2009 Addy Award

Today I found out that an ad from the campaign I did for Virginia Blood Services had won an Addy Award! (My full campaign is pictured here.) The Addys are a nationally-recognized advertising competition, and kind of a big deal. Click HERE for a link to the site.
I'm totally shocked. My partner entered the top ad in the alternative media/viral campaign category, and didn't tell me. Imagine my surprise when my professor announced in class that we had won!!
I can't seem to upload the .pdf of the image. So I'll just tell you about it. It's a checkbook with an actual check that we made featuring Virginia Blood Services. It was designed to raise awareness about the critically low blood supply in a way that would actually inspire the public to donate. The line on the check is "We could run out, too." (I personally wrote HUNDREDS of lines for this campaign, and the creative director ultimately approved that one for production. I'm not such a big fan, but it was more about the concept behind it.) We created the check and photographed the checkbook. Kinda unique...ever seen something like this in YOUR checkbook before?


Anyway we don't know yet how we placed in the competition (Gold, Silver, etc), we'll find out at the Addy's Award Gala at the end of February. But I get an actual award!! It's crazy and totally unexpected. The ones pictured are from previous competitions. (The last one looks like it's sitting on a chocolate cake!) It's a big fancy event with a gallery exhibition, dinner, a ceremony, and all that, and Jeremy is taking me. Thank you to everyone who sent me lots of love today-- it made my day to share this with all of you.

1997

I was going through my little box of high school treasures and came across this beauty. This was taken in the spring of our senior year (twelve years ago, yikes we are increasing in age). How freakin' cool are we? Sadly, I was not dressed in theme. I commonly wore a vest over a t-shirt that year. We stole that barricade while on our date and later abandoned it inside the school. :)

Barbies!!

Speaking of collections . . . Trisha asked how many Barbies Janell has in her collections these days. I'm not sure if she would actually divulge that so I thought I'd better step in. I just finished counting and I came up with 196. I didn't include the 20 or so Kelly dolls because Janell keeps telling me they don't count. It's a great collection and makes Janell happy. It's so cute to find her in her office changing their clothes or trimming their hair. Plus, I never have to wonder what to get her for her birthday!

Does Anyone Remember This?

I'm a collector, as you all know (of dolls, coins, stamps, books) and yesterday got the last of the "new" quarters and completed the "Quarters of the United States" map. Does anyone else remember when these maps came out, 10 years ago?


I think everyone was excited about them for a couple years, but that was it. For some reason, we kept ours around and kept adding to it when we'd remember, thinking, wow, 2008 is soooo far away.

Fun Fact of the Day

Parker informed me today that he'd been chosen to provide the day's "Fun Fact" at school.
This entails making an announcement over the school's intercom as part of the morning announcements.
Parker said that the WHOLE school hears the morning announcements, and that he was SO nervous. He said he could "barely get a word out."
Parker's script was as follows: "Hi. My name is Parker Hancock and I am in Ms. Evaro's class. Did you know that President Obama reads Harry Potter to his oldest daughter every night before bed?"
So that was Parker's 15 seconds of fame.

As a side note, this morning I was wiping off the dining room table and Parker looked up from his cereal and said, "Mom, you're very hygienic."
I just cracked up.
He even knew what it meant.
Did I mention he reads a lot?

Parker's sleepover

Parker's friend, Kyle, spent the night.
This is what 9-year-old boys do when you make them
turn off the PlayStation and use their imaginations.
(The weird music in the background is Jeremy
rehearsing for the musical he's accompanying.)

Those LOL cats at it again...

Ice Skating

Parker's 2nd time ice skating. He definitely fell several times, but did stay upright about 80% of the time! I had a blast. No quarter-sized blisters this time-- I rented hockey skates instead of figure skates.

I spy, with my little eye....

....a kid singing! He was really wailing before Jeremy snuck up there to take a video, but quieted down for some reason. Anyway this is a typical evening in the life of Parker- singing to American Sly and playing with Legos.

Happy Birthday, Grandma Williams!

Happy Birthday Grandma Hancock!!