Take a moment to envision an advertising agency. I bet you came up with a bunch of cooler than thou hipsters who drink and womanize in sleek, minimalist offices, right? I used to work in an advertising office so I am here to tell you that you are absolutely right! But here’s the interesting part: when it comes to trying to convince people to take action on climate change, those expensive square glasses and ironic t-shirts clothe the soul of Helen Lovejoy on the Simpsons…

Read the rest of Kate’s post at Chicago Green Jobs

Merry Christmas, folks. And while we’re at it, cheers to Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, winter solstice, and any other solar festival you care to celebrate.

It’s been an uncommonly good year for the Eyler-Werve enclave. The headline, of course, is the arrival of Vivian this February, but there’s good news on all fronts.

Vivian is growing like an El Nino brushfire, and really is a delightful baby. She will reliably smile and wave at newcomers, gasp with joy when handed a banana, squint when concentrating on new challenges, and sob with the fire of a thousand suns if she can see a banana that she is not allowed to eat. After face planting down a single step at her grandparent’s house, she now approaches any change in flooring while slinking on her belly. She’s clever.

Kate and I are very grateful to family and friends, old and new, that are helping to raise our little sprout.

In other news, we are staying busy. I’m still at Global Integrity, and shifting from managing a nonprofit to building tools for the nonprofit sector. In the last year, my crew has taken the Indaba fieldwork platform from a few sketches to an online publishing system currently in use in 34 countries. Public Radio International and others are signed up to use it next year. Referrals to orgs that need better tools for publishing are welcome. I’ve got a new office in downtown Chicago, and am enjoying our little Windy City community of tech-for-social change hackers.

Kate’s been busy too. She’s consulting with U.S. Equities to add a higher level of employee engagement to their thriving sustainability practice. Their first project together dug up a quarter million dollars in cost reductions for North Central College, which makes me think she’ll be staying busy next year. She’s also got a hearty stew of side projects going (including her blog on sustainability in Chicago), so feel free to call her if you need a collaborator.
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Don’t be a stranger, folks. We’re always happy to see you.
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Much love,
Jonathan, Kate, Vivian
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Bonus Video!

Vivian kind of maybe likes this “solid food” thing. Sweet potatoes!

I scored an invitation to the launch of the Field Museum’s brand new exhibit: Climate Change. A panel of CSR VPs, organic wine, a sneak peak of the exhibit AND a chance to see Sue? Sold!

After the VP panel (which was brilliantly moderated by Suzanne Malec-McKenna, Chicago’s Commissioner of the Environment), we were released into the main hall for drinks, dinner and a tour through the exhibit. Here’s my quick take on the Good, the Bad and the Corporate of the Climate Change exhibit.

Full post at CHICAGO GREEN JOBS.

One of my favorite events in Chicago: an entire conference devoted to training nonprofiteers on the subtle arts of communications. And the speakers are pretty great folks. Photos below are mine.

http://communitymediaworkshop.org/mmc2010/

– Jonathan

Things Vivi likes in order of deliciousness:

1. Her hands
2. Jonathan’s sandwich
3. Easter eggs

At three months, Vivi has also delighted us all by:
1. Imitating Mr. Burns (Excellent, Smithers!)
2. Wearing her mom’s hip shirts from the late 70′s
3. Growing like a weed

Hi folks!

We’re transfering our @eylerwerve.com email addresses to a new server so our email will be bouncing for about a day until our DNS server refreshes the MX records. Point being, you might have to call us or something.

– Jonathan

Hi folks!

Vivi has hit the one month mark, so Jonathan and I are now EXPERTS on
parenting! Hooray! Exciting milestones for this month (documented in
the photo slide show linked below) include:

Emoting! Vivi can make all kinds of hilarious faces.

Generational Continuity! We drove on up to Wisco to introduce Vivian
to her great-grandmother Alice. Note the excellent “4 generations
shot.” We are still taking votes on who she looks most like. I think
she got her daddy’s nose, and she definitely got my dimpled chin.

The Endurance! Our excellent stroller dominates the icy conditions of
the sidewalks. Also, it is huge. We have dubbed it The HMS Endurance
(although we don’t anticipate having to live on seals for three
years). The best part about strolling the baby around is that you have
to put a blanket over the seat to protect her against sun/wind/cold,
which means that if she starts wiggling around and crying it looks
like you have a magic crying afghan.

Playing With the Baby! Mostly this involves having her snooze on our
laps while we read or work. But sometimes she keeps her eyes open long
enough to stare at black and white pictures, and man oh man does she
enjoy that.

Achieving an Evening Outing, or Embarrassing Vivi in Public! We
actually made it out into the adult social world this weekend. Our
friend Rachel manages a swanky wine store and we attended her tasting/
food pairing event which involved a lobster/roast beef/avocado club
sandwich, popcorn popped in rendered duck fat, and a giant 9 liter
bottle of wine. One of the tastings involved a wine with a mustache on
the label, so we all got fake mustaches with entirely predictable
results. Our fellow attendees enjoyed seeing a tiny baby out, and she
was easy as pie. Success!

Much love,
Kate and Jonathan and Vivian

Click here for Flickr photo gallery: Vivian: 1 Month

Hi folks!

Thank you all for the many kind emails, SMS messages and calls. We all feel very loved, and we very much appreciate the many fine people who will help raise our little rugrat. Now, before my family revolts on me, I’ve uploaded the photos from the last three days (three!? it feels like thirty).

Baby and mother are doing well, and we had our first outing (to the doctor) in a driving snowstorm. That’s granddaddy’s car, if you’re wondering. We’ll be fitting Vivian for her first bike any day now.

Kate’s parents made it in before the snow hit, and Grandaddy Ed is making us choucroute garnie, which is French for mmmmmmmmmmm. Main ingredients: sausage, sauerkraut, butter, gin.

Much love,
Jonathan

Full gallery is on Flickr: Baby V

Our little nursery room, all 8×8 feet of it, had one subterranean window that made the whole thing feel like you were underwater.  So we went with it.

As I was sketching everything, Kate nodded and waited for me to pitch the whole thing: fish, bluegreen, stripey kelp, mirrors on the wall with the sunlight. Then she said: I want a whale. A whale? Yes — I want a whale.

Kate got two whales.

– Jonathan