Happy Birthday to MEEEEE!

If you know me, you know I LOOOOOOVE a birthday! And not just my birthday, but all birthdays. I love giving people gifts, picking out just the right thing, the perfect card, color coordinated wrapping paper.... and I love my birthday because it's the one time of year that I can ask for exactly what I want, be lavished in attention and not feel the least bit guilty about it. I can guarantee you I will never be one of those people that doesn't celebrate birthdays because they don't like getting older. Who doesn't like getting older when there's cake and presents involved?!?!

For this birthday, I had to postpone the celebration by a day due to finals (stupid, stupid finals) but the bonus was that I had two things to celebrate - finishing my most difficult semester of grad school yet and another year of me! I invited all of my favorite people to join me at Divine Wine (aka "Lee's Wine Bar) for some celebrating over what turned out to be a few too many bottles of wine.

I think this was truly my best birthday yet - I was surrounded by (almost) all the people I love, and everyone had a blast. There was a lot of laughter, even more profanity, and Melissa and I continued our tradition of breaking something every time we're together. Looking around, I was overwhelmed by how lucky I am to have all of these delightful, funny, and truly beautiful people in my life. So, to Aaron, Melissa, Ken, Paula, Ron, Mark, Leslie, Tom, Brad, Sarah, Jessica, Jose, Elena and Justin, thank you for being my friends. I would gladly have 1000 birthdays if I got to spend them all with you. The hangover was truly worth every minute :)

Please enjoy some of the fabulousness I got for my birthday....

Not pictured:

Old Navy and Starbucks gift cards. Coffee and cute clothes? Hell yeah!

Sunbeam Mixmaster 12-speed stand mixer. Forget KitchenAid - Sunbeams are way easier to use!

and the best for last......

iphone!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't gotten it yet because my contract isn't up and I would rather wait 2 months than have to pay $200 extra. But I'm still getting an iphone!!!!!!! Super special thanks to Aaron, Melissa, Fran and Randy for that one!

Ode to Pottery Barn

So, I've finally had a free minute to look through my mail from the week, and within the pile of circulars and credit card offers was sweet manna from the retail gods - the latest Pottery Barn catalog! I feel a little guilty about my love of the Pottery Barn. Maybe it's because I feel like I should love something more chic, more exclusive, more befitting of my aspirations of being an Interior Designer, places the average person has never heard mention of while watching HGTV. J. Batchelor. Janus et cie. Bernhardt. Maybe it's because it is such an overexposed retail giant, mass producing thousands of items marketed to millions of soccer moms. I'm like Phoebe in that episode of Friends when she gets mad at Rachel for buying that Apothecary table and then hates herself for falling in love with it. Guilty conscience be damned - I love Pottery Barn! And those fancy furniture people aren't sending me 150 glossy pages every few months to brighten up my life like my friends at PB. I want to live in a Pottery Barn catalog. That would be amazing. Maybe then my house would be clean... Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the latest catalog. Enjoy!

"Homework!"

As I mentioned in my first/last post, my typical response when I'm asked the usual, "Hey, what are you doing tonight," my response is always, "Homework!" Depending on the amount of work I need to get accomplished and my current mood, this can be uttered as a slow, deliberate sigh of a word, or a high-pitched, angry burst. "Homework" is also my standard answer to the questions of "Why didn't you call me?" "Why are you drinking so much?" and "What did you dream about last night?"


So it's high time I give an answer that isn't two syllables followed by a bitter little exclamation point. Exhibit A is a project I just completed and will be submitting on Thursday.





Project: Photoshop Collage of Kithaus Project Renderings
Graphics II


Digitally assembled renderings from Studio II Kithaus Project in 18 x 24 format. Includes Floor Plan, Section, Interior Perspective, Exterior Perspective, Site Plan, and my nifty little invention called the "Chair in the Stair" All items were hand-rendered on Graphics Paper using Pantone Tria Markers.



Studio II Kithaus Project Background: The Kithaus project was our second Studio II assignment this semester. We took 3 Kithauses from Design Within Reach and arranged them to form a Doctoral Student Residence Prototype to be used at FSU. (Not really, just hypothetically.) The space had to accomodate 7 different functions within a 300sf footprint: Sleeping, Grooming, Cooking, Clothes Storage, Studying, Dining, Entertaining. Each student was given a specific site that we had to design around.

*Special thanks goes out to my sister, her co-worker Spencer and the really expensive color plotter they have for printing out this monster and saving me $35!

everyone else is doing it.....

10 Reasons to (finally) start a blog.

10. I need more contact with the outside world - not that I'm not LOVING being with the same 11 people a billion hours a week for two years....

9. People keep asking me what I'm up to, and I don't have the time to answer each one of them (except on the occasion that I shriek out, "Homework!". Very descriptive, I know.)

8. I can keep all the stuff I like in one place! And then maybe I can figure out what, exactly, it is that I like.

7. I need to brush up on my writing skills (which I've discovered while trying to write a clever Top 10 list, have dwindled to a sad, shriveled little nothing)

6. Apparently if your blog is really good, you can get free stuff. I would like a pony, a case of Veuve Clicquot, a Chanel watch (that pretty white ceramic one) and for someone to pay off my student loans. Oh, and all the Vosges Chocolates I can eat!

5. Everything I've fallen in love with online in the past year, I've found from someone else's blog. Time to return the favor.

4. I'm a Leo.

3. Being an Interior Designer is hard. People should know that.

2. Let's face it, I'm never going to keep a diary

1. A girl cannot live on schoolwork alone.....

10 Things about me.

1. In 23 days I'll be 28 years old.

2. I'd rather give presents than get them.

3. I've been in college for 10 years. (Current method of torture: MFA in Interior Design)

4. I'm the messiest anal retentive person you'll ever meet.

5. I know if I like someone the minute I meet them.

6. I have a 3-year-old sister. (I have one that's 24, too, but that's not nearly as shocking!)

7. I've been saying that my favorite color is blue since I was 7, but I haven't truly known what my favorite color is for a long time. I mean, how can you pick just one?

8. I love to read. My perfect year would be just sitting in a comfy chair somewhere with Fall-ish weather and nice scenery and reading all of my favorites again, and then reading all those books I should have read a long time ago.

9. I would throw a dinner party every night of my life if I could. That would be awesome.....

10. I love my husband. He's sexy, and he bought me a Tivo and the cutest orange cat that has ever existed and he makes really delicious chocolates. You don't need much more than that.