One Whole Year

This week marks one year living in Portland. It's wild to think that it's been one whole year. Time certainly has flown by.

In the next couple of days, I plan on uploading more photos of The Big Move from one year ago. Where we traveled from Decatur, Georgia, to Decatur, Illinois. Then from Illinois to Oregon. It was a fantastic trip.


------------------------------

So, yes! I'm back. Things are slowing down for me here at work -- slow enough for me to timidly poke my head back into The Ward-O-Matic. It's been a wild & crazy two months, but the break from the blog was totally worth it. I sorely needed that time to do my thang at work. Even though production is still going strong on this particular job, the biggest hurdles have been thoroughly cleared. For now, at least. You never know in this line of work, though.

Lots has been going on during these past two months. On the home front, I was finally able to break in my dreamy, massive Galant desk from IKEA that's now in place downstairs in my recently-cleaned out basement workspace. And even though the breaking in was for work purposes, hopefully down the road I'll be able use my desk for good, not evil. With the desk finally up and running, I've been doing a bit of decorating, which includes putting up my favorite starburst clock.

The following is what happens when you mix late-night decorating, a mid-century wall clock, and a camera:

Ava Thursday: Cross Country

It's been a long time coming, but here it is: Ava Thursday! And this is the one that I've been wanting to post ever since we got settled here in Portland. During our trip across the country from Georgia to Oregon, Ava colored in each and every state that we were in on this map, supplied to Ava thanks to her Nani, my mom. She had a lot of fun asking me which state is which and then deciding on her own which color to use. And she was very adamant about not coloring a state until we definitely crossed the state line. "Daddy, are we in Colorado yet?" she would ask, orange Crayola in hand. "No, not yet." I'd look back and find her staring out the window at the vast prairie land, not in the least bit bored. She loved the entire trip.

We went through Idaho, but Ava used a white crayon for that particular state, making it kinda hard to see it in this scan. And the rainbow for Oregon was Ava's idea.

I love that.

Finally

I know it's been awhile since any of you have heard from me or andrea, but just to let you know, we made it safe and sound in our new town of Portland, OR, and are currently living out of boxes in our new home. We made it on Sunday, the 25th, but since we don't have internet set up yet (they're supposed to get us hooked up today), we haven't been able to do any updates. I'm at work now -- mad busy already, but will post more updates soon, complete with photos.

We did it! Can't believe we're here. Feels like a big dream....

Crossing the Divide

We crossed the imaginary line dividing the continent yesterday. The vistas were amazing, with nary a human being in sight. Wyoming was beautiful -- Utah even more so. Looking forward to seeing what's ahead for us today and tomorrow. We're expecting to arrive in Portland on Sunday.

Meet me

...in St. Louie.

Well, actually, you'd be too late. We've already hit that town and are now rolling across the Great Plains.

Okay...

We're off.

it's all happening

I can't believe it. It's Tuesday and the movers come Thursday to pack our things, Friday to load it on a truck and then Sunday... we leave.

You know, I could probably wax eloquent here with all the swirling thoughts inside my brain on leaving my hometown, my family, my whole entire life as I know it -- but alas, I don't have the time. There's just so much to do on both the work and home fronts. I'm trying to finish up all the animation for this last spot (mentioned in a previous post), so in order to do so, I have to take home scenes to work on them -- but that then pushes aside the few precious moments that I had alloted especially for organizing and packing, therefore creating more drama.

I know that it'll all be over before I know it and I'll find myself in the middle of Wyoming wishing that I had the time to sit and think about my last days in Georgia in the right frame of mind. But I don't.

It hurts. It hurts to leave, but if nobody ever left anywhere, what good would that do? Where's the fun in that, right?

Just thinking.

Whee!

This is how my life feels right now: full-on crazy, head spinning, multi-tasking frenetic energy and all on wheels. At least it feels like it's on wheels. Just switch out this domestic goddess's ear-to-ear smile with a look of fear and then you'll get a perfect example of how I feel right now. See, on top of all the sorting, filing, organizing, packing, moving, searching for a new home thousands of miles away, etc., we've had to find and buy a new car before the Big Move because our current one might loose its engine block halfway across the country, and.... I had to have a molar extracted today making me feel oh-so wonderful right this very minute. Gotta love perfect timing.

In the meantime, here's some neato scans of ads and illustrations found in that December 1954 issue of Better Homes & Gardens I posted about earlier. I've got priorities, people.


Nice illustration above. Yay for Daddies bringing home the....uh, oranges?


Nice, simple clean lines here. Nice nice nice. Love the characters, too. Best viewed larger.


Classic housewife loving her appliance with a freakish-like glee. View larger, if you dare.

The following spot illustrations were for an article on winter driving. The artist signed it: "Pearson." They are very well executed with some nice stylization for the clouds and use of the blue spot color here and there. Definitely view them larger if you get the chance. Great stuff:


View larger.


View larger.


View larger.



Okay! Whee! There ya go! Excuse me while I dive back into my enormous pile of old notebooks, saved magazine clippings, and forgotten sketches.