*Its been a nice fall with some busy times and some breaks as well so this post is a few highlights and brief descriptions.*

Pressed Flowers from CO

Picking up from my last post of our vacation recap, here’s a nice assortment of pressed flowers we gathered during that tip. These have been filed away for use in an unknown future project.

Garden Goodness

We had a mostly successful garden this summer with root veggies, and a few tomato plants. The finalé for this season was harvesting a bunch of ripe tomatoes that went into a tasty tomato soup.

And More Woodcarving

I’m continuing to explore and enjoy developing my woodcarving skills and overall aesthetic. Themes are pretty broad-ranging and I’m enjoying all of the learning along the way. I’ve also stepped in as VP of our local woodcarving club, which means I have to be social and talk in front of people. That’s a good challenge for me. Images below in no order whatsoever ;).

2022 Christmas Kitchen Utensils

I’ve given handmade gifts at the office for many years, so this year I did several batches of hardwood kitchen utensils. Its an enjoyable process and each batch comes out better than the last. Most of these are walnut, but there are a few in cherry as well.

And Two Craft Fairs

Beth and I participated in the Yorba Linda Women’s Association Winter Craft Fair here in town in early November and enjoyed showing, selling and talking with folks. Beth did pretty well with her wooden flower arrangements and while my carvings are a bit odd for that audience I sold several pieces.

For Thanksgiving we went up to Modesto to spend the holiday with my family. We participated in a great craft show there called ModShop209. All makers and crafters, really a unique event that brings out crafters, makers and the people that appreciate the work. We both sold really well and it was great to see so many old friends from my hometown.

Two Camping Trips

This fall I was able to get out twice for camping. One big group campout with the American Adventurist group relatively close to home up near Big Bear in mid October. Good company, good cookoff and a bit of rain to keep it interesting.

*Weirdly wide panoramic from under the tarp early on the first day of camping. It eventually filled in with campers all around.*

My other camping trip (mid-september) was up to the Alabama Hills at the base of Mt. Whitney. This area has been negatively impacted by irresponsible campers and has had the majority of camp sites shut down. Made me sad in many ways, but I enjoyed three days of camping and carving with great views and really pleasant weather and no real “W” word (aka wind) to note.

The Other “W” word - WORK

As always, 5.11 is growing and changing. Its holiday season now, but the creative team has been working on campaign artwork for months. My role these days has a longer view, aside from our day-to-day workflows its not unusual for me to be working on things that are a year or so out. I’m proud of the team who is more impacted than I by most of our holiday workload. I spend more time managing content and our marketing systems than I do in any of our creative aps, but still keep those skills sharp with our packaging and product marketing materials like copy and our photography.

Our office has also moved to a new location with everyone on the same floor and we’re just getting settled. This last week I shot in our new studio space for the first time, much nicer than shooting in my little closet at home here. It will be a couple more sessions to get it dialed in and used to working in the space, but its very nice to have a dedicated studio space.

Product marketing involves a lot of content. Spreadsheets (Excel and Airtable) house this information and I bring it into InDesign through a robust plugin called EasyCatalog. It give me lots of options and power to present information in a clear, concise and current manner with up-to-date data. Its a weird blend of left and right brain activity and I love figuring out how to make it work and then having a finished product at the end.

That’s not all, but that’s enough, thanks for reading!

Fall Recap, 12.22