. daily daydreams . a blog by love ardently design studio

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I just love this handmade, mix-media Cadbury hot chocolate ad designed by Owen Gildersleeve. Quoting from his portfolio website, he created the ad out of a mixture of found and handmade winter items, like pine needles, snowflakes, woolen jumpers and miniature ice-skates. Isn’t that fabulous? Love, love it!

Dallas is still icy, snowy, and slippery today. Hopefully it will get better in time for the Super Bowl visitors. Meanwhile, there’s nothing better for me than get cozzied up on a comfy sofa with blanket and a cup of hot chocolate.  Have a happy weekend everyone!

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Happy Chinese New Year to all who celebrates! Wishing you a wonderfully blessed and prosperous year ahead!

It’s the first of February, already! Valentine’s day is near and pink (and red) seems to be quite the appropriate color of the month everywhere. Luci Everett‘s french-folded book with the theme of party completely wins my heart today and get me in the pink mood. It’s very well crafted with simple but very intriguing concept. Her typography and illustrations are equally adorable, too. This is such a lovely piece to look at that brightens today’s dreary winter weather!

{photo source: luci everett}

I came across Scoutbooks the other day and thought it was so neat. They sell pocket notebooks with a lot of cool designs and patterns on the cover, but if that’s not enough, you can MAKE your own CUSTOM notebook! How neat is that.

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So, yesterday was my birthday and I am now officially a quarter of a century old :) I realize i have been MIA a lot from this blog and the twitter world as well. I thought I owe you some explanation at the very least. Aside from the holiday business, I have also been sick starting the beginning of this year. This is so upsetting because I want to be able to launch our new portfolio website and our wedding ready-made collection sometime this month, but it is very unlikely to happen. I apologize for haven’t been able to get back to some of your e-mails as well. I will try to finish doing that this week.

Other than that, you will find me on my bed resting :( Being sick is boring and no fun. I can’t wait to get well soon!

From our family to yours. Wishing you warmth, love, and joy on this Christmas season and a wonderful future in the new year ahead!

“For a Child is born to us, a Son is given to us. The government will rest on His shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6 NLT

Following the footsteps of Danni at Oh Hello Friend, I’m participating at this SUPER giveaway that the Chronicle Books is having.

There are 2 ways to enter. For bloggers, you can post a list of Chronicle Books you’d love to own, up to $500 value. For blog reader, you can simply comment on that blogger’s post. If the blogger win, 1 lucky blog reader who posted a comment on the post will also win that blogger’s entire list of books! So, if you like my book list below, simply comment on this post :)

design
Creative Inc by Meg Ilasco and Joy Cho ($16.95)
Hand Job: A Catalog of Type by Michael Perry ($35.00)
Euro Deco by Steven Heller and Louise Fili ($35.00)
This is For You by Rob Ryan ($16.95)
Pictorial Webster’s by John M Carrera ($35.00)
Business Cards 3 by Michael Dorrian and Liz Farrelly ($29.95)
Anatomy of The Sea by Dr. David Ponsonby ($16.95)

crafts
Print and Pattern by Bowie Style ($35.00)
Paper Cutting by Laura Heyenga ($27.50)
Paper + Craft by Minhee and Truman Cho ($19.95)
Amy Butler’s In Stitches by Amy Butler ($24.95)
Reprodepot Pattern Book: Flora by Djerba Goldfinger ($24.95)
Craft Inc by Meg Ilasco ($16.95)

printing
The Handy Book of Artistic Printing by Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas ($40.00)
The Printmaking Bible by Ann d’Arcy Hughes ($50.00)
Little Book of Letterpress by Charlotte Rivers ($24.95)

food + baking
I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita ($14.95)
Flour by Joanne Chang with Christie Matheson ($35.00)

GRAND TOTAL: $500 even, wohoo! :)

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For me, Thanksgiving is not about the turkey, the pie, or the abundant decadent food. It is really about being thankful for life. Today I thank my Savior and Lord for the gift of life and for every single blessing.

I am also thankful for you. Yes, you. All of our loyal readers, subscribers, new visitors, clients, and friends. I am truly nothing without you. Wishing all of you a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving!

I am taking a couple days of this week off to enjoy the fall season. Dallas Arboretum is an oasis in the midst of hectic Big-D town and I think it has its own charm. I’ve been there once for our engagement photo session a few years back. At that time, we weren’t able to enjoy most of the arboretum though.

So, the husband and I went there again for a picnic date a couple days ago and we had a lot of fun. It is such a charming, romantic place. We had a picnic overlooking the White Rock lake and had fun exploring the garden as well. It was a good time to go because they had a fun looking pumpkin village set-up in celebrating the autumn season.