Wintuk

For our company holiday party we were taken to see the Cirque de Soleil called Wintuk at Madison Square Garden. It was a lot of fun! Some parts were nothing more than just street perfomancers that you would see anywhere, but some parts were the creepy, bendy, people that I like!


Dereck and I had a good time - it's always nice to have a night out that you don't have to pay for!

Final Day

Arizona is so beautiful this time of year. It was green and the sun was shining. The final morning we checked out of our hotel this is what we woke up to. So peaceful and serene. We met everyone at the train park for Nate's 2nd birthday party!It was such a great park with "real trains" the kids (and adults) could ride!! Wave to Kijuana, everyone.

Kijuana, Mom, Uncle Gordon, Aunt Karine, me, Nate and Elle. It was a beautiful day to be outside, a little windy, but sunny.

Nate blowing out the candles. (Luckily he didn't have to try hard, the wind blew it out for him)

Playing with cousins!
Dereck and Nate - such a cute shot!

My cousins Adam and Jeremy and their families came. It was so great to see them. I don't get to see them enough!!

Devon, Kijuana and Nate. Devon is really into striking a pose lately! So here she is "striking a pose".
It was such a great trip - too short of course, but so fun to see everyone. Can't wait to go back!

Day 2

After a good night's rest, the ladies started the day with dreamy facials and pedicures. Thanks mom!! Followed by a little bit of shopping and then we went to see my Uncle Gordon. who is in the hospital. He was recently diagnosed with lukemia, but we are all very hopeful because he caught it very early. It was great to see him and Kathy and only wish we could have stayed longer!

Then we had to eat Mexican food, which was so yummy!!

Then we went to see the lights at the Mesa, Arizona temple. They were gorgeous and we all had a great time!
Dereck took this great picture!!
It was kind of chilly! I was wishing that I had a jacket!!!
When we got home, Kijuana and I made some cupcakes for Nate's early birthday party the next day.
Since it was a spider man themed party, we tried to be creative, but they didn't turn out how we had envisioned them to look in our head and it ended up being kind of silly, but at least we got some laughs out of it and they tasted great!

Second part of Day 1

After we had thoroughly gorged ourselves, we decided to head to my Aunt Betty's to see if we could eat some more!! Here is Corban and my Aunt Betty.
Here is the rest of the fam hanging out. Preparing to play some boggle.

Sweet little Devon. She looks like 4 going on 15...
Devon took a bunch of pictures of everyone. Here is her picture of "grandpa joe".
I would like to report that I sufficiently beat everyone in boggle and that my title as "BOGGLE CHAMPION" remains safely in tact! We had a great thanksgiving and it was to be surrounded by family.

Thanksgiving 2007 - Day 1

Such a busy week, so of course, my poor little blog got neglected. But, nonetheless, here are the pictures and commentary from Dereck and I's trip to Phoenix for Thanksgiving!

Us vs. the masses
Not sure why we booked our tickets from JFK to Phoenix at 7pm on the night before Thanksgiving, but we did. The airports were pretty crazy, but honestly not as bad as we thought. We got into Phoenix around 10:30pm and my cute mom and sister came to greet us. We were hungry (surprise, suprise) so we went to eat at Denny's - that was the ONLY thing open! but it was still quite fun. The next morning Dereck and I went back over to my mom and sister's and Devon and Nate were awake! I love these two. We had tons of fun making crowns and acting silly while Dereck made macaroni and cheese and my sister carved the turkey.
We had a delicious meal with our whole family together, which is rare.
This is Cameron and his girlfriend Katrina.
Apparently it was too much fun, because Devon and Nate fell asleep on the way to my Dad's...

Some pictures from Loide's gig a few weeks ago

View from (almost) the top

Here is the view from the 30th floor window of our office. The sky was spectacular the evening I took this, however it's not acurately depicted here. I have tons of pictures from our trip home for Thanksgiving, so stay tuned!

Eco fashion

On Wednesday, I attended this panel at FIT for my textile class on the future of eco fashion. On the panel was the fashion director at Barney's, a designer from Sweden who only uses eco-friendly (organic) fabrics, a designer from the US that is involved with post-consumer waste and only uses recycled or organic fabrics, a professor from FIT, and a trend forcaster.

It was a pretty interesting presentation, very timely and informative. The more I am learning about what it costs the environment to make textiles and clothing, the more I am realizing that I have an obligation to do something. Right now the cost of producing and manufacturing organic fabric is very high because the demand is low. I think the more consumers demand it and the more designers that are involved, the cost will definitely go down.

Now we are seeing mass market chains such as H&M and Wal-Mart that are "going green" but people aren't buying it because the prices are higher. I am really feeling strongly that I need to do my part.

For example, to make one pair of jeans, fill a ziplock bag 1/3 of the way and that is how much pesticide is used. That has got to be unhealthy. In this time of fast fashion and throw away design, there has got to be a better solution! We all know the fashion calendar isn't slowing down anytime soon.

There are so many other options to create fabric - hemp, bamboo, corn, etc.

More to come as my research expands...

30 is the new 20...

I have entered a new realm in my existence.
I have been alive 30 years. Amazing.

I must say I have had ups and downs, but way more ups than downs. Although I haven't acquired a lot of "things" in my life, I do feel rich with my family, friendships and associations. My life has been pretty great so far and I am really looking forward to the next 30 to see what challenges life has in store for me.

On my actually birthday I received many calls and emails - thanks everyone! But, I also had my internship and I had to go to class. After class Dereck met me at a Mexican Restaurant in soho and I must say it was pretty yummy!
These were sent to my work. (Dereck forgot I would be at my internship) It was fun to get them the day after my birthday too!

The celebration continued into the weekend we had a small gathering of sorts at our house with some friends. We then went to see Loide perform at a Brooklyn lounge. She did an amazing job as usual and it was a great way to end the birthday festivities for this year.
The coolest thing about birthdays is that they come every year, so I have that to look forward to!

The husband

Just in case I forget to mention him on the blog - he's alive and kickin'. Still cute.

Primary Kids

As you may know, Dereck and I teach the Sunbeams at church. A few weeks ago, we had our Primary presentation in front of the whole congregation. They sing songs, give talks, and usually everyone ends up in tears.
(Our kids are four cuties on the front row!)

We teach Tate, who is the second from the left on the bottom row, and he not only sang a solo with his girlfriend (Hannah, first on left on bottom) but gave a talk as well. He "wrote" out his talk using his own drawings and just read from the pictures that he drew. So fascinating. Part of his talk was this.

"I love Primary. Brother and Sister Cole are my teachers and they are nice. They teach us how to care for shark pets..."

Um, what!...Way to make us look bad! hahah.

For the record we do teach the children about gospel stories not only about shark pets...right...

Who has a shark pet anyway? It was sooo funny!

Cool door

Visit to Boston

Last weekend Sara and I rented a car and drove to Boston for Amberli's baby shower. Or should I say we rented a car and I drove to Boston (and back).
The trip was filled with many a laugh and good eats all around. See here and here for more updates.
However, our miniest rental car got broken into. We had to go to the police station to file a police report and decided it would be a good idea to take some mug shots (you know in case you ever need the practice). I vote that Amberli's was the best, but Clark's was a close second.

Cooper Hewitt

Last Friday I met two of my girlfriends from school and we visited the Cooper Hewitt museum for Design Week ie: free admission. (Plus they're open late on Friday nights.)
Anyway there was an interesting exhibit on Piranesi. I must admit that I didn't know anything about him or his work. But hiss etchings and drawings were amazing. What a great architect and designer. The details on his sketching was ridiculous! One of the pieces was a marble chimney piece from 1769. Seriously amazing.
I am so lucky to live in New York to see all of these amazing museums with cool artifacts and being able to enjoy these different parts of history!

I wish...

On Monday I was heading home from the library and was about to get on the subway when this sir was trying to get my attention...Miss...MISS...
So, finally I turn around.
sir: "You have hypnotized me under your spell, Your wish is my command. What do you wish for me to do?"
Me: "I wish you would go away." I turned and was beginning to walk away when I hear
Sir: "But you still have 2 more wishes..."
hahaha
I have to give him 1 point for creativity, however, he was still really annoying.

The Pockets

Here is the inside of the jacket I am working on for tailoring. Notice my handiwork!

I was originally going to make it for Dereck, but then my lovely professor said I couldn't. He only had patterns for women. However, "the concepts are exactly the same."

It is such a pain.

There a million steps. Even though this first one won't be perfect, I will have the skills when I am done to create beautiful tailored jackets for him or her. There is so much that goes into tailored clothing. They are worth every expense.

Notice, on the lips of the pocket I have the fabric facing backward. When he asked me why I did this I told him that I thought it might look cool.

Bet you can't guess which one he did and which ones I did?

His response, dead serious. "We don't do that here, there is no creativity in this class. You must do exactly as I say. Right..."

You might expect that if you were studying in a non-liberal arts school. But I never thought I would hear those words at Parsons.

Live and learn I guess!