Baby Naomi

October 6, 2009. Naomi Lynn Gary was born.

I am blessed to be an aunty again! (My twin cousin and maid of honour Erika welcomed her 4th child) I know this post is a little late but like I said in the previous post life has been a little busy.

While I was in BC to see my grandpa I was also able to meet for the first time my very newborn neice Naomi Lynn. Erika Gave birth while grandpa was in the hospital and was actually on the same floor too so when I arrived on Wednesday October 7th, I was able to also slip in and see her too. I am happy I was able to share in her arrival with Erika and Reed too. God has good timing I guess. Here is a photo my aunt Joanne took in the hospital the night I arrived when I met Naomi for the first time:

My appologies . . .

I am sending my sincere appologies out to all of my blog followers, It has been to long since my last post! But here I am now and I have a lot to share with you.

It has been a long month to say the least. I have been emotionally and physically exhausted, and I would like to share with you some of the ups and downs of the past month.

Well at the beginning of the month work was busy, we had just put our publication SAM to bed and then I had a huge advertising campaign that had to be completed in one day. We had not planned the ad campaign to be designed in one day but due to the publication taking up a bunch of time and me myself planning to head back to the coast for thanksgiving, time ran out and I had 24 hours to complete the campaign of aprox. 48 ads! Yes I am not kidding 48 ads!! (I have talked more about the ad campaign and the publication in my previous posts)

I didn't think it was possible but Jana and I completed the campaign, I had to pull an all-nighter and almost cried from exhaustion but we did it and I can now add "48 ads in 24hrs" to my list of accomplishments, although i don't want to ever do that again and I mean NEVER!

Anyways now I have my designs on the sides of buses, bus shelters and billboard from here to Edmonton and I feel a little proud ...

So after the ad campaign was completed I was off to the coast for Thankgiving and to more importantly see my Grandpa.

I had planned my trip to BC about a month prior after finding out my grandpa had in-operable liver cancer. They had given him six months to live and I really felt like I had to get there as soon as I could so I booked my trip, only to receive a call 3 days before I was to fly out to BC that my grandpa was hospitalized and he wasn't going to make it too much longer. I have thanked God everyday since for giving me the guidance and opportunity to come sooner then Christmas (which is when Brad and I had originally planned on going to the coast). When I flew in on Wednesday evening I rushed from Victoria straight to the Cowichan Valley Hospital in Duncan so I could say goodbye to my gramps. And I am more then happy to say I was able to do that, when I arrived at the hospital I was able to hold his hand and he said "I am glad you are here now I can go" then gramps went to sleep. I didn't get the hear his voice again as we all sat beside him for the next day and a bit, we shared memories and spent some really great time as a family together. Then Friday morning he left our world to be with the Lord. I am really going to miss him . . .

So the following week was spent planning and preparing for the memorial and celebration of his life. It was a hard week but I am truly blessed that even though it was a time of great loss God blessed me with the opportunity to reconnect with my family on my dad's side. I was able to remember how much I really and truly love my family and how blessed I am to have each and everyone one of them in my life. God is amazing and I was reminded of that.

I built a slideshow for my grandpa's memorial and I would like to share it with you now, he was a good man and I was not surprised so many people got up to speak about his and remember him at the memorial. He will be missed by many . . .

:: Exciting Projects :: SAM

As most as you have probably already gathered I am a designer or an "artiste" for those of you who know me well, so bare with me as I have been writing a lot about work latley and design projects I am working on currently. Lately I have had the opportunity to work on some really great projects, some of the projects have become like my children and one in particular I am expecting in the mail anyway!!

In a designers life there are moments that are like Christmas at least a half dozen times a year and I am hoping today or Monday is one of those days. I am awaiting the arrival of SAM. SAM is not a person but rather the magazine I just spent the last solid month working on. SAM is the premier addition of the University of Lethbridge magazine, SAM is the new university magazine replacing or rather combining 2 previous publications that came out quarterly and annually into one super magazine that comes out three times a year. But this is the very first issue!! And it is due to arrive in the mail anyway! I cannot describe the feeling I have when the box arrives and I life the publication out off the box!! It's a make-my-day kind of feeling and it's exciting!

This publication is very exciting to me for many reasons . . . The photos are amazing and I had fun art directing with Rod Leland (www.rodleland.com) the publications feature photographer, we did this shot at 10:00pm at night in the coulees south of Lethbridge at the astronomy centre and all I can say is it is awesome!! Great work Rod! Secondly the publication is also amazing because I had the opportunity to have an old and very talented friend (Dale! www.dng23.com)from the coast do some custom illustrations for us for the Epigenetics section of the publication. and Thirdly I am reminded of all of the talented and remarkable people I have the chance to work with here at the University every time I open the book.

SAM rocks! I will post a link to the publication one we have it online! so stay posted! Until then here is a tiny sneak of the cover! with a painting featured from or University of Lethbridge Art Collection.