Sorry for the Absense

So, I know it's been a while since I have posted. Things have been so busy and by the time I get home from work I'm exhausted.

Things out here in Cali are going wonderfully. So well, in fact, that I really don't want to leave. I absolutely love it here. (minus the traffic and the drivers who make up their own laws)

The job is amazing! I love TOMS even more than ever! The people I live with, work with, and hang out with, are so wonderful!

I have had the opportunity to learn some interesting things, go to design conferences (Dwell on Design), eat at great places (Diddy Riese), and anticipate some great events that have yet to happen!!

I got to introduce some of my great friends from back home to my new friends here in Cali. Jonathan, Kayce, Amanda, and the rest of the gang were at the Country Music Throwdown Tour and Katie was with Fox at the 1st annual PacSun Ballyhoo event at Santa Monica Beach!! Both events were absolutely amazing!!


I have tackled In-n-Out Burger, Korea Town, and a few other spots . . . but I still have so much I want to do and only a little over a month to do it!!


I know in the next few weeks I will be going to Malibu, checking out Vegas, making it to Hollywood, and possibly Lego Land. I will keep you updated as much as possible.

On a not so happy note, I have lost a wonderful friend, and a DAMN GOOD person!

Jeffrey Alan Burnsides
April 1983 - June 2010
You will be missed dearly!!

Far Too Long, I know!!

Hey yoooooooo!

So I know it has been incredibly too long since I last blogged. Things have been completely insane and I promise to catch you up on my amazing summer thus far!

Right now, in a nut shell, I went to Greece and Turkey for 11 days. So AWESOME! I have a million and 5 pics to post. You may want to check FB in the next few days for those.

Right now, I am in Southern California working at TOMS Shoes!! AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! If you never thought you could never catch a break or get what you want, you are terribly mistaken!

This is a total dream for me. Hard work, passion, honesty, and self worth really pay off!!

Meet the TOMS Summer 2010 Intern class!!!

(front): James
(back starting on the left): Melanie, Erin, Lizzy, Me, Jina, Jake, Micah, Nicole, Brian
(not pictured): Avery, Tobi, Chelsea, Dominique (and some amazing interns returning from the Spring class)

This is so surreal! I will be telling you more about my California adventures as they occur.

I got back from Greece on June 5th (10:30pm) and flew out to Cali on June 8th. . .first (direct flight) got canceled. BUMMER! I didn't get in until 10:45pm.

Made it to our apartments which turned out to work FANTASTICALLY!!!

Team Kittyhawk includes: James, Jake, Jina, Lizzy, Nicole, Erin, Mel and myself. More to come on that later :D

I bunch of us stayed up and got to know each other. The next day, we all went out to a beach and chilled for a bit. It was beautiful out. I mean no humidity and around 70ish.

We then headed to the Third Street Promenade where I there discovered H&M (this will not turn out well) and also went to Pinkberry! The Green Tea was pretty fantastical.

We ended up sitting at the Georgian Hotel and met Chelsea and Brian there. After that, Mel, Nic, Erin and I went to Wal-Mart for some things. . . . ummmm yeah. . .what an experience!

It was the first 3 story Wal-Mart, in a shopping mall that I have ever been too and well, I'm not sure that I am going back! It was a tad frightening. Oh Crenshaw.

Anywho. . .I gotta go get ready for my second day on the job!!

Hope to see you soon!

Only Time Will Tell

The NFL Draft is almost over. . .and a couple of my guys went.

Ben Tate went in the second round as the 26th pick to the Houston Texans. I am very happy for Ben, but I unfortunately cannot cheer for the Texans. . .a little bit of a rivalry.

Walter McFadden went in the 5th round as the 7th pick to the Oakland Raiders. Perhaps not ideal for being the 5th round, but still. . .he was drafted, right?

I guess only time will tell about how they will potentially do in the NFL. I wish them the best of luck!

I have a little update on my TOMS auction winners. . . Both very pleased with their shoes, I must say :D

I haven't received permission (actually I haven't asked) to use their names, so I will not post them. But the person who won the Jonathan Singleton & The Grove TOMS sent me a pic of him wearing his shoes to class!!!
LOOKIN' GOOD!!!

I am still waiting on a pic from The Features TOMS winner. ;) He got me his pic!!! Check it out!

I am happy to say that doing something like this and helping out such a wonderful cause really can bring people together. I have met some incredible folks and made some friends along the way.

Speaking of The Features, I have some pics from them from One Day Without Shoes!!!!






Rog with his Chocolate Stitchout Corduroy TOMS on and the guys with their logo and the TOMS logo bag!!!

I can't thank them enough for all of their support for TOMS and myself! You all truly ROCK and deserve all the best!!!

We had our spring cocktail at school a while back, HUGE success. . .have some pics to share. Enjoy.
















If the pictures don't say enough. . .WE HAD A BLAST!!!

These are some pretty amazing people in these pictures and if you ever get a chance at meeting them in life, they will blow you away!!!

Finals are almost over and I couldn't be happier. I have been working on some outside projects that I have been having a lot more fun with and makes me really want to do more but I should just be focusing on the now and worry about all of that later.

Guess that's all for now. Need to get back to work.

Toodles!!

TOMS Teen Vogue Shoes

TOMS Shoes has teamed up with Teen Vogue to get some creative peeps out there to design a pair of TOMS to be manufactured and sold for a limited period of time.

The top 10 have been put on the Teen Vogue website for voting. I think they are all pretty amazing myself but, I am torn between 3 of them. (these are in no particular order)

Allison Quattlebaum, 18, Apex, NC. Read her essay.

Alexandra Trenary, 18, Raleigh, NC. Read her essay.



Brooke Shaw, 18, Coral Springs, FL. Read her essay.

(see all 10 amazing designs here)

If you haven't heard about TOMS from me or if you just have been living under a rock for a while, here is the information about the TOMS Movement:

One for One

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about. The TOMS One for One business model transforms our customers into benefactors, which allows us to grow a truly sustainable business rather than depending on fundraising for support.

Why shoes?

Many children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or going to school, these children are at risk:

• A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.
• Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.
• Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

One for One is spreading

TOMS has also inspired other companies to implement a One for One model. Ralph Lauren sells co-branded Polo Rugby TOMS, giving a matched pair with every pair sold. Element Skateboards has issued limited edition TOMS + Element shoes as well as a One for One skateboard. With every skateboard purchased, one will be given to a child at the Indigo Skate Camp in Durban, South Africa. It is TOMS’ hope that as our One for One movement continues to grow, more and more companies will look to incorporate giving into what they do.

Our Story

In 2006 an American traveler, Blake Mycoskie, befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by caring TOMS customers.

Since our beginning in May 2006, TOMS has given over 600,000* pairs of shoes to children in need, through the purchases of caring customers.

*As of April 2010

So, become a part of something amazing, inspiring, and motivating and order your TOMS and/or vote for your favorite pair at Teen Vogue and order those. . .I know if one of these three pairs win. . . .I will own them :)

My happenings during my One Day Without Shoes

First and foremost, I want to thank everyone that attended and promoted TOMS Shoes One Day Without Shoes. Not just in my community, but all over the world!! It was an incredibly amazing experience.

It is still going on for most of us, but I am so excited, I just wanted to go ahead and blog.

We all knew that the weather in Franklin, TN was looking really drab for today. It was raining late last night and early this morning causing the temperature to drop immensely! We went from 80 degree weather to the 50's. burrrrr I thought this was going to cause our ODWS to become virtual, which is totally okay too! To my surprise, we had a virtual and actual ODWS event!!

Everything started today when I visited my boss at school. Unfortunately, she was unable to be apart of ODWS all day, but she was kind enough to promote the event for a few hours. Here she is holding the banner I created. :)


She said: "I haven't even had a pedicure, they are going to look horrible." I said: "Think of all of the people who go every day without shoes and have unfortunate and 100% curable diseases feet look! Trust me, your non-pedicured feet are fine" ;)

I decided to write on the bottom of my feet to see how they would look after a day of walking without shoes. Here is the before picture, we'll get to the after a little later.



Here is my other boss at school, Melinda! Isn't she beautiful in her TOMS Red Wrap Boots?! She was doing her part in the virtual shoe department.

A little later, I was working on some projects in class and I receive a phone call from a fellow classmate saying that he was just in a Publix, barefoot, and got kicked out. I couldn't believe he went in there barefoot. . . .I mean, I appreciate his support and what he was doing, but you just gotta be smart on where you try to go barefoot. . . TOMS will understand. We don't want to break any health code violations. Here is a pic of him and his buddy. They haven't had shoes on since 12:00am this morning! You guys are awesome!!
Here is a little segment of screen shots from the web. . . these are all of my friends supporting TOMS away from school or that I was unable to see today!! They either changed their avatar, tweeted about TOMS or just overall spread the word. You all rock!











The next little segment of photos are the feet all on campus :) What beautiful toenails everyone! There are also some TOMS in here as well.




Because we thought that the walk wasn't going to take place due to the weather, we had a documentary screening as well!!



We also had a small, yet fun activity. I took the posters of all five facts given to Campus Club Members by TOMS and hung them around campus. I offered the first person to be able to give me all five facts correctly a small TOMS prize!! (the images are in descending order)





Of course these aren't all of the posters we hung. We had several everywhere. . . but I will spare you from that unless you want them, and I will move on to more. . .

And now, finally, our walk!!! Since the weather was bad/chilly. . .I didn't expect this to happen at all. . .but we had a few troopers who made it out and who really brightened my day and warmed my heart by their support!










On our walk we got to know each other a little more. I found out that we had a recent graduate from Belmont with us, another that just graduated from Eastern Kentucky University, two participants from school and an amazing 9 year-old named Lucy with her mom.

Lucy was an amazing story for me. She found our event, and "she" signed up for it! Her mom swore it was all her idea!! I was amazed by her support for TOMS and what we were doing. It was truly inspiring.

I wanted to know how everyone knew about TOMS and it's funny because my two recent college grads knew because of Hanson. . .that's not the funny/ironic part. The funny/ironic part was that Lucy knew about it because of The Jonas Brothers. I am sure if TOMS was around when I was younger, I would have heard about them because of New Kids on the Block!! I think it's wonderful that these amazing and accomplished bands support TOMS like they do!

It was truly an inspiring and groundbreaking day for TOMS and those who are supporters. I can't say enough about the movement! Join us and support One for One!

Oh, before I forget. . . .the after view of my feet:



THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR BEING APART OF TODAY! FOR ME AND FOR TOMS!