work—faith in... signage

another big project we're working on is the "faith in..." campaign. the idea is that this campaign will eventually go nationwide, but we're starting off in cleveland, and that's where my piece of this puzzle comes in. 
part one of my job was to design window clings that reflect the theme. the top image is the layout i came up with for the windows on the east end of the building, and then an image of what this might look like in place.
the second piece of this was to design sets of street banners (using the same, or similar, images that we're using as part of the ucc theme banners in the store), and a mock-up of the 20 foot wide banner that will be hung on the side of the building. 
it's fun to be working on something so big and visible to so many people, but all of this has a deadline of being hung/implemented by the end of may, so i've been working like crazy trying to get everything done (things have to be to the printer(s) next week!)

work—the store identity

we've got a lot of big, exciting projects coming along at work right now. one of the projects i've been pulled in to work on is to re-brand our store (formerly known as "the book nook"). the biggest point marketing wanted to emphasize was that we're not just selling books anymore, and we want people to think of this as the place to shop for UCC "stuff".

to that end, i designed the logo above using words and icons that highlight the kinds of things that will be available for purchase. below that is an example of the store signage, which will focus on categories of items, and then we'll have two "generic" store banners with icons and the logo.

the marketing team is still working on pinning down the size for the banners and signage, but my designs were shared with the group, and the direction was basically approved. *insert huge sigh of relief here.*

the store banners will be hung on tension rods so that they can easily be turned around when the store isn't open for business. this is an example of how i designed the back sides of the banners using established UCC images and themes, with a design that compliments the store identity.

re-decorating

i've been thinking about doing some new artwork for the frames that will move to sam's new room. the original stuff i put up was done so long ago that it doesn't really reflect him much, and i was thinking that some trucks might be the perfect thing for my vehicle obsessed child.
i had some doodles in my sketchbook that i thought i could translate into something decent. and now i've got more than a dozen to work with (and about five frames to fill). i'm not precisely sure what i've got in mind, but (as everything in our house) it's a work in progress. and i'm pretty sure he'll be happy with it, for the time being at least.
though perhaps i should incorporate some space ships...


i also think i need to come up with some kind of decoration to make the girl's room special for her. i have some thoughts, but nothing concrete yet.


in other news, i had my 24 week visit to the doctor on friday and the report was that so far, so good with the little bean. i'm always glad to hear that everything is alright, and that i'm not just getting beat up from the inside for nothing. this kid is definitely related to "ninja", and apparently is a bit of a night owl as well.

puzzled

our new puzzles have arrived and sam is busily at work building and dismantling them.
it's interesting to see him put them together. half the time he looks as though he's not even thinking about it, and other times he's clearly trying to work out where something belongs, or what orientation it needs to be in. i wasn't sure how he'd do with the 24 piece puzzles, but he breezed through them both pretty quickly.
he's definitely starting to remind me of his cousin tyler, who apparently used to sit with a couple of puzzles dumped in front of him, and would put together three or four at once. he's still one of the best puzzlers i know.
in any case, i'm going to encourage this willingness to puzzle away as best i can (and not just because it tends to be a wonderfully QUIET activity—no imaginary swords or bad guys involved)!

lost and found

i was attempting to clear some stuff off the camera's memory card and found these little gems from last summer. enjoy!

a little update

i realize it's been a while since i've done any kind of sam update, so i thought i'd post a few things about what sam's up to these days:
sam's imagination is really taking off these days—literally. at dinner time his fork is a rocket, when we go somewhere in mike's truck it's our spaceship, even the plastic eggs full of easter candy were blasting off. in fact, one night when he was on the potty before bedtime, i heard him remark to daddy that "my penis looks like a rocketship!"
he comes up with lots of scenarios involving oliver track (his imaginary friend. don't try to call him oliver, he's "oliver TRACK") and oliver track's parents (mostly oliver's daddy, who happens to work with mike and drive a pickup truck and also be named mike).
two weeks ago we took a speedboat to europe, blasted off in a spaceship, and drove a garbage truck to the recycle center all at the playground. i've never had so many adventures in the space of an hour before.


he enjoys a good dose of silly. yesterday at bedtime he put on his pull-up...and one on his head, and one on each of my wrists. he thought this was HILARIOUS. it was pretty funny.


sam loves to do puzzles, particularly his 12 piece truck puzzles. at this point, we don't think he actually has to think very hard to put them together, we're pretty sure that he's got them memorized. i recently ordered some more because sam will happily spend 20-30 minutes putting them together, ripping them apart, and putting them together again (this is currently the best activity during a church service—as long as we can keep track of the pieces.)


sam loves poems. we are currently working our way through where the sidewalk ends, but he also enjoys a child's garden of verses and other poetry.


sam is currently obsessed with:
a) john denver. he will sing thank god i'm a country boy, take me home, country roads, and rocky mountain high at the drop of a hat, and requests sunshine on my shoulders at bedtime. it may not be the most trendy choice of music, but it sure is darn cute.
b) star wars. so far he's seen episodes 4 and 6, and likes to relate the plot to me in detail. he also likes to "bew" (shoot) bad guy spaceships (again with the spaceships) and use his lightsabers to kill the bad guys that seem to be lurking around every corner.
c) his chapstick. he has his own mint flavored chapstick that he applies frequently (and proceeds to lick off right away). 
d) polishing off the rest of his easter candy. and i will be overjoyed when it's finally gone.


he is still quite the chatterbox (assuming he's not asleep or being shy) and frequently has me cracking up with his commentary. for example, a couple of weeks ago he was spinning around in the living room, and when he stopped, he said, "whew! it's dizzy in here!"


honestly, i wish i could hire a camera crew to document these days, because there's no way i'm going to be able to remember all of his awesomeness at this age. and i frequently feel badly for everyone else who doesn't get to be part of daily experience that is being sam's mom. bottom line: despite the fact that he has days where he pees on the floor (twice), or throws a fit because he didn't get to wear the blue pants, i think my kid rocks.

(photo above: sam eating pizza and driving his "transport" aka his cup)

making—painted bead necklace

inspired by this pin on pinterest, i picked up some wood beads and bright springy paints and had a go at painting beads. i painted a lot (and am wishing i'd gotten a few more colors), but am now having fun mixing and matching my beads on the chain depending on my outfit. sam helped choose today's combination.

there's a tutorial here, if you need one, but it's not exactly rocket science—buy wood beads, buy some acrylic paints, paint the beads, string them on a chain (or cord of some kind), and you're all set with a fun new accessory.

how we know it's really spring

they've opened up the library playground for 2012! excitement abounds.

egg painting

sam and i made a stop at the craft store the other day and picked up this little painting project (and one for me too—more on that one later). we actually got two eggs to paint, but sam kind of lost steam after the first one. i thought he did a nice job though, and hopefully he'll be interested in dying a few eggs in a day or so.

sam goes to the movies

(sam modeling his 3-D glasses,

which we let him keep rather than recycle as a souvenir of the day)

i'm a little slow on posting this, but last sunday sam saw his first movie in the theatre. he got some movie money from aunt missy, uncle jeremy, oscar and alice to go see "the lorax", so we fortified ourselves for the adventure (who knows what you'll get when you put sam in a large, dark, previously unknown space and try to get him to sit still for two hours) and embarked shortly after naptime.

sam was pretty excited to be going to the theatre (i admit, we hyped it up a little—but even for us going to the movies at the theatre is a rare treat), and even more excited about a box of popcorn bigger than his head (i think it was a medium) and a very large box of mike & ikes (both of which he shared with daddy).

everything went surprisingly well. sam happily munched away for most of the movie and had zero potty accidents (that was my greatest fear). i was a little worried that we wouldn't be able to convince him to keep the 3-D glasses on (i didn't realize we were seeing it in 3-D when we bought the tickets), but he seemed to get the idea and warm up to them eventually (also, did you know that they make them kid-size? i totally didn't. i don't know why i didn't think of that, but i was so surprised and glad that they do). the only fidgeting happened near the end of the story (after the popcorn and candy were gone), and i'll admit even i was getting a bit antsy by then (it's hard to sit still and be quiet for that long! but i'm mostly attributing it to worries that sam's wiggliness was about the errupt into full-on attempts to run through the aisles). of course, when it was time to leave sam was not to be budged. we stayed until the credits were over, and even then he was not convinced that we should be going home.

my favorite part of the experience: watching sam groove to the musical scenes (i REALLY wish i had video of that! it was adorable on top of cute, with a side of awesome).

it will probably be a while before we have another movie-in-the-theatre excursion with the boy, but it was really fun (thanks henderson-joneses!). in case you're wondering, i think sam enjoyed the movie, but his most enthusiastic comment was "more theatre popcorn".