something to say

I sat here yesterday wanting to write something {an itch to blog is a terrible habit to break} but nothing was written.

Random thoughts: {because cohesive is way beyond what I have to offer at the end of this insane week}

I have a week and a half of school left, 8 days of classes, if I'm really counting. It'll be nice to have a month off before summer semester.

My thoughts are with pinklove this week, especially today. Love you friend, and your dear sweet family.

Color Theory is getting really, really fun, as if it wasn't already. Got these two boards critiqued this week and we were assigned our final project. A 'real' client {a designer who works for my professor} who needs a condo designed in Hawaii. She wants glam, sheik, feminine...no peach. {The 80's called, they want their color back...no really. I like peach.} She wants accents {or lots} of red, we decide the rest. Black lacquered floors, mirrored furniture, polished nickle... It's going to be fun.

"I planted bird seed, a bird came up, and now I don't know what to feed it."

Heard this little thought the other day and have found myself thinking about it more than necessary.

lastly, {can I say 'lastly' if there was no 'firstly'?} Do I need to point out my love {love} of using {} abundantly? At this point I don't think it is necessary, I'm sure {very sure} you have caught on. {But maybe you thought I did it and didn't realize?} Oh I realize. It's out of hand. Maybe I should learn the proper use {before} an improper use of '{}'s' catastrophe occurs. {maybe} or maybe not.

single action

I've been meaning to write this blog since the weekend, but how do I describe the kind of cool I was subjected to bright and early saturday morning? I also hesitate to devote an entire post to the coolness of Bry, but he won't let it get to him so I will. ;) {sidenote: this picture was taken secretly while I was away from the table}

I knew Bry was a cowboy. I thought I got this about him. He grew up in West Point, he likes guns, et al. But I didn't quite grasp the concept until he told me about SASS. A club he hangs out with full of guys duded out in authentic clothes, shooting guns.

There is a lot more involved in this {story lines, competitions, etc} but I don't want to work myself up into a lather like I did yesterday when I told the guys about my weekend and how much I liked hanging out with a bunch of cowboys. They laughed and laughed at how enthusiastic I was as I reenacted my favorite parts, mostly the part where Bry shot up all his targets in under 30 seconds, with four different guns. Wow.

Kid Slade {aka Bry} shooting up his bad guys and snakes {bits of hose}

That's Jackalope Roper and me. He and all the other guys made me feel welcome and wanted to know why I wasn't shooting. Maybe next time. I do have my alias {Little Bird} and I think that is the first step to becoming a true cowboy don't you?

fairy tale vs creating reality

If you don't go after what you want,

you'll never have it.

If you never ask,

the answer is always no.

If you don't step forward,

you're always in the same place.

If you don't have a dream,

you'll never succeed.

If you don't stretch,

you'll never have it.

I have lots to say to go with this thought I stole from pinklove {thanx} and the picture of Scarlet Johanson as Cinderella.

I also have lots more homework. Homework trumps blog.

But, if I were to pontificate.... no. NO. Stop. Back to access..

geez, blogging is so habit forming.

here i am

to dispel your conspiracy theories on where I've been in my absence... I haven't been absent, I just haven't been here... Am I purposely being illusive? No. It's not like last year when I disappeared and told you I'd tell you where I was when I got back, and then I never did. Remember that? Still not going to tell you where I went then. Or now.

Can't tell you where I've been, or not been, now more because I didn't really go anywhere, nor do I have any great excuses as to why I haven't been blogging. I had conspiracy theories for you this morning but lost them somewhere between school and work.

Things that have been on my mind lately:

~I'm thinking of running for president of our IIDA chapter at school {international interior designers of america}

~I have 16 days of school left.

~I miss Cari Devin n Dillon. A lot. So much so that I get choked up if I think about them longer than a second. A story that made it worse/better all at once. Devin asked Ben after church recently if he wanted to fast for grandma and grandpa with him. This wasn't a fast Sunday so Ben asked him why he wanted to fast for them. Devin responded "It's ok, I'll fast for them by myself." And he did for 2 whole hours. Big feat for an 8 year old don't you think? What a stud.

~ Easter is coming {It's Holy Thursday today. It's fun sharing an office with a Catholic because I get his take on holidays. It is full of ceremony and an air of royalty and even though I know so much is missing, it's a beautiful holiday for him and it's neat to see how they celebrate it.}

~ I'm going to a gala tonight with Bry at the Grand America and I have nothing to wear... {stressed} If I could, I would look like this {below} How would I pull that off? I don't know, but so much of the time I dress for my mood and this is exactly how I'm feeling.

I LOVED this movie. {stardust} I thought the story was fun, it was beautifully filmed and I totally got caught up in it all. I saw it this weekend and I'm still thinking about it. And for once, when the lead guy grew long hair magically {with the help of a very feminine and hilarious Di Niro} he actually looked better.

king of drapes

This board has borders, just not in the poor photo. It looks lopsided without the black border balancing everything so pretend with me it has a border ok?

When we critiqued our work on tuesday everyone that went before me had gone the soft, lush route when given the assignment to design a master bedroom for our 40 year old clients with 6 children and a desire to have a retreat of their own.

I didn't. I went with sleek and sassy with my turquoise leather ottoman and exposed brick walls and warmer tones for the duvet. I was expecting a bad critique berating me for missing the point of a 'retreat' since he was complementing the softness and comfy feel everyone else had done. Big surprise to me when he said he loved it! 'By far the sexiest board' and 'the most sophisticated color scheme with a daring blend of colors and textures.' He also liked my idea to drape my inspirational nut things over the board because I had said that Mrs. Smith had asked me to use them in the color scheme since Mr. Smith had brought them back from Hawaii for her. I work so much better when I'm under pressure. I sold that board big time because I didn't want him to hate it.

yeah baby. It made my day.

Speaking of days, it's a rainy one here. It is so gorgeous! {smells like spring in a cold, wet way even!}

Nate and his wife just got back from a week long vacation in Mexico. I thought it was going to be the longest work week ever with a lot of fires to put out and possible break downs on my part under the pressure to figure things out on my own but it was actually just fine. I am happy to have him back in his corner of our backyard office holding his baton. Chris handed it to him in a ceremony I missed wednesday morning to officially welcome him back to his drapery installation kingdom.

When I took this job I thought it was going to be mind numbingly dull. Not in the slightest. It has been a lot of fun. {If you think Nate looks a little green, he is, he might have brought some kind of parasite back from south of the border. Not cool.}

tagged by peach

Thanks Peach {pinklove} for tagging me. She tagged me last week but I haven't been much in the blogging mood to tackle the task. Here goes...


5 Things on my to do list:

2 Book of Mormon papers by 5pm today {honestly, papers due in institute? jk, it's fun.}

Eat lunch sometime soon, raisins and peanuts anyone?

laundry, sorry Michele, I left it in the dryer!

my nails

I like that I have to think about a 5th thing for my list... only having four things seems nice.



5 {weird} Jobs I've had: {you know my usual answers, how about the unusual for a change?}

Dog/cat sitter

Taught English on the phone for ten minute increments starting at 5 in the am with senators, business men and students as my call-ees. I'd call, we'd chat about whatever they wanted, and I would correct them a little and give encouragement.

Got paid to tour Korea with a German Chimney Stack {yes. chain smoker}. Still can't believe I got paid to have formal tea with Buddhist monks, dance traditional mask dances, go to museums, and do crafts with old auhjama, all the while in some of the most beautiful places in Korea. Best weird job ever.

decorated cakes, swiffer/olay girl for a minute, detailed cars, worked for Ford, lab rat for Biolabs back in the day. Et al. I have had some crazy jobs.



5 Places I've lived:

Bountiful

BeunaVista, VA

St. George

Seoul

Centerville



5 Favorite Snacks:

cookies

almonds with apple slices

peanut butter

twizzlers

popcorn

ice cream

chocolate

candy, candy corn, candy canes and syrup

OH! That is way more than five! I'm hungry. I can't count when I'm hungry.



5 Things you would do if you were a billionaire:

get Ben that boat I owe him, give him a million or two, set up college accounts for the kids, take Kwona shopping and hopefully by giving him a million or two he'd retire and move closer. But I guess it doesn't matter, throw a jet in with the boat so we can all see each other on a whim. Then he can live where ever he wants I suppose.

fund all my parents future missions, buy them a motorcycle cuz my dad wants one oh SO bad and anything else their hearts desired. I'd be their personal genie.

tour the world with Kid Slade

eat out at a different restaurant for every meal for awhile then learn to cook when it got old

start an ultra cool design firm

donate the rest so I don't become some rich snob {my blog readers would most certainly get their share, no worries there my friends, you are not forgotten in my windfall}



5 Things you may not know about me:

I can't do cartwheels or swim more than a pathetic dog paddle type thing I pretend is an impressive butterfly

uuum, I am doing some serious searching for something to confess to you... I'm an open book, what don't you know about me? I blog, I have no secrets...

I have a hard time caring about the news or politics because I rather live in a world where everyone is honest and good and I don't like blatant reminders that I don't.

I want to be the very best designer I can be so I have a list of things I want to accomplish before I'm 30 {why 30? Round number...} Mind you, it's a super long list and I know 4 years with 2 of those devoted to school I don't exactly stand a chance to accomplish them in my time frame. I think I set up time frames for myself so I can be taught a lesson about His time vs. My time. {My money is not on me btw.} I know my priorities, but I would still love to design a restaurant, be in on a hotel job and put my name on some kind of major project other than residential that will be around for awhile. Shoot for the moon. So the thing you may not have known about me: I'm a dreamer.

TAG! You're it Heather, Cara, Mom, do I even dare say Ben? Do you even blog anymore dear brother?? Where are you?? :) The Year of the Golden Pig is a great post but I don't know how many more times I can read it!

how do you feel...

... when you look at these lines? If you had to have just one emotion, what would it be? No right or wrong answer so play along with me ok? Thanx. This is for my fundamentals class, the project was to illustrate an emotion using lines. Let's see if I succeeded.

what else is new? Well, I surprised myself this week when I took my IT test on the Excel module and aced it. I honestly didn't think I would do well. Functions/formulas dealing with math are not my forte. Math? I'm an artist, I don't need math. I've despised it for years and did everything within my power to have very little contact with it so now I'm paying the consequences for my aversion to the dreaded subject. It was a fantastic feeling when I completed the test and printed out the certificate with a nice 100% at the top. I had to double check the name to make sure it was mine!

After the test my friend in the class Sierra and I walked together to the underground parking lot. A girl was attacked on the elevator last week so we're feeling a little security conscious. I told her about some couches I had seen on the side of the road near the school with a sign advertising them as 'free to good home'. I thought of her when I saw them because she doesn't have any furniture in her place. She moved her from Ohio and has had some pretty bad luck. Her car got broken in to, they stole her backpack so she had to replace all her books {woah} and then her car broke down. Twice. Sheesh. I told her she need to bake cookies for the fates.

We decided to go check out the couches {Gross, I know, but you never know} They were indeed disgusting but there was an awesome coffee table to get excited about. {ok, lets be honest, it was ugly but it has so much potential!} We tried wedging it into her car, it wasn't even close to fitting. She was ready to give up but I wasn't, we went and got my car and shoved it in my trunk all the while keeping an eye on the suspicious looking people across the street hanging around for no apparent reason except to make us work faster I suppose and make me glad for my mace. {paranoia} We used my gym clothes to wrap the legs so my car wouldn't get scratched, took the laces out of her shoes to tie my trunk in place, and off we went to Sugarhouse to drop off her first piece of furniture.

I need a decorating job almost desperately. I have to find my creative outlets in other peoples garbage.

Good weekend to you all!

its supposed to do that

Color theory boards due today. The top one is a related color scheme. The one below is a complimentary scheme. Does this mean anything to you? No worries if it doesn't, it doesn't matter in the real world, it's just good that as designers we understand how colors work together.

I put my boards up with every one else at the beginning of class and my top little brown square popped off the board with the zebra print. {note to self: tacky glue doesn't work in every situation} I laughed it off and made it work for me later when I had to present when I told them it was interactive and I meant for it to pop off. My professor is so amazing and funny he liked how I rolled with it. I'm glad it was his class, and not either of my other design courses because I'm sure I would have gotten major points docked for something like that. C'est la vie.

little beauty

I introduced you to Kate this fall when she arrived and here she again wearing the little dress I found for her one day while I was working. {I miss the days when I made money shopping.} I was on my way to one of my favorite shops to find hardware for a bathroom we were working on. I went in for knobs, and came out with this sweet little thing instead. That is a seriously cool shop right?

Ben's wee one is soon to be here {middle of may} I can't wait to see what kinds of fun things are to be found for her.

{one of my very most favorite things about my life: being an aunt. a distant one, but one nonetheless}

retreat

Well, I got a call from So Africa today to remind me about my blog {'post something' or they won't know what's going on with me and it makes them 'nervous'} so here I am reporting in.

Friday came quickly this week {five weeks left of school} and top on my list of things to do was NOT to go to the relief society retreat like a true fun loving girl would do, but instead, get a good start on my projects due this week. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of relief society. I really do enjoy it, but I have never been good at big groups of girls without the male species around to act as a buffer of sorts. Lets be honest, girls can be a mean bunch. The girls in my ward have taught me a thing or two. I have so enjoyed getting to know them so as I drove home from work with my weekend stretched out before me, it wasnt hard to talk myself into going. I was not disappointed. Good food, lots of laughing and a really good message about recognizing the power within. It might sound a wee cheesy, but it's our theme for the year. Is it the world wide theme as well? Knowing the way the RS works, I wouldn't be surprised if you too, got a little magnet to put on your fridge with the scripture below. As I sat listening to our speaker I felt like this was the perfect theme for me personally to work on this year.

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind."
Our presidency introduced the knew theme in a pretty fun way. Super Heroes Anonymous. A big group therapy session with these girls talking about the common problems found when super heroes forget the power within. These girls are hilarious. Especially Elastagirl, she kills me. She doubled as our game show host as we played a wicked round of "Speed Friendshipping" {akin to speed dating} followed by "The Newly Friend Game" where new friends were chosen at random from the speed dating game to play the newly wed game to see how much they could remember from the five questions we were given to ask each other.

It was a good night. I am not fully converted to the retreat, I bailed out and came home to sleep in my own bed. Nothing says female bonding like waking up with a bunch of women in the morning after being with them all night too. Pushing it just a bit for me. Maybe next year.

Alright, on to my usual sunday post.....

Things I loved about this week:

Actually, on second thought. I'll save it for another day. Jared brought cheesecake. Blog...cheesecake...blog....cheesecake.... BYE GUYS!