Love

Photo by Tim Feig

I spent all of last week in Stratford, Wisconsin, the childhood home of my new sister-in-law Jarita (Kulp) Bavido! As appropriate for a wedding, the whole week was filled with all kinds of love—words, promises, actions, abiding presence, old, y0ung, new, and proven. Here are a few pictures of some of the love.

This is the Chinese character for love. Since both bride and groom are fluent in Chinese and living in Taiwan AND in love it was a very appropriate theme. This particular photo shows how the character decorated the not-quite-finished bride’s cake.

Photo by Janet Bavido

It was wonderful to get to know the Kulps better. I found that they are very artistic and have a great love of craftsmanship. For instance, here is Reuben Kulp, Jarita’s grandfather, making a miniature wagon wheel. He sells model carriages, wagons, and harnesses, fitted to whatever type of toy horse you have. Check out his eBay listings!

Photo by Janet Bavido

I was also impressed by these pastry dishes made by Laura Kulp. I love to see everyday things done with care and art!

Photo by Janet Bavido

This isn’t the best photo artistically, but the lanterns are another representation of love! There were 100s of them in the decorations and each is a message from friends of the couple that were not able to make the trip from Taiwan for the ceremony. It was amazing too to see how quickly social media got pictures and notes from the ceremony to these friends!

Both immediate families together!

We clean up pretty good, don’t we? This is not from the official photographer and doesn’t include Jarita’s brother-in-law, nephew, and niece. When we get copies from the photographers I’ll swap them out with this photo.

Photo by Bob Kulp

This is Jarita with her grandmother, Pauline Kulp. Aren’t they both so beautiful?! They’re that beautiful inside too!

Creative Director: Jarita Kulp Camera Owner: Bob Kulp Photographer: ???

This photo was Jarita’s idea and I’m in awe of it! She and the bridesmaids had such a fun time doing it!

These outside pictures happened so fast! Cold is a great motivator!

Photo by Tim Feig

 

Jarita loves surprises so Samuel kept the honeymoon a secret from her. As a member of the inner circle (hehehe!), I knew that he was carrying her off to Hawaii!

Thanks for reading this off-topic ‘Personal Stuff’ post! More pictures will be up on my personal Facebook, if you’re interested!

T-Minus 11 Days

I haven’t talked about myself much on this blog, so you probably don’t know that I have a brother.

Named Samuel

who can be goofy…

The other dude is also a brother. I have quite a few.

and ninja scary…

Note: official ninja policy is to keep your own blood inside your body...

and all other kinds of awesome. This might just be little-sister worship, but other people have mentioned his awesomeness.

And said awesome brother named Samuel has wooed himself a girl.

named Jarita

She is also all kinds of awesomeness

and a good deal prettier than Samuel.

See?

And on January 21st awesomeness will collide in beautiful, awesome ways when they get married!

Taken on Mother's Day right after she said 'Yes!'

So, what happens in 11 days? On January 14th I have to have ALL my ducks in a row so I can leave for the barren winter wastelands of Wisconsin for the week of wedding preparation and general goofiness with all of these people.

All of Samuel's immediate family and all of Jarita's immediate family

Needless to say, things are getting a little hectic. This is obviously a lot of people to have in semi-matching clothes, for starters! I certainly hope to continue blogging through most of this, but I make no guarantees especially in regards to length of posts. You have been warned.

Merry Christmas!

Magic Bottle Marketing wishes you and your’s a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous, joyful New Year! May the holiday season bring you closer to the Babe in the manger!

Photo by Ben124

Cat is Out of the Bag!

Today I posted this on all of my personal social networks.

I have an announcement!

::drumroll:: ::trumpet flare::

I’m starting a business! I will be providing social media contract services for local businesses and nonprofits at tiered rates. I will be doing this on top of my usual (and hopefully growing!) political activities/work.

For more info and other social networks Magic Bottle Marketing is on see magicbottlemarketing.com/connect!

Many heartfelt thanks to Julie Dermody, Samuel Bavido, Chera Davidson, and everyone else that is supporting me in this endevour!

I find it strange that this step was difficult. I’m so excited about this effort! I love my town and I love social media. I’m good at it and very confident that I can give a boost to any business. Some of it is just stage fright, I’m sure.  On the other hand, I haven’t felt the least bit jittery in telling perfect strangers that I’m starting a business. I think I’m nervious because these are the people who really matter.

I cannot make everyone happy. I can’t listen to everyone’s opinion. Quite simply, I can’t care most of the time because most people don’t care about me. The people that do care about me though? I care a lot about what they think. They are people I highly respect and value. They’re there for me in a pinch–always have, always will. It very much matters to me that they approve of what I’m doing.

To help calm myself I flipped the situation. What if one of these people started a new business? I would be thrilled! I would do whatever I could to help it succeed. And I know they’re going to do the same. I have an amazing group of people supporting me and with that in mind I’m even more excited to dive in and see Magic Bottle Marketing take off like a rocket!