Happy Halloween!

Unfortunately, our little pumpkin, Gavin, was napping during dress up time.

Branding My 2nd Baby

Like any good mother I want to be fair to my kids. This is why I have decided to once again go through the exercise of Branding My Baby.

First, a look at what was Cadence's brand. Two typefaces (LD Bohemian Filigree & Machiarge) & four neutral colors - slate blue, light brown, red & dark brown.

The type & the colors were used for Cadence's thank you cards & birth announcements. We also used the color scheme with a western rodeo theme for the nursery.

Well, Cadence turned out a bit - okay a lot - more girly than this look. Below is what Cadence overhauled her own brand into.

And now onto Branding My 2nd Baby.

Since this baby is getting 90% of Cadence's baby things handed down to him/her I decided to keep the Machiarge typeface. Sharing such a great typeface may be hard to do, but my kids will need to learn sharing is what siblings do.

Next, I bought My 2nd Baby it's very own display face: Skitch. I do realize normal moms buy their babies cute clothes. I buy cute typefaces. And this one is the epitome of cuteness. The typeface comes with multiple fun variations AND borders and ornaments. Perfect for designing this child's thank you cards & birth announcements.

As for the color palette, I'm giving My 2nd Baby's brand flexibility. I've kept the same dark brown that was used for Cadence (another lesson in sharing) & added a light gray, sea foam green, and then chose a gender specific color - blue for a boy or pink for a girl.

The inspiration for both the type & color scheme came from the photo below, little birds, by Leslie Ostrander that we purchased for the new nursery. The photo was part of our prize for supporting her new book the pauses between due out in August.

 

Morning Meetings

Wednesday mornings I've been going to Lake of the Woods Park in Mahomet, IL. There I spend at least a half hour with my camera. What I find I've been posting on my flickr's photostream. Below is one image from each week. This week I'm in Atlanta. My camera has been attached to me.

Morning Meeting 10.12.11

Morning Meeting 10.19.11

Morning Meeting 10.26.11

Opryland Hotel. Nashville, TN.

Georgia Aquarium. Atlanta, GA.

Rhythm & Rules

Dancing to a new beat.

Since becoming an entrepreneur, (me! an entrepreneur! wow.) at the beginning of June, I've been struggling to find my creative rhythm. While working in the corporate world I forced my creative rhythm into my employer's schedule. Now with full control of the on/off switch of how & when to work the lights have been flickering rapidly on & off at Jessie Marie Studio.

The piece of my day that throws a wrench into most anything I've learned from Tony Schwartz, Todd Henry & other work energy experts is a certain blonde 2-year-old. You have to expect the unexpected as a Mommy Freelancer. And the unexpected doesn't always fall into a nice, neat rhythm. The following questions had to be answered: What will my new creative cadence be? And how will my sweet Cadence join in on the new beat?

I entered into my summer quarterly retreat with with these questions as my main focus. Old systems had carried over from my time in the corporate world. I never knew anything else. Conflict & struggle of what to do & when resulted daily. Mommy Freelance world is different. Much different. I had to start over. New rules were needed.

After an in depth reflection of the first six weeks as a Mommy Freelancer I created some new rules:

1. Ditch my Daily Record Sheet

2. Add a simple notepad that holds my to do list for the day

3. Open gubb (project manager) & iCal (schedule) in the morning, review often

4. Fully engage with Cadence for 30 minutes, then work on my personal agenda for 30 minutes

5. Only guarantee myself 2 hours of work time during Cadence's nap 

(I was trying to cram my 8 hour corporate day into Cadence's 2+ hour nap. Opps.)

6. Pre-plan what I will do during those 2 hours during Super Why! in the morning (go PBS!)

7. Move quiet time out of work time

After week one of creating these new habits I have worked less hours, but have accomplished more. Funny how that works. I must be finding my creative cadence with Cadence's help.

Happy Birthday to You!

January's trifecta of birthday celebrating: Grandpa Scheunemann, Grandma Rieder & Cadence!

Cadence's 2nd Birthday Party was held this past Saturday. We had over 20 people in our cute, little house. The menu for the day included: make your own english muffin pizzas, garlic bread, fancy raspberry-peach jell-o (made by the jell-o queen, Grandma Rieder), a mixed salad, carrot cake, angel food cake & a lemon pudding pie that was to die for.

Cadence enjoyed opening the gifts with a puppy-kitty theme. We had given Cadence multiple choice options of how she wanted to celebrate her birthday & the winner was her partnering up with the Champaign County Humane Society. The guests brought gifts for the animals at the shelter in lieu of getting Cadence a gift. And then on Sunday, Mommy & the birthday girl went over & dropped off the gifts & visited the animals. During our visit she even got to feed a pot-bellied pig!

Make your own english muffin pizzas were a hit! And I didn't even have to deprive my guests of having meat.

Learning new tricks in the kitchen.

{ Day 20 & 21: Egg Whites
I have never beat egg whites into stiff peaks before. And if it wasn't for my mom being in my kitchen on Saturday morning while I was attempting the to-die-for lemon pudding pie it would have been a failure. And then, the next morning I made my first recipe from the Vegetarian cookbook I got from Emily, Cottage Cheese & Nutmeg Pancakes. And when the recipe called for the egg whites to be beat into stiff peaks I knew what to do! The pancakes were alright. If I make them again I think I would put in cinnamon rather than the nutmeg. The nutmeg was a bit over-powering. }

Happy 2011!

Many of you know I have practiced a New Year's Resolution or two in the past & this year is no different. I am going to be a Vegetarian for 2011! I have always thought of myself as a wanna-be vegetarian/vegan & I have decided to put my food where my mouth is this year.

Start Date: Monday, January 3rd

Day One: threw a package of sun-dried tomato turkey lunch meat at my mom
Day Two: Jarrod surprised me with two full crispers of veggies to make my favorite portabella sandwich. mmmmmm
Day Three: I made turkey bacon for Jarrod & Cadence for breakfast & didn't sneak a piece

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk

Join Us at the Walk on Saturday, October 16th!

Donate to Team Scheunemann
Either online or give us cash or a check (payable to the American Cancer Society) on or before October 16th.

Buy Spirit Cups! (Go Pack!) by this Thursday, September 30th!
Check out the wide variety of cups here.
4 Cups of the same team for $15. Make checks payable to Horizon Hobby, Inc.

Using Patience to Achieve Balance

Working in a deadline driven industry you would think I would be numb to anxiety by now. Not the case. Instead, the feeling of anxiety has compounded since Cadence was born. I thought I was prepared. I really did. Prepared to successfully juggle parenthood, my job, freelance work, friends, family & all the other odds & ends of life.

I read an article in the May/June 2010 Communication Arts by Wendy Richmond called "Permission to Loiter," in the article she talks about watching the ebb & flow of your life. And that when you are able to leave "white space in [your] life" new & exciting connections will appear. I want to slow down & add white space into my life. I really do.

And because I want to find white space in my life, I've recently started a daily routine of watching my creative health - recording input & output - along with my physical health - eating right, sleeping more & exercising. I have learned the two go hand in hand. I've also started planning my week out in real time rather than in pseudo time. In real time I'm more realistic about what I can accomplish in a day, rather than in pseudo time where I believe I can accomplish a week's worth of things in one day. It has taken great patience to wait for projects on my to do list to be completed. But you know, completing the project isn't the real reward - it's the journey along the way.

This post was brought to you by M. Ward's album "Hold Time."

Motivational Artwork

The annual spring art shows, Boneyard & Artists Against AIDS, came & went during April here in Champaign. I didn't enter any pieces this year; however, I attended both events. Oh, how good art is for the soul.

On the evening of Friday, April 16th the Scheunemanns headed out to see a friend's work at BeeMi Gallery. Then, we went over to the Krannert Center to listen to some music from around the world. Cadence enjoyed dancing in the spacious lobby.

On the morning of April 17th Cadence & I went to see another friend's paintings in Urbana. I was surprised by the large amount of work in & around Lincoln Square Mall. Plus, there was a kid's event going on. Perfect for Miss Cadence.

On Friday, April 23rd the Scheunemanns went to the opening for Artists Against AIDS. Cadence had her first chocolate covered strawberry from the spread of hors d'oeuvres. She let out a giggle when she bit down. What girl wouldn't?

As we were walking around I pointed out different pieces to Jarrod that I enjoyed. After we made our way back to where we started, Jarrod pulled our checkbook out of his back pocket. "Did you know I brought this along? Which one do you want?" My bewildered reply went something like, "huh, what do you mean?" You see, the Scheunamanns are currently on a tighter than normal budget right now, and buying the Beautiful Graphic Blue Bird Painting that I wanted seemed very frivolous. So, we left the show empty-handed.

The Beautiful Graphic Blue Bird Painting did not like being left at the show. During my six mile run the next morning I didn't stop thinking about it. My thoughts went something like this: "How do I expect people to pay to hang my art on their walls if I'm not willing to pay for original art to hang on mine? The Beautiful Graphic Blue Bird Painting is more than just beautiful, it represents this season of our life. Our awesome little house. Our cute neighborhood. Our love for finding big joy in simple & small things." I had myself talked into needing that painting.

Needless to say, that beautiful painting is now hanging on my wall. And every time I look at it I am reminded of the joy of this season of our life.


The Beautiful Graphic Blue Bird Painting is by Lisa Kesler. She named it "Distant View."

When I grow up I want to be an actress, Mom.

If you haven't already seen this video on Facebook you need to watch it! Oh-so-funny.

Cadence Cuteness

In celebration of spring like weather (& her last molar coming in!) Cadence played dress up with some winter clothes that were being put away, took a walk with Aunt Sara & Mommy & went to the park for the first time of the season with Mommy & our great friend, Dave. What a great couple of days.

One Whole Year Old!

Happy First Birthday, Cadence Rose!

Merry Christmas!

Phew. We made it through Cadence's first Christmas. We hope you all had a blessed holiday season!

Cadence's Baby Dedication

Cadence's Baby Dedication was a very special day. She had many family & friends visit for the occasion. She also got to wear the first of many beautiful dresses in her life.




The following video is of Cadence's thanking her godmommy Beth for her Baby Dedication Day video & showing off her pretty dress.