Sara The Nerd!

During my second interview with the owner at Velocity Webworks, I got the feeling that he wished I was a little more nerdy. He's a programmer, and he came right out and asked if I thought I would be comfortable working with nerdy people who talk about things like star wars and Android. I told him that I've been called a nerd in the past, and that I like star wars, but I still don't know if he completely believed me.

After the interview, as I drove home, I realized that in the world of web design, you are expected to be nerdy. It comes with the territory. So I made a business decision to get my eyes checked again, and ordered some new glasses. I lost my old ones on a nighttime photo shoot this past summer, and have gone without them ever since. My eyes aren't super bad, I'm  just a little bit near sighted.

I went to the optometrist on my own, and tried on about 35 different frames. I finally found some that I liked. I don't know if they make me look totally nerdy, but they do make me look older and more professional.

Meet the new and improved nerdy/professional Sara:

It's like a double whammy: the glasses improve my marketability, AND they help me see things that are far away. I can see individual trees on the mountaintop, and the birds flying around in the sky are super sharp! It's so exciting. I don't have to squint to see street signs either.

Happy New Years! :]

Hello Adulthood

I think I'm officially an adult. Legally, I've been one for a while now, but it's like graduating college has given me this newfound independence/confidence. I'm so proud of what I have accomplished up to this point. I've come a long way the past few years.

Just in case you haven't seen these photos on facebook:

What makes me feel even more adultish is that we are now living in a house. And we have a spare bedroom/office with a spare bed in it! John's parents got us a full bed for our guest room as a graduation present. So come visit us, and you'll have a real bed to sleep on! :]

I spent most of the day yesterday updating my web portfolio design page. It features various design projects that I have worked on recently. I look back at all of my work and I get so excited for the future. I enjoy design so much, and right now I'm getting paid to do it! Getting paid to do something that I love has always been my goal. I've finally achieved it!

At the moment, I'm actually working freelance for a company called Velocity Webworks. They are based out of St. George, and they are an awesome company. The people I'm working with are great. The fact that I'm working for them freelance means that I get to work from home, which means I can wear pajamas to work! :]

I created a logo for one of their clients already, and I'm starting a website project next. It's so fun for me to work with clients and to make their plans become a reality. A well designed reality!

Anyway, I need to go grocery shopping [another grown up thing]! But I would love love love you if you would go check out my web portfolio, specifically the design pages. Tell me what you think about it. Especially tell me if you see something I can improve.

Click here to view my portfolio!

Knitting Hats is Easy!

John and I were in the middle of a big move, so Christmas presents for family members took the back burner. We are finally settled down enough to start figuring out what to get everyone. We decided to make hats for our niece and nephew. I finished this one for our niece today, and I'm pretty proud of it:

I bought circular knitting needles last Christmas, thinking, "Oh, I want to knit a hat for my brother!" And I tried it a few times, but always messed up and ruined everything.  I got so frustrated that I put away my yarn and needles and forgot about them.

This year, I realized that I could use a circular loom instead of needles, and get basically the same turnout–without all the head aches. Yay!!! So I bought some cheap looms and got started. It only took a couple hours to see the final product. Now that's my kind of project.

[Don't worry Mark, your hat is next on the list. Better late than never... Right?]

I'm also planning to make one for myself, only it will be a solid color, with some sort of yarn flower sewn on. I feel so crafty!

Just the Two of Us

Oh, do I have stories for you guys! Lots of crazy things have gone on the past few weeks. I've hit some huge mile stones and haven't had time to share. I'll get to those in another post. For now, I just want to say that I love John.

It's amazing how I never really get sick of him. He's just the best.

We are all moved in to our cute new house in Cedar City. And we decided to stay here, just the two of us, to start our own family traditions for Christmas.

We sat down and talked about what WE wanted for our own traditions. We decided on roasted pine nuts on Christmas Eve. We made a delicious dinner together, and danced to Christmas music after eating. We played a little cribbage, and made gourmet hot cocoa. Of course we read the Christmas story from the Bible, and opened our gifts to each other afterwards. We missed our families a tiny bit, but we'll soon be starting our own family, and this was a taste of what's to come.

I liked it. Just the two of us, not getting sick of each other. We've definitely got a good thing going. :]

Change...

I've been thinking about writing this post for a while now, but I've been putting it off because I want to get it right.

It's the dawn of a new era in the life of yours truly [me].

I mean think about it with me for a few minutes. Put yourself in my size 5 shoes. You really need to pretend like you are me, so that you can understand my predicament [yes that means you are four feet, ten and a half inches tall, and you are seriously craving chocolate right this instant. But there is no chocolate in your entire apartment! Sucks, huh?].

The following paragraphs are to help you step into my mind real quick:

Your whole life up to this point has basically revolved around school. Ever since you could remember, it's been the main focus. The purpose of school was to train you to become someone great, so that you could do something great.

You've been in school for so long, it's like your a professional student. You are so good at it, but you are also SO SICK OF IT! You want to get out and make a difference in the world. And you want to use what you spent 4 years and thousands of dollars on to make that difference.

You are so ready to be done, and to tackle what the real world has to offer. But you're scared too. Because graduation means big change. And you are asking yourself, "Am I ready for this change?"

[end of "step into my mind" paragraphs]

Graduation means that I can get out of Rexburg! That's good right? I won't have to deal with the nasty weather! That will be sooo nice. We are moving to Cedar City a few days after we are done with school. Did I tell you that already? John got accepted to grad school at SUU, so that is where we are headed. I'll most likely be spending my week days in St. George, which means warm weather here I come!

See, that's great news! But here is the thing. I realized that I love Rexburg. I never thought I would say it, but the closer graduation comes, the more I realize that I'm going to miss this place. Mostly I'm going to miss the amazing people I have met here. I have so many good friends and teachers that have helped me to become who I am today. I don't really want to say goodbye to them.

But here is the other thing. Even though it's sad to leave, I'm sure there are great friends to be met, no matter where we end up. And with technology, it's not technically goodbye at all!

See, I'm being positive, change is good!

Also, I'm leaving college with a bang. I'm a recipient of the Newel K Whitney Scholar Award. More on that to come, but here is the professional photo they took of me for it:

Happy Wednesday!

Home For the Holiday

John and I went to Utah for Thanksgiving, and boy was it great. We had a lot of fun with my family, and we ate some deliciously amazing food. My sister Vanessa is going to culinary school, so a lot of the deliciousness was thanks to her.

Isn't she just soo cute!?

She cooked the yummiest turkey I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. Also some awesome fresh cranberry sauce.

During our trip, we went out to the movies, played board games, ate food, went shooting, at more food, visited good friends, made homemade pies, and played with my new favorite puppy Ace. It was a much needed break. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get myself back into school mode before the semester is over!

Here are some photos from our day of thanks:

I hope you are all having a relaxing weekend. :]

Nightmares?

I've never been the type of person that gets nightmares. I have the occasional creepy/sad dream, maybe once every few months.

The last week, my dreams have ALL been nightmares. The creeeeeepy kind that you wake up screaming from. They are so vivid and just totally messed up. Here are a few of them:

Dream #1: Jack Black tried to stab me multiple times. I was trying to protect my sister who had told him his baby was ugly. Apparently that's his soft spot, because he was very angry.

Dream #2: While spelunking in caves, my family and I stumbled into Satan himself. Enough said [I don't even want to go into the details on this one].

Dream #3: I found a creepy old man in my bed, with his cold clammy hand reaching for my throat.

As you can imagine, I haven't been sleeping very well.

The only thing that has changed in my life since I started having these dreams is new medication. I started taking Beta Blockers [to slow down my heart], because I went up a dose in my thyroid pills [which make my heart race faster than it already does]. Could they be the cause of bad dreams? I'll have to google it.

So I'm really tired. And worn out. And I'm really ready for Thanksgiving break.

Sorry, this has been an unhappy post. Here are some photos I just found on my computer that made my day a lot brighter. My beautiful little sisters [who I would take a stabbing for]:

And here's a cute one, so you can reference what they actually look like :

I miss you two twinners.

Happy Tuesday :}

Oh, here is an update!

You know what drives me crazy? Having to depend on other people to do my job. Other people sometimes aren’t very dependable. You can only ask someone to hurry up and do something so many times... I just hate that sometimes my work isn't as effective because I'm waiting for other people to do things that I can't do. Frustrating right?

In other news, I just finished page 24 of a semester long paper, more to come.

Also, I'm an officer in the Photographics Society, and I gave a presentation yesterday on taking children’s portraits. I gave 8 tips to get good pictures of kids. I also provided some adorable pictures I have taken of children as proof that my tips work. I got lots of "Oooh's," and "So CUTE's". I also showed a sweet editing trick and was told it was like I was working magic–so I think it went quite well [download presentation pdf with the tips here].

It’s been sooooo Cooooold lately! I’ve been wishing I was here:

All warm and tan and freckled! I’d like to be there with this handsome guy:

We’d be eating fresh mango with chili powder, sun bathing, reading, and taking occasional dips in the warm ocean!

[these photos are from our delicious anniversary trip to Can Cun, Mexico.]

Can't wait for Thanksgiving break!

Boot Envy

I'm not perfect.

I have many weaknesses. One of my biggest weaknesses is boots.

I'm in love with boots, they are so fun to wear, and they make me look all stylish. They keep my little toes warm and dry, and they make me feel all grown up and gorgeous.

I have 5 pairs of boots. 5! Who needs that many pairs of boots? The real question is, do those 5 pairs satisfy me? My answer: no.

It's that time of year where the air gets chilly and every girl who owns boots brings them out to play. Which means that I get to see all these cute boots when I'm walking around campus, which means I get very envious. I start feeling like I need to go buy another pair.

Hello, I don't have any gray ones yet!!! I may or may not want these:

Zappos.com

[They cost $150... Luckily, John helps me with my self control when boots are involved.]

Boot envy is not something I'm proud of, but I think that maybe if I admit I have it, I'll be able to overcome it.

So, here goes nothing:

My name is Sara Tranberg, and I am addicted to cute boots!

Product Redesign

For my advanced visual media class, I have a project where I re-design a product that needs some help. I decided to do The Cocoa Bean Cupcake Cafe's take-out cupcake box. I am in love with their cupcakes! Plus, they are a growing company, and so I might have the courage to try and sell them the design when I'm finished.

Their current box looks like this:

They are just plain white with a sticker on the top. I'm not very fond of their logo, so I redesigned that as well.

Here is what I've come up with:

Obviously, I'll construct a higher quality box for the final, but I'm pretty happy with the way it's looking so far.

Any suggestions on how I can make it better?

Recent Adventures

As of late, we've been trying to keep ourselves sane.

Senioritis is hitting us hard.

The photos show some of our recent exciting adventures:

I did the spider and John did the crazy/creepy pumpkin face. We are professional pumpkin carvers... no big deal.

I didn't edit that sunset picture. That is straight out of my camera. Pretty impressive.

The leaves are changing, just as our lives are getting ready for some big changes. Graduation is almost here! And then it's off to the real world for me, and Grad School for Juanito.

Crazy!

Cody + Liz

These two are adorable together. I could see the love in their eyes as they looked at each other. Plus they are so much fun to be around. I loved capturing the chemistry they have together.

John was my assistant, and you should know that he is a pro with the reflector! He helped me get some of these great shots: