matty3stars

Another project crossed off the list

2011-03-09T23:07:00.001-08:00

Last night Jillian and I crossed another project off our house duties list. We put cushions on our rad stools that hang out around the bench. I know you are saying to yourself man what heck would he post about cushions. Come on cushions really. Ha. But ours are rad. We wanted to add some color to the living room and kitchen area so we decided to do it with the cushions. We thought about bright fabrics, crazy patterns and even screening our own fabric. But what we decided to do is cover the cushions in old tshirts with rad graphics. Here is what they turned out like.

matty3stars

Newest, biggest and best piece or art work I have ever done.

2011-02-14T13:49:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to show Jillian want she means to me for a while now and I wanted to be able to show her everyday.

So I came up with is idea to paint a mural on the back wall of our garage so she would see it everyday.

The story behind it is Jillian and I used to listen to Ben Harper a lot and he had a song called "You look like gold to me" But Jillian would sing it as "you look like home to me". Because Jillian rarely gets the words wrong in any song I pounced on this opportunity to tease her. Which I did a lot. From that time on it kind of became our anthem for when we were apart from each other. So it was only fitting that I created this.

Also I want to acknowledge one of the people I got some of my inspiration from. There is a artist called Espo aka Steve Powers who has a great art series in Philly called A love Letter For You or check him out on the documentary Beautiful Losers or on this site firstandfifthteenth. Anyway is work is very inspiring check it out if you get a chance.

I hope you guys like it.
But really I don't care if you do or don't as long as Jillian loves it. Which she does!!

Getting wired

2011-02-13T22:02:00.001-08:00

Oh what busy but great weekend. On Friday night Jillian and I took her dad out to dinner and a special movie (some french that was way to old and long for my taste) as his Christmas present. It was a fun time.
Saturday my friend kenny came over and we hung out, played music and I worked on a project with the tv wall.

Jillian had a fun Saturday as she chopped off more than 10inches of her hair charity. Her new haircut looks wonderful.

Sat night was quite busy as well. A family friend was in town and it was her birthday so we had dinner with her and most of the family. Straight after that we headed into Seattle to go to a dual bday party for our friends Noah and Vaneeta. That was super fun catching up with quite a few friends we had not seen in a while.
Sunday was a bit more relaxed, jillatron and I ran some errands
I finished up the project I was working on Sat, skating at a real
Skatepark cause for once it was not raining and relaxed a bit.

Even though Jillian was not feeling well she still manage to go to the florist with her friend Hillary for Hilary's wedding. Run errands with me and put together some new shelving we got for the dinning room.

We hung out on the couch for the rest of Sunday night.
matty3stars

Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie

2011-01-28T08:30:00.001-08:00

Oi oi oi

Every Sunday Jillian and I's American family get together to for a good old fashioned Sunday dinner. We chat about our weeks happenings, debate topics, laugh, hang out and celebrate bdays, holidays and so. Which brings to my point on this past Sunday dinner we celebrated Australia day. We did so by having bangers and mash with veggi's and with my sister inlaw Amy baking cookies with Ozzie flag on it. It was such delight.

matty3stars

Odd Jobs jobs jobs

2011-01-20T08:26:00.001-08:00

As most people know when you buy a house the odd job list is long times that by 7 when you add a remodel, times it by another 12 when you have to creatives minds who have an urge to move forward at all times and add a few more for the heck of it.
Well Jillian and I have been more than just chipping away at this odd job list. We have been taking it down like a lumber jack.
We have painted a wall completely in black chalk board paint, put a picture of Fremantle, a black keys poster, an old painting, a cork board that we made out of an old burlap sack, put in a new light fixture and all this was in one weekend or so.

Well much love to all.
matty3stars

My micro mini ramp

2011-01-14T08:47:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since my last confession. Cough . Ah I mean post.

Jillian and I had a very Merry Xmas and a very Happy New
Year. We were once again spoilt with many greatly thoughtful gifts. Jillian and I did splurged on each by getting an elliptical (a low impact running machine ) . We are now living the high life with our own work out room.

Over the Xmas holidays Jillian and I both had 10 days off. My work is so great it gives us those days off and Jillian had vacation built up on a use it or lose it by the end of the year type deal. So we had it off together. We our time we got to share a lot of family and friend time while also doing some personal projects.
Since moving into the new house I have been wanting to build a mini ramp and over the Xmas break I got to do just that.
I built it 4 foot wide so we can still fit the car in garage and that size also made materials easier to work with 1 3/4 foot tall because of and length restrictions and roughly 11 foot in length.
Other than a few helping hands from mate Mikey G, Big Poppa (Jillian's dad) and Jillian herself I made it myself.
Here is picture of the finished product.

I think is a long enough post for now.
Peace
Matty

matty3stars

Holiday Parties and Holiday fun

2010-12-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

As I sit here writing this Seattle is holding true to it's name wet, rainy and cold. But that has not dampened Jillian and I's Holiday spirits.

With Thanksgiving always falling on a Thursday both Jillian and I were lucky enough to have both Thursday and Friday off, making it a 4 day weekend for us. With these four days off Jillian and I stayed very busy with Thanks giving Dinner, xmas tree shopping (even though we didn't get a real one we went up to enjoy the experience with the family), some live theater for Jillian, a few house projects and a whole bunch of rad family time. It was a really rad weekend.

With Thanksgiving kick starting the holiday season off with a bang. Jillian and I were excited. Our next Holiday season date was a friends of ours festive party called Chrismakwanzikah a blend of Christmas, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. It was quite a fun night.

The next night Jillian's grandmother took the whole family out for a beautiful x-mas dinner. It was a delicious meal with great company.

Just a few days later than that on December 9th Jillian and I hosted my work Holiday party.

Oh Man, were we excited for this. Not only were we excited to be showing off our newly remodeled house. I had made t-shirts for all my fellow co-workers. Each shirt and a co-workers face on it but I didn't give the everyone a shirt with their face on it. Where is the fun in that? I gave everyone a shirt with a different co-workers face on it. See the picture below. Everyone had a good laugh.

All the employees received some great gifts from Jay and Dave (Bosses).It was great night,

We still have a few holiday parties to attend and are looking forward to them all.

Hope you all are are enjoying the holiday season.

Matty

Tis the start of the Season.

2010-11-25T10:12:00.000-08:00

I must admit it is easy to get wrapped up in the festive season here in the NW of America. Even when you get stuck on a bus for 5 hours on what should be a 40 min drive home on Monday night because of the snow. It seems like the classic American Festive story sometimes all we are missing is a grinch and/or jack frost.

Jillian and I are always pushing forward on life and currently Jillian is the one to make huge push forward with deciding to get her MBA(Masters in Business). Jillian will starting on January 3rd and will be attending SU Seattle University. It is a part time program and will be lasting roughly 3 years. I am very excited to see Jillian take full advantage of that crazy smart brain of hers.

Jillian has once again been jet setting around the country and spent a week in Denver for work.

Here is a site that my boss and I worked on Moprise.com . This site evolved alot over time and we are very pleased with what we ended up with.

Happy start of the holidays
Much Love Matty

Here is a little shot of our house with a layer of snow.

OH Remodel

2010-11-07T23:15:00.000-08:00

Oh Remodel, how we love and hate you...

Jillian and I moved into our new residence on July 15th 2010 and within two weeks the fun had started. We were tearing down walls, changing counter tops, ripping floors up, changing doors and the list goes on and on and on and is still going. Jillian and I added a touch to the house today that we feel is up to standard to share now.

Jillian and I ran into many bumps along the way. From uneven flooring, electrical problems, leaking sliding door, waiting on oven and contractors. Overall we changed the counter tops from hideous tile to beautiful slab granite, the floors from linoleum and gross carpet to fantastic red oak hardwood floors. A new slider door for the back door. A new five burner gas oven and a brand new gas fireplace. All of which was done by contractors. Jillian and I tried our hardest to do as much as we could and we ended up painting the cabinets a slightly matte black, with Jillian's Dad's help we did the electrical needed, we painted, we put in a corrugated iron back splash for the counters, we added handles to the cabinets which all nobs but each one is different and our latest feat was adding some texture to two of our walls in the living area. We did this texture by staining 40 fence palings pearl gray then we attached brackets on the wall and screwed the wood in. Jillian and I are very very happy with how the house is looking and are excited. Enjoy.

The first photos are of the before shots of the house.

Above:
Looking from the Kitchen out the living room to the backyard

In the above photo the wall on the left was taken out to create an island and a more open space into the living room.

The below photo is a better view of the wall.

Notice the gross carpet above.

Above: The wall goes down. At this point we were were thinking it would be completed in a week or ...Hahahahaha the fools we are.

We lived with no oven for two months. Luckily we lived next door to Jillian's parents.

The projects are not complete, But the big stuff is done. Hope you cats like it.

Back to blogging

2010-10-25T17:20:00.001-07:00

Okay I have been off my blog game lately and I know all three readers I have are devoed ( Australian for devastated ). So over the next few days I will try and a few new tid bits. First one is a little something I added to my office. I have been lucky enough to be able to start collecting skateboards And few weeks ago I got a chance to put some of them up.

matty3stars

Milwaukee to Chicago

2010-09-07T22:53:00.001-07:00

Here in the states we just had a long weekend. Jillian and I celebrated it by traveling with some friends to Milwaukee Wisconsin to visit our friend Laura who recently moved there for school. To make the most of it we took a red eye Thursday night and had Friday off to make it a four day weekend.
We arrived at six in the morning , after a little sleep in we found some energy to get up and go see some sites of the cheese state. Our friend lives in cool part of town which is a lot like Fremont in Seattle or Freo in WA. That artsy type feel to it. We walk around there and got to see the great lakes and it is crazy to see a lake you can not see the other side of after that we headed in to the main part of the city and man was there history and architecture to boot.
It is cool but seriously the highlight of The day was when we took the pub tour called the "Pedal Tavern". It is a 12 seated table that you pedal around the city from bar to bar unfortunately they are still working out the liquor license, so the tap on board was dry. A lovely dinner was had to round out the day.
Here is a pic of Jillian and the "Pedal Tavern".

The next day was was a little bit more chilled out but just as fun. We spent the day with our friend Charlie and his family and friends. Charlie lives in Seattle with us and coincidently is from the same place our friend is now going to school. We spent the day bbqing, having a few drinks watching football, playing games and rounded out with us sitting around fire.

Sunday we made am2 hr trip down to Chicago and man was it great. I don't think I can explain how cool and overwhelming it was, by far the biggest city I have been to. As soon as we step out of the tunnel we get to see one of the city's most infamous pieces of art. Here is a couple of pictures of it.
On the second picture can you pick me out? Cause when you were looking into it, it was hard to find yourself.

Chicago is famous for many many things, but we were hungry and hunting for one thing deep dish pizza. Let's just say it was worth the long walk and long wait.
Our now friends Annie and Mike (Charlie's brother in-law and sister) came up with a great idea to do a boat tour. Man what a dam good idea that was. We got see great stuff while learning so much about the city.
On Monday we just cruised around and tried to soak up as much of our friend as we could until our flight.

The weekend was great.

Work on the weeknds has never been so much fun

2010-08-30T14:23:00.000-07:00

Every year my school SVC has an event called a Wayzgoose which is the old tradition of celebrating letterpress. And to celebrate this tradition my schools asks local design firms, artist and companies to join in the Steamroller Smackdown as well as many other activities.
The Steamroller Smackdown is where each firm creates a design, cuts it out of a 34in by 44in piece of linoleum and places it under a steamroller for printing.

I was mad stoked about this event anyway, but because my own design had been chosen to represent DC, I was over the moon.
The day was so much fun with DC crew getting under the sun.

Here are some photo's of the design, cutting and the steamrolling with the crew.

Well that is it for now. Much Love

Meeting the president

2010-08-18T17:52:00.000-07:00

If you call standing about 50 meters away with a few hundred people meeting him. Then yes I met the president.

Mr Obama was having a meeting or something about two blocks from my work. So a few of us headed down there for a little meet and greet.

Our meet and greet was a little more like bird watching you wait, you need binoculars and you see that presidential bird for two fleeting seconds.

It was a fun time. Here is a picture i took on my phone. Don't worry I pointed him out. He is the one in the white shirt with no jacket.

matty3stars

Wedding and art show

2010-08-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

While Jillian, Nick and I are living in the chaos of the kitchen remodel we have all had a few things going. Our friends Teigan and Trevor had a beautiful wedding. There tears of joy, speeches and a whole lot of dancing. All in all a great night.

A couple of weeks ago my work offered me a full time position which I am so amped on. Today August 10th was my official starting date. Yahoooooooo I am
so excited.

While I am on the subject of work. We had a great opening night for our latest art show. The art was by a poster design company called "Patent Pending Industries". It was their ten retrospective show. With a few hundred people strolling through the doors throughout the night, a keg, fresh popcorn(courtesy of my old work) and a whole lot of kick ass art.
A bunch of my friends and family were among the few hundred people to walk through the doors. Here is a pic of Jillian and her cousin Thomas.

Peace to ya all. I'm out.
matty3stars

Big news

2010-08-02T23:41:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday my boss asks me to meet in the conference room and before both cheeks could hit the chair he asks me if I would like a full-time position at the company. I was so excited I said yes before hearing what they were offering. Luckily they offered something that I was super stoked with. So as of August tenth I will have my foot firmly planted in the world of web design.
Also the firm I work for has a great crew of people who all have mad skills. There is is such a great work atmosphere that males going to work each day very enjoyable.

Feel free to check out the web site www.designcommission.com

matty3stars

Another place to rest a heavy heart

2010-07-08T17:05:00.000-07:00

matty3stars

A month to remember

2010-07-08T00:10:00.000-07:00

For this post I am just going to pump out the big things over this month.
First off we moved out of our condo which we rented out for the price we wanted to a lovely young couple. We are living with Jillian's parents while the current tenants are still in the new house. Dammit. Awh well they are out on the 15th.

Jillian spent a week in Vegas for work. Her and her sister Natalie put on a huge conference for her work. Both of her bosses were so stoked and spoiled both her and Natalie as a thank you.

We had so many birthdays over the month of June. Including mine oh man I was spoilt with movies, gift cards, clothing and a whopping gift of tickets to see my favourite band the Black Keys.

Jillian and I had our 4th wedding on July 1st. We spent it apart as I had to work. But we did get to spend the next day together and went for celebratory breakfast. Jillian surprised me with an iPhone4 which I get in a few days. I gave her a poem. I was definitely out shined in the gift department.

After our anniversary breakfast we headed down to Portland four the 4 th of July week end. Our friend Nick parents has a beach house in Lincoln city which is right on the coast. Not on a lake. We had a great weekend with nick and his family. A highlight for me was meeting a pro skater at the local park there. The park was one of the raddest bowl parks I have ever seen. I couldn't skate it for crap. But was still stoked to be there. Food, fishing, games and fireworks made the weekend great.

The Tuesday straight after the weekend away my bosses took me to a Seattle mariners baseball game. We had great seats and fantastic time.

Oh I also played my first game of softball. The game is a social
game but is taken somewhat seriously. So I was pretty nervous when it was my turn to bat but that went well. I was more nervous when I was put in to pitch on my first. That went well with me striking out my first 3 batters. But I had a glitch when I ran into to antelope team mate trying to catch a ball. Idiot I am. I am now the starting pitcher. Let's just in my softball game there was many highs and lows, humorous lows. I made a softball blunder and slide into first. I have the grazes on my elbow and knee to prove it.

I think this enough for now.
matty3stars

Here is a website that I have helped out on

2010-06-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

I little while ago I was given the chance to work on a web site with my boss/creative director Jay.
It was a great experience where I learned a lot on the design and developing side of things.

Here is the link to the site http://www.discountlockbox.com/

Full weekend

2010-05-24T18:07:00.001-07:00

G'day all,
This weekend was a great weekend full of family, friends and rain.
Friday night Jillian and had dinner over at her parents house. Jillian hungabout there for a while and I went home to work a bit. Saturday was the grandest day.
We went to the Seattle Sounders professional soccer game curtoisy of our grind Charlie. So Jillian and I got to watch the game from great seats with two great friends Charlie and Trevor.

a coworker of mine gave me this star wars keychain so I took a picture of it as if it was on the feild. It is the only photo I have of the game. Our Team Lost but it was a great time. We walked around the city with Trevor and Charlie for a while then I went home to have a nap and Jillian went with Charlie to see Hillary(Jillian's great friend Charlie's girlfriend) play lacrosse. They only got to watch a bit cause it was raining so hard they had to leave.
Later that night Jillian and I took her mother and father out to a delicious dinner at a place called "Cafe Juanita" the Chef there is really really good and is nationally recognized. We had a great time. After dinner which ended around 11 big poppa(jillian's dad)and I headed into the city to go to a siff(Seattle independent film festival is the most attended film festival in northen America) movie that started at midnight. The movies great if you get a chance it is called "Tucker & Dale Vs evil" it is so funny. The main actor and director was there and did a bit of q&a at 2 in the morning. Quite a treat.

Sunday I slept in Jillian was productive as usual. After I woke Jillian and ran some errands then we chilled out on the couch til the Sunday dinner.
All in all a great week end.
Much love

matty3stars

Fun times, good news and a bright future ahead

2010-05-18T20:23:00.000-07:00

As most of you know Jillian and I have been given a great opportunity and that opportunity comes in the form of a new house. After 10 months of many ups and downs of this short sale we finally took ownership not possession though, we don't get to move in until the July. Due to the owner needing to stay there to figure out their next accommodations. Other than that little snafoo Jillian and I are very very excited and are looking forward to moving in, painting and doing some touch ups to the place.

Other than that ginormous thing we have been hanging out with friends and family every opportunity we get. Personally I have been skating as much as I can, sketching, loving work and still trying to be rad not successfully though.

Jillian has been working her but off and has been trying to see her new nephew as much as possible.

Our plates are very busy at the moment, but it is how we like it.

Just to give an adoption update Jillian and I will be putting in our application as soon as we move into our new place. Because when adopting your house needs to be certified for the adoption as well and as much as we like being busy we don't like it enough to do that twice.

Also so a shout out to Kevin and Christy who had their second wedding anniversary on Monday. Yay 2 years down only forever to go.

Here is refresher pic a of our new place..

Another sketch

2010-05-06T23:33:00.000-07:00

matty3stars

My works monthly email

2010-05-05T15:39:00.000-07:00

Here is the header for my works company email. See anyone familiar?

Another Place To Rest Your Heavy heart

2010-05-01T00:27:00.000-07:00

One big week

2010-05-01T00:14:00.000-07:00

This week started out with a big bang.
Natalie and Hodgie Gave birth to an 8 pound 22 inches healthy Beautiful baby boy.
Natalie Was wonderful through the 29 hours of labor, yeep I said it 29 hours. It was really intense. The whole family pulled together taking turns rubbing shoulders, getting water and doing what ever Natalie needed and deserved. She was great.
Okay most of you know that ranga's, ginger ninja's or just straight red heads what ever you want to call them are not high on most Australians list. And most of you know that I was well in that group(mostly in gest mostly). Well a few years ago I had niece "Charlie" and she is very Ginga Ninja. Well Charlie took a huge chip out of my anti ranga wall. But with my new Nephew Henry's head redder than a match stick I think the wall has broken down. Well how can you not flip for a ranga when you have two adorable family members. With the newest one looking like this.

Keep it REAL Ginga everyone..

Matty

If cockroaches were bunnies

2010-04-27T16:05:00.001-07:00

Here is a little something I sketched the other day.

My new desk

2010-04-19T14:19:00.001-07:00

Here is a pic or two of my new desk.

At my new desk I work next Stephanie. She is mad rad we jabber on about all kind of stuff.
My desk is the one with screens turned on.

Cool Week End

2010-04-18T23:07:00.000-07:00

Jillian and I both had busy weeks. So we were both happy to see the weekend. Friday I had to work a little late on a project that is very close to wrapping up, which makes it all that more exciting at work. So Jillian and I Went over to her parents place fora make your own pizza night. After we went home for a quiet night in I worked on a project and Jillian watched a bit of t.v.

Jillian spent Saturday with her friends. They took all the dogs for a walk, went shopping and had dinner together. It was a full day of fun for them.

Saturday I worked on that project for a few hours. But the day really started at 3 when I went for a skate and it started to rain.That sounds like it would suck and if it was any other day it would of. As I was driving away from the skate park I decided to give a friend of mine a call who knows of this underground skate spot your allowed to skate at. Luckily enough he was pulling into the skate park as I called him and he was down to take me to this spot. We got there and it was great with 3 obstacles to skate. They were obstacles that I don't get to skate that often, and with that in mind I thought I was not going to have a very enjoyable skate. Boy was I wrong my friend and I had a great skate. I landed tricks I have not landed in years and ended up skating for many hours and I got some footage of a couple of tricks. I am stoked the footage is bad. But I am mad stoked..

One trick is a nose grind and another tail slide 270shuv it out. Later that night I hung out with a couple friends Nick and Cody. We talked shit and watch some Basketball play offs. All in all a good day.

Sunday was a beautiful day sunny and warm. I worked a little and Jillian went for a jog. We took the dogs for a walk and then we headed off to one of my colleagues Jon's BBQ. It was fun. A really good week end.

I hope all is well with every one and hope to hear from you all soon.

Matty

Little update

2010-04-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hey All, This was awhile ago so I will add a few things along the way in a different color.

Jillian and I have had a busy past couple of weeks as per usual. but here is a quick over view of some highlights. Some very big highlights.

Jillian is been training with her Sister Natalie, so when Natalie takes maternity leave Jillian will help cover her position. I think this works out for the both of them Jillian gets to shine in front of the boss's and Natalie gets to rest knowing her position is being covered by some one who is very qualified and someone she trusts. Jillian's Sister Natalie is Due Tomorrow Friday the 16th. It is all very very exciting. Jillian is very prepared and excited for her double position at work.

Jillian has also been having quite a few adventures, she has traveled down to Arizona to visit a friend of hers Caitlin and Jillian tells me that she had a great time and was very grateful for getting that as a Christmas present. Last week Jillian had a girls night out to see Chicago(which she loved). Apparently Caitlin has been doing very well At her job in Phoenix, AZ. So big ups to her.

She also went to the movies with Savanna, I think they saw Percy Jackson (basically a Harry Potter rip off) they had fun though. Jillian and I have seen Savanna since then and went to the movies and saw "how to Train your Dragon". It was a great movie with Great animation with a great story. It is always a good time hanging out with Savanna

Jillian and her friends are starting a book club. Jillian and her friends starting a book club and have read a tv host's book Chelsea Handler. Jillian said it was funny.

I have been working and then TAing 2 nights a week. Still illustrating that book, skating as much as I can. I was playing American football with some of Jillian's co-workers. It was a great time but it really broke up my Saturday. So I could not continue on to the next season. Maybe later in the year.

both of us together; We celebrated a good friend of ours Charlies 30th birthday 2 weekends ago. It was a very fun night. I had no voice which I think made it more fun for everyone else. We have also celebrated our friend Hilary's B'day. Jillian's B'day was a week long event with shopping spree's, present and a big night out at Jillian's favourite bar. Jillian and all of our friends had a great night.

Jillian and I went to our second meeting of adoption which was great. This meeting went well and was very informative on both sides. Since this was a pre-application meeting Jillian and I have decided to hold off on putting the application in until we are in the new house. But Jillian and I both walked away from the meeting smiling with excitement. Jillian and I are holding off of taking the next step of adoption until we are in the next house.

So with the new house coming Jillian and I have been preparing our condo for rent. We were going to sell it, but because of the state of the economy; our condo is not worth selling yet. So we will hold on to it and keep it as an investment. There has been a lot of stress with the house and has been a fair few weeks and the whole thing was almost gone. But with great work of Jillian's brother Kevin it is back on track. We will know more in the next few days. I will keep this posted.
So over the last couple of weeks we have been making some minor adjustments to the condo eg: adding closet doors, changing some lighting fixtures and adding current heating dials.

Also some friends of ours Nick and Laura got engaged on the weekend. We are very excited for them and should be celebrating with them over the upcoming weekend.

Jillian b'day start

2010-04-10T20:08:00.001-07:00

Jillian at the start of her b'day party night.

We will see how she looks at the end of the night!!

Teigan wins #1

2010-04-10T15:53:00.001-07:00

What a morning Jillian and I have a lovely breakfast at portage bay cafe and to top it off Jillian and I got to witness our great friend Teigan win first place in a huge cup cake competition. Go "T".

This is the craziest animation

2010-04-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a friend of mine Mikey G and yayeveryday for putting this in front of my face.

Skateboardanimation from Tilles Singer on Vimeo.

A little sketch after dinner

2010-04-06T13:47:00.001-07:00

Here is a little after dinner sketch.

New old boards

2010-04-04T23:22:00.001-07:00

Here is a few new old boards I have been collecting to put up in the new house.

A few places to rest your heavy heart

2010-04-02T23:37:00.001-07:00

Here are a few places I found where people rest there heavy hearts.

New board

2010-03-21T22:29:00.001-07:00

Here is my new board and the work I put on it.

When my brain melts this is what you get

2010-03-11T16:50:00.000-08:00

Happy homes show

2010-03-04T17:52:00.000-08:00

Today was the first Thursday of March and my work was putting on another show. This show was by an artist C.M Ruiz.
The show was called Happy Homes. It came down to the wire, but with everyone working together it we made it happen.
The show looks great with a small shanty type house built in and a photocopied image that was repeated all over the wall. Here are a couple of pic's

C. M. Ruiz at Design Commission Gallery - Timelapse from Design Commission on Vimeo.

New House

2010-02-13T00:46:00.001-08:00

Wahhoooooo. Jillian and I just found out tonight the house we have been waiting for is ours on the 22nd of March. Wahooo.
Here is a pic to refesh your memories.

--Matty3stars--

Location:100th Ave NE,East Seattle,United States

Exciting news

2010-02-11T16:55:00.000-08:00

eally exciting news. I am not sure everyone would know this, but with my big mouth and my willingness to share more than the average person. It wouldn't surprise me if you did. Anyway back to the exciting news part. Jillian and I have been waiting for the right time to start looking into adoption. And we feel like now is the right time to get started, as the process can be very long. So last Jillian and I went to a meeting/presentation last night at A place called Amara.

Amara is a non profit organization that helps bring children and adoptive together. Jillian found this organization a while ago and after the presentation last night Jillian and I were sold on Amara.

This will be a long arduous process, so let me answer a few questions that you may ask:

Why adopt?

Jillian and I would love to provide a warm loving successful home/life to a child that would otherwise not get one.

How long will it take?

It will take approximately a year give or take depending on your situation.

What is the next step?

Well Jillian and I will probably start taking some classes that are mandatory. But the first major step is on March 5th. And this is when we meet with our adoption agent who will be handling our case from the start to the finish. I think the relationship you develope with your agent can really make you process go smoothly.

What age do you want to adopt?

Between 1 and 3. Jillian and I are not looking to adopt a new born, which can take years. But that is not the reason we are not looking at a new born. We are more than likely fertile and we would hate to take away that chance from anyone who is unable to have a child of their own.

So I guess that covers the basic's if you have any other questions please feel free to ask.

I am going to try and keep up to date on this process so everyone feels like they are apart of the experience, as if Jillian and I were having a child through birth.

Much Love Matty

Inner tubing

2010-02-06T12:52:00.001-08:00

It was a cold winters day. Well actually not really for here it has been suprisingly warm for here. Despite the terrible snow conditions. Jillian and I decided to take Big Poppa winter inner tubing as a Christmas present.
Being that Big Poppa had never been before he tried every technique under the sun from the belly flop to the multi spin.
We all had a great time.

--Matty3stars--

It's the small things

2010-02-04T08:49:00.001-08:00

It's the small things in life that can make the difference. My boss randomly just gave all the employees a squeeze toy, mine is a rocket. Made my day.

--Matty3stars--

Cup cakes

2010-02-01T17:34:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday night our friends Noah and Vaneeta(they are a couple) had joint b'day party. It was great night with great friends but the most memorable part was the cupcakes our friends Teigan and Trevor made for Noah. It seriously played with your mind. I kept expecting to bite into an onion.

--Matty3stars--

Something fun

2010-02-01T16:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a little fun thing I did for my brother in law Kevin.

Sparkles and froz will get this.
Matty

It's January already.

2010-01-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Hello all.

I will once again be writing in Matty’s stead. I left you last at New Years. Wow, that seems so far away, since a good amount has happened since then.
The following weekend I went down to San Francisco with my sisters and my mom for a baby shower for Natalie. We had a great time catching up with our cousins and old family friends in the city by the bay. Natalie and Baby Henry were delightfully showered with presents and love. While I was down there, Matty played in his first flag football game. He was asked by one of my co-workers to substitute for this particular game because they were short on players. Matty was such a fan, he has now signed on for the season. So far, he has played two games.

Later in the week we had Savanna, my little sister, over for dinner. After dinner she was supposed to be working on homework, but could hardly keep her eyes off Matty while he was working on the computer. Savanna is quite an artist and is over the moon with everything Matty produces. She is in awe of him, and I am chopped liver anytime he is doing anything artistic. We had a fun night full of laughs though.

Also in the week we found out that the house we are trying to buy is becoming more of a reality. In the short sale process, the first step is getting the bank to approve the owners selling the house at such a reduced rate (this is the most difficult step). We got word that we have officially moved on to step 2 now! It looks like it will be another 2 or 3 months until we would move in. Which we don’t mind (more time to try and sell our place).
Matty had some great news last week as well. His internship was set to finish the end of this month. On Friday he had a meeting with his bosses who asked him to stay as an intern for 6 more months! Matty is frothing at the idea of a solid 6 more months of permission to ask a million questions and pick their brains. In about 5 months they will all meet again and asses how Matty will fit in their company in the future. All great news!

This past weekend had a bit of a Christmas vibe to it for us. On Friday we took Grandma for her Christmas gift, which was a trip to the Seattle Art Museum to view the Michelangelo exhibit. It was an amazing collection that blew us all away. Afterward we enjoyed a fun dinner downtown with Grandma. Then Sunday, we collected our Christmas present from Kevin and Christy. They took us to The Triple Door (a live venue downtown) for some delicious food and a great show. The show was in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. since Monday was his holiday. It started with dancing from a ballet school in Tacoma for underprivileged kids (that is actually called the Martin Luther King Dance School). The main performance was by a local woman and her band. She wrote her own music and had quite a good band. It was such a special night and a great Christmas gift! In between these outings I tried snow-shoeing for the first time with a couple girlfriends. It is just like hiking, but in the snow in some special footwear. We had an awesome time, but my legs were a bit sore afterward!
Hope everyone has a lovely rest of the week. Much love, from Team Mitchell.

Craiglist

2010-01-19T08:30:00.001-08:00

Here is a pic of the great finds you get with a bad nights sleep, an iPhone and craigslist.

It is an old soda carrier and we also got an old 6 pane window frame.
--Matty3stars--

Happy New Year

2010-01-10T16:27:00.000-08:00

Hello blog-world. A different member of Team Mitchell will be running through our most recent events today, as Matty is just too swamped and a bit daunted by the large amount of content to catch up on (and Mango’s fingers are still sore from losing to me at thumb wrestling).
This Holiday season took our household by storm this year. There are no complaints here, being as we had several wonderful parties and get-togethers, but it was exhausting! The weekend prior to Christmas is where I think we shall pick up. Saturday night we went to one of my colleague’s annual holiday fondue party. It was a fun get together full of gift exchanging, drinks, and food on skewers. I would say the most memorable moment for Matty that night was his introduction to Angel Food Cake. Now for the Ozzies, this is kind of like a sponge cake that is quite popular here (particularly in the summer with fruit and whipped cream). The Angel Food Cake was one of the options to be dipped into the chocolate fondue. I think Matty wet himself with excitement. He claims it tastes like monks made the cake from bits of heaven. Either way, we move on to Sunday. We squeezed in a breakfast with Anna (a fellow study abroad student whom Matty has stayed in contact with) and her boyfriend who were in town for the weekend. Then we headed over to my parents’ house to start getting ready for the big Gotz family (my mom’s side) Christmas dinner. We draw names for the whole family, so Matty and I each received one gift. Matty now has a new striped beanie and I have a new beautiful scarf. Lots of food and fun was had by all 33 of us that day!
The next Monday we had our last holiday party. Natalie hosted a holiday dinner for our work friends. We are lucky to work with a lot of people our own age with similar interests. Natalie put together a delicious dinner for the party of 19. We then did gift exchanges (again I got a beautiful scarf and Matty received the Pineapple Express DVD). We also played some pretty fun party games.
Then came Christmas! Matty made his calls to family in Oz on Christmas Eve night since it was Christmas there. On Christmas morning we went and picked up Grandma early and brought her over to our house for gift opening. I gave Matty a new messenger bag for his laptop and everything else he lugs back and forth to work. I also gave him big rubber boots for walking the dogs in the rain and some cologne (he wanted to smell more grown-up). Matty had already bought me a pair of shoes for Christmas, which I have been enjoying for a few weeks. Also, he led me on a treasure hunt around the house which ended with a coupon for a trip to Phoenix! One of my best friends lives down there and I have been wanting to pay her a visit (and soak up the sun). After we opened pressies we headed over to my parents’ house to start on breakfast. Natalie and Hodgie joined as well and we all delighted in a delicious Christmas breakfast. Soon the whole gang started arriving and we got down to business. Everyone was spoiled by each other and we all wound up with thoughtful and fun gifts. Matty was very surprised when we were almost done and he unwrapped his computer tablet (from my parents and me). This is a sensitive slab that he draws on and it shows up on his computer. Very fancy, and apparently very helpful for his work. We gave some exciting presents as well. We were really excited about giving Amy and Brad a family photo shoot, Hodgie a basketball signed by Luke Longley, and taking my dad snow inner tubing next month! After gifts we all rallied and got dinner on the table together. The day was capped off with all of us sitting around the lounge room talking. What a wonderful holiday it was!
The day after Christmas we took my mom downtown to collect her present. We went to The Bodies exhibit, which is a collection of dissected cadavers to show the human body. It was amazing! We then went for a stroll through the market and ended with lunch out. It was a great extension of Christmas.
A quick jump now to New Years! As we did last year, we joined a group of our friends out on the water in a rented house for the three day weekend. There were 15 of us in a large house that included a pool and ping pong tables. We had a blast. We all arrived on New Year’s Eve and got settled in. After dinner we got dressed up and turned on the dance party. We really rang in the new year. However, the next night could have possibly been even better. We did a Murder Mystery night! A couple of weeks prior, we all received our characters and what costume we should come in. That night we then received instructions along the way as to who we really were and who the murderer may be. The setting was a 20 year high school reunion. Matty was a math team captain who turned out to be a financial whizz. I was the class flirt who turned into a bit of a hussy. I kept finding out all these people I had “relations” with. It was so much fun though!!
So that leaves us here, back at work and at the beginning of a new year. This is almost a book, but too much that couldn’t be passed over I guess. This weekend I am going to San Francisco to attend Natalie’s baby shower with family and friends who all live down there. Matty is staying home to help move our friend in to his new house! Wonder who got the better end of that stick?

I hope everyone is having a nice start to their new year..

Peace...

Skate 2 Donate

2009-12-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

After the last couple of months I have been collecting second hand skateboards(many donated by local Kirkland Skaters and residents ) to fix up and give away to kids in positions less fortunate than myself. I had 9 boards in total to give away. After I spoke to a guy named "Zach"(who was mad passionate about his work and super helpful) that works for a local Non-profit organization called the "Kirkland boys and girls club". We set up a time and place to give these boards away and at the same time give these kids a little lesson.

We skated and hung out for about an hour in an undercover basketball area at a school. There were a total of 11 kids there some just watching. I really think that a few of them really got something out of it. As I got a lot out of it. I feel if I give the gift of skateboarding to one kid my job is done. Not that I will stop here I hope to take it further each time I do this.

Here is a couple of photo's of the time we had together....

If you ever feel like donating to this cause hit me up...

Matty

Happy Holiday Spirit

2009-12-16T23:36:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

Tis the season and We should know, because Jillian and I have had 2 xmas parties already and with 3 more.

Jillian had her work xmas party the Monday straight after our weekend away to Whistler. I have mentioned before that Jillian works at the headquarters of a very large company. So at Jillian's work party all the big wig's were there, about 50 people in total. Jillian's work colleagues were super friendly and that made all the x-mas games super fun. It was held a delicious restaurant. Here is Jillian and , Not to be corny but Jillian was absolutely beautiful that night.

On Friday night was my work party. I was so excited as I have only been working there for 6 weeks or so. It was a fantastic night. It was at my boss David's house. All the staff were there, it was a great night with many laughs had. My boss's gave everyone a gift and what a gift it was. We all received a alarm clock radio. I know you are thinking a clock radio what ever. But this one connects to the internet, so I can connect to Triple J (Australian radio station). connect to my computer and play music through there and I can connect to flickr and have my pictures scroll through the screen that is on it . Wow I was so stoked. Especially since I have only been there for 6 weeks and potentially only another 6. But between you me and the rest of the people reading this, I would love to stay on it is a great atmosphere there.

Here is a pic of me and my work crew at the xmas party

We did a lot on the weekend. Saturday Jillian went xmas shopping with her mum, I hung out with Jillian's Grandma, I skated and got a sneak peak into a new indoor park before it's grand opening this Saturday. On Sat night Jillian and I went our separate ways, Jillian went to an Xmas partyin Seattle and my friend kenny came over and we went to a friend of his x-mas party.

One of the most exciting things though was seeing Savanna (if you do not know who that is by now then you have to back and read some past posts) acting and singing in a play that was sold out in a few days. We had to stand in the below 0 degrees celsius on standby for tickets. It was worth every second. Savanna was amazing and we got to go have a hot chocolate after the show. What a fun filled weekend.

And this weekend coming up looking fuller than the last.

Well that's it for now.

Much Love

Matty and Team Mitchell

Once again a huge week for Team Mitchell

2009-12-09T23:43:00.000-08:00

Well I left you all last week with taste of the of the show I was helping put on and a whisper of Whistler.
I will fill you all in on the show first. I spent Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working on the show. There was printing, painting, hanging, Keg, food, putting up vinyl decals, cutting boards, measuring, lighting, paint touch ups and whole lot more. We were all busy little bee's right up until the start of the show. The first hour or so of the show is just like the start of anything else pretty slow. People trickled in and out, but once it hit 7:01pm was like a we were giving a away free beer. Oh We were, but people didn't know that until they walk in. The night went great there was a great vibe, the artist were happy and most important my boss's were.
Below you will see pictures of how the art is placed and to top it off. We separated out all the candy as representation of the grand colors in the artwork.

The next day Jillian and I joined Natalie and Kevin (Brother and sister in law) in a trip to Whistler Canada. We stayed at the the four seasons, I know Lad di da. But Natalie won it from a work function last year. I thought it was a motel 6 or something. I am that classy I don't even now what the four seasons are. The weekend was great, it is such a beautiful place. WOW!!
Since Natalie is pregnant Kevin chose to be a great husband and Spend a beautiful day in Whistler. While Jillian and I spent the day on the Blackcombe mountain. It is so big I never realized it could be so big. The snow was not the best, very icy. but it was a great time. After snowboarding We went back to room and Jillian I had a bath. In one we both could actually fit in. We caught up with Natalie and Kevin a little bit later and cooked dinner and spent the night hanging out playing cards. It was such a pleasure to hang out with Natalie and Kevin.

I think that is enough for now.
I hope all is well with everyone.
Matty

Thanksgiving and more

2009-11-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

Hi All,
Well as most of you know Thanksgiving was this past Thursday and there is a lot to talk about so let's get started.

Last weekend my nephew had his 2nd birthday and he celebrated it at an indoor water slide park. Jillian and I did not get to join in the festivities, but heard it was a great great time with only a small upset. Jillian's Mum slipped on wet pavement and broke her arm. She now has a cast going up past her elbow. But she is holding up like a trooper and keeping a smile on that dial.

At my workplace we have an art gallery in front of our studio and the first Thursday of every month art galleries in Seattle are open to the public. My workplace is a part of this and on December 3rd we are having an art show showing work of Jared Nickerson. I have been doing a lot of work on the upcoming show, re-painting walls, painting murals on the wall (his work not mine), printing out his work boarding it and so on and so forth. So as you can tell it has been quite busy. here is a sample of what I have been doing. The show is this Thursday, there is much to do still and it is all very exciting.

The Thursday just past was Thanksgiving and Jillian and I had 4 days off together. Thursday through to Sunday. We had a great time we went and saw two movies. One which we loved "Blindside". I skated twice. Jillian got to go shopping and we had an awesome thanksgiving dinner with Jillian's immediate family and a few extended families. Making the festivities all the better. With great food, games, more food and many laughs.
Here is the pic or two of the festivities. I even baked cookies !! But the Prize for best chef must go to Jillian and her sisters as they put most of it together.

After a great Thanksgiving we still had 3 days free. So on Friday I decided to make dinner for Jillian, her parents, Kevin and Christy. I made chicken terriyaki with veggies and I made it completely by myself. It was quite delicious if I do say so myself.

We hung out with the family over the weekend a lot, it was a great weekend. Maybe whistler this weekend may compare.

Well I hope this catches you all doing well.
Matty

Today

2009-11-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

Hi all
Well today was the busiest day I have had at my internship. The company that I work for not only has a work studio, but in the front of the work studio they have a gallery. Where they show different artists and it has been apart of my job to work with the artist on the upcoming show. Here is a picture of one of the artists pieces. It is painted on the front wall which stands 9 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Me and the artists own intern painted it.

I will have more pics of the show which is on dec 3rd
--Matty3stars--

My new work

2009-11-17T09:29:00.001-08:00

So here I am standing in front of my new work waiting for someone to come let me in. It's my 3rd week in and I'm enjoying it emmensly. While waiting I took a picture of the street, so you can get gist of what I look at everyday. Also here is a picture of my desk.

I hope all are doing well matty.

--Matty3stars--

Another fun filled week or so....

2009-11-08T22:34:00.000-08:00

Well there is a lot to say...

Okay the biggest news I have is that I just finished my first week of my internship last Friday.

It was great and very intimidating at the same time. The internship is at this great design firm called "design commission".

I have my own desk and have got to take on some really rad tasks. Jillian is loving it because I get up with her in the morning and drive with her to her work and take the bus into Seattle from there.Tomorrow is the start of my second week. I am looking forward to it very much.

Last weekend was Halloween and oh boy did we have some good costumes and some great times. Jillian and I went to a party at a friend of ours house Hilary's. This is also when they do their time change here and that gave us an extra hour of drinking, not that I needed it.

Jillian and I dressed up like an old couple. We mixed it up a little and swapped gender roles. Here is a pic of us...

Just before Halloween, we celebrated a couple of birthdays. It was both Mama Bill's and Kevin's birthdays only a few days apart. We had Sunday dinners in each of their honors with of course, presents and cake. Great family times.

On the Friday that just passed, Jillian had a congratulatory surprise dinner for me. Well I knew about the dinner, but the location was a surprise. Jillian surprised me by taking me out to a restaurant next to where we got engaged called the Salish Lodge. The weather was terrible and that made it even better as we sat eating dinner looking over the waterfall where we got engaged. It was a great night.

The next day was very fun as well. Our friend Tiegan is a great photographer and is looking to add to her portfolio. She had asked all the friends if they would pose for her. Jillian and I jumped at the opportunity to have someone with such fantastic skills take our shots. It was a very fun experience and I will post some pics when I get some in my hand. That night we went and had dinner with a few of our friends and a had an awesome night once again.

It is truly such a good feeling to be making such great friendships over here..

It has been raining here like no other, the true thought of Seattle weather. But, I have been trying to get in as many skates as possible. I enjoyed my first skate in a while today.

The last bit of exciting news, is that Jillian and I are now Monday to Friday people. With my new full-time internship, I was able to end my scheduled shifts at the movie theater and Jillian was able to quit the coffee shop. We have thoroughly enjoyed out last couple weekends of absolutely no work. I still have homework and projects,but at least I can do that on my own schedule.

Hope everyone is doing well. Jillian and I would always love to hear from you.

Another fun weekend

2009-10-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Jillian and I had fun weekend again. We went our seperate ways on Friday night. Jillian hung with xx chromosome and I went with xy. We both had great nights. The next morning we went out to breakfast with two of jillian's work colleagues. It was a great breakfast some cool cats.

that night we had two friends over for dinner. We played cards had laughs and best of all their nuerotic dog that doesn't usually go near men at all came up and sat next to me.

Oh during the week I repainted the door and completed some home work. All and all a good weekend.
--Matty3stars--

Exciting news

2009-10-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

Okay over the couple of months in my blog.
I have said that I have something exciting in the works. Well that exciting thing was an internship(a more intense work experience). I have had few fall through that I thought I was on with (they were mainly through friends or school). That is why I didn't want to say anything, cause nothing was for sure. I didn't want jinx it.

A few weeks ago my friend Charlie hooked me up with an interveiw at a really rad web design firm. A week or so later I heard back from them with a yes we would love to have you join our team as a intern. I was so excited, but that is not even the most exciting part about it.
So it is a 3 month fulltime internship. Which is what I thought it may be and every other internship I have looked into has been unpaid. Well in this email I got back from them, they said we pay our interns $10 an hour. My jaw dropped to the floor. I thought I was going to be going to school, TAing, interning and trying to fit in as many hours as I could at the movie theater. Now I can quit the movie theater. Well I am going to be an emergency back up. So I can focus solely on school and the internship.
The place I am interning at is http://www.designcommission.com
Jillian got me a pair of headphones as a congratulation gift. Wesc maracas. I will send an image when I get them in the mail.

In other exciting news I am writing and drawing a childrens book for a company called marsnews.com . It is what says in the name it is a rad website dedicated to delivering news about space and mars. I have sent off a story board to them and they love it. I have started working on the actual illustrations. I won't tell you what it is about, I need to keep something as a surprise.

Other than that Jillian is good and loving her job. Carpooling with her Sister Natalie just about everyday. The pooches are good. Family is good.
We have been hanging out with friends and just enjoying life. Even when I have to change out the garbage disposal over the weekend. Actually I rather enjoyed learning how to do that.
I hope this finds you all well.

--Matty3stars--

Our weekend away

2009-10-06T11:22:00.000-07:00

Good morning, evening or afternoon everyone,

This past weekend you may have noticed if you read the blog that Jillian, Allison and I were in Portland Oregon. It is about 3 hours south of Seattle. We were headed down there for a couple of reasons. Ours friend Julia's birthday and Her husband Paul was running in the Portland Marathon, which is 26.2 miles long.

We headed out about 8pm Friday night to avoid traffic and to watch the first game of the Family softball final. They won the first game and lost the second.

We stayed just out of Portland for Friday night at a friends house in Battleground.

Saturday morning we headed in to the city of Portland making a quick stop/ drive through memory lane of Jillian's old university. Were she picked up a new hoodie. Then Jillian took us into the City were she showed us around districts such as the Pearl and Hawthorne districts. Where there was great bookshops, opshops, restaurants, stores and an atmosphere that was very welcoming.

I finally got to skate Burnside Skate park. Let me just say this park is the most intense park I have ever skater, the videos and magazine photo's do not it justice at all. The locals were killing it. And a funny little side note I rocked up with my skateboard and started rolling around and most people were very welcoming. But when a these guys rocked up to take photo's and bunch of the locals stopped skating and very firmly told these guys that if they wanted to take photo's they would have to go get them some beer. When they came back with beer the locals stepped it up a notch and started smashing parts of the park that I was getting worked on. Plus it seem like they are adding to the park and it looks rad.

On Saturday night we all went out to dinner with Julia, Paul and both of their families to Celebrate Julia's 26th b'day. To Julia and Paul's favorite Mexican restaurant. It was delicious and a fantastic time.

The next day Paul started his race at seven in the morning. He was off way to early for the most of the group. We met up with him at the 22nd mile and we found out that Paul was having a harder time then expected. So I got the bright idea to jog with Paul fro a while well that while ended up being for 4 or so miles. in skate shoes, jeans and a hooded jumper. Let me just say I was hurting the next day. I can not imagine how Paul was feeling....But Paul finished in 5 hours and 45 mins. Everyone was very proud and impressed with Paul.

After the raced finished we all went out for lunch with Julia and Paul's family. I had to skip out to catch up with a friend of mine Anna and her boyfriend. We went out to coffee and had a great time.

Oh I was walking around taking photo's while we waited at mile 22 fro Paul and I found this desk and chair. I had to have a photo taken with it and you will see in the photo a jacket I bought in the Hawthorne district at an op shop.

After a great weekend we headed home and slept very well...

Hope you are all doing well..

Peace out Matty

Burnside skatepark

2009-10-03T14:43:00.001-07:00

Look what I got to skate.

--Matty3stars--

The start of the Portland trip

2009-10-03T12:29:00.000-07:00

Jillian, Allison and I are having a weekend away in Portland. Which is about 3 hrs south of Seattle our first stop was a visit to the University of Portland for Jillian to have trip down memory lane. Then we stopped at the addidas world Hq and I took this picture.

I will try and keep it updated through the fun weekend.

Fun Stuff all over the Show

2009-09-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple of weeks Jillian and I have been having a great time.
With activities including Car camping, birthday dinners, game nights, baking cookies, work party and another rolled ankle.

So I will break all these events down quickly..

Car Camping:
On Tuesday ten of us of decided that we would go camping Friday night. It was a great night we had a camp fire, smores, hot dogs, a few drinks and a great night filled with laughs.

Birthday dinners:
My Sister in law had a birthday dinner the other Sunday which was very fun. It was a completely vegan dinner.
The night before that the whole family went to dinner at a family friends to celebrate their son's 18th birthday. And we celebrated by having a games night.

Baking cookies:
Jillian and I had Savanna over a couple of weeks ago. We made cookies and had a great time with a delicious dinner to top it off.

Rolling my ankle:
Once again my left ankle rolled while skating. It was not doing anything fancy at all, it was doing a switch ollie on flat. And every other skater out there is asking if it was down a large set of stairs or something impressive. Nope this guy can do that on the flat with no obstacles or anything. I am that impressive. As I write this my ankle is getting back to normal and I can not complain it could of been worse.

Work Party:
The Other Wednesday the movie theater I work at held a work party for us to say thank you for a cleaning party we had the week before. It was held at a bowling club and we all had a blast . I think my highest was 135.

Logo work:
Yesterday I helped finish up my friends logo for her photography business.
Here is a sample of it...

I hope you are having as great couple weeks like Jillian and I..

Peace out Matty

September 11 2009

2009-09-11T10:52:00.000-07:00

Lets jump into this straight away,

Jillian is loving her job and regarding her coffee shop job. The boss there didn't want to lose her completely and ask her to work twice a month. Jillian was excited about this as she loves it there as well. Jillian finished her Chemistry class, which she finished with an A. Jillian didn't even study for the last exam. Being married to a genius is very humbling. Jillian is looking at this new job as a career and has put the idea of school teaching on a very extended hold.

Me personally I have had a project come to an end. I was ask to create a four posters to put into napkin dispensers for the movie theater I work at. I was given real freedom with the project and and was very happy with the out come.
Over the last year I have been skating this local skate park and have been a few rad little kindships. Which leads me into a two stories.
1.
I have tried to get skateboard lesson's happening at the skatepark before. But to no avail.
But over the last six months there has been a 4 year kid there Braydon rolling around on a scooter.
Well early on Braydon asked me to borrow my skate board and as I am usually carrying a spare or two for this exact reason. I let him borrow the spare one. Braydon and his Mum were always grateful.
Braydon's Mom Deanna and I were talking a couple of weeks ago about kids needing lesson's and I told her the story of me trying to get free lessons started there and how it came to no avail.
And Braydon's Mom quickly said that she would love to have me teach Braydon skating. So yesterday we meet up for a half an hour skate lesson. It was so much fun. Braydon learned how to push and put his feet back on. do many kick turns. He has a natural ability.
Braydon and his Mum Deanna were very grateful and I was very stoked to be able to teach skateboarding again.

2.
So I spoke about this in past blogs that I am trying to get skateboards together for underprivileged children Skateboards for Christmas.
Well I have had a huge response from a fair few people. It is looking like I am going to have over ten boards to give away. I am mad excited about this and I am a very grateful for everyone that is helping out. I just wanna give a big shout out to the local kirkland skaters who jumped on board without hesitation. thanks guys and girls.
I finished my flash class. That program still blows me away. I have two weeks off and start back up TAing on the 30th of Sept and a 10 week typography class on the starting on the 1st of october.

Jillian and I are lucky enough to have surrounded ourselves with great friends over here. And in the last post I spoke about going to hang out with a bunch of them on Camano Island. It was a very windy and wet weekend. though that didn't stop the fun. There was crabbing, movies, games, drinks, food and more food. Our friend Laura's parents hosted us all weekend. A big shout out to Nancy and Bob woot woot!!!!
We also got to catch up with friends for coffee and Another set of friends for a beer in the last week. These interactions make me feel more at home as time goes on....

We have had little news on the house, but what we have had was all good son....

here are some pics of the movie theater project I was working on....

I hope you all are doing well and I can not wait to hear from you cats, you dig!!
Matty

Here's to new beginnings

2009-09-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while since I put finger to key..
So here is a quick overview over the last week or so..

The big news is Jillian started her new job on the 24th of August. I think I forgot to tell you all what the company was called "Liberty Dialysis". Jillian loves it. Jillian has also cut her hours back at the coffee shop. So Jillian is feeling freer and happier than ever. It is not as close as her other job but it is only a twenty minute commute and the traffic is not that bad.

I have just taken on a new web job. I am very excited to pick up another one. I am also taking a class on the application Adobe Flash. That stuff is crazy..
Skating as much as I can and for those playing at home I landed a few new tricks. Frontside and backside noseblunt stalls on the quarter pipe. I was super excited to get these as I never thought I would be able to. Other than a few drunken escapades I don't have any other solo stories.

Jillian and I heard a bit more on the house and it is looking good, we still go to bed talking about it very often and have fingers crossed twice over. Jillian and I have been hanging out with our friends quite often lately and are going away this weekend to a place called Camano Island. Where our friend Laura's Parents live.
We also got to take Jillian's Grandma out for her b'day gift tonight. Grandma turned 81 the other week and has been hunting for a good Chinese place for the last year or so. So we took her to one that we knew she would love. It was a great night.

here is a pic of my new hair cut,
Well that is about it.
peace out ya'll
Matty

Up and Up and Up

2009-08-20T11:00:00.000-07:00

Life is like a roller-coaster baby......
If life was a roller-coaster Jillian and I would be inthe part that's up down and side side. The part where you feel like you may be sick, but it is so good you don't want it to stop.

So as you all know Jillian and I are in the process of buying a house. And you all know that Jillian lost her job. We have not heard anything on the house but that was expected.
What was not expected was Jillian to receive two jobs in one week. One was with the company she currently worked for. They were very very nice and kind of made a position for Jillian. Which she was super excited about. Then on the day Jillian accepted the job her sister Natalie called her to tell her a position at her company had opened up and that Jillian would be a perfect fit for it. Jillian was over the moon and also torn. Long story short, Jillian had a few meetings the next day at Natalie's work and took the job. It pays well, it has great people to work with and the company treats its employees very very well.
Jillian finishes at current job on Friday the 21st and starts her new job on Monday the 24th.
all very exciting.

Jillian and I had Thomas (Jillian's cousin) down for a few days. It was mad fun, Thomas and I got to go skating a bunch(Thomas learned 4 new tricks), play video games and create some art.
here is a sample of Thomas's skateboarding...

Matty

2009-08-12T03:24:00.001-07:00

Here is a couple of sketches I pumped out while I was working the other day.... See a theme?

Matty3stars.com

2009-08-12T01:52:00.000-07:00

Well Well well...
It has been a very long couple of months or so (more on the so side I would say)with all the ups and downs Team Mitchell has faced.
And to add to the pressure I have been working on my website www.matty3stars.com . It has been a long tedious road, Though I am happy with end product and the many learning experiences I have en-counted. But those who know me best know that I am usually ready for the next personal project before my last personal one is over. I have already been planning my next creative piece and my next project.
Speaking of my next project I am trying to get to a bunch of second hand skateboards together. So I can give them away at Christmas to kids that more than likely wont have access to getting one. I don't know exactly what kids yet, but I have been speaking to a guy that works for a boys and girls club who also works closely with some kids who are really in poverty.
Locals at the skate park have already said they would love to donate their second hand gear. I am going to approach a few skate shops to see if they will donate anything. or if their sponsors will.
I have also approached a newspaper about doing an article on the process, so the local skaters and the shops will get a little shout out will shedding a little bit of good light on skateboarding.
If anyone want to help in this process please email me or call me or what you would like to do to help is alright be this cat.
Well that is it for now,

UM Wow...

2009-08-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Home Sweet Home…Next Door to the In-Laws

So it just so happens that the little house next door to Mama Bill's and Big Poppa's (Jillian's parents) house came up for sale. However, it was even more of a special opportunity because it is on the market for a significant amount less than what it is worth.This is because the people who currently live there can no longer afford the house, and would go into foreclosure if they didn’t sell it for less than what they owe to the bank. This is called a “short sale” in the real estate lingo we have come to find out.

Jillian and I were astounded on how cheap this was, but new that it was still unrealistic for us at this point. So we let the dream go.
Big Poppa and Momma Bill had other something else in mind.
We received a phone call from Big Poppa at 10pm one night last week asking us to come straight over. After a nervous car ride over going over what this could be about, Jillian and I get there and are almost immediately asked to sit down.
Big Poppa and Momma Bill talk about what they would like to do and it just happens to be that they want to help us get into this great deal.
Jillian and I were blown away by this generosity(and still are). We had to make a quick decision due to the circumstances. So Jillian and I went for a walk and voiced the pro's and con's of the situation. Verdict... the pro's had it.
We decided to take advantage of the deal. We put an offer on the house the next day (along with 10 other people, one who put quite a larger some than we did), but the sellers chose us! Now don’t get too excited because now comes the hard part.

The bank has to approve the sale of the house for less than what the sellers owe on the house. This process takes about 6 months, however banks prefer this to foreclosures usually because that is such an expensive process. So, now we are just waiting to find out if it is a go-ahead. The Realtor who was working on the house said that there will be a bit of dinking back and forth with the bank, but it looks good.

I would Just like to thank a few people who made this possible and who put a lot of effort into it.
Big Poppa, Momma Bill, Grandma Price and Kevin Price. Thank you for everything you all have done....

I will keep you all up to date on the happening's.

Matty aka soon to be double house owner..

Team Mitchell takes a hit

2009-07-26T10:48:00.000-07:00

I have a few things to talk about so lets get started,
Lets start with the cruddy stuff, So we can end on positive note.

On Thursday Jillian found out the her boss had been let go from her position.
Because Jillian was only there to support her boss, Jillian's position will note be required. Jillian is being made redundant.
Jillian's boss was very sorry that she had put Jillian in this position and reassured Jillian was the greatest employee she had ever had and would do everything in her power to help Jillian get another job.
Jillian's boss has to the end of the week and Jillian has to the end of August. Jillian will get a severance package as well.
After the initial shock, Jillian got right back up to her high spirited self and has applied to over 20 jobs already and has been offered a job at one of the Hospitals she works with.
Jillian remains in high spirits and is seeing this as an opportunity to expand her networking, social circles (as her future job may have more than one person in the office) and to find a job that she will really enjoy.
As soon as Natalie (Jillian's sister) found out the news, She put her nose to the grind stone and came up with two possible leads. They are both very exciting leads, but I will I keep them under my hat for now, so I am not to jinx them.
I think Jillian has nothing to worry about with her references and ability. I think anyone who hires her is lucky to have her and I think they will see that in the interview.

Okay lets talk about some fun stuff...

Thursday started off on an average note but ended quite well..
I got to get a skate in as usual, but it was refreshing in the sense I got to clear my mind.
After Jillian got from work (which she finished early, cause what are they going to do fire her. hahaha.). We hung out with Jillian's Little Savanna
We all went to the local Mall/ forum/ shopping center to spend some birthday money I had left over. And guess what for?? yes it was skateboarding equipment. A new deck and a new set of
trucks.

But before I got to feed my skateboarding addiction. We all went to the park with the pooches and had a delicious dinner. It was nice to have Savanna around to relieve the tension of Jillian's day.

Friday I can not remember. I think we both worked?

That Saturday we had already made plans we couldn't get out not that we really wanted to.
We went to Jillian's cousin's boyfriends football game. It was very fun and way more entertaining when you know a cat out there.
We unfortunately had to leave early, kind of bitter sweet.
As we had a dinner to go out to with a bunch of friends. My friend Nick(with broken leg who is actually walking like a champ now) had one stipulation,
We had to eat out side due to the heat. But Murphy's Law step in and made it ran. hahah. We still had a great dinner and a our friends were super supportive
for Jillian. Which I am sure made her very happy.

Sunday we both worked, JIllian played soft ball and played a great game from what I hear. We had our usual sunday dinner which still is what I look forward to every sunday dinner.

The next week played out pretty much the same work, skateboarding, work, oh we had dinner with the Hodgii and Momma Bill and Big Poppa we played cranium.
It was super fun, boys verses girls. and lets just testosterone rules.

Friday 31st is where the action starts up again for Jillian and I.
Jillian's Little Savanna was in a musical at 1:00pm. and it was adorable. It was for a two week camp where they had to build the set, costumes and learn all the lines. In just two weeks. It was
amazing and we were so proud of Savanna.

Later on that day about 4:45pm
Our friends got married.
Jillian and I felt so lucky as they had only selected a few people to be there for the ceremony. We were two of the lucky 14 who got share this occasion.
It was just a civil ceremony as they already have a wedding planned for the same day next year. It was for visa purposes as they are both Canadian.
Any way this gave them an excuse to have a pre mini wedding night.
The judge who performed the service was so nice and made the ceremony very special.
We all got dressed up still. After the ceremony we all went out for a grand dinner. Where they served the newly weds with a beautiful substitute for a wedding cake.
Which some how we all turned the happy birthday song into happy wedding quite successfully.
Our friends have quite a taste for dance music. So after dinner we all headed out to a club and danced the night away.
It was really a spectacular night.
laughs, drinks, tears and a wedding.

Saturday Jillian and I both worked.
Lets just say I was running at about 67% as we didn't get in until 3 in the morning and I had had a few red bull vodka's aka my devils drink.
After we finished work Jillian and I headed over to Big Poppa's and Momma bill's for a beautiful dinner and a game of cards called "spades".
Again it was a battle of the sexes and this time Estrogen gets to wear the winning grin.

Today Jillian and I have to work, Jillian has another soft we have the Sunday dinner up at Brother and Sister in-laws place. They live near by a small lake, so the family got to have a swim and play around in the water before dinner. It was such a great end to the week end.

I hope you all are well
Matty

Picking berries

2009-07-20T09:30:00.001-07:00

Hello there,
I hope you all doing berry well. Pun intended.
Here is a picture of Jillian and I helping picking berries for "Momma bill's Jam".
Jillian said I was great at picking berries due to the fact I was an imigrant.

--Matty3stars--

The tortoise and the scare

2009-07-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

Ready Set GO!!!!

Okay I forgot to add this the other and it quite a funny little story.
The Other day I get back from a skate and it is quite warm, the pooches are sprawled out on our new footon couch and Chinchilla (the tortoise) is bashing at tank. Which means I want out and me being a big softy I am, I let her out. I was plugging away at the computer and realize I have not seen the shelled one in quite a while. I get up and to look for her and remember the back door is open. I cruise over to the back door, thinking "oh we have it all fenced up for the dogs, Chinchilla will be out there kicking around". I am sure you are guessing it right now. Yep Chinchilla was MIA.
I look around the fence to see if there is any holes and guess what there was...
So I frantically start the one man search party. Inside the house Quickly. Just to make sure.
Once realizing that there is no way she could be indoors.
I try to get the pooches to pick up Chinchilla's scent. But to no avail, they seriously just look up at me with a dumbfounded face. Lucky they are so cute.
So I head outside searching under and over everything all while I am making kissing sounds and calling my Tortoise like it was a dog. Again Nothing. At this point I am getting pretty worried.
I then call in for back up. Yep I called in a yank tank "Jillianator".
Jillian heads home early from work to join the search party. We both search until Jillian has to go to work at her other job. At this point I am getting pretty down and as Jillian heads off for work I start making a missing tortoise poster. Yes you heard right I was making a missing tortoise poster.
Then I hear Jillian calling my name from the car park out the front, So I ran outside to meet her almost crushing one of the pooches in the process. As I meet Jillian I see she has a tortoise in her hands. A sigh of relief..
Jillian said that she was driving out the car park slowly just to make sure that she didn't run Chinchilla over and saw the sun glisten off Chinchilla's shell.
Jillian later told me that where Chinchills was heading. meaning that Chinchilla must of been twice as far away from where She was found, so probably about 30 to 50 meters from our front doors and add another 20 on top of that as she had to go from the back to the front of the house. After all that Chinchilla is safe and sound. And now I think that the tortoise won the race against the hare on it's on merits, based on what I have seen Chinchills is capible of.
Over and out
Matty

July 13th 2009

2009-07-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Is it a bird? is it a plane? NO it's just me..

Yes is true, In the last week I have gone from a two eyed freak to a four eyed freak.
I noticed that awhile ago that my eyes were getting really tired when I was at the computer for to long. and that my left was acting up more than my right. And for everyone playing at home my left was the one I messed around with in the car accident Feb 3rd 2003. The doctor said that my eyes are not working together due to the car accident. I only have to wear them for the computer t.v and reading.
I have been wearing them just under a week now and I am Still getting used to them.

Over the week Jillian has been studying for her first exam for her prerequisites of chemistry. Her test is on Wednesday night. I think she will pass with flying colors!!
Jillian has also once again working her butt off at two jobs, but still somehow manages to find time to hang out with friends and family, study, go to her friends bridal shower an hour away and all with a smile on her face.

I have been working on my new website, working and I just started TAing again (which I love to do), skating and hanging out with some friends from school. My friends from school were Kenny, Mariette, Jenny and her girlfriend Sloan. We all went out to a bar called Katie's pub to give Jenny a great send off as she is moving to St Louis. We had a great time, many any laugh's were had.
I have a couple of projects boiling up which I am very excited about. I will fill you cats in when I know if they are coming to fruition.
I also recieved a very exciting gift from my close friends The Leahy's. It was 3 skateboards all with interlocking graphics of a local skate spot. I was very excited and will post a picture when I have put them up.

well that is it.. oh not it's not.. JIllian and I took Big Poppa aka My father in-law to the Seattle Science Center to see a 3d imax documentry about the ocean called "Under the Sea" as his fathers day gift. It was fun we also got to see a little skate comp that was being held at a new Seattle Skate park. Plus we went to Pike place Markets. very fun day.

Well I think that is it. here is a photo of my new eyes...

July four and more...

2009-07-06T15:17:00.000-07:00

Oh, say! can you see..............

For the fourth of July weekend, Jillian and I headed out to our friend Allison's family lake cabin in Spokane (Eastern Washington).
The lake cabin was a delight. Allison's family was very welcoming into the cabin and even more so to the small community they have out there.
Over the weekend we not only got to celebrate fourth of July, we were also given the chance to celebrate Allison's quarter century b'day (which was on the 3rd.).

The weekend was full of fun and games here is just a few...
swimming, skiing, knee boarding, paddle boating, Frisbee, football into the water, inner tubing, bobbing on floating chairs, cranium, dice games, cards, scrabble and more.

We were able to go on the neighbors party boat and watch all the fireworks for July 4th. Which By the way were set off by other neighbors. Some that I have never seen before.

Here is just a sample of the week end...

It was a great weekend....

3 years and counting

2009-07-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

ABC easy as 123,

Well as we all know there is not much worth having that comes easy. And our marriage was no exception.
with long distance between us, friends and family, moving countries, family tragedies and on top of all that a normal marriage. It felt that this anniversary was a mile stone for us. Feeling that our love is stronger than ever and still growing.

Our anniversary is was Wednesday the 1st of July. But because both of us had to work on that night. We decided to celebrate a day earlier by going to a fancy restaurant called "Cafe Juanita".
It is just around the corner from our house, So we were able to get dressed up and walk there.
It was a great dinner with Jillian and I reminiscing over the last 3 years.
While we were reminiscing, we had a lovely dinner and desert.

We forgot to take a picture in the restaurant. So we took one on the way out.

The Return of the 258 Bricks.

2009-06-30T21:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Jungle,
Actually there is no jungle, I dug that up on Thursday.

Friday was a usual day for us with work, skating and a trip to a book store.
Saturday was were the action was at.
11:05 is when the 258 Bricks make their not so grand return. With Jillian and I knowing of our fate ahead, we decided to get a jump on our day. We started jumping at 10:00. Jillian went to a flea market and I went for a skate.
We reconvened at HQ (mother and father in-laws house) to start the wall building.
The builders were Kevin ( Jillian's brother), Brad(brother in-law), Big Poppa (father in-law), Jillian and me.
We started at 11:05 and finished at 5:07.
During this time we had to level the ground with gravel, move the bricks from the top level to the bottom level, dig out bricks for under to big piles of dirt, lay bricks (7 high), level bricks, shovel dirt behind wall and then just for kicks we ended up cutting down a few big branches that were getting in our way all day.
Momma Bill (Jillian's Mum) supplied us with drinks all day and then for lunch made us all a personal pizza.

Here are a few photo's that show the process through out the day...
The leveling.

The thinking/planning.

The laying.

The complaining.

The very satisfied Big Poppa.

After it was all said and done we were all very happy with the finished product And that we were able to help out the In-laws with something so big.
The bricks were defeated at 5:07. I have heard a rumor though, that the bricks have some cousins who come in the form of a fence.
Sunday was a bit of a full day as well with Jillian and I working. Then the family celebrate Natalie's b'day for the second time, which was great fun. Her and Kevin (The Hodgii) are of to Vietnam for a couple weeks on the 2nd of July or tomorrow. A well deserved trip.

Green thumb

2009-06-25T19:51:00.000-07:00

FE FI FO thumb I have the opposite of a green thumb....

Last week I was ask to Help out the HODGii, (aka Natalie and Kevin aka My brother and sister in-law) with some of their gardening. Since the HODGii are so busy with work and my work is very flexible at the moment. Still I was a little shocked that they wanted me to help out with gardening, until they explained that it was the tearing down of an old garden. I thought to myself that is the type of gardenening work I can do.
Knowing they had been busy and had not had time to tend to the garden for a while. I thought I knew what I was in for. I underestimated how quickly everything grows with plenty of sun and water.

I started at the side of their house and then I hit up the front.
Here is some before pics of the side .

Example A.

Example B.

Example C.

So here is an after of the side.

Here is the finished product at the front.
Where you see dirt was either ivy vine stuff or very pointy holy bush.

Who knew that I would be doing so much labor intensive work once I moved to Seattle. And if you did why didn't you tell me?
Tell you the truth all this labor I have been doing as felt really good.
Love, Truth, Strength
Matty

Play Ball

2009-06-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome one, welcome all
to the long awaited event of Jillian's softball debut.
But the story doesn't start or finish there. So lets start from the beginning;

The sun has just broken through the dark and Jillian is heading of to the coffee shop for the early shift. Sore, cold and barely awake after a hard day training the day before. Jillian still is able to muster up the energy to be a shining light. Finally 11:30 comes around and Jillian can put her feet up and rest her eyes. Though this relief will only last a short time, as game time is creeping up.
Jillian starts to get ready. You can see nerves, excitement and exhaustion in Jillian's face as
we arrive at the field at the same time as the coach (Jillian's Dad). You see this puts a few more butterflies in the stomach of Jillian. For Jillian not only has the pressure of the game, It is also fathers day. Jillian finally gets to put the team colors on.

Jillian scrapped together enough energy to play both games and had some amazing plays.
here are her stats.

Overall, Jillian batted 7 times, and got 2 hits, batting .286:

1st game:
2nd inning, ground-out to shortstop
3rd inning, ground-out to pitcher
5th inning, SINGLE, driving in a run, and eventually scored a run

... AND: defensive play of the game -- 3rd inning, playing right field, Jillian snares a long fly ball, killing their inning!
Let me fill this in a little bit. They put Jillian out in right field also known as no mans land. Thinking that wouldn't be a ball going out there. But as always Murpy's law comes into play and a huge fly ball gets put out to right field. it is a about 15metres(I am not converting from the metric system any more. The yanks need to step to the metric plate. ) away from Jillian. With plenty of time Jillian is waiting under the ball. I think everyone was holding their breathe at this point. And as the ball landing safely in Jillian's glove a large roar came from everyone. It took Jillian a second to realize she had to throw the ball, as it was still in play.

2nd game:
1st inning, struck out on a called 3rd strike, but Jillian didn't realize she started with 1 strike -- coach's fault!
3rd inning, ground-out to pitcher
4th inning, SINGLE, and then later forced-out at 2nd
6th inning, ground-out to pitcher

Jillian filled in runner for one of the other women and made some great ground for the team. I like to believe that Jillian was that main contributing factor to "The Incredibles" winning both games. Bias? maybe.

Jillian knocks a ball around....

Jillian gets to home base...

Here is a fathers day special.
Big Poppa hitting a solid base it...

The day was not over by any means. For it was fathers day, so we had another family dinner. Which I did not get to enjoy as I had to work. Bitter? a little.
Later that night The Hodgii (Natalie and kevin) and Big poppa (father in-law) came to the movie theater to see "year one". They had mixed reviews on it.
Big Poppa helped me close down the theater. And when I say close down I mean basically hold my hand as I am a wimp and it is mad creepy up top in the projection booth.

Well that ends the Sunday adventures of Team Mitchell..

Oh Saturday!!!

2009-06-21T00:49:00.000-07:00

T'was a night before fathers day and not a creature would stir, not even a,
umm ohh, well I guess Something did stir.

Cause Saturday was very very busy day.
After waking at 10am Jillian and I started our day.
Mango and I started out with a skate which was okay. The best part of it was being able to help out a Dad and his son both on the board.
Jillian and Juice started out with a run from our house (which is also refered to as the "Team Mitchell Bat Cave", well actually no it isn't. But I will start refering to it as that now) to the skatepark, which Jillian says was great.
Once the run and the skate were over we headed to HQ (also known as my mother and father in-laws house) to grab my father in-law to for some training.
Training for what you ask?
Well tomorrow is Jillian's Soft ball debut. Our family and friends have had a softball team for the last two years. So in preparation for her debut Jillian's Dad took her out to hit a few balls.
While Jillian was smacking balls around the park, quite well I must say. Mango, Juice and I were chasing them down. I think Mango loved it more than any of us.

Well here is a photo or two of Jillian in training.

Once Jillian had beaten the covers off all the softballs. We headed off to the
"Team Mitchell Bat Cave" to get ready for our sister in-laws B'day BBQ.
The B'day bbq was a blast with friends, family, burgers, hot dogs, boccie, football and a bunch of presents. The birthday girl had a smile on her dial to top it all off.
Unfortunately I had no pictures of the birthday girl.
So this was the best I could do...

Well once again Jillian and I ended up with a great day in our hands. And it is only Saturday.
Stay tuned for the pics and story of the grand, long awaited debut of Jillian's softball career.

Matty
aka MATTY3STARS
aka The only member of Team Mitchell with testosterone

Operation Graduation

2009-06-20T22:21:00.000-07:00

Good MORNING VIETNAM or where ever you are in this great world..

On Thursday at 2:00pm Jillian's little sister Savana(of the little sister big sister program) graduated from the 6th grade or grade 6(My deciphering skills are unbelievable).
Savana was looking fantastic and was glowing with pride.
Jillian and I are so proud of Savana and were greatly appreciative that we were given the opportunity to enjoy the experience.

Peace out
Team Mitchell

Acupuncture Anyone

2009-06-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

Four Scores and Seven Minutes Ago,

I finally put the last touches on my latest web project.
It is for a women who lives above us and it is for her new Acupuncture business called "Banyan Acupuncture". Last year I was given the chance to design her logo and it felt good to have a repeat customer this early on in my career.
It is a nice simple clean website and was a joy to work on. The website goes by the same name www.banyanacupuncture.com.
Here is a little taste of the home page.

Thanks Matty

Hot doggity

2009-06-17T17:19:00.001-07:00

Hot diggity dog Batman,

Here is a sample of a project I am working on for the movie theater I work at. It just for a hotdog sign but it was a lot of fun.

--Matty3stars--

WOW!! WHAT A WEEKEND....

2009-06-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

To Whom it may concern,

Well where do I begin...
What about where we left off last time.
That was Thursday night basketball with friends, work and an early b'day present from Jillian.
Well Friday started like most others, though it did not end up that way at all.
I got to get some work done, have a great skate with my new gear and hang out with My Sister and mother in law and my nephew at the park. oh and the to most beautiful pooches in the world Mango and Juice. OH OH My nephew even said Juices name. Very exciting...

In the evening Jillian and I were heading out to
what I thought was going to be a low key dinner in a really cool suburb of Seattle.
So we had a lovely time getting ready, then a lovely drive in chatting, laughing and enjoying each others company. We are very Dorky.

So we finally walk into the restaurant ONLY for me to find there is two tables full of people
waiting to surprise me. Okay this is going to sound strange, but I was actually speechless. I know I know..crazy huh?
I was filled with so much joy I didn't know how to express it.

After some dinner and desert. We headed out to an irish bar were there was many laughs, a few drinks and this picture was in the urinal for the Ozzies.

Once again Jillian out done herself. I felt so special that my friends and family made such an effort. even my friend with the broken leg came out to the dinner.
Wow..I am a very lucky man...

The fun doesn't stop there though. Neither did Jillian who helped mastermind another surprise party for My sister in-law Natalie 30th on Saturday (actual b'day not til the 24th of June). This party had a twist to it, we all had to wear wigs. So being a person who likes to get into character. I thought I would take it to the next level. I got my wig at 2 in the afternoon and did not break until I went to bed that night. Even though I went the grocery store twice, the skate park and played a good twenty rounds of table tennis.
In saying that I am now going to introduce
"Ol'e Boy Matty Jo".
He is the evil twin of mine with the reddest of necks.

Here are few more characters that were at the party.

Jillian with Rastafarian dreads and Big poppa rocking out with a
Mo hawk.
Sister in-law Christy in the background with showgirl head peice or the docter zuess head peice. depending who you were speaking to at the time...

The Birthday girl with Fro Fo Sho(inside joke for the party people)
and Grandma a lovely set of curls for her fringe..
A family friead Sarah in the background who kinda looks like mickey mouse in this photo.

Here is "Ol'e Boy matty Jo" showing my nephew how to smack a few ping pong balls around.

The party was a success, Natalie was surprised like no other. As she actually had words coming out of her mouth unlike someone I know. After a few drinks, Mexican food, cupcakes and a bucket load of table tennis or ping pong (again depending on which Providence you are from).
we finished up at 11 with everyone with grins from ear to ear.

Okay I know this is long, but bare with me for just a little longer..
Every Sunday we have a family dinner.
So this is a time when we hold birthday dinners for family members. June is a very busy month for our family.We have a birthday dinner every Sunday for the month of June.
So Sunday June 14th 2009 was my b'day dinner for the family.
With family b'day dinners you get to choose your own menu.
I chose burger with fries. Nothing surprising there!
but for desert!! insert drum roll here.....
I chose Ice cream with real home made cookie dough and Ice magic (or for the Yanks magic shell) on top. Yummers. Even I don't need a suger fix for a week...well 3 days atleast.
I got swamped with mad presents...
Gift cards to a skate store, so I can keep my skateboarding addiction going strong.
Two magazine subscritions "wired" and "communication arts".
A great laptop table I can use in bed. Using it now.
A new stereo for my car so I can play my ipod directly through it. No more FM.
And a scrabble card game. The geek is strong in this one!!
After my bday dinner Jillian and I headed home, watched one of our favourite shows, played a game of scrabble cards and reminenced over what a great weekend we had...

Ending up with these to great big smiles on our faces as we went to bed!!

First b'day present

2009-06-12T01:31:00.000-07:00

Dear diary
Today was great I got do some work on the computer. At lunch Jillian took me shopping for an early b'day present. and I was lucky enough that she was willing to support my addiction. I received a skateboard deck, wheels and bearings.

Later on in the day I hung out with my friend Nick, Cody, Trevor, Tegan and Laura. We watched game four of the NBA finals, which was disapponting as the lakers. Though there was many many laughs had. So all in all a good day.

I must give props out to Jillian as she has been working her little behind off lately.
She is an ispiration everyday.
Here is a pic of me showing my enjoyment after putting my board together.

--Matty3stars--

258 concrete bl0cks

2009-06-09T22:03:00.000-07:00

Captains log June 9th 2009....
Today was full on. Packed with fun, work and even harder work.
but let's start from the beginning.
I woke up at 8:30, yes people I am trying to make the conversion from night owl to early bird.
I had breakfast then took the dogs out to the park.
While the pooches were running around I shot some hoops. The only reason I am mentioning
this is so I can boast about the 2 half court shots I made consecutively. I think the NBA playoffs have inspired me a bit.

So after putting my mad ball skills to the test against my four legged friends, I got some house work done.
I then headed to the skate park before I started work at 1:00pm.
The skate was good, I landed a few tricks I was stoked on. The main trick was a switch blunt stall to disaster on a half pipe.
I worked the cashier position at the movie theater. Which gives me the opportunity to work on personal projects. Today I was able to put a few hours into a website I am currently working on (I will let you all know when it goes live).

I finished work at 5:00 and headed straight to My inlaws house to move a few bricks. I knew there would be a few. But I had no Idea there was 258 of them weighing 30 pounds or 14 kilos. depending if you cool enough to rocking out with the metric system. Adding to the fun there was a 2 foot wall of crumbling land fill we had to put them on top of. With Jillian and her brother Kevin helping out it went quite quickly. As a thank you Jillian's mother cooked us delicious dinner and we watched the Magic win game three of the finals..

end of captians log..

Friend in recovery

2009-06-08T01:42:00.001-07:00

Here is my friend nick in recovery. I kicked it with him on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. He is in high spirits, though his leg is still twice the size of his other one.

-- matty3stars iPhone --

What a couple of days

2009-05-31T00:09:00.001-07:00

It has been 8 days since my last confession. And what an 8 days it has been.
Last weekend was memorial weekend, which is a long week end in rememberence of all of the fallen soldiers past and presents. But like most long weekends it is more of a chance to get away for the weekend.
In which jillian's cousin Char and aunty Maryanna took advantage of and came up from LA. We had a great time with them dinners, movies, lunches and as always great conversations.
We had Big Poppa's b'day dinner on Sunday. Which he was celebrated with gifts, cards and his favourite type of cake cherry chip.
Tuesday we took Savanna(Jillian's little) and her friend to the movies. We all had such a fun time.
On Tuesday I snapped my board. Dam heel flip varials, so on Wednesday I went and brought a new board(for those playing at home it is a girl eric koston).
Jillian and I also had a shopping spree a Value Village which is an American verion of an OP shop. It was so so much fun. Jillian got a bunch of wicked skillet tops and I got two pair of pants and visor.
One of the pants I already have a pair of that I love. But I could not pass up them being brand new and $12 instead of $50.
So so stoked.
Thursday was a great day.
I woke up early. Yes that is right I am working on adjusting my body clock and setting it to be a morning person.
So I woke up early around 8 worked for a little bit. Then I was headed into Seattle to have lunch with my friend Mariette. But on my way I stop to wish big poppa happy b'day being that it was his actual b'day. Then I stop by Grandma's to say hello and see how she is recovering after catorac surgery. After a few mumblings from Grandma I head into Seattle to have lunch with my friend Mariette. Who actually works at my school.
So I got to have lunch with head of my school and one of the directors as well. Linda and Fiona who I enjoy chatting to very much. I also found out that I am TAing 3 classes in the summer here. I am super excited about it.
After leaving the school I went for skate on my new board which I love.
Then about 5ish I caught up with some friends of mine Noah and Trevor at a driving range to knock a few balls around.
Good times.
Since it was Big Poppa's b'day Jillian took him to a movie at siff(Seattle international film festival). Which we all do as a gift for his birthday each year.
They both loved their French film "beauties of war". A comedy about to French alp towns competing in a beauty contest.
Friday was a busy day for me. I worked on a personal project that could pontentionally lead to great things. Though I am going to keep it under my hat until I find out what is what.
In the afternoon I went for another skate and landed a trick I have landed before.
Again for those playing at home "a nollie backside kickflip". I also punched out a few other moves I was stoked about.

That evening Jillian and I hung out a bit. until 11pm when it was my turn to take Big Poppa on his b'day date. So I chose a movie called "dead girl". A horror movie at midnight and everbldy knows I am not a fan of horror movies. So I am not going to explain this movie to you all as it disturbed me way to much to relive it. Let's just say in the plot outlines it said DARK COMEDY.
Okay Saturday. We were meant to go to over to our friends house dinner that night. Until we received a phone call mid afternoon telling us he had broken his FEMA(That is right his thigh bone) wakeboarding. So we went and caught with everyone at the hospital.we found out He was doing a backflip and landed with his leg to straight or something. Once again there is so much to this story I can not do it justice here.
We got home about 9 or so and took the dogs for a walk with Jillian's parents.
What a crazy week.
Oh I also started a logo for friend of mine which is not the personal project I spoke of earlier. I will post that when it is done.

Sorry if this is all put of sorts as I am writing this on my iPhone.

Well I guess it wasn't all confessions maybe next time.
Peace to you all
Matty3stars

Friday the 22nd

2009-05-22T23:44:00.000-07:00

Well Thursday ended up being quite eventful.
After my last post I was able to get a few more projects done. I was able to get a little bit of a skateboard wall happening. The dungeon is slowly morphing into to a den. Big Poppa(Jillian's Dad) helped me get my skateboard wall into action. So in return I went over and helped dig holes for a few trees around the house. Well It turned out to be quite a ditch effort pun intended.
The trees were larger making the holes larger and to add a cherry on top the ground was riddle with rocks, roots, and random chunks of wood. Lets just say there was more jokes flying around the place then there was dirt.

Friday We both worked and finished around 4:30 I went skating, Jillian walked the Pooches.
Then we went to Mall, the forum, the shopping center (lingo depending on where you are). Jillian bought a pair of shoes for work, I got a pretzel and we got dining room chairs 4 for 25 bucks. Once again Team Mitchell had a fun day.
great deal very team Mitchell....
Hope everyone has a great day
Matty
P.s sorry for the side ways photo of the dining room chair

Thursday 21st

2009-05-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

Today I got up and went straight to work in the dungeon. (also known as our second bedroom) I made a bit of progression on the site I am working on. My friend Kenny came over and we went to a drive up burger place called Burger Miester. It was Mmmm Delicious.
Then we went for a skate and grabbed a photo it is below somewhere. I let Chinchilla the Tortoise out for a run which was funtastic. Yes I agree I am a dork.
Jillian's car got backed into today nothing major, just a busted tail light and a dint in the rear bumper. the person left their details so it all comes out in the wash.
Awh well $!it happens.
The weather is nice and Big Poppa is heading over tonight to help me set up some skateboard decks on the dungeon wall.
Plus the other night I cooked dinner. I know everyone get a hold of your selves as this will be a recurring thing.

I hope everyone is doing well..
Chat soon

Purple Mash potatoes in the making...

Back side Ollie

Mancation 09

2009-05-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

Four of my Seattle friend have a time honored tradition of a thing called "MANCATION".
mancation: a vacation that only involves men. usually good friends.

In picture left to right:
Noah
Charlie
Nick
Trevor
Me

This year I was offered to join this time honored tradition. We went camping at these lakes named "Ancient lakes". which is a 3 hour drive from our houses and an hour hike from the car.
We sort of hit the jack pot, as we walked to the camping area there was a lot of people around.
We were all sort of bummed as we thought all the good spots were gone. But as we looked across the lake we seen a waterfall and what seemed to be a flat spot enough for 2 tents. We hiked across some treacherous terrain to get there but it was worth it. No-one around, a waterfall right next to us, the lake at our feet and to cap it all off we had a 3 level jumping rock into the lake 2 minutes away from us(due to the rocks you had to climb to get there). we thought it was hilarious to do a man jump off one of the levels into the lake. Luckily there was people hiking around for us to get a great shot.
That night we had a beautiful dinner cooked by Trevor. We all built a fire pit out of rocks and made a fire that lasted all night. Something we were proud of.
In the morning I was the first to wake and and got to walk around the lake to get some great photo's(the one with me in a striped beanie). Once everyone else woke we had breakfast, jumped off the rocks a few more times and packed up and hiked out.
The hike out was not nearly as enjoyable as the one in. But it was worth it.
On the drive home we got to stop in a mum and pop's store and get the greatest milkshake ever.
Other than some great conversation on the drive home that is about it.
I am looking forward to next time.

In picture:
charlie and our first view of the waterfall mecca.

In picture below: in the morning with a great photo

pictures below: Our great fire and Our Great Man Jump

Thursday 14th

2009-05-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

Today I had a fairly good day. I got to do some work on a website for a local acupuncturist, while getting in a skate, hanging with Jillian for lunch and fun little drive in with my grandmother in law.
all in all a good day.

Day to Day

2009-05-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

I am starting this blog so people from my home land Perth, Australia are able to keep up with my day to day going on's. Most of this will be boring, but hopefully this will make them and me feel like we are still involved in each others day to day lives.
Matty3stars