Sometimes 3 Lbs is Too Much

Haribo Gummy Bears. Arguably the best gummy bears on the planet, minus the random gummies you can buy from bookstores in Portugal. Maybe they're the best easily accessible gummy bears? Usually I can only find these in teeny, weeny bags that are at least $1.50 for the smallest amount of gummy satisfaction, so when John and I were at our favorite, not so close, neighborhood Target (said with the french accent, of course, thanks to my dad) and I found this 3 pound bag, I thought it was one of the best candy finds I've ever seen. We bought it, I actually lasted until we got home to open it, and now I don't know how long it will take for me to get up the desire to eat gummy bears again. I have no self control. John ate a very, very minimal amount of gummy bears. :(

The funny thing about this story is, we were at Target to buy Milka chocolate (also something we learned to love while in Portugal). We've been watching a lot of world cup downhill skiing, as the Olympics and world cup events are my favorite things to watch, and for this one race Milka was the main sponsor. So there were Milka banners ALL over the fences of the course, a giant inflatable purple Milka cow, purple Milka racing helmets, beanies, etc. We went to Target to fulfill one of my cravings and came back with a huge bag of gummy bears as well. Self control, where did you go? Or did I ever even have self control??

And that is why I need this: Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. It's incredible... and it's kicking my rear, especially if I could be more consistent.

Design Contest - January 2010

Every month at work we have a review of the prior month with a design contest. There are 6 different areas in which you can submit a design you had done within the past calendar month and then all of the designers have an internal blind voting. The 6 categories are enclosure logo (eg. NASA), logotype logo (eg. Coca-Cola), iconic logo (eg. Nike), illustrative logo, stationery design (letterhead, envelope and business card, and website design (based on the home page design).

In the design contest on Friday, I won 3 of the categories as voted by my peers at work. This was a really huge accomplishment and a huge honor. I have receive a lot of good help and guidance from some amazing designers and feel very lucky to be where I am and with such a great support team at work and at home.

I thought I would include 2 of the designs in a post and let you see what I have been up to. On the logo design, I created the logo for a re-branding of a hair straightening product. On the stationery design, the logo had already been created by a different designer, but I had applied the logo to a custom stationery, envelope and business card design to accent the company and draw the eye back to the logo. I hope that each of you have a great day.

my portrait project

As some of you know, I am currently in a figure drawing class. This semester, we have had homework assignments like drawing body shapes for 4 hours. Throughout the semester, we will have different assignments drawing different parts of the body and bodies as a whole, each assignment being about 4 hours. That is a lot of drawing. This is where you come in. I would like to ask all of our readers to send me photos of themselves that I can draw. These photos can be photos of your eyes, arms, or ears. Really anything would be appreciated. If you would like, you can tell your friends and families to participate if they would like. I just need a lot of people to draw. So, here is the address: myportraitproject@gmail.com, or you can click on this link. I will be posting the drawings throughout the semester, if you would like to take a look.

What we've been up to...

So, many of you may have noticed... maybe... that we have not been updating our blog as often. That we have neglected our web presence and that we have, to some extent, fallen off the face of the earth. Well, this is what we have been up to. Aliens. They arrived, tried to conquer and we overcame. You can plan on hearing from us more often. Happy new week, and have a great day.

Quilt #3

AKA a quilt for Kim's baby boy who should be born any day now.

One of my best friends, Kim, is having a baby any day now. When I found out she was pregnant, I was working on quilt #2 and secretly hoped she would have a girl so I could give her that quilt. When I found out she was having a boy, I figured Kim and Lee wouldn't want a pink and purple quilt for their little boy....... She lives in Rigby, ID and came down to visit in October. We took a trip to JoAnn's and picked out the fabric for this quilt, which is the same quilt as quilt #2, but with different, more masculine fabrics. I just finished it a week and a half ago and got it mailed off to Kim on Monday. Now that I know she's received the quilt, it's time to blog about it. :) I loved the fabrics for it. They are so fun, but not too crazy as well. I also quilted around the border in a lime green thread to show off the hand quilting a little more, even though it still doesn't show too much. It turned out better than quilt #2, the corners matched up in almost all of the squares and things just worked out better. Good luck Kim and Lee. We can't wait to see pictures of the little guy!!

Run Forrest, Run.

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and survived them. We had a very busy month of December. Jan and Margot (John's parents) were in town for a 1 month break from their mission in Brazil. We spent a lot of time with family and loved it, even though John's whole family wasn't out here. This year we didn't make it to see a movie on Thanksgiving day nor on Christmas day, so sadly I think that family tradition of mine might be ending. It was just too stressful with things going on that we didn't make it. We did, however, see Invictus, which was fabulous. How can 1 person (Nelson Mandela) make such a difference to millions? It was very thought provoking and made me realize that I could be doing more.

John is back in school and I am working on quilt #4. I finished my last quilt and got it off to my friend Kim for her baby, but I want to wait until she gets it to post pictures of it.

So now to the subject of the post. John and I decided last year that we wanted to train for a 5K during 2010. We both realize this isn't a huge feat to most people, but when neither one of us are avid runners and frankly running 1/4-1/2 mile now is a task, we're pretty excited about this. We both got the Nike + iPod sport kit for Christmas and it is revolutionizing our lives, or at least mine. It is amazing. Hopefully we can get in shape and finish a race or two this year. Maybe we need to keep a "miles ran" tally somewhere on this here blog thing. Anyway, we hope everyone is healthy and happy.

No More Monkeys Sitting on the Floor!

So about twoish months ago we went shopping with John's sisters Jana and Marja. We went to Ikea and to look for a couch for Jana. She had sold their couches to raise some funds for some new ones and it was time to get some couches purchased. John and I saw two that we fell in love with and decided that we wanted to sell our couch and get new ones too, since ours was starting to look a little sad and was a HUGE sectional (yes, Annie, it was your old couch that I'm talking about). We have the space for a big sectional now, but we have no clue what kind of space we will be moving in to in a year. We put our couch up for sale on KSL and Craigslist a few weeks ago and sold it within a day of having it posted. Uh oh...... now what should we do? We didn't want to just go out a buy a couch without raising funds to buy it, so we put up some other stuff on KSL and Craigslist, John got a freelance logo job, and finally we raised the funds for a new couch. We went out yesterday to go buy some couches from our neighbor who owns Furnish It here in Provo. He has great prices on all types of furniture, and most of it is in stock. So last night he came and delivered these beauties and we no longer have to sit on the floor. Anyone want to come over and watch a movie??? :)