Design: Welcome to the South, Y'all!

It is almost time for the first social of the year for our bases' spouses' club! For a while we weren't quite sure what the theme would be. At first, I thought it was going to have a Tex-Mex/Mexican theme, so I was researching ideas for the flier based on that. I found some cute graphics on Shutterstock. But then the social chair decided to go with a "Welcome to the South, Y'all" theme that I was even more excited about. My first thought was Lily Pulitzer and mason jars. What's more Southern than those two things, right?

Fonts used:
Buttercup Sample
Bodoni MT (I think this was the default font and I didn't even think to change it this time...I'm slackin')

Post card display

My brother-in-law and his wife love to travel. Many years ago, he started sending up post cards from his vacations. I have kept them in a photo box over the years, but I thought it would be nice to display them.

For another project/event, a purchased an old window frame from an antique store. I accidentally broke the glass pane inside and thought it was a lost cause. But then I thought I could attach chicken wire to it and hang post cards on it!

The window frame from Spouses Night Out, Goodfellow AFB, TX theme

That idea came to me over a year ago and I finally completed the project!

Croissant Breakfast Bake

I recently spent the weekend in Asheville, North Carolina with nine ladies from the Alpha Omega Alumni Chapter. We had our first ever Alumni Retreat. It went so well and we had a fantastic time! We stayed in a cabin which allowed us to cook a few of our meals. 

For breakfast, I made a variety of muffins, but I also wanted something savory. I searched Pinterest and was originally going to make an egg casserole. Then I stumbled upon a recipe using croissants. Automatic winner! It was easy to make and everyone loved it! The original recipe is from Just a Pinch Recipes.

Design: Membership Drive

The first event of the social year for the Spouses' Club will be our Membership Drive. Initially, because there isn't a theme, I was trying to decide what route to go with the design of the flier. I played around with a version of the Uncle Sam "I want you for the..." poster as inspiration. However, with our new logo we decided it would be best to highlight it.

I had already designed a newsletter with a color scheme that coordinated with the new logo, so I decided to use that design for the Membership Drive fliers, too. I pitched the idea of making a little campaign to include a couple graphics that highlighted who is able to join the club. The final image below is part of this campaign. We are not allowed to use the Army and Air Force logos, so I had to be creative and find something that represented each.

Fonts used:
Milasian Circa Personal
Franklin Gothic Book
Franklin Gothic Heavy

 

Logo Design

When the idea of our base's Officers' Spouses' Club merging with the Enlisted Spouses' Club, one of my first thoughts was that we could use a new logo. Being that my position is PR, coming up with a new logo fell on my shoulders. I have never really created a logo before, so this gave me a great chance to try my hand at it.

My initial thought was to do something a little similar to their current logo. Since our base is located in South Carolina, the current logo uses the South Carolina state and the palmetto moon. Both are really popular images here. But I wanted to branch out just a bit and make it more personalized to our town. My idea was to use an iris. Our town has a park that is known for their irises.

After some feedback from the president, I ended up creating several different options for the board to choose between. This led me to fifteen options.

My very first idea is shown in Option #1 below. I replaced the top of the palmetto tree with the iris flower. This is commonly done for car decals and such in South Carolina. You can find ones with the Clemson paw, South Carolina Gamecocks, etc.

I also wanted to try one without the palm tree base and an iris stem base, like in Option #2. To make sure we had all our bases covered, the President wanted me to include the palmetto moon, as well. And finally for Options #4 and #5, I was inspired by a few car decals I saw while driving down I-95 one weekend. 

We shared the 15 options with the board and narrowed it down to four. We decided on blue for some continuity with the current logo. I happen to think it is a great shade of Carolina blue!

In the end, the majority chose #3. This was actually my favorite one! I was secretly hoping for it to win. How often does that work out? It does make me feel validated in my amateur graphic design abilities. 

Bacon wrapped pimento cheese stuffed okra

I grew up mainly in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Because neither of my parents are Southern, I did not eat a lot of Southern cuisine when I was a kid. I probably would not have enjoyed much of it anyway because I was such a picky eater. I'm a quarter Italian and I did not even like spaghetti sauce for the longest time!

Over the years my palette has expanded greatly. One food item that I did not give a chance until a couple years ago was okra. It took living in California and having dinner with a friend from Washington state for me to try it. And it was delicious! Of course, it was the fried variety, so how could that not taste good?

Fast forward to moving back to the South... We have planted our vegetable garden and I included okra. It has been growing quite nicely lately and I have amassed a lot of okra from it. I did not realize the plant has such beautiful, delicate flowers.

Having never cooked it before, I searched Pinterest for some recipes. I found one that sounded perfect... bacon wrapped stuffed okra! The actual recipe calls for a shrimp filling. I'm still a picky eater; I don't eat seafood. But I was planning on making pimento cheese with our homegrown pimento peppers. Wouldn't that taste amazing stuffed inside a bacon wrapped piece of okra? I think so!

Fourth of July gave me the perfect opportunity to try this dish. It was easy to assemble and tasted FANTASTIC! It is just as good as fried okra...if not better.

For the pimento cheese, I kind of followed the recipe from Eleven Magnolia Lane. It's OK, but I've had better. I just have to find the recipe! Feel free to use your own favorite recipe or store bought (if you have to).

For the okra, I followed the instructions from I Heart Publix. The recipe suggests using regular bacon and not thick cut bacon. I happened to have thick cut and it worked out just fine.

Design: Play Date

One of the "unofficial" socials of the summer for our base's spouses' club is a play date. From listening to parents, I have learned that play dates are popular. They seem like a fantastic way for parents to get some grown up time while the kids run around and burn off some energy. Sounds like a win-win!
 
Fonts Used
Play Date (how appropriate, right?)
Franklin Gothic Book
Milasian Circa Personal