Headboard ideas

Hello everyone! We have finally been able to stop traveling, and relax at home for a little while; which is perfect timing for me since my summer finals are next week. Since my summer break is right around the corner, I've been making a list of things I would like to accomplish during my two week staycation ;). Number one on my list would be to design and build an upholstered headboard for our bed (as long as my hubby and I can find and agree on fabric). Here are some of the designs I've been drooling over for a while:






Obviously i'm in love with the nail head trim and the ivory/cream colored fabric. What I'm having difficulty deciding is if I want it to be straight across or have a little curve in it to give it a little more character. Either way I will post pictures of my designs and my progress :).

 Next would be to repaint our kitchen, and if I was feeling really ambitious we would paint our cupboards, but that most likely won't be happening. Third thing is to wrap up a painting I've been working on and also try to get a little farther on another one I have in the works.

For anyone that is planning a trip to Kansas City in the near future, I highly recommend going to Gram & Dun in the Plaza during happy hour. The appetizers and a select few drinks are half price from 3-6 pm Monday-Friday. For those of you that know me well, I of course ordered the Boulevard Wheat, it was $3 for a pint, I thought that was a pretty good price considering we were on the Plaza. I also sampled the Duck Fat Fries (didn't sound appealing to me, but they're amazing) and the French Onion Dumplings (which were also amazing). If beer isn't your thing then I would recommend the Dark & Stormy cocktail, it has rum and ginger beer and a few other things in it, very tasty and a perfect late summer drink.

Another restaurant that I would recommend is Mestizo by Aaron Sanchez in Leawood, Kansas. It's a little on the pricier side, but the food and the drinks are definitely worth it.We went with some friends of ours, during happy hour when the margaritas were half off. The food was delicious and the perfect portion sizes. You could not go wrong with the Mestizo Margarita, Granada (pomegranate margarita), or the Mojito.

I hope everyone has been having a fantastic summer!

-xo Ashley

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Summer Fun

Time sure flies by when you're having fun! I can't believe how fast this summer has just been flying by, and how long it's been since my last post (sorry I've been really busy). Well this is what I've been up to this summer: Omaha Beer Fest (soo much fun and soo many tasty beers!), my cousin's bachelorette party and beautiful wedding, and a free Goo Goo Dolls & Matchbox 20 concert :). We still have one more wedding to go (next weekend), then hopefully getting to spend time with one of my best friends that may be flying home from Philadelphia, then it seems before I know it I'll be finished with my first semester of Rad Tech school!

A couple of months ago I went shopping with my mom and friend and found the cutest little flower dish. For months (okay maybe not months, hehe) I have been pinning cute ways to display my jewelry and finally found the perfect little dish at Hobby Lobby for $5! It fits perfectly on my nightstand and is the prettiest shade of pink that goes perfectly with my gray bedroom. Here is my new little dish that i'm excited to show off :)

I also thought I would share some of the other cute ideas I found on Pinterest:

I hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th of July, and if you want you can send me some of your fun and creative jewelry displays either in the comments or to my email at amartin0820@gmail.com. Have a happy Sunday!

-xo Ashley Marie

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Gratitude

Well I've made it halfway through the first week of the Radiology program, only two more days to go! This week we've only been going through the student handbook and visiting the various clinical sites we'll be going  to during our junior year. Next week our actual classes begin, i'm soo nervous, but i'm also excited!

This past weekend I participated in the Kansas City Color Run with a few of my friends. We had so much fun that we decided we're going to do it again next year! Here are a few pictures:

Yesterday I was given the idea to start a gratitude list everyday. Making a gratitude list can potentially change your life (for the better) by helping you realize what you already have and continually looking for the positive in everything. I decided to share my gratitude list with you today:

1. I am grateful for my handsome and very supportive husband for putting up with my craziness (at times) and fully supporting me in my decision to go back to school.
2. I am grateful for coffee, because without it I wouldn't be able to function during the day. lol
3. I am grateful for every person that takes the time to read my blog and sometimes leaves a comment (or becomes a follower) ;).

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I'm back!

And i'm back! Sorry i've been gone from my blog, so much has changed since the last time I posted, but don't fret, I will fill you all in :). So here's what's new in the life of Ashley Martin:

1. Last year I made the very difficult decision in going back to school to change careers. Interior Design is still a very big passion of mine and I still plan on being involved in it somehow as I start my new adventure. After working in the field for a few years, it made me realize that my heart was not fully in my work and I never felt the satisfaction I thought I was supposed to feel after helping clients design their homes. What helped make my decision easier was that I had the full support and understanding from my amazing husband, family and friends. So last fall I enrolled in the prerequisite classes I needed, and participated in a job observation at St. Luke's Hospital in their diagnostic radiology department. Then in January of this year, I enrolled in my final prereqs and applied to St. Luke's Radiologic Tech program. I was not expecting to get an interview this year, let alone be ACCEPTED!!! My program starts June 3rd and I can't wait to begin!

2. Also last year I gained another sister :), Matt's older brother got married in a beautiful ceremony at a wine vineyard in September. Then a month later I became an aunt on the same day that two great friends of ours got married at the beautiful Hawthorn House here in KC.

3. Our puppy Jett seems like he never gets tired and just keeps growing! Hopefully I can try to get some pictures of him uploaded (if he would ever sit still long enough).

4. We also celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary by doing a "trash the dress" session. It was soo much fun putting my wedding dress on one more time and taking some amazing photos, Matt was a really good sport about it, probably because the photographer and I brought some booze along ;).

 

My adorable nephew Robert

Our puppy Jett

I think that is pretty much it, I will do my best to post at least once a week . Also we're still slowly working on the house and trying to turn it into our dream home, we're pretty much at the point where we'll have to wait til i'm done with school and have a job before we can do any of the big renovations.

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Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

The new way to make a photo album: photo books by Shutterfly.

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House Projects

I would like to thank everyone again for reading and responding to my last post. It's not an easy decision to make, but the important ones never are:). For now I've decided to save money by not going back to school just yet and continue to pursue a design related position. I have a couple leads right now, so keep praying that something will come through for me soon!


Matt and I have been very busy this past month finishing up all our house projects. Matt finished framing out the opening we made in the kitchen wall, we're waiting on wall tile for the guest bathroom to come in, and we finished painting the master bedroom a couple weeks ago. We decided to go with a faux finish even though I wanted to do a stencil. The next project I want to tackle is putting the stencil in our 1/2 bath in the basement and painting and organizing our office. The ideas I'm thinking for those spaces are similar to this:

 

 

I printed some of our photos from our honeymoon and my favorite one that I framed was this:
Matt's proud of it since he's the one that carved it into the sand :). I'm hoping we'll get our wedding pictures back soon so I can finally frame them and hang them all over the house.

Here are a few more ideas for my future office space when I have the time and money to fix it up.

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New Year, New Attitude

Happy New Years Everyone! Sorry i'm a few days late but it's been a busy week with work and reflecting on the past year and everything good and bad that happened. The main thing i've been trying to focus on is figuring out what I want to do with my career. I've been tossing around the idea of starting my own Interior Design Business to getting my Masters to even completely changing my career and going into the medical field. For most of 2011 I was focused on planning my wedding so I didn't spend as much time as I should have trying to start my career. I was working (still am) two jobs that I enjoy but don't want to stay at the rest of my life. Then after the wedding I focused my time on finding any job related to Interior Design. I was able to land an interview with a prestigious firm in Kansas City and they liked me soo much that they continued to consider me for 3 months. Then finally in December they called to let me know they went with someone else. Frustrating but I tried to look on the bright side and called the community college I was taking classes at to enroll in the Kitchen & Bath Design class for the spring 2012 semester, only to find out that the class was canceled due to low enrollment and I wouldn't have made a difference. I've continued to search and apply at firms and other design related places with no luck as of yet. Starting up my own design business has been on my mind for the last year or so, but each time I seriously consider it, I start telling myself that I don't think i'm cut out for it or I don't even know how to run a business let alone try to start one up from scratch or if I even have what it takes.

Several weeks ago I came across an article online about the top 5 occupations that only require a 2 year degree and pay very well. I decided to read it just for the heck of it and one of those jobs caught my interest, which was an Ultrasound Technician. I have family that's in the medical field and talked to them about it to make sure it's an in demand position and if they think I would be any good at it. Of course they said yes it's in demand and someone with that type of education is pretty hard to come by, and they think I would really enjoy it.

So one of the main conflicts i'm having right now is in May it'll be 3 years since I graduated from ISU and haven't really been able to use my design degree in the way that I would have liked to, and feel like it was a huge waste or I didn't try hard enough to become a designer. When I look back and see what my ISU classmates are doing, most of them are in the same boat, a few became designers right out of college (which I am very happy and proud of you guys!), a few more didn't until a little later (congrats! :)), others went back to school to get their Masters (you guys are rock!hehe), then the rest of them like me just aren't having any luck finding anything.

My other conflict i'm struggling with right now is I've always thought of going into the medical field, even before I considered design, and the more I think about it the more appealing it sounds. But I'm still not ready to give up on design just yet. The last couple weeks i've been looking into getting my NKBA (National Kitchen & Bath Association) membership, I would be able to see more job postings for kitchen design, get member discounts on classes and study materials for the AKBD (Associate Kitchen & Bath Design) certification. I was planning on taking the AKBD exam later this spring or sometime this summer, but since the class I was going to take got canceled, I won't have the credit hours to take the exam. So instead I researched the NKBA website to see what classes they offered and found out to get the credit hours that I need to take the exam I would need to shell out $1000, which I don't have, so that idea is on the back burner for now.

Then today to top it all off I came across another article on the internet about which degrees have the highest unemployment rates and the top degrees are architecture and interior design as well as other art related majors, and even going on to get your Masters won't really help you that much. Then in that very same article the occupations with the lowest unemployment rates are anything in the healthcare or medical field. Basically the pattern I feel like i'm falling into is once I decide to pursue a different way to use my design degree something always seems to happen to make it seem not possible or push it back for another year or more. And the healthcare and medical field seem to always pop up as an alternative. Right now I'm just very confused as to what to do and need a little bit of advice or guidance from anyone willing to give their 2 cents.

Like I said it's a new year and i'm going to be wearing a positive attitude and hope, no scratch that WILL make sure 2012 is the year that things FINALLY start to turn around for me!

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