Category: Work

Don’t you just love a messy bun?



messy messy messy

messy messy messy

Don’t you just love, towards the end of a long hard day, the end of a long hard week, to be able to throw your hair in a messy messy bun on the top of your head, and power through the rest of your day? My hair is finally long enough to do this again.

It’s the small things.
Maybe it’s just me.

xoxo,
Adora

My go-to work outfit



MyGoToWorkOutfitThis is probably my number one go-to work outfit. I wear this combo more than any other. It’s simple and comfortable, but the dress holds its shape enough for me to feel professional. I’ve worn this dress from Old Navy about once a week for over a year. These are the shoes I wear most days to work. Through a series of uninteresting events, the dress code for shoes where I work has gotten bizarrely strict (shoes alone takes up 3 color pages with photos in the dress code manual). Anyway, these bad boys (from rack room shoes) fit within the strict guidelines for flats, and unless I’m getting fancy, they’re on my feet every day. My Owl pendant was a gift from my sister for Christmas, and word on the street is she got it on the cheap off amazon, and my prescription glasses will run you around $10 at zennioptical.com.

What’s your most worn ensemble?
xoxo,
Adora

work wear: a new dress



If you're a dress without pockets, you're not a dress for me.

If you’re a dress without pockets, you’re not a dress for me.

On average, at any given time, it’s pretty safe to say the total cost of anything I’m wearing is around $20. Between thrifting and sticking to stores like Ross and Marshalls, the very small amount of money I have available to spend on clothes goes much much further. Today is no exception. I bought the dress this week at Ross and I was so excited about it! I think it’s beautiful, and I meant to take pictures of it before I worked all day, so it wouldn’t be wrinkled, but I totally forgot. C’est la vie. It’s still pretty, though in need of an iron. Here is the dress, a bargain at $11.99 and it has pockets. If you’re a dress without pockets, you’re not a dress for me! The shoes were on clearance at Payless a few years ago and cost me around $6.

xoxo,
Adora

Change is in the air



There comes a point in your life, and I hope this happens to everyone, when you look at what you’ve accomplished, what you’ve spent your time doing and the possessions you’ve gathered since you started your life as a full time adult; mainly, since college. When you really take stock.

I love what I’ve accomplished, I love that 6 months out of college I got a job I really wasn’t qualified for at an incredible non profit. I love that I’ve worked hard at it and now think I can comfortably say that I’m pretty darn good at it. I love that I went somewhere I knew no one and made friends, found a church home, found my amazing Josh and eventually listened to him when he told me that we would be really good at loving each other (because we really are). I’m proud that after a little (read: a colossal amount) of help from my parents I took up life as an adult pretty easily. I have a few apartments under my belt and I’m proud that Josh and I have managed to furnish our apartment in a way that represents us both and makes it feel like home. I thank Jesus for all these things, because he made them all happen, no matter how hard I tried to ruin them all.

But it’s time for a change.

I find myself looking around our little home and when I used to look in appreciation at all our possessions, I just think to myself, “I don’t need any of this”. My vagabond instincts are kicking in and after nearly four years in south Florida, I’m craving change. I don’t know what that means for us, or how quickly this change will come. All I know is as long as I have Josh, I’m home, and I would love go everywhere in the world with him.

I have a feeling that my posts may become much more interesting in the near future. I hope.

xoxo,
Adora

NTEN NTC Day 3



The final (most exhausting) day of NTEN NTC is over. We’ve learned all we could while we were here & tomorrow at 4am we will be in a cab on our way to the airport – homeward bound. Here are some snapshots of the day.

breakfast

breakfast

plenary

plenary

#13NTCvoice

#13NTCvoice

lunch

lunch

quick trip to the bookstore to pick up josh's present

quick trip to the bookstore to pick up josh’s present

#13NTClvlup

#13NTClvlup

#13NTCsmpol

#13NTCsmpol

dinner

dinner

bike laws

bike laws

last look at the city

last look at the city

xoxo,
Adora

NTC Day 2



Today was a full NTEN – NTC conference day, even more break out sessions than yesterday followed by a networking outing and business dinner.  Here are some pictures of the day:

Early Breakfast

Early Breakfast

After Breakfast Plenary

After Breakfast Plenary

#13NTCcamp

#13NTCcamp

lunch and the announcement of the new .ngo URL extension

lunch and the announcement of the new .ngo URL extension

#13NTCwuw

#13NTCwuw

reviewing notes between sessions

reviewing notes between sessions

#13NTCvideo

#13NTCvideo

cramming 20 people into a small elevator after the last session

cramming 20 people into a small elevator after the last session

networking event

networking event

xoxo,
Adora

NTC Day 1



Yesterday was the first official day of NTEN’s Non Profit Technology Conference (NTC). We woke up to full on snow and walked to breakfast and back in it, then we had a few classes that they call break out sessions later in the morning and afternoon. These classes are really what make our trip out here worth it. The session presenters have so much knowledge and passion about helping 501(c)3’s and then the discussion times that follow are an amazing time to hear what other people who do your job at other non profits are succeeding at, struggling with or looking for help about. In the evening, after dinner we went to what NTEN calls a Science Fair, which is basically a trade show. Talked to a company we are starting a data project with next week and I kept my eye out for other org’s that specialize in Drupal planning ahead for our next website redesign and platform switch that might start as early as 2014. Here are some pics from the day.

we woke up to everything being covered in snow so we ventured out in it to find coffee

we woke up to everything being covered in snow so we ventured out in it to find coffee

Starbucks is our reward for walking through the cold snow!

Starbucks is our reward for walking through the cold snow!

We decided to walk back to our hotel through the skywalk as far as it would go

We decided to walk back to our hotel through the skywalk as far as it would go

#13NTCmvmt my first break out session of the day

#13NTCmvmt my first break out session of the day

coffee after our conference lunch

coffee after our conference lunch

after another break out session it was back to the room to catch up on the work I had to do on our sites

after another break out session it was back to the room to catch up on the work I had to do on our sites

dinner: Briana, Nell and I will find good Pad Thai in any city

dinner: Briana, Nell and I will find good Pad Thai in any city

view from the table at dinner

view from the table at dinner

Science Fair

Science Fair

NTEN NTC

NTEN NTC

ended the night with a wine named after my husband watching lights on the building next door

ended the night with a wine named after my husband watching lights on the building next door

xoxo,
Adora

Seeds for Smiles



On Tuesday morning at work I had an idea…while I was on the toilet, but that’s not the point. We had just started this new campaign that is actually kind of brilliant. We had a bunch of seeds donated that we can ship for about $5 per set to our projects so people living in poverty can start their own robust and varied fruit and vegetable garden. We were all so excited about this campaign, but because all campaigns that have a video to go along with it do about 1,000,000,000 times better than campaigns that don’t, I was trying to figure out how to make a video about gardens in the third world while garden-less in south Florida, USA.

I came up with what I thought was a short video we could make in office, but it was all dependent on being able to find video clips on our servers where there are hundreds of random clips, most of them unusable, that our project officers have brought back from their trips. God is so good though. I found every clip I thought I needed in an hour and recorded the rest on my iPhone mounted to a tripod, we also found audio from a one of our projects of Zambian children singing. My amazing husband even brought my laptop to work on his lunch break so that I could make the video in iMovie before I left for my business trip. This is no way an amazing video, I am not even close to being a half way decent video editor, but I have seen time and time again short videos of our projects inspire people to give generously in a way nothing else can. Inspiring people to help people, that is my goal. So, without further ado. Oh, and go to www.crossinternational.org/seeds to learn more and give a garden.

xoxo,
Adora