Southern Hospitality

Last month I traded in my snow boots for a pair of open toed booties and headed on a week long business trip to the Golden Isles.

This was my second time visiting Jekyll Island, Georgia, where I will be working on a massive branding project over the next year for the historic Jekyll Island Club. The Clubhouse and surrounding "cottages", which date back to the late 1800s, once housed influential families with names like Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, and Pulitzer to name a few. The island itself is filled with live oaks, Spanish moss, and a history that can be traced to the 1730s.

After a week of strategy sessions and a fair amount of exploring, we zipped over to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for a quick 24 hours before heading home.

Snow Days

Bend has been hit HARD with winter this year and the results have been beautiful to witness, tough to drive in, and opened up the door for tons of snow recreation close to home.

That's A Wrap

2016 was quite a year... 
Here are my top 10 highlights (in no particular order):

1. Spending lots of time exploring with my guys and lots of friends, new and old.
2. A road trip to California with stops in Palm Springs, San Jose, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (because what could be better than escaping the muggle world for a day).
3. Day trips to the Painted Hills, Koosha Falls, Smith Rock, the Mt. Bachelor Wilderness, and more.
4. An epic Bend Brewfest birthday weekend complete with an awesome 30th bday party and a really full house.
5. Hood River and Eugene with the "Red Dragon Crew".

6. Celebrating Jenna's college graduation and birthday (on the same day).

7. An awesome long weekend in New Orleans with the fam!

8. Weddings: Leah and Nick in NOLA and Nicole and Cameron in the Bay Area.
9. Babies: Meeting Tiff and Jason's baby boy William, and sending love to my cousin's baby girl Ava.
10. Concerts: Killswitch Engage at The Roseland, Silversun Pickups in Bend, Deftones at Cuthbert in Eugene, and Thrice at the Crystal Ballroom.

Honorable Mention: Finally launching my website, this new blog, and just overall getting sh*t done.

 Alright 2017, let's see what you have in store for me... 

'Tis The Season

The winter holidays flew by this year with us hosting a Halloween party, cooking our first turkey for guests over Thanksgiving (without burning the house down), heading to Portland for the whirlwind adventure that is Christmas with my large family, and ringing in the new year with friends in Bend.

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and enjoyed some time off with great food, friends, and family.
Disclaimer: yes, we are obsessed with our dog, but he's much cuter than us. 

Bend Design

I spent last Thursday and Friday at the Bend Design Conference, in you guessed it, Bend Oregon. This was my first conference since college, and it felt pretty damn amazing to be a "student" again - learning, embracing new ideas, and gaining tons of inspiration.

Possibly the biggest take away for me is a new understanding of how happiness is a key to being creative, and therefore productive in your work. This is something I really want to focus my attention on every day. Finding that balance, understanding what works for me, continuing to work on side projects (and grasping how important they are to personal growth), embracing the beauty in failure, and understanding the difference between design for love and design for money (and getting that those two concepts are not mutually exclusive).

Cheers to creative development. 

Until next year... 

Brass Fed Wedding Weekend

I just got back from an epic trip to New Orleans with my family which included a stay at the new Ace Hotel (a giant party by the way), a birthday, beignets, a bachelorette party, a burlesque show, a trip down bourbon, a ton of walking, lots of delicious cocktails and seafood (oysters for days), pool time, several photo booth stops, jazz on Frenchman, my sister's beautiful wedding, a brass band, a parade, and Beyonce (stay tuned for that story at the end).

This was my second trip to New Orleans, since visiting Pat back in February 2014 when he was there working for about a month. In preparation for that trip I had made a massive list of places to eat and things to see, and we covered a ton of ground over our four days together. This time we had a lot of pre-planned wedding activities, so we just went with the flow and made sure to revisit some of our favorite spots (Luke, Cochon, Butcher, Kingfish, etc.).

Here are some highlights.

Oh, and as for Beyonce... 

My sister rented out two suites on the top floor of the Ace for her wedding day, and as us girls came and went in various states of disheveled to made up throughout the day, we couldn't help but notice security guards stationed at the suite next door. Eventually we got one of the guards to give us a little insight, and as it turns out, the suite was occupied by Jay-Z, Beyonce, her mom, and their daughter. But here's the best part... When it came time for them to leave the hotel security would block off the elevator area so that no one would bother them, but my step mom happened to get caught in the holding room for about ten minutes during this process. Her account of the story went something like "I was trapped in the room joking around with a tall body guard, and then a woman with big blonde hair and a little girl came out and I told her she had a pretty bow, and then they went down the elevator." When my brother showed her a picture of Jay-Z she realized who her "bodyguard" actually was, and obviously the woman and little girl, well you know. Pretty great right?! We of course sent some doughnuts and a wedding invitation their way, but no such luck.