2013 All Wrapped Up

I am more excited for 2014 than I was for 2013. Not really sure why, maybe I'm a nerd and just like even numbers better. 

Though, I had a pretty good year in 2013. It was more of a maintenance year. 

• I continue to work on my house. I've been in it for almost two years now and am still moving furniture around. I just can't get it right. 
• I started doing calligraphy and sign painting. It's still too early to know if it's going to work out but there will be a new website on the horizon. GEOOORGE.CO will house my work for sale. AHH!!
• Leroy got a year older and celebrated his birthday to a Curious George theme. He's becoming more calm though still behaves like a puppy and I wouldn't want it any other way. 
• The billboard I've been working on for an entire year finally got put up. It's 215 feet wide in the Legends Entertainment District in Downtown Phoenix. 
• I made my first quilt! There are more to come. 

Here are some of the highlights from my some of my family, friends and coworkers:

• Babies - Four of my friends brought life into this world. Three girls and one little man.
• Marriages - Three of my co-workers got married. Not to each other.
• Cars - There were ten new car purchases in our office. Whew!
• Houses - Two co-workers purchased new homes. 
• Pets - Little bundles of furr. . . there were five.

Tomboy Project Update

I recently posted pictures on Facebook from my September romp around the midwest and a quick 3-day weekend in Nashville, Tennessee. Coming soon are photos from North Carolina and Georgia. CHECK IT OUT HERE.

I'm currently looking for tomboys in Michigan and New England. If you know of anyone, please send them my way.

It's hard to believe I've come this far and it wouldn't be even close to possible without the people who have stepped in to participate, recommend someone or let me crash on their couch.

We are almost there. We are almost finished.

I recently received some questions that I wanted to address here as well.

Q: What happens when you finish traveling? 
A: After visiting all the states and meeting with all the tomboys I will begin to sift through all the photos finding the appropriate ones for the book. I will also begin the edit all of my notes, doodles and stories I was privileged enough to hear along the way.

Q: Will you photoshop your photos? 
A: I will correct color and make the photo the best it can be, though I will never photoshop one of my tomboys. I am proud of the women I have photographed and they are beautiful the way they are.

Q: How are you funding this project? 
A: This is probably my most asked question. The project is completely self-funded. I pay for the airline tickets, the rental cars, the gas, the hotel room, the food etc. etc. etc. I use my vacation and holiday time from my day job to travel to the different states. Though when it comes to getting the book published, I want to do a Kickstarter project because I feel it is really symbolic of everyone bringing the final project together. If you are interested in donating money, there will be more information on the Kickstarter project at the end of 2014.

I love getting questions and getting more and more people involved in the project. If you have any more questions, you can email me or just post them in the comments! Here's to 2014.

Photos of the Week

A few photos from the week.

Leroy found a new friend at the dog park.

He almost took the mount off the wall trying to get this.

My Gram. She's always been such a classy lady.

Seriously love the sunsets in this neighborhood.

Leroy did not want me moving his favorite chair.

Merry Christmas!!

There are so many things I want to share from this holiday season, though one of my favorite has to be a combination of my friend Frank's birthday, Smitty being pregnant and Roo's first Christmas. That is pretty much the entire year wrapped up in one family and packed into one giant box I shipped to Austin.

What the hell am I talking about? One quilt and four bibs. See, my mother and I had planned on making this quilt from the time we heard Smitty was pregnant. We started off on a roll. We knew we wanted to design something around Frank being a firefighter and choose fabrics that fit in what I knew about Smitty's style. We finished the design and purchased the fabric. We even ordered specialty teddy bear firefighting fabric from across the country.

Things got super busy as usual. Smitty had Roo and she's basically in college now. Then we got an email from Smitty. She was doing a project for Frank's 30th birthday. Frank is like Mother Teresa in a petite Texan body, she cares about others and does so much to help make the world a better place. The project was to get all of Frank's friend to do one act of kindness for someone else and then tell the story so it could be put into a book.

BINGO, perfect timing to finish the quilt and bibs. I knew it was cheating because it wasn't for someone else, but it was something I was really wanting to do for their family. I finished the bibs and submitted those as my story. I kept the quilt a secret.

I shipped the box out filled with trinkets, bibs, the quilt and a butt load of confetti. Sorry ladies, I couldn't resist.

Below are some pictures of the quilt in process and the final one is the Rooster taking it for a test drive. I think she likes it.

Merry Christmas!

Piecing the top together.

Stitch the ditch!

Make sure everything lines up!

Lots of stitching the ditch.

Pining the edges. Lots of pins, lots of pokes.

See the fire helmet?

Finished top.

Finished back.

I think she likes it!

My mom and I are working on two more quilts that will be available shortly. Stay tuned for those in the coming weeks!

Ballet Arizona and the Nutcracker

I didn't plan on going to the Nutcracker last night. Originally, I was supposed to go to the ballet with April and Stuart. One night about a month ago, April is trying and pushing to get me to purchase tickets. I finally gave in after getting an email from Ballet AZ saying the Nutcracker is 50% off the same night April wants me to go. 

I ask her where they are sitting, Section C she tells me. I keep looking and looking for Section C in Symphony Hall, can't find it. I see section 1, 2 and 3 . . . but no letters. Finally, I think she's just sleep deprived and telling me things because it's about 3AM at this point. I go ahead and purchase tickets close to Section 3. For me, I think C, 3 . . . same thing. 

I get to work the next morning, tell her I got tickets and she asked me where I am sitting. I tell her and she's really confused. We go back and forth for a minute and something just isn't sitting well with me. I then proceed to ask her what ballet she's going to.

THE RUSSIAN BALLET! Why she didn't tell me or I didn't ask is completely beyond me. We bought tickets to two completely different ballets. Who knew Phoenix was that culturally down to have two ballets. 

In the end it worked out because of our ADDY extension I ended up at Mingle Bells the night we were supposed to go and I moved my ticket to last night. 

The ballet I went to was incredibly funny and beautifully performed. The sugar plum fairy and man fairy were spectacular. Their lines, jumps and turns were on lock. There was a point in the ballet where their duo was so spectacularly executed I thought the audience was going to give them a standing ovation in the middle of the show. 

Then there is this Queen of Hearts character that is totally a Drag Queen. AMAZING. That's all. 

It was cool seeing and recognizing some of the dancers from Cinderella in their new rolls. If you have the chance to go and see the ballet, you should go. I highly recommend them. 

Christmas Candy!

I got to spend most of the weekend making candy with my mama. It's always a good time of year, we make peanut brittle, sugar cookies, fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, seven layer bars and more. We will be packaging most of it up to give out as gifts to family and friends. 

Here's a quick recipe on how to make Peanut Brittle. Enjoy!! 

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 package RAW peanuts
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Grease up your cookie sheet with butter. You want to do this first because you won't have time to do it later. This is a quick and dirty process. 
2. In a large glass bowl, mix sugar, corn syrup, salt, peanuts and water. Place in the microwave on high for about 4 minutes.
3. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Place back in microwave for about 3 minutes. This is a very experimental process depending on your microwave.
4. Take out of the microwave, immediately stir in butter and baking soda. There is going to be a fizzing effect starting to take place, ignore and stir fast. Pour the mixture on the cookie sheet.
5. With a wooden spoon spread the mixture out QUICK! Then let it harden.
6. Break into small pieces and enjoy. 

Week In Photos

This week was filled with a lot of good times and crazy outings. I usually do five photos but this week begged for ten. Hope you enjoy. 

Ana on our walk back from Food Truck Friday!

Jenn makes the best cake pops around!

I got stuck on the ramp on my way home one night.

A grey elephant showed up at our white elephant!

We made Gerald a reserved space.

We hit up Lolo's for lunch and had some color drink.

Lots of NERF fights happened. 

Rain! Lots of Rain!

Stefan's wife used to work at GAP. Thank you for our tree.

The Westward Ho just looks fucking awesome.

It's a 215-Foot Wide Billboard

I'm really excited to share that the billboard Ken and I worked on for one of our agency's clients is finished and installed. If you are in the Downtown Phoenix area, check it out.

New Doggie Tags

I realized the other day that in all of my blogging topics I never cover things I do for my dog. I saw a part time gig blogging for BarkBox and was like WTF?! Why don't I ever blog consistently about the things I do for Leroy? Since I spend almost every waking hour with this little furrball, I want to start introducing those projects.

This week we had to get a new tags for his shiny new leash and collar. He's like a brand new puppy looking all dapper.

Office Holidays 2013

I talk a lot about how much I love this place, though I thought I would share it with you. Below is the video from our holiday party. It includes some of the best events we participated in this year including:

• American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Walk
• We made dinner for the local Ronald McDonald House
• We adopted a family for Christmas and bought some amazing gifts
• Participated in the 9th Annual Pat's Run
• Won Best Dressed at AdBowl 2013

Those are just a few. Make some popcorn and sit back to enjoy the beautiful people in our office. 

Also, our digital boys made a killer holiday card where you can design, print and make your own holiday ornament! Check it out HERE.

We Are Starting To Turn 30!

This weekend one of my oldest friends turned the big three zero. We are officially old.

I want to wish him a very Happy Birthday! He was in Ireland with family and we tried to kidnap him for a long night out. Unfortunately jet lag kicked in and we only made it to dinner. Oh well.

After some drinks, good laughs and a green Irish cake, we tucked him in and said goodnight.

Happy Birthday friend! Here's to our thirties!

215 Foot Legends Billboard

There's a new billboard going up in Downtown Phoenix. It's 215 feet wide and is taking a week to install. Have you seen it? 

Office-isms

More fun quotes from the day.

• When I was little, I was chasing my sister, she shut the door and my face ran into the handle.

• That fan feels so good I'm going to take my shirt off.

Holiday Season in Ad Agencies as Told By "ELF"

I saw a link on BuzzFeed, it's supposed to be about college finals. It made me realize how much my life has not changed since college. So I had to make an agency version of this.

To see the college version, by Lucy Hebb, GO HERE.

1. Trying to get your breathe back when you see your name on every project in the traffic report. 

New Line Cinema / Via reactiongifs.com / BuzzFeed.com

2. Organization is the key to getting all your work finished since all the deadlines are on the same day at the same time. 

New Line Cinema / Via hooahandhiccups.com / BuzzFeed.com

3. You pull consistent all nighters that you stop showering and opt for dry shampoo.

New Line Cinema / Via pandawhale.com / BuzzFeed.com

4. Any type of nap feels like a long luxurious slumber. 

New Line Cinema / Via pinterest.com / BuzzFeed.com

5. You raid the supply closet because you know where they hide the extra caffeine. 

New Line Cinema / Via fhntoday.com / BuzzFeed.com

6. Then your computer crashes as you're trying to save your work. 

New Line Cinema / Via castrogays.tumblr.com / BuzzFeed.com

7. You realize that you can't live on pop and the candy bowls around the office, so you eat. At your desk. Quickly.

New Line Cinema / Via giphy.com / BuzzFeed.com

8. Your AEs bring you another job jacket and tell you the job will be quick and easy. 

New Line Cinema / Via reactiongifs.us / BuzzFeed.com

9. They ask you if you have any more questions before they walk away. You just smile and nod. 

New Line Cinema / Via wifflegif.com / BuzzFeed.com

10. You get the project finished and mounted and you realize there is one tiny, but obvious mistake.

New Line Cinema / Via pandawhale.com

11. You go back to your computer to fix the mistake, reprint and remount. All while thinking how stupid of a mistake it was and wondering how you missed it. 

New Line Cinema / Via celebquote.com / BuzzFeed.com

12. You realize that there is no way you could possibly get this job done by the deadline, your AEs buy you an extra couple hours. 

New Line Cinema / Via glee.wikia.com / BuzzFeed.com

13. You go into the meeting with all the mandatories on the creative brief covered off, though the they hate it all, coming up with a new list of mandatories. 

New Line Cinema / Via gifsoup.com / BuzzFeed.com

14. Thoughts that run through your head. 

New Line Cinema / Via archive.foolz.us / BuzzFeed.com

15. Getting back to your desk and opening the email with revisions attached. 

New Line Cinema / Via pandawhale.com / BuzzFeed.com

16. Only to realize this is a pre-email, the email with the changes will be sent later today. It is now Friday, 3PM. 

New Line Cinema / Via breakfastatvictorias.wordpress.com / BuzzFeed.com

17. Finally, by some miracle, the project is finished and everyone loves it. You don't have to work Christmas Day. 

New Line Cinema / Via keltiecolleen.buzznet.com