we got the club in the car

The One Bride Guide has officially been celebrated! Congrats to Monica and everyone involved in making this magazine a HUGE success! We had our kick off party this week and it was fantastic. This great little venue, "The Courtyard at Gaslight Square," hosted it and we had some wonderful wedding vendors from around the area donate their time and services to help decorate the reception area in a Havana theme. It was really lovely, and a TON of fun. The crew of "The One" arrived at the party in a limo, and Monica had gotten champagne for us to start the celebration. Pretty classy stuff. Now it's time to get to work though...we've got the next issue to get out!

Well, Nate and I are heading to Austin to spend some of the long weekend with Rachel. SO glad she moved down here. We love having her so close!! Much better than 20 hours away... 

Nate and I in the courtyard.

Monica classing up the joint.

They got the club in the car for sure.

Me and two of the best co-workers ever, Catherine and Karina.

Monica at the party with a large format print of the first issue's cover. Photo courtesy of Third Coast Photo, thirdcoastphoto.com

Our boys cleaning up after the party. Love this picture.

Karina and Nate finishing up the party at Havana Club.

The cover models (and two very cool people) for our next issue. Karina and Jason.

Karina and I found this while driving around one day...a car dragging a huge chunk of a tree. Welcome to Texas.

Dachshund photo of the week: Thanks mom Rippke for the bday present! I'll put it next to my dachshund dressed as corn. Now I have an Iowa dachshund and a TX dachshund. Haha.

pup pics of the week

I've decided that in an attempt to get back into blogging more frequently, and because we take a ridiculous amount of pics of the dogs, Fridays are going to be "puppy picture of the week day." They're mostly Izzy this week...Bean's going to have to try harder next week I guess.

She made a little cave out of the pillows.

So mean looking. This is what they do all day if they aren't asleep.

Izzy sleeping on Bean sleeping on Nate. :)

a fake wedding and a birthday later...

This month has been full of things to celebrate. To start out, we took The One Bride Guide to it's first wedding fair. We've gotten a really good response from the city and are looking forward to the next issue, which will come out October 1st. We just had the photo shoot for the next cover. I took some behind the scenes pictures of the "couple," but I'm way more excited to see the edited pictures that New Wave Photography took.

McLeod Creative was also named Corpus Christi's outstanding downtown business. An award more than deserved by Monica and all the hard work she has done in the last year. Pretty exciting for us and our newly expanded staff. 

Karina, our newest McLeod member, graduated from TAMUCC and had the best party Nate and I have been to in a long time. Her family was awesome, and made some of the best food and drinks. Mmm, I'm still craving it. We're so glad she decided to stick around Corpus...for a while at least. :)

And, it happened, I got older. 24 in fact. Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts. I miss you all and wish you could've been here to celebrate...and by celebrate I mean lay on the couch and watch Spongebob Squarepants with me all day. Yes, that's what I did. And it was perfect. Next year...the big 25. Ew.

Strawberry margaritas. Mmm. Karina, me, her mom, and Sarah at her graduation party. Clearly I don't get outside enough. Look at that glow in the dark pale skin. I'm working on it...

My delicious birthday cake Karina made me. Thanks!! :)

McLeod Creative's Outstanding Downtown business award. Yay!

Our booth at the bridal fair.

Karina sewing her "wedding dress" while getting her hair done for the photo shoot.

The two photographers and both models during the shoot.

Aw, such a pretty couple.

finally, a hallway

I know we've been here a month, but I'm finally uploading a few pictures of our new apartment for those of you who haven't visited yet. By the way, why haven't you visited yet? Hmm? That's what I thought...I'll see you soon.

We haven't had time to paint or anything yet, so it's pretty white, but we're hoping to find some time in the new couple of weeks to get some color on walls. I don't know if it's because it's bigger, or because we care about this place more than the old one, but it seems to stay a lot cleaner. It also helps to have a built in desk area (which I didn't take a picture of) to hold all of my paper and printers and stuff. We're also enjoying having our couch back to it's usual L shape, instead of as two separate couches. Anyways, here are some pictures. There's none of the bathroom or the bedroom...so...sorry. Those things don't really belong on here...and plus, the bedroom's a pit. 

This is as wide as I could get with the lens...part of the living room, sitting area, sunroom, and kitchen.

The kitchen and part of the sunroom back there.

Nate watching George Lopez. Our nightly routine. 

Yay! A hallway!

Nate in the living room, and part of our other little sitting area.

Look at those girly eyes...

Nate and the babies. Look at Bean's leg. Cracks me up.

Me and my baby girls

so about those bagelfuls

For those of you who haven't watched the news lately, Nate and I have had a wet and windy week. Hurricane Dolly hit land a couple of hours South of us yesterday, and we got the upper end of it. There wasn't a whole lot of damage done around town, but I did get to work from home for the day because of the tornados and flooding. It ended up being pretty uneventful though. Thankfully. Oh, and by the way, bagelfuls have to be refrigerated so they wouldn't actually last very long during a full on hurricane.

Now we've got to put all the stuff we had packed back away...

That's the most excitement we've seen around here in a little while. I'm ready for the weekend.

Two birthdays this week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Nate's mom, Becki! Hope you find the time to relax and enjoy the massage. :)

And also a happy 17th birthday to my little bro, Andrew! Go see an R rated movie or something. And I promise, I'll get your present in the mail soon!

The view from our apartment during Dolly.

Nate had to work...this is him on his lunch break haha.

Hurricane hair after taking the dogs out during a break in the rain.

Don't even try to tell me this isn't the cutest dog ever.

Izzy taking a nap on the fan box. Thanks Grace! See, it's even useful still boxed up. Hopefully they'll come hang it soon though...

See, told you this is the cutest dog ever. And yes, she did this to herself.

Izzy sleeping in what has to be a terrible position for her spine. Maybe she was trying to spell her name with her body?

enough bagelfuls to last us through hurricane season

Well a TON has been going on this last month. We've been really busy with moving and family and all, so I've got a ton of pictures for y'all. And now that I've got some more free time in my schedule, I plan on getting back into a regular blogging routine again. Sorry for the wait mom Rippke! :)

The Food Bank fundraiser was a total success. We raised the funds we needed to fund the "Kids Cafe" program for this next year. The event was beautiful, and we had a really good time. The day after the Food Bank event Nate and I headed up to Austin to hang out with Val and Rachel for a couple of days. Austin has to be one of my favorite cities. There's so much to do and see. We got to experience the night life out on 6th street...and a rather long cab ride back to North Austin complete with a fast food stop and all. 

Nate and I moved into a larger apartment a couple of weeks ago. It's awesome. Bigger, cleaner, more windows...just better. We also met our new neighbors across the hall. They're a married couple new to Corpus as well, and super nice, so we're hoping to get to know them a little better and have some new folks to hang out with! Yay! My mom, grandparents, and Grace came down to help get us settled in...and fill our pantry to the brim. Time always goes too fast when they're here. Maybe because we have such a good time. We got some new chairs from grandma and papa that we (and the dogs) LOVE. And a new fan for our new sunroom thanks to Grace! There was lots of shopping, and even more eating, and of course some home made reubens care of my mom. I think I ate at least 6 in 3 days...

Visitors are good. So come visit. Soon.

We haven't had time to paint our new place yet. But we will soon probably. Nate's put a couple of bids in on some local paint jobs, so hopefully we'll get those and have some busy days coming up. We have been taking some pictures on the side though. Nate's been shooting some events, and we went to a grand opening of a really nice apartment community in town.  We're going to make it a habit to take our cameras with us everytime we leave the house so we can keep practicing and learning more about different lighting and such.

We've been busy at the McLeod studio lately. Our first issue of our bridal magazine, "The One," was printed and distributed within the last couple of weeks. It's beautiful, and we've been getting a really good response from the community. It also means that we've got new people working at the studio...I'm no longer alone on the lower level of our beach house! Yay! Plus, the two interns, Karina and Julia, are pretty much exactly what anyone would want in a co-worker, and they work during the mornings, so it makes it a little easier to wake up and get going.  The One website will hopefully be up soon. I'll make sure to post the url when it is so that you out of staters can get a look at what we've been up to. You can also view our blog, mcleodcreative.squarespace.com or Nate and mine at rippkedesign.blogspot.com to see what we've been working on.

Also wanted to give a big *hug and CONGRATS to our (Nate's) sister and brother in-law, Randi and Mike on the birth of their second baby boy. Can't wait to meet you Parker! 

And one more...Natalie (my best friend since I was 5), and Jack are expecting their second baby this December! Yay! Congrats to you guys too. I'm so glad we'll get to be back in MN right around the time that the baby's born!!

Like I said, we've got a ton of pics from the last couple of weeks...and a ton of the dogs, so get ready. Miss you all!

The mayor at the Welding House "ribbon" cutting. Pretty creative...

A guy Nate met and photographed at the event. He's been welding since the 40's.

Nate's awesome Welding House logo was made into a metal sign. Pretty cool.

The growing McLeod/The One team! From left to right: Sergio, Me, Monica, Karina, Cathrine, Julia, and Evon. Happy 1 year anniversary McLeod Creative! Yay!

The first issue of "The One" is out! And it looks SO GOOD.

Some pics of the printing process Monica took during one of her seven press checks for "The One."

Wesbrook and one of the press guys making sure the colors are perfect!

Gma and Papa with the pups and our new chairs/table/and wine they gave us. Thanks! By the way mom...you could've told me my hair looked like this! Worst ever. Don't judge me, I just finished moving.

Gma and Papa and us at Brewster's Icehouse. Mmm.

Nate, Grace, my mom, and I at a park by the bay watching fireworks.

My mom and the Beanie babe. So tired.

Gma and the babies.

Thanks for the new chairs grandma and papa! We love them...especially the girls. :)

Nate and Grace after we finished moving.

Mom and Isabelle pup.

Love the face Nate...

Too tired to even lift her head. It's the new chairs, they can't help but sleep in them.

Some pics my parents took of Emily and Andrew's skydiving trip.

The two of them in the air...I think Emily's the one on the left.

My favorite picture. Emily puking in the grass. I'm so glad my mom snapped this. Ha!

Our new nephew, Parker, and his grandparents. :) Congrats Randi and Mike! Thanks for the pic grandpa Ken. 

A shot from the apartment shoot we did.

Nate's been taking a lot of pics of the mayor lately, ha.

A pic of the pool area at the apartment complex.

Mmm appletinis. Thanks mom. 

Pouring over the sink so I don't make a mess of the new kitchen, ha!

A nice view of Corpus on a lovely day.

A centerpiece from the Harvest of Hope Food Bank fundraiser event.

The rather large silent auction at the event.

I'm having SO much fuuuuun. Actually stuffing baskets full of hay all day drove my allergies crazy and gave me the worst headache of my life. This is what my face looks like right before it might explode. Liquid Advil fixed that right up though. :)