Ashley Brooke Designs: Our New Stationery!!

Last week, late one night, I needed to write a thank you note and to my surprise I was out of personal stationery. I know what you are thinking, how can that be Ashley, you design stationery?!? Well, that was my thought exactly! I whipped this little illustration up really quick and I'm just loving it! I already send out LOTS and LOTS of mail, but with this extra cute illustration of my family it is making me want to write even more!





Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Ashley Brooke Designs: Opportunities

Hi there!

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.  The Mr. and I thoroughly enjoyed our first Easter as a married couple and had a great time going to church and having brunch with both of our families.

I thought I'd share a quick story this morning concerning customer service. Business owners big and small are constantly presented with opportunities to take negative experiences and turn them into positive ones.  Sometimes they pass the test with flying colors and other times they fail miserably.  

I experienced one of these failures this weekend.  My sweet mom wanted to put a gift certificate for 3 haircuts in the Mr.'s Easter basket, so she asked me to run by his usual place and pick them up.  I arrived right as the ladies were closing down for the day, but all I wanted was a gift certificate.  I knock on the door and the lady shakes her head at me! I shake my head and keep knocking.

She answers the door to tell me they're closed and that she can't help me.  I explain that I know they are closed/closing and I apologize for being there so late but tell her this is for an Easter basket and I just need the gift card, etc.  She says the register and computer are shut down.  I offer to let her write down my credit card number, essentially saying, "hey! here's some money!" and she is completely uninterested.  She proceeds to shut the door in my face.

Now listen.  I realize that is was late and their equipment is shut down.  But she had a prime opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one.  They could have simply taken my information and given me a gift card or even a business card and said, "We can't activate the card today but put this in the basket and come in on Monday and we'll get you a gift card."  Any number of things would have been better than a door in the face.  As a result, I'll be advising the Mr. to get his haircuts elsewhere...






Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Easter! xoxo-Ashley Brooke

Happy Easter Weekend! I hope you all enjoy your weekend!!
xoxo- Ashley Brooke




Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Ashley Brooke Designs: A Shower In A Box!!

This is why I love my clients!!

The lovely Penny contacted me a few weeks back needing something extra special for her daughter and son-in-law who are expecting their first child! Penny desperately wanted to throw them a shower but wasn't able to since they live in Colorado! So she came to me with the "Shower in a box" idea, which I think is SO brilliant! Penny is asking all of the "guests" to mail or bring gifts to her home for the parents-to-be and she is going to put all of the gifts in a box to ship to Colorado! How fun would it be to open up a huge box with tons of pink wrapped gifts over flowing out of it!

I hope you enjoy your shower in the box Luke and Destiny!!

xxoo- Ashley Brooke







Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Ashley Brooke Designs: Stress-Free Gifting

HI there!

Happy Thursday!  I am so excited to visit my cousin's new baby today--sweet, sweet Anna!  Then I get to have dinner with Miss Monogram and LAS--should be a fun-filled day!

Today I thought I'd share a favorite blurb from Emily Post's Etiquette with tips for stress-free gift giving.

-Ask recipients for hints or a wish-list.  Be on the lookout for items throughout the year.

-Trust your own judgment.   Don't be afraid that the gift isn't perfect, if you think they'll like it, they probably will.

-Stay on budget.  If you spend outside your budget, the fun of gifting will be overshadowed by the stress of extending your budget.

-Have nice, thoughtful gifts stashed away in a gift closet for when the gifting occasion presents itself.

Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Ashley Brooke Designs: A Preppy Save The Date!

The super sweet Caroline contacted me in need of a Save the Date that reflected she and her fiance's style! They are both preppy and wanted to be outfitted in Lilly Pulitzer and Ralph Lauren! I am super pleased with the way the design came out! I think it reflects the two of them PERFECTLY!!! And I am still swooning over the color combo of navy and raspberry! Thank you Caroline!! xx- AB







Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.

Ashley Brooke Designs: Dancing Queen

So sorry, our etiquette post was absent yesterday, blogger was being a pill and we never got back to it.  But today I thought we'd talk about dancing, since I spent a good bit of the weekend dancing at all the various wedding activities.

Here are some points of etiquette on the dance floor:

Don't come to the party or dance floor wearing too much cologne.

If the dance floor is packed, keep your steps and your arms contained

If you bump into somebody, apologize and say "So sorry"

Don't correct your dance partner

Content and Illustrations ©2010 Ashley Brooke Designs. All Rights Reserved.