Hallmark is Turning 100!

That's right, Hallmark's official 100th birthday is Sunday, January 10th, 2010! Next week, Hallmarkers here at headquarters will begin a week of events to celebrate our Centennial. I'll be posting about these events as they happen, starting with Monday's giant birthday party in the Crown Room. This event will feature remarks from the Hall family, a "living history" presentation about our last 100 years from Hallmark employees, and the unveiling of Hallmark's allegedly "huge" birthday cake! I can't wait to see it and enjoy one of the Centennial cupcakes!

You can celebrate our Centennial with us by visiting our special Centennial website Hallmark: 100 Years. One of coolest parts of this website are videos called "Glimpses," which are guided, behind the scenes looks at Hallmark. Here's the first one!

new online magazine

Issue one of Kansas City's new magazine for young adults, "QUIRK."

Very local, very cool, very... quirky.

Kansas City in the New York Post

photo from: nelson-atkins.org

Sure KC is known for its BBQ, but in an article by the New York Post, it seems our museums might be even better. We have two outstanding museums of contemporary art (Nelson-Atkins and Nerman) as well as a thriving art scene in the Crossroads. The writer also touches on a number of historic and Kansas City landmarks.

Read the entire article here: 50 States: Missouri - Art Attack! In Kansas City, the museums might be better than the BBQ.

For all you've ever wanted to know about Kansas City, check out visitkc.com or thinkkc.com.

Hallmarker chicks rock out!

Softee is a band composed of four Hallmark Cards gals: Sarah, Steph, Mimi and Flora.




They made the cover of a local Kansas City magazine, HERLIFE.

Like a groupie I went around the office and got each gal to autograph my magazine. It's gonna be work some money one day!!!

Union Station Model Trains

Happy New Year!
I wanted to share some photos I took before the holiday break, these were taken inside Union Station.

Another holiday tradition in Kansas City are these wonderful toy trains. They take up a large part of the lobby as you can see here.



There is so much detail, this is my favorite area of the display.
It's a vintage drive-in, and it plays old black and white films. (click on the images to see the detail)


The miniature railroads feature a wide variety of model trains in every scale. Holiday trains run through snow covered trees, mountains, and towns. It is definitely a delight for children and adults alike.

The display is free to the public.

The Plaza's Season of Lights

Did You Know?

The Country Club Plaza uses more than 80 miles of glimmering holiday lights in its annual winter display? ! (That's about 280,000 bulbs!)

The Country Club Plaza is one of Kansas City's famous entertainment and shopping districts, with more than 150 shops and restaurants.

During the winter months the lights have become a Kansas City winter trademark. The 80 miles of light accentuate every dome, tower and window of the Plaza, and it definitely puts you in the Christmas spirit when taking a night stroll through the busy streets.

Here are some fun facts about the Plaza Light Tradition.

Hallmark Creative Summer Internship Program

You can now apply for our 2010 Summer Creative Internship Program! Deadline to apply is March 1, 2010. Get going! We can't wait to see what sort of talent we'll have this summer!
(The image above mentions attached PDFs. Don't worry. All the info is available on our careers website.)

Star Wars: In Concert Recap

My fiancé Eric is a true Star Wars super-fan... almost to the point that I am scared to go through his boxes when he moves in, fearing that in his belongings I might find an adult-sized Chewbacca costume or perhaps some hand-built models of the Millennium Falcon. I am a true lover of the symphony, the orchestra, and of movie soundtracks (my favorite XM station is the soundtrack station)... aren't we a match made in heaven!?

When I saw that Star Wars: In Concert was coming to The Sprint Center, it seemed the best of both worlds: Eric would love it because it was Star Wars (and he would tolerate the symphony part) and I would love the symphony (and would tolerate the Star Wars part). So, I got tickets -- Merry Christmas Eric! We went to the concert on Wednesday night at Sprint Center, and the unthinkable happened.....

We both LOVED it--and enjoyed every aspect of it (including the parts that I had guessed we would tolerate)! It was simply amazing. The live symphony and choir was fantastic and was so closely matched with the HD movie clips that we sometimes forgot there was a live symphony playing the music. The HD movie clips were set to not only live music, but intense laser light shows, smoke, and fire!

Anthony Daniels, who played C-3PO in the original movie was the narrator of the Star Wars tale, and did an excellent job of taking the audience through the entire story from start to finish -- Honestly, it was the first time I had ever actually understood was what happening in the movies, which actually made me interested in watching all 6 movies...

All in all, it was a great experience for us both--and we even got to take pictures with all of the characters from the original movies.

For more on Star Wars: In Concert, check out this video--pretty cool!

FOUR FOODIES

I've added a new link in the Hallmarkers Who Blog list on the right. Four Foodies is a blog that will make your mouth water. Two Hallmarkers, a former Hallmarker, and a non-Hallmarker make up the Four Foodies. I'm placing a video of theirs in this post because I think it showcases the Kansas City farmers' market quite nicely. If you love food (who doesn't?!) check out the Four Foodies. They even include their recipes! Yum!

Mayor's Christmas Tree

Did You Know?

The Mayor’s Christmas Tree in Crown Center is taller than the famous trees at the White House and Rockefeller Center in New York City? The Tree is 100 feet tall, making it one of the nation's tallest Christmas trees.

I sure did not know that! - Also after the holidays, the tree is cut into commemorative ornaments and sold to benefit the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Fund, which assists the city’s less fortunate.

Here is a fun FAQ about the tree.

Why I love my job #2,987,501

Why do I love my job? Because I am surrounded by extremely talented people every single day who create amazing artwork that is then given away.

A group of Hallmark illustrators (called the Blink Studio) painted cardboard tubes for a holiday display in the building. When the display comes down, they are going to raffle away opportunities to pick out a tube to keep as your very own. You know my name will be in that hat for the drawing! Pick me! Pick me!

WICKED!

Broadway Across America : Wicked

Ah! Yesterday was the last performance of Wicked, it had been playing at the Music Hall downtown since November 11th.

I was lucky enough to enter the Wicked Lottery, it happens 2 1/2 hours before each show. Basically, you enter in the lottery and if your name is drawn you can get really good orchestra seats for 25 dollars! My friend and I went to the 2pm showing (They only pick 10 pairs per show), we sat on the second row and I had an amazing time!!



This was my second musical in Kansas City. I highly recommend the lottery!

Here's a link to future shows.