tomorrow...

By tomorrow afternoon I will be sitting on a sunny beach in Mexico. I work for possibly some of the most generous people on the planet. The entire office & spouses/family/friends are headed south for 5 days. Its almost hard to imagine not having to wear the goose down poofy coat for 5 days.

Of course what is a tropical vacation with out a little anxiety. Flying is not my most favorite thing in the world. I am much more of a pack up the car and drive there kind of girl. Driving is exciting, you get to see everything along the way. Stop and get out and you can take way more stuff than you need. Also the wearing of swim wear around everyone you work with does not rate very high on my list. Just hoping everyone gets really drunk and does not remember what my casper white, fat body looks like!

We have been on a marathon of work and late hours, so once we actually get there and relax it will be great. We just have to make it through the day.

I do have a fun project to take up my air time. Bobbi has taught me how to make granny squares (with Vanna White yarn :). So cute. They look way harder than they are. Although I did make 2 of them totally wrong. But now I am on the right path and they are actually square!

So stay tuned for tropical photos and stories.

pretty bird

I have been meaning to post this photo. Dad and I went to Palisades State Park the weekend before New Years day. It had snowed and it was beautiful. So we hopped out of the car and took a short hike. Well while we are walking back to the car we noticed this Cardinal. He kept going from one side of the car to the other looking at himself in the mirror. It was the silliest thing I have ever seen. I don't think he had seen himself before that day. And he was very impressed. I took a ton of photos, but this is the best one. At one point he even started pecking at the mirror.

Here he is in the tree patiently waiting for me to move away from the car so he can get back to the mirror :)

am i turning into a grandma?

Yesterday I went "thrifting" with Bobbi. Where else can you get an entire bag of goodies for $1.25? So many cute things! I came home last night and made this cute wall hanging for my spare bedroom/workroom. It consists of a wall hanging with hooks from Hobby Lobby for $6.00. Embroidery hoops & vintage fabric from the thrift store. And a torn up old quilt I bought at a garage sale last summer. So fulfilling!! The quilt on the bed is a grandma quilt I found at the Goodwill in Lincoln. And the lamp shade is from Ikea. I think I might be 33 going on 80.

But the find of the day is this really cool vintage winter coat. It makes me so happy! The color, the fur...what could be better? I saw it hanging in the antique store and I feel in love, and it even fits! It was ment to be. I think I am in love...

snow...

Well since I a kind of have a theme going with the last couple of photos, why ruin it? Today is beautiful in SD. I took a break from working and did a mini-photo shoot in the backyard at work.

merry christmas

winter wonderland

This is what my back yard looked like yesterday. It was beautiful!

christmas spirit

Yesterday was a very productive day. I made 18 custom necklaces, shoveled snow, worked at work and then when to Target. That is where the Christmas spirit really began. I have two other fake Christmas trees but they are really big and don't have lights on them. So when I was in target I fell in love with this tree and it was actually one sale! Who ever came up with pre-strung lights on a tree is brilliant!!!!!!

I arrived home a little before 10 pm with my new tree. Oh course I had to set it up and decorate it the second I got home. I finished at about 12 am. I am crazy!!! But I feel very festive now. I have been playing Christmas music non-stop and finding just the perfect gifts. I love buying gifts for other people, but I can hardly wait to give them to them because I am so excited!

Oh the waiting...

jewelry saturday...

Thanks to everyone who made Saturday so special!

Friday night was a marathon of jewelry making. A big thanks to Bobbi...who saved my life! I would have never made it without her! Friday night was kind of a blur. At one point B said...ok, we are quitting at midnight. This must be typical designer mode, never done ahead of time even when we try :)

Also thanks to everyone who stopped by on Saturday to chat and look at jewelry, you truly made the day special.

how you know its a package from dad...

I received a box today and opening it made me laugh. I always know its from dad when it contains something from the ACE store and its wrapped in part of the Lincoln paper...usually the sports section.

Today the box contained a new soldering gun to finish our girl craft day art and clamp/holder, so we don't burn our fingers off and the sports section. He is the best :)

Well Saturday is the day....the face the public and try to sell jewelry day. Scary!! I am actually taking a vacation day tomorrow to make jewelry. I am looking forward to it. Listening to my ipod all day and wearing my fleece crocks. I can't wait!

concepting and a special k bar

Katie & I are the Kaladis concepting a new project. So far I think we have a pretty good solution. I think what really helped us come up with the idea has the giant special k bar I had. Yum! Although I am feeling a slight sugar rush from which I will be crashing in a few short hours. I guess I will enjoy it while it lasts.

Actually the main reason for the special k bar is my need to emotionally eat. This week has not been my best design week ever. Three projects this week have gone wrong...ah, the life of a designer. One project was to design an area of a client's homepage with a Christmas theme. The next day I made a few changes and we all thought they liked it. Two days later the client sent a finished design that someone in their office did and would like us to post that. Of course they would. Project number two started out with a Kristie/Katie combination and ended with two faxed drawings from the client of how "they" want it designed. Followed by a Paulsen project debacle, in which the whole office may hate me now. The good news is...in the real world these things/problems are meaningless.

Tomorrow is our first annual girl craft day, hosted by Bobbi. Well, at least there is one bright spot in my week. I am going home tonight to make munchies and dream of all the cool things we are going to make tomorrow.

best commercial ever...

This one makes me laugh everytime. I love the way the squirrel dances. So creative!

happy new computer day!

Today the art department has bright shiny new computers. This makes us so happy!!! The best part is the new keyboard. Brand new keyboards just feel good. The keys are new, no food is stuck at the bottom of them. I wish it could stay new forever. I am trying to make myself promise that I will not eat at my desk anymore. Wow, that is going to be hard.

Besides the keyboard there are lots of other cool new features. I am just a nerd and I really love the keyboard :)

Happy Halloween!

This is what Paulsen Marketing looks like today :)

best birthday gift ever...

Well it was a weekend full of Birthday celebration. My brother's birthday was Saturday and mine is Wednesday. My dad bought me these fleece lined cCrocs. I LOVE them. They are so warm and so comfy. I saw them in Colorado and then I had totally forgotten about them. I was so excited when I opened the gift. I did not want to put on real shoes to come to work today :)

i heart fall!!!!

Here is the beautiful tree by Paulsen. It makes me happy!!!!!

welcome Addison Rose...

Congrats Rani & Ryan! She is beautiful and I can't wait to meet her.

time machine chair

Well I guess I have been neglecting my blog. Starting today I will try to do better...

Tonight is the SDAF Chairity Acution. Every year crazy designers (us) make a chair and it is auctioned off. Well, we usually end up buying ours back. This years chair is a 2-year-in-the-making palooza!

We finished last night at 12:00 am. YEAH! I was sewing like crazy. But we made it and its fun. Even the control panels light up! That is so next level!

So...we will see if we end up buying it back tonight. We probably will...it looks pretty cool in our office :)

design camp i love thee...

Well, the adventure began on Thursday afternoon. We loaded up the rental vehicle with suitcases for four girls and one guy (sorry Jon). We headed North to Nisswa, Mn. When we arrived at the lodge they did not have a reservation for us for that evening. They said we were supposed to arrive the next day. Crap! They were able to find us a room. Well, it was actually a condo. It had five bedrooms, a game room, a full kitchen and a really cool deck. We were all a little sad that it was only for one night. The next morning we got up and packed again (yuck) and registered for Design Camp. We had a little time so we went for a drive and went into town for a really quick shopping trip.

Design Camp officially began at 1:00 pm. We started off with a speaker. He was really cool. He is a poster designer and screen prints most of his stuff himself. He was cool! Here is his website. You can also purchase his posters there: http://www.thesmallstakes.com/

Next to a workshop. The one I have been waiting for the most! The workshop was non-computer aided book binding. Wow, this could be my new favorite project. I will totally have to do more of this~!

That night they were having a mixer dinner. We skipped this part. We went into Baxter to the Black Bear Lodge for dinner. It was fun! It was 3 Paulsen people and 2 HenkinSchultz girls. We had fun. When we got back to our cabins we went to Karaoke. It was fun, really packed and kind of hot in the bar at the Lodge, but fun none the less.

The next day was full of speakers & workshops. One of my favorite workshops was this a photography. Her name is Nanacy Bundt. She has traveled everywhere and had some amazing photographs. She was very creative and fun to listen to. Here is her website: http://www.nancybundt.com/

We had one more speaker on Sunday and then we had to head back to South Dakota. It was fun and we didn't really want to leave. Its so beautiful up there. I totally feel more creative now! If you would like to read Katie's account check out her blog: http://www.overcaffeinatedkatie.com/

I have also posted a few more photos on my flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristieweiberg

Well its back to reality this week. I was so busy yesterday that I did not have time to post more photos. :)

Saturday was probably my favorite day of vacation. We went to Estes Park. I LOVE that place. Someday I am going to live there. They were having an elk festival (I think they are cute!). This is the time of year the elk mate. So they are all over. The town was packed, but it was still totally worth it.


Sunday was the 8 hour dive back. By the time I arrived in Sioux Falls, I was a little tired of driving.

Next: Design Camp! We leave tomorrow. I just want to see more fall, but first I have to make it through today.

I have posted the rest of my vacation photos on my filckr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristieweiberg/

Enjoy :)