Ah, my poor neglected blog! I have mostly migrated over to other social channels for regular updates. But I have returned for the Dad by Dawn tradition of an annual summary, a sort of digital family newsletter for my internet friends.
So what's new? The major change for me this year was a job shift; after nearly 7 years at the same company, I left to pursue a career in event planning. Starting a podcast about local events was a logical extension of that move and hands-down my biggest project in 2014. And of course Jenna and I celebrated our ten-year wedding anniversary. Let's break it down:
Events Ahoy
2014 in a nutshell was the year I turned my passion for event management into a full-time gig at Greenspring Media. If you count the Food & Wine Experience, where I worked three days as a volunteer, I did a total of nine events this year. Which is the total number of Craftstravaganzas we've produced in as many years. Pretty crazy! So far, I'm loving it.
Business School Dropout
I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man. I don't need an MBA to do what I'm doing or what I'm planning to do in the future. Besides that, my employer isn't footing the bill any more, which changes the equation. I've been successfully running my own business for coming up on a decade now, and I felt like my time and money could be better spent elsewhere, so I kind of unceremoniously dropped out by just stopping going. Which leads us to the...
Weekly Planner Podcast
A year ago I started doing two things: talking with other event planners and being on podcasts. I enjoyed participating in other peoples' shows and I didn't want to stop networking just because I found a job, so it was only natural to combine both pursuits and start my own podcast. Interviewing guests, recording and producing the episodes has been a fun challenge. My resolution for the year was "to keep making connections and exploring new possibilities," and I nailed both with this one.
Mushroom Hunter
Spring through fall found me heading to the forest any chance I got, to search for edible mushrooms. I cooked a ton of Shaggy Manes and found a huge Chicken-of-the-Woods mushroom right at the end of the season (I ate that too). My forays in the woods (and other miscellaneous adventures) are documented on Instagram, which was made possible by me getting an iPhone this year, finally. I don't know how I lived without it.
Art Projects
I resolved to draw a bunch of comics this year and started strong, but only made it through February. The Pokemon sugar cookies I decorated for Natalie's 6th birthday were a hit. I also illustrated the posters for two of our craft events this year. My primary creative outlet has been cross-stitch, which I still enjoy a lot. Everything's on Tumblr!
The Children
I guess I should write more about my daughters since the original purpose of this blog was to talk about parenthood. So here's the deal: Natalie and Paisley are the best daughters a dad could have. They have been my mushroom hunting assistants, sous chefs, artist collaborators, co-conspirators, and video game apprentices. I love being their father and I love them more than anything in the world.
Dream come true
All I know is if I can come home from work in a few years and have two little girls shouting "daddy!" and running into my arms... I will be a very happy man.Well. That's exactly what happened, and I was right, it's the best. In fact Paisley now tells me often, "you're the best, daddy!" Which makes me feel pretty darn good, but also challenges me to actually be the best dad I can be.
2014 Craft'za
Check out this amazing test print from Burlesque! Richey Beckett's work is insane and I love the colors on this poster so much, I had to pick it up even though I already have way too many prints. I also got some laser-cut wood pendants from Isette that have got me cross-stitching again.
We tried a Black Friday event for the first time this year and really, the less said about that, the better. But I'm proud of the poster I made for it, and we had a special celebrity guest shopper: former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak!
"How to Approach Galleries" Panel
Tenth Anniversary
Where it all began... the WalMart liquor department
This August Jenna and I celebrated our tenth year of marriage together. We did a lot of fun things but the main one was spending two full days without the kids, the longest we've ever been away together since Natalie was born! The celebration started with Jenna picking me up from work on August 19, a walk around Northeast, and dinner at Ginger Hop.
We stayed at the Nicollet Island Inn, "Minneapolis' Most Romantic Hotel and Getaway," and had breakfast there in the morning. Then we returned to the place where we met and fell in love: beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We revisited all the historic landmarks of our relationship, starting with Mancino's for lunch. We also got to visit with some old friends, which was very nice!
We spent the night at Fanny Hill, a Victorian B&B (with a hot tub in the room--fancy). Next morning we went back to Mancino's for lunch and drove home after a quick stop at the Minneapolis farmer's market. A great vacation with a terrific lady! Here's to ten more years!
We stayed at the Nicollet Island Inn, "Minneapolis' Most Romantic Hotel and Getaway," and had breakfast there in the morning. Then we returned to the place where we met and fell in love: beautiful Eau Claire, Wisconsin. We revisited all the historic landmarks of our relationship, starting with Mancino's for lunch. We also got to visit with some old friends, which was very nice!
We spent the night at Fanny Hill, a Victorian B&B (with a hot tub in the room--fancy). Next morning we went back to Mancino's for lunch and drove home after a quick stop at the Minneapolis farmer's market. A great vacation with a terrific lady! Here's to ten more years!
Running Man
I completed my 8-week Couch-to-5k running plan. Last Thursday I ran my first 3.1 miles since 2011. Then on Saturday (since I'm training for a trail race series) I did another 5k in the Minnesota Wildlife Refuge and somehow was much faster!
I'd like to beat my time from the only 5k I ever ran (31:09), and I think I'm on pace to do it. More importanty I'm having a lot of fun running and have managed not to hurt myself so far. Now that I've started again it would be great to keep it up for a few years.
Weekly Planner Podcast
Weekly Planner is about events in the Twin Cities and the people who make them happen. In episode one I talked with Adam Turman, and I think most future episodes will be a similar one-on-one interview format. In fact I already have a few like that recorded and scheduled to post in upcoming weeks.
I would love to hear what you think! Please drop me a note especially if there's anything in particular that you loved, hated, or want to hear in future episodes. Help me make a good show for you!
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