Guess what?

I moved the blog! Start going to www.whatsthejillio.com for new blog posts!!!

Yay...progress.

Done.

well folks, i know i'm a bad blogger. i just can't get motivated to write. maybe it is because i am busy. maybe it is because i find many other things to fill up my time. maybe it is because i don't blog at my new job?

ok. big announcement: the quilt is DONE. geoffrey's grandmother and i finished it back in december. i've been really secretive with this quilt (remember this post? quilting underground). i had a reason for that: i wanted to give it to my good friends Adrienne and Scott for their wedding! the goal back then (two years ago) was to give it to them at their wedding on June 27, 2009. ha! quilting is hard work! just when they thought they were never getting a wedding present, i showed up with a surprise just after christmas!

it was so fun to work on this with geoffrey's grandmother. i will always cherish the memories of working on this with her--quilting is a great way to get to know someone.

you wanna see it, don't you? well, here ya go:

Click here to see more photos

Oh yeah, the other thing I'm DONE with: DEBT!! DONE DONE DONE. WE'RE DEBT FREE!! AND Geoffrey and I were on the Dave Ramsey Show last week to tell him about it. i will post the recording in a later blog. it was pretty sweet. now that we are DONE with debt and i am done with the quilt: it's time to save up and buy a house. yessss.

Prayers for Ty

Hey blog world...please add this sweet family to your prayer list: http://www.ourlittleman-ty.blogspot.com/

Lauren is one of my friends that I have lost touch with over the past few years because of college and life, but we were in preschool together and she is one of my oldest friends. Please pray.

merge and signage

hey blog world. it's been a busy three months. can you believe that i've been working at mobberly for that long already? time flies when you are having fun.

Part 1: merge

i've been working on a logo and other promo materials for a new strategy at Mobberly called MERGE: Combining the influence of church and home. It's about parents taking a huge part in helping their children to grow spiritually. it's about conversations at the dinner table that point to Jesus. It's about praying together. It's about reading scripture together. It's exciting and from what I have heard from most parents...it's challenging. The process of creating this logo was fun. I haven't had the opportunity since college to really sit with someone else and go through a design process to get a product that I am really happy with. Thank you, Liz Gregory for being on staff at Mobberly. It is awesome to work with another designer, ahem, girls minister.

Part 2: Signage

One thing that my good friend Kimberly and I share a love for are cool signs. Something about those signs really gets me excited. Kimberly is really good about taking pictures of them and making them look even better. Spend a few minutes on her blog.

See ya later.

Packaging

http://www.thedieline.com/

announcement!

...not out of debt

...no kids

...not moving - didn't buy a house

...no new car

...not getting a puppy (yet)

...new website! whatsthejillio.com!

...this blog is moving. soon. but not yet...still working out some kinks.

more marfa

apparently, marfa is the place to go if you like to take photos. i took a ton of them, but my friend linsey found some others who traveled to this little art oasis right around the same time we were there.

enjoy their photos:
Esther Havens Photography

(the teepee is definitely at el cosmico...the campground that we stayed in.)

Kelsey Foster Photography

Eric Ryan Anderson

jotting down some new sites / things that overlap

http://www.creativemyk.com/gallery.aspx?q=&c=4&s=

Logo Lounge trends

Collide magazine

from LogoPond...by "Oxide"

Venn Diagrams

Infographics. Kimberly, I think you would like this site.

Marfa, not Martha

Hehe. Everyone thinks I have a problem when I say Marfa. They think I'm trying to say Martha. Reminds me of when people say birfday instead of birthday or libary instead of library...

I have not had the time to edit any of my photos from the Marfa trip...but here they are. All 256 of them. You'll see photos of Balmorhea Springs pool, the Davis Mountains, art in Marfa and a some nice signage.

I especially loved these tables that Donald Judd designed (I keep thinking about how I could set my sewing machine up, work on a quilt, paint, design stuff on my computer--and still have room to eat dinner!):


My favorite part of the Chinati Foundation tour: 100 untitled works in mill aluminum


* Linsey...thanks for being a model...

Apple Pancakes, Goodbyes and Sheridan

I'll start with a summer update. I hate typing a lot so I'm gonna make it quick:

Mid-May - Geoffrey starts his new job

May 31 (actually a couple days before) - we're moved out of our Waco house. (and I miss this house a whole bunch!) Geoffrey moves into the cabin (see this post) and I move in with Lynn and Norm Hoffman. The Hoffmans are our dear friends in Waco who have been like family to us for the past three years. We miss them a whole bunch. I'm so thankful for their generosity...I lived with them for my first month in Waco and lived with them during my last month in Waco. One thing that we learned from the Hoffmans is where to eat. They introduced us to many new restaurants during our time in Waco (some not in Waco. Like here and here and definitely here). One of the highlights of staying with the Hoffmans this summer is the night that Lynn and I made the Apple Pancake from The Original Pancake House. Lynn and Norm introduced Geoffrey and I to this pancake one weekend while we were in Dallas and it MAY be the best thing that I've ever put in my mouth. We were so proud of ourselves for recreating this pancake. We ate the whole thing for dinner with ham and I believe we even had dessert after that. Here's the recipe if you want it. Our masterpiece:


Mid-June - went to HS camp with the youth group (see this video). Had a great time getting to know the youth group.

June 28 - Geoffrey and I have been married for 2 years! Woohoo. We went to Dallas the weekend before our anniversary. There was an adventure that included riding the DART and walking about a mile to eat a nice dinner at P.F. Changs.

End of June - last day at the Chamber. It was really hard to leave. While I consider that this job was extremely challenging and a very unhappy place at times, I do think that I learned A TON. I developed a thicker skin and learned how to work with people. I also fell in love with Virginia Ferguson. We started working on the same day (June 11, 2007) and I do believe that God placed her in my life (no doubt). I miss her so much. I miss our Friday morning coffee runs (okay Scot, I miss you being there, too). Scot Sanders and Alexis Weaver and Jennifer Peel are people that I wish that I could work with here at Mobberly. Do you think you could move to Longview...puhlease? It was hard to say goodbye to Waco...

July 1 - Hello Longview! Living apart from Geoffrey for a month = way hard. Everyone has been so welcoming and friendly and loving to the two of us. Living in Longview again is weird. It's not like it was growing up. Better? No, different. We love it so far. I'll have to tell you about my new friend Naseem in another post.

Mid-July - Geoffrey and I traveled to Sheridan, Wyoming with the Mobberly youth group. This was a wonderful experience. The youth at Mobberly are really fun and nice and eager to get to know us. Highlights of the trip: sharing with all the girls how Geoffrey and I fell in love, reconnecting with my friend Molly Bearden (had not seen her in seven years) and chasing cows off the road on the way up the mountain to look at the stars with her, seeing almost 100 people trust in Jesus at the Sheridan Rodeo, visiting Porcupine Falls on the last day and celebrating Geoffrey's birthday in Denver with Matt and Vasha.

This ran in front of our van on the way to Porcupine Falls
Please click here for more Wyoming photos. See if you can find our Christmas card picture in there.

End of July - Started my new job as Admin. Assistant at Mobberly BC. Geoffrey and I work about 300 yards apart for each other...hehe. It has been a great experience so far. I've been making some new work friends. My boss is really nice. I'm going to do another post on the job sometime soon.

Note: Geoffrey and I are starting a new blog to keep you updated on our lives in ministry at Mobberly. We aren't ready to do this quite yet, but stay tuned...it's going to be awesome.

FYI

A blog post is coming. get ready.

Oh yeah..I'm either officially blog popular in Asia OR people are leaving annoying notes on my blog. So long...I added some security today and I'm thinking this is going to stop. (fingers crossed)

Possible upcoming topics: (comment for the one you want first)
Photos from this summer
My new job
Hotel signage
An upcoming trip to Marfa, Texas
I heart my IPhone
The Droid commercials are terrible
I want to do another triathlon and I need to work out
Cabin Life
Debt Free in 2011
I want a house

Threadless

My friend Linsey Metcalf is in a contest to get her t-shirt design printed. If she wins, the money will go toward her upcoming mission trip to the Dominican Republic. So I'd like to encourage you to take a few minutes, sign up on Threadless.com and vote for her t-shirt design.

I love Linsey and I also love the Dominican Republic. This is a great cause to support!Vote for Toby Now.

Cabin

Thought you might want to see our temporary Longview living quarters. God bless the Reeves family for letting us stay there for a little while.

Pie charts and new loves

Found this guy while searching for pie charts that have been turned into cool illustrations. I enjoyed seeing his pie chart illustration and the cake that was created to go with it. Great idea.

Additionally, I found this blog. It is an art therapist's blog and I am quite fascinated!

Other things I'm going to spend more time looking at later:
Outlaw Design Blog
Paper Leaf Design Studio
Letterheady - vintage letterhead designs. yessss.

New topic.

Geoffrey and I found a house that we really like. (Right down from Adrienne's parents' neighborhood) We were thinking it might be something that we could think about buying...until I got online and realized that it's on 39 acres and it's 350k. Figures. While it needs some work, I really love the windows in the kitchen and built in bookshelves in the living room. It also has really old, gigantic trees in the yard.

The Lord will provide a house for us that we like, I just think our timing is a little off right now.

Just to dream a little...here are some things I would love to have in a house: (which I think is pretty much what a lot of people want...pretty generic)
- hardwood floors (but we could do this ourselves over time)
- built ins, interesting features (our Waco rent house had bookshelves, a china cabinet and a phone nook)
- good closets
- a garage that doesn't face the street
- trees
- i like older homes but don't want to buy one that will require a complete remodel

Alright, enough dreaming for now.

p.s. Youth camp was awesome. It was great to see some teenagers get excited about following Jesus.

Camp!

Welp, I leave in the morning to go to high school camp with Mobberly BC. We're going to Windermere in Roach, Missouri. Haha...Roach. Hope that doesn't mean that I will be seeing lots of those while I'm there. I bought sunglasses and candy necklaces and stickers for my HS girls group I'll be leading -- this is so that they will think i'm cool...

This guy named Pat Cammarata will be speaking to the students this week and Sarah Reeves will be leading worship.

I got a job. More to come!

So, I'll see you guys next week!

Work in progress...

www.whatsthejillio.squarespace.com

next step: buy my own domain name. not telling because i'm afraid someone will steal it. you could probably figure it out if you take away the words that start with s from the above address.

love it or hate it or have any ideas?

like this website.

been thinking about doing a portfolio site. like the simplicity of this one. thanks again, steven heller, for your daily heller blog. also, i saw you on milton glaser: to inform and delight the other day. felt like we were buddies. thanks to mr. patrick pollei for recommending the movie.

do you know who milton glaser is? do you have a t-shirt that says i heart ny? he's responsible.

oh yeah, i need a job. in longview. please?

Bucket List Update

1. Zeb's (fried jalapenos) complete
2. Double R's burgers
3. Cameron Park Zoo complete
4. Waco Mammoth Site (haven't been yet)
5. Art Center Waco (yup, haven't been there either, wow...that's embarrassing)
6. Lake Waco Wetlands (yeah, I've just seen pictures)
7. Jump off the cliffs at Lake Whitney (yeah!)
8. George's complete
9. Mountain biking in Cameron and at Lake Waco (this is Geoffrey's addition, not mine) complete
10. Coco's Shaved Ice complete
11. The slide at Lions Park complete...they aren't opening the slide anymore!
12. Gut Pack at Vitek's
13. Churro's at Altos de Jalisco in Hewitt - complete
14. Baylor Baseball game complete
15. Bangkok Royal complete
16. Swim in the Brazos again (yeah right...Geoffrey can do this by himself)
17. See Blake Adams do another show at Common Grounds (someone tell him) and enjoy a Cowboy Coffee
18. Fro Yo on LaSalle (probably will do this multiple times between now and the end of June)
complete complete complete complete (and will be getting more!)


What would you add or subtract? Surely you guys have an opinion.

LOST celebrations and bad spelling

If you aren't a LOST fan, this post will either be really boring for you or you'll think I'm crazy.

This week Geoffrey and I celebrated the show LOST with our faithful watching crew. It was the last time that all of us will ever be together.

First of all, Melaina's FOTO FRIDAY (of which I am a huge fan) has the best photo from the celebration. The smoke monster is strangling Sawyer(Melaina) as he tries to enjoy his fish biscuit. A bunch of seasons all in one photo. Sawyer also likes this?

We made Dharma packaging for all of our food (thanks Adrienne for the initial idea. Melaina also made Dharma mac and cheese (much better than regular mac and cheese out of the box...).

All of the food was island themed. Geoffrey and I both felt like we were back in the Dominican eating at the resort buffet. Thanks to the ladies at the Proctor street house for providing most of the meal.

Melaina made fish biscuits. (the most awesome part)

I dressed up like Crazy Claire (a really bad impression, but pretty fun) and Tihara was the smoke monster.

The Dharma packaging would not be complete without a creepy bar code on the back. Hope we make it through the weekend...

I made my second attempt at creating an all-natural typeface a few weekends ago. I made this for my friend Linsey only to realize about 15 minutes after I took the photos that I spelled her name wrong. I just got so excited about the rock for the bowl of the D. Tee hee.

Fascinated by the Flash Mob idea

Over the past semester, I've been introduced to the idea of the flash mob. I'm quite fascinated by it.

Here's an intriguing history courtesy of Wikipedia.


It started with Kyle Dunn. He showed us a video one Sunday morning featuring a surprise for Oprah.


And then there is a tribute to the Sound of Music...


More recently (April 2010), Baylor University had a little tribute to MJ


And if you like Glee, you will love this.


A little different, but awesome!

Anyways, I want to do this...or be a part of something like this. How fun!

You have any fun ones to share?