new logo = new website

So, a week or so, before we headed out on our epic road trip, I dreamed about a new logo for lucky design 7. I got up early (real early, 6 am) and cranked it out. I love it. The new look really works for how I feel about my work today. It's also very cute, which in my book, is always good.

Anytime a business gets a new logo, it's like new life. Everything starts to change. So far, I have new business cards, and a new blog header. I am also in the process of designing a new website. My plan is to have the new site live by December. I put the pressure on this project, by paying my web hosting in three months increments, instead of my usual deal, which is to pay my hosting all at once, once a year. Believe me, I don't want to pay two hosting bills, even for a month, so this is excellent motivation.

This is a good strategy for any business trying to get an internal project done. If you don't find a way to put a very concrete deadline on a project, it won't get done.

Believe me, I am just like my clients. I have no problem finishing client graphic design projects, but mine for my business, TOUGH!

I recommend putting your internal stuff, on a list, just like you would for any other job. It's works. I promise.

Happy Friday folks. I am off to an appointment, and then a short work day, then it's the weekend! This weather won't last, enjoy it!

gratitude & happiness go together like birds of a feather.

It's a really beautiful day in Asheville today, so I am feeling extra happy and grateful for my wonderful life here. I decided a good blog post for the day, was a "what makes my family happy list".

This is the most fun I had writing a blog post yet. I recommend making a "happy family list" for your peeps too. It's good to refer back to on those more difficult, less happy days.

So my family is Meg, my partner of almost 8 years. Antonio, the 14 year old amazing young man we mentor, and Mambo, the 14 year old cat. Hey, what can I say, 1996 was a good year for us, our favorite boys were born. We just didn't know them at first. With our boys, our family feels complete, happy, awesome, & almost always crazy busy. I am blessed.

Here is the master list of what makes my family happy, every day, all the time.

Meg & her happiness include:

1. Sleeping as long as needed daily

2. soy lattes in bed, made by hand, with love, by alisa, daily.

3. kisses, by alisa, antonio and a list of other chosen cutie pies.

4. Spending time with our family, chillin'

Antonio & his happiness include:

1. Playing sports, any sport, any time, with friends

2. Hanging out with friends, doing something new!

3. Skipping rocks at the creek

4. Spending time with our family, chillin'

Alisa & her happiness include:

1. A nice long walk, somewhere pretty

2. Fancy P.J.s

3. Gluten Free Corn Dogs & Tater Tots

4. Spending time with our family, chillin'

Mambo & his happiness include:

1. Real fried chicken treats!

2. A nice long nap

3. A nice long nap, on my one of my moms or Antonio

4. Spending time with our family, chillin'

I see a theme emerging here, fall and family time go together so nicely.

back to reality of having a million things to do = a very good life.

Man, have I been busy since we got back from our trip. It seems like it never happened. Thank goodness I blogged & journaled about every thing so I can remember what fun it was.... I don't think I realized how dang busy I am until we spent three weeks, NOT DOING ANYTHING BUT WHATEVER WE WANTED then blogging about it! I have really missed blogging every few days, so I am going to blog about whatever is going on around here....

Let me be very clear here. I like all the things I have going on in Asheville. My responsibilities range from being a good partner to Meg, spending quality time with my 14 year cat, Mambo, mentoring Antonio, running my graphic design business, losing 20 pounds so my bmi is in the healthy range, being head chef around our house, plus scheduling enough football game watching per week, to keep me sane.

Meg & I are doing great. We really connected on our road trip, and are both working hard to take good care of ourselves first, so we can be good partners, mentors, friends, etc.

The Antonio mentoring is going well. He seems really happy lately and seems to be learning, some of what we are trying to teach him about how to be a responsible, successful, happy adult. We are in the process of finding Antonio a boarding school to attend next year. He will be 15 next September, so we all agree he will be ready to go next fall. We visited the rabun gap nacoochee school last week. He loved the school, we loved the school. We are looking into a few other schools. It's a damn slow process, but we are trying to take it one step at a time.

Back in June or July, I weighed myself and the scale said 152 pounds. The 5 was uncool with me, so I set a goal of a 3 instead of a 5. I met the goal about 3 weeks ago. I eat whatever I want, I just eat half as much or less as I used to. I am also walking (seriously brisk walking) for one hour a day, most days a week.

In LSU news, this week, we got an amazing recruit this week, for my biggest sport love, the LADY TIGER BASKETBALL TEAM. I will be writing a blog about this soon. We are beyond excited!!

Otherwise, if the LSU football team could stop giving me heart attacks each week, life would be more than perfect around here. Until next time, enjoy this yummy crispy fall weather!