What Louisville, Kentucky Taught Us About Tradition - and Ourselves
We didn’t set out to start a design studio that turns meaningful stories into keepsakes, but that’s what happened in Louisville, Kentucky.
We were just two people with full-time jobs, spending our date nights at Barnes & Noble, reading every side-hustle book we could get our hands on.
At one point, we were this close to starting a pickle company. (Yes, pickles.) I even registered the LLC: Bluegrass Brine. Eric still has the recipe notebook tucked away somewhere. His bourbon bread-and-butter pickles deserve a comeback.
And then, we became parents. Everything shifted overnight.
Like two ships passing in the night, I was nursing and changing diapers. Eric suddenly had a lot more Ashley-free time on his hands. So… he started creating.
Eric hadn’t really made art before becoming a dad. But in the quiet stretches of new parenthood, he taught himself design. I eventually begged him to stop using Paint.net and finally subscribe to Adobe Illustrator.
It was 2015 when we opened an Etsy shop and called it Sole Studio. Because back then, every design was made solely for you.
That little shop grew into another: Our Love Was Born. And eventually, those small beginnings turned into something bigger—the vision that became Designed With Meaning.
But Louisville gave us more than just a place to begin.
It gave us a way of seeing.
We didn’t grow up celebrating Derby season. But in Louisville, it’s in the air.
A few blocks from Churchill Downs, families turn their yards into side businesses for the weekend, holding handwritten signs: “Derby Parking $20.” Kids wave flags. Dogwood trees bloom in white and pink around Cherokee Park. The whole city hums with anticipation, even if you never go near the track.
I’ll be honest - I’ve never loved horse racing from an animal-lover’s point of view. But that energy? It’s contagious. And part of me still longs to feel it again.
Because tradition in Louisville isn’t just something people do. It’s something they feel.
And that feeling stayed with us.
We didn’t set out to create a Kentucky Derby-themed collection. But when Eric began sketching roses for his In Bloom floral series, I knew we had the seed of something deeper.
Then the floodgates opened.
Horses. Roses. Ribbons. It was like our ten years in Louisville came galloping back.
The rhythm. The movement. The reverence.
We call it the Thoroughbred Traditions Collection, but to us, it’s something quieter. A love letter. A thank-you to Louisville - and to our former selves. The young, naive (and less wrinkled) versions of us who dared to dream before we understood how dreams can come with fear and vulnerability, too.
What Louisville really gave us was the reminder that meaning doesn’t have to be loud.
It can be blooming quietly in your front yard.
Racing past in a blur.
Or resting gently in your lap, like a memory you didn’t know you’d kept.
We spent ten years in Louisville, Kentucky - and the memories from that time are stitched into every piece of this collection.
Sometimes blooming, sometimes racing, always meaningful.
Take a look at what we created: Shop the Thoroughbred Traditions Collection.
