). Rob and I also submitted some of our work into a gallery space and had our first showing in Kansas City's first friday :) (if you're in the KC area our work is being displayed at Hadens lofts and the lofts are for rent and amazing in every way). This was quite exciting because I feel like things are starting to work out with our artwork and it's good to get our names out there.

 Ok on to what I've been working on for the past few months. My series started out as documenting the passage of time in a certain place in my life that I spend time in. I would take photographs randomly throughout the day by remotely controlling my camera. I would then layer these photographs on top of one another to create movement and action. I didn't really like how they were turning out. They just weren't really conveying anything that I was going through at the time or anything that I wanted to translate to the audience.
 So then I just started taking photographs of everything and everywhere I was to maybe figure out a better way to portray the passage of time in my life and maybe get some of my frustrations to come through. Thus started the beginning of a series I really am starting to like and know that I can expand on. I started taking photographs of all around me and joining them together to create an exploration of the spaces I find myself in and reconstructing it the way I feel is beautiful and cohesive.

I feel that this series just starting off for me. It's helping me to work through the idea of routine in my life and whether or not it's a good thing. These photographs are taken of places I find myself in all the time in this routine I've created for myself and once I take the photos I start to reconstruct them in a way that isn't conducive to the routine of which I see them. So this is quite an interesting progression for me. I've never progressed in a forward motion before especially in a way I enjoy. So hopefully this will continue and I'll share my discoveries with all of you :)

I have some photos of our end of semester show as well but they are at my home computer (I'm at school now) so I will update that soon.

Thank you very much for continuing to read my blog I really appreciate it :) Also I would love to hear what you think about my new series. I'm titling all the photographs individually with the 2 intersecting streets where they are located. Any feed back is good feed back :)

Also, Rob has a ton of pottery and if there is anyone in the KC area that wants some very reasonably priced pottery just leave a comment and let us know, if not it's all going into storage.

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

<3 Ashley

Dear World,

I'm sorry I have not written a new blog in such a long time. I've been working hard in school because it's crit week and finals next week so it's been kind of crazy! I will be posting all the stuff I've been working on soon like my knitwear and my photos. I'm excited about everything and hope I can finish everything up in time.

I cannot explain how excited I am for this semester to be over. I've been dealing with a lot of stuff this semester so this summer break is just what I need. Sometimes it's just hard for me to understand some people. I've just come to realize that I should cherish my true friends and my husband and my family because it is so hard to find true friends and people who will stand by you and understand you in this world. I thank God everyday for the people in my life :)

Alright well I'm off to frame my work. Thanks so much for reading my blog and I will update soon with everything I've been working on this semester. Talk to you all soon!!


<3 Ashley