Stimulate this.

My client base is primarily small business owners. I love them. They’re the salt of the earth and they work their butts off. This past year has really been hard on them. I mean REALLY hard.

Now, before you think I’m complaining for myself, I’m not. (Well, maybe a little bit.) I don’t mind that their budgets are smaller and they have to stretch their production dollars extra thin — I love a challenge and can usually pull it off. But, there’s seriously nothing I’d rather hear more than, “Julie. We need [fill in the blank] and guess what? We have a big ass budget!”

The DOW closed above 10,000 today. Fantastic, right? Sure, it is. But the follow-up story is that due to higher than expectations profits, big fat bonuses are about to be paid out. Again. And so soon. Wow.

I’m sorry. News like that makes me want to seek medication. (Which makes me think of health care reform and then I just want to vomit…)

And I’m going to stop now, because I don’t want to start a political rant. Just want to throw some love at my clients. I hope things start to turn around for them. Soon.

What have I been up to?

Well, not sleeping apparently. No surprise there.

In my copious amounts of spare time, I’ve been doing some very fun (blue sky creative) design work for a client in the fashion industry. (Ahh, to be working on something that takes me back to my fashion roots.) We’re gearing up for all the promotional material for her upcoming runway show at the end of May. Chloe Dao, the winner of season two “Project Runway” is making a guest appearance and showing some pieces of her collection, so it’s going to be a pretty big event for little ole Anchorage, Alaska. My client is trying her heart out to raise the fashion bar here, and man does she have her work cut out for her. Aside from a handful of wanna-be divas, there’s a lot of very unfashionable people around town. The past year we’ve accomplished a total re-branding, store remodel, and several successful in-store promotions and events, but the economy has been tough. So, I’m trying to support her but stay out of all the drama and frustration.

But enough of that.

Other things I’ve done recently…

1) Learned to apply cream eye shadow (stop laughing)
2) Cleared my house of all storage clutter (my favorite thing besides, well, never mind)
3) Splurged on a Marc Jacobs wallet (shhhh, don’t tell Eric)
4) Got a puppy/playmate for Jackie named Casey (also an Italian Greyhound)
5) Successfully encouraged Grant to pull his own front tooth
6) Proudly watched Dean open his report card to reveal straight A’s
7) Discovered my potential future home
8) Got my first kiss from Allen (very slobbery)

Life is good.

And now, back to my book (the laugh-out-loud There’s a Slight Chance I Might Be Going To Hell novel I got from Eric for Valentine’s) and hope it won’t keep me up the rest of the night.

To anyone reading this, hope all is well.

Back in the saddle.

Although now that I think of it that title sounds painful, since I’m having a certain problem that begins with an H… Delayed reaction to having a baby, apparently. But we won’t go there.

What I was going to say is, I spent 4 hours today working on a site that I began two years ago for my brother-in-law’s law firm. We’re rolling now.

Early Christmas for the entire family (well, minus Allen) in the form of x-country skis and all the paraphernalia that goes with them. We joined the Nordic Club of Eagle River and the kids are in lessons on Monday and Thursday nights. Tomorrow’s my night to take them. Should be fun, especially since we got some more snow and the temperature is up from below zero to around freezing… You know you live in the Arctic when the weather report leads with “It’s going to be another warm day with highs in the low to mid 30s.” The funny thing is, it really does feel warm.

We got our 30-day letter from our builder last week. Living like refugees is getting old, so let’s hope there’s no more delays. In fact, let’s hope for a miracle and they’ll finish before Christmas. This week wood flooring and granite countertops have gone in and the neighbors reported the trim workers were there today. Look for before/after photos soon…

The good, bad and the ugly.

I no longer work for CJRW. Yep, it’s true. Our entire interactive team has been dissolved into no more.

Let me back up. In April of this year, I packed up my gear and began working with the Northwest (northwest Arkansas, that is) office in Springdale with their newly formed interactive team; since not only did I want to work with them, I really, really, really did not want to continue working for the Little Rock office. Being that it’s next to impossible to find local talent, four of us were working remote (two account execs. in Seattle, an information architect in Puerta Vallarta, and me in Anchorage). So, since April I’ve been working with a sweet group of people on interactive projects for Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Cobb Vantress and a few local clients — all remote from my little home office here in Anchorage.

There’s more to the news than I can report right now, but basically the biggest reason for this sad turn of events is that our main client hacked their 2007 budget from a projected $1 million in billings to a meager $100K and there was just no way to keep 6 highly skilled people productive on that pitiful amount.

It’s bittersweet to not be working. Sweet, due to the fact that I should be focusing on being a mom right now and not stressing myself out with all that I would have to juggle. I wouldn’t have wanted to quit, so it’s a relief to have that decision made for me. Bitter, due to the fact that I will miss working with everyone on our team very much.

James, Ron, Todd, Jeremy, Reggie, Kelsey… it’s been a pleasure.

Okay, change the subject.

We got several inches of snow last night. For the first few hours of the morning it’s magical how beautiful it looks. Then you run some errands later in the day and find that someone has dumped the trash from their car in the parking lot, including the contents of their coffee cup which is now staining the pristine snow. Shame on them.

Worth every minute.

For the first time since his birth, the little cutie below fell asleep at 8:30 instead of midnight and just my luck, I can’t sleep. Got lots on my mind. I had something pretty significant in my professional life happen today that I can’t talk about until another day or two. Let’s just say that it’s made making a rather difficult decision looming in my mind pretty darn easy for me. I’ll explain later.

Now, back to this little cutie…

Michael Allen Hoover
Born 4:53 AM September 26, 2006
9 pounds 4 ounces – 21.5 inches
photo left: 6 days – photo right: 6 weeks

It took 2 hours to convince the nurse mid-wife on call that day of what I already knew — I am incapable of going into labor on my own. I was a half step from making Eric pull rank or call in a professional curtesy to the O.B. clinic. Anything to end my misery. Finally, they agreed to induce and 16 (give or take) hours later, Allen was born. There must have been some stress during labor that caused his respritory rate to sky-rocket. He scared us pretty darn good staying under the oxygen hood for 6 hours after birth until he finally settled down to a normal breathing rate. It’s a good thing I waited to relate this as I probably would have given way too much detail and said a few things I would regret. As it is now, I can hardly remember. All I remember is thinking “I will never have to do this again…” and somehow I made it through.

Today he suffered through 4 vacinations and is wiped out, hence the comatose state. He weighs 11 pounds 8 ounces and is 23.75 inches long.

The best part is he’s going to have my dimples. Finally, I can lay claim to something! Last night I was tickling his tummy and he laughed for the first time. A dear friend told me having another child would be worth every inconvenient moment… He is so right.