5.27.2010

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My closet looks so forlorn! I'm a little bit sad about it because my closet in our next apartment will be much smaller. :(

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This is my inspiration board. Off the wall for moving purposes. I love the little map tacks that are colorful and cute.

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I liked how my blinds made shadows that looked like teeth...

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I'm kind of crazy about white. It's wildly impractical.

lookalike




On the show Glee, they've recently introduced a new character, the biological mother of one of the members of Glee Club. The daughter is played by Lea Michele and the mother by Idina Menzel. In real life, they're not related. They both just happened to get their starts on Broadway in New York City and now live in LA and are on Glee. Crazy how talented they both are and how much they look like each other for not being related.

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This is Nick. I wouldn't expect you to recognize him on the street, but he looked pretty dapper in his suit this Saturday to marry the love of his life.

5.26.2010

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And New York City ends with a picture of Times Square. Couldn't not include it.

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Check out Central Park. It's a unique experience, being surrounded by trees but still hearing the city. Mom and I sat on this hill and read for a little while, soaking up the one sunny day we had in New York City.

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For Wednesday it's kind of got to be a picture of Promises Promises. I met Chris Colfer in that theater, one of the actors on Glee. We shared an awkward moment and proceeded to watch the rest of the musical, which was hilarious. I might be kind of in love with Sean Hayes.

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I know. Of all the images to be my daily picture when I'm in New York City, I pick one of a strawberry. But it was raining on Tuesday in New York, so my camera didn't spend much time outside of the hotel room. And therefore, a picture of a strawberry. In my hotel room. But it was sooo good.

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We learned about Sephora in my marketing class, and since then I've been totally interested in everything they've been doing, both in marketing and all their products. On our first day in New York we walked down to 5th Avenue and one of the first stores I saw was Sephora Fifth Avenue. Super exciting!

5.24.2010

back

I am BACK from NYC -- and I had a fabulous time that I will update you all about later. I currently have to throw myself back into the real world and get ready for two weddings this weekend and moving on Sunday! Seriously exciting.

5.16.2010

hearts


1- the last week of school. Oh thank goodness it’s done! I love selling back my books and finishing classes for the semester, it’s so nice to know I have a break ahead of me, even when I have a campus as beautiful as UWGB.
2- letters. I love letters. Writing them and receiving them. By mail, because mail is so much better than email. So much more exciting – and so much more anticipation.
3- volleyball. Now, I’m bad at volleyball. Well. Not horrible. I’ll put it this way. I’m good at family reunion volleyball, bad at competitive volleyball. But I love to hit the ball around with my friends and family.
4- walks. I love taking walks, preferably on beaches, but since those are hard to come by in Wisconsin I’ll settle for walking up and down my dead end road with my parents or taking a walk around campus with my friends. I just love feeling stretched out and relaxed.
5- coconut lime verbena lotion. From Bath and Body Works. This stuff smells like vacation. I prefer the body cream because it’s thicker without being too dense that it’s hard to rub in, but in any form, the scent is wonderful!

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Pine cones can look like flowers.

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This grass is crazy! I don't actually think it's straight up grass. I think it's a hybrid.

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I've been writing on this blog for more than a year.

The thought occurred to me the other day because I knew I'd posted before school was out last year. And now here I am, a whole year later, with 315 posts of funny little things about things I love and my life. Crazy.

I like that I have this documentation -- it's obviously nothing too super personal, but it reminds me what I was thinking about and what was making me happy at the time. And most of the time those things make me happy again reading about them now.

Like this, for example. I'm happy and excited to go play volleyball with my mom and then go for a walk on this nice sunshiney day. I bet that'll make me happy a year from now too!

5.14.2010

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I got some pretty awesome gladiators. I plan on rocking them with a romper. In NYC. I'm more excited than you know.

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I love four packs of nail polish. Of mini nail polish. Because I never use a whole bottle anyway. And a mini pack only costs three dollars more -- and you get four colors!

sloan

I'm addicted to Grey's Anatomy. I think we've been over this before. Just reminding you that, yes, I am aware of this addiction. And no, I have no intentions of recovering from it.

So. The season finale is next week. Which means this week the prepared us for it. And the things that happened this week and the things that are in the previews for next week are INSANE. Crazy insane.

But there's one part that I'm REALLY super excited about. And I cannot wait to see what happens. See, I like Sloan. As does every other woman in the world, because um, this is what he looks like:

And this is what he looks like when he smiles:


And that makes me love him a little. Shallow, I know. But I do like his character on the show for reasons that don't involve the way he looks. He's a player. But he's in love with Lexi. He was a player, and then he dated her in a real live-with-her and date-only-her way. And then his daughter appeared and they broke up and his daughter had a baby. And then the baby was adopted and the daughter went away and Sloan was left alone and sad and he went back to his player ways.
But in this last episode, he finally just talks to Lexi. And he tells her her loves her and wants to be with her. Only problem, Lexi has a boyfriend. Which she mentions. She just says, "I...I have a boyfriend." And Mark calmly goes, "I know. I'm just saying you could have a husband."

Which made me go "awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" And I really hope she does pick Mark -- because I like Mark when he's with her. He's the guy you want to like but you don't really because he's a player...so I want him to be with Lexi because he's a good guy for her.

And yes. I know these people aren't real.

advertising

For my advertising class the big project at the end of the semester was to create a line extension(like a new flavor or variety of a line that already exists) and create advertisements for it, and then use a budget to plan where we’d put those advertisements to be most effective.

We did it as a group project, with each person acting as a different department in a advertising agency. I worked on the creative part – my “job” was to come up with a television advertisement for our product, Banana Walnut Special K cereal.

Our group had determined that the target market for such a product would be females ages 18 and up. Women with busy lives who needed a quick and healthy breakfast, and also women concerned with weight loss. Based on that information I decided to gear the commercial specifically to women with children, using younger children in my commercial but wording it in a way that could impact moms with children of any age.

So when creating the advertisement, I thought about how children of any age where they’re living at home can tend to make a mom’s life a little chaotic, and those moms spend a lot of their time sacrificing their needs for their children’s. Ask any mom and she’ll say she’s happy to do that for her kids because she loves them – but ask her if she enjoys a few minutes a day to herself and I bet she’ll agree.

This is where Randy Pausch and the book I read came into play. He talked about airplanes. You know how when you get on an airplane and they play that video telling you what to do in an emergency? And they tell you that if that cabin were to lose pressure and the oxygen masks would drop down, you’re supposed to put on your own mask before assisting those around you. You need to take care of yourself to be able to take care of others.

I felt like that’s a generally simple concept that people understand and have heard before – but that they don’t always remember and put into play. So in the commercial, I told moms to take a moment to take care of themselves – so they can take care of the kids they love. It appeals to the woman’s desire to be a great mom – and confirms that they can do that while taking time to themselves. The imagery in the commercial connects those things to Special K, showing moms how our product can help them do that.

Forgive the roughness -- but to create the storyboard I took pictures of Jilane as the mom with some of our guy friends playing the kids. Well, that didn't turn out so well, because you could see their biceps, and little kids don't have biceps. So I had to put Ty and Jacob in to be kids.

The commercial starts out with two kids sitting at a dinner table eating breakfast, and you can see their mom in the background looking at them, with soft, normal breakfast noises like spoons hitting bowls and the kid's movement.


Then the focus switches to mom, because our product is for her, not them, while a voiceover says, "you know breakfast is an important part of their day..."

"...but did you know it's an important part of your day too?"
The screen shot changes to her reaching to get a box of Special K out of the cupboard.
As she pours herself a bowl and moves to sit down in a comfy chair, separate from the kids but where she can see them, a voice over says, "take a moment to take care of yourself..."

Looking at this now I would've shot it differently, but I didn't have the whole commercial figured out the way it turned out to be when I was shooting. I'd rather have a side shot that shows the side of her face as she takes a bite of cereal and then looks up at the kids, but this shows the idea.

"...so you can take care of them."

As that's being said, the view switches from the side shot of the mom to the kids, because that's again what she loves.

I ended the commercial then with a product shot, and a voice over saying,
"Start your day with Special K", the slogan we'd come up with.
It was actually a really fun project. And my teacher liked it, which I was worried about, because he's really hard to read and he wasn't very clear on our expectations. But he loved the airplane concept and thought the ads looked good. Most of the groups did a line extension of alcohol, but he said we took a boring product and made it interesting, which is pretty much the goal of advertising. I was happy -- definitely the best final I had!

5.13.2010

queen


I want this shirt.

dots





Kari Herer created this awesome new series of flowers with polka dots in the background. I so want to frame them in square frames and hang them in a square on the wall. Above my bed.
Check out her esty shop for more gorgeous images.

lecture



I read books on my vacation. I'm a huge bookworm, so I appreciate the time vacations give me to sit and enjoy a book. The first book I read on my Jamaican vacation was called The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch.

Incredible, incredible nonfiction book. About a man who signed up to do a lecture at the college he taught at called a "last lecture" -- where professors were instructed to speak as though they were giving the last lecture they'd ever give on earth. A few months after he signed up, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He got up on that stage for his lecture knowing he was going to die, and what he chose to do and say was powerful. Plus, he's hilarious.
So if you're looking for something good to read -- The Last Lecture comes highly recommended.

I came up with an idea for my advertising project while reading this book -- more on that later -- but I just think it's so cool how inspiration for one thing can come from something completely and totally unrelated.

5.12.2010

jamaica


I leave for New York in less than a week. I think that means I officially need to get a summary of Jamaica up here before New York happens and I’m behind with two vacations. So. Jamaica went like this:

The food.
Oh my goodness, the food. Spicy stuff with jerk sauce on it. Fresh cut fruit, I love fruit! This yummy cheese that you eat with crackers that taste like communion crackers, which I love and always want more of at church. Which is possibly slightly sacrilegious to be thinking about the taste of the communion cracker when you’re supposed to be thinking about the symbolism that it’s Jesus’ body. Anyway, the food. Tomato Lentil Cappuccino soup, so good, really tomato-y with a coffee kick. The best scallops of my life. Desserts with decorative bits of white and milk chocolate sticking out of them, which I’m now so going to add to my cupcakes sometimes. Mini cheesecakes, incredible banana bread, snapper and fried dumplings. I even ate mussels. And discovered that I'm not really a fan. But the rest -- so, so good!
The resort.
It wasn't touristy, it was built into the cliffs on the side of the ocean and we were really in the naturalness of Jamaica. It was cool. They had spa rooms on top of the cliffs next to the ocean. NEXT TO THE OCEAN. There were also an incredible amount of stairs, which made me feel better about all the food.


The Adam.
- He prefers to sit in air conditioning for meals. I like being out on the deck where I can see the ocean, because being warm doesn't bother me, he doesn’t like hot.
- Remembering room numbers, or how to get back to the room, is not his strong suit.
- He got called my husband. A lot. Which was bound to happen at a couples resort. The first time an employee asked me where my husband was I made such a disgusted face the guy was like, ‘oh, I’m sorry. Your boyfriend.’. Then I just laughed. No thank you!
- I can spend four days with him and not want to kill him at all.


The activities.
Sunbathing. And reading books. Oh how I LOVE to read books. Snorkeling. Seeing crazy cool fish and getting super close to them. Not packing a sports bra, and going on the elliptical anyway. Getting off after twenty minutes to swim, a lower-impact workout. Walking around the resort taking oodles of pictures, and discovering all sorts of knooks and crannies for people to relax in.

The area.
Our ride from the airport was long and took us through a lot of Jamaica. Immediately out of the airport we saw slums, half built buildings, buildings that were worn down, all with extra pieces of wood or paneling to make people homes. Shacks, but homes. When I saw them I felt conflicted, because they were beautiful, such visually compelling spaces that my mind immediately started creating images including them. But a half beat later my heart fell -- hurting for the people who live there. And I felt that, but…those people are still blessed. They're full of joy, their value system is entirely different than ours, and it's a completely different life than what we live, but it's not a life full of sadness and despair. It's a harder life physically, but the things that we get caught up in and that distract us from the things that matter in life aren't things they deal with. I looked at their situation and felt incredibly blessed for the things that I have, but also thankful for how joy can be found everywhere.


The wedding.
Bride = pretty, happy woman.
Groom = quiet, but once he got over it, hilarious man.
Super crazy about each other.
The guests = bride’s mom, groom’s mom, and bride’s brother. That’s it. Super intimate wedding, lots and lots of time for pictures -- different, but beautiful. Not what I'd want, because I’d want my family there – but it was neat to be a part of.


Basically, I have the best job ever!

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So, I thought it looked cool. A quarter on my chair.

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This is my zone. At my apartment, it's sort of my inspiration board -- mostly just things I love. Katie and Kelsey are up there, a goofy picture of Adam from a wedding, a bookmark from Leslie, a note from Kathi, a shot from Kim and Josh's wedding, PINK advertisements and Dove wrappers. Things that make me happy.

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I sleep with the cord for my phone. Probably not good, I know. But my phone is my alarm clock, and I have to charge it basically every other night, so the cord gets plugged in on the other side of the bed and then my phone rests on top of the mound of pillows I have on my bed. That way I can grab it and stop the beeping quickly in the morning.

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Yeah. Those are baby chicks. In a wagon. On a kitchen floor. This is what happens at my grandparent's house on Mother's Day.

hearts

The things I love this week:

1- Instrumental music from The Holiday by Hans Zimmer. Maybe I just love it because it reminds me of the movie(one of my favorites), but it’s perky music that instantly makes me happy.
2- New apartments. Ours won’t be quite as awesome as that, but we signed the lease for our new apartment this week! It’s so exciting to have a whole new space to decorate and to go shopping for simple things like new storage options. Amanda and I are super excited!
3- Course evaluations. When teachers start handing those out it’s a sign that school is almost over. Plus, I like evaluating my classes – sometimes I use them to say nice things because I enjoyed the class, and other times I use them to anonymously and politely say what I didn’t like. 4- Katie and Kelsey. My little sisters had prom this weekend and I got to help them both get ready and took some pictures of them. I love being able to spend time with them.
5- My Momma. It’s Mother’s Day, how could I not mention her? My mom’s so great – I call her like four times a day when I’m walking to class to talk about whatever’s happened to me in the last few hours.