You know that surreal feeling? That's how I felt this morning. I sat down to make my list of things to do today, looked at the date and realized that on this day next week I will be helping my husband load a U-Haul. Next week, January 31st (yes the day before Super Bowl) we will be on our way to Kentucky.

I started practicing yoga actively about 6 months ago. The instructors vary from class to class but the message has often been to be present. I always thought this applied to the class and never really thought much about applying it to my life. 

When I was a kid I was always day dreaming. My imagination was so alive it was almost uncontrollable, especially in 4th grade math class where I missed out on foundational math because I was too busy drawing happy troll looking characters on my desk and giving them haircuts with an eraser or escaping to the away dreamlands that would spill onto my paper.

My little brother, Cory, called me a few months ago and said "Jack, I need you to design a kick-ass logo for Loochfest, I want it to incorporate a pig and a guitar." And that was it, that was his vision.

I designed this logo a few months ago for the Dia De Los Muertos 24 Hour Endurance Challenge. The inspiration of course came from the classic sugar skulls that usually surface everywhere around Halloween. Here's a few words about my design process for this project. 

I took this photo with my iPhone outside of the hotel we were staying in while visiting the Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina. The yellow and pink of the flowers caught my eye, mostly because it's mid-October and the flowers were still so lively.

It’s surreal to think that 10 years ago I became a mother for the first time.

A logo re-draw for an Army unit. 

Read about the inspiration behind my most recent project, a website and logo design for Collette Zimmer Dressage. 

In the last year or two, I've found myself on a pretty good path career wise. I feel like I'm on my way to success. Was it all of my hard work or was it luck? Maybe both. In connecting the dots of past events I realize my life has been made up of a series of black swan events. Both good and bad, but it's those black swan events that got me to the here and now… the present where I find myself accomplishing the things I thought were impossible. 

As a mother, I am rarely in photos which is why this one that I am sharing here in my blog is so special to me. It is the only photo I have of me with my family together.

I've been working away at a job where I was unhappy. Something important to note is that at my Army job, I spent most of my days reviewing soldier suicide investigations for release to their next of kin. Doing this everyday was a real strain on a creative sole like myself. As a creative, I visualize everything... words come to life. I kept thinking that with each pay raise perhaps happiness would follow.