The journal has been packed for the last few days. On Saturday we woke at 6 a.m. to try and finish packing, but when Jon and Erin arrived we still had the kitchen and bathroom to do. The kitties were locked in the bedroom, and all the boxes and furniture were piled in the family room.

It took about three hours to do the first load. We stopped and had take-out Rockies for lunch at the condo, and while we were eating a woman from upstairs came down and volunteered her niece and two nephews to help us move. They didn’t seem to pleased, especially as it was raining pretty heavily.

After the second load was done, we picked up some litter from MadCat and then came back to collapse. Pookie took a lot of time getting used to things – I sat with him in the closet for an hour while Bailey explored. After awhile he ventured out. We were able to get the bedroom together and then fell straight asleep.

On Sunday my dad picked us up at 7 a.m. to move the couch, a chair, and some other bits from their house. The uHaul was frozen shut and we had to poor hot water on the door to open it. After we had gotten everything back to the condo, we unpacked for awhile and then headed out around 11 a.m. to catch the bus to the fabric store. The walk to the bus took us through our little park and by the zoo – I love our neighborhood!

At Westgate we bought some bedroom lamp and a different shower curtain at TJMaxx, then spent $100 on fabric for curtains. My parents picked us up and we went for a nice lunch at the Tutto Pasta in Middleton, then to Whole Foods for some especial, and back to the condo to do more unpacking.

First floor window = kitty TV

We tried out the bread maker and had some… interesting first results. Apparently “vital wheat gluten” is indeed vital when using whole wheat flour, or you end up with a lumpy, rock-hard poo.

I also managed to make curtains for the bedroom and living room before we went to bed. Oh, and our shower rocks!

Today it was back to work as usual. Garry came with me and then headed to the apartment to clean, clean, clean. The #4 bus isn’t exactly high-class since it comes from the South transfer point, but the stop is less than a block away.

I went out to eat with Jon and Holly, and I paid for Jon as a thank you for helping us move in the cold and the rain (I’ve promised Erin I’ll help her paint her new house).

After work I went to Cap Foods and picked up some vital wheat gluten and some bread flour, then I met Garry coming back from the apartment and we went home together.

This evening we did yet more unpacking – I put away about half the clothes and Garry put the den/computer room together. Man, do we ever have a lot of crap! I managed to make a real loaf of bread (sooo yummy) and I used our stove for the first time to make dinner.

A Work of Art

So here we are in out beautiful new bedroom with stripy new curtains, listening to the dishwasher running (a dishwasher!), and getting ready for our third night in our new condo. Yay!

Ethnic Fest Artwork

I’m glad I take the bus to work, instead of driving. Not that we could afford a car even if we wanted one. But the bus is so much more relaxing; just looking out the window, thinking about the weather and watching the people on the bus. I like sunny mornings, because for some reason sun bouncing off the cars on the road makes me feel like I’m on vacation, which is a nice way to start the day.

In the Garden

It’s finally summer, and yesterday we heard our first cicada. The peas are still putting out flowers, and the head lettuce isn’t going to seed yet; I think because we had such a cool and rainy June. There are hundreds of green cherry tomatoes on the vines; I’m starting to get a bit annoyed with them because they’ve been green for over a month. How long do they need to ripen, really?

VIP Nurtrition Store logo

Work is good, or as good as any job can be. I think I’m more suited to working from home; being around people for 8 hours a day is really tiring. So I’m slowly trying to think up things I can do from home; I’m thinking if I did a couple of different things at least one might take off and be viable, like prints, freelancing… even refinishing furniture with cool painting techniques. Of course it won’t be for a couple of years, but it’s nice to have the time to think about it without feeling the pressure to make it work ASAP.

Chickens and a red wheelbarrow

The art in this post is a painting I did for my mom’s birthday of her favorite poem about chickens and a wheelbarrow or some such, a logo for some online vitamin store (I’m not overly proud of it, but I made it more because I knew the client would like it. Bad designer!), and also a thing I did today for this ethnic fest that Anchor is sponsoring, which I think turned out pretty neat.

LoyaltyMatters layout concept

The last two weeks have been mainly work and organizing. On the work side, I have created a new logo for a new employee loyalty program called Loyalty Matters (there was a naming contest). It’s basically 100% my project; Chris (the head of the marketing department) described this new program to me and told me to go create a poster and a logo. And eventually I’ll be creating all sorts of other crap for it. Yay!

This is the logo they picked; it’s meant to be the good weather and the water that supports the anchor ship (like how the employees support the bank, yup yup). I had made about 20 comps, we narrowed it down to three and I created layouts for those, Chris threw one of those out because it was so anchory and he was afraid the board would pick it, and the “Loyalty Task Force” met today and decided on this one.

Cowboy Cookout - yee-haw.

The other picture is just of a invitation I did today for a Cowboy Cookout. Most of the work I do is based off of current designs, but sometimes I can play around like with this one and the Loyalty Matters mark. It’s a nice mix of being creative but not going overboard and burning out. And yes, I know it’s overly cheesy; but how can you not have fun with an invitation to a “Cowboy Cookout”?!

Watercolors

In other news, Garry quit his job on Saturday (yay!) and he’s going to go to MATC tomorrow to look into applying for the fall semester. I’m the breadwinner, hah! It was Memorial Day weekend this past… weekend. We gardened, went for a nice walk through Shorewood Hills, saw Iron Man at Sundance (very good movie, especially since we saw it for free with some passes), and I organized my craft bookcase all nice and neat with labels and stuff. I’m hoping to create art and teach Garry to list it on Etsy, which would help make a bit of income and give him something productive to do while he’s home.

Art cards

I’m thinking I can do these silly little ACEOs for, like, $3 each, and then sell prints and maybe some originals. Of course, I don’t know how many times I’ve made plans like these, but it’s good to dream! And I’m really looking forward to having a house husband; I already made him a daily task list and put it on the fridge. ^_^