Today is my little brother-in-law Andy's 19th Birthday! Well I guess he's not so little anymore! Hard to believe that the little 7 year old that I met when I was first dating Joe is now NINETEEN! Wow....time flies.... Its nice to see him growing up into a nice young man. I'm glad that we stay connected on Facebook and get to chat on there often. He's my buddy whether he likes it or not! :-)
Now for some photos to remember the little twerp when he was young and sweet. hee hee. ;-)
Andy at our Wedding in 2001.
When he was really little....Halloween (left) as a duck with Joe and Ben
Christmas morning (right) Joe is not happy to be up early, but Andy sure is! :-)
So, I don't have much time to write today, so I am posting this really quick with a little quick intro. I saw this awesome video last night and I think it's great.
Even though we don't have kids yet I am always looking into and saving information on the latest awesome baby products, sites, etc. Call me crazy...I just love researching things.
Anyway, I became a fan of this company called 'g-diapers' through Facebook, they are an awesome alternative to disposable diapers, but not as "Au natural" as pure cloth diapers (even though they do have a cloth insert option). Anyway, to make a long story short, they posted a link to this video which comes from the healthychild.org.
I completely agree that we, people with kids, people who plan to someday have kids, need to be wise about the environment in which we raise our children, to be aware of what is being put into our bodies and eventually the bodies of our children. When I see stories about lead in toys and BPA in plastic baby bottles, it makes me sad. Why is our society so obsessed with producing without THINKING about the potential negative/dangerous effects certain chemicals may have. All I know is that when I am a mother I will be very careful about what is in my house and what goes into my babies body.
Anyway, I could go on forever, but I'll just post the video for you to watch. It's a great eye opener.
A couple months ago submitted several logo designs for IIDA Illinois' logo contest. The board narrowed all of the logos down to 4 finalists that all members of the Illinois chapter were going to vote on. Two of the designs were mine, so I had a good chance of winning! Shortly after the voting I found out that mine was winning but that they had gotten some comments from downstate members that the designs only represented Chicago... So after many adjustments working with the board we finally got down to the final design! IIDA sent out an email this week announcing me as the winner! Yay! See the flyer here: FLYER The flyer also shows the final winning logo.
So, not only does my design get to be on all of the IIDA Illinois flyers, materials, website, etc, BUT I also won an Eames Molded Plastic Arm Chair with the Eiffel Tower/Wire Base!!! I am so excited because I am a lover of Eames furniture and design. If I could have all of my house filled with their furniture, I would!! This is such a great chair, comfortable and versatile. I am so excited that I will own one!
I am having trouble deciding what color to get though, so I haven't ordered it yet. Can't decide if I want to go with the classic and iconic red or if I should go more neutral and get white. Hmmm. I need to decide soon though! See the photos of the chair below:
Today I went and interviewed at a temp/placement agency that only works with architects and designers. I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and go in for this "interview" just to be added to their file in case jobs come in. The man pretty much told me that he has been doing his job (placing architects and designers in jobs) for 25 years and he has never seen a downturn as bad, as long, or as deep as this one in our industry. Great. He also told me that 2009 was bad and that they don't anticipate that 2010 will be any better for our industry. Great. Nothing I haven't heard I guess. I am just ready to get back to work, whatever kind of work that may be. So, at least I will be in in their system now and if something does come up I could get chosen for a project specific temp job or something. I also sent my resume in for a showroom manager job the other day. I am really hoping that they call me about that one, its the only glimmer of hope I have at the moment. Also, a friend sent me this article today. I thought it was pretty good. Maybe I need to think of something that I can do to "reinvent" myself? I feel like I already did that with my career switch to interior design though, so maybe that's why I am so hesitant to figure out the next best thing that I can do. I JUST WANT TO WORK AGAIN (preferably doing something semi related to my field)!! Enjoy the article, I thought it was interesting... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/garden/21architects.html?em
30 years old today! It's a quiet snowy day here in Chicago on my birthday. I am hanging out at home with the dogs today and tonight Joe and I are going to stay in and order some take-out and have a quiet little birthday dinner at home. We will probably go out somewhere this weekend, just haven't decided where yet. :-)
