Happy Belated Birthday, Uncle Dean!

Work.

I stayed up late last night (again) trying to get a PDF portfolio together for my rep at Creative Circle. FINALLY, at 2:00 a.m. I was done and figured out how to make the file small enough to send to her. It was quite a process.

I am busy today researching ways to advertise my business. I am looking into setting up a booth at the Heart of Texas Arts + Crafts Show here in Garland in September. I am also attending a mixer Thursday night (hosted by TheBump.com) to network with other small business owners that target moms and pregnant moms-to-be to get my name out there I do scrapbooks and birth announcements.

I have a list of advertising ideas going...anyone want to add to them? I know some of you are creative....come on! It's easy to post a comment....I would love some input! (ahem, Melissa, my advertising guru!)

it's a hot one.

just would like to point out my weather temp on the right site here...it's reading 101 in Rowlett, Texas. Phew!

Another birthday...

I believe I have another Uncle who's birthday was yesterday....don't think you got out of it that easily, did you Uncle Dean? Picture coming! Stay tuned.... :)

Happy Belated Birthday!

To my Uncle Rick! I won't post your age, don't worry. Hope you had a great one!

I wonder who Dakota looks like in the family...

and where she gets that open mouth thing?

She already knows...

...what she wants for her birthday!

Clearly not a green thumb.

I try to be a domestic goddess. I really do. But being a green thumb just apparently isn't for me. I have tried. The one time I had a plant in our old townhouse, Layla destroyed it. Dirt everywhere. I had an "African Violet" (not really sure if I would call it that, more like a dead weed) for the longest time in my window sill. We tried to plant a little garden with tomatoes. The green onions got so big that they overtook the garden and became weeds because I never pulled them. My rose Jared got me was the only thing that survived the doom of Erin. I didn't touch that thing, and it would bloom religiously every spring with hundreds of beautiful buds. When we moved into our new house, I thought it would be fun to plant a lot of flowers. After 2 months of residing here, the only thing left standing is my palm tree.

Not really, but it's getting dangerously close to plant funeral time here. My rose is looking really, really sad. I thought it was going to overcome the traumatic 500-mile move, but now it's looking brown again. My hanging baskets are a wreck, I water them, the leaves turn yellow, so I stop watering them, and then they basically die. My house plant my mother-in-law graciously gave me for Mother's Day is still hanging in, but every time I turn around, there is a brown leave hanging off of it. My African Violet will not bloom. YOU GET MY DRIFT.

So I spent a significant amount of time this morning outside, weeding and watering and feeding my plants. But, alas, my good old palm tree! That thing loves to be tortured and neglected and I love it! It does have a dead leaf on it and I'm not sure what to do about it. Do I leave it or cut it off? Can't find much online.

I am really sad because my mint plant is almost dead. I'm not sure what happened, but I really wanted to use my mint for mojitos. However, the good news is my jalapeno plant is still going strong and I even picked a bright red jalapeno today! I might just use it in my taco salad I'm making tonight for dinner. I guess I should be thankful for a good jalapeno, since the salmonella scare and all.

Perhaps next spring I will save my money and buy some other yard decorations besides flowers.

Coach update.

#236...and I'm now on the newly popular list. I gotta get to the top 100 to be considered by Coach representatives and possibly be chosen...keep spreadin the link love!

Introducing Erin Lee Creative.

My business has officially launched! Check it out here:

http://www.erinleecreative.com/

Coach...

#326....

Coach design!

I suppose it's the little things in life. Either that, or I get easily excited. Yesterday, I entered myself into the design a Coach tote contest. Fully knowing there is no chance I would ever win, I love playing around with my new design software, and this was a great project to allow me some practice. And of course, I love designing. Anyway....I just went to the page and my tote is already ranked #954 out of 2267 entries! I'm not sure if that really even means anything, but it sounds promising, since yesterday it started out at the very bottom. And someone (even though it was probably one of my beloved blog readers) made a really sweet comment on my bag. Sweet!

Down time.

It's 9:02. The toys are picked up. The kitchen is clean from the spaghetti buffet. The laundry is in the wash. Dakota is fast asleep. Jared and the dogs are fast asleep. The plants are watered. (The outcome of the rose is still TBD.) I sit in my office, where I have spent the past couple of weeks working late at night. I feel so at home in here. Looking at my desk, I'm trying to figure out what to do first: make a few last adjustments to my website, get my PDF portfolio together I promised my recruiter today or fill out some lovely government paperwork to get my social security card, passport, birth certificate and marriage license. (That's a whole other story.*) The night is mine. But so much to do.

This afternoon after getting ready, doing my hair and actually putting on dress clothes (and heels! gasp!), I ventured downtown to meet with a rep from Creative Circle. They are a placement agency for "creatives" in Dallas. They also have offices in Chicago, LA, Miami and New York. I was excited, not nervous, to get back into the advertising game and show off my work to someone that pretended to be interested in my 32-page annual report, among other work. She seemed impressed by my book and is going to send out my credentials to her contacts. Basically a "hey Dallas, there's a new copywriter in town" ploy. The position I initially went in for I was told is for a crazy huge agency where they make their creatives work 100 hours a week and she said I would never get to see my daughter. Um, no thanks. NEVERMIND. Not worth it. Even with the high salary she threw at me. So we will see where it gets me, perhaps nowhere. She said it will be hard finding work for someone that wants to stay at home. WHAT? News flash: this is not news. But at least I know I still got the right stuff, as NKOTB would say.

So, back to business. I am so excited to get my website finally up and running, and I am working hard and quickly to get it DONE. I can't wait to start advertising my business, getting some creative work and being a real business owner. Setting my own hours and making some money. Yee haw!

*Regarding my insane new obession with getting all my "legal" documents together...last night, as I was compiling stuff for my interview, I realized I had nothing to prove I was actually a U.S. citizen. My driver's license was it. And it wasn't even current. I have my passport, with my old name. No social security card, lost that months ago. No birth certificate. No marriage license. What? Where was all this stuff? So...needless to say, I am working like crazy to get all this stuff back into my possession. Unfortunately, the smart government is not so smart. Because to get your social security card, you must have your driver's license. And to get your DL, you must have your birth certificate. And to get your birth certificate you must have your blood drawn and urine sampled. And to get your passport updated, you must have your marriage license. And to get your marriage license you have to have your social security card. You get my drift. AKA NOT FUN AND RATHER ANNOYING. Oh, and FYI to those newly married - GO GET YOUR NAME CHANGED ON YOUR PASSPORT NOW. If you don't do it within a year of getting married, you have to apply for a new passport and pay the lovely $75 to get a new one. What a crock of crap. OH well, it's not like I will be traveling abroad anytime soon. But I need these documents because well, they prove I am an American. And an American who can own a business here in the states. (Gotta register my business with the county.)

Ok. Rant over. Back to work!

holy smokes, batman.

The Dark Knight was incredible. Or I should say, Ledger was incredible. I cannot believe what an outstanding job he did playing the Joker. Amazing. Incredible. Insanely good. Too hard to describe in words. It's a real shame we lost such a talented actor. It's also a real shame that some couple in front of us decided it would be a good idea to bring a baby about Dakota's age to an insanely loud, late night movie. WHAT? I had a nice bitch session with the mom next to me, so luckily Jared didn't have to listen to me for 30 minutes before the movie started. I couldn't believe it.

But, as I read today in the news, Christopher Bale is apparently NOT the hero we all took him for in real life. Assaulting his mother and sister? Nice. What in the world, he was so innocent in Newsies.

In lighter news, I GOT A JOB INTERVIEW. HOLY CRAP. I am pretty excited. A recruiting firm here in Dallas, Creative Circle, places creative talent in ad agencies and companies. This particular position they have called me in for is a Mid-Sr. Level Interactive Copywriter. Their client was impressed with my portfolio. The job description lists working on big brands at a big agency. Sounds really fun. And what's even better is I emailed the person that contacted me and told him I was looking for a part-time work-from-home position and he said "we should be able to swing that for you". Cool! So I'm off to my first interview in Dallas tomorrow, and regardless of whether I get the position or not, it's a good feeling to be wanted. So my work is good and I do have talent. PHEW.

So I'm off to go update my portfolio. The last time I updated it was before my interview at Garmin. Consequently, I have to get 2 years worth of Garmin work in there. It's going to be a long night ahead.

Coach design contest.

Took a nice creative break today to enter this contest. Please vote if you think it's good! I LOVE COACH!

Design a Coach Tote Sponsored by Coach

back to routine.

Well, the weekend is over. Dakota is finally napping, and so is Jared before he has to go into work for his night shift. This weekend was a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa Osburn. Dakota was spoiled and now the fun is over. I unfortunately had no time to work on my business, but such is life. I plan on getting the website ready to launch before July 22, 2008. We shall see what I get done tonight. Crossing my fingers.

Unfortunately, I have ZERO pictures to share with you all from this weekend. We were too busy shopping for Dakota's entire fall wardrobe :)

Happy Anniversary to me.

Well, I get to deal with some fun stuff on my anniversary. While Jared is sitting in lecture, no doubt bored, I get to deal with....





Yep, you guessed it...

FLEAS.

Last night, I saw one hopping around on Addison's belly. I thought no big deal, dogs get a flea, whatever. This morning, I saw TWO FLEAS on her belly. So I immediately went into freak-out mode. Addie has now had a bath, a haircut, another bath and her flea, tick and heartworm medicine. After I wrote this post, I am headed to the laundry room with her pet bed.

AND NOW MY HEAD ITCHES.

Yay for anniversaries!

Tomorrow, Jared and I will be celebrating our 4-year anniversary. We are very excited! Celebrating an anniversary is better than celebrating a birthday. You get to celebrate with the one you love. I can't believe it's already been 4 years. Time flies, really.

Dad is driving down as we speak and mom flies in Friday. Tomorrow night, Jared and I are going to hit Uptown (a trendy restaurant+bar+nightlife area near downtown that we love) and enjoy a nice meal out and drinks afterwards. We are really looking forward to it, since we really haven't had a date night in quite a while. We'll also hoping to sneak out Saturday night super late to catch the new Batman movie while everyone at home sleeps. And what's even better is Jared has the weekend off! YAY!

New venture.

Well, I am slowly emerging from my cave I like to call my office. I've been up until the crack of down (okay, not really, but super late) working on my business. Setting up my website. Getting samples together. Brainstorming ways to advertise. The legalities. You name it. When I put Dakota down for the night around 8, I immediately lock myself in my office with a Coke and a handful of Jolly Ranchers and go to town. I am super, super excited about this business venture, and I can't wait to share it with you all once it goes live. This business is exactly what I have dreamed of: combining my quirky writing skills and my love for graphic design, all while bringing a smile to someone's face. My goal is by Friday to have the website up and running. I have to go register with the county and fill out a "Doing Business As" application, but that will have to wait a few weeks until I get A. my new social security card B. my driver's license C. the form. It's been a lot of work trying to figure out each and every logisitic of how this business is going to work, but no one said it was going to be easy. Stay tuned....

A good weekend.

Despite a few minor hiccups (Erin ruining her bathroom rugs and Jared taking a dip in the pool WITH his cell phone), we had a great weekend. It was nice and relaxing and great to have Jared home for a few days. This should be an exciting week - Grandma and Grandpa Osburn are coming to visit and we will be celebrating our 4 year anniversary!