Wow! What an awesome worship experience on Sunday!

I’m on the dance ministry team at my church, Vineyard of Gainesville and we have been practicing a dance to the song called “We Will Dance” by David Ruis. It’s a beautiful son of celebration … one that makes you want to jump up and down for joy, shout to the Lord and sing praises to the heavens! Carol (my Gville mom – Andy’s mom) and I are both on the team together with several other woman. It was a blast! Read the rest of this entry »

Today Andy and I celebrate our 1 year anniversary…. It’s hard to believe that a whole year has already gone by that Andy and I have been married… we made it!

It seems like not that long ago we were waiting with anticipation for that day to come, planning every detail and for everything we had planned to finally come to be.   Reflecting back, it was beautiful day full of hope and promise; full of love and excitement, surrounded by friends and family – all those whom we love!   Right before I walked down the isle, my chiropractor had to adjust me b/c of a stomach ache that had suddenly come on.   I remember that it had been smokey because of fires to the north – but God cleared the smoke that day to reveal a perfectly blue sky.  It was a fairy tale dream come true with everything we had imagined including, all my friends and family standing with me, my dad walking me down the isle with a huge grin on his face, wonderful music,  our dog as ring-bearer, beautifully decorated horse-drawn carriage and most importantly a handsome man by my side!  What more could a woman ask for!

The first year has been a challenge getting used to living together and learning what it means to be married.   We’ve certainly had our ups and downs…I would be lying to say everything has been “perfect”.  Each time someone would ask me “how’s married life”, my response was much the same “good and challenging”.  Over 30 years of each of us living on our own – leading very independent lives meant there was much we had to learn, change, compromise on.  It’s been a great journey!

Thank you to each and every one of you who have helped us through the challenges of the first year, assuring us that most of what we were experiencing is indeed “normal”, praying with us when we needed guidance and just being there.  We’re looking forward to a great 2nd year and are excited about the journey ahead.

Today we’re celebrating simply by returning to Steve’s Cafe, now called Tapas, to enjoy a nice meal just the 2 of us.  We thought it only fitting since 1) it’s a place we rarely visit (hard to find in Gainesville) and 2) it was the same place we held our reception.   In June, we’re planning a bigger to-do by adding on time after the family reunion in TN to visit our cabin (well not “ours” – but we wish it was) in Blue Ridge.  We’re very excited to be able to return to such a beautiful place in the mountains and can’t wait for that vacation to come!

On Friday, February 15th, we celebrated the 2008 Annual ADDY Awards in Gainesville, Florida with the Jazzin ADDYs. Every year advertising professionals in Gainesville show off their best work at a Gala event and wait for their names to be called as the recipient of a Silver or Gold ADDY award.

Every year we have a theme for our event and this year we stepped back to the 1920s Andy and I, dressed to the nines – him in a black shirt and white tie (very gangster like) and me in my feather headband, boa and sexy black dress …

With that – the ADDYs started with finding your gangster names – so happens ours was Bonnie and Clyde – we then took a walk through the “alley-way” to view the artwork hung on the “walls” and finally entered into the “speak-easy” where we enjoyed a drink and a little bit of jazz. The awards ceremony started an old-fashioned silent movie filmed in Sepia tone….about some gangsters trying to steel the ADDYs! And the next thing we knew, they were running through the “club”. They passed themselves off to the bouncers as the hosts of the show and ran up on stage to begin things.

We all watched the screen and waited eagerly for our names to be called – everyone wants to walk out with an ADDY in their hand! When they called “Blu Dove Designs” I actually had to ask Andy – did they just call my name? I was surprised. Later they called our names again and again — and at the end we walked away with 6 ADDY Awards! 2 for web site design (1 that John worked on with me); 2 for logo design (1 that John created), 1 for stationary design and 1 for collateral campaign design.

I feel, with these ADDYs, I have finally won my place in Gainesville as a top design
company; that Blu Dove Designs has finally made it! It’s such an tremendous accomplishment and am grateful for all the support I’ve gotten. I thank the people who came to me and have entrusted me with creating their image – who gave me the opportunity to create the artwork that won. I thank John for all of his help with our projects and I thank God who gave me my talents – without which I would not be here.

All of these awards will go on to the District competition which is all of the state of Florida and the Caribbean. And after that comes Nationals if they place high enough – wouldn’t that be an awesome accomplishment for Blu Dove Designs — to win at District and go to Nationals!?

So What is an ADDY? What’s the Big Deal Anyway?
They are considered the Emmy’s or the Oscars of the Advertising world…especially if your entry goes all the way to National competition!

With over 60,000 entries annually, the ADDY® Awards are the world’s largest and arguably toughest advertising competition. The ADDY® Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from anywhere in the world. These awards honor the best in local advertising and cultivate the highest creative standards in the industry.

The American Advertising Federation, a not-for-profit industry association conducts the ADDY® Awards through its 200 member advertising clubs and 15 districts. It is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry.  Local entries are judged by a distinguished panel of advertising creatives from outside our market. Local winners proceed to the District and, potentially, to National competitions.

Without shining examples, we cannot fully grasp what advertising excellence really is. That’s why AdFed holds the Annual Gainesville ADDY Awards Banquet every February, where the awards are given out.

For more information, visit:
http://4aaf.com/awards_addys.cfm
http://www.aaf.org/default.asp?id=27

My friend Carey is having her first child this April and I offered to throw her a baby shower at the house….my first baby shower. Little did I know that at the same time I should be planning a shower for her, that I would have to be building a shelter for our new horse, Irish… so needless to say it was a little bit of a crazy month. Irish arrived the weekend before (January 27th) — the baby shower was on February 3rd! Despite that my planning didn’t actually fully commence until 1 weeks before the event (I had ideas – just hadn’t executed them), everything went over tremendously … with the help of Carey’s friend, Cindy…and a few wonderful web sites!

I made my first diaper cake — while Andy studied calculus I rolled 58 diapers for a 3 layer cake! After rolling them, you assemble them into layers, stack the layers and then decorate the cake with cute little baby stuff — pacifiers, teething rings, wash cloths — a totally practical gift for my totally practical friend.

Cindy helped with the game that I found online — She picked up some plain bibs and onesies and then we had everyone at the party decorate them with fabric markers and puff paint. The mommy-to-be got to pick out her favorite one and that girl won a prize. It was so much fun! And Carey loved the idea!

So the first baby shower I threw was actually successful — not that I’m ready to do this for a living — though it WAS fun having everyone over to the house to help prepare Carey for her new journey as a mommy!

Thank you Carey for letting me do that for you….it was a joy to be a part of celebrating the anticipation of Jack’s arrival!

It’s been since January 29th that I’ve posted anything here — almost 1 entire month. To say things have been busy would be an understatement for sure.  What have I / we been up to….?

Friend’s Baby Shower
2008 ADDY Awards
Wings of Freedom Tour
Business Proposals
Riding Irish
Finding time to relax – not very easy to do

I figure I’ll write a few separate posts b/c there is a lot to say on each topic. Thank you to all of my friends and family who have been so patient with me and my crazy schedule. So check out the various posts to see what’s been going on and please do check out the photo gallery for some new photos!