I am beyond excited and honoured to share that my cards are available for purchase at Cranbrook's newest store, Lane & Meadow! Specializing in "beautifully inspired living," this gorgeous shoppe can be found attached to Soulfood on 11th avenue. Today is Lane & Meadow's opening day! Be sure to check it out :)


I am trying my best to avoid the plastic sleeves that many handmade cards are sold with. I understand their purpose, but in my efforts to seek more plastic free living they just did not seem like a fit for me. I am trying out the idea of using clothes pins to clip the card with the envelope. This seems to make the card a bit more sturdy to stand upright, too. At first I was going to purchase clothes pins that were ready to go, but on second thought I decided to buy some clothes pins and dye them myself using tea to get my desired effect. On the larger ones I was even able to stamp a tiny heart! I love how they turned out.

Here is a look at a simple watercolour card I created to sell in Lane & Meadow with this gorgeous sweet pea set from Studio Katia. Funny, I actually got this set for my Mom for Christmas...borrowed it...and now I love it! Ha! Doesn't this just scream spring!?


Lane & Meadow will be opening their doors for the first time this Wednesday, March 27 from 12-6!

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|| Day 22: Proud of || I am proud of challenging myself to join #MarchMeetTheMaker with @joannehawker this month ♥️. Many positive things have come from it! For example, earlier this month on Day 11 when talking about #reducingwaste I mentioned that I was interested in #madeincanada #plantablepaper 🌸. Although I had looked before and came up empty-handed I decided to look again and came across @botanicalpaperworks out of Winnipeg, Manitoba! I got my hands on some and am so excited to play around with it. This then led me to finally setup my @officialcricut Cricut Explore Air 2, which I have been very intimidated to try; however, I was pleasantly surprised at how user-friendly it was and have already made a few projects with it - like this tag! Stay tuned to see more wooden tags like this one cut from cherry 🍒 tree prunings out of my family’s orchard 🌳 #heytheremaker #papercrafting #ecofriendly

A post shared by Allie (@allyouneedisloveinthekootenays) on Mar 22, 2019 at 10:53pm PDT

Here are some cards I designed especially for Lane and Meadow to sell in their shoppe! The simple clean lines and airy feel of the white on white with a touch of gold coordinates with the feel of this store that specializes in "beautifully inspired living". I also designed a set of thank you cards in this style, too.

I am linking up with the Heart2Heart challenge about tools. The tool I couldn't live without for these invitations definitely has to be my Cuttlebug - along with all of these Close To My Heart thin cuts! For these invitations I used our Basic Hearts + Stitched Hearts + Stitched Rectangle Frames. I love how they came together with this lilac organza ribbon I found at FabricLand.

I got some yummy ingredients in my weekly food box from Kootenay Farm to Folk this week that I couldn't wait to cook up tonight!


Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

1 spaghetti squash
1 tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bunch spinach, chopped
4 slices bacon, cooked
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 tbsp. flour
1 1/4 cups milk (I love Kootenay Meadows)
1 tbsp. Boursin cheese
1 c. Parmesan + extra for topping
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Chop squash in half, lengthwise. Use a baking pan with a lip and put squash slices cut side down. Fill pan with about half an inch of water and bake for an hour.

Remove from oven and allow to cool enough to touch. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium pan. Sauté garlic and spinach for a few minutes until spinach wilts. Add bacon and red pepper flakes. Add flour and stir, then add milk and stir until on lumps remain and add Boursin cheese. Remove from heat, add parmesan and then fresh pepper to taste. Turn the broiler on. Fill each squash with sauce and then use a fork to pull at the 'spaghetti' strands, mixing the sauce with the squash. Top with remaining parmesan and place under the broiler until bubbly. Enjoy!

I have been busy building a stash of cards to feature at Lane and Meadow this spring! I was looking to create something clean and simple with a focus on white cards. Here is a thank you set I came up with using this awesome set from Simon Says Stamp and the lovely stitched rectangle frames from Close To My Heart. My plan for now is to create sets of 5 cards.

Here are two baby cards I created using Freshly Made Sketches. A friend asked me to make up some gender neutral baby cards for her to have on hand after seeing this card I made awhile ago. I really wanted to use this paper that I got in a Simon Says Stamp kit quite awhile ago, and although it does contain some rose gold and pink shades, I still find it to be gender neutral (plus I hope we're moving more away from the whole pink=girl, blue=boy stereotype!) ! At first I thought about overlapping my stars but I really wanted to showcase this sweet sentiment so I used a stitched circle to (hopefully) convey the moon with the stars. I am playing along with #MarchMeetTheMaker by Joanne Hawker on Instagram this month. Be sure to check it out - lots of great inspiration!

I am so pleased that these beautiful custom wedding invitations are finally complete! I have been designing and working on them for the past few months. Don't you love finishing a project? It feels so satisfying! I hand painted 70 of these floral bundles using distress oxide inks. I really like the soft and chalky look they give the image. The bride had an idea on how she wanted the wording and we came up with a template using Google Docs so that we could easily work on it together without sending it back and forth. I was able to print these off onto heavyweight Lawn Fawn cardstock and then heat emboss the image from Simon Says Stamp Floral Bliss stamp set before colouring them up with the inks. I was so pleased to be ready to photograph these invitations that I went down to our local floral shoppe, MJs Floral Boutique, where they helped me pick out just the right sprigs to include :).