by abby on August 14, 2012 | Comment
With only a few more days still D and I take a beach vacation we are getting a little stir crazy. This was evident last weekend, when inspiration hit me to bake a very fun pie. D loves pie. Let me say this again, D LOVES his pie. So as a thank you for all his help with the Park Ave Festival I baked him a peach pie (with local farm fresh peaches…yum). But being an illustrator I can’t ever just leave the pie top blank! So with this pie I drew a skull with some of the left over dough. Pretty cool, right?! We now call this Skull Pie. Skull Pie is quite delicious, too.
How do you decorate the top of your pie?
by abby on June 19, 2012 | Comment
Over the weekend D and I traveled to Pennsylvania for a family party to celebrate my grandparents 65th Wedding Anniversary. We stayed at a restored turn of the century healing springs hotel that still had a natural spring bathing pool. The hotel was situated at the bottom of 2 ridges and offered several hiking trails around the grounds. On one of our hikes I spotted this beautiful shadow on our path. Mother nature is quite the artist! It was so cool and comfortable walking in the woods. I’m missing that cool breeze now as Rochester is going through a 90 degrees heat wave. Stay cool!
by abby on June 12, 2012 | Comment
Running my own company has been an amazing experience. In my 2 years I’ve learned so much about myself, my art, and how to run a business. AbbyDora Design is a one woman show. I’m the Creative Director, Chief Financial Officer, IT tech, and Head Paper Cutter. In my art and in business each decision is made by me. I’ll admit that at times I don’t have all the answers, but I do what I can to find them and make the best decisions I can and then move on.
I’m taking Edwin Land’s advice to heart with all my preparations for the Corn Hill Festival. I’ve made several new pieces of art and created new products to sell. I’ve made hundreds of decisions for this summer art festival and hope they all come together to create an amazing showcase for AbbyDora Design!
Are you planning on attending the Corn Hill Arts Festival?
by abby on June 5, 2012 | Comment
This summer D and I decided our second story porch needed more color—especially after our rental house was painted a very non-inspiring medium brown. I was determined to add touches of bright yellows, reds, and apple greens!
Armed with our to-go coffee mugs we took on the nurseries of Rochester. Although it took most of Saturday we found just the right splashes of color.
I found our red in a vibrant pair of Geraniums. And I even potted them in a gorgeous indigo blue ceramic pot.
A large fern in a hanging basket adds a great splash of bright green. Herbs in orange ceramic pots dot our railings for more color.
Finally, we have a wonderful corner of yellow and purple!
Now when we sit on our porch there is color at every glance and let me tell you it feels so good! I know D and I will be enjoying our porch even more this summer.
How have you decorated your porch or patio?
by abby on April 20, 2012 | Comment
Mother’s Day is only 1 month away. Do you have a special card for your special mom? AbbyDora Design can help! We have a variety of sweet and colorful notecards perfect for wishing your mother a happy day. Here are just a few:
SPRING DOODLES
DAISY & MARIGOLD
Please visit our Etsy shop for more handmade Mother’s Day cards and great gifts.
Life is full of moments to be shared. Send someone you love a note card.
by abby on December 20, 2011 | Comment
Our home is a blend of Christmas and Chanukah which we call, “Christmukah”.
I added a few touches of blue and gold to my own Christmukah celebration with these garlands around the house:
HANDMADE GOLD PAPER GARLAND
HANDMADE BLUE SNOWFLAKES GARLAND
Tonight we will celebrate the start of Chanukah with latkas and watching the candles burn low on our menorah on the mantle, next to our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.
I love the holidays!
by abby on December 13, 2011 | Comment
My whimsical handmade stripes and dots paper garlands and ornaments are so fun that they gave me inspiration for another baking project.
I love the combination of stripes and dots. The black and white color palette adds the right amount of sophistication too. If I was to host a stripes and pok-a-dot party, I would want a dessert to match. Brilliant! My first thought was chocolate. So I baked decadent chocolate brownies and covered them with vanilla frosting. The fun part comes next! I decorated the tops of the brownies with black decorating gel into stripes and pok-a-dots.
FYI: save time and stress and buy black decorating gel instead of making black from frosting. You’ll be a much happier baker. Ta-da! Amazingly cute brownies to compliment your party’s theme.
by abby on November 18, 2011 | Comment
There’s a great sale going on at AbbyDora Design. It’s only happening until November 30th, so don’t delay!
Buy $20 or more and receive a coupon code for 15% off your next purchase.
It’s simple to cash in on this deal. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Buy 2 holiday card sets, you get the coupon:
Or maybe you want to decorate your tree with a handmade paper garland?
Buy 2 garlands and you’ll receive the coupon, too!
Gift a piece of nursery art to a new mom this holiday season and your own holiday purchase could be discounted!
Add on gift tags and ornaments to your shopping bag and reward yourself with a coupon on your next order.
With over 85 items to choose from, there are so many ways to give yourself a 15% off coupon at the AbbyDora Design shop. Perhaps it’s time to do a little weekend shopping? Hmmmmm?
by abby on September 30, 2011 | Comment
One of my favorite colors is teal. It’s a color that I have always been able to live with, without ever getting tired of it. I also love vintage glassware. So when I began to see vintage TEAL mason jars popping up you can imagine how excited I became. However, all the ones I saw were already refurbished and expensive. I don’t mind getting a little dirty, so I thought maybe these jars would be for sale at local yard sales. I mentioned this idea to a good friend of mine, who happens to be the Queen of the Yard Sale. “No problem” was her answer and within a couple of weeks, I was the proud parent of 3 charming, extremely dirty, teal mason jars. I was even more elated that 2 of them had glass tops!
My little teal gang was pretty dirty, but the beauty of their color and form was shinning through all the rust and grim. I pulled on rubber gloves and went to work scrubbing and soaking and scrubbing and soaking and then scrubbing some more. It look a weekend’s work of love, but I eventually got these little jars back into shape!
My teal jars are giant leaps better than they were, but you’ll notice they aren’t perfect. A little grim still clings on, but as D says “It shows their history and gives them a little more character”. Well said D, well said. I’m very happy to have my mason jars. “The twins”, the jars with the glass tops, are proudly displayed on my mantle, adding a splash of color to my collection of black frames. The other jar is happily sitting on my windowsill in my studio. I smile every time I see them.
