Random Hallmark Moments: Hot Dogs!

   We may have gone a lil' overboard for Carrie's 5th anniversary. Given that it was the first day of summer, and Carrie loves summer, and given that she also loves hot dogs—and who doesn't love cooking hot dogs on George Foreman grills at work, risking being caught by the Fire Marshall?—we couldn't resist.

   Alison even made hot dog cookies, and Angela had the Crown Room put my hot dog character on a cake!

   I don't even like hot dogs, but I have to admit that it tasted mighty good today. Have I ever mentioned that I love my team & that they're the best ever?

Hot dog, and a tribute to Carrie's favorite color of OPI nail polish

Happy 5th, Mighty Mac!!!

Random Hallmark Moments: the big 15!

   To celebrate my 15th anniversary working for Hallmark, which was on 6/11, my awesome, awesome team surprised me with all of my favorite things: Japanese culture, stars of rap music, and salt & vinegar potato chips. (Do they KNOW me, or what?!)

The lineup: Angie, Anne, Carrie, Stephen, Amy, Wendy, Alison, Bess & Dawn
(not pictured: Olivia, who was too busy sneaking around the office with a bonsai tree)

Dan & Lora ordered special no-cinnamon/no-vanilla cupcakes for me. Officially THE BEST cupcake I have ever eaten. (And I've eaten 3 so far, so I should know.)

Not to be outdone, Bess made homemade sushi dessert rolls.
All I can say is 「すごい！！！」

Colleen & Angela gave me a card by my good friend (& incredible artist), Kelly

Lined up from shortest to tallest. Note to self: hire someone shorter than self.

LOOK AT ALL THIS AWESOME STUFF!!! Cards, art, snacks and a bonsai tree!!!

Everybody on my team drew their self-portrait on canvas. "The Rarey Bunch". LOL!

And on the back? Flo Rida... and my boss!

And what would a party be without photos of me...
with my friends Beyonce, Jay-z, and Kanye?

   I was seriously blown away by everything they had planned and am so lucky to be working with such a talented, fun, and thoughtful team. As I've always said, Hallmark is an amazing company, but the reason you stay is for the people. And when you get to work with people you actually love hanging out with, you can hardly call it work.
   In keeping with the Japanese angle, I sent my thanks in a cartoon:

For those of you who may be rusty on your Japanese, here's the translation: 

Jen: I LOVE all the wonderful gifts—thank you SO much! My team is the world's best. THANK YOU. 

Aki & Taylor: Yes, we say thank you, too. 

Kismet: And I will love to eat the little tree.   (Just kidding on that, btw)

Random Hallmark Moments: Happy Anniversary to Me

Random Hallmark Moments: Casey's Awesome 5th

   OK, we normally have copious amounts of food lying around the office, ripe for the taking (just ask Dave), but usually not THIS much! It could only mean one thing: Casey's 5th anniversary at Hallmark! His teammates helped me cook up fun surprises for him, including donuts, signs,  and a wrist corsage. Just like in high school prom. It was awesome.

Random Hallmark Moments: EPIC FAIL

My favorite thing of the week comes courtesy of Maureen, who thoughtfully baked dozens of cupcakes for the monthly birthday/anniversary party, only to have them destroyed by inertia while driving to work. It might otherwise be sad, except that Maureen unapologetically left the cupcakes in exactly this condition, so that everyone at the party could enjoy the story. Bravo~! (There seems to be a cupcakeless wrapper in there... better check under the seats!)

Random Hallmark Moments: Andre

This week is Andre's 5th anniversary with Hallmark. How time flies! Since I'm now his leader, I prepared a tribute to his amazing range of talents. (And, of course, took the opportunity to try to embarrass him!)

You can tell he's already worried:

Here I shared my favorite piece of his writing: "Birthdays can be rough. But I hear you like it that way." I can tell he's glad I read that one.
This photo was taken moments before he retaliated, impaling me on a plastic cake server:

Andre is participating in the AIDS walk tomorrow morning, having already baked 19 of 175 Martha Stewart cookie recipes. Congratulations, buddy!

Random Hallmark Moments: A Toast to Steve!

The man of the hour:

The official, Crown-Room-made anniversary cake:

...but Liz, Cat & I can't wait to try Allyson's cake! (We hear it has beer in it.)

Where's the other half of the chocolate Guinness cake? I ate it.

Hallmark's 100th Anniversary

2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Hallmark Cards (and my 13th anniversary working for them!). In honor of the big event, we were each issued a crown to decorate, for a display in January. So I took my plain white, resin crown and made it gold & sparkly...

And then set about creating plush caricatures of our President/CEO/Vice Chairman of the Board, Don Hall Jr., and his brother—our President of Hallmark North America, Dave Hall:

All the pieces cut out & ready to assemble:

The Halls are taking shape, with hand-embroidered faces and "Hallmark plum" colored ties:

The completed Halls. They're about 12' high, and look rather cute in their tiny suits & ties, if I do say so myself:

This is how I envision they'll be displayed, with an arm over each others' shoulder, sitting in the crown. (I'm working on a label for the front of the crown that says, "Congratulations Don & Dave."

Or maybe we'll just display them like this!

Last-minute additions: Hallmark ID badges, & a message on the crown:

Hopefully the Halls will approve...I'd like to make it to my 14th anniversary, at least! ; )

Too modest for the crown...

The shibas tried on the finished crown...and both tried to slink out from under it! Can't you just read Aki's mind? "Somebody call PETA—

this is ABUSE!!!" LOL

Godzilla's 50th aniversary show @ S7

I did this series of four paintings in honor of the big green dude's 50th anniversary, for a show at the Super 7 Store in San Francisco. (And my buddy Jon Kelly Green did the Goji art gracing the cover of this month's S7 magazine!)