I've made it to Etsy...finally

Here is something I've got on the site. Check them out. Let me know if you're interested in any. I'll be posting more soon.

Lauren

This is What I do #2

Below are some images from items I designed at work for the Dollar Tree or Dollar Tree's Deals stores. Go and get them now if you want any. They're only there for a very short time.

Recent Design Work

For many of you, you have wondered what I actually do at my day job. I mainly create teacher classroom decor and items that Elementary Schools use daily. Below are a few examples that have been found at The Dollar Tree. All of the images were taken from my camera at home from purchased samples. The art is ©The Clever Factory.

Fall Display "Busy Bees"

Dimensional Door Decor
This item actually is is 3D and is usually hung on classroom doors.















There are several more pieces that go in this set that I didn't have the opportunity to buy before they were out. I am sure that they live in classrooms across the U.S.
















Certificates



























ABC Borders

Logo Update

Here are the logos I did for Granny White a few weeks back. Turns out when you can just be decisive and not over think, you can really churn out some work. The bottom two were done in less than an hour and during the 2 am hour. Never again, I say!









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Reckless Driving

So I've noticed recently that people are becoming more records in their driving every day. What is up with that? I think the observation became a reality this week.

On Monday night my mom, Kyle and I were waking briskly down the sidewalk when're reached the on coming intersection at the corner of our complex and traffic light. To anyone that live nearby or travels down Richard Jones Rd, you know that the light is very long. Some younger person in a Toyota SUV ran the light and came inches away from hitting Kyle. My mom an I were 30ft back from him and watched the whole thing happen. It was dark and we know that the driver did not see him or they would have sat at the light. When Kyle looked and had the signal to cross, he was clear. Nothing was wrong with Kyle and no one got hurt but I hope the driver can get a clue and wait on lights.

Later this week, I witnessed two almost collisions on 65/40 coming home. I know we're all in a hurry but seriously, can people just look before acting.

Parking lots are worse! You h e the people in compacts who can't see because they've been surrounded by giant SUVs an then there are the drivers who speed through parking lots. I hope that someone who is learning to drive right now doesn't pick up all of these bad habits.

I'm over reckless driving. Where is our mass transit rail system already?




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The great logo design adventure

So this weekend I am supposed to design a logo for a Fall Fest event. For the past two days at lunch, I've been at the library looking through books or some ideas. I've looked through a lot of great ones but I've got two more to crack open before the weekend is out.

I find it interesting that inspiration can come from everywhere. The challenge is finding something that fits.

Well I'm back to the quest. I'll update later.


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It's a freelance kind of time

Recently I've been working on a lot of freelance projects. It's been fun getting to do a lot of work that's not the same as my day job. My day job is designing for Elementary teacher decor and other materials that older grades use for reaching their State Standards goals. It's fun but I really don't have to think much. I've gotten better at my speed in design programs.

I'm about to wrap another installment of design for Bayron Binkley for Governor and it's been fun. The primary season is in full bloom so that means there are only a few more months until the TN Gubernatorial election. We're working real hard right now to get the yard signs printed and to supporters by early August. I can't wait to see them everywhere. I'll post a picture at some point.

Another project that's about to wrap is one for Woodson Chapel Church of Christ. It's their 130 year, so I've been designing all of their promotional items. As of now, the postcard, poster and web ads are out for approval. I really am excited to get them done.

The final projects I've had my hands on are baby announcements. My friends have had girls recently, so I've volunteered to create their cute little cards. I've got one pretty close and the other is about half way done. I really want them to go to print this week if we can but it's not that realistic. I can't wait to post pics of them.

So that's my freelance list of projects in doing for other people. I cant wait to get to my own logo and website. It's about time I get something up.


So long for now.

Lauren


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Know your team

So I've been off and on reading from Lee Cockerell's book Creating Magic got about 2 years now. I'm only on page 38 if that tells you anything about my reading habits. I am not a reader. This book is a good book tht I find is super helpful learning about the business world and how I can make an impact in it.

The chapter in on now is on remembering that everyone in your comany is important. The section I've just finshed is about knowing your team. It's all about making each person feel comfortable and getting to know them enough to find out their goals so that you can help them accrue them. When you help them they will in turn help you. I think that this is a great way to help others no matter what your position at the company is.

Lauren


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Food Diary: Day 1 4/7/10

In order to help me stay on track with my fitness goals. I'm going to start a food diary. I've found that if I can keep up with my intake and output I'll see results.

Goal: look nice in jonathan's wedding on 10/9/10

Goal weight: -10 lbs

Breakfast:
8oz 1% organic milk
2 pepperridge farm cinnamon mini bagles
16oz coffee with 4tsp of creamer

Morning snack:
Kashi bar
Tea 3 cups with a tsp of raw sugar total

Lunch:
Wheat bread with 2 slices of provolone and 4 slices of thinly sliced deli ham
Glass of water

Afternoon snack:
Chocolate egg
15 gram goldfish
Yoplait light yogurt
One piece of orbits sugar free gum

Dinner:
Small salad with cheese, bacon bits, carrots and ranch dressing
Half of a baked potato with a third of a cube of butter, bacon bits and cheese
A 2x3" square brownie
12 oz of sweet tea

Evening snack:
4oz of 1% organic milk
One orbit sugar free gum piece

I didn't do to bad today but I was really hungry by mid afternoon. I think tomorrow I'll drink more water to help with the "hunger" factor.

Now it's out there so hold me accountable.

Lauren


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Sunshine

Today I'm enjoying lunch at the MetroCenter Starbucks. It nice to sit outside with my passion lemonade and spak up the sun's rays. It's been so long since it has been this warm and I am so ready for it. I'm glad that Spring seems to have come to Nashville. The Bradford Pears have bloomed and are really stinky nut it's ok since they're so pretty. There are Buttercups blooming all over the place. I think the only thing that would make today more beautiful is if I could just blow off work and stay outside until dark. That of course will not be happening but at least my workload is light today.

Until I have to go back to work, I'll be here sitting in the sun enjoying every minute of it.





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Cool Wedding Invitations

Tonight I've been looking at different types of design and I just landed on etsy.com's wedding section which has a lot of handmade invitations that are awesome. Seeing these, makes me really want to do some awesome wedding invitations. I think I'm running out of single friends, so I guess I should start looking into baby announcements instead.

Please check out this link below.

http://www.etsy.com/category/weddings/invitation

Free Time

It has come to my attention that I no longer have free time. What happened to it? What happened to being bored after work? What happened to hours of tv watching? That's right, they're gone. I'm resigning myself to the fact that they left many years ago. I am pretty sure that I spend my "free time" doing freelance work. It's fun to do something different than work stuff. I really enjoy the tshirts and invitations I've been doing recently. I've posted pics of them on facebook but none here. The remaining moments in my evening are made up of exercise or house stuff. I think that my day is full and I like it that way. I hate being bored - glad I'm not at the moment. I look forward to some time in May when all my projects are out the door and I have time to clean off the dvr.


Until later, enjoy your free time while you have it!

Lauren

The Great Table Adventure

Yesterday we traveled with Kyle's parents to Memphis to pick up our very first dining table at the Pottery Barn Outlet.

We stayed at the Hyatt Place near St Francis hospital. It was a nice bed and great good but the other guests were not that nice. I'm pretty sure that there were a lot of Middle School aged kids staying on out floor that had never stayed at a hotel before. They were yelling and sushing eachother in the hall until about 12. The icing on the cake was when the moms went into the hall to tell the kids to hush and yelled that down the hall. I think the next time we go to a Hyatt Place we'll request a room further down the hall from the elevator. The trade off I guess for the location was that we got a bigger room than the other king bed rooms. We also got the room at the lowest rate thanks to priceline. Breakfast was great but I'm hungry again and it's only been about 4 hours since I finished eating.

So we went to Memphis to buy a table and chairs. They were 75% off! Yay! I'll show some images below. So when we were loading the truck with all the items, we left the leaf at the outlet because the guy helping us forgot to bring it out. We noticed it about the time we made it to Jackson. We called and they're going to hold it for us until we can get it. We called kyle's brother who travels to Memphis on business quite often and will be getting it for us the first week of March.

Were now about 100 miles outside of Nashville and I'm ready to post.















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Women and the Restroom Stall Code

So we've all heard that men have bathroom codes for urinals and such but the "woman's restroom code" is hardly ever talked about.

I've been noticing a trend in my office building in our floor's restroom when it come to the infamous stall selection moment. There are 5 stalls; one is the handicap one and the others are standard. Since most of the people in our building are not disabled, there is always the choice of all 5. Well as a woman you would naturally choose the cleanest one, but the question comes into play does that really matter when there is a stall taken by someone else? Its an easy answer to pick which stall you wish to use if they are all unoccupied - just pick the cleanest. The challenge comes in when there is more than one stall being used at once. The handicap stall is taken by someone who is definitely not disabled and the one next to the wall on the other end is taken. You can tell that they're planning to be there a while, so do you pick the middle one with the sketchy toilet seat that always moves when you sit on it, or do you pick one of the other two that are near the "campers?" In this situation, I would run the risk of falling just so as not to disturb the campers.

Another challenge is when the restroom available is only a 4 stall. When the extreme ends are already selected by others, which one do you pick? I usually like to walk a little slower and try to figure out if the occupant is is just peeing or will be there a while. Then the selection is easier.

Another thing I've kind of noticed is that some women prefer to poop alone in the office bathroom and others don't mind sharing their time with the poop buddy. Rest assured that they are NEVER camped out near each other, but in that worst possible locations for everyone else to go and do their really quick pee and get out. I personally feel a little awkward when I walk in on someone's poop time and I know who it is by their shoes. They may not know its me, but I know its them. It doesn't bother me that they're pooping, but I think it makes them uncomfortable that I am there. I do my best out of respect to their moment, to RUSH through the time I'm in there - escaping the bathroom with partially clean wet hands from the less than mediocre job I did drying my hand on my bolt for the door.

I guess the girl code is similar to the guy's code in that do not pee/poop near anyone else unless you have to. Its just something funny I think we Americans have started. Wonder if there is something similar in other parts of the world.