Today is my first day at ISU. Which means no more commute and oddly enough that I have to get up EARLIER than before to get to work. I was leaving Ames to get to Drake at 8:15ish but I have to be at work by 8 today. Let’s see how I do. Also, I’m biking. This should be interesting.
Oddly enough this post is going to be mostly about my last day at Drake.
Here is my super-empty cube. Bye bye cube!
And Shelly is really sad to see me go. Mostly because this is my list of jobs. I got everything done that I could on all of my jobs, except a lot of them were stuck in limbo (ie. proofing internally or with the client). It’s color coded so she knows where everything is.
Okay, so she might be a little sad that I’m leaving because I won’t be there anymore.
Also, I will miss the “Can’t Touch This Award” — the weekly award given to somebody who kicked ass the previous week. I got it before I left and I passed it on one last time.
Also … I ran out of stuff to do by 10 AM. So I may have played an hour of N64.
After work we met at Star Bar for drinks. I had a Dirty Blue martini (um stuffed blue cheese olives anybody?).
I’m excited to start a new chapter in my life at ISU: Hopefully getting my grad degree (paid for), getting to spend more time with Mark and my Ames friends (LUNCH anybody?), biking or bussing to work and best of all 2 more hours added to my day every day! I will miss most everybody at Drake and I will most definitely miss having design as my major responsibility. But, I need to hone some of my other skills in addition to design if I want to be a well-rounded teacher some day.
So I promised big news last week and I was so busy I never delivered.
The big news is that I got a new job! I’m leaving Drake and heading to Iowa State University.
[goodbye spike, hello cy*]
Besides the obvious commute change (as in NO MORE COMMUTING) there’s another major change: I will probably not be designing so much.
My new job is Communications Specialist II for Student Recruiting in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. I’ll be doing social media, a bit of writing, a bit of design, student recruitment (so some travel) but mostly I’ll be in charge of the first-year student experience. So I’ll be planning events programming for first-year students to keep them engaged with not only ISU but specifically the college.
So are you freaking out? I’m kind of freaking out. I just realized last week I don’t get to pick paper anymore. Or print vendors.
Calm down. I’m planning to enroll in the College of Design MFA in Graphic Design program while I’m there. It’s not my TOP pick for MFA programs *cough cough* MCAD *cough cough* Yale *cough cough* … but it will be free. And really, I want to teach college students. So what matters is that I HAVE the degree. Not where it’s from. It’s not a BAD program either. So I’ll be getting my design in as well as honing some other important skills.
*I realize that this is the OLD Cy ISU athletics logo … but I reallllly hate all the new athletics logos. Which is funny because I always bitch about Drake constituents that feel the same way about old marching spike that I do about old cy.
(chicken strips with honey mustard and sweet corn)
(kung pao chicken)
(stovetop creamy mac and cheese made with REAL cheese)
(chicken, broccoli and mushroom alfredo with pappardelle’s tomato cracked pepper pasta)
(tomato, basil and chevré pizza)
so hopefully I will have some time to share these experiences with you! And of course all the recipes. I will also try to start sharing points plus numbers with you at the suggestion of Kelly.
Tuesday was my boss’s last day at Drake. *insert super sad face here*
She’s also pregnant — WITH TWINS! So we had a combination going-away-baby-shower party for her. I made chocolate covered strawberries. YUM.
One thing I learned from this round of chocolate covered strawberries (I’ve had less pretty ones created from previous batches):
BE CAREFUL WITH CHOCOLATE. As in don’t overheat it. Do 30 seconds at a time in the microwave in a glass bowl. And when it looks like it needs about 30 more seconds, instead, stir it for 30-60 seconds to melt the remainder. BINGO. Perfect chocolate. I also used a spatula to drizzle white chocolate over the top. White chocolate is even more picky, so be careful or it will get lumpy and clumpy.
I by NO means am a photographer, so please don’t take that away from this post.
My friend Kasey‘s little sister is getting married and she asked me to take her wedding and engagement photos. I was really hesitant to say yes — especially for the wedding photos — because I do NOT do photography. You read my blog. You’ve seen my photos. Not my thing.
But I took some photos of her a few years back for her high school graduation invites, and she really liked them, so I’m guessing that’s why she asked. So I told her I’d do the engagement photos as a trial run to see if I’m comfortable doing it. Their wedding is outdoors, and I’m comfortable doing outdoor photos. So let’s just hope it’s as nice of a day as it was when I took these photos.
Anyway, I took the engagement photos last weekend. Fortunately she has good taste and has been perusing some really good wedding blogs for inspiration. Her and the fiance found a public area with a barn, some awesome field and a cool bridge. They came perfectly dressed for the setting and with some neat props.
Here are some of the better ones. I’ve not edited any of them yet (other than changing size for the blog).
Oh, and I am extremely proud to say that I shot this all in manual mode — so I do remember how to take photos after all. Just not good enough to do it (or have any desire to do it) professionally.
*the tree did NOT want to play nice. I’m just now noticing another branch that’s in the way that I didn’t manage to move out of the way … sigh.
*the last one is the “grip and grin” photo that I made them take so that way there was one for the paper and one for their parents to frame since we really didn’t do any with them looking at the camera.
But seriously. It means streetpainting, Beautiful Bulldogs and lots of races. I’m not running in the Drake Half Marathon this year — no way am I going to top shaving off 20 minutes from my PR — but I am going to go check out some of the fun events this week. And you should too!
Here are the latest iterations of pretty pretty dishes. They are for sale on my etsy and, more importantly, will be for sale at Craft Saturday from 12-6 PM THIS SATURDASY (the 30th) at the 4th St. Theatre in Des Moines.
There are 4 new springtime flowers stoneware plates — slightly different versions of a floral pattern (sans music by popular request). Also, I have 8 of the little birdies cup and saucer sets on cute pastel dinnerware.
I am so going to sound like a used car salesman, but EVERYTHING MUST GO!
Okay, maybe not that annoying. But still — 40-60% off everything in the store.
I’m doing this for a few reasons.
1) I am moving. And I would like to deplete my inventory before I do so.
2) I am creating my spring 2011 line of dishes and want all of last year’s line gone
3) I am going to revamp my etsy store with new photography and package things all fancy and fabulous
So check it out. Oh also, free domestic shipping with the code “FREEBIRD”.
It’s freezing cold outside, so I thought today would be a great day to stay in and catch up on some things.
I’m working on some wedding invitations for my little sister’s friend and I put together a draft of the illustration I’m going to use for them. Her colors are grey, yellow and turquoise. Super cute and fun to work with.
She wanted to use birds and a birdcage so I took the birds I used for the save the dates (similar to the birds I use for my birdies on my dishes) and used them here as well.
Here’s the original save the date:
And here’s the illustration I’m starting to work with:
I’m debating on leaving out the hearts … but they’re cute. She also wants their initials on the birds, but I haven’t figured out a way to do that yet that doesn’t look super cheesy.
I’ve not been creating anything fabulous and new lately. And that’s because my etsy store has been pretty well stocked and I don’t have room for anything else in my apartment.
SO … I’m having a January Blowout Sale!
For my retail shop (www.chimes.etsy.com) use the code JANUARYBLOWOUT to receive 30% off any item in the store.
I have a couple of things listed at 50% off in my wholesale shop — my little birdies bowls and little birdies plates. Both are normally priced $35 for 5 bowls or plates (one bowl/plate is $10 on its own) but they’re $17 for 5 now.
