Happy Easter!

Planet Earth

Did anyone else watch the documentary on planet earth on the discovery channel on Sunday night? It's an 11 part series, so if you missed the first week, you still have some time to catch it. It is an amazing documentary! You can check out the website here. Or if you are really lucky you can buy it! I was so excited to watch it and was hooked once I saw it. The images are truly fascinating and really made me grateful to live in such an amazing world. It is even more evidence that our earth was created by our Heavenly Father. There is no other explanation for the beauty and craftmanship and design. So set your tivos because it should be required viewing for everyone. Just an added incentive to preserve what we have and not to waste what we have. Apparently it took over five years to film it. Such patience those filmmakers had. It's a beautiful work of art! Can't wait till next week!

Dress up

For one of my classes we "get" to play dress up. Normally I would relish in this type of assignment, but it gets tricky because I have to wear my "costume" to work. Last time our theme was Punk Rock. I chose to do more of a corporate punk. I wore a bright green button down, some black pants and black boots and a black faux leather belt worn high around my waist and my hair in a side pony. Pretty lame, but what can I do? Next week it's hip hop week. Any suggestions?

I HAVE BEEN CLONED!!!

Yesterday I got my cell phone bill and the amount was $900! After reviewing why it was so high, I realized that someone had used my phone to call various people in the Dominican Republic at 99 cents/min. The strangest part is that the calls originated from New Jersey, while I was at work…. Right….
After being on the phone for exactly 66 minutes and 42 seconds they finally reversed the charges and told me that my phone had been cloned!!! So crazy! I personally think that it happened when I took my phone in to get it fixed. Some shady worker who thinks its cool to clone phones so he could call DR. Anyway it was quite a scare to think that I had racked up a $900 bill. I didn’t even know these types of tricks were possible. Identity theft is everywhere nowadays!!!!!!!!

Technical Drawing Midterm

WIC

So, the title of this post is kind of an inside joke from long ago. But basically it means Worst in Company...long story. But, I am definitely WIC at blogging. So busy and overwhelmed, however, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's called Spring Break! Just wish I was going somewhere. Spring Break just isn't what it used to be. Instead of going to Vegas or a tropical destination with friends I will be using this break to prepare our taxes, catch up on much needed rest, and try to get ahead on home and school projects.
Gotta love being an adult.
I have been working on some fun projects these past few weeks that I can post later on.

Fun with Friends

I was so lucky to get a chance to see Leah, Amy, and Jen for a few hours on a trip through Salt Lake City (last month). Here are the pictures to prove it! Apparently all restaurants close prior to 9pm, but we did find that CPK was open until 10.



Apparently we are very vain



All of us together. Thanks again ladies - it was wonderful to see you! Thanks for staying up late for me :)

I got to meet Cynthia Rowley!

She was our "guest professor" last week. Click here to see her designs.

Our teacher, William Eadon, has worked with Cynthia for over 10 years and so he asked her to come and teach us! She was really cool and so tiny. We had to present our collections to her and she gave us advice on how to clean it up and make it better. Talk about intimidation! But, it was a good experience in really learning how to believe in your designs and “sell” yourself. It’s all a learning process. She said that my layout was a little bit cluttered (which was true, I always tend to put too much because I get excited). She also told me to limit my fabric choices because there were too many different types and the color palette was too broad. Which, again was true. I go to the fabric store and there are sooo many beautiful choices and you just want to be able to use them all. Unfortunately you can’t. But, she did say that she some of my designs and there was one aspect of the collection that did work very nicely. It was really great to get her perspective and feel her energy. She has amazing ideas and I really respect her work through the years.

Coterie

Today I got to go to the Coterie show for a school assignment. Not only did I get to peruse all the Fall fashion for 2007, but I got to meet some interesting people. The show was held at the Javits center which is a huge convention center here in New York. There were tons (probably 1000 or more) booths of different designers who were selling orders to boutiques. It was
somewhat intimidating being there, yet exciting. There was an undeniable energy there that was really cool.
One day I will have a KGrace Design booth and I will be the one selling to boutique owners!

Out of touch...

I should be put into my own non-bloggers with blogs list! Who do I think I am? The reasons for my non-blogging you ask? Well, one word: Parsons. I've started up a new semester and it may prove to be my most time-consuming and challenging yet. I am taking 3 classes once again. They are:

1. Fashion Design Studio - This class I am starting from the beginning and creating a full collection. For the past 2 weeks, we've been creating mood boards, sketching our looks (30), and collecting fabric swatches. This portion is due tomorrow. My teacher, bless his heart, has been busy with Fashion Week, so we've been working on our own the past two weeks and tomorrow we have to present what we have been working on. Once our designs are approved the remainder of the semester will be filled with making 4-6 of our looks. This class will be great because at the end of it, I will have an actual collection for my portfolio.

2. Business/Entrepreneurship - This is a really interesting, scary class, but by the end I will have a tangible business plan that I can woo my investors with. My teacher started her own line 5 years ago and has tons of practical knowledge to share. If I can make it through the budget portion, then I think that my life will be happier. Anyone have an extra $50K that they want to invest into KGrace Designs?!? :)

3. Technical Drawing - This is mostly using Illustrator to create flat sketches. This would be what we would send to a factory who would create our designs. Still learning Illustrator, so it's not my favorite class. It's not super interesting, but definitely important to learn...

So there's an updated to what I have been doing. I say this every semester, but I will try and post my project when I finish.

On a happier note, our couches finally arrived! Dereck volunteered to stay home today to receive them and so he is currently lounging as I work and head to class...what a nice husband...he was so willing to break them in! We got the couch and the chair - no ottoman.

Finally, we don't have to sit on the bed and pretend it's the couch!

I hope everyone is having a great day. It's a really snowy, blistery day here in New York City.

Brooklyn Museum Exhibit

Last Saturday I went to the Annie Leibovitz exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. It was great. She is such an interesting person and an amazing photographer. For those of you who don't know, she does photographs for Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Rolling Stones. (She did the Brangelina photos of baby Shiloh) Interestingly enough a lot of her exhibit was filled with personal photographs of friends and family. I would highly recommend you try and see it if it comes to your city. (dates are listed if you click on Annie above) It was very well done.
One thing that stuck with me is she said something to the point of: she is not a journalist who has to have an objective point of view, but she has a distinct point of view to share with the world. I like that perspective - that you CAN and SHOULD have your own point of view and be respected for the way you see the world.

Today is a great mail day because our came today too!!! They match our new pots and pans (These are NOT the ones that we banged to ring in the new year!) Can't wait to put everything up and make our apartment more of a home.

Hooray! My kitchenaid mixer came today! We ordered it awhile ago using some of our Target giftcards that we got as wedding gifts and it's finally here. So excited! Just trying to decide what delicious item to make first...

Still waiting for the icecream maker attachment...hopefully it will come with the next shipment.

Thanks to everyone who contributed with your gift cards!!!

Photoshop/Illustrator Project

My assignment was to create a new extension of an already existing brand and create some type of a promotional item. I chose to create a children's line for Tracy Reese.

I decided to call it Tracy Reese's Pieces. Here is my color palette and logo.

Here is my promotional item (onesies) with the different logo colorways.

It was a fun project. I wish I would have had a little bit more time actually to do a little bit more, but perhaps one day I can work for Tracy and show her my ideas....

Fashion Industry Design Projects

Here are a few of my designs that I had to present for my Fashion Industry Design Project. I had to create 2 collections. The titles for my collections are: The Modern Debutante and The Deserted Tumbleweed. I thought I had the mood boards on my thumb drive, but do not, so I will just post these. They consist of the fashion sketch along with the technical design sketch.
Just thought I would post before another semester goes by with none of my work posted! They look much better with the mood boards next to them that show the fabric choices as well, so I will try to find the folder or at least take pictures and repost. It really helps to capture the type of woman I invision in these clothes.

I want to be a Dream Girl!

Jennifer Hudson STOLE the show!

AMAZING.

Her voice is AMAZING! I never watched American Idol, but this girl is off the hook! She deserves all the hype and press she is getting! Such a fun movie! I would recommend it to anyone! So great. On Friday night I went with 3 girls from school and one make-up artist and all we could do is talk about the outfits and the make up. Such a fun girls' night out movie. After the movie we went to dinner at Earth. Great place! Such a nice ambiance and great food.

Overall a fun night!

The Children

Just wanted to post some funny pictures of Devon and Nate (the niece and nephew). I miss these little cuties!

I feel like I haven't seen them in forever. I hope they know their Auntie still loves them very much!

Not to brag, but they are SO cute!

My cute friend Seung

Last week I said good bye to my friend, Seung from Parsons. She has been living in New York for the past year and a half and her husband and four year old son have been living in South Korea. She is amazing. She has sacrificed so much to come to America to be trained in fashion and to follow her dream. She already has a degree from a Korean design school, also. She was an intern at Kenneth Cole and was working full-time at Coldwater Creek but decided that she missed her family terribly (they missed her too!) and has moved back to Korea. I am going to miss her. She has been such a darling friend and classmate. I wish her well in her endeavors and will cherish the day that I see her again! Whenever I think that I am sacrificing to go to school, her story will stick out in my mind as one who truly sacrificed to make her dream come true! She is a fantastic designer and I know she will do well in all that she does.

Bon Voyage, Seung!

Back to the Grind

It was so hard waking up for work this morning. After all of my resolve to get to bed on time, be on time for work, and eat healthier, I woke up late, was 4 minutes late to work and ate crappy Chinese food for lunch.
Seem to be off to a great start...
So tired.
Wish I was back at home, watching Oprah or something.
Oh well.

Bang the pots and pans...2007 is here!

Happy New Year! 2007 is going to be a great year. Dereck and I brought in the new year watching MTV, toasting to sparkling apple cider and of course banging the pots and pans! This is a tradition that my grandmother passed to our family and while Dereck was hesitant at first, he later embraced it. It causes a lot of ruckus and that makes it all the more fun! Hopefully our neighbors enjoyed it.

I try to spend some time on the 1st day of every year contemplating my upcoming goals and objectives while reviewing what I did and didn't accomplish from the previous year. It's a perfect time to start fresh, clear any unwanted distractions from your life, continue on the life path that you are creating and accept the blessings that you deserve. While reviewing, there are always things that were unexpected and unplanned, but that have hopefully transformed your life for the better. I am looking forward to a year of hard work, embracing the love around me, spending time with friends and family, attracting positivity, and enjoying any unexpected moments.

May all your goals and dreams be put into motion in this brand new year!!