Yesterday was so much fun! I was glad Cree and I were able to attend the book launch. The food was amazing...so I highly recommend buying the cookbook. I think my favorite part was seeing the huge stack of books with my cover all over it. I was pretty tickled. It also made me laugh because I'd never really met the women who wrote the book. They had the designers, publishers, stylists and photographers come up to the front to say thank you...and when it was my turn, they didn't know my last name! It was so funny. I was introduced as simply Amanda. Watch out Brittany! Watch out Madonna for that matter!

Also, my mom got me hooked on this show. The host is so cute and her style is impeccable. I also love how she melds husband + wife styles! I wish she could re-design our home....

Tonight is the "launch" party for a book I designed at work. The book is called Ma Baseema and has amazing recipes for Chaldean food. Lots of hummus, kibbee and flat bread. The book finished printing last week, so I finally got my hands on a copy. Cree and I haven't had time to try any of the recipes...let alone take some photos of the book, but tonight 100 of the cookbook's chefs will be there! We'll get to sample all the yummy food! Yay! I think it will be fun. We've been working on the book since last March, so it feels amazing to have it all finished.

PS. The photography in this book was fabulous. It's very rare where you get a book project with 100% fantastic photos and this was one of them. They used Laura Goble for food styling, Craig Brown and David Hagen at Kalman & Pabst Photography (based in Cleveland, Ohio), and us (of course) for the design. Their lighting is beautiful and the colors were especially vibrant. I wish they could photograph every book we do!

Stay tuned for more photos of the book!

Thank you for the well wishes! I'm feeling much better....as for the Warby Parker glasses...I hate to say it, but I didn't just fall over backwards for them. Part of my problem could have been that I've never worn glasses, so I didn't really know what style would fit my face. The thicker frames were my favorite.

Anyway, long story short, we went to SEE on Friday just for kicks...I tried on a pair for fun, thinking they'd be goofy, but Cree nearly fell over he loved them so much....so we ended up buying them on the spot. I keep having buyers remorse and worrying that they'll arrive and we'll regret our decision. I also think I'm remembering them bigger than they actually are. I'll just have to remember that Cree is the one who has to stare at me in them, so if he loves em.....it's all good right??

Whether I like them or not, they'll be here in two weeks. I have such a hard time making decisions... especially when they are expensive and permanent. Arg.

PS. Please excuse the photo grain. I always forget to change the ISO settings on my camera...unfortunately I had it on 1600. Whoops!

Yesterday morning, my boss said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but you look really bad. If you feel as bad as you look, maybe you should go home." I've been sick all week...achey throat, runny nose, achey joints, chills...the whole deal. To be honest, we've been so busy, I kind of just kept pretending that I wasn't sick. How embarrassing...nobody wants to be the germy girl at work. Apparently I wasn't hiding it very well. I felt sheepish, so on my way home I bought myself some tulips wrapped in brown paper, put them in a pretty vase next to my bed and then slept for the remainder of the day.

I put make-up on today to hopefully mask my sleepy sick eyes. I hope I'm not the only one who gets the "you look really tired" on days you choose not to wear mascara....

On a happier note, thank you all for your kind comments about our summer! We are pretty excited...we're going to be there before you know it!

PS. It's the weekend.
PPS. My Warby Parker home-try on glasses came yesterday! When they say it takes 2 weeks, they weren't kidding. It was two weeks to the day.

So guess where I'll be part-time this summer? Simple Song at The Hive at 1511 located in Alexandria. I've chatted with Suann (who is as sweet as can be) and it worked out perfectly! I'm tickled pink. Above are images from her studio and below are some shots for a birthday party she held for her son Ike that was featured on Real Simple. Adorable right?

It makes me feel better to see our summer shaping up. Every time we move, I feel a bit tense until we figure everything out, so I'm grateful it hasn't been too bad. On a side note, this movie was being filmed down the street from work the other day. I kept hoping I'd see George Clooney or Ryan Gosling as I creeped around the movie set...but I didn't. Lame. Maybe next time they are hangin' out in Ann Arbor, right? 

Also, I was tickled to see my work on one of my favorite blogs fffound. Only sad thing is that it's not linked back to me. Lameo shmamo.

One more also, I love Janis's save the dates....so much.

I've been swamped with work. Cree and I worked eleven hours on Saturday, which seems to be a common theme come the weekends nowadays...then we work until late on the weeknights. I'm not complaining because we both love what we do and that in itself is a wonderful thing. Cree and I made a decision when we got married that Sundays would be work and homework free...just a family/church day. We stuck to our goal, even when he has tests and I have due dates the following Monday, and I think our lives are better for it. Come Sunday we're so ready for a break, I don't know what we'd do without them.

Anyway, I've been behind in my letter writing, so I decided to writing some pen-pals in addition to sending some long over due thank you notes. I decided to use Tanya's suggestion and use my origami paper to line my envelopes. Such a clever idea! It really dresses up an otherwise simple envelope. Thanks for the tip!

PS. DC update, we figured out our housing quicker than anticipated and made our decision last night. It's an adorable english style apartment with a cute red door and baby blue exterior. Eeep!

Change of plans! Long story short, we are going to be living in DC this summer. Cree will be interning at the Treasury in the Middle East and North Africa regional office (I think I'm saying that right). Needless to say, he's ecstatic. I'm also grateful I get to accompany him. Living that far apart for four months would be the pits, so I'm glad we are sticking together.

These photos are from a trip we took two years ago. I fell in love with the city then and can't wait to have a whole summer to explore. We're in the process of finding apartments. Rent is much higher in DC than it is in Ann Arbor, Michigan...especially for sublets...and especially if the place looks clean. I get the willies living in other people's stuff, so we are being extra careful to find a place that looks nice. I've been pestering  Hannah and Rachel to no end....thanks again guys! We didn't know where to begin and they have been holding my hand the whole way, which I totally needed. 

If anyone has any additional tips, favorite spots, or even a sublet lead...please feel free to let me know. I'm sure we'll have time to visit it all. 

We finally got our film back from the summer. Cree took these with 3200 film....hence the extreme grain. I also just finished watching this movie. It makes me so heart sick.

I'm not an impulse buyer...but for Friday night date night, Cree and I went to a book shop with only an intention to look, but then I found this pasta book...and it was on sale...so I bought it. The design is amazing. Everything is black and white (brilliant!) and every illustration is vector. There are full bleeds and crazy patterns and an impeccable grid. I was basically drooling, so we decided it was most definitely worthy of our home library.

This weekend was full of a whole lot of work. We woke up at 6:30 am on Saturday and didn't stop working until 7pm. That said, we love our work...so that helps. We did have time to sneak in a movie...or three. It's still bitter cold here, so we opted for a weekend in. We watched Catch Me If You Can (love the opening credits...also did you hear it's going to be a musical??!?) on friday night, Cinderella Man on Saturday night and then Young Victoria (SO GOOD!) on Sunday night.  Once again, our local library saved the weekend.

I'm aware that these don't go together or even look that great together as a set...but I'm getting tired of posting about Chicago, so I bet you're tired of reading about it. In a nutshell...we stayed at the Drake Hotel which was so much fun. Lots of history...it was apparently one of Marilyn Monroe's favorites. (Thank you priceline.com for getting us such a good deal.) I took lots of photos of my cute husband. Dinner at the Blackbird was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. The food was so beautiful, I didn't want to eat it. I'm glad I did though. It was amazing. Then we saw lots of sights (on the double decker bus tour...laugh all you want, but it was better than it sounds), took more photos and did a ton of window shopping along the Magnificent Mile. The window displays were amazing. The colors and lights were fantastic....and that diver outfit/hat/thing? I don't really get it, but I like it.

That was the rest of Chicago. It was a blast. Then End.

PS. Eye appointment recap: I'm near sighted. Cree and I are going to go glasses shopping tonight for our date night. We have a SEE right next to my office. Where else are good places to look? I don't even know where to begin....Any suggestions are welcome. Thank you in advance.

The bean was so much fun. We took way too many photos. Across from Milennium park is the Chicago Cultural Center. They had art exhibits for free!  Currently they are showing Chicago and the Diana which was a whole bunch of Diana contact sheets that were really fascinating. We want to try it out ourselves. Also on exhibit was a show called Finding Vivian Maier. Oh. My. Goodness. Her photos were incredible....AND she took them all with her little rolleiflex like ours! Needless to say, we were incredibly inspired. Her photographs were funny, heartbreaking and beautiful. I wish I could see them again.



More on Chicago tomorrow. Today I have my first eye appointment. I've never had a real eye exam before and I'm a bit nervous.

I have thought my camera was broken since last November. All of my photos looked blurry in the camera, but when I'd develop/upload them, everything was in focus. I figured it was just my viewfinder having trouble. A couple weeks ago, I had something that was irritating my right eye, so I used my left eye to photograph.....it was clear as a bell! Can you believe that? I never even thought the problem could be my eyes. Silly me.

Cree and Amanda Honeymoon from Amanda Jones on Vimeo.

Chicago photo break! We got our 8mm film video back this week and we were so excited to watch it. We had it developed at Dwayne's in Kansas, but they didn't put it on CD, so Cree's Mom kindly transferred it for us. You'll probably find it completely boring because it is just a whole lot of honeymoon lovey dovey stuff and long (sometimes much too long) shots of the places we stopped. We were married April 25, 2009...so almost two years ago. Our honeymoon was a road trip up Highway 1 in California, which was breathtakingly beautiful. We started at Disneyland, made our way to Big Sur, Monteray, San Francisco and then back home through Nevada. Here are some photos and here are some polaroids from the trip.

Also please take note, at one point in the movie Cree flaps his arms....he is trying to imitate the seals in the background...but you can't really tell they are seals. :) Also, the last little bit of the movie isn't from our honeymoon...we forgot we had film left, so we did a little pan of our first apartment. I sometimes I miss the beautiful windows and exposed brick...but I don't miss sleeping in a bunk bed and storing my clothes on bookshelves. Enjoy!

Chicago, Chicago, That toddlin town!
Chicago, Chicago, I'll show you around. I love it.
Bet your bottom dollar you'll loose the blues, in Chicago!


Frank Sinatra got it right. I had that song stuck in my head the whole weekend. The first little Chicago tid bit I'll share is from the Sears Tower. They had an awesome exhibit you walk through before you get to the sky deck. The graphic design was fantastic and the crazy lighting was fun to photograph. On the hundredth-something floor there are clear boxes that jut out from the side of the building. I'm embarrassed to say that I took one step out on the ledge almost lost my breath. I've never been one to be scared of heights, but I got all dizzy and my hands were clammy...I couldn't do it. I had visions of taking one step and the whole box crashing to the ground. I realize this is ridiculous, but it seemed like a legitimate concern at the time. As you can see, Cree was much braver than I. You can also see that we both need to shine our shoes. I'm waiting until the snow is gone.

PS...I've gone and lost my phone again. I'm embarrassed how many times this happens to me. Blarg.
PPS. Isn't this the cutest website you ever did see?