The leaves are falling- constantly

Last weekend we spent Saturday Morning ridding the lawn’s of leaves. The only way to “rake” leaves is with a blower and leaf vacuum. By the time we got the yards all cleaned up, the back yard was covered in leaves again. Well- I guess that is how it goes. The sad part is, we don’t even have a tree in our back yard- it is the neighbors big tree that has barely started to loose its leaves that all blow into our yard.


Stella enjoyed all that October has to offer this weekend: She frolicked in the pile of leaves and she attempted to carve a pumpkin. The Pumpkin didn’t settle so well in her stomach…


In other news, I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers, a gift certificate for a steakhouse, a bottle of wine, and a hand written thank you letter from cityWILD for designing the River Rendezvous materials. It is nice to be appreciated and to feel apart of something bigger than just me.

My Parents Dog is a Bad Influence

Last weekend my parents came to town and stayed with us. We went to Petey’s football game in Loveland, and left Stella and Ginger in the back yard. Now, last time the two of them were left in the yard together for and extended period of time, the neighbors informed us that Ginger figured out how to lift the lever on the gate with her nose and escape to run a muck in the neighborhood. The neighbors had to return Ginger and Stella to the yard twice that time. SO, this time we thought we had out-smarted the dog by putting a carabiner through the gate latch. When we returned home on Saturday afternoon, the neighbor informed us that they had to put the dogs back in the yard three times while we were gone! I was shocked. Apparently the neighbor got the dogs in the yard the second time, and then heard the gate rattling and when she turned around, she saw GINGER bite the carabiner and loop it out of the gate and then lift the lever with her nose and escape, all before my neighbor could get back to the gate from the edge of the house! BAD GINGER!!!! My dad, however, would say SMART GINGER!!!! After that, Ginger had to stay inside while we left again to run errands. I let Stella stay in the yard, because, well, she just isn’t that smart.

Another example of a bad influence: Ginger has taught my dog is how to whine. This drives me crazy. Up until Ginger spent the first afternoon of escaping with Stella, Stella had not barked or whined when she wanted inside- instead she would just jump into the back door a few times until it hurt and then she would lay down or find something else to do. This I could handle. Ginger’s version of letting you know she wants inside is to whine. Stella definitely picked up on this, and now she whines all the time. Not just when she wants in from the yard, but it seems that she is whining for fun- for no reason at all. She will learn the new rule: NO WHINNING!

Fries the Moment Design Update

I thought that I should post an update about Fries the Moment Design. I recently finished and delivered Mason’s Birth Announcements. He is so darn cute!

I am also finalizing an album for Marlo and Brian. They had a beautiful wedding in the Bahamas last May, and despite the storm that blew in, it looks like it was quite the celebration.

I am getting started on my Holiday Card promotions. I can’t even believe that I have to start thinking about Christmas already! Be on the look out for the info and get your pictures ready to send me for your custom card design. This year I am going to offer a 5x7 Postcard, a 4x6 postcard, and a 5x7 folding greeting card, in addition to the regular 5x7 photo card that I have done in the past.

I don't wanna work... I just want to bang on the drum all day!

Seems fitting.

I am sleepy and I just want to go home. I think that it has something to do with the weather. I am tired and I am hungry. It could also have something to do with the little boy cat causing catastrophe's at 2:30 in the morning. There is still 2 hours left before I can leave for the day....

Three Day Weekend

I am so looking forward to this weekend. My friend Emily is picking me up early from work today to go shopping. Other than that, there is nothing planned for the next 3 days! Monday is Columbus Day, and since I work for a bank, we get that holiday off (gotta love that perk). I am so excited to be able to do what I want when I want, with out having to juggle plans and commitments. Sometimes you just need to be at home, this is one of those times for me. Maybe I'll take a nap- oh that sounds so nice- especially since the weather is going to be rainy and ucky this weekend. I think that I am going to try to get my office back into some kind of order too. Jon and I will probably go swimming on Saturday morning. We started swimming twice a week about two weeks ago. It is a good work out, and our rec center is super nice. I better stop now- otherwise I will have my entire unplanned weekend planned. Happy three day weekend!

River Rendezvous

Wow- what an exciting weekend! I have been working with a non-profit group called cityWILD since May. I was contacted to help design all of the media materials for their annual benefit event, River Rendezvous. I designed the sponsorship packet, flyers, ticket brochures, tickets, and the slideshow that played during the event. The event was this past Saturday at the Gothic Theater. Jon and I were given VIP tickets for all of my hard work. This meant that we got to sit in the mezzanine level and rub elbows with the title sponsors, have free drinks, and free food.



Jon and I ended up sitting with Rob Eldridge and his wife Julie. Rob played a variety of guitar during the cocktail hour and dinner. He is a very talented musician, so talented in fact that his music is now the background music on my Fries the Moment Design website.

Since I was a sponsor through my design donation, my business and my name were on the slideshow. That’s right- twelve feet long and in lights in front of 400 people that have enough money to support non-profits!!! And as if that wasn’t good enough, the executive director of cityWILD, Seth Winnerman, gave a huge “thank you” to me during his introduction on stage at the event!!! I was so excited to have my business promoted like that. It was so encouraging to be there and know that my side business got us there.

Senator Ken Salazar was honored with the Role Model of the Year Award.

The event was a huge success, they sold more tickets this year than any other year in the past, and the live auction was awesome. They had 10-12 different packages which sold for anywhere between $1,200 and $5,000. Maybe someday Jon and I will have enough money to donate like that. The auction was followed by the main event- Big Head Todd and the Monsters!! I have never seen them in concert before and they were amazing. I always say that you can judge how good a musical artist is based on how they sound live compared to how they sound on the radio. Big Head Todd and the Monsters passes- they were great. My favorite part of the concert was when they added 4 horn players to the band.

On Sunday, our little Stella puppy turned 1 year old! She is half way through ‘”puppy”. She is such a good Labrador. She has mastered "sit" and "stay", now she is working on her acrobatics while catching her squeaky fish mid-air. We didn’t do anything crazy, but we did put a candle in her food for dinner. Happy Birthday Stella!

Lunch Anyone?

Needless to say I will NEVER use the BROIL setting again with out watching it like a hawk! We went to Taco Bell instead of attempting to digest the charred quesadilla's.