capture my utah, vote for me plz

I just spent the last 4 days covering over 1000 miles of the great state of Utah {and a bit of AZ and NV too.} Really, really fun. I'd love to tell you more about it but since I took that time to play I'm paying for it now playing catch up.

If you feel like checking out some really fantastic images from Utah go here to Capture My Utah's website. And while you are there, check out my profile and vote for me so my pictures can end up in a book put together by MediaOne. I thought today was the deadline for submissions so I was excited to include a few more pics from my trip, I was wrong and voting is in full swing.

sun soaked slc

I was fighting off a nap earlier this afternoon bc I have one day off to enjoy my freedom to do as I please and I don't want to sleep it away. Instead, I wandered around SLC taking pictures and enjoying the beautiful fall weather.



Emigration Canyon - bikers are made of rocks. How do they do it?

Cranes...after my own heart. I can't explain my love for those machines.


seagulls and alleyways and funny old buildings...I wasn't really thinking about anything I was taking pictures of, just taking them as I wandered to give me reasons to go this way and that way.



I would love a quicker reflex for times like these. I'm so much more comfortable taking pictures of textures and color. Moving targets are things I notice and wish I'd catch, but I'm happy with seeing the moment all the same. This guy made my day riding his retrofitted bike down Main Street with a huge grin on his face. Maybe instead of wishing for a quicker reflex, or better camera, I should just wish for more courage to jump out in the street and take the picture when I first want to instead of hesitating. Something about snapping shots of strangers seems invasive.

shadow play

You know you are a full fledged student when dinner consists of a 100 calorie snack bag of Cheese-its {shared 3 ways}, two Tums tablets {not for their tummy soothing ways, but because they are there} and a handful of TicTacs.

I can't tell you how nice it was today to wander aimlessly for the better part of an hour between classes after spending all of my free time the last week on creating a pediatric hospital room that I will never get to see outside my imagination. That is still the hardest part of my projects for me. Walking away at the end with no tangible proof that the hours of thought and work I put into it would ever even work in real life.

It is an all consuming process. I get wrapped up in it so much that I can see the space from every angel, can almost smell the new carpet and paint. Research and sketches and the tiny details of putting together boards. Then to stand up in front of my peers and present it is nerve wracking. Not because I'm scared about what they'll think, but because it is the final step. The room is only as good as I can sell it. This whole place, the people I imagine using it, all of it, resides in my mind and once I put it out there I want it to be more than a three minute presentation in the mix.

And not even feeling the relief of another project completed, we are handed a stack of documents laying out the next blank slate. What now?

perfect blend

life right now is the perfect blend of fast + slow. I wish there was a way to capture it all and put it somewhere to examine more closely because even though I'm taking in as many details as I can I know others are going by unnoticed.
today alone the details have sent me into overdrive. My mom and I went through a few homes in Davis County on a designer showcase set up by my boss and a few other designers part of UDLA. My two favorites were by Philimina and Robert Mcarthur Studios Both were their personal homes. Stunning. We had so much fun.
My favorite detail I won't forget from today: the way it feels curling up on Grandma's brown recliner with her and getting a couple Hershey kisses from her. She is awesome.

too wound up

I have been learning the coolest things about the Egyptians tonight, the cat's pajamas: they must have liked their pets a lot. Enough to have them mummified.

I'm studying for a quiz in the morning. OK - to be honest, I'm blogging. But if I'm going to get everything done in my life that I want to do multi-tasking will be a must so why not blog + study? Sounds like a good mix to me.

Really, I'm just too wound up to read. Today was ideal. I followed Glenn {one of the owners of Noble House} and Darrin {hired muscle} to my very first client's home today to be there for the delivery of all their goods. {Yes, I snapped a picture of the truck as a memento of the day - I'm a geek} I'm excited about them because they have great taste, a beautiful home, and we get along really well. A client made in heaven. We're going to have fun working together. I'm sketching and dreaming and thinking I have the BEST job ever.
I wonder how long it will take before the design dreams start up again. It has happened in the past where homework follows me into the unconscious {if only I could turn it in when I woke up - now that would be the ultimate multi-tasked effort!} Working basically full time with classes squished into the mix and enough homework to keep me busy every minute I'm not at class/work and I think if you poke me I'll bleed design.

can you believe it??

Miss Cari Cheyenne is a teenager!!! I can barely believe it myself! It seems like yesterday I was at volleyball practice and my mom came with pink balloons to tell me I was an aunt! Or when I met her for the first time and she was wearing the most adorable off white lace dress and I took her over around to all my friends to show them my beautiful niece. One of my most recent favorite memories is from Christmas when we wore my lipstick and chased her brothers around the apartment leaving kiss marks on them. I'll stop with the memories or I might embarrass her. What a super cool girl!! Love you Cari!

a story for Kwona

Kwona is doing something for enrichment night and asked my mom and I to share stories of crazy days when things 'never stopped'. This one came to mind:

The morning of my good friend Jackie’s wedding I was finishing up some work before making the 4 hour drive to Salt Lake City to be there for her reception. I had to drop off something to my boss before I left. I was stopped at a stop sign just down the street from her home when I noticed a cat lying in the ditch with a Campbell’s soup can stuck on her head. I jumped out and tried to pull the can off, but it wouldn’t budge. The cat was panting and crying, making me feel awful. I scooped her up, and with soup dripping down my arms onto the seat and floor of my truck, I drove the rest of the way to her house with the half dead cat on my lap.

I grabbed a can opener and got the bottom off the can so the cat could breathe while I lathered her up with olive oil to hopefully slip the can off her head. I'll never forget how pathetic she looked in there with her face squished up covered with soup. She was meowing and not at all happy with any of this. This is when we noticed that she was very very pregnant! She was having quite the day, too!!

The cat was soon on her way sans can and I was on my way sans cat. {but just barely - you know I wanted to keep her!} About 40 minutes out of town the engine revved up and then shut off completely. I coasted into a truck stop and did what anyone would do - popped the hood and looked around at what was in there like I had any idea what I was looking for while I thought of a plan. A couple men approached and asked if I needed help. I told them my predicament and they immediately offered me a ride. I was taking them in all the while, making sure I even wanted to get in a car with them. I didn’t have time to think too hard about it, and they seemed harmless. I grabbed my bags from my truck along with a giant potted plant for my mom and followed them to their tiny car. The car was made tinier still by the fact that they were on their way to Wyoming with a bunch of their dead mother’s belonging they had picked up from her home in Las Vegas. They quickly rearranged a few things and I inserted myself into the backseat, with my bags and plant on my lap. I wasn't alone back there either among the boxes. I was wedged in with a gigantic German Shepherd named Hans. Incidentally the dog was suffering from some serious indigestion. The men apologized for Hans, our happy, oblivious companion, who smiled at me while letting loose the most terrible smells from his big hot hairy body leaning up next to me, licking my arm.
We were a half hour away from the next city and I was frantically calling through the numbers in my phone book looking for a car to rent. My new friends had offered to drive me the rest of the way, almost insisting on it. But I refused. I couldn’t stand Hans that long, and they were making their way through a case of Nevada beer. Either I was going to pass out from asphyxiation, or we were going to run off the road.

They dropped me at the airport in Cedar City where I lucked out renting a beautiful dark gray Honda Accord. I made great time from there and made it just in time for Jackie’s reception. She was puzzled at my tears when we hugged. I think the emotion of the day had caught up to me finally. I brushed it off as happy tears for her, only telling her the story years later.

Side note: I had my truck towed to work {a temp job in between my other 2 jobs for a friend while she had her baby} where it sat until I got home. I was cleaning out all my personal belongings before I sold it for scrap. {The transmission was out and it would have cost too much to fix.} I somehow released the parking break before going inside. It wasn’t too much later when I heard a big crash and ran outside to find the truck at the bottom of a small hill buried in tractor parts and pushed under a chain link fence. I don't remember what happened next, or how I got it out of that mess, but I do remember the immense relief I felt when I parted ways with it shortly after for a serious upgrade: the Honda I still love every day now. Besides, the poor truck smelled like soup!