dirndl!!!!!

monday at work consisted of icing one of our bosses in dirndl. check it outttt!

less is more: the real monday story....: "okay so monday. basically the best monday icon has ever seen! we originally lucked out [jon picked us up, so while we were waiting we wer..."

oooops!

so i think this bloggy blog may be dead... it appears that i favor the other "design" blog that really has turned more into a "what i'm working on along with all the things i'm doing in switzerland" blog.. so i guess so check that one out [the link is only in every blog post this month!] and this one can begin to rest in peace for a while :)

less is more: rahhhr bern bear!: "so in the spirit of the large sum we paid to get some 1/2 fare we decided to go play in the capital city of good ole switzy... bern. named a..."

oh hey. it's october and it snowed here.

less is more: oh hey. it's october and it snowed here.: "so apparently mother earth woke up today and said 'eh, i don't really like autumn that much'. which i find a huge shame because the fall is ..."

moving... yes moving.

i finally got all of my stuff moved up to my new room! hopefully this will be my last move until christmas! in the past four months i have lived in my apartment in clemson, then a condo in greer, then a house wayyyy out in greer, then two rooms here in gais! i am basically an expert by now. not much is going on here, it got nice today for a while! but it's supposed to rain again tomorrow. i'm hoping for good weather this weekend so we can take a little trip and explore the area! stein am rhein maybe?

oh my olma!

pig races. need i say more? check out the videos!!

less is more: olma: "today ryan and i cleaned up a bit in the kitchen [a good start but once we get some sponges that place is going to sparkle!] and then hit up..."

today was crazy! this morning [which seems like days ago] i was starting to clean up my room for the new intern, jen [who gets here tomorrow], and now it's basically bed time and i am just now thawing out completely! it was crazy fun and i was so amused by all the animals [which i was calling aminamals, thank you mom for getting me stuck on the marooge again] anyway i posted the photos from today on my facebook [this newest addition starts at number 33 and the olma makes its first appearance at 47] and they show much of what we ran around doing.. i did not include the photos of the furniture and bedding and clothing and bier/weine and electronics halls.. they weren't that great, and when you see my attempt at showing part of the dairy hall you can tell it is just too difficult to portray.. it reminded me of graphexpo or print only in 9 halls instead of smashed up into one.

rain rain go away..

..come again in january [when i'm not here]! today it rained non-stop. just that annoying its not pour but just raining. so i slept in [hoping it would go away] and then decided i needed to get out. so i went on a little jog. something about my jog was not right, starting with the fact that i am awful at exercising and ending with the fact that it was 40 degrees and raining. about ten minutes in i felt horrible and had to turn around and come back. when i told ryan one of the landmarks id passed he said i went pretty far, so i google mapped it. turns out walking i would have been 20 minutes away from gais! go figure. on my power walk back i was noticing the different places in the town. theres a super cute sewing shop just right up the road, a bakery near the church, and [what i'm most excited for] a farm called hof bommes, which means the yard of bommes, that sells its own produce and dairy! ahhhhh! i know i'm all lactose intolerant and all, but i just LOVE dairy too much to give it up. common who can pass up fresh milk??? so ryan and i were going to hit it up when it opened for the afternoon [everything closes for lunch time]  but while i was googleing the area i found its website and they are on vacation until "wednesday the 17th". it is saturday the 16th. either way that means they are not open today. so well have to give it a go next weekend! i also went and mailed some postcards and a card [my cousin's birthday is on tuesday!], got some fountain water and hit up the denner. for dinner tonight i made the greatest meal. i cut up bit of chicken and fried them in butter, then sauteed mushrooms [in butter, a dash of this yummy seasoning, and a splash of soy sauce] and added in sliced baby potatoes. it was delishious. i made too much and ate it all of course. i need to learn some portion control, especially since the fridges here are smaller than i'm used to, so space is sacred!

after reading for a while i got to talk to sara and jon and bryson! some of my faves of course. i miss them alot! bryson is spending her weekend studyign for her crazy law stuff, jon is doing weird boy stuff, and sara is rocking my world as usual... pandora doesn't work outside the states, so she found me songza. i love me some pandora. but songza is making me ridiculously happy. i have on the 90s one hit wonder station and every single one is making me sing along and freak out. sara's waiting for lfo to come on because that really will take me right back to childhood. this is my new favorite toy. yaaay! well i'm off to rock out and read a bit more...    ☮ ♥ 90s

less is more: so really... why not???

last night jon and lori took us to this really yummy restaurant between steigbach and gais.. i had the greatest schnitzle and fries i've ever tasted [eeek! thats a huuuge statement to be making because the napoli schniztle in garmisch was amaziiiing too with the sauces and whatnot....] okay so the best i've had in switzy! but they took us out to celebrate a long day of prepressing files and for launching an awesome site... check it out below!

less is more: so really... why not???: "it was a pretty big week at icon. we had michael from the printers coming and going, files and websites being checked and rechecked for spel..."

less is more: bloggers block

less is more: bloggers block: "every once in a while everyone must battle writer's block.. or in this case, blogger's block [dun dun dunnnn]!!! for me, the writer's block ..."

travel bug

so for now the travel bug has eluded me... for some reason my desire to travel has just been muted. i'm thinking (and hoping) that its because i have basically been on a constant go since graduation. and really before that we were somewhere different every couple weeks! anyhow, in an attempt to inspire the bug to come out and play i found this fun little map on trip advisor (i take trip advisor very seriously, it has yet to lead me incorrectly!) that allows you to say all the cities you've been to. i tried to keep it to cities i've been to since i can actually remember the experience.. i kept out camping trips from when i was a kid and visiting family in cali and seattle, i know if happened, i sort of remember it, but i just don't think it counts! so check out my travels...

1. Clemson, SC, USA
2. Riomaggiore, Italy
3. Montego Bay, Jamaica
4. Ann Arbor, MI, USA
5. Chicago, IL, USA

• Create your own travel map or travel blog
• Great vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

design blog here i come!

today it has been quite overcast in gais. it looked like it would get nice for a while, but then the opaque white clouds came in and i cannot even see the mountains out of my window! its a good thing i'm still getting accustomed, and that i had things to work on this weekend. hopefully tomorrow will be nice and we can check out the olma...

but today, today i spent organizing all of my works (and trying to track down a few others...) into their appropriate categories. i then spent the better part of the afternoon making a design blog that will hopefully hold my designs in an organized and sensible way! i decided to name it [less is more] because let's be honest, poor mr. wipfli spent years trying to convince me of the truth of that statement. i of course responded by gluing jewels (rhinestones for reinstein!) all over his classroom and notes that we would deliver to his house. but mr. wipfli, i learned! and so now.... check out [less is more] and let me know feedback!

eleven... ELEVEN?!? oh.. this explains soo much

heh heh heh love almost famous... but seriously today i worked on/resized/edited and overall completed eleven ads for one our larger clients, st. gallen's executive education department. i have now officially been here for one week! my jet lag has finally ended, but i'm still off a bit. lori says i will have one more week to get used to the high altitude we're in. we will see next week! also i finished reading the help and have begun philippa gregory's the white queen. she is an amazing author and so far i have not been let down.. also i've started going through my portfolio yet again! it is an ongoing process that will never be complete :) anyway soo i'm going to create another space for those poor neglected works that i still hold dear but just cannot include in my official portfolio. even though it is only 15:30 (check me out...!) i think i may have to take a nap or call it a night! geez i must have aged on the flight over!

mein erstes wochenende

so i have survived my first weekend in appenzell ausserrhoden! on saturday lori and jon picked up whitney, karen and i to take us to this little ridge area above tuefen to take a walk and have an amazing lunch with not too shabby of a view... the place was like a mini farm, with animals everywhere. inside the restaurant there was a room that was all windows so you could look in and see this massive pig who had just given birth to a bunch of piglets.. they were sooo adorable! my favorite was the baby goat though, with his mini little horns.

mountain from the restaurant view

baby goat

city of gais from afar

today (sunday) karen took me to appenzell. we split a schnitzlebrot (schnitzle, lettuce, onion, a sauce on fresh baked chiabattaish bread) and took the wanderweg (hiking trail) out into the fields.. it was gorgeous! i am going to have a ridiculous collection of photos of the one mountain by the time i leave here, the camera just cannot capture how magnificent it is! the coolest part about the walk was the assortment of people out, especially on a nice day like today. there were newborn babies in strollers all the way to grandparents who were in way better shape than i am! once we got to appenzell she showed me around a bit, there is an awesome metal works shop that was closed (great bells there sam!) and we got some gelato and sat in the sun by one of the fountains. then we went to the cheese stop next door and got these buckets of yogurt with fresh fruit in them... i got cherry. i can't wait to devour it! after more walking we decided on taking the train back to gais. the festival is still going strong, and we went to get a bratwurst and spied another type of sausagey looking item called a schüblig. the vendor told us it was a local brat and famous so we went ahead and had one each. i am so full it was fantastic! then after catching up with sam and mary, karen and i met whitney at the gais festival. unfortunately the bumper cars were almost out of use, but karen won a rose at the shooting hall and loaded up on sweets! overall it was a very good first weekend!

beauty queen cow!

covered bridge on the walk

my first {half} week at icon

so all day monday i traveled to switzerland. i got in tuesday morning and was quite proud of myself for catching the early train and getting through customs as quickly as i did! although on my way down an escalator with my two bags i managed to lose hold of the top one and it just cam crashing down on me. a complete mess, but it could have been worse! luckily i made it down the second escalator much more gracefully. there were just the nicest people around, helping me with my crazy heavy bags and acting like it was no big deal (trust me these bags were not light...) then lor, ryan and napoleon picked me up, we did a bit of quick grocery shopping and headed to the office so i could meet everyone. after about an hour though the jet lag started getting to me and before i could even get anything out of my bags i crashed for a few hours. then karen, ryan, whitney and i ate at the italian restaurant that's below our rooms. it was really good and i will for sure be tempted to eat there again!

the next day my alarm didn't go off so i slept in and barely made the train to work! the trains here are all really well kept, which is a change form most of the trains i was on this summer! work is really close to where we stay, and the country is beautiful! the mountains seem like a backdrop that someone paints fresh daily, it is ridiculous! so my first day at work i re-sized a few ads and sat in on a couple meetings of projects i will be helping out with and just overall got situated. after work i met ryan and karen in the kitchen that's upstairs and hung out with them for a while. that night i thought i would be able to sleep.. not so much. i was so afraid i hadn't fixed my phone and my alarm wouldn't go off i was waking up every few hours and then couldn't fall back asleep!

day two i did get up on time, and after work i got my train pass so i don't have to buy one every morning. i am set until december and then i need to get one more month! at work i did a few more ads and began working on a logo for a new client along with helping out with making corrections to other projects to familiarize myself with the looks and styles the clients have, as well as getting used to working in german! this evening lori and jon had everyone over, and a girl who used to work here came with a friend she's visiting. lori made a spanish feast and it was so tasty! at around 11:30 it was time for us to leave, i was barely awake and finally slept through the night!

on friday i tried to wake up early but my alarm didn't change so i woke up at the normal time. karen took me to this awesome bakery to get a little breakfast, and i think the jet lag is finally wearing off and i am beginning to get my appetite back! phew, i was starting to get nervous there for a while.. i worked on more logo designs and then karen gave me a project to help her with, updating website comps for a client we are revamping a site for.. it looks really great! when we got back to gais (the city/town/village we live in) they had all these tents and bumper cars and all sorts of stuff set up, so hopefully there will be a fun little something going on this weekend!