Stranded In!!!!!

So this weekend I got a new toy as a Christmas and birthday present and have been waiting to play with it. This weekend I also got stranded in with 9 inches of blowing snow and topped with ice. So this morning it was blinding white and decided to try it out in bad lighting! So I clicked a few of my car that might not get out for a few days! Right now I'm hitching rides to and from work and other errands. My whole apartment is stuck in because our landlord is stuck in Minnesota. Hopefully we get out eventually....I need to be home by Saturday! But until then I'll be playing with my new camera before I leave for Australia next week!

Budget....cabinets.....hardware.....sustainable issues...

So I've been working on spec'ing and pricing my kitchen for the past 3 hours and decided I needed a study break! I never know how much work went into a kitchen. Plus the fact that I now see how  much a new kitchen costs....it's outrageous! I have a smaller galley kitchen and my cabinets alone at priced at $15,310 right now! I also have to say that this drafting table is one of my favorite things in my apartment! It's the only thing that I can handle leaving messy because I look at it randomly and will get an epiphany on my project! I'm excited to get this done and all rendered out finally. (I ordered the Candace Olson Divine Design book on Amazon today because I love her renderings and want to improve my skills before this condo is due!)

I also thought I'd include one of the better pictures out of the hundreds from this weekend! It was great having a few of my really good friends up for the weekend. Although Saturday night I do think by building codes we definitely exceeded the amount of people legal in one apartment!

My Life Lately....

So now that school has started I spend late nights at my drafting table or sprawling in the living room watching Grey's Anatomy (my new season of addiction!). Right now I am designing a lofted condo in downtown Minneapolis, MN overlooking the Mississippi River, for a famous sculptor. It has to be sustainable and the emphasis is on the kitchen. If I'm not up late working on research for a project, building a model with balsa wood for building systems, or studying electrical components for lighting class I'm trying to do something creative for myself. This rarely works though! I tried uploading a picture of my plan and the kitchen rendered but it said the file was too large and wrong format! :(

The bird mobile is my garage sale steal. I'm not going to lie, sometimes the shadows are a tidge creepy if I wake up in the middle of the night. But they make cool shadows and keep me distracted when I'm up at 3 a.m. doing something due at 8 a.m.! (my picture won't rotate!)

On my end table is my other garage sale steal. One night I fell asleep in bed with it on while writing a paper and apparently the lampshade couldn't handle the heat and it melted! I was watching Myles of Styles on HGTV the other day and she wrapped a lamp shade in ribbon with loops. It looked really cool and if I ever get time that's how I'm going to fix mine too!

I'm still alive....

I went to my parents' place to visit family and friends for a few days this week. It was great to go home for a while and just relax with nothing to do. My roomate is moving in on Monday so I have a few days to myself to finally decorate my room and get it all situated. This week my mom gave me this Art Neuvo handkerchief that she picked up at a local antique shop. She knew it was the colors of my room and lone behold it matches perfect. I wanted something different above my bed so I decided to go to a thrift store a few blocks down to find an old frame. I took out the old picture and put in the handkerchief and added a verse that I love and is great in the room, which also doubles as my design studio room. Later today I hit up a few garage sales and snagged some old 3x3 vintage photos for $.10/each, a  45" square tablecloth from the 1940's with pineapples, a lamp with milkdot base for $1, and a crazy unique wooden bird mobile for $.75. My room is slowly coming together now and can't wait for the finished product!

Little bitta whimsy....

Today I had the day off and decided that my desk needed another playful touch. My room is done in the popular trendy colors with bedding in various Amy Butler fabrics and eclectic and vintage pieces. I love the fun birds and leaves that seem to be popping up everywhere but have never had the chance to experiment with them yet. Today I created a box with various fabrics, added a grosgrain ribbon around it, attached a vintage brooch to the front, and perched a bird on top to keep me company. My desk is nice and busy but this was the perfect touch and way to spend part of an afternoon. It's great keeping me company working on a new project....or just killing time on the internet! :)

My parents and my brother came u

p to visit for the day. My mom always manages to find the neatest things when she goes shopping. She found me eco friendly binders that are awesome and I can't even take the credit for them! They are by greenroom eco (http://greenroomeco.com/). The binders are made of 50% post consumer fibers and there are matching tab dividers that are made of 70% recycled material. They are even printed with nontoxic soy based inks. As a designer this green buzz hit me long before it got crazy in our society...I have to say I'm enjoying what it's bringing out!

Reacquainted!

So today I got reacquainted with my sewing machine again! I think it thinks I abandoned it lately! My life has been busy and today the stress pushed me to make a new purse to clear my mind and open up my creative juices! I got called into work and didn't get to finish but will post the finished project soon! I realized again today how the feel of fabrics and the hum of my machine is like a comfort food from home and will immediately help diminish stress and the busy thoughts of the day. It's amazing how a small machine can be such a friend! :)

A simple ironing job...

When school started last year I decided to pick up another part time job. I searched the internet and found a strange job of an older lady looking for a student to iron her husband's work shirts and help her around the house. I had no idea how to iron a shirt but I sure knew how to iron seams or give a purse a body with creases. I called her up and soon learned how to iron a shirt like a pro! The first day the iron turned off on me and I didn't know this and kept ironing wondering why they were looking so ridiculous! After her having a chat with me I soon learned it turns off after a certain time period! I am now a pro at ironing work shirts but also have a great friend of the age of 70!

Whenever I show up she offers me a cup of tea or some cookies and we chat before I actually get to work...and I still get paid my cash for sitting and talking with her! My little old lady recently had serious back surgery and is in the process of recoup. I visited her in the hospital a couple days after I moved into my new place and decided to take her some cookies for her tea that she always has....which is the sight above of my first cooking experience in my new place! While chatting with her she asked if I was free Wednesday to take her to the doctor about an hour away to have a checkup and get her sutures out since she can't drive. She offered to take her car and pay for my time so I figured why not...I had the day off anyway! Little did I know that I was about to be completely spoiled by my little old lady! After the doctor appointment she took me to a fancy restaurant downtown, we went to get pedicures, shopped at TJ Max for a while (where she bought me the Better Homes and Garden breast cancer special edition cookbook). I ended up having a great pampering and relaxing day and she also insisted on paying me at the end of the day! Who knew that answering that simple ironing job post could lead to a great mentor, friend, and older companion!

Officially Addicted!

So I recently purchased Photoshop CS3 for my MacBook Pro. I used to have the older version on my parents computer and decided it was time to start to learn this new version. I am a lover of scrapbooking and just recently got hooked on the digital way of doing it. It's awesome because I can do it on the couch without making my usual huge mess! I found an awesome website called Bittbox that has amazing tutorials and freebies! I nabbed a bunch of them and within a few hours I was hooked on creating my own brushes and making various backgrounds! I found a few pictures of me with my brother and my boyfriend and I and had a lot of fun making different layouts with them! I just thought I would share a little of my fun for the day!

New Beginnings

A new start always brings about new possibilities and adventures. I am starting a new one in a couple of different ways! I am a junior interior design major and just moved into a first apartment. I am living by myself in an apartment near my school for the summer. I've never done this before, but I can't say I hate it here after only a week! I'm also trying to manage two jobs and still find time for a social life! It's been so much fun decorating my first apartment and beginning this new adventure. I'm a color and design junkie and hope a few of you share the same joys and passions as I do!

The picture above is of my living room. I covered hand-me-down couches, found the end table on junk days, scored a deal on the vintage lamps, and recovered pillows with fabric from a upholstery outlet store. I love to play with color and have my space be fun and bright. The only problem is that I'm usually working on a very tight budget! I grew up learning to conserve money and now love to decorate my college spaces with minimal spending but adding monumental drama. I've been working and haven't had time to do much yet....but I can't wait for the finished product!