INTERVIEW WITH AMY MORBY

One of my internships this semester has been working with the beautiful and inspiring people at Beauty Mark, a documentary that encourages individuals to rise above culture's elusive standard of beauty.

On the blog today, we had the opportunity to interview the inspiring Amy Morby, blogger behind A is for Ampersand, as she shares with us her compelling inspiration and story for her February "self-love" blogging project. She is a promoter of positive self image, fighting insecurities and loving yourself.

Check out her interview and her blog :)

Thank you Amy for letting us interview you! You've truly been an inspiration.

Thank yous on Thursday -

Appreciation goes a long way,
especially when you show your appreciation.

I always find it important to give thanks, so today I spent some time writing each employee at my internship that I had an opportunity to work with a thank you card, no matter how much or how little I worked with them. It truly has been a great experience and glad they saw some potential in me. No words can show the gratitude I have towards my internship supervisor for giving me the chance to work at her office.

I am such a sucker for cute thank you cards, stationary, etc.
So I wanted to share the ones I wrote in today -

The cutest thank you cards I've purchased to date. I wrote in 11 of these today :]

Speaking of thank yous, here are some things I can be thankful for today.

Thank you Netflix for having a grand selection of tv series on instant.
Thank you roommates for your patience as I attempt to play guitar (again).
Thank you God for every person in my life and for the little gifts you give every day.
Thank you Seth Cohen for being on The O.C.
Thank you Boone for your beautifully hot, but bearable summers.
Thank you Brita pitcher for saving plastic and for good water. You rock.

Thank you to any one who has said thank you today.

Have you said thank you today?

14th Annual MusicFest 'N Sugar Grove

AH. YES. MUSICFEST 'N SUGAR GROVE.

The event that I have been waiting for since April!

I had the opportunity to be a press intern for this wonderful nonprofit organization called MusicFest 'N Sugar Grove. Starting as Doc Watson Appreciation Day, this music festival has been putting on two-day music festivals of bluegrass, old time, folk and "traditional plus" (Doc Watson's genre) music for 14 years now! They are based in Sugar Grove, N.C., and are supported by Cove Creek Preservation & Development (CCP&D) in the Historic Cove Creek school. Here's an article about the little history behind their partnership and why they do what they do. Psst. Article is written by me! Pretty cool, huh?

Now...

Honestly, I am not a bluegrass fan but this festival has definitely made me appreciate bluegrass and the music up here in the mountains! Everyone was just jammin', eating some good grub (pulled bbq, blooming onions, kettle corn) and having a good time! I definitely had a great experience. I had the opportunity to watch Carolina Chocolate Drops, who actually met at Appalachian in 2005 during some sort of conference and Doc Watson, I should say legendary Doc Watson. At the event we had two stages - the main stage and the solar stage. The solar stage was powered by "Daisy", provided by Appalachian's Sustainable Development department. Our festival was definitely trying to go GREEN!

Overall, the festival was a success and I am glad I had the opportunity to be a part of it. It was filled with great music, familiar and new faces, passion and continuous support from the community. I love my little mountain town.

Pictured above: Megan and I working at the festival, the main stage, MusicFest merchandise, Daisy, southern pulled bbq and the main stage.

ELI SNUGGS AND FRIENDS

One of my good friends Eli, performed on the Solar Stage of the festival with the rest of his band. I hope they have some recordings soon with the whole band, but on the bandcamp, there are some acoustic recordings. You should definitely give him a listen, and who knows, support and buy his album? :)

Now that the festival is over, I have some what of a less stressful plate... but my other internship has definitely kept me busy! (in a good way) Hopefully I'll post some links with some stories that are published online soon! For now, I need to grab my neighbor so we can TAEBO.

Take care,

A Glimpse of Chicago

listening to "On the Wing" - Owl City
Ah, the memories of seeing him at Cat's Cradle with my best friends.

Anyway, last weekend (July 4th) I had the opportunity to visit Chicago with my family! It was much fun. You just can't possibly see Chicago in a weekend! It was about a 12 hour drive from Boone, but completely worth it (given, I didn't have to drive for the majority!) I was able to see a city that I've been thinking of living in one day? Maybe? It definitely didn't disappoint.

In a few words, my trip to Chicago was filled with amazing pizza, visiting the Willis tower, formerly known as Sears Tower, Navy Pier, jamba juice (at last!), miniature golf, family, endless laughter with my cousins, public transportation, the BEAN aka "cloud gate", comfy hotel beds, continental breakfast, fireworks, city lights, amazing views, possibilities and much much more. Chicago, we'll meet up again. I promise.

Here's a few photos from my trip.

 

Playing with my cousins at the Children's Museum (awesome museum!)

 

Family.

 

The streets of Chicago.

 

Deep dish pizza!

 

The BEAN! Or Cloud Gate, whichever you prefer.

 

Ah, the city

 

Navy Pier

Even though I thought I lightened my load when I quit my job at Primo's, life hasn't felt busier! I feel fortunate to have traveled this much this summer. I really wasn't expecting it. Illinois would be my fifth state this past month! Unbelievable! This past weekend I was super busy with MusicFest 'N Sugar Grove, the local nonprofit organization I was interning for. The 14th Annual MusicFest 'N Sugar Grove music festival is officially complete and was a successful event! All our hard work has definitely paid off. I will definitely post more details on the event next time. Other than that, I've been working hard with my other internship, currently working on about eight different stories! So lots of research, interviews, phone calls, emails, scheduling, revising but fun!

I hope everyone else's summer is going wonderfully.
I hope to see some of my favorite faces when I go home this weekend.

Music[video] Monday 002 + Update

This week the music video I chose is Sufjan Steven's "For the Widows in Paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti"
Sufjan is one of my favorite artists & I'm still getting to know his music.
This music video is the acoustic version of his song, but if are not aware of Sufjan Stevens, I promise you'll fall in love with him as much as I did.
This is one song I could listen to over and over and over and over again.
Especially, on vinyl.

UPDATE:

So in the past couple weeks, my life has gotten exponentially busy...in a very resume building, putting money in my savings account, planning naps throughout the day kind of busy. After getting my acceptance for an internship at Appalachian State's University Department of Communications with one of my favorite professors, I was also offered a position as a press intern for Musicfest 'N Sugar Grove. Along with helping with distributing the press releases and making contacts, I am responsible for their social media, including their Twitter account, Facebook, etc. My manager at Primo's also asked me to admin their facebook page, along with my doubled shifts this week (thank you Graduation and Mother's Day) Hahaha One of my other professors also asked me to help facilitate a focus group in May for a few days! So exciting things are happening but my summer will be busy, busy, busy.

Spring semester officially ends this Wednesday!
I just have to get through a week of working and then it's off to Raleigh I go.
To enjoy a little break before I go hard core on these public relations opportunities.
I'm excited to see my friends from their study abroad programs, celebrate their arrival, internships and life! Family and friends are what I need the most & I look forward to being in the same city as them for once!

I'll explain more about Musicfest 'N Sugar Grove in another blog, but for now, you should follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
 

Designated Designer

I realize I haven't blogged in awhile.
Since there is always a scapegoat, I blame my studies, work and the infamous InDesign program.
Many exciting things have been happening, and not so exciting things in my past couple weeks.

1. Got an internship! Summer internship with the Department of Communications at AppState. I'm very excited. I get six credit hours and have to complete 120 hours (which isn't so bad after spreading it over a 10 week period)
2. Found the Mumford & Sons vinyl along with tickets to see them in Asheville! Ex-CITING.
3. This evening is taco + margarita night!
4. I've had some wonderful entertainment opportunities (which I will blog about later)

Anyway -
I decided to showcase some of the design work I've had to do for my Media Publishing class. I have recently realized how much I enjoy designing things like magazine spreads, business cards or logos. I am merely an amateur but as a public relations major, it's good to have different design skills.

Here's some examples of my work:

Business card idea - designed the logo along with the layout of the card.

  

This was a magazine spread I had to create to represent myself. If you click on the photos, they should enlarge and you will be able to read the text.

Those are just a few things that I've been working on in InDesign.
I hope to learn more and eventually create more things with it!

Off to a Ben Folds Acoustic Concert on campus.
A blog about that later ;)

- melissa