time to bestow :: fifty shades of denim

Amy turned thirty. Which meant time for a party.

The custom birthday invitations were designed by the birthday girl herself.

Heavy cotton stock with a custom brand and printed in navy ink.

Wrapped in a denim (Levi's, no less) and jute band

and mailed off in a fantastically thick kraft envelope.

The details were true to Amy - and her brand.
Literally.
The napkins featured her custom brand.
And she received a custom branded belt buckle as her first birthday gift.

And in true Amy fashion, the requested attire was Canadian tuxedo.

Yes, we do have some good old Canadian roots.

Guests obliged and we had ourselves a bona fide

Fifty Shades of Denim Party!

Which was not really the intention, but that's sure what it looked like.

:: party on ::

as featured on martha stewart weddings :: lauren + jack

We were so honored to have Lauren + Jack's Aspen wedding 

recently featured on Style Me Pretty. 

Imagine our excitement to see their rehearsal dinner 

featured on Martha Stewart Weddings today!!!

photo via martha stewart weddings

Loving how the bride played up the red details for this event!

We are total suckers for old red trucks.

Congrats to Lauren + Jack and wishing them much happiness!

We're off to celebrate as well.

you are seated at :: custom chalkboard escort board

Welcome your guests with this over-sized custom chalkboard.

This easy to spot escort seating chart can substitute traditional escort cards.

Arranged by table and easy to read, this is the perfect decor to your wedding day, 

whether the affair is a black tie night or vintage mountaintop high.

Sized at a generous 2 feet x 4 feet, this beauty can be flipped over 

(yep - chalkboard on both sides) 

after your guests are seated and act as an interactive guest book with chalk included, 

or provide a huge note of thanks as your friends and family depart for the night.

 Available from Express Yourself here on Etsy,

with option of local Denver, Colorado pick-up or shipping within the lower 48 states.

hello :: new collection of mini emergency bags available

We have all been there at some point. 

When we could use some FIRST AID.

Too many drinks the night before.

Sore muscles from skiing/hiking/biking too hard.

Altitude sickness and dehydration.

A case of the travel tummy.

That's where we come in.

Meet the Mini Emergency Kit Collection 

by theHELLOtote and Express Yourself.

IN SICKNESS + IN HEALTH mini emergency kit bag

RECOVERY KIT mini emergency kit bag

OH KIT, WHAT HAPPENED?!? mini emergency kit bag

ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE... mini emergency kit bag

TAKE TWO AND DON'T CALL US IN THE MORNING mini emergency kit bag

GET YOUR KIT TOGETHER mini emergency kit bag

CUSTOM mini emergency kit bag

High Altitude Helpers.

Hangover Kits.

Morning After Magic.

The Post-Party Pack.

Travel Tamers.

Call it what you will - it's perfect for destination events.

Seven great new designs and more coming soon.

Custom options available as well.

Stuff with your own goodies.

Or let us do that for you!

Consider these for your wedding.

Because we don't want your guests stuck in their hotel room.

We want them out and about.

And at your wedding, preferably.

as featured on style me pretty :: lauren + jack

 We loved working on this wedding last summer for Lauren + Jack.

Married by the river in Aspen on a classically Colorado July afternoon.

The details were perfect and the entire affair was unique, 

yet authentically true to being an Aspen wedding.

Click on the circle below for the full feature and amazing images...

on the go :: map making

custom first anniversary map by express yourself

There are times when we need to call on our longitude and latitude skills to set up a custom map for an event or occasion. Whether it's a wedding timeline or a group scavenger hunt around town. Or even a map to chronicle first year travels for a newlywed couple or to locate our own favorite Aspen spots, each map is certainly unique. We've started branching out beyond Aspen and the Roaring Fork Valley into other cities and states - New York, Boston, Manchester, Chicago. Our clients have moved and traveled (sometimes far) beyond Colorado.

Starting at the end of May, we'll be embarking on a four week map making class to help broaden our horizons and look at topography and geography from a new persepctive. Does the thought of map making in a class setting get you excited too?! If so, join us here at Skillshare for the Map Making: Learning to Communicate Places Beautifully class. We're thinking of a mapping out a great trip we took through Spain! Whether or not you join us, we're sure we'll intersect with most of you at some point. Oh, the map puns could go on an on...

:: safe travels ::

on the go :: summer in aspen

We are fortunate to have the best of the Roaring Fork Valley right out our front door. One of those 'bests' being Aspen. As winter eases into spring we eagerly await the arrival of summer in town. And we prepare for days full of festivals and music. Hikes and camping. Shopping strolls and dinners on the patio. Good food and great wine. Weddings and sporting events. Hot air balloons and gondola rides. Friends and family visiting. And tourists - yes, we look forward to the visitors from afar. After all, this place is too great to not share. For those that can't make it here this year, at least this time lapse video from a local Basalt-ine will give you a few minutes of what we look forward to enjoying all summer long.

Aspen Timelapse from jason dewey on Vimeo.

let's take a stroll down memory lane

It has been ages since we've seen this photo.

Actually, the image within the photo.

The one on the right where 'Mamy' and M are walking down Midland Avenue.

Let's take a better look...

She hasn't worn those pink cowboy boots in at least a year.

If not longer.

They simply grow up far too fast.

Pick up your copy of the Basalt Chamber of Commerce Directory

to get the insight on everything Basalt.

And to check out that adorable munchkin strolling down memory lane.

spring sale :: in-store and online!

SHOP in-store at 231 Midland Avenue in Downtown Basalt and save 15% storewide

:: or ::

SHOP online and use code BFABB3 to save 30% online

Real Celebration: A Birthday in Letters

This is the perfect Real Celebration post for this week - National Letter Writing Week. We encouraged you earlier this week to sit down and write one letter. Someone on the other end of that letter will likely cherish your words (and for some of you, be surprised that you put pen to paper). But how about if you received a whole batch of letters? On your birthday, no less. Real letters (not just cards) with stories and memories and words of gratitude and celebration. Read on...this post gets better. We promise.

This past October, we took our mom, Nancy, out of town for a night.

We headed to Devil's Thumb Ranch in Tabernash, Colorado (hi Norman!) and quickly settled in for our second annual girl's getaway. After massages and wine and the joy of getting on the slow track, we presented our mamacita with her birthday gift. She was not expecting much this year. Why? Let us backtrack for a moment.

The previous year, we gave her a basket of gifts. An enormous basket, with one gift for every year she was celebrating. We are not saying the basket was big because of her age (never - she is eternally young!), but the idea of wrapping up 20, 30 or even 40 gifts for one person is a bit crazy. This was one big, crazy basket of birthday fun. It took forever to unwrap all the goodies. And she kept talking about it all year long! She never expected us to pull off something that big again - but we did. This year, we gave her an even better present.

We were inspired with an idea for her birthday last year, but sadly we ran out of time. After last year's memorable celebration, we came across a timely blog post showing us exactly how to execute this great idea. We set out to make this year even more memorable and put our idea in motion. A month before her birthday, we sent out a letter to her friends and family to ask them to consider writing a note to Nancy to help celebrate her upcoming birthday. We wanted to keep it a surprise so we had the letters mailed to us. Here is what the email to her friends looked like (and yes, we had to hijack her email list without her knowing!):

We were not sure of the response. But we never should have doubted the idea. Ever. We immediately received emails in response and a slew of letters in the mail.

 A couple letters were even hand-delivered and tucked under the front door mat.

We not only got enough letters to give her one for every year she was celebrating - but we had bonus ones too!

We put each letter in their own envelope and labeled them from 1 and on up.

We stacked them together, tied them with ribbon and put them in a gift bag. We were so excited to give her this gift and we almost spilled the beans (accidentally, of course) several times!

She was beyond(!) surprised with this gift and could not stop gushing over the idea. It was amazing that together with her friends and family we were able to create such a memorable gift. Perhaps we all loved the idea so much because far too often we wait until it is too late to tell someone what they mean to us. But she had the chance to hear it now and we had an opportunity to hear about our mom from the perspective of her friends. Her siblings. Her mother. Her brother-in-law and father-in-law too! There were some stories that shocked us and some that were sincerely heartfelt and made us cry. Others recalled hysterical moments that really put so much into perspective. It was one of those nights where we just kept reading letters, drinking wine, lounging by the fireplace and really celebrating our mom.

It was unforgettable and we would do it all over again. 

Artists to Watch: Brianna Martray

This past April and May, we traveled through the pedestrian bridge from the main terminal to the A Gates at Denver International Airport. A beautiful, peaceful bridge that easily transports you from the hustle and bustle into the gate area without much effort, yet it was clear that there was someone busy at work. An art installation was occurring. Tiny paper cranes, floating from one end of the bridge to another. But it the early stages of the project were evident and the concept was still clearly taking shape; ladders were tucked to the side and blue painter's tape marked the future path of the art.

{via}

Over this past weekend we finally made it back across that bridge. It was subtly impressive to see the cranes float their way from one end to the other, seemingly traveling with you as you yourself journeyed on. But the most impressive part of this art installation is the story behind it. The story of the artist, Brianna Martray. Here it is in her own words:

Once upon a time, I wrote a novel. I took me eight years and upon completion a New York City Literary Agent asked for a copy. I reread it again, decided it wasn’t good enough and never sent it. In 2006, I started folding the stacks of manuscript pages lying around my house into origami cranes. Fast forward to the summer of 2010 when both my computer and my back up hard drive are stolen and the only finished copy of my novel lives in 10,000 folder paper cranes, the shadow of thousands of hours of work, the history of my creative journey, remnants of a former self.

It is only fitting that this art installation be in a place of movement, travel. A place of going forward. Visit it the next time you visit DIA. {travel on}