Santa Baby

Last night's Elf Party was fabulous! I totally wish I had taken a picture of my costume, but I'm sure they'll surface from other peoples' cameras soon enough, so I'll post one when I can. In the meantime, just imagine me dressed in red velvet santa-suit style pajama pants and a green shirt, with an elf hat that has ears sewed onto them. What I DO have to share today is some of the pictures I took last night. There aren't as many as I had planned to take, since I was busy schmoozing and belting out BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE with my friends.

I think for sure one of the biggest highlights was the cake that Luke brought:

Also, the fact that he was daring enough to put some syrup on his spaghetti:

H. Stubbs won the child's costume contest as Frosty The Snowwoman:

Her little sister, E. Stubbs was DEFINITELY a favorite as well! She was the ghost of Christmas past.

What's even better is that when I got home, I had some treasures waiting for me in the mailbox!

I recently ordered some personal stationary from my favorite Etsy shop: PLAIN JANE'S CARDS. Jane makes such beautiful cards using great fabric patterns. She had posted some updated patterns lately and I found one that was just too "me" to pass up! So I ordered some and then had her personalize them for me so that I could use them as stationary to send notes to friends! Here they are, personalized with my nickname, AMO!

I just adore them! They're perfect for me!

I also got this super creative Christmas card from my mentor & friend, Brian Brooks and his beautiful wife, Hannah:

One of the fun things about it is the silhouette on the back to represent their dog Louie. So so sweet!

All in all, yesterday was pretty amazing! And if you don't believe me, just watch this quick clip of Corbett as Rudolph The Red-Nosed Lounge Singer!

Warm Winter

All the holiday parties are in full effect!!

I had my office Holiday Party on Wednesday. I had my Westside Community Group Christmas Party last night. I have a Westside Leadership Christmas Party tonight. I have Heather J.'s Birthday Party (complete with White Elephant Gift Exchange) on Saturday night. And then I have another Gingerbread House Party going on Sunday afternoon. Monday night I have an Elf Party to go to and I'm reserving Tuesday and Wednesday night to get last minute Seattle gifts for the fam and to pack for my trip home on Thursday morning!

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I like to party! I don't mean I like to party in the sense that I like getting trashed and doing ridiculous things that I won't remember the next morning. I mean I like to create memories of quality fun times that I, or anyone else in attendance for that matter, can't help but remember it the next morning.

When I was in High School, I took Tech Theater for a year. After doing Theater the previous year, I decided that I wanted to be a part of actual design work as opposed to just getting out on stage and reciting lines. I was more intrigued by the technical aspects: the writing, the sets, and the costumes. I had such a wonderful experience working as the assistant to the Costume Director and spent most of my free time raiding the prop and costume closet, playing dress up! I can see how it's all carried over into my personal life a lot.  I think what makes holiday season parties better is that there are so many of them that you can dress up for each of them with a new level of fun. For instance, here's what I wore to my office Holiday Party:

My co-worker A— kept bowing down and 

hailing me as the "Snowflake Queen." 

It was so funny! 

I got two extra special holiday treats last night at our Community Group Christmas Party: I got an Old Navy gift card from the Irwins (holla what!) and our hostess, KL, made Lil' Smokies just for meeeeeeee!!!! Can I just take a moment to TRY to explain to you how magical Lil' Smokies are? Every great party I ever attended back home served Lil' Smokies as an hors d'oeuvre and they are just SO amazing. KL and I had talked about it a while back and she said, "I'm going to make some for our Christmas party just for you!" It was like Santa had just given me that pony I'd always wanted. Who knew that something so small smothered in barbecue sauce could hold the key to magical hopes and wonders of taste? Well, pretty much anyone who's ever served them knows. ;)

But as an aside, my outfit for that party was this:

When I got to KL's house, I was greeted by these sweet luminaries and lots of hugs from friends in my CG:

We had so much fun hanging out, eating great food, sharing fun memories, and doing our White Elephant Gift Exchange. What's even better is that I got everyone in my Community Group to let me take a picture of them in the snowflake glasses! I'm working to create a postcard & photo collage for each of our CG members and hopefully I'll be able to share it with you guys as well!

The Medallion Calls

This be the tale of a landlubbin' crew that be innovative
and chock full 'o entrepreneurship.

Grab some hearty rum, scoot over a nearby keg
and sit yer peg leg down as I tell ye the tale of

PIRATE INK

Ye see, it all started in a deep dark pit near

the Island of Social Netwerkin' in the city of Twittargggh . . .

And as a response, yers truly, Peg Leg Shenanigans

has created a shiny new design for Pirate Ink!

So ye be sure to stop on by when the rum's gone an' my

team of scalliwags will put a nice little ink stain on yer bones!

Ye may be wonderin' who some of our high profile clients are, and since yer so curious, you can spot some of them in this here video:

What I Know

There's a lot to be said about quality friendships that exist across the miles, and a lot more to be said when those friendships are held together by celebrated affinities. I've told you all about my friend Jenny on the blog
a a couple of times already.

What that I love and appreciate about Jenny is that even though we don't always agree on everything, we are still able to have a quality friendship. She's big into fashion and Hanson, and I'm not so much. Also, she doesn't share my love for Chad Michael Murray. But we do agree on a TON of other things that really matter. Our shared love for Parachute and graphic design has brought us together to share an amazing experience:

Parachutefan.com

Let me just tell you how hard Jenny works on making this site such an awesome resource for fellow fans. Last night, she pulled an all-nighter to finish up a new design for PFC, and it looks AMAZING! Now, bear in mind that neither Jenny or I get paid for our work with PFC, so you know we're not doing it for the cash moneyz. We truly love and admire this band and where they've been and, more importantly, where they are headed—that is why we do it.

So in general, Jenny will come up with the designs and site layout and I will help with editing text and giving design feedback and the like. Together, we come up with the initiatives and other details on the content of the site, but Jenny is the one who stares at the screen for hours and hours making sure Dreamweaver doesn't freak out. Ask any web designer and they will tell you what a beast Dreamweaver is! She's also the one who handles the majority of the flack from a few hostile fans, and the one who keeps things all nice and neat and organized for PFC. She is a champion and after discussing things back and forth, I am thankful for her ability to listen to my nitpicky corrections and thoughts without disowning me entirely. Thankfully, I'm able to make up for all my nitpicks with some good humor and I often joke that I'm the PFC court jester. ;) But it's the collaboration process that I appreciate more than anything. As a designer, I KNOW how hard it is to let someone else in on your work, but Jenny lets me step in and work with her to make it what it is—one giant site full of awesome!

One of the things I'm most looking forward to this next year is making a trip to the east coast to join Jen for Parachute's CD Release Party!

Be sure to check out PFC by clicking the link above!

In the meantime, here are some screencaps!

--------------------------

DEAR JEN:

If you are reading this, please know that there are not enough words to describe how proud I am of you and how much I (and I'm sure the band) appreciate all your hard work!

Santariffic

Who's excited for the Christmas season? 

Well I sure am! I seriously spent the day after Thanksgiving decorating for Christmas; and I pretty much listen to Christmas songs year-round. Don't get me wrong, I celebrated Thanksgiving with tons of love and thanks and turkey, but there's just something magical about Christmas.

It's comforting knowing that my friends are EQUALLY (if not more) excited about the Christmas season as well. And so, today, I wanted to share with you some words of wisdom from two amazing friends of mine.

David Atkins & Kat Crosby

David was part of MCA and one of my students when I was the Media Director there. I loved having him on my team and I loved hanging out with him all over the ATX. He's funny and he's put up with so much of my shenanigans—for that, he should get a Nobel Peace Prize! What's more, is that he found an equally amazing woman to share love with. Her name is Kat and not only is she one of the cutest, sweetest, and completely lovely women I know, but her genuine love and care for people encourages me so much! It means so much to me to have friends in my life who not only understand me when I'm letting my freak flag fly, but who also know how to join in the fun! They are such a wonderful couple and I look forward to spending more quality time with them when I go home for the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, 

here is a step-by-step tutorial courtesy of Kat and David of

"HOW TO TAKE
A PICTURE
WITH SANTA"

well, kids, I hope you learned something today ;)

Sing It Out

I was thinking this morning that is was about time for a music update. Mainly because I have a few other blog posts in line that need some editing, thus can't be posted yet. But also because I've recently added to my iTunes and I thought it'd be fun to share (since I haven't done so since the beginning of August)!

One of my best friends sent me an email earlier today and said this reminded him of me. I love my friends, and I LOVE this song! It is seriously so beautiful and visual stunning that it brought tears to my eyes and warm fuzzies to my heart. It also made me miss him a lot. :)

DANCING SHOES by Green River Ordinance



This is a new one I found and took a chance on. I listened to the short sweet 30 second clip (thanks for being lame about that, iTunes), but upon hearing the full song, it has found a home on my playlist! It's so catchy and clever.

UH OH by The Scenic


One of my friends recently went to a Switchfoot show and after the show, Jon Foreman did an acoustic performance outside of the venue. She found an audio recording of it and shared it with me and I love it! It makes me super excited about the next album!

SHE SAYS (THE BLACK EYED BLUES) by Switchfoot



I absolutely love Tegan and Sara with all my little indie / emo heart! This is one of their newly released singles. It's off of their new album, Sainthood (which is just wonderful) and this song has been on repeat a lot on my iTunes!

ON DIRECTING by Tegan and Sara


And last but not least, another sweet sweet love song by Camera Can't Lie called Last Dance. It's got a great hook and it's such a beautiful song! I just never get sick of listening to it! My favorite lyric from it is: "And if we're consumed by counting each hour, what's left of today?"

LAST DANCE by Camera Can't Lie

Holiday From Real

After a fun day of learning great insight from Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel at Catalyst One Day, I am headed off on a great adventure!

I'm about to board a Greyhound bus to spend a day in Los Angeles hanging out with awesome friends, eating some yummy In-N-Out, and rocking out at the final show on Something Corporate's 2010 Reunion Tour at Club Nokia!

I probably won't update the blog until I get back on Monday, but I wanted to share this today:

I love adventure and I love being spontaneous and impulsive. Just as much as I love those things, I love that I have people in my life that inspire and encourage me to "go for it" and do fun, daring, adventurous things! I mean, this trip in and of itself may not seem like a big deal . . . but all the encouragement and love I've received in regards to the trip as the details have unfolded has ben so refreshing!

I know that not many people my age would travel on a bus for 2 days just to go see a band. I've definitely gotten the "you are so weird," and "girl you are insane" comments. Maybe I am, but my desire to embrace adventure and to experience life to its fullness drives me to board this bus with a huge smile and a full heart. Many say that I will grow out of this "wild impulsive phase," but deep down inside, I hope I never do!

_____

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

- Auntie Mame