Thursday, November 01, 2012

Busy Busy Bee...That's ME!

Ello mates. :)
How the heck are ya?
Me...oohhh livin the dream livin the dream lol
Just got home from work shortly ago..been working on a poster design for an upcoming charity event that I am feeling very proud of getting underway! Couldnt wait to share this with you all!
  At my place of employment, I have for the last five years or so done a charity tree. These trees come with a theme..my favorite one was "A Train Ride to Toronto" and I did the entire tree in old fashioned polar express looking train tickets..all white decor snowflakes and ice cycles..and the trees are auctioned off at a huge charity event and the proceeds of course go to that given charity. I have taken great pride in participating in these events and I called the department that usually hosts this event to find out if I missed the memo..apparently they are no longer doing this event..which saddened me. 
 
 I started brain storming on a charitable cause that our department could get involved in as a means of doing something that to give back to the community, in some small way...most of the work study employees that I supervise, including most of the staff can't donate a ton of cash to some charitable cause, but we all love taking part in something outside of our circle and selves..
And then the Care House came to mind. 

The Care house is a local facility who's mission is as follows:
"To prevent and reduce the incidence and trauma of child sexual and physical abuse in Macomb County, Michigan through collaborative, mufti-disciplinary, and effective family-centered activities"
This entire topic holds a special place in my heart and strikes a cord with me and I knew immediately this is something I'd like to get involved in..in fact..I have known for most of my adult life, that at some point, a part of my life would be dedicated to some sort of job or work with / for even volunteer work for, a facility like the Care House.   I did my homework and contacted the Director of the Care House as well as a very helpful employee there named Bria..who helped me get this underway. Today I met with the college's Financial Aid VP to get the clearance to host a charitable event on campus..she was very helpful and gave me two thumbs up on it! Then I had a department meeting with the college's VP and my colleagues in the department and got the thumbs up from them as well. 
I have named the event Learning Support Services Care House Giving Tree. 
How this will work is that we have a departmental Christmas Tree that we decorate each year and we will do so as we always do however, this year, every time one of the items we are collecting for donations is presented to us, a decoration will be taken off of the tree and replaced by the donated item. We will be collecting the following:
Individually packaged animal crackers, pretzels, & cheez-its
hot wheel cars
beanie babies
boxes of crayons
small doodle pads &
small children's books
:)
I can't begin to tell you how stoked I am about hosting this event and getting the thumbs up today from my superiors at work to take part in this!  The items are inexpensive, most of which can even be found at a dollar store so everyone can take part in this cause and if they are still unable to for any reason they can assist me in the planning processes and still get to feel as though they are a part! 
So I am creating flyers for the employees mailboxes to distribute next week and also making 11x17 posters to hang around the campus to try to get donations from other departments, instructors, deans, admins and faculty as well as students in the loop to encourage donations. I have high hopes. What would this world be without the dreamers huh?
I am happy to say I am also in the process of applying to become a volunteer for the Care House and only need to provide them with my drivers license for a background check..had to go through this whole process to work at the YMCA as an art instructor as well so I'm game and know the process..I'm so honored to do this and so excited to get involved. 
Other than that I have just been working like mad, doing extra hours while we are short staffed and most nights I am not home from work until close to nine...been working my fingers to the bone on some art packages in the evenings and waiting for the last five packages of ATC's for my ATC swap to arrive so that I can distribute out all of the swaps..looking forward to getting those last few packages and getting this swap complete...just finished and packaged April Cole's ATC's for her Inspirational Swap and just need a moments time during day light to get to the post office..Sorry April mailing is a day or two late...hope they don't take long to get there...hitting the post office at 3 tomorrow! Hopefully the little "post master" character at the post office who gave me shit last time about mailing "art" and sending my packages through his machines doesn't give me a hard time he and I just might have a go about lol This guy is like...some character right out of history...like he was a post master in the first days of the postal service which dates back to who only knows when lol...no kidding long mustache like handle bars and thick glasses...in a past life I'm telling you he did the same job...lol pocket watch in his cute little vest but dude.....don't take your job so seriously and..and...consider this Mr. PostMan...my artful friends and I are keeping you in business and with a paycheck so just weight my SH*T and send it please...he has a bit of a feisty attitude LOL
Anyhoot...looking reallllly forward to seeing him tomorrow. :D
I've been making these cute little unrealistic trees in Photoshop trying to come up with a design and having fun with it...not sure I will use any of them but their cute so I will share them with you all. Let me know what you think..I just want it to be festive and eye catching.. yayaya...I know you will say why not use Illustrator for this...my response...I don't like Illustrator it confuses me and I have found ways to do just about anything in Photoshop that you can do in Illustrator. That's why. :)



Very simple..but not nearly done..haven't really picked any thing yet just started playing a bit to get an idea..  not trying to reinvent the wheel or create a new logo for the facility...just wanted the posters to be uplifting and childlike in nature..so that is what I am playing with a bit tonight..been working here and there as well on a few digital pieces like the one I did of my grandparents the other night..I really enjoy doing those because on nights that I do not have much time for creative expression...its instant gratification for me without the huge mess of pulling out a ton of art supplies and such...
I have much to do creatively between now and the holiday... a wedding shoot for my ex's newphew this month..some senior photos..some family portraits for the ho ho holidays in the works...:)
Wish me luck....aint no rest for the wicked pals...not going out any other way...
that kickin and screamin you know it! :)
xo peace   
 
 

2 comments:

  1. These here trees are in very beginning stages..they will get much cuter!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you James and welcome to my little corner in the world. :)

    ReplyDelete