Busy Summer Months

It's been a busy couple of months for me. I've been photographing and designing every chance I get. I've been running around and trying to keep up with my crazy active toddler (some days I feel that all I do is chase after her!). We've been making some home improvements and working on the yard and garden. I've been attempting to do better at planning meals and using up everything I can in the freezer and cupboards. I'm trying to go through sections of the house and clean out stuff that we no longer need... I've got boxes of trash to throw, thrift store stuff to take, and Muchie's old clothes to box up for the next little one. At the end of the day, I'm wiped out!

Too bad my little kiddo is back to NOT sleeping through the night. Teething, maybe?

But then I look at that face and for some reason it's okay to be up 5 times every.single.night! :P


So it feels that each week I just go through a rotation of things to survive the craziness. We're getting into more of a routine and that's been helping. We've had a couple play dates with some friends and that helps me get some adult time and allowed Munch to interact with some other kids her age. Which reminds me, I gotta think about setting up another one or two of those. :)

Back to a design related post though. Lol! I get so sidetracked sometimes...esp when it's late and I'm tired... and I know Munch is going to be up again right about the time I crawl into bed.

One of my big pieces that I'm working on right now is a logo for the Annual Meeting for the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. It's a mouth-full, isn't it? :) We're just in the beginning phase, but so far this has been a fun project to work on. I can't wait to see what happens next and what the final piece ends up to be. One thing I do know though is that my brain never stops processing when I'm in the middle of a project. It's constantly turning through new design layouts, shapes and color choices. Heck, I even was practicing some ideas out on the driveway in chalk when Munch and I were out drawing today. I gotta remember to take pictures of such things! Lol.

CCBC Shopping Bags

I was asked last minute to put together the artwork for a shopping bag that is going to be handed out to festival attendees. It was a simple feat - the church logo and information was all that needed to be pulled and added to the vector file for the printer. The rush came from the printer realizing that they could get the job done in a quick time frame, but they needed the file that next morning. So I took a few minutes to compile the info and email off the file to the Associate Pastor at CCBC so that he could get it to the printer and get the details worked out for the printing. This is basically what it will look like (give or take the final placement of the artwork which was decided by the printer in this case):

CCBC Business Directory

I've been doing quite a bit of work lately for Calvary Community Baptist Church. Part of that comes with them having their website redesigned (through an official web designer). :) But they've included me in a bunch of the communication and decisions along the way.

Not sure if this piece will be included on the website, or if it's just for print to the members of the church. I was asked to help design a cover for this year's business directory. Being that designing this type of thing is actually my type of business, I said yes. :) I'm happy to help where I can. And, I love the work!

Lorene's 1st Birthday Shoot

Last weekend was Lorene's 1st Birthday party! I can't believe these little kiddos are already a year! My little Munchie was the first one born out of all these kids and it was hard to believe it when her 1st birthday came around. But now all the babies that were born around the same time are all turning one! My goodness, how the time flies!

I was blessed to be able to take a few fun pictures of Lorene's cupcake smash. Her mama wanted to see how she would react to the cupcake - with all that chocolate and icing - before the big party the next day. So we set up a space and watched as she explored this new thing in front of her.

What a precious little thing!

It took a little coaxing to get her to dig in. But overall, I think it was a big success!

Ava Turns One!

It has been a blessing to see this little baby girl grow up into such a beautiful little lady... and she's only a year old! Crazy how fast the time flies though. I remember when her and Lorene (photos coming soon of her cupcake smash) were born... same hospital, hours apart. But she has got to be one of the happiest, most content babies I've had the chance of knowing.

Ava's mama wanted some pictures of the big party and asked me to help take some so that she could entertain and not have to worry about getting pictures herself. I mean, who wouldn't love to enjoy the party you put so much time into creating?! That's where I come in! :) I love capturing the memories, details, and the faces of the event.

As you can see, quite a few people showed up to help celebrate this special occasion. And I think I'm safe to say that they all had a great time!

 

 Presents!!!

Easter Materials - CCBC

We were on a quick turnaround for the Easter Weekend materials this year again, but we had a direction from the pastors on what look they wanted. It's so wonderful when a client knows what they want instead of just saying "come up with something great". :)

Trust me. It happens quite a bit!

But there's nothing wrong with that either. It makes a little bit of work and asking questions of them to narrow the design options a tad, but I like the freedom that it allows me in doing my work.

This is what we came up with for this year:

Happy New Year!

Where does the time go?!

Family Photos

For as long as I can remember, I've been the photographer/designer/computer wiz for the family. Even though one of my bros works at Apple (a Genius to be exact!), I am the one the majority of people come to when they need something related to photography, computers, DVD players, etc etc. Not that I don't mind. But most of the time I just play around until what I need to happen happens, or till something breaks.

Just kidding on the breaks part. :)

I don't mind helping out with photography either. I like having good pictures of my family and it makes me happy knowing that they have a visual of that moment/year/experience/vacation. I also love seeing the photos that I took and the designs that I created up on their walls and bookshelves in their houses. It makes my heart warm. (Insert "awww" here.) Lol.

This collage of photos are some of our latest ones.

 

Thanks to my brother for stealing, er borrowing my camera to get one of the three of us! (top left)

A Beautiful Time of the Year

Gotta love this fall weather that we're having! Munch has been enjoying getting out to play in the leaves before the snow hits (which it's supposed to later this week).

Fabric Art

What does quilting and computers have in common? Well, at first glance, not much. But think again...

I've been taking a quilting class with my mom and it's given me the opportunity to create some applique designs for several quilt blocks for class. There was a need for a couple Christmas applique designs, so I went to work on designing a solution. These are two that I came up with:

a cardinal -

and a pointsetta  -

I rather liked designing these simple fabric creations. Can't wait to see the completed projects in their fabric forms.