by Jeff Slobotski on June 15, 2009

We recently had an opportunity to catch up with Laura Brooker after hearing great things about the work she’s doing and some of the plans she has.

Laura shared that she’s been turning creative ideas into coordinated print and web designs for about five years now and the process requires that she listens well and guide her clients through until the clients tell her “Holy cow, I love it!“…otherwise known as the “holy cow moment.”

That’s the reaction graphic designer Laura Brooker, owner of holycowdesign.com, wants her clients to have. That reaction was the inspiration for her catchy business name and process.

Originally from Merna, Nebraska and an alum of University of Nebraska at Kearney, Laura moved to Omaha in 2007 for an opportunity with Orion Healthcare Technology. It wasn’t long before she met her husband, Aaron, and after they were married and celebrated a honeymoon adventure to Africa and Israel. When they returned to Omaha in August of last year, she made a move on the opportunity to work alongside her tech-saavy mom (thewebservant.com).

Laura specializes in identity (logos) design, print design and branding with the majority of her clients being small business owners, life coaches, and non-profits.

To this point, Laura has conducted no advertising and most of her business comes from word of mouth or from working with thewebservant.com. She’s just begun to work with other creatives here in Omaha and is truly passionate about what’s in store for the Omaha area.

As one of the goals of Silicon Prairie News is to build and connect or innovators and creative class, we hope you check out Laura’s work and drop her a line to encourage her as well as ask any questions.

Laura is also involved in Renew Omaha, a project focusing on the urban renewal of some of Omaha’s oldest neighborhoods, and Moodie Board, the concept she pitched at the last Creative Capital Pitch Session.

You can follow Laura on Twitter at Twitter.com/holycowgal
Email her at laura@holycowdesign.com
and follow Moodie Board at Twitter.com/moodieboard.

Visit www.SiliconPrairieNews.com for more great stories and highlights!

Did you know that my mom and I have this awesome idea for an online moodboard/inspiration board for designers and their clients?

Yep. It's called Moodie Board.

We pitched the idea a couple weeks ago at a local creative pitch competition (winner got $1k). We didn't come out on top, but in a way we did. We made so many awesome connections and got great feedback from the creative community in Omaha, it was such fun!

Here's a recap from Silicon Prairie News, sponsor of the pitch competition and all around great news source for good stuff happening in Omaha.

Here's my recap :) Sorry, its quite dark.



Follow Moodie Board on Twitter!
http://twitter.com/moodieboard

The photo above is taken outside none other than the Village of Merna! I always knew my hometown, also affectionately known as "the mothership", could be so quaint and romantic...

Ok, I suppose of the props for this terrific photo goes to Erin Dunagan, my friend and owner of d.gallery photography in Grand Island.

Erin has been photographing professionally for about 7 years now, and she is TERRIFIC! I would say she's into mixing old, new, and natural.

Don't be surprised if you see her photographing sessions using vintage chairs in grassy fields or alleyways. She has a knack for seeing the beauty in the unconventional.

Visit her BLOG to see more photos.

We received so much love on our anniversary from friends and family. I just have to show you these humongo rice crispie treats Jacob & Lindsey sent from The Crispery in New York City.



They were homemade and so soft! You can order these delectable treats online and its quite reasonable. You can order sampler gift boxes, a little something for one or two people, individual crispy bars or special occasion rice crispys!



Visit TheCrispery.com for more info. Thanks J&L!

Thanks to Adam & Erica Faris for hosting a terrific BBQ to kick of summer! They had it all -- hot grill & sides galore. Here's Brad & Tamara Steinman and Craig & Leah Seydel playing a round of Bocce Ball



Of course there was a fierce tournament for Ladder Golf.



The host & hostess, Adam & Erica Faris with everybody's friend Timothy.


Newlyweds, Mike & Amy Garrett.



It was an all around delicious occasion!

Thanks to Aaron, we now have a garden.
Peppers. Cucumbers. Eggplant. Tomatoes.

Here are a few shots of the planting.
So far, so good. We'll keep you posted. We hope you'll join us when all if ripe & ready!

It's hard to believe that we are celebrating one year of marriage today!

We spent two months adventuring in Africa and Israel only to return to "real life" to find the adventures continued! As we celebrated with dinner at Johnny's Cafe last night (thanks D+C!) we attempted to make a list of everything that stood out to us over the past year.

New roof and windows
Pigeon wars
Grandpa Weed
Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter with family
Jacob & Lindsey
HolyCow Design Gal
Renew Omaha
Ethiopian Cafe
Home Community

and much, much more...

We certainly realize now more than ever how thankful we are for you, our family and friends. We have realized the ways in which God designed marriage to refine us and help us grow. We are thankful for the support you've given us along the way that helped prepare us to love each other.

There is certainly more to look forward to, but for now we're soaking in today :)

Love to all of you,
Aaron & Laura

P.S. Wedding Album

We bought a house!

It's a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house nestled between midtown and downtown, close to I480 and minutes from the Old Market, Creighton and the Med Center. The home has wood floors on main level; fenced in yard; off street parking; laundry and storage in the basement.

As you may know, we want to take the lead in recruiting "strategic neighbors" to help re-neighbor the community.

Our goal is to bring new energy, vision and resources to help support a stable, mixed income community that is safe, socially and spiritually healthy and economically viable.

You can read more at http://renewomaha.com. We are very excited!


Front Yard


Upstairs Bedroom 1


Upstairs Bedroom 2


Upstairs Master Bedroom with walk in closet


First level bathroom of the kitchen


Looking from dining room into kitchen


Looking from living room into dining room, great space off the dining room could be a room, office or family room.


Looking from the kitchen toward the front living room.


Great backyard!

Put The Plant In The Bottom, Soil In The Bag, Water In The Top And You're Done!



This year, the Easter Bunny (a.k.a. Julie) included the Topsy Turvy® Tomato Planter --"the most ingenious invention to grow nice delicious tomatoes". A "must have" according to many and Steve Hambeck, Walgreens Manager and good friend of the Brookers, agrees they've been flying off the shelves almost as fast as the ShamWow :)




Here's how it works

Because the Topsy Turvy® is upside down, gravity pulls the water and nutrients directly from the root to the fruit, giving you (up to 30 Ibs. they say) of deliciously ripe tomatoes per plant!

It's so simple to use and works perfectly. Just place any tomato plant in the planter, add your favorite potting soil, hang it up and water.

The sun warms the plant like a greenhouse, the root system explodes and thrives inside the planter. Plus, hanging in the air helps reduce ground fungus, harmful bacteria, cutworm damage, use of pesticides, digging & weeding and backbreaking work.

It was easy to assemble and thanks to our good neighbor J.J. who brought shared some tomato plants with us! We will see how things progress. We'll let you know, so check back for no bull updates on the TT.

It was absolutely beautiful here over the weekend! While Aaron was at a men's retreat with core community and I spent the whole weekend getting the weeds out and the flowers in!

I planted flowers in the hanging baskets on the patio.



Bought a lovely planter box I'd been eying since the middle of winter ....



... and re-potted some colorful flowers along the walkway.



The monster of the weekend was this strip of 'blah' that was between our fence and the sod we laid last fall. As you can see, the sod is quite healthy (too healthy, needs a trim!) and the area along the fence has been home to all kinds of weeds. Not any more!



This area (West side of yard) was also landscaped last fall and required some serious weeding and cleaning up. Now it is all ready for hostas, native grasses and flowers.




After it was all said and done Aaron was so surprised and I was really tired! It was a weekend well spent and once we get a mower we'll have our own little urban paradise. Well, getting there anyway!

Love to you all! Come visit soon!