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March 2011

Most anyone who has met my hubby, Andy, will describe him as a quiet individual who only speaks up when he has something intelligent or funny to say (and that's not bad!). But if you have met Andy, and known Andy, only in this past year, you may describe him differently. My husband has finally found his passion. A few people remarked to me this past weekend how much Andy speaks out at his BBQ competitions and how different he is and I've been pondering this over these past few days. No matter how much time and money this BBQ thing has taken up, it is worth it. It's worth the late night discussions on flavor profiles and the ever growing stack of Sam's Club and Restaurant Depot receipts. It's truly worth it because my husband has come alive. It overwhelms my heart to know how happy he is and to watch him proudly serve his BBQ goodness to the public . I'm overwhelmed at the friends he's gathered through this, the new friends, and the old. I'm overjoyed that Kellen, his best friend since first grade, shares this passion and that they get to spend so much more time

This installment of Evernotes Every is being posted on Thursday as tomorrow, March 18, is Bloggers Day of Silence to raise awareness for Japan. 1. Wallnut Branding for Luisa Nicholls My jaw dropped as I perused the branding section of Wallnut's website. I had seen one of their pieces before for Marypat but I hadn't seen any more of their work until this week. The layers of design work together so cohesively and truly give a voice to the couture designer, Luisa Nicholls. Truly one of my favorite designs I've seen in a long time. 2. BF Royal Canvas Garden Bucket This canvas bag combines my love for tactile elements and typography, plus my waning love of gardening. You can use these bags for all sorts of stuff, there's even an equestrian bag! I just like looking at it. The layout is clean and simple with the use of only black ink with a pop of red. This and others are sold on etsy. 3. Burlap Chalk Cloth Tag I read somewhere that as technology increases, the urge for vintage and textural element increases. This may explain my latest obsession with burlap. Anyway, I love these tags that can be used for all sorts of nifty

FUNDRAISING For Japan With Love has a direct link on the website to their fundraising page for ShelterBox. ShelterBox was one of THE first organizations asked by Japan to help and were on hand on the Saturday after the quake. Each large, green ShelterBox is tailored to a disaster but typically contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, blankets, water storage and purification equipment, cooking utensils, a stove, a basic tool kit, a children’s activity pack and other vital items. Please check it out and whatever you can contribute will be so appreciated. BLOGGERS DAY OF SILENCE Anyone that has a blog can help out with this one.The aim is just raise awareness and respect and acknowledge the devastation going on in Japan. The guidelines are simple: 1. This coming Friday, March 18th, no posts at all on your blog. 2. Blog about this beforehand. 3. Tweet and Re-Tweet this link: http://www.forjapanwithlove.com 4. Encourage your readers to contribute to donate shelter to Japan. Whatever anyone can contribute will be appreciated. Every little helps. And here are links to shops and stu­dios rais­ing funds for dis­as­ter relief, compiled by Noel from Oh So Beautiful Paper: Crea­ture Comforts Fugu

Today I reached a mile marker in my Evernote account. My 1,000 note! And what was it you ask? A wedding invitation suite I found, after drooling over Wallnut's other branding designs. If I haven't gushed over Evernote enough on here, you'd think they were a sponsor of this blog, I just wanted to share again why I love Evernote so much! As a designer with many hats, I love to be able to save all my images for each project in one note, in one place, with tags to support them so I can easily find them again later. Then I can save each one in a notebook to further indulge my OCD. Here's how my notebooks stand now

1. Tiny Colorful Buildings Ok so this was actually posted to Kelli Anderson's blog last week but it was too late for my Evernotes Every. But it was too good to pass up so I accepted it for this week instead. I get to make the rules anyway. As I have said before, infographics are hard to make and even harder to design to please the eye. This was designed for Airbnb, an online company that facilitates the renting of "homes" worldwide. Like the movie The Holiday. Anyway, they just booked their one millionth night so Kelli illustrated these infographics for their site. Please view the full image here, it makes me want to book with them and stay in a treehouse out in the middle of nowhere, or an igloo