Amber Protocol: Tri-folds and Tribulations

May 13, 2013May 13, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

We all have our protocol quirks in my office.

-Proper phone etiquette is a biggie. (I always tell people to have a nice day when I say my professional tidings.)

-Being more streamlined. (this is all the Professional.)

-Getting our deadlines done. (I think most people want this.)

-Not having a break-room full of ants (sane people.)

-Refilling the water for the Keurig (People who don’t want the world to end. My boss wants coffee.)

-Getting prints at a good quality (the printer is my nemesis )

-Using the tri-pod to take project photos (Ahem, Professional)

-Not having enough bullet points (it seems like enough, now :) )

And well now I know one of my new desk mates big professional gripes… incorrectly folding invoices:

She’s going to judge you and your whole company if it has that weird extra bit folded over the rest of it.

So remember when you send us stuff, and you want Amber to not be mad… tri-fold it like you mean it.

Does anybody else have a serious office procedural quirk? Or just how you think things should be done? Are we just crazy in this office?

The world may never know.

♥Lauren

Whitest Sneakers

May 8, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

This doodle is more like a fan shout out than a personal thing.

Everyone who watches TV knows the Office is ending after 9 season’s of being on the air. And well I think I may have mentioned it before on this site I’m a fan of the crazy antics of Dunder-Mifflin all the characters are so zany yet grounded that we can relate and feel like we know them.

Personally, I work with a girl like Kelly,

a guy like Ryan,

I get this face every time I walk into our annex.

an Andy/Dwight,

He may be the most professional of us all… still not naming names.

and even a Pete.

Just because he’s new doesn’t mean he’s any less important.

I have always related to early season’s Pam and well now that Pam is grown up and has it together, I can relate more to Erin. I have always loved to draw, and I’m a little bit on the kooky side, and I am awful at Scrabble. And I love to assist in pranking our Andy/Dwight as much as humanly possible, and he CANNOT take a joke.

I have sounded like this on many an occasion,… this is probably why I’m not let around a lot of clients…

So in this Office nostalgic post… I share with the lovely internet, a Pam Beesly drawing that I made very ironically, while at work:

Also I wonder who could guess which coworkers are which :)

♥Lauren

Jimmy says the Darndest things

May 7, 2013May 7, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

I think Jimmy is going to be mad at me for posting this.

But I have known him for nearly 10 years and sometimes the things he tells me still makes me burst out with laughter. (But hey, I laugh a lot)

We all have really highly specific things that make us smile. For example: Phil Collin’s to me is like a musical angel who makes everything alright when I hear his voice, and Matt&Kim can save me from 99.2% of despair.

We are not all the same though. This weekend Jimmy shared this musical nugget of joy with me:

And just in case you are wondering what the song that is #1 on the charts in the nation of solely Jimmy:

Somewhere at this very moment… he has this queued up to watch on YouTube.

♥Lauren

P to the S that crisp white doodle paper that all the kids are talking about can be seen, purchased and hugged right here… emnote notebooks!

One of those Days…

May 6, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

I have spent too much time away from my blog.

And I have suffered consequences.

I am stressed, my hair is turning white. I am drinking 2 sodas a week. And umm.. I can’t think of a third thing…. but I’m sure that it’s happening… and that it is on the equivalent of 2 sodas bad.

I guess I have been too busy. But that doesn’t really excuse me, because a lot of my joy is sharing silliness with people. In a strange was it is what calms me. And right now I totally need this before I start work-related-crying. (I have been redoing the same project every other hour for the last 15 work hours… and none of the printers are working and… my head is about to explode.)

So I took a moment during my lunch break to color a few things and this is one of them.

Because I am such an odd bird, I don’t really think this drawing needs much context… because well this kind of stuff happens to me… a lot:

It’s been one of those days. Just hand me my spotted wings.

♥Lauren

Passing Notes

May 1, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

Today I’m going to tell you a story about when I was in school…

When I was in school I was a good student… which really surprised people because I seemed really unfocused in nearly every lecture class I had.

I just really was good at comprehending the subject matters I studied and once I did… I didn’t have all day to hear the lecturer talk about alabaster in its various applications, I just daydreamed until the hour-forty five had passed. And of course I had read the textbook the day before, so I had all my day to not think about trying to memorize anything but stuff I wanted to.

Now all my daydreaming probably would have been just fine, had I not forced my weird imagination on my friends, especially Jimmy. He wanted to pay attention so badly and all I ever did was distract him. I would spend my time sending him drawings of Jamba Juice cups, Lambs that were striped, and well taco’s and how much I wished I was eating or building a place to hold tacos and not be in that class.

So dedication time… this Doodle goes all the way out to Jimmy who is like many miles away from me right now, but could probably use a laugh:

My favorite part is when he finally gave up on learning and just doodled back instead!

Quite candidly internet, I would list distracting people as one of my finer qualities. If you spend time with me the next thing you know is that it could be hours… or even years. And there is going to be sketchbooks of doodles to go along with it.

Now I must return to some doodles that I am working on like super seriously!

♥Lauren

Sleeping with the fishies

April 27, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

Happy Saturday everybody!

I wasn’t going to post today but… I haven’t been posting all that much lately. And I actually got some time to draw today, and I’m just so happy I had to share it.

My sister-in-law asked me to draw the sad tale of her beta fish Guido and his unfortunate run in with the Goldfish Mafia of Missoula Montana.

It appears Mr. Guido was 86’ed by the golden scaled crime lords… and she just wanted to share the story in graphic form.

Gangster fishes! I have had a few goldfishes in my lifetime and I can tell you they are very much exactly like this. When we cleaned out their tank there were just tons of mini aquatic weapons…

And, even though my scanner is a bit on the fritz, I used my fabulous new notebook that I got from a fellow blogger Edwin at the Awkward List.

I’m in love with this notebooks that you can get at emnote!

♥Lauren

The Fashion Statement

April 22, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

Yesterday I went shopping with my homegirl, Nancy.

We decided to traipse into Forever 21, even though neither of us are 21. But, hey I have a giftcard. And they usually have clothing for poor young professionals scattered about their store… but not yesterday.

Yesterday was different…We didn’t understand anything that store had going on…

We passed racks, displays, and even footwear before pondering a very important question… When did we become this old? Why were all the clothes so unpurchaseable?

Neon pink baseball caps with fancy flowers on it?

I want to meet the 16 year old who wants to wear this. Just call me Blossom!

Jean backpacks for purses with neon pink trim?

I had this as a kid… it was even ugly then.

Oxford shirts cut into mullet shirts?

Dresses cut into mullet dresses?

Decorative leopard bras as clothes?

Shirts that said “Never trust a cowboy”? (Really, what have cowboys done to us? And in Los Angeles, how often do you encounter them enough to not trust them?)

And everything else is completely transparent, and says “Beverly Hills” on it.

What the what, Forever 21?!? I know I’m 27, but when did people decide to dress like my 1990s Hawaiian barbie?

This is my Tuesday meeting outfit… don’t ask what kind of clients I’m meeting with…

I just can’t fathom I would feel comfy like this! So, I spent half my gift card on some jewelry and some sunglasses. And well I think glasses are supposed to be see-through in parts so I’m doing okay!

I am just going to say remember when all the clothes were heavily Mad Men Inspired? Yeah I was down with that.

Until then I can draw Nancy wearing all the clothes she passed up yesterday:

It’s like so many layers… but still completely breezy!

♥Lauren

Happy Birthday Brother!

April 19, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

Today was a crazy kind of day, but there is always something that is very good.

And today’s very good is that it is my one and only BIG BROTHER’S BIRTHDAY!

He turns 40 today! And everything is turning up roses for him! He has a fancy new job, a beautiful and super fun wife… and two beautiful and rambunctious and adorable daughters. One who at the age of four is practically my grown up adult height.

So good job on being really tall too, Tony!

Anyways, I heard that they had a wonderful day full of good food, except for an intercepted cupcake. I hope you have a super fun weekend brother, and if you notice the drawing is of you at a California beach…. because I am so excited about your visit I’m already illustrating it!

Happy Internet Birthday! Can’t wait to see you up in this hood!

♥Lauren

Office Confessions: Just like Heaven…

April 18, 2013 | Viciously Sweet

So today has been a mildly uneventful day in my hood.

And I am just fine with that… While I found myself getting lost in grids and information blocks of doors and room information. I got a big smile on my face. I was listening to the Cure.

And sometimes things just don’t get much better than that!