May Love List

I know there are still a few days left in April, but I am WAY too excited for May to hold on my May Love List!! There are a few MAJOR things happening this month...

• My second niece is due this month—so excited to meet her!!
• We're moving on Sunday the 2nd
• Mother's day is in May—I have the best momma in the world
• My littlest sisser is visiting
• Going to an ex-high school teacher's concert here in Chicago
• Goodbye Coastline's first concert the 17th
• A&J are getting married (they coined the term "That's So City")
• May flowers—April showers bring them ya know

May is going to be a good month! I'm excited.

NICE Assignment: Pick 5 For the Environment

This week's NICE Assignment from Melissa of Operation NICE, is to Pick 5 for the Environment, in honor of Earth Week.

Yesterday was Earth Day, did you do anything special? I didn't...but I like to think that I live a pretty "Earth friendly" life without even trying. For example, I take public transportation everyday, don't leave extra lights on, I use a water bottle instead of cups, I use scrap paper for my to-do lists and then recycle it afterward, and I eat meat that was raised on the family farm or purchased at a 4-H fair. But, there is always room for improvement.

Anyway, on to my Pick 5, which is a campaign the EPA is sponsoring to celebrate Earth Day/Week. They have lot's of ideas and tips for saving the Earth and ask that you pledge to do five of them. I've picked my five, what will your be?

• Reduce: Cut back on the amount of 'stuff' that could later end up as waste. 
• Dispose of solid and liquid wastes and medications safely
• Use only the water you need, and reuse when possible (I tend to leave the water running while brushing my teeth and while doing the dishes, I pledge to stop doing this)
• Save Energy at home (our apartment gets pretty warm, we've been leaving the ceiling fan all day, I'm going turn it off and open a couple extra windows)
• Reuse: Upcycle! Take something that is disposable and transform it into something (My BFF was telling about a co-worker who makes lamps out of styrofoam cups, I probably won't do something so involved, but I'll think of something!)

On the Hunt

I'm on the hunt for a "so city" chair that will compliment our new Movie Sofa (check it out--we didn't end up getting the glass table, because we've decided to focus on one room at a time) The perfect chair will be modern in design to compliment the sofa and will bring color and personality into the room. I found a few different chairs at Pier 1 Imports, but I'm still looking.

I'm going to have to commit to it for a few years, so I want to make sure I'm in love with it. I don't want another area rug episode...to fill you in, hubs and I bought an area rug last September, not a SUPER expensive one, but it wasn't cheap either. He's a little upset, because I'm already sick of the colors/pattern and we haven't even had it a full year.

So far I have three options, all within my budget. I like each for a different reason and right now, I'd say I like them all equally. What do ya think? Have you seen a cool chair somewhere? If so please share!

NICE Assignment: Call for Testimonials

So, I'm about 10 days late completing this assignment, but like they say "better late than never."

Last week's NICE Assignment was a call for testimonials. That means share a story about something nice someone did or said to you, big or small. I have two stories to share!

One thing about living in a city like Chicago, that isn't always enjoyable, is riding the bus or the 'L'. And that's what makes this first nice testimonial so wonderful. Last weekend, hubs and I were on our way to meet up with my parents, after transferring from the Brown Line to the Red Line, we were pleasantly surprised by an up beat train operator.

"This is a Red a Line train heading to 95th, making all stops. Including Sox 35th, White Sox stadium, US Cellular Field, also known as The Cell"

"Next stop Roosevelt—Museum Campus, walk to the Shedd, Field Museum and Adler Planetarium" 

He didn't really do much, other than happily announce the stops and at a couple stops he even added his own commentary, but it was enough to make both of us smile and enjoy our half hour ride on a crowed train.

On to my next testimonial. This weekend, I have a bridal shower to attend! I'm excited, because I love weddings, sometimes I think I should have been a wedding planner, I guess I still could, I'm only 23 after all. But I digress...back to my testimonial. Before I even went, I was having a hard time deciding on what to buy and even though I just got married last summer, I couldn't even remember what gifts I was most excited about, and sometimes once you pick something off the registry, you can't find it in the store, so to say the least I was a bit overwhelmed before even getting to Macy's.

So, I arrive at Macy's and located the in store registry printer, print the registry. While standing there looking over the registry and trying to remember what everything looked like online, because there were no photos on the print out, the nicest employee came up and asked if I wanted help. I said that I was just trying to find a shower gift, but hadn't really decided what I wanted to buy. She proceed to tell me what floor the items were on (which is very helpful when the Macy's your at is like 8 stories) and then walked me around the lower level and pointed out which sections the majority of items were in, made small talk, and made some suggestions for shower gift ideas. She really made the trip more enjoyable.

These two stories really show how it's the small things that can make someone's day a little bighter!

TOMS

A couple of weeks ago, while I was getting ready for work, I turned on the Today Show, well at least now I think it was the Today Show, but anyway...they were interviewing the founder of TOMS Shoes. For those of you who don't know, for every pair of shoes that is purchased, they give a pair to a needy child. Recently, to raise awareness about their cause they declared April 8th, "One Day Without Shoes" I was really inspired by this, especially hearing the story of how the business started and how young the people involved at the ground level were/are.
I'm for sure going to buy a pair...I just have to decide which ones I want. Maybe I'll get more than one pair, since it's for such a great cause! They have tons of fun designs to pick from, it'll be tough. Check out there website, to check out more great styles like the ones below!

Fun Filled Weekend

Due to some unfortunate events (my laptop charger giving out and coming down with a HORRIBLE case of the flu) it's been quite a few days since my last post. But I'm healthy and have a brand spankin' new charger, so I'm ready to go!

It was a pretty busy weekend for us. My parents and foster siblings, visited. It was so great to see them! We went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, The Children's Museum on Navy Pier, we showed them our new apartment, hung out at their hotel, and ate at some delicious restaurants! It was a busy couple of days.

Tim and I also, bought our couch over the weekend! We've decided not to buy the dining table right now. I plan on blogging a little bit more about that in another post.

While I was charger less, I missed a NICE Assignment :( I would make it up, but it was time sensitive. I probably half partcipated because I never wear shoes around the apartment, but I don't think that was the point. I do want to get a pair of TOMS though! I plan on blogging more about this too, so keep coming back and looking for it!

April Love List

Continuing in the tradition of the March Love List NICE Assignment, (check out my list here) I thought I'd make a Love List at the beginning of each month. So here is April's Love List.


Things I Love About April

• Easter! It's always been one of my favorite holidays. Though, I'm a little sad that I won't be spending it how I normally do, at my Grandpa and Grandma Brodbeck's
• Spring is officially here, no more worrying about waking up to snow
• My parents and foster siblings will be visiting for a weekend
• One more month until we move!
• Flip flop weather

NICE Assignment: Send a Postcard

This week's NICE Assignment from Melissa of Operation NICE was to send a postcard. I'll give myself an A+ for this one, I'm sending five. I chose to send mine to family. I think one recipient will be most surprised...I'm sending to a somewhat estranged family member, hopefully, it will bring a smile to their face!

This assignment was super easy (which I like) a nice break from the last couple, that I struggled with. I just used some postcards, I bought a couple years ago while in New York. And since there isn't a lot of room on a postcard, I didn't have a hard time with knowing what to say. Added bonus, sending postcards, was one of my goals I wrote about in an earlier post!

First Kiss

I have an idea for turning one of my old projects, from an image making class I took in college, into a book. I think it would make a pretty cool book and has the potential to have some really neat imagery. The initial project was a mini accordion booklet that had images and stories of people's first kisses. That's one of the original images below—a xerox transfer, scanned in a given color in Photoshop.

The complete idea for the book is still formulating (I just thought of this today, while avoiding my actual work) but the basic idea is exploring people's first kisses...in the movies and on TV first kisses are often romanticized and stereotypical ideas of what a first kiss should be like. When in real life, they're usually awkward, funny, embarrassing, or well I guess they can be romantic in real life too. 

Step one: collect lot's of stories about first kisses, the stories could be about the person's first kiss ever, their first kiss with a certain person, their first kiss as a wife or husband, as long as it's a "first kiss" of some sort, the story could be used.

Step two: sort through the stories and decide on which ones I'll use in the book. Also decide on what the image should be of i.e. a couch, door stoop, car, garden, church, etc

Step three: experiment with imagery, layouts and binding techniques, I've got some ideas, but not sure what I'll actually end up doing. This step can be happening through out steps two and three

Step four: create final images

Step five: put it all together

Mostly I'm going to create this book, to keep myself doing something creative, since my current job requires very little creativity. Additionally, it will add some pizazz to my portfolio and show that I can take initiative and create without being told too. It would be like a dream come true that it would like take off and become something cool that could get published and people would actually buy it, but I think that's just a dream...

Feel free to leave a first kiss story in the comments—but know that if you do, you're giving my the right to use it in my book :)