Monday, July 31, 2006

yesterday, a happy day

Happy birthday to my darling niece Maggie! She turned 2 yesterday. (I did remember yesterday like the good aunt I am.)

darling Maggie

New pictures soon I'm sure.

Friday, July 28, 2006

a delectable find

store window sign

During a short trip to Branson as a surprise to Mark, I stumbled across this beauty on a store window. The words are a bit confusing; yet, the lettering was perfect and so ornate. The colors rich and well treated. Oh! It was a beautiful thing to behold. Why don't we do things as this anymore? Makes me want to open a shop just so my signs can be artistic elegance such as this. Who wouldn't buy from a store that displayed its identity (even a gun buying existence) in such a dignified manner?

Friday, July 21, 2006

how did I stumble on the coolest design studio?

hello faithful few who check my very sporadic posts.

My job at the River City Studio turned out to be a longer venture and a very time consuming project. This will be the end of my second week and I've been told they want me around for at least another week or two. I'm thrilled. It's almost too bad I have to go back to JBU middle of August. This place is incredible. It is situated on the second floor of a building at the edge of downtown KC. It is right on the river, hence the name, and just down the street from the River Market. I have yet to venture there, but I plan on it (today decided to rain cats and dogs). Speaking of cats, there are two cats which live in the Studio: Yoda and Melia. My dislike for cats has decreased greatly while working here. They really are rather cute and funny and sometimes just plain darling. Unfortunately, I am allergic to cats so they cause me some discomfort through the day. I think I've finally figured out the right amount and mixture of allergy meds so my days have become more tolerable. I'm determined to work here as long as they want me and no cats are going to deter that. Yoda is a tabby cat and he can be quite feisty some days. Melia however is gentle, fat and meows a lot. I'm on lunch break and she is right now, sitting on my desk, in between my arms as I type, determined to get some attention. They shed like crazy! All my clothes are covered with hair when I leave at the end of the day.

The studio itself is awesome. It's a really old building with creaky wood floors and and open ceiling so you can see all the wire work, tubes, and planks. There aren't any enclosed offices but lots of cubicles in a pretty unorganized fashion. The cubicles are all different shapes with different cuts on the top and the walls are all different bright colors and have segments of frosted glass cubes in them so if you look at them as a whole, they resemble an artistic rendition of a cityscape. There are two areas of lobby-like places with small rolling armchairs and weirdly shaped tables. Also, the "conference room" is near the front of the office and is just a stretch across the room of several tables put together with rolling office chairs around them. It is "separated" by a couple cubicles on two sides. Also, all the cubicles have white erase boards and gray cork randomly put in them so they blend in to the area but there is a place to put stuff and write notes. Other features are a kitchen area which has 2 microwaves, a fridge, counterspace, sink, mini-coke machine, and a tall table with stools around it. The other major feature is the lighting. There was an article about them online and the architect dude who did the lighting I think. Find it here. The atmosphere of this place is really creative and edgy.

On a minor note, I have yet to do any design work, and probably won't. They hired me as the intern for one specific project and so far I've worked on that which is a massive web research job (compiling over 530 hyperlinks with descriptions) and I've scanned over 200 old WWI photos at the Liberty Memorial. I've enjoyed listening in on meetings, watching the main designer and the web people battle their deadlined projects, as well as just be in contact with professional designers every day. One of my favorite quick jobs was filing a pile of their copies of projects they've done. It was so exciting to look through them, get a better feel for the work they actually do and what they can put out. I also answer phones a lot, which I rather enjoy amazingly enough. The work of an intern sure can be tedious and boring, but wow! the experience of being a part of this studio is absolutely worth it.

I really love design. And I'm really going to miss this studio.

Monday, July 10, 2006

a little time to chill

Well the weddings went off fairly smoothly I think. A little stressful in preparation and setting up, but all in all, lovely.

Favorite Amy & Dani weddings moments:
•getting Amy ready in the hotel room. (Actually, it was more like watching Amy get ready for me as Dani did her hair and Amy did her own makeup and I just took pictures)
•taking off my shoes at Amy's reception
•hanging out with Erin and taking a hot walk with her around a block or two.
•wearing a fun red dress
•hanging out with Mark, Noah, Cade & Marcia (it was so great to see C & M although somewhat strange that they are married!)
•staying in a hotel with Emily & Erin and playing cards til 1am with Nathaniel & Sam
•seeing the Jernigan family in action once again and feeling warmly loved by them, especially Hannah & darling Glory
•crying through all of Dani's wedding (perhaps not a favorite moment but definitely memorable)
•laying around & talking with Dani the night before Amy's wedding
•becoming a pro at making corsages & bouquets
•being with friends and laughing a lot

Pictures of Luke & Amy's wedding are here. and Israel & Dani's wedding pics will be up there soon too.

In other news, the interview went rotten. I don't think he wanted to be there interviewing and he waited til I was there and talking with him to tell me that there aren't any job openings with them. I'm not sure why he wanted to interview me when there isn't anywhere for him to put me. He also seemed rather multi-taskish during the whole "interview," taking a phone call and acting bored a few times although he ended up doing most of the talking. Well, I'm sure I learned something anyway and the experience will be handy sometime in my life.

In better news, I have a very short-term job starting tomorrow morning at 9. The company is River City Studio and I'm doing a small research project involving a website. Sounds pretty simple, but possibly time-consuming. Honestly, I'm just excited to be doing something out of the house and to be able to meet and work with some designers on their turf. Who cares what I'm doing! It should hopefully be a great experience and I'll at least make a new friend/contact in the design world.

Also, I have discovered a really cool church. It is called Northland Reformed Church and they are about 5 minutes from my house. I stumbled across them while coming back from taking Erin to the airport. They are a small congregation—probably about 50-60 people—but they are really genuine and kind. I really enjoyed the service Sunday morning and found a great deal in the sermon that I couldn't stop thinking about during the day. I also met some very nice folks who talked with me about different topics, most especially what brought me to a Reformed church. I really like that their questions were very geared towards faith and not normal small talk/being friendly jargon. My dad and I also went back last night and he was greatly impressed by them too. The pastor even followed us to the lobby, remembered my name and kept a good conversation with my dad. It is so strange how these things happen when the summer is almost over. A job and a great church all in one week. As always, God is faithful and always in his own time. Wahoo!