Thursday.
This morning I made the executive decision to work from the house. It was so nice not to ride in a taxi all day. Well, originally I planned to work from the house in the morning and then go into the office around lunch time. However, when we called in and found that there were no new samples I decided to just stay at the house.
So, while drinking my coffee on the "couch" I did some serious multi tasking! I took photos of a few products for the catalog, did some work on the computer, gave a quick photoshop lesson, patterned two new products, made a grilled cheese, sent a few emails via bb, had some amazing chocolate milk, drink more coffee, played with Pepo, and made a killer spreadsheet. Seriously, I should stay home more often.
After work I went over to the hotel to workout, but there was kind of a creepy man in there, so after running a mile I decided that was good enough and went back to the house. I need to just get up early in the morning and go, because there is never anyone around at that time.
We went to Eli's for dinner tonight and had amazing black eyed pea burgers. Pepo came to dinner and ended up getting stuck under the table and knocking everything over. Some of us laughed....others just looked annoyed. There is a lot of Pepo hate. I however love the little pup!
At dinner we talked about all the shows we would watch when we were younger....here are a few of the favorites.
Doug
Rugrats
Ahh real monsters
The magic school bus
Arthur
Recess
Richard Scary
Are you afraid of the dark
The elephant show
Lamb chop
And so many more.....
Name your favorite childhood show, and if you are a parent name your favorite from childhood and one you liked that your child watched.
Peace. Love. I ate 4 black eyed pea burger patties.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Fire Up Black Stars
Wednesday.
Well, I'm no auto expert by any means, but I do know that when driving a car that the steering wheel should not be upside down while driving. Then again...we did make it to work alive, so what do I know!
The mornings go by so fast around here! We got into the office and I sent all of the interns on site visits. Some had to leave from the house and some had to leave from the office. We had been at the office for a good amount of time when I received a BBM (text) from one of the girls telling me that she was lost. Well, it wasn't so much being lost as telling the driver the wrong road. Eventually she made it safely.
In between sending people off I worked on taking photos of all of the new samples that came in yesterday. I do not think that any of them turned out how we had planned, but they still for the most part look really great. Throughout the afternoon more samples came in but once again they were not as we had expected. However, they still look pretty good.
And now..I would just like to say this one time. Just because you went to some fancy art school does not mean that you are the best. This is a design TEAM...emphasis on the word TEAM. There always has to be one....
I came back to the house a little earlier than normal today, because we had some of the designers working from here. However, by the time I actually got home it was basically the end of the work day. So I just had a quick meeting (with the few that were actually still at the house) and then I went to workout.
For dinner I enjoyed some warm powdered milk and choco smiles...aka something similar to chocolate flavored cardboard. That's what I get for sending an intern to get my cereal. :-) Just kidding about the complaining..not kidding about sending an intern to do my shopping. There is only so much time in the day!
Ghana plays today, so I expect you all to cheer for them. Everyone in the office had Ghana color on...I was clueless that there was even a game, so I lost points in the team spirit category. But should I really be deducted points though if I don't have any Ghana colored items with me?
Not much excitement today...
Peace. Love. Choco Smiles.
Well, I'm no auto expert by any means, but I do know that when driving a car that the steering wheel should not be upside down while driving. Then again...we did make it to work alive, so what do I know!
The mornings go by so fast around here! We got into the office and I sent all of the interns on site visits. Some had to leave from the house and some had to leave from the office. We had been at the office for a good amount of time when I received a BBM (text) from one of the girls telling me that she was lost. Well, it wasn't so much being lost as telling the driver the wrong road. Eventually she made it safely.
In between sending people off I worked on taking photos of all of the new samples that came in yesterday. I do not think that any of them turned out how we had planned, but they still for the most part look really great. Throughout the afternoon more samples came in but once again they were not as we had expected. However, they still look pretty good.
And now..I would just like to say this one time. Just because you went to some fancy art school does not mean that you are the best. This is a design TEAM...emphasis on the word TEAM. There always has to be one....
I came back to the house a little earlier than normal today, because we had some of the designers working from here. However, by the time I actually got home it was basically the end of the work day. So I just had a quick meeting (with the few that were actually still at the house) and then I went to workout.
For dinner I enjoyed some warm powdered milk and choco smiles...aka something similar to chocolate flavored cardboard. That's what I get for sending an intern to get my cereal. :-) Just kidding about the complaining..not kidding about sending an intern to do my shopping. There is only so much time in the day!
Ghana plays today, so I expect you all to cheer for them. Everyone in the office had Ghana color on...I was clueless that there was even a game, so I lost points in the team spirit category. But should I really be deducted points though if I don't have any Ghana colored items with me?
Not much excitement today...
Peace. Love. Choco Smiles.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
This little piggy went to market
Tuesday.
On the way into work I saw the cutest little pig ever. He looked like half pig, half cow. About 30 minutes later I had to listen to that little piggy die. It is a sound that I never want to hear again.
After listening to the squeels of death I went on a site visit to work one on one with a batiker. Today I was working with Jennifer on sampling two new prints. Sorry, that is all the print info I can give....you know...top secret information. :-) She came to the office to pick me up because I had no clue as to where her house/studio was located. When we arrived she already had the base color done, so we were able to begin batiking right away. It is really interesting to see how different each of the womens styles are. Jennifer was just flinging hot wax all over the place. There was even a large splatter of wax on the ceiling, that I guess at one time exploded when she walked away. Yikes!
We spent the good part of the morning working on the samples, and then the greatest snack moment of my Ghana trip occurred. Jennfier made kettle corn. It seriously made my day. It was the perfect amount of sweet and salty.
After the samples were finished I went back to the madness of the office. There were still women coming in to pick up stamps, so space was tight. Also, while the stamp madness was happening we were trying to finish the second round of our trend presentation to send off to the US. Then at one point I gave up my computer so one of the women could check her emails....at which point I became completely useless. Then I basically had to serve as tech support to teach the women how to use the computers. You can ask my mom....I do not have an ounce of patience when it comes to teaching computers. Especially when it is not a mac. Luckily it was the end of the day, so we could just go home.
On the way to grab a taxi home we were walking when we all noticed the shirt of the man walking past. It said I (heart) Qdoba. I had to do a double take. I literally thought of asking if I could buy it from him.
When we were walking back to the house after being dropped off by the taxi we ran into a pack of Obrunis (white people) who work with an NGO based out of Elmina. They were having a snack/dinner at the street sausage spot, so we stopped to hang out with them. Most were from the UK and one was from Australia. I believe they do something with education, but I am still not 100 percent sure. We made plans to have our house hang out with their house this weekend.
Short post but I am so sleepy.
Oh, and I have been craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with puffy Cheetos and a glass of milk!
Peace. Love. Kettle Corn.
On the way into work I saw the cutest little pig ever. He looked like half pig, half cow. About 30 minutes later I had to listen to that little piggy die. It is a sound that I never want to hear again.
After listening to the squeels of death I went on a site visit to work one on one with a batiker. Today I was working with Jennifer on sampling two new prints. Sorry, that is all the print info I can give....you know...top secret information. :-) She came to the office to pick me up because I had no clue as to where her house/studio was located. When we arrived she already had the base color done, so we were able to begin batiking right away. It is really interesting to see how different each of the womens styles are. Jennifer was just flinging hot wax all over the place. There was even a large splatter of wax on the ceiling, that I guess at one time exploded when she walked away. Yikes!
We spent the good part of the morning working on the samples, and then the greatest snack moment of my Ghana trip occurred. Jennfier made kettle corn. It seriously made my day. It was the perfect amount of sweet and salty.
After the samples were finished I went back to the madness of the office. There were still women coming in to pick up stamps, so space was tight. Also, while the stamp madness was happening we were trying to finish the second round of our trend presentation to send off to the US. Then at one point I gave up my computer so one of the women could check her emails....at which point I became completely useless. Then I basically had to serve as tech support to teach the women how to use the computers. You can ask my mom....I do not have an ounce of patience when it comes to teaching computers. Especially when it is not a mac. Luckily it was the end of the day, so we could just go home.
On the way to grab a taxi home we were walking when we all noticed the shirt of the man walking past. It said I (heart) Qdoba. I had to do a double take. I literally thought of asking if I could buy it from him.
When we were walking back to the house after being dropped off by the taxi we ran into a pack of Obrunis (white people) who work with an NGO based out of Elmina. They were having a snack/dinner at the street sausage spot, so we stopped to hang out with them. Most were from the UK and one was from Australia. I believe they do something with education, but I am still not 100 percent sure. We made plans to have our house hang out with their house this weekend.
Short post but I am so sleepy.
Oh, and I have been craving a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with puffy Cheetos and a glass of milk!
Peace. Love. Kettle Corn.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday Monday Monday!
Week six.
Ohhh Monday.
I woke up this morning and cleaned my small corner of the house. Oh it feels good to be organized.
The rear view mirror in the taxi this morning was cracking me up. If you looked at the very top of the mirror your face would stretch like a fun house mirror. I noticed this when I looked up and had lips the size of Texas. So, forgetting that I was in a taxi with perfect strangers I started to make faces in the mirror...until I caught the drivers eye and snapped back to reality. In the end I scored a drop off right at the door.
Work went by so fast today! We had the first round of stencils made, so we wrote out some directions for the batikers. Trying to be helpful we tried to make color swatches to give a general color idea. The only problem was that we had a few crayons, so the end result was not as we had intended. Oops.
Before I knew it, it was time for lunch and I was so very excited for my 50 cent goat rice. I went out...turned onto the street...and stood in shock. She did not come to work today. so, I wandered the streets for a good half hour looking for something that would compare, and I ended up with a piece of bread and a bottle of coke. What a let down. However, it was not as much of a let down as Katies lunch, when she opened a packet of laughing cow cheese only to find something brown and crumbly, and my stomach just did a flip thinking about it again.....blah!
After lunch the day went by even faster than the morning. We called the batikers to come pick up their stencils and it was a steady stream of women coming in to get directions on their stamps and carve their foam blocks. The office is a small space to begin with, so when people start packing in, the volume gets 10 times louder and foam bits start flying, and you have to make sure they all give the coveted Shaprie markers back....you need to be on top of your game to survive that room. Its stressful. One of my major projects while I am here is to organize all of the stamps from the past and work on a tracking system for new stamps. Its much more complicated than it sounds...believe me! So, through the commotion I had to make sure I logged information on all the batikers as they were given work.
Because we are about to sample all new designs we thought it would be a good idea to have interns work with the women on perfecting the new colors and the layout. Throughout the next few weeks it is going to be fun working with all of the women in their studios.
At the very end of the day one of the workers went to pick up the mail...I'm not quite sure from where, but I was so excited to find a beautiful pink envelope for ME!!! My mom sent over a few more Clinique bags for the women, so I passed them out to the two who were picking up their stamps when I opened the envelope.
On my way to the taxi today I saw my good friend Sam. He was excited to tell me that I would be here for the festival in September...I don't know why he just thought of that today, but I guess its something to look forward to. I had to sit for a while today until the taxi filled up, and lucky for me I was wedged in with quite a talker. After taking an ear full for not speaking fluent Fante after living here for a month, I (or should I say Wendy) learned all about the photographer who has a shop in Elmina. I also had the pleasure of looking through a large stack of his recent work. I would like to describe it as glamor shots meets clip art. Very impressive graphics added to further enhance the already glorious photos......
After work I went over to the hotel to work out. Where I ran into my former husband and also picked up a new one while I was running. Oh the joys of the Elmina Beach Resort.
Peace. Love. Digital Prints.
Ohhh Monday.
I woke up this morning and cleaned my small corner of the house. Oh it feels good to be organized.
The rear view mirror in the taxi this morning was cracking me up. If you looked at the very top of the mirror your face would stretch like a fun house mirror. I noticed this when I looked up and had lips the size of Texas. So, forgetting that I was in a taxi with perfect strangers I started to make faces in the mirror...until I caught the drivers eye and snapped back to reality. In the end I scored a drop off right at the door.
Work went by so fast today! We had the first round of stencils made, so we wrote out some directions for the batikers. Trying to be helpful we tried to make color swatches to give a general color idea. The only problem was that we had a few crayons, so the end result was not as we had intended. Oops.
Before I knew it, it was time for lunch and I was so very excited for my 50 cent goat rice. I went out...turned onto the street...and stood in shock. She did not come to work today. so, I wandered the streets for a good half hour looking for something that would compare, and I ended up with a piece of bread and a bottle of coke. What a let down. However, it was not as much of a let down as Katies lunch, when she opened a packet of laughing cow cheese only to find something brown and crumbly, and my stomach just did a flip thinking about it again.....blah!
After lunch the day went by even faster than the morning. We called the batikers to come pick up their stencils and it was a steady stream of women coming in to get directions on their stamps and carve their foam blocks. The office is a small space to begin with, so when people start packing in, the volume gets 10 times louder and foam bits start flying, and you have to make sure they all give the coveted Shaprie markers back....you need to be on top of your game to survive that room. Its stressful. One of my major projects while I am here is to organize all of the stamps from the past and work on a tracking system for new stamps. Its much more complicated than it sounds...believe me! So, through the commotion I had to make sure I logged information on all the batikers as they were given work.
Because we are about to sample all new designs we thought it would be a good idea to have interns work with the women on perfecting the new colors and the layout. Throughout the next few weeks it is going to be fun working with all of the women in their studios.
At the very end of the day one of the workers went to pick up the mail...I'm not quite sure from where, but I was so excited to find a beautiful pink envelope for ME!!! My mom sent over a few more Clinique bags for the women, so I passed them out to the two who were picking up their stamps when I opened the envelope.
On my way to the taxi today I saw my good friend Sam. He was excited to tell me that I would be here for the festival in September...I don't know why he just thought of that today, but I guess its something to look forward to. I had to sit for a while today until the taxi filled up, and lucky for me I was wedged in with quite a talker. After taking an ear full for not speaking fluent Fante after living here for a month, I (or should I say Wendy) learned all about the photographer who has a shop in Elmina. I also had the pleasure of looking through a large stack of his recent work. I would like to describe it as glamor shots meets clip art. Very impressive graphics added to further enhance the already glorious photos......
After work I went over to the hotel to work out. Where I ran into my former husband and also picked up a new one while I was running. Oh the joys of the Elmina Beach Resort.
Peace. Love. Digital Prints.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
PHOTOS!
This is my house.
Going Up.
This is my bedroom
This is Busua.....the devil bird
This is my bathroom
This is me with a little monkey.....not the one who bit me.
My hut for the weekend.
Kids on the beach.
REAL COFFEE!
Campfire on the beach.
Driving my really cool sand car.
peace. love. photos
Saturday, June 19, 2010
I eat books
Ohhhh Saturday.
I "slept in" today...until 6:30. Even that early in the morning it was already so beautiful outside. I made myself a cup of tea and enjoyed a rock cake on the balcony. I finished my book. If you need a good beach read, I would suggest Something Borrowed.
Because it was such a beautiful day, we decided to spend a little time at the pool. Never really knowing what time it is around here, we headed over when it was really sunny. It was 8:30. we were the only fools there so early on a Saturday morning. We all claimed our beach chairs, and I started to read Murder on the Orient Express. I was hoping it would be a great murder mystery thriller, but after a few hours, I found it to be quite a disappointment. Sorry Agatha Christie, that is the only book I will read of yours.
Also, while at the pool I had an amazing salad. It was lettuce, cucumbers, green beats, potatoes, onions, carrots, green peppers, and peanuts, in some kind of garlic vinaigrette! Um. I was just excited to have raw veggies.
After I finished my book, and soaked up my fair share of sun, I headed back to the house. I had not brushed my hair in a while, because I just throw it into a bun everyday, so when I tried to brush it today I had a bit of trouble. There was a huge dred in the middle of my hair, and it did not want to come out. I had to sacrifice quite a few pieces in the end.
That's my day. Boring but relaxing.
Peace. Love. Books.
I "slept in" today...until 6:30. Even that early in the morning it was already so beautiful outside. I made myself a cup of tea and enjoyed a rock cake on the balcony. I finished my book. If you need a good beach read, I would suggest Something Borrowed.
Because it was such a beautiful day, we decided to spend a little time at the pool. Never really knowing what time it is around here, we headed over when it was really sunny. It was 8:30. we were the only fools there so early on a Saturday morning. We all claimed our beach chairs, and I started to read Murder on the Orient Express. I was hoping it would be a great murder mystery thriller, but after a few hours, I found it to be quite a disappointment. Sorry Agatha Christie, that is the only book I will read of yours.
Also, while at the pool I had an amazing salad. It was lettuce, cucumbers, green beats, potatoes, onions, carrots, green peppers, and peanuts, in some kind of garlic vinaigrette! Um. I was just excited to have raw veggies.
After I finished my book, and soaked up my fair share of sun, I headed back to the house. I had not brushed my hair in a while, because I just throw it into a bun everyday, so when I tried to brush it today I had a bit of trouble. There was a huge dred in the middle of my hair, and it did not want to come out. I had to sacrifice quite a few pieces in the end.
That's my day. Boring but relaxing.
Peace. Love. Books.
Friday, June 18, 2010
bag - o - wata
Friday Friday Friday!
I had the best dinner ever last night! First, the guac and plantain chips were amazing! Then for dinner we had black eyed pea burgers, and I put some of the extra guac on top! Yum. One time Karrah and I made turkey burgers with guac, spinach, and homemade pesto mayonnaise....(Karrah I know your mouth is watering right now), but anyway, they tasted just like that! This should just turn into a food blog, because I feel like it is all I talk about.
This morning I once again shared a seat with a small school boy. Due to the fact we had to stop at school I was one of the last ones in the office, but as I was walking up the street half the interns were leaving to go on a trip...so the office was quite empty when I walked in. The goal of today was to print and make all of the stencils for the first round of samples. And because we worked on this all day long....Mission accomplished! Thank you ellen Keane for cutting everything out! Number one worker of the day.
Between making batik stamp templates my day consisted of...drinking tea, going to the bank, eating my goat and rice combo, eating a sweet potato, listening to the world cup (not by choice) and drinking my first water bag. I always have my water bottle with me, so there has not ever been a need to buy water, but today someone got one for me, so I just had to drink it. It is a small square bag that is filled with pure water. If you ask me, it looks like a square breast implant...no joke. To drink it you bite the corner and drink away. It is slightly awkward, but also kind of fun.
We were a little late leaving the office due to some packing that needed to be finished for a shipment tomorrow morning. We were walking to where we always get a taxi, and you have to walk up a hill, cross a street and then walk back down a hill where all of the taxis are parked. So we were at the top of the hill, about to walk down when a driver asked "where are you going...Elmina?" We said yes, and he said "Yes, I will take you there" so I asked if it was a shared taxi, he said yes, then I set the price, he agreed, and as the other two girls were getting in I heard a lot of commotion. I looked down the hill and all of the drivers were yelling ELMINA! ELMINA! And waving their arms. I stood watching for a minute trying to figure out what was happening, when one of the drivers started to run up the hill. So I told the other two girls to get out of the car and we would get in a different taxi. They were confused as I grabbed them out, but the drivers seemed pretty serious that they didn't want us in that taxi. Now, maybe they just wanted the business, but I trust them because everyday we get a ride home from them, so the fact that all of the drivers were yelling at us made me think it was for a good reason. When I got to the bottom of the hill Sam was a little mad at me, asking why I would get in that taxi. I was confused, and just said sorry. Then he was fine.
By the time we got home it was dinner time, and we went down to Elis for veggie curry. It was so good!
This weekend my plan is just to hang out and maybe visit one of the castles.
Peace. Love. Curry.
I had the best dinner ever last night! First, the guac and plantain chips were amazing! Then for dinner we had black eyed pea burgers, and I put some of the extra guac on top! Yum. One time Karrah and I made turkey burgers with guac, spinach, and homemade pesto mayonnaise....(Karrah I know your mouth is watering right now), but anyway, they tasted just like that! This should just turn into a food blog, because I feel like it is all I talk about.
This morning I once again shared a seat with a small school boy. Due to the fact we had to stop at school I was one of the last ones in the office, but as I was walking up the street half the interns were leaving to go on a trip...so the office was quite empty when I walked in. The goal of today was to print and make all of the stencils for the first round of samples. And because we worked on this all day long....Mission accomplished! Thank you ellen Keane for cutting everything out! Number one worker of the day.
Between making batik stamp templates my day consisted of...drinking tea, going to the bank, eating my goat and rice combo, eating a sweet potato, listening to the world cup (not by choice) and drinking my first water bag. I always have my water bottle with me, so there has not ever been a need to buy water, but today someone got one for me, so I just had to drink it. It is a small square bag that is filled with pure water. If you ask me, it looks like a square breast implant...no joke. To drink it you bite the corner and drink away. It is slightly awkward, but also kind of fun.
We were a little late leaving the office due to some packing that needed to be finished for a shipment tomorrow morning. We were walking to where we always get a taxi, and you have to walk up a hill, cross a street and then walk back down a hill where all of the taxis are parked. So we were at the top of the hill, about to walk down when a driver asked "where are you going...Elmina?" We said yes, and he said "Yes, I will take you there" so I asked if it was a shared taxi, he said yes, then I set the price, he agreed, and as the other two girls were getting in I heard a lot of commotion. I looked down the hill and all of the drivers were yelling ELMINA! ELMINA! And waving their arms. I stood watching for a minute trying to figure out what was happening, when one of the drivers started to run up the hill. So I told the other two girls to get out of the car and we would get in a different taxi. They were confused as I grabbed them out, but the drivers seemed pretty serious that they didn't want us in that taxi. Now, maybe they just wanted the business, but I trust them because everyday we get a ride home from them, so the fact that all of the drivers were yelling at us made me think it was for a good reason. When I got to the bottom of the hill Sam was a little mad at me, asking why I would get in that taxi. I was confused, and just said sorry. Then he was fine.
By the time we got home it was dinner time, and we went down to Elis for veggie curry. It was so good!
This weekend my plan is just to hang out and maybe visit one of the castles.
Peace. Love. Curry.
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