Lucky Design 7

Road Trip overload!

2012-02-16T15:01:00.000-08:00

Denver to Lawrence, KS to Saint Louis to Nashville to Asheville to Charleston, to Montgomery, AL to Baton Rouge to Tulsa, OK to Denver. We left January 17th and returned home yesterday February 16th.

We drove almost 4,000 miles. We had an awesome trip. Meg had a few photo shoots. I worked all along the way. We had a super busy trip, hence why I didn't blog like usual. I can't believe what we packed into a month long trip. We saw some friends, and family, flew a kite, ate gluten free falfels (here, best meal I have had in a year http://www.patatspot.com/) played on the beach, saw three lady tigers games, and helped Meg's mom get her hip surgery arranged and over with. Thank goodness Meg's mama had so many great kids. Meg's three sisters and bro who live in Baton Rouge helped to get her to surgery and then are taking turns staying with her until she gets out of the hospital. She goes home tomorrow and it doing great!

We arrived back in Denver yesterday and I am so glad to be home. We have some exciting things going on around here over the next few weeks, so I promise to blog like a good blogger should!

Road Tripping Again!

2012-01-20T07:57:00.000-08:00

Tuesday we drove from Denver, CO to Lawrence, KS. 562 miles of a wonderful day in the KIA soul with Meg. We laughed a bunch and listened to the XM radio. There was snow on the ground for the five hours east of Denver. About an hour outside of Denver is was snowing to the south of 70 west. The sky was grey and beautiful with sun streaming through the clouds. The ground was sparkly and amazing. It was a really beautiful site to see. I wish you could have been there.

We spent the night in Lawrence, KS. What a lovely little town. We had coffee and breakfast at the Merc Co-op, then took a nice walk around the JayHawks campus.

Then we drove 250 miles to Saint Louis. We have been spending the last two days with our friend, href="http://lisacolby.com/">Lisa Colby. She is an amazing jeweler, and she is about the sweetest person you will ever meet. Yesterday we hit up a couple of thrift stores and then had a great Indian/Korean/Napalese lunch in the grove neighborhood at href="http://everestcafeandbar.com/">everest cafe. What amazing food. The neighborhood was super cute. It's called the Globe neighborhood. Why don't all neighborhoods have a super cute sign at the entrance?

Today it's a 300 mile day. We are off to Nashville, TN. We are going to check out the American Pickers store in Nashville because I am curious. Then we are going to have a late lunch at the Wild Cow veggie restaurant. They have loads of gluten free stuff and it's cheap. Then we are spending the night with some old friends of Meg. We are photographing their family in the morning, then we are off to my hometown, Asheville!! I am so excited to see all my friends. Look out Asheille, I missed ya!

The truth will set you free and be really awesome!

2012-01-13T14:12:00.000-08:00

Today I wanted to write about something that has always inspired me. Truth. It may sound trite but from someone who hasn't always been able to be completely truthful about herself, it's a big deal to me these days. I knew I was gay since I was in pre-school, but didn't tell a single person until I was thrown out (this is a story for another blog post at a later date) of the closet when I was 21.

Today I am out in every aspect of my life. All my friends, family, & clients know I am gay and I am married to my partner Meg. I am proud to be out. I know there are loads of little kids out there who are gay. Today they see all sorts of role models... from Ellen, to Elton John, we are everywhere. I was watching the people's choice awards the other night, & in the first thirty minutes, there was Ellen and Neil Patrick Harris both openly kissing their partners on T.V.!!! It's so great to see opening gay, happy people.

A fellow gay I have been super inspired by is Mondo Guerra. I don't know how many of you out there watch Project Runway, but you should start. It's an addictive reality show about fashion designers completing to win a load of cash to start their own fashion line.

Mondo lives his truth. In season 8, during one of the fashion challenges, Mondo reveled he was H.I.V. positive on the show. I was so impressed by this then and now. I have had the opportunity to meet Mondo. He is a super down to earth sweet heart & is doing a lot of AMAZING work here with Colorado AIDS Project.

The Truth, it's where it's at. Take it from somebody who has tried it, it's awesome to be totally honest all the time.

I am off to finish up a few work things so I can start packing for our road trip. We leave next week. I will be blogging about our trip as always. We are going to be traveling from Denver to Saint Louis to Nashville to Asheville, NC to Charleston, SC to Baton Rouge back to Denver. Yes, it's a crazy trip as usual. While we are away, we are getting a new bathroom, complete with a clawfoot tub! Before and After picks in mid February. Happy Friday everyone!

hello 2012, nice to meet ya!

2011-12-31T18:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, 2011 was quite a year. We decided to leave my home of 15 years, Asheville. I spoke in front of over 300 people. I helped organize a my first fundraiser with a lot of help from Meg & Leslie! Good work ladies! We put our Asheville house on the market and it sold in TWO DAYS!! We sold the only place I ever felt totally safe, our Broad Street house. We bought a new house in West Washington Park in Denver, CO. I drove a 28 foot truck from Asheville, NC to Denver, CO. We moved to Denver less than six weeks after we put our house on the market in Asheville. I gained a son, Antonio, then we lost him. Heartbroken is the only word I can think to describe what this was like. We are still healing from this.

Things have been up and down since Antonio left. We miss him. He misses us. He could use any prayers or good thoughts if you have any to spare, so could we. Even with the tough times, there have been some really good times.

Meg & I love our house and neighborhood. Everything you could want to do is close by. We live just minutes from downtown Denver. We hit up the local goodwill pretty often. We found a new mexican place, called El Diablo, a couple of weeks ago. Amazing tacos! We saw our first Denver Nuggets game a few nights ago. AMAZING!! The Nuggets are really looking good this year. We had such a great time.

We are starting to make friends. We attended a Christmas party that was mostly southerns! We had a blast. We both miss the south, because let's face it, there it no place like home.

I gained an amazing friend & room mate. I don't know how we scored Justin, but if you have ever heard my talk about him, I know we are super lucky to have him. He is a handy man, figureouter of all stuff, & a major rescuer extraordinaire.

Mambo the cat is still in love with Denver. I attribute his happiness to two things. One he is having a bromance with Justin. They are such good buddies. It's so cute. Also, the cat to human ratio is perfect for Mambo. 3:1, cat perfection!

To start off 2012, we are doing some house renovating. By we, I mean Justin, of course! We are re-doing the hard woods we found under world's ugliest, cheap tile. (thanks to Brittany & Tate for checking to see if they were there, we had no idea!) We are getting a new renovated bathroom in January... complete with a claw foot tub, nice octagon white tile, bead board with a chair rail and a few other awesome vintage surprises. I will do a nice before (ugly shell sink and other ugly stuff) and after shot! We are pumped up to rid ourselves of the 80's shell sink that is there right now.

We have a number of road trips planned for 2012.

The first one is in late January. We plan to drive cross country back to Asheville, with stops in St. Louis, & Nashville. Then's is off to Charleston, SC to see the cutest kids in the world, Finn and Addie & spend time with world's best friend ever, Hilary!!! Then we will hit the road again to Baton Rouge. Then back to Denver. We will have little stops along the way and we will photograph our travels as usual. I love to blog when we travel, so I can remember what the hell we did and what fun we had!!

My plan to blog about what inspires me this past year was really fun. Overall, I was the most inspired by simple things. Hope, change, peace, love. I plan on continuing the inspiration blog posts, along with travels posts and whatever else I feel like talking about.
I learned a lot this year and I am sure that 2012 has big plans for me, just like I have for 2012.

Happy New Year Folks. Let's make the most of it!

Bad Blogger Girl!

2011-12-07T15:02:00.001-08:00

I have been a bad blogger girl. I am hopeful that Santa does not read my blog. If he does, I am in big trouble. I always look forward to Christmas. I have a number of vintage christmas decorations, I look forward to pulling out of the boxes each year. See the nice view from my desk below.

Christmas is one of the few breaks I take each year. Taking a break to spend time with family and friends is very inspiring to me. I had an old friend lose his life partner in a tragic accident last weekend. Life is short! Work will always be there to be done, but someone you love may not.

As you all have surely noticed I have been neglecting my blog lately. I am super busy with graphic design projects. I have been working on two custom greetings cards, that I produce each year... in addition to my already full work load. I am in the midst of four logos, three websites, a catalog and a few other odds and ends.

Lately, (for the last year or so) I have been obsessing over Victorian everything. Advertising architecture, fashion, industrial design, even christmas ornaments. You name it, if it's Victorian, I am into it. I am working on a logo right now for a historic inn (see above), that was built in 1856. I have been doing research and working on the logo for over two weeks and I still have so many ideas!!

I wanted to show you guys a few of the images I found (mostly out of a couple of library books) that inspire me design wise. I am loving banners and how in victorian times, no type was on a straight line. Everything that was type had a curve it somewhere. Also, everything was designed to KEEP, not throw away. Interesting how times have changed, isn't it? I am more on the designed to keep side of that story.

The photo is of some vintage match book labels. I am amazed at how cool these are.

Alright, back to work. Hopefully, this post (along with a couple more before the holidays) will put me back in good graces with the big man at the North Pole!

purple & gold inspires me, like a lot.

2011-11-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Because I am an LSU super fan. Because purple and gold are awesome colors and happen to be my favorite colors all space in time. I know, I know, I am from North Carolina. Don't get me wrong, I adore my tarheels and carolina blue is a beautiful site for sure. I got into LSU women's basketball about 7 years ago, when Meg took me to my first game. I have been hooked ever since. We were at the first game of the new season last night in Baton Rouge.

Of course we always dress up for every game and this one was no different. The girls looked amazing. We LOVE the new coach, Nikki Caldwell. She does not mess around.
I could tell they everyone has been working super hard. The lady tigers beat Xavier 102-42. I like that score a lot, a whole hell of a lot. It's going to be a great season! We plan on getting to as many games as we can even living so far away. Southwest direct from Denver to New Orleans rules!

You can pretty much get anything you can imagine in purple and gold LSU versions, even tater chips. You can get who dat ones too. Someone would sell purple and gold air if that were an option. I would buy it if they did!

There is sort of an important game going on this Saturday, so the peeps down here are pretty fired up. (#1 LSU plays, #2 ranked Alabama, in football, if you live under a rock or if you just hate sports) We will be at a wedding Saturday evening, but I am sure we will find a way to see some of the game.... and we will be watching the whole game on Sunday!! GEAUX TIGERS!

fall winter wonder land (or for fun you can say Finter Wonderland!)

2011-10-26T16:18:00.000-07:00

Snow days inspire me, possible more than anything else. I have loved snow since forever. Snow makes even the ugliest of things beautiful. What else can you think of that has that sort of power?

We got about 6 inches of snow today in Denver. Fall was just getting rolling here, so snow with fall leaves under it is pretty cool. I think it made for one of the prettiest snow days ever.

Well, the photos say way more than I ever could. I am super stoked I moved to Denver today. Bring on more snow!

homegrown inspiration.

2011-10-16T23:29:00.001-07:00

I have always been into my house, our home. I have worked out of my house for the past eight years. Originally, when we moved to Denver, I thought I would be working a full time job, but things have changed. See earlier posts, for an explanation, I am talked out about the situation & the Antonio subject still makes me sad. I am back to running my own freelance graphic design company from home & business is great!

I have always been inspired by my living space, it has to feel like home!

So, since I am around the house all day, we have started a few more projects around here. I have always had a pioneering spirit. I have always been able to make a lot out of what ever I have laying around. It started as a kid. I would build entire towns for my matchbox cars out of spare car parts, wood scraps (one of my grandfathers was a mechanic, the other a carpenter, so go figure, their scraps made for great stuff to make things out of), trash, moss, sticks, rocks and whatever else I could find. I used a piece of asbostos sliding as a scraper to build roads for my matchbox towns. I am sure that was super safe and really great for my long term health. It was was super for my creative health anyway, and that is what is important to this blog post.

I built many things at our old house on Broad Street out of free, found stuff. Our fence was made out of hotel doors. Literally, hotel doors from the Princess Anne Hotel around the corner. I built a wall out of a bunch of wild cherry tree logs that were the result of said wild cherry tree having to be cut down. I used bricks I found in an abandoned lot across the street to make a flower bed border. Our broad street house looked pretty sweet after 8 years of hard work and love!

So, of course when we bought our new house in Denver, I was taking stock of anything laying around that I might use for potential projects. We looked at many different houses, on two different housing buying trips to Denver. Each time we pulled up, I was wondering, is there anything laying around I could use to sweeten up the new pad? The Pearl Street house won on many different levels as the one, but a lot of it for me was the potential. She is basically a blank slate, other than the two amazing pine trees, a fenced in huge back yard, a sweet front porch, and a killer deck, that we hang out on all the time. The Pearl Street house has many left-overs from previous renters/owners. There are piles of rocks, tons of wood (shoved in the open rafters of the garage), loads of flagstone patches around the deck. I had been eyeing the rocks since day one for a project. The front yard was almost completely weeds. I should have done a before photo, but I never can bring myself to look at the ugly version of projects! Our sweet handy man Justin (see photos for G. I. Joe look alike) laid down landscaping fabric and dug around the edges of said weed patch, then carried all the many miscellaneous rocks into the front yard, and proceeded to help me arrange them for another 2 hours, after he had been working on the yard for the past 6 hours. He is pretty awesome. We mention quite often, we don't know what we did to deserve such a handy fellow around all the time, but we are incredibly grateful daily for him.

We had mulch delivered a few days later and wow, what a difference a little mulch & lots of GI Joe man power can make around a place! I know, finally, photos of the house, on the blog. Miracles really do happen!

Back to my inspiration blogs.

2011-09-20T19:21:00.001-07:00

I am excited to say things are going really well for us. The Denver do over could not be going better. I am grateful everyday I wake up in Denver. I know it's the right place for us.

So, back to life, back to what is important to me. Inspiration. As a creative person, I am always searching for new music, new curtains, new colors, new typefaces, new anything that I think is pretty or gives me that happy feeling.

Lately, I am inspired by simple things.... today it was homemade ceasar salad with a gluten free pizza. We used tomatoes and basil grown here in Colorado, near or in the city! I was surprised to see tomatoes still looking great and in season. I picked them up at the South Pearl Street Farmers Market on Sunday. Hello, can you say new Sunday tradition. Loved it!

I am inspired by cool, crisp Colorado evenings. We took a bike ride this evening, and I was actually cold! It was awesome.

I am inspired by the new Burton Catalog I got in the mail. I want everything in there!

I am inspired by regular days, that are spent working, making lunch, petting the cat, and spending time with my awesome partner in crime, Meg.

Last but not least, today I am inspired by change. The last year of my life has been all about change. Making changes is not easy, but hey, anything that is awesome enough to be worth doing is not easy.

So here's to a new house, in a new city, with new friends.... Denver you are starting to feel like home and I know we are going get along just fine.

Four Day Weekend!

2011-09-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

Four day weekends are my favorite kind of weekends. Meg & I have our first out of town guest in Denver this weekend, our awesome niece Lalu! With everything we have had going on the past few weeks at first we weren't sure about having company... as Lalu is the first of many guests this fall. But after thinking it over, having a guest is a nice break from everyday life & hey we could use a staycation!

The weekend started with a trip out to Red Rocks Amphitheatre to see Alison Krauss & Union Station. The weather was cool & cloudy. We arrived early (after walking up about 7000 steps) & really enjoy the view before the big crowd arrived. There were thunder storms in the distance most of the evening and a huge rainbow. I took that as a sign for a very good weekend ahead. Boy, was I right about a good weekend!! The show was amazing & so was the four day weekend.

Saturday, we got all dressed up in LSU gear and rode our bikes down the cherry creek parkway to REI to do a little shopping, then we had a little Mellow Mushroom lunch. Then it was back to our house to watch the LSU vs. Oregon game. There is a bar in town that is the official LSU club bar, but for such an important game, I wanted to be home where I could focus on the game. I do plan on joining the club for a less important game in the very near future.

Sunday started off perfectly, with breakfast at Snooze!! The wait can be over an hour at times. If you are in Denver, ever, you must have breakfast at Snooze. YUM!!! Then we took off and drove over to the Indian Peaks Wilderness outside of Boulder, CO. The drive goes through tiny Ward, CO. It's only about an 1 1/2 from the heart of Denver, so if you are ever around there, this is the place to go in nature, period without a doubt. We hiked for a couple of miles on the Lake Michigan trail. It was beyond amazing. There is still some snow up there if you can believe that. There is a glacier you can hike too but it's a 7 hour (round trip) hike & that was a little out of our range at the moment. When I say out of our range, I mean me and Meg, not Lauren. She could handle a 7 hour hike no problem!! I waded around in the little lake and almost froze my feet off. I only lasted about 90 seconds and I don't even mind cold water, but this was serious. We drove back into Boulder, had a fancy coffee drink & drove around Boulder a little so Lauren could check it out.

With a nice coffee in hand, it was back to Denver, for a dinner of grilled BBQ (Carolina style) chicken, roasted brussel sprouts and taters! Then we rode downtown and stumbled upon the taste of Colorado. It's was sort of like bele chere but bigger & with a gourmet food section. I think Bele Chere needs a gourmet food section, don't y'all?? We finished up the night at sweet action ice cream near our house. Again, YUM!

Monday was a chill day, Lauren went on a bike ride in Washington Park & we took a little walk before we had to drop her off at the airport.

Overall, it was a great weekend. We loved having Lauren around and we enjoyed getting to know our fine city.

I am off to pack for a trip to Asheville. We will be there this weekend to photograph a wedding and see the many friends we did not have time to say a proper good bye to in June. We are both still having good days and rough days, but we know that we are where we are supposed to be and trust that everything happens like it is supposed to, when it is supposed to. Keep those positive thoughts rolling our way. thanks for all the love and support!

Until next time folks!

Denver do over!

2011-08-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Each day is getting a little easier for both me and for Meg. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family who are there for us during such a difficult period for us.

It is amazing that when I am down, what a dang difference it makes for me to clean & rearrange the house. We have been in the new house since June, but it's almost like I have only been here for the last week. I cleaned everything, moped the floor and rearranged a bunch of furniture.

Meg & I put up some new curtains in our living room over the weekend. I am officially in love with window treatments. It amazes what a difference nice curtains can make.

We are trying to get out in nature as much as possible. We hiked along clear creek in Golden, CO this weekend. The hike was an easy one, but along a killer little, fast moving, freezing creek. Loads of people were tubing down it and it was quite entertaining to watch. I love how people holler out when they go over a rough patch, like Woooooo! It's a universal reaction that I never get sick of hearing. Tubing is a very unrated activity. We also happened upon a USA Pro Cycling Challenge pre party festival. There was a pizza food truck with a gluten free option. Have I mentioned that living in Colorado makes it much easier to eat gluten free? Well, it does and it's rocking my world to have so many options everywhere we go. There was even a gluten free stand at the Colorado Rockies game that even included gluten free beer. Sweet!!

We were in awesome Boulder yesterday. We already have our favorite Boulder tradition. We hit up the Village Coffee Shop for breakfast anytime of day. Breakfast is my favorite meal. I had a veggie omelet, hashbrowns, bacon and gluten free toast, YUM. Meg had monstrous stack of gluten free blueberry pancakes. Then I had a lovely business meeting, then it was off to Chautauqua Park in west boulder where we walked along the Mesa trail. What a beautiful place.

This morning when I got up it was 60 degrees. The last couple of days have been slightly cooler. I am very excited for it to be fall. This summer has been hot, super hot & our new house does not have central air. We will get be installing central air before next summer I promise. Until then bring on cool, crispy fall please!

Alright, I am off to make breakfast and get ready for a hike to O'Fallon Park with my favorite Meggie.

Hard Times.

2011-08-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

I have tried to pull a post together three times in the last week and each time I trash the draft. I haven't known what to say. Antonio decided to go back to Asheville two weeks ago. Out of respect for his privacy, I won't go into the details, but things were not going well for him in Denver. The time he spent here had a few moments of peace but mostly things were chaotic and difficult for everyone. Meg & I had hoped things would improve, but they continued to decline from day one. I never saw the boy I signed up to help in Denver. It's like someone else came to Denver in his place.

Meg and I have mentored Antonio for the last four and a half years. That is over half of our relationship together. It is really painful to know he will not be part of our daily lives. We are not in contact with him right now, as that is what is best for us. We are able to check up on him through the grapevine. The information we are getting confirms that it was for the best for him to move back to Asheville.

We spent the last two weeks with friends and family trying to recover and reclaim our lives without Antonio. It's tough as we both we just getting used to having him around all the time. We are making daily progress but it is slow going. Our family mantra right now is Easy Does It.

For all your supporters out there, we appreciate all the support you have given us over the past four and a half years. Antonio will appreciate when he is old enough to understand how many people cared about him. I know being 15 is hard enough age when you come from a loving family who cares about you. His background was too much for him to over come at 15. He has been taught a lot of bad habits and a lot of things that are not helpful to being a successful person. As anyone out there knows it's very hard to break bad habits. He is really struggling right now. We know we did everything we could to try and undo a lot of these habits, but the pull of poverty is bigger than us.

I wanted to specifically address all the wonderful folks donated to help out with Antonio. We were able to give a number of things we had purchased for Antonio to a friend Antonio made while in Denver. Antonio met Elisha when he was attending the work study program this summer at Arrupe Jesuit . Elisha is attending Arrupe this fall and he plans on being the first person in his family to graduate from high school. He comes from a very rough background. He has a very supportive mother and he is very determined to be successful. His mom dropped out of high school and really wants Elisha to get his high school degree and go to college. She does not want him to have to struggle like she does. It's beautiful to see someone really showing up even though things are really hard for her and for her family. Elisha is showing up big time. He is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. They don't have much in the way of material stuff, yet they seem to find a lot of happiness. It's really beautiful to see. We wish Antonio had this kind of support from his mom.

For now, Meg and I are in Denver, and we are going to try it for three months and see how things go. I am working on re-building my graphic design business here and Meg is doing the same with her photography business. We are planning a lot of day trips from Denver into nature to recharge and recover.

Neither of us know what the future holds for us or for Antonio but we know we did all we could and now we have to be patient and witness what unfolds. If you pray, pray, if you chant, chant, if you send good vibes, send them please. We could all use the positive energy and prayers right now.

A few reasons I love living in Denver.

2011-07-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

1. We live very close to the light rail station on Alameda Ave. Antonio has taken the light rail/bus to school a few times already. He has also jumped on the light rail & headed over to the skate park. We could go downtown to a NBA/NFL/MLB game via the light rail. It's amazing!

2. We live near a ton of restaurants & fun stuff to do.
+ Lark Burger is my number one favorite place to eat right now. Yes, it's because of the vanilla shakes and french fries, not the burgers.
+ Washington Park is my favorite place to ride bikes and people watch.
+ Whole Foods is just a few blocks away. I gotta get my gluten free fix somewhere!

3. I get to live with the best two people and furry man in the world. Meg, Antonio & Mambo are all loving Colorado. Mambo loves his big yard and his man cave (the basement). Meg loves the new house. She spends a lot of time sweeping the front sidewalk and working on shaping up the yard. Antonio loves his room and his basketball court. He spends a lot of time at the skate park.

4. Our new house is so cute and so us. I know loyal blog followers, you want photos. E-mail Meg ok? she is my official photographer & she is on a contact making mission... when she is not sweeping the yard. She is rebuilding her business from the ground up, so she is burning up the lines and hitting the pavement introducing the Denver/Boulder market to her heirloom photography business. Bug her please. I want to show off this place!

5. We have an amazing handy man. His name is Justin. He helped us with a million projects the first couple of weeks we were here. He is amazing & he is nice & funny. We are very lucky to have him.

6. I really like being a mom, when Antonio is smiling. I mean, who wouldn't want be his mama? Look at that face. The above photo is from his first day at the work study training program at Arrupe Jesuit High School. This is where he is going. No more trying to figure that out. He is very excited & so are we.

All this wonderful change is SO inspiring. Until next time! Happy Almost Friday!

Wow, Denver is awesome.

2011-07-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

This is what Antonio says when you ask him about Denver. I tend to agree with him. We are really settling in to the new house since Antonio got here a couple of weeks ago. So far we have painted our bathroom, the kitchen, Antonio's room, his bathroom, the deck, and half of our office room. I know, I know... when are you going post photos? Soon people soon. It's gotta look good, I am a designer remember?

I have been so busy with house projects, looking for a full time job, learning html & dreamweaver and being a full time Mom, that I haven't had time to blog. I do have a lot to blog about so let's get to it!

We spent last Friday night with our friends, Eddie & Tatum Perez. Tatum graciously invited us to an after hours viewing at the Museum of Outdoor Art, exhibit called Light Supply. Man, did we have fun. The most entertaining part of the evening was dancing on the harp that plays when you break the plane of the laser with any old body part. See the photos above. It's the big metal thing, with the dots on the floor. The blue room photo is where Grammy award winner, Mickey Houlihan of Wind over the Earth created an original soundscape for the different colors of the room. The room would fade from one color to the next. It was a very pink floyd experience, which reminded me of my college days.

Read all about it here :
Museum of Outdoor Art

The weekend before last we dropped by a denver art thing, that turned out to be super great. I loved the graphic they created and I saw it on facebook and decided to go. Meg and I both left the event feeling very inspired. check out the artists & get the scoop on the event. http://projecthello.posterous.com

Antonio is really turning out to be quite the skateboarder. He wants to go to the park everyday. While, he doesn't get to go everyday, he has been going a lot.

Last night after I made homemade vietnamese spring rolls for dinner, we headed over to Aurora, CO for some serious firework action. Check out the craziness on utube. This guy uploaded the last 4 something minutes of the show on youtube to a rocking guitar version of the national anthem. Forward to the 3 something to see the grand finale. It was brain numbingly loud, and it sort of seemed like the sky was exploding. I have to say the show was pretty dang spectacular, especially if you happen to be 14 going on 30.

Aurora Fireworks on youtube

Today I am inspired by new friends, a new city, and a new family. This year is all about doing things differently, so far we are right on track! Signing off from Denver!

The awesome photos from the museum by Nikki Leven Breaux.

It's been a big week around here!

2011-06-24T09:08:00.001-07:00

It's another beautiful day in Denver, CO. We have been living here a little under a month and man has a lot happened.

Our friends Amy & Nikki moved here from Rockford, IL late last week. It is so wonderful having them around. They have two awesome kids, Halle and Spencer (AKA smoothie). The kids all get along great & have a lot of fun hanging out together. We used to visit Amy & Nikki once a year, when they lived outside of New York City. We have always wanted to live in the same city as them and finally we got our wish!

Antonio has been here since Tuesday and he is doing great. He had a surprise waiting for him, his own personal basketball court! So far he has spent a lot of time playing basketball, skating with his friend, Smoothie, hanging out with Halle, and doing anything we ask him to do around here. He is such a wonderful guy. I set up a blog for him earlier in the week. antoniosbigadventure.blogspot.com. Check it out. He is very funny!

We got the paint for repainting the entire house. We got some great colors. I know we need to take some photos! We are going to get back to painting over the weekend. The colors are a nice warm gray, a beautiful greenish light blue, a killer charteuse green and a lovely pink of our room. If you have seen my work, you have seen these colors. Lately, I have been pushing some new combos (in my work!), but these colors are some of my all time favorites.

Meg still hasn't found her nikon d300 charger yet, hence the lack of photos. We are such opposites! I know where everything is and she doesn't know where anything is! This is why are are such a good match peeps. Our nine year anniversary is in October. I am so lucky to have such a great partner.

I am still looking for a full time job in Denver. There are a lot of options, so I know it's going to happen soon. In the meantime, I am finishing up some freelance projects for my Asheville clients.

Tomorrow we are off to check out the Boulder Farmers Market. I can't wait. I have been dying to get over to Boulder anyway. It is supposed to be the best market around.
http://www.boulderfarmers.org

I promise to post more photos of the house this weekend. Happy Friday Peeps!

Back to Work in Denver Baby!

2011-06-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

It's a lovely day here in Denver. I set my office up over the weekend. I cranked out some changes for the Austin Grill website this morning. I am very close to finishing up that project. I have another website that is being programmed for a farm located in Asheville, NC. I have a couple of logo projects I am set to start working on tomorrow.

Meg just put the finishing touches on Antonio's carolina blue room this morning. I spoke to Antonio today and he is so fired up about getting out here. He will be here in one week! It's unbelievable we are so close to being together daily as a family. It's very exciting and a little overwhelming to think of being full time parents. We are doing a lot of talking about the everyday workings of our household. We have a pretty good plan for how things are gong to work around here.

Mambo the cat ventured outside for the first time yesterday. He did a lot of smelling everything. Then when I bought him back inside he did not want to stay in! This morning he wanted to go out first thing. He is loving it here in Denver. We couldn't be happier about how well he is doing. In the past, he has not done very well with moving, so it was a lovely surprise, during a pretty stressful time.

We are mostly settled in. We are still finishing up a few house projects. There is a tree guy that will be taking down a tree tomorrow. It's a wild cherry tree and they break easily. It's also interfering with our ability to get high def satellite. That is not working for us at all!! We had to watch the NBA finals in standard def. Wow, can you say super fuzzy? Watching basketball in high def is the only way to go.

We are having the back door replaced. It's glass and it's ugly so that won't do! Our new handy man is here now, measuring and getting together a materials list. The new door goes up tomorrow.

I am still loving the new kitchen. I am cooking daily and loving all the room I have to spread out and make a mess like a true chef! We shopped at Sun Flower Market for the first time today and it was a great experience. They have loads of gluten free food options.

I am following up on some job leads this afternoon. There are a lot of great job options here, so I know there is a perfect job out there for me. Happy Monday!

Denver livin'!

2011-06-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

We have been in the new house for 6 1/2 days and there has been a lot going on!

We have unpacked quite a bit. We are in the midst of having a number of things done. There is a new roof going on the new garage. We had a gas line installed yesterday for the new gas dryer. The washer and dryer got installed today. We are having built ins built put into the office. We have a tree that needs to be cut down. We need to prune the main tree of the yard, right over the deck. We had direct TV hooked up. The internet folks stopped by today and got the internets rolling, Thank god! We can't live without the internet around here, especially, with all the many things we need to figure out.

We are currently painting our bathroom an amazing martha stewart 1950's pink with chartreuse accents. Meg got THE UNC tarheel carolina blue paint for Antonio's room today. That is the color he wanted so we are hooking up our sweet boy. We will knock out his room's makeover this weekend.

Our new couch arrived today! It's awesome. It's a light grey corduroy that is super soft, it's comfy & a good looking couch. We are currently enjoying it's plushness right now!

The kitchen is the most organized so far. This is not a surprise to anyone around here. The new kitchen has 7 1/2 times the amount of counter space and about 3 times the cabinet space as the board street house in Asheville. Don't get me wrong. the kitchen worked just fine, but the new kitchen digs are amazing. We have a GE profile fridge and a gas range, and a killer mod stainless hood (leslie huntley style).

For some reason we didn't have any plates, bowls, glasses or coffee cups. I have no idea what happened to the mismatched things we have been using forever, but we were ready for an upgrade there any way. Can you say Target? We got the cutest green mod plastic plates, some new white glass coffee cups, new sliver ware and a nice set of real glasses.

Everyone is doing pretty well considering the chaos that we are all living in. Mambo the cat is doing the best for sure. He just sleeps all day, eats dinner and looks out the window each evening. He did tap on the window a little bit last night, as he is starting to be interested in going outside. The yard is totally fenced in and only has a couple gaps in the fence that I need to work on before he can go out.

We are so looking forward to getting Antonio here and going to do some serious exploring in our new city!

Day 3 & 4! We are in Denver Baby!

2011-06-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

Thursday, we drove from Hayes, KS into Denver. We arrived in our 26 foot moving truck that was hauling our car at around 12:30. We drove right over to the new house! It was crazy driving the truck in the city. It was a tight squeeze but we just drove slow and made our way.

Somehow, we scored a parking spot for said moving truck right in front of the house. We got some help from some construction workers across the street parking the big truck and moving the car dolly into the garage so no one would steal it, before we could return it on Friday afternoon. We met about 5 different neighbors that first day. Everyone was super nice and happy to see someone moving into our house. She had been empty for a while.

When we walked up to the front door we had a homemade sign that said "welcome home y'all" with loads of purple and gold ribbons on it. Thanks Jules & Babs. What sweet family we have!

We did the walk through with the realtor and met her at the title company to sign some legal docs. By 3:00 the new house was all ours!!!!

We celebrated being in a new city, in a new house, with some amazing thai food, from one of my favorite Denver eats, Swing Thai. Then we all had a 4 hour nap. Then we had left over thai food and went back to sleep.

The drive took about 23 hours total, which was not bad considering the size of the truck (26 ft diesel plus a car dolly with our kia soul on the back)! It was not a bad gig actually driving the truck. It was even fun a lot of the time. Getting off the interstate and parking the truck was pretty tricky. You can't really back up in a truck with that sort of trailer. It can be quite problematic (see Asheville to St. Louis post) but we figured out how to manage parking & getting gas and keep moving as best we could, without really stopping. I think Mambo the cat had the best deal for the ride out. He slept almost two of the three days of the drive. He did really well. We ate out of a cooler for three days, so you can imagine how amazing the hot thai food dish was Thursday afternoon.

The movers arrived at about 8:30 am on Friday to unpack the big truck. The moving guys were great. They had everything unloaded by 11:30 and drove the monster truck to get gas and back to the moving company for us, as I had had enough of driving the truck in the city on Thursday.

So far the people here are very nice and extremely responsible. We had our Satellite T.V. hooked up yesterday but we have to take a tree down to get HD. It's a signal issue. The tree is in bad shape so we would likely take it down anyway.

We are still internet less which has been pretty tough but we need a phone jack to make it work and I can't seem to find one anywhere, especially in the current state of the house. I am betting my brother in law Moe can walk me through this.

Everyone is settling in to the new house really well. We unpacked enough yesterday to set up the kitchen (somewhat), our bed (hooray) and the tv with a couple of comfy spots for some tv watching after a long day of packing. It seems like it will take a week or two to unpack. Mambo is doing great. Sleeping, eating and overall mostly his normal self which is quite usual for him in past moves. His mamas are very happy about this. Meg is missing the internet and wants to do everything right now, and she is powering it out, but I make her rest a lot too. I am just so dang happy to be on this side of things!

Antonio is still back in Asheville with one of his best friends. He has school for a few more days, then he is going camping with his buddy Trevor. He flies to Denver on June 20th. Needless to say we can't wait to get him here, but have plenty to do in the meantime to prepare for his arrival.

Denver is Awseome!! Loving it. We can't wait to settle in to the house, so we can go exploring!!

Day #2 St. Louis to Hayes, KS.

2011-06-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day on the road. We made great time, it was a beautiful drive from St. Louis to Hayes, KS. We are camped out at a Best Western, resting and having a rare, hot meal. Smoked Gouda cheese nachos, with guacamole. It was delicious and gluten free. Tomorrow we drive to Denver, CO. We are headed right to my favorite Denver eats, green curry from swing thai. Then we do our final walk though of the new house, and get the keys! Woot! We will be taking loads of photos over the weekend. (If we can ever find Meg's camera battery charger!) Antonio is flying to Denver on June 20th. We can't wait to be together as a family! Stay tuned!

Day #1 Asheville to St. Louis!

2011-06-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

We are on the road to Denver. We are currently in the hotel, right outside of St. Louis. Day #1 was eventful to say the least. We left Asheville at around 1 yesterday and the drive was bumpy and a tad loud, but we laughed, talked and overall enjoyed just sitting there, relaxing and driving our stuff. We arrived at the hotel on the far side of St. Louis at around 12 o'clock central standard time.

We checked in and then I tried to park the big truck. I tried to turn around in a big parking lot, but did not make the turn. We ultimately had to call a tow service to bail us out. A nice fellow from Triple A helped us get turned around without hurting our beloved 2011 KIA SOUL, zippy louise!

After going to bed at around three we are up, making a plan for the day. I will write again this evening with an update of our location.

It's Go Time!

2011-05-22T08:37:00.000-07:00

I have been talking about moving to Denver so long, it's almost like it was never going to happen. Well, it is really happening, like soon, like real soon. We are leaving Asheville May 31st, right after we hand over our house keys to the new owner of 88 Broad Street.

We are in the final stages of buying a new house in Denver. It's been an on going process, but I have been too stressed to talk about it very much.

Meg & I are headed out with Mambo the cat to get the nest all settled on the 31st, then Mr. Antonio is going to fly to Denver in a couple of weeks. He is finishing up school in North Carolina, then he is going to spend a little last minute time with friends.

We are hitting the road in a big moving truck, to drive the 22 hours to our new home in Denver, CO. We close on our new home in Denver on June 2nd. Our new house is at 264 S. Pearl Street. We are in love with her. It's an amazing 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1905 craftsmen bungalow. There is a huge fenced in yard, a 2 car garage, a big deck, an killer kitchen, and a nice big front porch. There is plenty of room for our boys. Antonio has his own suite. It's a big room with lots of windows and his own bathroom. We have a lovely bedroom. To say that this kitchen is the nicest I will have ever had is a serious understatement. There is an extra bedroom where Meg is going to have her new office. The kitchen, dining room and living room are one big room. It's going to be great to hang out as a family in our new space.

We are so grateful to the help we have had from friends and family to make this move possible. It's unbelievable the amount of love and support we have from our friends and family right now. WE COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU!!

I am in the process of designing a new website for Antonio so you can hear more about his new life directly from the young man himself. He is so very excited about moving. It is amazing to watch him grow and change in these crazy times. He amazes me daily.

We are all very excited to be in the new house in Devner and be together as a family. It's going to be a wonderful day when we are all finally together. It's been four years in the making. I could not have dreamed up a more perfect family. Stay tuned for photos of the new pad!

Bitter Sweet Memories!

2011-05-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, I have been so dang busy since my last post, I haven't had time to be inspired! I have been to Denver since the last time I wrote and loads of things are shaping up to get finished up before we need to scoot out of town in mid June.

Our sweet little home in Asheville is under contact. The lady who is buying our Broad Street house is very sweet and extremely fair. She is also very excited about living in Asheville. She moved here from Washington, D.C. We are happy our home is going to some one who will love her the way we did.

We have narrowed Antonio's school choices down to two GREAT options. The schools are both great. One is Arrupe Jesuit High School, the other is J.K. Mullen High School.

We found a couple of house options we really like. The most recent pick is in Park Hill neighborhood. We are still looking other house options in case there is something better out there. We do have to decide rather quickly, as we need to get there, and fast. We are just waiting for Antonio to finish up the 8th grade and our house sale in Asheville to be finalized. If things go as planned we are homeless as of May 31st, so that's not a lot of time to find a new pad in Denver.

Meg's mama made a good point the other day, "well everything else is working out, so why won't the right house in Denver and a good job for Alisa work out?" I like the way Barb thinks. She is a smart lady so I am going to listen to her.

My job search is really starting to shape up. I met up with a few graphic design contacts last week in Denver. The response to my work was great and everyone was certain I would find a good job once I make the move to Denver. There are so many options for work for me there. I am very excited to up my graphic design game.

I have started to get a little sad, every time I go into our back yard, or take a good look around our sweet home. We have really loved it here. This house has really been a home for us. We got married in the back yard. We have done countless hours of math homework with Antonio here. We have had numerous wonderful chats with amazing friends here. We have had all sorts of house guests here.

Some of my favorite visits were : Babs & Jules (Meg's sister & niece) came to Asheville in the midst of a lovely summer. We ate out a bunch, rented scooters & rode all around dowtown, and in general hung out and enjoyed being together!

April & Jay (Meg's nephew & sweet girlfriend) slept on our floor while they searched for a house when they first moved to Asheville a few years ago. We loved having them here. We bonded in those couple of week and have all been close ever since.

Our good friends, Amy and Nikki visited one summer. They drove down from New York with two small kids and we all piled into our tiny house for a week. We tubed, we walked to the 4th of July fireworks downtown, and again, just hung out and enjoyed Asheville. It's easy to do. Asheville is an awesome place to live. I have never lived anywhere where the community really cares about you like Asheville does. We have had so much incredible support for our family here.

It's going to be bittersweet to leave little Asheville, but alas Denver holds many adventures and opportunities for me, Meg and Antonio. We are flying to Denver tomorrow on a moments notice to check out a house we are interested in. Wish us luck!

These are crazy days, crazy days, filled with excitement, sadness, and happiness rolled into the space of about five seconds. Stay tuned!

--
alisa carswell : lucky design 7
owner : designer : brains
full service print and web design

reduce :: reuse :: rethink :: recycle

828.777.4932 : www.luckydesign7.com
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>It's Your Lucky Day!

The times are a'changing some more, a lot more!

2011-04-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

Today I am inspired by change. We are moving to Denver, CO! Antonio is moving with us. He will be going to high school in Denver!

Our amazing house is up for sale. That's why I haven't written in over a month. We have been busy packing up stuff to go into storage and cleaning and arranging everything around here.

Once we sell our house we are off to Denver! If the house doesn't sell really fast, we will rent it out and rent a place in Denver. We are very hopeful our little house will sale as it's really something. We have been working on the house since before Christmas, painting, fixing, and loving her into a perfect state of house bliss. We both never imagined we would ever want to leave Asheville or our little home, but hey, the times they are a'changing!

We are changing cities. We are changing houses. We are going from not being full time parents to having a son. Last week we got the official paper work, that we have joint custody of Antonio! All three of us are super excited about the new adventure.

We are off to Denver later this week, to check out schools for Antonio, neighborhoods for us to live in and I have a few folks I am meeting with to discuss job options. It's going to be a great trip. We are staying with some good friends, so we all can get a real feeling of what it is like to live in a neighborhood. We are staying in LoHi.

We are going to miss so much about Asheville. We are going to miss our friends. We are going to miss our house. We are excited to make new friends, and to get a new house. I am excited about getting a new job. Antonio is excited about going to a new school & kicking ass in the grade & sport departments. Meg is excited to be Antonio's taxi driver & queen bee of all house stuff! Mambo (the cat) is excited to wear girly burton snowboard googles every where he goes and furry boots. Wait, that's what I am going to wear. I guess we'll match. We all can't wait to get there!

I am inspired by the home, community, and support we have built in Asheville. I am inspired by the faith we all have in creating a home, and a supportive community for our family in Denver.

Are we crazy? sometimes. Are we brave? Yes. Are we risk takers, who want the best life that our family can have? you betcha!

I plan on writing a blog specifically about Antonio. I will probably be too dang busy to set it up before we leave, but I will pass it on to all his faithful followers. He has so many. He is lucky & so are we. I could not have dreamed up a more perfect son or more perfect life to live. He called Meg Mom today. I can't think of anything that makes me happier than that.

Oh yeah, tomorrow's my birthday. I have a lot I would like to wish for, but I think I will just be happy with what I already have. Stay tuned.

Inspired by the swamp!

2011-03-28T16:55:00.000-07:00

I am past due on my inspiration blog. Weekly blogs are a great goal. But hey, I am blogging pretty regularly so I think that is success. Progress not perfection is my motto this year! Today I am inspired by seeing new things. I am inspired by places I have been before, but not on this day. Last week, I was swamped (hehe!) with work, but I was down in Baton Rouge, visiting family and working with my partner Meg. Her mom was having a birthday (I am not allowed to say which one, as said Mother reads this blog!) Ms. Barbara loves bird watching and I thought hey, why don't we head to lake martin early one morning while we are here and see if we can see some birds.

We got up at 6 and headed out around 6:30 for the hour long drive from Baton Rouge, to Lake Martin, LA. We had a cooler full of sandwiches and other yummy Gluten Free snacks.

We arrived at Lake Martin around 7:30. Wow, we were in for a treat. It's nesting time for all sorts of birds on lake martin. We saw white egrets, blue herons, and the amazing Roseate Spoonbill birds sitting all over the trees. There were hundreds of birds nesting in the rookery. White birds, black birds and pink birds. Yes, PINK. We happened upon a couple of very knowledgeable bird photographers who told us which birds were which. It was Awesome I say, just awesome.

Then we mentioned to the photogs that we wanted to go on a boat tour and they told us right where to go. We drove down to dock and we saw the swamp tour truck but no boat and nobody. Meg's mom spotted a number on the truck and said do you think we should call? I said hey I doubt the phone is going to work in the swamp, but I tried anyway. The guy picked up in his amazing Cajun accent and said he wouldn't mind at all to swing back and pick us up. They had only being going for about 10 minutes.

The swamp tour was amazing, but not as amazing as the tour guide's cajun accent. If you have never met a real cajun, I advise you head down to South Louisana, and get to the swamp & meet yourself a cajun or two. They are the most resourceful people on the planet and they might just be the nicest and the most welcoming. It doesn't matter if you are from Mars. They take you right in and offer you a beer and some crawfish.

I can't describe how pretty it is in the swamp with words. Just check out the photos and see for yourself.

This week I am inspired HATCH SHOW PRINT!

2011-03-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

I got some great news last week. I am currently giving the Austin Grill brand, menu & website a makeover!! The company is based out of DC but has franchises all over the country.

I am always inspired by a new project. I love that my job is working with all sorts of different companies and personalities.

This project got extra cool points as the design direction was (& I quote) "very hatch show print, Lucinda Williams, vintage western inspired!" Can you say perfect fit for a client and designer? Check out what the site looks like now. Austin Grill Website

The photo in this post are my ideas for the new direction. I am pretty freaking stoked about the awesomeness going on here. I spent my week looking at vintage silk screened posters along with the amazing work over at Hatch Show Print

This week I am working on a brand new menu design. Then it's website redo time!

Once again, I gotta say, my job rocks and I am a lucky girl with a good life. Happy Friday!!

Generosity & Graditude are two birds of a feather.

2011-02-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

This morning, I am feeling incredibly inspired & exceptionally grateful for all the love and support we have in Asheville. I am also inspired daily by Mentorship. Mentoring Antonio has been the single most rewarding thing I have ever done with my life. It's also the most difficult, but it's so rewarding when he is successful!

We have been mentoring Antonio since 2007. He is in the 8th grade and is planning to go away to boarding school next year. We believe one on one mentoring with a focus on higher level eduction can break the cycle of poverty.

If you live in Asheville, please consider dropping by this event on Thursday evening. If you can't make it, go by Lola Salon and get some raffle tickets. You don't have to be present to win.

For the full story of how we became Antonio's mentors, visit the link below.
http://roostinteriordesign.tumblr.com/post/2581098806/art-for-antonio

ART BENEFIT FOR ANTONIO EVENT DETAILS!

Help Antonio go away to boarding school for a better tomorrow!

Your chance to make a huge difference in the life of an amazing local child.

March, 3rd, 2011 5-9 pm
An evening with hor d'oeuvres + wine tasting + great art to buy + tons of
raffle offerings + proceeds go help Antonio go to boarding school!
71 Starnes Ave, Downtown Asheville (28801)

If you can't make it buy some raffle tickets anyway!
RAFFLE TICKETS FOR SALE NOW @ Lola Salon, 60 Biltmore Ave.

You do not have to be present to win. $1000+ worth of prizes!

VISIT THE FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE TO RSVP
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=177870388918686#!/event.php?eid=177870388918686

Participating Artists:
+ Simone Wilson : http://www.pleasanthughstudio.com/
+ Meg Reilley : www.megreilley.com
+ Molly Sieburg Courcelle : http://www.mollycourcelle.com/
+ Genie Maples : www.geniemaples.com
+ Cheri Brackett : http://www.amerifolk.com/painting/CheriBrackett/index.php
+Nicole McConville
http://sigilation.com/
+ Allie Good
+Jess Kit portrait session
www.photokitt.com
+ Mimi Strang

RAFFLE TICKETS FOR SALE NOW @ Lola Salon, 60 Biltmore Ave.
You do not have to be present to win. $1000+ worth of prizes!
$5 raffle tickets gets you a chance at these offerings :
+ haircut by Rebecca Biggers at Lola Salon (6 stylists, 6 haircuts!)
www.lolamakesmebeautiful.com
+ Limones gift certificate
www.limonesrestaurant.com
+ Early Girl Eatery gift certificate
www.earlygirleatery.com
+ Homegrown gift certificate
www.slowfoodrightquick.com
+ art scarf kit by Stacey Budge Kaimson
www.urbangypz.com
+ Spotted Dog Farm beeswax latern
www.spotteddogasheville.blogspot.com
+ Kate the rolfer session
www.katetherolfer.com
+Haircuts by Frankie Bolt (4 Haircuts!)
www.eclipseasheville.com
+ Neck warmer by Lupe Perez
+ Angelique Tassistro of Fly Coop Studios
a scalloped flower dip platter set
www.flycoopstudios.com
+ Katie and Mike at LADY LUCK FARM
$50 bouquet delivery
www.ladyluckflowerfarm.com
delivered floral arrangement worth $75
Aria Floral
www.blueridgeflowers.com
& the list is growing daily!

We hope to see you there!!

typography may have peaked in 1897!

2011-02-23T17:14:00.000-08:00

This week I am inspired by the 1890's. When I designed the R.O. Frank's Aviation Company logo in 2008, I researched the time period. The 1890's are when hot air balloons were invented. At the time, flying machines were all the rage. The hot air balloon is the only flying machine that is still around today. That tells me, it must have been pretty good design, if it's still in use over 100 years later.

I have actually flown in a hot air balloon. It's one of the most amazing things I ever did in my life. I recommend you get up there and try it! It's so wonderful quiet, (except for the whoosh of fire, every once and a while to keep you floating) and a perspective I have yet to experience before or since.

I am also interested in Wet Plate Collidion Photography. This is the photography process that was invented in the 1850's & peaked in the 1890's. My partner Meg and I took a wet plate collidion class in D.C. back in the fall… and man the camera and lenses we used were incredible examples of good design. We photographed with a big studio camera, called a century camera. I will post some of those images another day.

The way type was handled during the end of the 19th century is my favorite historical use of typography to date. It's like everything that was type set was made to last and the design was well thought out. Not like today, where everything is thrown together by anybody who has photoshop. Not that people who are not trained as graphic designers can't be awesome. Sometimes they are awesome, but becoming a great graphic designer is about practice, practice and more practice.

I read something once, that if you do anything for 10,000 hours or more, you are likely an expert at that 10,000 hour mark. I am definitely past 10,000 hours of graphic design but whether I am an expert is debatable. I still love it, so that must count for something.

I am including the original logo ideas I showed to the client and the gift certificate I designed for R.O. Frank's so you can see the historical reference at work.

image of century camera book cover from : craigcamera.com
image of the clown ad : mechanicalbanks.org

The Year of Inspiration Blogs 2011!

2011-02-08T07:15:00.000-08:00

*Photo from http://heidiwdurrow.com/book

I have been thinking about my blog a lot in the last couple of weeks. (thinking about it, but not actually blogging!) I have decided to blog for one year about my inspirations.

I am feeling very inspired about 2011. There are a lot of big changes in the hopper… Change inspires me, new places inspires me, trying new things inspire me.

So, this will be the first of many posts about inspiration.

Today, I am inspired by literature. I have loved to read since I learned how in the second grade. I have a mild case of dyslexia, so I was slow to read at first, but man… the summer between 2nd and 3rd, I was tearing up the pages. Back then it was mostly books like Ramona the Pest (Beverly Cleary) and Super Fudge (Judy Blume).

These days, my favorite reads are non-fiction books about African American United States poverty, social class, racism and plain old social injustice in the United States. I just finished reading "The girl who fell from the Sky" by Heidi W. Durrow. This was an amazing book about race, class and social injustice. I got the book for Christmas and just recently made time to read it. I don't need much time. I read the entire book in one day. I have to say the cover design is why I got the book. This is the UK cover, but it the most nicely designed (in my humble opinion)!

Other books I have read in the last year that might be of interest if you are curious about the subject matter of poverty in the US.

1. Random Family : Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc

2. There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the other America, by Alex Kotlowitz
Alex has a new film that premired at Sundance and is an official Sundance selection!! The film is about the violence in the poverty world. I say Alex, like I know him as he actually wrote back to me when I wrote to ask how the boys in his book are doing now. He is a really amazing author and man. Can't wait to see the film. Check out the trailer here.
http://interrupters.kartemquin.com/

A must read is "Understanding the Framework of Poverty "by Ruby Payne.

I love to read up on the subject of poverty so I know what Antonio is up against. I would love to hear what books inspire my readers. Please write to me. You can visit my web page at www.luckydesign7.com to get my address.

Happy New Year! 2011 is our year.

2010-12-27T16:33:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays? whoa, slow down 2010, I am not quite ready for 2011

2010-12-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Man, have I been busy. I just can't seem to figure out where the days go. I have been working on a few different things. A holiday card, a business card design for roost interiors, a pro-bono project for the annual art fundraiser for open doors of Asheville, stickers for Early Girl Eatery's edibles line, & my new website!

My new website is in the midst of being programmed and I am working on writing copy and pulling together all of the work I want to use in the portfolio section. It has been really fun to look back over the last year of my work.

I have been doing a lot of personal work this year and it really helped my professional work. Thank you Al-non, somatic therapy, and a long daily walk/run with Meg. My mantra for the year, was acceptance. Wow, what amazing things can happen when you accept what is. So, I ended up with a lot of happy clients and successful projects.

My personal life is also super busy. We are still working away on getting Antonio into boarding school. He continues to amaze me. He is making daily process & he is so open to discussing his reservations about leaving home next fall. We are talking through each issue. Antonio cares so much about his family, and us.

We are down to two schools. Rabun Gap is one and St. Stanislaus in Mississippi is the other. I might look into other schools again in January just to be sure we didn't miss anything. They both are a good fit for him, for different reasons.

At Rabun Gap he will have access to music and the arts like never before….along with a great education and all the help he needs to be successful there.

St. Stanislaus is also a good fit… the education is a good solid catholic education, along with some amazing sports experience. Stanislaus often wins state championships in all sorts of sports. Antonio would have access to all any sport he would like to play here. Antonio's main goals is a college scholarship, so this is a top runner for all involved!

Otherwise, things are going well around here. The christmas decorations are up. We celebrated the holidays with my family (our North Carolina family). Meg & I had a lovely lunch at Homegrown with my mom, dad, and older sister yesterday. It was good to spend some time with them.

Christmas this year will be little in the gift department and super big in the love & blessings department. That is just what I wanted for 2010.

There are some BIG changes being planned for 2011. Stay Tuned!!

Happy Holidays everybody! blessings!!

home sweet home, finally.

2010-11-25T06:08:00.000-08:00

The last two and a half weeks have been beyond busy. We took a wet plate collodian photography workshop in washington, D.C. We have a number of friends there, but due to arriving right before class, on Friday night and a LSU football game against Alabama on Saturday afternoon, we didn't get to see anyone.

We left first thing on Sunday morning to get back to Asheville. (insert driving back and forth to DC from Asheville here.)

Then we were off to Bay St. Louis, MS, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans in LA for 12 day trip. (Insert more back and forth driving here).

We stopped in Bay St. Louis on Friday morning to check out another school for Antonio. The school is called St. Stanislaus. It cleared up a number of questions we had about what would make a school a good fit for Antonio.

We are still looking for a good high school for him. I will let everyone know when we figure it out. thank you to everyone who has listened to us talk about this. ALL of your input is SO important. Thank you, thank you, thank for the love and support we get from friends and family regarding antonio.

Meg had a few photo shoots in Baton Rouge. One of them was our great niece, the great Eisley Reilley. She is amazingly cute, like not regular cute, but super cute. Check her out, see for yourself! (she is the little cutie in this post)

I worked on a bunch of stuff while I was in Baton Rouge. I am designing a logo, two greeting cards, a place mat for local restaurants (for kids to color!), and finishing up the design for my business website. I am a couple of hours away from sending the files to the programmer. I still have copy to write and edit but mostly I am done! The site is set to launch in December. I am so excited about the new site & excited to hand it off so I can get on with re-doing all of my print stuff.

We saw the lady tigers first home game of the year. It was great to see the girls. They are still working out the kinks but they will get there. They have their haters right now. I am NOT among them. Win, Lose, I love my lady t's. period.

We spent a lot of time with Meg's mom, Barbara. Barb got an ipad! How cool is that? it is even cooler to watch her use it. We played a lot of yahtzee. It's a great app, check it out.

Barb also ate tofu and liked it. One of her favorite foods is a real hamburger, so I must make some yummy tofu! Barb has good taste. Just sayin'!!

We photographed a wedding in New Orleans on Saturday night. Everything went really well. We even had to find a parking space in the french quarter which is iffy at best, but we got a spot right in front of the hotel we were working in & right in front of the place we were staying, even if it took Meg 50 times of back and forth to get us in there! Meg's time in San Francisco really helps out when we need to do some serious parallel parking. Good job Meggie!

Working a wedding is like doing squats and sprints for five hours. Needless to say after we drove for two days after the wedding, we are pretty dang pooped.

So, Thanksgiving for us, was mostly prepared by my friends at Homegrown in Asheville. Check out their website, at www.slowfoodrightquick.com. we are having mashed taters, roasted brussel sprouts, collards, a big green salad and turkey. Mostly Mr. Antonio will be having turkey sandwiches for the next couple of weeks and mambo the cat is in turkey heaven. I also got a gluten free pumpkin pie from Dolci de Maria.Whoa. It's amazing.

I made Gluten Free stuffing. It's all veggie with faux chorizo, red peppers and parmesan. It's Meg's favorite and I make it every year. I also made some gluten free gravy. (insert note, in Louisiana this would be a sauce, they would never call what I make gravy. They don't put flour gravy, they make a meat dripping sauce.They have the best tasting food down there, so maybe it is a sauce. Whatever it's called both versions are good on top of stuff, like stuffing or taters or turkey.)

So, on this Thanksgiving morning, I am grateful for the following: wonderful & amazing Meg, sweet & wonderful, Antonio, amazing & sweet, Mambo, my wonderful family, my amazing friends, my sweet house, my sweet job, my wonderful health, my amazing life.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.

new logo = new website

2010-10-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-10-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-10-12T11:58:00.000-07:00

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!

67 hours of driving in 15 days! whoa.

2010-09-29T06:41:00.000-07:00

So I added up our miles and hours of driving on the trip. We only had 5 zero mile days on the 20 day trip.

Asheville, NC to Bozeman, MT - 2,012 miles or 1 day, 8 hours of driving (32 hours)

(with stops in St. Louis - Oakley, KS - Denver, CO - Buffalo, WY)

Bozeman, MT to Lakeside, MI - 1,442 miles - 1 day drive (24 hours)

(with stops in West Yellowstone, MT - Livingston, MT - Buffalo, WY - Sioux Falls, SD - Rockford, IL)

Lakeside, MI to Asheville, NC - 661 miles - 11 hour drive.

This trip makes the little drive we do to get down to Baton Rouge seem like a super cake walk. (770 miles - 12 hours)

I am working on a post about the history of Yellowstone, the amazing neon - metal signs of the west and a couple of other random amazing places we passed through on this journey.

Day #18 & #19 & #20, Home, Home, Home at last!

2010-09-27T17:58:00.000-07:00

In the afternoon on Saturday, we took a bike ride to a public beach on lake michigan. We loved it. I have on my purple and gold, because it was a game day.

Once we rode back to the cottage, we watched football for the rest day.

On Sunday (day #19) Meg had two photo shoots. One in South Bend, and one in the evening at Warren Dunes State Park. The sunset at the park, was really one of the best I have ever seen. It's number 2 only to a christmas eve sunset in like 1996 in Asheville.

Once we got back to the cottage, we packed the car, and cleaned up around the cottage so we could head home early today.

We left Lakeside, MI at 9 am and arrived home in Asheville at around 8pm. The drive was mostly uneventful today, which was awesome. Driving through the gorge was my favorite part of the drive. I really missed our little green mountains.

After a quick stop at Whole Foods (formerly green life) we rushed home to see our furry boy. He is doing fine and more handsome than when I saw him last. We will see Antonio tomorrow, right after football practice. Meg told him yesterday, he should leave on his football gear, until after we see him. I am going squeeze that little peanut.

After a 67 hour road trip, we are so happy to be home! We did all the driving in 14 days. I will post a mileage-expenses total tomorrow, just for all those math nerds.

I am off to watch Monday night football and sleep in my own bed, with Meggie and Mambo!

Day #17 & Day #18

2010-09-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

It's the morning of Day #18 of our trip. The Lakeside, Michigan cottage we are staying in is just amazing. I am not sure I have ever stayed anywhere that was so comfortable, aesthetically pleasing & relaxing all wrapped up in a cute little package. The house is right on the Amtrak line. Trains are going by constantly and as one of the owners said it's part of the charm.

Since we got here on late on Wednesday, we mostly have been chilling out. We have wireless internet (thank god!), cable TV, and our cell phones work just fine... and most importantly we don't have the long list of responsibilities we have at home.

We have been making daily trips to Bud & Elsie's. This is best designed grocery store look I have ever seen. They carry all sorts of gluten free stuff!

I have been able to get caught up on some work things. I am all ready to hit the ground running when we get home early next week.

Here is a list of things we learned on our trip :

1. 14 days of driving in a row, with only two zero mile days are too many.

2. Driving for 5 or more hours a day, does not leave enough energy for camping.

3. Meg & I can handle just about anything together, even the car overheating in yellowstone!

4. We must have internet & TV after a long day in the car.

5. The hotel needs to be clean. Not fancy, just clean. We are in love Fairfield Inn by Marriott. Best hotel rooms ever!

This is a list of things we could not live without on our trip:

1. mio gps system

2. A cooler for gluten free food

3. Health food stores all over the country. (sioux falls, you are the winner, for best staff & best selection!)

4. Good music, our theme song for this trip was Ray LaMontagne, for the summer.

5. Each other. We loved all the time we got to spend together.

Alright, today is game day! LSU plays West Virginia. We get to watch the game here at the cottage! We watched the other LSU games on this trip at Sports Bars, which is kind of fun, but not so much as I can't drink beer anymore (because of the celiac). I pretty much don't really care about drinking if there is no beer involved. Someone out there, please make a gluten free beer that is exactly like Highland Galiac Ale!

We are going on a bike right to the beach this afternoon. Then, it's back to the cottage for a day of football, and getting ready to drive back to Asheville on Monday.

Did I mention this is my idea of a perfect Saturday? Happy Weekend Peeps!

Day #15 & Day #16, there is a bike theme going on here.

2010-09-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Last night before dinner we did a little bike right down to the lake (I almost said beach, because it looks like an ocean it is so big.)

We rode about 1/2 mile to the edge of Lake Michigan. Man, is it a pretty lake! We got off the bikes and walked on the shore's beautiful edge for a few minutes. Then we headed back to the cottage. Meg's bike chain broke, so we made a scarf and a hoodie rope to tie the dead bike to the working one and we took turns towing each other home. This was the most fun thing that happened all day.

We slept great! The house is right on some train tracks that woke Meg up as a few trains went by at night. I didn't hear a single thing. I was out last night. I feel great today. It's SO nice not to be moving and catching up on e-mails, work & personal ones.

Today we checked out the warren dunes state park (near Lakeside, MI, a little bit north) this morning after a little morning latte from the Whistle Stop Cafe. It's super duper cute around here.

We are off for a bike ride this afternoon. Meg will photograph fo' sure. Later taters!

Day #14, #15 & #16

2010-09-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

We are in a cottage near Lake Michigan, in Lakeside, MI. We drove here from Rockford this morning. We drove through Chicago. It wasn't far, but it was slow, city going.

Yesterday was a zero mile day. Tomorrow is a zero mile day. I like the sound of that. We rested a lot at our friends house in Rockford. We went for a long walk, we did some laundry. It was really nice to just do regular stuff that didn't involve moving from one place to another.

I rode bikes with their daughter, Spencer, AKA Smoothie, a seven year old skateboard bad ass. Yes, bad ass. You should see her skate. We got to visit the skate park yesterday while she tore it up. We had so much fun. Then we had dinner with our friends. It was a lovely laid back day.

We don't have much going on for the next couple of days... except eat, relax and ride bikes.

I do have a little work to get to this week. I am excited to get back to graphic design projects.

I am looking forward to going home too. I miss Antonio and Mambo so much.

we are turning in early. We want to be rested for all the bicycle fun we are going to have tomorrow.

Day #13 didn't turn out like I thought, but it was still totally awesome.

2010-09-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Well, we thought we were getting married today, but it was going be a pain in the butt. We decided early on this trip that the pain in the butt route, was not for us. So the wedding license was not waiting on us, so we would have had to go through 4 steps instead of one... so instead, we decided to go to lunch in Iowa City, at the New Pioneer Co-op. I had tomato parmesan soup, and a blackened tofu sandwich, (both Gluten Free of course) that was A-mazing. It was by far the best meal of the trip to date.

After we had a great lunch, we drove to Rockford, IL, where we are staying for a the next two nights. We are staying with our friends Amy & Nikki and their two daughters, Halle & Spencer. They are staying with Amy's mom and her hubbie, Peter. It's an awesome house, built in 1854. Amy just made us dinner. Roasted brussels sprouts & quinoa. It's nice to have a homemade meal.

We are currently set up on the couch, watching monday night football (in high def, thank god, how I missed you honey!) We are happy to see people we know & relax for a day until we leave for South Bend, IN on Wednesday. We are planning on stopping in Chicago for gluten free deep dish pizza. Then it's off to South Bend, where we have a cottage on Lake Michigan for five days, then home, sweet, home asheville!

Day #12 & #13, Wedding Day!

2010-09-20T05:43:00.000-07:00

Sunday was officially our day off. We slept in until 8:30, then got up at the hotel and did laundry and worked out. We needed to stock up again on food, so we visited a health food store in Sioux Falls. It was a good stop. Gluten Free Burritos!!

Then we drove to Des Moines, Iowa. (Home state of Kate Vermeer Wilson!) We turned in early again (notice the tired theme of the trip, fun is exhausting, but totally worth it).

We are having coffee this morning and getting ready to get married later today! We are driving to Iowa City as soon as we are properly caffeinated. We need a witness for the wedding, so we are going to the book store (Prairie Lights Books) in Iowa City to see if we can find someone willing to go with us to the court house. Wish us luck.

I will post photos later today. Happy Monday!

The rest of Day #11

2010-09-19T06:53:00.000-07:00

We got a late start today. We slept until 8:30. We drove from Buffalo, WY to Rapid City, SD where we stopped at the health food store. I was craving Gluten Free Cereal. Then we drove from Rapid City, SD to Sioux Falls, SD. We drove past Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands National park. I got glutenized sometime on Day #10 so I didn't have the energy for either stop.

I think it was some egg salad from the Co-op in Bozeman. Unfortunately for me, any food prepared in kitchens that are not gluten free are risky.

When I get contaminated it's like having the flu. At first, I feel nauseous for a couple of hours, and my stomach hurts and I have a terrible headache. Then, as time passes I start to feel better. I am usually a little under the weather for about three days. I am feeling much better today.

We did stop at a 1800 town right off the highway. Man was that fun. It was a whole town set up again. They had wagons, trains, a jail, loads of historical stuff, about the wild west. There were two highlights. My highlight was a caboose you could get in and check out. Meg and I decided we would love a house out of two cabooses.

The other highlight was a camel. Yes, a real camel. There were long horn cows, donkeys, and horses too, but the camel stole the show. The hay food truck pulled up and the camel did the cutest dance I have ever seen. The camel pranced all around, it was amazing cute. I am sure I have never seen an animal so fired up to eat.

Then it was back in the car to haul ass, to get to Sioux Falls, for the LSU - Mississippi State game. We called a friend and asked them to look up a sports bar.

So we got a nice room (just barely got the room as the whole town is booked for the Spirit of the West Festival) & were off to the Sports Bar for the game.

Then we came back to the room and turned in early. We are planning on sleeping in and having a lazy Sunday. (& by lazy I mean only driving 4 and a half hours) Des Moines tomorrow night, then Iowa City on Monday! Almost Wedding Day!

Day #10, the perfect day & Day #11 is starting with gluten free pizza for breakfast.

2010-09-18T06:57:00.000-07:00

Man, was today a lovely day. We drove down from Livingston, WY, into the north entrance of Yellowstone, then drove through the park, and out the east entrance. Then we drove through Cody, WY to Sheridan, WY. down to Buffalo where we are now. This is the prettiest drive I have ever been on. The drive itself was totally the highlight of the day. I can hardly describe every thing we saw. You gotta check out the photos on face book. I will post those tonight. The temp was perfect until the very end, in the Big Horn national forest where it got rainy, misty and freezing! We had lunch by lake yellowstone, & saw a few herds of buffalo, a moose and a baby.

We drove past an amazing lake in WY, that was a man made lake. The damn is the buffalo bill damn. This is worth a google image look. The color was out of this world.

We stopped at an Antler/skull shop in cody and got some antlers. I am going to make something at home with them. There was a huge pile of antlers and skulls to advertise. Wait until you see Meg's photos. Awesome and cool.

So after the long drive, I was wishing for gluten free pizza (which I thought was a stretch) and guess what. We passed a pizza place, that said, "try our new gluten free pizza" ! So we did and it was the perfect end to the perfect day.

This morning we are up early and off to drive to Sioux Falls for the night. We gotta make good time so we can watch LSU /Mississippi State Game. Yes, I am wearing my purple and gold right now.

Happy Saturday!

Day #9, not my favorite, but still fun.

2010-09-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

We woke up around 8, in west yellowstone & had coffee. The hotel last night was less than nice and we were excited to be heading towards home, even if home was 20 + hours away.

We were off to the park & had been driving about 30 minutes when we hit a yellowstone traffic jam, which on the whole was the best traffic jam I have ever been in...then, the car started to overheat! So we turned around (bummed out noises here) and headed back to West Yellowstone. West Yellowstone is a tiny town outside of the west entrance. No one could even look at the car until Friday.

We decided to try and make it back to Bozeman, MT. Since Bozeman is a much bigger town (like 70,000 people) we hoped we could get the car looked at there, today! So if you drove with the heat on full blast and were not stuck in traffic, the temp stayed at an ok level (still running hot).... so we made it to Bozeman with feet sunburns, but otherwise unscathed. We got the car looked at, while we had lunch at the Bozeman Community Co -op (LOVE THIS PLACE) !! We had a yummy veggie curry with rice. The car just needed a radiator cap and some coolant and we were on our way. (at about 3:30 pm)

Since I was super disappointed that our day in Yellowstone didn't work out, we stopped in Livingston, MT to see if we could find a room. We found a room at the first place we stopped, the Murray Hotel. Let's just say it was a serious upgrade from the last two days. Awesome, historic Inn.

So, we are loving our nice room (Barb you would approve, it's up to your standards!).

We are going to try once more for a full day in Yellowstone. The plan is to drive from Livingston, MT to Buffalo, WY, through the park.

Then we gotta haul ass to Iowa City, IA by mid day on Monday so we can get hitched, then get to South Bend, IN on the 22nd to enjoy our lake michigan cabin for a couple of days before we have to work on the 26th. The plan is to drive home on the 27th. Today made me miss little Asheville and our sweet house.

Alright, wish us luck that tomorrow works out. You can't say we didn't try to see that damn Yellowstone!

Day #8 West Yellowstone!

2010-09-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

This morning started with coffee at Bozeman Montana Community Food Co-op. I had a lovely Americano. So we drove down to West Yellowstone, from Bozeman on US 191. It was a pretty drive by the river most of the way.

We stopped at an Antique Car Dealer place right outside of Bozeman. It was a lot like the junk yard we stopped in WY, but this was all cars. I saw three really rare Studebakers, and it was amazing. We saw a studebaker Conestogo. OMG - I need this car. Meg photographed and I made videos of cool type, cool colors & hood ornaments. Amazing & Fun!!!!!

Then we were off on our drive. We had a lunch on the side the road in the park. Gluten free bread with egg salad and GF BBQ chips. Good stuff. We have been eating out of the cooler most meals. We did have rice & beans (heated in the microwave) from the Co Op tonight for dinner. The hot meal did wonders for us both. We are both so tired. We have only been going for seven days… but it is still worth it.

We spent the afternoon in the park driving from west yellowstone down to old faithful. We saw some baby elk with their mamas about 5 minutes after we entered the park. We also saw a few different buffalos. Just eating on the side of the river with tons of people fly fishing and driving by.

We stopped in the lower geyser basin and saw the fountain paint pot and great fountain geyser, along with some other smaller geysers. These puppies are cooler in person than in photos. It smelled like making hard boiled eggs.

The park is crazy busy, even this time of year. There were a million people at old faithful.

We are planning on heading east for the first time in a week tomorrow. We will be driving from West Yellowstone, back to Sheridan, WY. We will spend the night, then we are planning to get to the Badlands National Park in SD next.

Once again, we are off to bed early so we can get an early start tomorrow. Good night!

Day #7 - Big Sky Country (or big gay country, if you are me.)

2010-09-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

So we drove through the Crow Indian reservation today. It's like a 100 miles wide or something. Whoa.

We stopped the big horn country museum, in Hardin, MT. They had all kinds of cool stuff, old railway cars, and about 25 different buildings all set up in period garb. For example we saw what a slaughter house would be like, and a school house, and a doctor's office from around the 1890's. Pretty cool stuff. For me the best part was the vintage tractors, and bulldozers. Check out some the of the cool type (see caterpillar photo!). I am very inspired by vintage type and this is some of the best I have seen.

Check it the museum at http://www.bighorncountymuseum.org/

Alright, so we made it to Bozeman, MT. We are in the hotel and ready to go to sleep. We had a nice hot meal from the huge co-op here. Thank you universe for gluten free bread, rice and beans.

So the quote of today, I saw a sticker that said Big Sky Country, and I thought it said Big Gay Country! Pretty funny!

Tomorrow we plan on driving down from Bozeman and sleeping in west yellowstone, (right outside the park) and driving a round in yellowstone tomorrow and the next day.

We are both super excited, so we are turning in early so we can get an early start. Good night.

Day #6 & #7, well some of it.

2010-09-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

We had a good night's sleep, nice hotel. King size bed, flat screen TV and wireless.

I am up early as I woke up worried I won't find anything to eat in WY or MT. So we stopped in Fort Collins, CO at whole foods and stocked up on stuff. Gluten Free Jalapeno cheddar dip, Gluten Free Bagels, and guacamole, and GF BBQ chips, apples, oranges, and water. You know the essentials.

Then we drove to Buffalo, WY. from northern CO. Southern WY is mostly pretty flat with these funny looking mountains (flat on top, eroded) & super dry. The grass is a pretty tan color that goes great with all the big blue sky. Man is there a lot of big blue sky. I don't think I have ever seen so much at once.

The further we drove north, the less people we saw. We saw loads of cows, horses, & deer all day long. This reminded me that day before yesterday Near estes park we saw four huge rams, eating grass on the side of the road. They were so big and cool looking.

So the drive was pretty short, & easy. The asphalt is red in a number of places. I saw some pink sand so I am guessing they use the pink sand to make the red asphalt. It was really a pretty color.

About 2 hours from Buffalo, we saw a HUGE metal junk yard, in the middle of absolute nowhere. I am talking tractors, from the 30's & 40's, wagons, from the 1890's (with really amazing weathered wood holding it together), trucks, cars, bicycles, farm equipment, train cars, and anything else that is metal that you can imagine. So everything is just out in the open and weathering naturally. I am pretty sure you could find every single color I have ever used in my work in this crazy junk yard. Meg photographed and I made some short videos of all the amazing type I found. Meg & I both agree that this junk yard would make the most amazing field trip teaching location for both a photography class and a graphic design class. Needless to say we both had a great time walking around this place. It was about 6 acres, crammed packed.

So it's Tuesday morning, & I am up early, putting the coffee on and writing this post. I have been writing my blog posts in a green spiral notebook (old school) with a pencil everyday, as we make our drive. We have only had the internet two nights out of seven & it's a lovely break from being so connected.

We are in Sherian, WY this morning at a coffee shop, planning the day. We wanted to drive to drive west all day, through the mountains & spend the night on the edge of Yellowstone, but there is NO where to stay in Yellowstone, tonight. Totally booked. Oh well. So we are off to Bozeman, MT to spent the night, then to Yellowstone all day tomorrow. We have a room booked for West Yellowstone for tomorrow night. It looks amazing.

We have to be in Iowa City, around the 20th or so, because we are going to get legally married. The next place we have to be is South Bend, IN on the 22nd to get ready to work for a couple of days. Lucky for us, we are in no rush, which feels really great.

We will update the blog as soon as we have internet again. Have an awesome day folks!

Day #5 The times they are a changing'!

2010-09-12T18:05:00.000-07:00

Woke up in Denver at our friend Coutney's house, & drove to get a latte. It was yummy and it looked like it had a harry potter snitch (instead of the usual hearts or pretty design)! I took that to mean today was going to be a good day & it seems to be true. I had three pieces of bacon & a Gluten Free Peanut Butter Cookie. Again, this lead me to believe the day was going to be awesome.

We both loved Denver, and we drove around Boulder for a minute. My overall impression is that the folks around here are pretty happy, it's really clean, super gluten free friendly, & the weather is freaking terrific.

We spent the day driving from Denver to Estes Park, CO, then to Loveland, CO to spend the night because we were tired. It was an amazing drive. The only bummer was the 600 acre (& growing) wild fire. Otherwise, the drive was just so dang beautiful.

I also needed some facebook/blog/internet time to plan out our trip.

As a family we collectively decided to shorten our trip. We are going to head north tomorrow into Wyoming. We are thinking about getting into Buffalo or Sherdian tomorrow. We pretty much are cutting off about 39 hours of driving time. When

I write it down, I think, what the hell where we thinking? But hey we can't wait to spend the next week or so, in WY & MT.

I hope to update my facebook page with a bunch of photos tonight. Alright, we are super pooped. It's time to watch football and relax until tomorrow.

Day #4 - Tour De Fat

2010-09-11T11:51:00.000-07:00

Day #4

We got up early and had Coffee at coffee commons in Denver. Antonio called on the way over to check in. Hooray, because we miss him.

Then we drove over to Deby's Gluten Free Bakery/ Grocery Store. We got some GF bacon/egg/cheese biscuits for breakfast and some GF biscuit dough for home. Yum. Hello, what a score. She will ship this stuff folks.

We drove around a part of town called the Rhino district & loved it over there. We stumbled upon a vintage car/motorcycle show. Tons of custom cars, lower riders, mostly 30's/40's50's stuff. There was a black 55 t-bird there. Whoa. Best car design ever.

Now we are off to the tour de fat…. then, we plan on watching the LSU / Vandy at the Lodo's bar and grill and they have a GLUTEN FREE MENU! CAN I get a woot woo!!

I am sure when ever the game is over, we will get back to Courtney's and pass out. Happy Saturday!

p.s. Meg lost her wallet, and then found it, thank goodness.

Day #3, life is a field of sunflowers.

2010-09-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Day # 3 is began with a long walk in Oakley, KS. then we drove to Denver.

It was a pretty short drive. (4 hours) We stopped and photographed a field of sunflowers that went on as far as your eyes could see. It was truly amazing. It was super breezy and dead quite except for the rustle of the sunflowers, moving together in the wind.

I also saw a bunch of rusted cars shoved in the ground to fill in hole on the side of the road. Again, amazing.

We ate yummy GF tamales from trader joe's for lunch. We arrived in Denver at around 4 pm. We hung out with our wonderful host, Courtney Breaux, while she got ready to go to a party. We are staying at her house in Denver. It's amazing & awesome.

We had GF Pizza for Dinner! This had a polenta crust. Killer crust. Whoa. This amazing short post does not do this great day, justice but you get the idea.

It's 9:30 & it's so bedtime, we are so damn tired & it's so totally worth it.

Day #2 St. Louis to Oakley, KS!

2010-09-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

Blog Post #2 St. Louis. to Oakley, KS.

well, we are in St. Louis, it's a lovely gray morning outside. It's around 7:30 & we are already up, bathed & dressed and ready for day two.

We spent last night with Lisa Colby, an metalsmith, that we meet back in Asheville in 2005 or 6. She made our wedding bands & Meg's surprise engagement ring. We got engaged in St. Antonio, Texas, March 2006.

Her house here in the Lou is super cute. It's a brick, two story row house. Amazing.

We are waiting for Lisa to return from dropping off her daughter at school, then we are off to whole foods to find some grub for the day.

So, we decided to go by the coffee house where Lisa's man works. They also sell and fix killer vintage motorcycles. No, not new stupid ugly motorcycles. I am mean like killer stuff. Like triumphs and stuff. We were pooping in our pants, they were so cool. We had lattes and checked out some cool bikes, then a quick trader joe's food stop, then whole foods, for a hot breakfast. I nuked an annie's gluten free tofu scramble kind of thingy. Meg got a noodle bowl.

We drove all the way though rainy MO most of the morning and early afternoon. It's flat and there was a lot of corn to look at. We went through columbus, mo home of mizzou. and Lawrence Kansas, home of the Jay Hawks.

We got some fancy Americano drinks at Star Bucks in Kansas city, then we flipped off a certain someone is Kansas city (long story, the family know why).

So, who knew that Kansas had a toll road, turnpike? Huh? We got on the turnpike and starting driving to oakley, Kansas. Home of Annie Oakley.

Kansas is really beautiful rolling hills mostly and some kind of red topped plant growing every where. We stopped Wamego, KS for the OZ museum. We missed it by 10 minutes! Oh well, Meg looks cute in the photo anyway. We saw a sign near Wamego that said Bible + Rifle Church this way. We drove the other way and fast!

We got a text message at 4:15 that said "T.D. #22 "! Of course this made our day. Two of our friends were at Antonio's game. We have great friends, thanks Leslie & Hannah.

We arrived in Oakley, Kansas to spend the night and watch the Saints/Vikings, NFL opener. Saints won, who dat!

Day # 3 is beginning with a long walk in Oakley, KS. then we drive to Denver.

Crazy Day #1 of our 2010 Road Trip!

2010-09-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Day 1 was a little crazy. It looked like this.

7:20 am Wake Up & Drink Soy Lattes

8:00 am Hit the Road

8-10:15 am Rainy, misty morning in the Great Smokey Mountains.

10:59 am amazing fall colors in TN. (just this one valley, no where else!)

11:51 am My buddy Jay, looks up the street address & phone number of tacomamacitas in Nasheville, TN, Thanks Jay Bird!

12:15 Lunch at tacomamacitas!

12:16 Meg takes two benadryls instead of the one I thought she should take. (she has a bad case of poison ivy from working in our yard.)

12:17 Meg passes out totally asleep for about an hour or so.

12:40 Burning Car in Nashville, right at the 65N/24W intersection.

12:41 I mention to Meg about said burning car, and she jumps up, grabs her camera, and photographs cool burning car, then falls right back asleep.

2:15 Sunny Kentucky, farm land.

5:45 Arrive in St. Loiuis

6:15 Photo Shoot in Faust Park with a friend of Meg's from the 5th grade! Suzanne Harris (& steve and her cute girls, Ana (51/2) & Molly (10)

7:45 Arrive at Lisa Colby's in St. Louis. We hung out with Mitch, Lisa's man and her awesome daughter Celeste. (14)

10 pm BED TIME!

Our trip starts tomorrow! Can I get a woot, woot?

2010-09-07T18:08:00.001-07:00

We are St. Louis Bound tomorrow. Epic Road trip begins....

I do have a couple of worries about driving 2,716, then turning around and driving 2,716 again.

#1. I will worry about the boy we mentor, Antonio. I have a number of friends (like 10 people) we can call to go get Antonio and hang out with him, like we do. People really wanted to help so that makes me not nearly as worried about that.

#2. I worry there might be bed bugs in the hotel. Let's hope not. I am going to be precautions on this one anyway, just to be safe. Damn internet.

#3. I worry I won't be able to find anything good to eat, that I know is gluten free. There is the internet, sweet wonderful internet.

Things I am not worried about driving 2,716, then turning around and driving 2,716 again.

#1. I am not worried about the company of said epic road trip, Meg. She is the most amazing, funny person you will ever meet. Sorry peeps. She is all mine.

#2. I am not worried about having awesome music to listen to while we travel....the music section ranges from new Ray Lamontagne, Spearhead (get lifted, best song ever, thanks Kat!), Pearl Jam, Beth Orton, Drake, David Grey, Bon Iver (Alisa's personal fave right now) eminem, Ms. Dynamite (best female rapper alive) Lady Gaga. enough said.

#3. I am not worried about having fun with Meg. We always have fun, even when we are working. We sure as hell will have fun on vacation!

& while I am at it…. I wish we were taking Ms. Boss on the epic road trip. You will be with us in spirit, Ms. Boss. We miss ya honey. (See photo for Ms. Boss, yes, she is a 1998 BMW Z3, we found her a good home in Baton Rouge, with a nice gay man & his husband.) We are driving our little peanut, 1998 honda civic cx. She's cute too!

We hit the road bound for St. Louis in the morning, hopefully, before 8 am. So Stoked!

We are going to get legally married on the road trip in Iowa City!

2010-09-03T14:18:00.001-07:00

We will be driving through Iowa at the end of our crazy long trip. A friend of mine reminded me that gay marriage is legal in Iowa. We had a ceremony October, 28th, 2006 (not a legal one) in Asheville, in our backyard. It was a costume wedding. It was amazing... but we would prefer to be legally married.

So, we plan on getting hitched in Iowa City, Iowa in late September. We will post photos of the big day on here.

I will try and remember to dig up some of the photos from our real wedding and post those too.

Road Trip countdown...we live in 4 days. Yikes, I have a lot to do before then. Happy Friday!

Ready for the road trip, but we are going to miss these two boys.

2010-09-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

So we are almost ready to get on the road to St. Louis next week, but are we going to miss these two. That's Antonio, the 14 year old boy we mentor and that is our 14 year old cat Mambo. These are the two sweetest boys you will ever meet in the world. We are so blessed to have both of them in our lives. Below is the story of Mr. Antonio's life so far and how we met him.

Too bad, we can't take our sweet boys with us on the trip!

The Story of Antonio & his extra mamas. (Meg + Alisa)

Antonio was born on September 8, 1996 to Terri Lynch and Dwight Antonio Timpson. He has three siblings, two sisters and a brother, of which he is the eldest. His father, sadly, was shot and killed in Lee Walker Heights (a housing project in Asheville, NC) several years ago. In the past, Antonio lived in Lee Walker Heights with his grandmother, mother and siblings in a two- bedroom apartment. He now resides with his mother, brother and sisters in Hill Crest. (another housing project in Asheville, NC)

We met Antonio in the summer of 2007 while teaching art classes for three weeks at Lee Walker Heights Community Center summer camp. During that time, Meg showed her class a film about the poverty in Calcutta, and Antonio was so concerned about the children he saw in the film that he wanted to send them clothes, shoes, and food. We were amazed that this child, who lived in a two-bedroom apartment with 5 to 7 other people, and had so little, could show such genuine compassion for others. He made a huge impression on us, even in that short a period of time.

Since that we met Antonio, we have become progressively more involved with him and his life. We have watched him grow from a child that made poor to mediocre grades to a young man with an admirable attitude and work ethic, and a deep belief that he can and will have a successful life.

Antonio maintains a B-C average at Asheville Middle School, however, he earned A’s and B’s in the last session of 7th grade this year! His grades have been improving each year since 5th grade, when we began mentoring him.

He is a well-behaved young man, with beautiful manners and a consistently positive outlook on life. He has a passion for learning new things, and a seemingly insatiable curiosity. He is sweet natured, and cares deeply about others in our community who are less fortunate. He has HUGE heart.

Antonio wants to be the first in his family to attend college. As well, he would like to play sports both in college and beyond. His ambition is be a good man, be of service to the community (especially, the homeless, he worries about homeless people constantly) and most importantly to him, be a good father as an adult.

We are trying like crazy to get Antonio into Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School or something very similar. It's a boarding school, so he can live away from the temptations of his current living situation. If you would, please pray, cross your fingers, meditate, say a good word to buddha, anything you can think of for Mr. Antonio. We will take any good thoughts anyone wants to pass our way. Antonio says thank you & so do we.

We leave in less than two weeks.

2010-08-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I got a lot of graphic design work done, like a whole lot. I got some things done around the house.

I researched Butte, MT because we are driving through there. It has cool history. I want to spend a day wondering around checking out the sweet architecture. Here is the Wikipedia article.

Any way, today I also cleared off my flip video camera, & man did we have fun this summer. I got video of us in Mexico, it's so pretty there. I got a couple of cool clips of the cenote (another good google word, amazing swimming on the Yucatán Peninsula.) I got some footage of us picking blueberries & black berries at black balsam on Meg's birthday, Antonio goofing around with a buddy. I need to utube some of it.

In other road trip news, the car is cleaned out and I started to pack. I am working on burning CD's for the car.

Here's the master list of what we are bringing on the trip.

Navigation Stuff

- A new road atlas, maps of Denver, Portland & Seattle

- a navigation system (borrowed from friends, thanks Jon & Hilary!)

Techie Stuff

- my macbook, two ipods with headphones, (one classic filled with tons of music, & my new ipod touch, with games/apps)

- Meg's film camera (rollei medium format), Meg's digital camera, (nikon D300), my flip video camera (mino, not high def)

Clothes & Stuff

- A week's worth of clothes, ranging from tanks tops shorts for exercise, to north face long johns to wear under jeans and big winter coats. It will be nice and cool in Montana. We plan on doing laundry at least once a week.

-three pairs for shoes each. Tennis shoes, nice shoes and car shoes. Specifically for me, Black high top Puma, green low top pumas, and adidas flip flops for me. Meg will bring adidas tennis shoes, flip flops and something else, and probably only wear flip flops unless we are walking. Yes, even if it's 30 degrees outside. She is crazy!

Food & Drink Stuff

-a small cooler, for daily food stops at health food stores, and ice for cold drinks. Dr. Virgil's natural soda. Diet Cola version for Meg, Diet Black Cherry for me. These sodas have no real sugar and no fake sugar. Amazing. Check them out.

- a bunch of gluten free crackers, cheese puffs, nuts, & other gluten free stuff you can't get just any where.

Camping stuff

- camping stuff (tent, sleeping mat for 2, 3 blankets, a sheet, pillows.) We plan on camping for a couple days in the Badlands National Park, in South Dakota.

LSU STUFF

-LSU gear for both of us, plus pom - poms for each of us. There are three games while we are on the road and we don't plan on missing one single second of the games.

Toiletries,

one bag for everyday, then another bag with make-up & fancy hair products.

See the crazy photo of what the packing looks like. I will take more photos as I finish up the packing.

we are both totally stoked for this trip.

old friends & crazy coincidences

2010-08-25T08:53:00.000-07:00

So, we have places to stay in Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland and Chicago. We are crashing on a lot of floors, with old friends, and some new ones. My Portland connection is a old college friend, see super old photo, from like 1994 or 95! Thanks to Cathy West for posting. That's Amy right in the middle of the photo. That's me on the far right. Cathy is on the left of Amy. Wow, we look like such little babies. I am very excited to reconnect with Ms. Amy.

My sister just called, as she is in Asheville, having a quick lunch at Early Girl Eatery. She lives in North Carolina & she has the travel bug too. Turns out, she is going to be in Chicago, when we are passing through, in late September. We are often in crazy far away places at the same time. Last time we barely missed each other was in Mexico. She (& my parents) were in Cozumel on Sunday and I was in playa del carmen the night before. We missed hanging out by a few hours.

We are going crash on her Chicago hotel room floor for a day or two. We are also going to search Chicago, high and low for some gluten free deep dish pizza!

The stars are really lining up for this trip!

The Road Trip Plan!

2010-08-24T13:33:00.000-07:00

So we know when we are leaving. We leave September 8th. We start the trip from Asheville to St. Louis, Denver, Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, Missoula, Yellowstone national park, Badlands National Park (SD), then Chicago, then South Bend, IN (Norte Dame is here, so are a bunch of commissioned photo shoots for Meg, then home to Asheville. We should be back October 1st.

I should be over driving after this one.

researching how to have fun road trip.

2010-08-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, as you can see it's been a while since I updated the blog. I have been so busy working I haven't had much time for anything else, besides, my awesome partner Meg, the young man we mentor, Antonio and the king cat of the world Mambo the cat.

The last year as been a rough one. The Oil Spill, a cancelled at the last minute family wedding, the death of a friend's husband, an bout with e-coli, the love of my life being really in pain for weeks and the doctor's could not figure it. You know, that kind of stuff... but I tend to be an optimist. I will likely remember this year, as the Saints won the superbowl, or we decided to go to the 2012 olympics, or 2010 is the year Antonio got into boarding school (we hope this one happens, please cross your fingers, pray, chant, whatever, we will take it) or decided to take an epic "researching fun" road trip with Meg.

Which leads into why I decide to update this blog, about this topic. I believe everyone would be more successful if they followed their heart, and did what they like everyday. It is sort of the Asheville way.

So I am going to document that philosophy in our road trip. For three weeks, on the road, in mostly unfamiliar places, I am going to document how if you following your heart, happiness will follow. If you are happy, you will find success, in life, in love, in business.

We leave September 8th. Our first stop is St. Louis.

So far, we have a new atlas, a new backpack (for computer, cameras, ipods, etc.), and I am working on a menu. I have celiac disease (a gluten allergy, for those of you who have never heard about celiac). I will be documenting how to travel gluten free in addition to having fun.

Alright peeps, happy Monday!

Just what I needed, a blog!

2009-06-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone. Since I never (once every couple of years) update my website, I decided to blog about what I am working on, tweeting about, and facebooking about. Right now, I am staying pretty busy, despite the poor economic times.

I will be posting tips for cheap or even better, free advertising. Now is a great time to work on those in house projects, while we wait for the economy to pick back up... which on a positive note, it always does!

One, blogs are free. They are a great way to get information to your clients without having to spend any money. If you have a computer, can e-mail you have all the tools you need. Other great ways to stay in the eyes of your clients are twitter & facebook. Already on facebook personally? create a fan page for your business. It's easy people. If you can update your status, you can make both of these free sites work for you.