work is not a job

Tonight while I am supposed to be completing sketches that are due tomorrow morning I stumbled upon workisnotajob.com and I it kinda changed my life a lil bit. I am so inspired by her perspective on life and the creative process.

This semester has been challenging in the creative department. I am...well simply, uninspired. So when this caught my eye I couldn't resist sharing. More often than not, our planners are filled with appointments and deadlines...but what are our actual lives filled with? Are we defining ourselves by the "stuff" filling our lives or by what truly makes us thrive? It is easy to get busy and see all the things on our to-do list and get bogged down...but I am doing my best to look at each deadline as an opportunity not a burden.

Soooo anyways...this is just my way of transferring some happy thoughts into the world. I hope that you find some inspiration and pass it along.

And I would recommend following them on twitter. Then you get to see happy reminders like this in the midst of another Manic Monday:

2010: A year in review

This year has been a long 52 weeks. Each week seemed busier than the last. There was not a lot of time for sleep (except when I slept through my alarm and was late to class/work) Looking back overall it was a pretty good year. Worked hard, learned a lot and had some fun mixed in there too. Looking forward to all that is in store for 2011!

January 1, 2010:

I spent last New Year's Eve with my wonderful

friends Stephanie and Chris in Hawaii!

January 8, 2010:

Began my office as Public Relations Chair for ZTA

February 6, 2010:

Leah and I found out that our video won

the Forever LSU Student Video Contest

March 4, 2010:

ZTA Step Team won 3rd place

March 10, 2010:

Spontaneous trip to see John Mayer in NOLA

June 5, 2010:

Sister got married!

June 7, 2010:

Started my first real job as a graphic

designer for the Forever LSU Campaign

July 14, 2010:

Repelled down a 200 foot cliff

August 23, 2010:

Began my second real job working as the Art Director for the LSU Foundation

September 23, 2010:

Became a GRAND-Big and Auntie! My Zeta Family is wonderful :)

November 7, 2010:

Accepted position of Vice President of Recruitment for ZTA

(these are all of my binders that I received when I was selected for this job!)

December 15, 2010:

Got lost and took a FERRY over the river and

through the woods to Lauren's Grandmothers house I go!

December 31, 2010:

Celebrated the New Year with home cooking,

ice skating, fireworks and yahtzee.

#4 Dinner Party

Hostest With the Mostess

The next item on my list was to plan and prepare a dinner party for my friends and family. Due to the fact that I don't have a kitchen when I am at school, my knowledge of cooking is very limited. New Year's Eve sounded like a good night to have this little gathering. Everything turned out really great (Matthew had three plates...so I guess it was good?) I made my famous BBQ Chicken, green bean bundles, Nani's twice baked potatoes and homemade bread.

A few things I learned:

- It takes a really long time to cook an entire meal! At our house we have double ovens and I had something in each oven at all times for hours!

- Then there is the quandary of how to keep everything hot for when your guests arrive. Timing is everything.

- Always have extra. I made enough food for what I estimated was 12 hungry people, but I was really only expecting 9. At the end of the night all of the platters were completely empty! (But I suppose that means everyone liked it! ha)

- "Ideally, if you serve a fruit salad, you probably shouldn't serve a apple pie." — Lenae M. Scott, Founder of the Lenae M. Scott School of Hospitality

- "Cookies aren't an acceptable dessert for a dinner party." — Lenae M. Scott

Santa brought all of the girls matching aprons :)

Wonderful friends to celebrate!

(Yummy)

#3 Sista Date

When we were in high school we would occasionally go to the local paint-your-own-pottery place, Arts on Fire to spend some quality sister time together. Then when Leigh Anne went to college we continued the tradition when she would come home for holidays. So it seemed only fitting that when she and Matt came home for Christmas that we stick to tradition.

Leigh Anne painted a Christmas Light-shaped candy dish and I painted a tall vase that I thought looked cool. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and I think they turned out to be pretty cool!

#2 sitting in the woods (aka hunting?)

Thus far I have failed to accomplish any more milestones on my list of 21 Things to do before my 21st Birthday. So now that I have "free time" I feel like I should knock a few things off that list. One of those was going "hunting" with my dad and brother.

Chad asked me to go with him over thanksgiving break but I was too swamped with school. When he asked me to go again over Christmas I didn't really have a good excuse. So we suited up (head-to-toe) in camouflage and an awesome pink hat (compliments of my hunting guide) and we were ready to go! He taught me how to shoot, and I was actually pretty good at it!! ha.

(The top 4 shots...aka ones closest to the center...are mine. Chad missed his target and hit mine. ha.)

We climbed up into the stand and started hunting. After about 20 minutes I realized that hunting is far less exciting when there is nothing to actually hunt. Then Chad talked me into going the next day because "Bubba always sees deer at this stand. It will be a GREAT day to see deer!" You sure about that? hmm...

At the end of the day it was fun to hang out with the boys, and now I have obtained a greater appreciation for all the hard "work" that Dad and Chad put into bringing home that good meat ;)

Missing In Action

"I know this dream I'm chasing very well might go and be the death of me." — Ben Rector

Ben said it perfectly. I believe that this perfectly sums up this season of life for me. Crazy. Busy. Intense. OUT. OF. CONTROL. But it is the life I love and who knows . . . maybe it will kill me, but I think it's worth it ;)

So, to the few people out there in the world that actually care about the minute details of my life . . . I apologize for my lack of posting over the last few weeks. My life has been . . . busy to say the least. I will do my best to give you a little recap.

Fall Break October 21-24

This weekend was marvelous. Just marvelous! I started off the weekend with a relaxing drive to Shreveport on Wednesday night. Sometimes this drive can be draining and lonely, but on this occasion it was especially enjoyable. I rediscovered a playlist on my iPod that perfectly suited my mood. It was great to have four hours of solitude to clear my head. I spent Wednesday night at home hanging out with my puppy and catching up with the family.

The next morning I SLEPT LATE! This is a very rare occurrence in my life these days, so it was much appreciated. After a restful sleep I hit the road again to spend a few days with my sister and her husband. It had been several months since we had spent one-on-one sister time and it was exactly what we both needed. I was able to see her house (with furniture in it this time!) and it was so cute! She is such a perfect little housewife. We went shopping, made glittered pumpkins for her fall table and ate LOTS of yummy food.

Next stop: House of Blues for the Ben Rector concert with my long-time friend, Khristen. The concert was wonderful in every way and I even discovered some new music! Jillian Edwards was the opening. . . opening artist and she is incredible. I CANNOT stop listening to her album. Spent the night with Khristen's family and then headed back to Shreveport to spend a little more time with my family. It was a perfect weekend :)

EC Elections

My beautiful roommate, Gina, and I after the last round of Recruitment 2010.

The next major focus of my life for the last month has been preparing for officer elections for the Executive Council for Zeta Tau Alpha. I have been selected as the next Vice President of Recruitment and Membership for my chapter! I spent almost three weeks slaving over my 13 page application and preparing for my interview and I am very excited to get to work! I will be responsible for planning every aspect of Spring and Fall Recruitment and Recruitment workshop.

This is a very big position . . . and honestly I have NO clue what I am getting myself into . . . but at the same time I am looking forward to tackling the challenges ahead. I think that this position will afford me many opportunities to grow as an individual and as a leader; and I am looking forward to see where this next year will lead me. I am buckled in and ready for the ride!

Cornerstone

SPOILER ALERT!! If you are directly related to me...PLEASE don't look at the digital edition! I have hard copies and want you to see the real version first :) so please ignore the following:

Open publication - Free publishing - More cornerstone

The publication I have been working on all semester at my internship is finally completed! It was very surreal to actually see it in print. I have been working on this project for months and months and it was a great feeling of accomplishment to hold it in my hands and know that I designed the entire thing — cover to cover.

Portfolio

The final aspect that has consumed my life is school. This week has been especially out of control. We had a project due every day this week AND our junior portfolio is due tomorrow. It has been a week of very little sleep but it is all worth it because I am very happy with the outcome of all my projects. This semester has been challenging for me. I have been stretched to the max and significantly uninspired with my work. This week I created some of my best work and I no longer feel like an EPIC fail this semester. It was such a relief to finally put together work that I am proud to put in my portfolio!

NoCOFFEE November

On a completely separate note . . . I have embarked upon noCOFFEE November. I have now made it 12 FULL days without ANY coffee! And if you only knew how much of a challenge this is...you would be impressed :) I have created this challenge for my self for several reasons:

1. The amount of caffeine I consume on a regular basis shouldn't be legal.

2. It is ABSURD how expensive coffee is. I am trying to save money and see how much of a difference it makes at the end of the month. (DAD: this one is juuuuust for you! :) haha)

3. I genuinely feel better when I drink less coffee and more water.

4. I like a challenge ;)

Well I suppose that about covers it! I will do my best not to fall off the face of the plant again any time soon!

Lenae M. Scott School of Hospitality

This year my parents both hit the milestone of turning 50 so I had the grand idea to throw them a little party. In August I pitched the idea to Leigh Anne and she ran with it. I knew she would do a great job at figuring out all of the details while I was in school. When we both arrived in Shreveport around 4:30 on the day of the party, we were not entirely sure how everything was going to come together. But somehow or another we pulled it off!

1. We got in town approximately 2 and a half hours before the guests were scheduled to arrive. Quite a short time frame to get everything together. I unloaded my car while waiting for Matt and Leigh Anne to arrive. Once we got everything set up at the church we headed out to pick up balloons while the boys went to pick up the taco meat, chips and salsa.

This is where it got interesting. It is now 30 minutes before the party and we are literally driving about a mile down the street. We are about to pull into the parking lot when I see a big...RED...toyota tundra pull up behind us. Me: "Leigh Anne...Dad just pulled up behind us." (insert 15 minutes of freaking out while in party city) Text from Matt: "Negative sighting. Pops is at the house. I repeat, Pops is at the house. I have a location confirmation from cdseagles. Subject was out running at the time of sighting." (insert collective sigh of relief!)

2. This segment of the evening required some intense skill: getting my dad out of the car...and actually to the party. For this task we enlisted Mrs. Linda and Mrs. Mary along with their husbands. We knew it would be pretty easy to get mom to the church: "We need to go pick up some supplies that the middle schoolers collected for our mission trip to Romania." But the catch is Dad need to be there too..."But they are in bags and will be really heavy." Success.

Let's just say they were shocked. Dad thought this was something Mom had cooked up but when he saw her reaction (plastered against the wall) he realized that it was for her too.

3. My friend Leah helped me make the cakes for the party. They turned out looking great and tasted pretty good too! We lucked out with having the perfect amount of cake.

4. We had two sombreros that Chad smuggled out of the house for a "school project" and considered using them as decoration...but then we had the genius idea to make our parents wear them. They were pretty good sports ;)

5. My mom's friends said it perfectly when she told Leigh Anne and I that we had clearly graduated from the Lenae M. Scott School of Hospitality. Mom trained us well! Everything went off without a hitch. I was very exhausted by the end of the party but I felt very grown up all at the same time. And I do believe that Mom has never been happier!