Lunch with Ryan and the Work Crew

I am so blessed to work in an amazing environment every day. I work as a web designer at a small Baptist university (Union University), and I share a big office with the two print designers. Each semester we have a student graphic designer to help with their workload, and when I first started here that designer was Ryan. Ryan and I quickly became good friends, and I'm so glad that we still hang out now! Not long ago he had all of us, plus the other web guy (my boss man) over for lunch to catch up. He made us some delicious chicken/tomato/mozzarella sandwiches, risotto and salad! It was a lovely meal with great conversation.

After lunch Ryan showed us around his house and we got to check out his awesome linotype font  collection (a gift from his dad). I think it's linotype...Ryan, you can correct me if I'm wrong. They have such a neat house. It looks pretty average from the outside, but there's a great covered patio PLUS and awesome sunroom with gorgeous window light, which they use as a studio.

I love getting to hang out with friends, especially work friends. I think it's amazing that we all have such a good relationship. I know a lot of people who just go in to work, sit there, then leave. I would be so bored if I didn't have these people to talk with from day to day! I know they probably won't ALWAYS be my coworkers, but I can't imagine a better group of people to spend 8 hours a day with. I feel like they will be lifelong friends, no matter where our individual lives take us. And these are just the few I work closely with. The rest of our office is amazing too!

Celebrating Juanita

Last week our office celebrated and honored one of our favorite colleagues, Juanita. She decided to retire, and her last day was Friday. She worked at Union for nearly 20 years, and she definitely made an impact on everyone she worked with. We decided to send her off with a bang and have a fun luncheon in her honor. My office-mates kind of headed up the project, and I tried to throw in a few ideas...but really it was mostly them. The first big thing was this great little box called a "broke and bored" box. It's filled with fun things to do when you find yourself broke or bored at home. They did a great job putting it together!

There were lots of gift cards, a few personal gifts, some Union swag, and things like Rip-it (an energy drink she liked) and things to make sweet tea and lemonade. I thought it was so special, and I'm sure she did too!

We also made her this fun salt canister personalized just for her! Juanita salts EVERYTHING!!! I've always gotten onto her for it, but she's pretty stubborn :) We tied it into a scripture reference about being salt and light among people because Juanita is certainly both of those things around here. The canister contains letters from several coworkers telling her how she's been salt to their lives. The label turned out SO CUTE! I love all the fun things they did with the nutrition facts and description. I know she'll cherish that for a long time.

The luncheon went really well. We gave her a "Mayor of Hammons Hall" sash and a name badge for Signs First, where she always goes to pick up our signs for the campus. She seemed to be having a good time, and I think it meant a lot to her to have all of those people there honoring her career at Union.

Let's virtually toast to Juanita and all of her contributions to Union! *clink*

Barefoots Roasting

One of my favorite parts of my job is going out and doing photoshoots for various publications/ads/whatever. We have a staff photographer, so I only do this kind of thing on occasion. My friend and office-mate, Sarah, had this vision for the back cover of next year's handbook, and I was excited to help out! We always have an ad for our campus coffee shop on the back of the handbook, and since we've just recently started roasting the coffee here on campus, Sarah thought a photo illustration of the process would be neat. I agree! The ad will have three of the photos I took, but I wanted to post these four because they are my favorites. I guess a coffee-themed post is pretty much perfect for a Monday :)

Critiquee Becomes Critiquer

 Scott critiquing a student

If any of you have been in art classes, you know how important critiques are! It's when you get to show off your hard work and hope that your professor/client has good things to say about it. It's good to get some constructive criticism (that's kind of what it's all about), but you definitely hope for more positive comments than negative.

Since I work a little bit on graphic design at Union University (and the other designer was out that day), our creative director asked me to go with him to a typography class critique. This is one of the things I love about my job! It's actually not that uncommon for me to get to participate in other aspects of the campus. It just makes work so much more fun to be able to contribute in other places. For this class we were critiquing the chapel guides that the students made for consideration. They do this every year, and it's always kind of fun to see what they come up with!

students presenting their chapel guides

Our favorite was the one from the girl on the left. She did some drawings of places on campus and made a great collage of these places. That attention to detail and her nice layout really impressed us. I think the Spiritual Life department will definitely pick hers.

I really enjoy getting out of the office and doing fun things like this. I'm thankful every day that I was able to get this job! It's really a great place to work, and the people I get to work with are pretty alright :)

ALSO. I'd like to draw your attention to the very top button on my sidebar! I decided to be a St. Jude Hero for the Country Music half marathon on April 28th. I'll do another post about it closer to the time, but I wanted to point it out. I know I set my goal really high, but I know I can do it! By clicking that button, you can give any amount to sponsor my run (every dollar helps!) Even if my awesome readers can't afford to give (which I totally understand), I will be forever grateful just for folks spreading the word :)

Burrito Meal

Yesterday was the Robster's birthday! Rob (or melodrobmatic, as we like to lovingly call him) is our student designer in the office, and we like to be nice to our student designers occasionally. One of his favorite restaurants in town is this hole-in-the-wall called Burrito Meal, so we all went there. I've always heard good things about Burrito Meal, but had never been myself. It's pretty simple...just burritos and other simple things for $5-6. It's about as plain, simple and jankity as you can get, but it's honestly pretty awesome. I'd rather go here than Moe's ANY DAY (but that's mainly because I detest Moe's).

I didn't want to get too adventurous, so I just got a chorizo burrito. It.was.incredible. The owner uses this sauce he came up with that is just the right amount sweet and spicy...it's delicious. The burrito was so big, I could have made two meals from it, but it was hard not to eat it all. I think next time, I'll plan on taking some home so I don't spend the rest of the afternoon in agony from being so full.

Note to self: burrito and dr. pepper for lunch does not jive well with a late day run.

Ok, but seriously, if you're in town...try out Burrito Meal. It's on Airways currently, but the rumor is that they are moving a little farther North. Don't be turned off by the hole-in-the-wall appearance...in this case you really can't judge the book by it's cover.

office baby shower

One of my co-workers/office-mates is about to have twins! Well...his wife is about to have twins. Anyway, Sarah and I decided to host a baby shower for them at the office. We just invited all the folks in our department (males included) and had some yummy snacks. I think we did a pretty good job putting it together! Here are some pictures from the decor, which I was in charge of.

little banner I made out of some doily things from Hobby Lobby

Sarah arranged the stuff. It looked so pretty!

After the shower, Scott convinced Kelly to let me take a couple of photos. I just used a modeling light, and I really like how they turned out! They aren't planning to have more kids (this will make 4), so this was the last chance to get some belly pictures! Can you believe there are twins in there?! I honestly think she looks great to be so close to her due date and with two in there. 

Congrats to Scott and Kelly, and thanks for letting me and Sarah practice our party-throwing skillz on you!

Not-So-Casual Friday

Sarah and I came to work last Friday all dressed up. Most Fridays are dress-down days, but on this particular Friday we must have been on the same wavelength. There are some similarities in our outfits besides both having a little bit of a vintage feel. We both have some splashes of red,  similar sandals, and a just-below-the-knee length dress. Since it was Friday, and we were feeling cute, we went out and took some pictures while we were running errands around campus.

I get really excited when I go outside. I love my job and everything I do, but being cooped up inside all day makes me act a little crazy when I get to venture out. There's this absolutely adorable little weeping willow between our building and the main buildings, so we get to walk past it often. I had a willow tree outside of my 7th-9th grade home. I used to go out and sit under it  and read a lot. I hope that someday I'll have one in my backyard with a little bench under it. It makes a perfect little sanctuary for reading and just hanging out.

On me:

Dress- vintage handmade

Shoes- Franco Sarto (TjMaxx of course!)

Earrings- from Rhett

Coffee Cup- from Union's own Barefoots Joe.

Let's talk about this dress for a second. There's an antique mall that I frequent, and this dress came from one of the booths. This booth (which is now gone) had probably 50 or 60 dresses at all times. Each time I went, I found another one to try on. OF COURSE none of them ever fit...until this one day when I found about 20 to try on. No, I'm not kidding. I know the ladies that own the mall think I'm insane. On that one day almost every dress fit perfectly, so I had to decide which one to get. This is the one I decided on because I loved the way it fit and the neckline was something I had never worn before. I used to say I hated this kind of collar, but I've converted. It looks a little like a Peter Pan collar, but the extra red pieces make it a little more fun (to me).  What era does this look like? I'm honestly not sure it's vintage, but it fits better than any modern dress I've ever owned.