My other job

As a graphic designer, I often get asked to create things for friends, whether it be business cards or flyers or even wedding invitations. For my own wedding, I even created my invites, the thank you cards, a logo, the table signs, programs, etc. And actually, had a great time doing it, so I offered up my services to friends and family.. and hopefully will expand part of my freelance/small graphic design business. So I have decided to share what my passion and art is...
Here are a few designs I have completed lately..

For Erin & Keith, one of my sisters very good friends. She is having her wedding at her parents house, with a very rustic, earthy theme. (I am very fond of the first)

Next is for a family friend Sara and her fiance Erik. She is having her wedding at the beautiful and historic Churchill Downs, so she wanted something "classic"

And also, my friend Anne need biz cards for her new Make-Up biz she is starting. So here is something a little flirty for her..

I definitely want to get more into stationary and invitations. I just love all things having to do with paper. So if you need any of this type of work, hit me up! I am very reasonable since I am trying to build a portfolio!

Things I am loving right now...

LOVE this girls style of invitations and stationary.

This dress came in my inbox the other day..

This bathing suit is totally hot! May have to try some one pieces on this year.

GOAT CHEESE! (not necessarily from Whole Foods, but I think it has taken over the feta spot!)

What I'm gonna look like.

And of course, my goal.

Help Me To My Goal!

As those who are frequent readers know, I have been training for the half marathon here in my city since the beginning of January. Well G came to me last week and suggested that we get involved more and raise money for the American Cancer Society. G and I have both been personally affected by cancer, my father and his mother, and we want to give back to the ongoing search for a cure. We have formed a team with
DetermiNation through the American Cancer Society and looking to raise $2500.

From my personal page:

As a member of the American Cancer Society DetermiNation endurance event program, I am dedicating my training and race participation to help the American Cancer save lives. The miles and months of training will be tough, but being a part of the DetermiNation program will give me the support and strength I need to endure. And, every mile I conquer will be more meaningful because I’m doing this for something greater – for a cause I truly believe in. And I’m hoping you’ll support me in my efforts.

Most of us have been touched by cancer in some way. This is my way of fighting back against a disease that has taken too much. When I cross that finish line, I will be doing it for you and for all the people we know who’ve been touched by this disease. More than 11 million Americans who have a history of cancer will celebrate another birthday this year. Please support me with a donation so that together, with the American Cancer Society, we can help save lives and create a world with less cancer and more birthdays

So if you would like to donate please go to : My Personal Page

Any amount is appreciated and much welcomed.

By the way

My University of Kentucky Wildcats are #1!!!!!
It's been a long road the past couple years, happy to be back where we belong.

On, on U of K!

Week 3 Update

Another week down!

This wasn't our best week. While G and I completed all of our training this week for the mini marathon, we didnt do the best on the "diet". Monday, I had to go visit a client and didnt have time to go home and make lunch, so I ended up having to get something at the walgreens. UGH. Then, about mid week, G had to go to the store to get something, and I asked him to bring home some cookies (I LOVE me some cookies). On friday, we knew we were heading to a friends birthday party and would be eating out that night, but we sort of ran out of food last week and haven't been able to make it to the grocery, so friday for lunch we ate out. Saturday, we were going to go to the grocery after we ran some errands, but after stopping for lunch at Calistoga, we ended up just going home... mistake! Then Saturday night, we met friends for pizza. And to top off the entire "bad" weekend, we ended up ordering wings for lunch yesterday and eating left over pizza last night. Not good. We are planning on going to the grocery tonight. We have to get back on schedule. We only have one more week left!!!

But like I said, we did finish all of our runs, even the 5 miler on saturday!! I was very proud of G. He has never really run that far, and he did it!! So the training continues. I mentioned last week that I am starting to do the P90X on my short run days or days I have off. So, last week I did 3 videos - Cardio X, Arms & Shoulders (with Ab Ripper X) and Core Synergistics. They were all pretty challenging, but I am also doing them with some caution till I learn the moves and get a little stronger. I was supposed to do the Yoga yesterday (which I heard was terrible!) but didn't get to it because my body couldn't leave the couch.. :) . I am very sore today though. I dont know if it's from the running, the P90X, both or the terrible bed we have... but I am in pain. I hope I can complete my 4 miles tonight. And then hopefully, be able to do the Yoga tomorrow and get back on schedule (I love a schedule).

So all in all, not our best week, but damn if we didnt try!

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just holding my tongue

I am just holding my tongue today. Have had a few things to say and a few things to comment on, but I am choosing to not say anything. Hold my tongue. Keep my feelings to myself.

Busy weekend ahead. Must get some things checked off the "list". I'm crossing my fingers I can get some done! Wish me luck.

I did 2 things yesterday

I did two things last night when I got home from work...
1. Did my first ever P90X video
2. Ate chocolate chip cookies
So, one good thing and one bad thing. I came home from work all pumped up because I only had to run 1 mile for my mini marathon training. I immediately put my running clothes on and knocked out my mile. I have been wanting to start my P90X for a while now (I bought it forever ago), but havent started because a) I have procrastinated and b) I knew I was training for this mini marathon and had to figure out a way to fit it in without completely taking up all my free time. So, I have decided that I am going to do my P90X on the days where I have shorter miles, and on my cross train days in my running schedule. This puts me at about 3-4 days a week. There would be no way to do them both fully at the same time. But I think it will be a good introduction into the P90X program, and also help me with my running training as well. I am feeling good about this compromise and hope I can keep it up.

I am a little sore after my first work out, but not as sore as I expected to be. But then again, I was trying to follow along, having to watch the moves before starting. And my space was a little bit limited (I need to modify this). Once I get used to the routines and the techniques he uses, I think I will be much more sore. But I am happy I got through the first DVD. And man! does he do a lot of push-up type exercises!! My upper body isnt that strong, so I am definitely feeling it there. But, bring it on! I am ready!!

And yes, I had cookies. I just NEEDED them... haha. G was going to the store, and being the loving husband that he is, picked up some cookie dough for me by my request. I love that he is enabler sometimes. :) They were good, and I deserved them.. and I am not going to feel bad about them. But definitely back to healthy today.

Crafty

Every day I read about 10-15 different blogs. Ranging from fashion advice, to health advice, to arts and crafts. I choose to read each of these for the pure fact that I want to be like all of them! Funny, smart, creative, witty, etc etc. I especially get excited about the blogs where they are creating things every day. I am in awe and a little bit jealous too. I so want to be crafty! I want to make.. THINGS! Whatever it may be. Now, I come from an artistic background. I took extra art classes in high school, majored in art studio/graphic design in college and now actually work as a graphic designer in the advertising world. So I get my share of being creative, but not the "creative" I want to be or do, or whatever. I could make soo many cute things if I just had the time. Time is always the issue. When am I ever going to have free time to do what I want? Right now I am currently holding 2 jobs (sorta). I work an 8-5 m-f and then come home and do more stuff on my computer to help get my own business running. But I just want to be crafty! I have so many crafty ideas. Today, I read one of my blogs where she was taking a sewing class! WHAT?! I wanna do that!! How fun!? And I want to paint, and draw, and make things for the house, etc etc etc etc. I just want it all. How do people balance?

(my posts always turn into rants.. excuse me... its an outlet)

Week 2 Update

Another week down and we are going strong! Again, G and I did not eat out one time last week. There was almost cheating on Friday because we didnt really feel like cooking, but we ending up to the grocery for some grub to cook because our food is quickly dimensioning in the cabinet. New things we made included spinach, sun-dried tomato and cheese stuffed pork, G made a pot roast, and I cooked salmon with spinach and goat cheese on friday. Nothing too exciting, but we are working on it.

I am still going on the "no sweets", although, I did have a few pieces of candy... it's just sitting in our cabinet and I couldnt help myself! oops! Also, I had one coke on saturday, but that's it! I still think that is pretty good. One soda for one week. I'm not going to fret over it.

G and I also had another great week training!! Completed all days and even ran a race on saturday. Actually, the race was a 5K (3.1 miles), but we had to do 4 miles to stay on schedule, so after we finished the race, we did a quick one more mile. Needless to say, we were definitely feeling the after effects! G and had never run so far since high school and was especially sore. It is always nice to have a day off (sunday) after a race, just to recuperate. So this week we will pick it up again, having another 4 miles today! Thankfully, the weather has warmed up and we are now able to go outside and run. Charlie dog will be happy about this too!!

And one more accomplishment for the week... I finally did all my P90X measurements, pictures and fit test last night!! whoo hoo. I am officially ready to start! I must say, I am not so happy about the pictures. UGH! Until I start to see change, I cannot make myself post them.. sorry! I dont know how things can go so down hill in 3 months! I mean, I looked back at pictures I took while doing the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, and then the pics I took last night, there is such a difference. Its frustrating. I dont know how "skinny" people do it. I try and try and it seems like every year, I am a little bigger than the year before. I hate it.

Sorry, little rant. I am going to start trying to be in a better mood. Everything seems to get me down lately, and it's definitely having an effect on others (aka G). I dont like it and I want to change it. But I know it's going to have to be a real conscious effort. I feel myself just becoming negative about everything and that's not how I want to live my life. So, sorry for the pessimism... I will work on that.

So much to do!!

HHEEEYYYY!!!
Like the new header? I am working on trying to "vamp up" my blog and make it a little more personalized to my tastes. I am still working on the background image, but it's just not working out how I want it to... so it may be a bit before I can finish that up.

I have so many things going on right now that I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day to complete them. With working an 9 hour shift (this includes my 1 hour lunch), then running every night to train for this race, then doing my own personal business stuff at night, it seems as though my day never ends. And there are so many other fun things that I would rather be doing with my time, like playing with my new camera, for instance... or taking Charlie dog to the park! (He needs a run in the worst way, but its been muddy, so it's not completely my fault). And then I have favors for people that I said I would do, and those projects are so much more fun than the usual design work, but again, I find it 10:30 at night when I finally have the time to work on them, but I must go to sleep at 11 or I am REAL cranky the next day! Such a rollercoaster and endless cycle of events.

I am hoping to get a bunch of stuff done this weekend. I seem to say that every weekend, but really, things need to be done! G and I are running in another race tomorrow morning, so maybe that will kick start the energy to clean the house, go to the grocery, and the million other things that are on my "list". But I bet I know what will happen, two of our fav basketball teams are playing tomorrow. One at noon and one at four.... we will be watching (and not doing what needs to be done). We'll see I guess#

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Places I want to vist

Today, as I was driving downtown, I noticed two different airplanes in the sky, and my only thought was "Today would be a great day to fly somewhere (especially warm)". And there are a ton of places I want to go!! (I should play the lottery). But I feel that I should have a list of places to visit and make a conscious effort to make it happen.
Here's my list:
1. Los Angeles -- my big reason in wanting to go right now, is for my my sisters 30th birthday! I am just hoping I can find cheap enough flights
2. Hawaii -- G has stated we are going in September to stay with his cousins... again, I hope I can afford it
3. New York City - I have been, but want a longer time to look around
4. Back to Europe for another week trip.
4a. France
4b. England (specifically London)
4c. Spain
4d. Germany (for G's family history)
4e.. really anywhere
5. Greece
6. More islands in the Bahamas/BVI region
7. Denver
8. Boston
9. Chicago -- I just need another trip to one of my all time favorite cities
10. New Orleans for Mardi Gras -- have the opportunity to go this year, but dont have any vacation days to go :(
11. Alaska
12. Vancouver -- only because I saw a blog post about it today and it looked amazing
13..In all reality, take me anywhere.. I wanna go. I wanna see it all!!!

Week 1 update

Well, G and I have done it.. we have not eaten out for an entire week! I will admit that we almost used one of our visa gift cards we got for the wedding to go out and get something yesterday, but we refrained, made ourselves a pizza and kept on with our goal. I am hoping to try some new recipes this week as we have pretty much made all of our "staple" food, so we may have to make another dreaded trip to the grocery.. but we'll see how long we can go with out going there.

I have also been pretty good about eating better. The sweets were definitely down (until g made me brownies while I was at the movies thursday night. luckily, they hardened and weren't as good the next day!) And I pretty much drank water all week too. An occasional glass of juice, milk or a crystal light packet in my drink. I did have 1 coke yesterday, but I just couldn't help myself.. I was recovering ;)

We have also made it through week 1 of the mini marathon training! It has been utterly cold here for the past week even getting snow one day, so G and I are so thankful we have a treadmill! I am not a huge fan of the treadmill, but for little short runs like we are doing right now it's OK. I am hoping to get back outside this week. And I am sooo proud of G. This is something he never thought he would do and he is doing so good. He's been going down and running on the treadmill on schedule with no complaint. I just hope the enthusiasm keeps up (from him and me!)

Oh and here is a horror story for you. On saturday, I decided to take fat boy (the charlie dog) out for a walk, since he has been cooped up in the house for while because of the weather. There is still a bit of snow on the ground, so I was trying to find something else to wear besides jeans. I remembered I had a pair of green cargo-ish type pants that I had lost a button too and just needed to resew on one. So, I found the pants, found the correct replacement button in my "button bag" and proceeded to sew on the new button (which happened to be the button that closes the pants at the waist). Being proud of myself for the sewing skills, I put the pants on..... ACK!!.... they dont fit!! OMG. I mean I couldnt have buttoned them if I tried... :( I dont remember exaclty when I had these pants on last, but I didnt know I had put on so much weight!! I am utterly disappointed and sad. I mean, I fit into all of my other clothes, so I am not exactly sure why these dont fit, but something must be done pronto! It's just rediculous. I have a complete fear of "letting myself go" and it kind of drives me insane. So now, I must get my a$$ in gear (literally).

Besides the traumatic event, the only other thing I didnt accomplish was starting P90X! I know, I know... it's gonna happen. Especially after the pants incident!!!

2 wants

I am such an organizer these days. I love lists, for one thing. And I love the thought of everything having a "home". Like on my computer for instance, I will make folder after folder for files to fit into so it's all organized for me to find easily. So there are two things on my "want" list (along with a 1,000 others) that will help me in the organization department..

1. A good address book.
When planning our wedding we had to collect about 200 addresses for all of our friends and family and currently they are all sitting in an Excel document on my computer. I hate that. I want a really cute address book to write in (with pretty pens!) and make it all organized. What would also be beneficial in my new address book, would be a place for all my passwords! I find that I usually use the same password for everything, but I recently had to change it because someone hacked into my email account. So now, I am totally confused as to what has the new, old or REALLY old password... it's hard to keep up!

and
2. A recipe book. (not a cookbook)
Since G and I have decided to not eat out for the entire month of January, I am wanting to make new recipes besides our staples of chicken, asparagus and sweet potatoes! And I know there are TONS of recipes that I have found but don't print out because i have no where to store the recipe once I finish making it. Currently, I have a few recipes written down on printer paper stuffed in a drawer in the kitchen, not really helpful (or organized). So, this recipe book could be an accordion folded binder or something like that, but I don't want to just pick it up from the local office supply store, I'd rather have something cute and stylish!

Any thoughts to where I could acquire such things?

Quit misspelling!

I know that I definitely fall into the category of one who will occasionally (I had to spell check that!) misspell word when I type. I can't help it. I usually leave out apostrophe's and what not because it is just quicker to type without them... but this article is great.. and informative!

Read Up!

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

My excuse? I draw, not write.. it's my artistic license to spell incorrectly and/or improperly use a word! ;)

The Wheel

Today is the day my sister film's for Wheel of Fortune! Everyone cross your fingers and pray real hard she wins BIG!!! I can't wait for the episode to air. I wonder if she'll be able to tell us if she won or not?!?! ooh, I'm excited!!

I forgot to tell her to get a pic with Vanna!!

I'll take 'em

I was perusing the J.Crew website today and ran across these beauties..I am not a big "shooty" fan, but I thought these were simple and classic... LOVE 'EM....but $250 :(

I also saw these...I know they are kind of ugly, but they look sooooo comfortable! And I am a sucker for buckles. But again, $300!!! holy toledo...

Dont look at old pics to make you feel better

The title of this post probably sounds a lot worse than what I am truly talking about. But I uploaded a bunch of photos from the last several months onto my computer tonight and so I was browsing through my iPhoto. And man oh man, I am starting to look O-L-D!! There is such a difference from how I looked 5 years ago to now. And you never really notice because you look in the mirror at your self every day!! For instance, there are now lines on my face that werent there a few years ago. There is definitely more weight on my body. I dont even think I look like the same person!! I mean, some of the pictures are scarey, purely for the fact that my outfit and makeup choices are horrendous! But, I don't know how to explain it. I thought it would be a little nostalgic to go back through old photos, but not so much. Maybe it's too soon. Maybe in 20 years it might be fun.... or maybe not... maybe it will be worse.

Good thing I have started my new face regimen and my goals for 2010!!!

Training starts TODAY!

I have decided to train and run the Derby Mini Marathon again this year. And what makes it even better is that G has also decided he is going to train and run it!! I am so very proud of him because this is something he NEVER thought he would ever do!! We start our 4 month long training today with a whooping 2 MILES! WHOO HOO. haha. We have been doing a bit of running already, so this should be fairly easy, except for the fact that its 10 degrees outside. Oh well, to the treadmill I go!
And also, to keep up with my "resolutions" or "goals" for this year, there are a few certain things I want to start today.
1. No soda for the month of January. I figure if I can do it for a month, it will seriously help in lowering my overall intake of soda
2. No sweets! I have actually been pretty good about this for a while. I LOVE cookies, but refuse to buy them at the store, because I know they will be gone within a day.
3. More healthy snacks and meals (less processed).. Today I even brought a bag of almonds to work with me that I have had sitting in my cabinet for a while.
4. No trips to Walgreen's! I work about 3 doors down from the wal and sometimes it's really easy to go down there and get a soda or candy or whatever.. its all very tempting in there... so NO MORE TRIPS!
5. Eat at home for the entire month. This will not only help in cooking healthier meals and eating better, but it will SERIOUSLY help our financial situation. Do you know how much it costs to eat out all the time?!
6. START P90X! I realize I have been talking about this for a long time, but seriously, I bought the DVD's forever ago and have yet to start.. I need to get on it.

If anyone is in need of a half marathon training schedule for beginners, I have one!
Oh, and did I say I liked lists?

*LCR*