Soiree.

One of my favorite community organizations in Denver is Girls on the Run. I was thrilled when they asked me to once again design the invitation for their Sneaker Soiree (I branded the event last year, including the logo!). The event is at a local gallery, hence the gallery theme! If you are in Denver, check it out!

2010.

Celebrating a year of fun and family!

Grand.

It's holiday card season, and this year, my hip Grandma wanted a holiday card so that her friends and family "without Facebook" could see her great grand babies! That's one good looking trio, if you ask me!

Fall.

Renna.

My BFF's had a baby! Her name is Renna and she is fabulous...so fabulous, in fact, that there are not one, but two birth announcements going out to her friends and family. So if you got one, make sure you check out the other here on the blog! I haven't seen her since she was a week old, but we get to visit a pumpkin patch this weekend, so I'm super excited!

Reminder.

I needed this. ::via::

HDR.

So as a budding photographer who likes to photograph things and places more than people (although I love photographing my favorite little people)...I'm a bit behind the times on this whole HDR photography thing. I've definitely been studying up, and think I have a place picked out, to try it the "old school" manual way, but I've also downloaded an app on the iPhone just for kicks.

I came across the fabulous HDR picture below dubbed the "Best Picture of the UT Tower Ever" by the Texas Exes, of the best college campus landmark in the world, taken by Randy Drevland, and I'm even more inspired! I'd say it definitely lives up to its billing...

I'm also trying to make a commitment to blog more...just for you small, faithful readership!

Five.

My adorable niece started kindergarten a few weeks ago...when did she get old enough to be going to school and soon celebrating her fifth birthday?

I had fun creating her party invitation once again...even though for the past few years she's been talking about having a princess party and I had an awesome princess invitation all ready to go...and then my sister drops the bomb that it's going to be a luau party in their new backyard. Oh well, I guess I have a princess party invite in the hopper in case I ever need it!

The big block of white space is where the details went...figured that didn't need to be broadcast all over the interwebs!

Lanmou.

A week in Haiti will change your life...

You experience overwhelming love and devastating heart break.

Feelings of both strength and insignificance.

You get slapped in the face by poverty one minute, and have the time of your life swimming with the local children at a beautiful beach, the next.

You move mountains with only shovels and buckets, and you do so much faster working side-by-side with Haitian men, women and children. Men apil chay pa lou.

You fall in love with a boy named Mackenly and a baby named Sammy.

Complete strangers become your best friends.

You are consumed with laughter after a Bonneou kiddo puts you “in the pot” during a game of duck-duck-goose.

“Inspired” takes on a whole new meaning when Haitian teenagers share their passion, dreams and clear vision of a
bright future for their country.

A cold shower quickly becomes heaven on earth.

You discover international languages: bubbles, hugs, laughter, and seeing yourself, perhaps for the first time, on a camera’s small screen.

You make a difference.

A week in Haiti will change your life...

I wrote this for a thank you card that I gave my friends and family who provided financial support for my trip...but I still can't think of any better way to share my experience in Haiti...so here it is for the faithful blog readers too! The only problem is...I definitely feel like I didn't do enough, that my work is unfinished...

Travel.

“Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless, newborn baby—I just don’t care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it’s mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to—I just don’t care.” -Elizabeth Gilbert

A Home in Haiti

I'm very much delayed in posting pictures, stories and thoughts from my trip to Haiti...but to hold you over, below is a video that was produced while we were there. I went with A Home in Haiti, and they have already done GREAT things in Haiti, including sending $1.5 million in tents to Port Au Prince. Phase 2 of the project is to construct a new home for the children at the Miriam Center at the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission.

We were the first group that went, 60+ strangers who met in Haiti to do big things, love on special kids and make a difference. I've met the kids of the Miriam Center and they are some of the most special souls on this planet...would love it if you could take a look at the video, visit ahomeinhaiti.org and help us finish what we started!

Bonjou!

I just got back from spending the week volunteering in Haiti...it was an absolutely amazing, heartbreaking, inspiring and exhausting experience. More about that later...but before I headed out I was able to spend a few days with my adorable niece and nephew and couldn't resist sharing their sweet faces with the world!

Summer.

As I sit here sweltering in the mid-summer heat, here are a few snapshots to remind me that a Colorado summer can actually be quite lovely! Now I must go pray for rain...

Portland.

I went to Portland for work last weekend for a few days. Before the true "work" started I was able to get out and enjoy the city a bit. I hadn't been since I was 13 or so, so it was a lovely surprise to discover that I really, really enjoyed the city and the beautiful surroundings. I made it to the waterfalls, International Rose Test Garden, Japanese Gardens, the Portland Saturday Market (on Sunday, but what a great demonstration of the cities commitment to the creative peeps) and also stumbled upon the naked bike ride, pride parade, great street food and some old friends. Below are a few pics from the weekend...which was a great kick-off to my renewed commitment to photography!

Babies.

One of my BFF's is having a baby in September! I love new little babies...and designing them their very own suite of stationary. First up? The baby shower! The whole JW2/JW3 thing is something you might not get if you don't know the happy parents-to-be, but I'm really happy with how it turned out!

Harper.

I was absolutely delighted to design the birth announcement for my cousin's new baby Harper...I guess that makes the little dude my second cousin? His parents are absolutely delightful and this project was so much fun!

Trippin.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately...man, where does the time go? Turns out, the official kick-off of summer is in just a few days...Memorial Day Weekend!

I've mentioned previously on the blog the sense of wanderlust that I was experiencing...and yep, still experiencing it. I even offered to drive with my BFF from LA to Philly if she moves there this summer...not sure she'll take me up on it, but I can only hope it will be as well documented (infographically speaking) as this find over at Papercut!

Pysanky.

Pysanky is the art of Ukranian egg making. My great grandfather came to Canada from the Ukraine, so someday I'm going to have to try out this awesome tutorial: Ukranian Eggs Made Simple.

I'll be spending Easter weekend with my favorite little people, my niece and nephew, and flying back to Colorado with my niece so she can spend spring break with me and her grandparents.

Happy Easter everyone!

Blossoms.

Happy Spring! Here in the Rockies our spring is usually full of 80 degrees one day, windy and cold the next, with a little bit of thundersnow (Mother Nature's most awesome phenomenon) for show.

Even though I'm hardpressed to find either of these lovely blossoms in my neighborhood, nothing makes me happier than when the cherry blossoms and bluebonnets come out to play!

[via]

[via]

Nothing.

After the earthquakes in Haiti, everyone was compelled to respond. The art and design communities came together for the Haiti Poster Project for which proceeds will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

And stemming from this project, brilliance from the kids. Students at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design were asked to create posters, only this time, they were given a specific set of instructions: "...if you have no power, no light, no food, no computer, but had to make something that could be reproduced 25 times, what would you make? What if you only had a pencil? Or a pen? One pair of scissors?" Check out their collective works. While the project was eventually opened up to more "tools," the results are definitely inspiring.

Makes you want to step back when you approach any project and get started with as few tools as possible, instead of jumping right in.