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!

Project

Near the beginning of the summer a friend of mine hired me to design and make a bridesmaid dress for her. She didn't particularly like the one the bride chose and she wanted something a bit more modest. So, I vowed to finish it before school started. Well, let's just say I finished it after school started and just in the nick of time!

What is the matter with me? Why do I procrastinate so much? That's probably a whole 'nother topic.

Anyway, I wasn't 100% happy with the way it turned out, but it served it's purpose and it gave me practice.

This is what everyone else was wearing. (in brown)

Here is how she wore it.

Luxury Exhibit

Last night for my textiles class we met at this exhibit at the Museum at FIT.

It was a beautiful exhibit. In this day and age of "fast fashion" it was so cool to see handmade fabrics, intricate dresses, and beautifully draped fabrics.

How did the women fit into these clothes??? The waists were teeny and even some of the early 1900's shoes and gloves were sooo small!

Another observation is the fact that women nowadays wouldn't wear most of the stuff. I wouldn't! How could you? Some of it because it's too ornate, too fancy and I wouldn't want to ruin it and secondly our lives are so different now. We are so busy and to carry around all of this fabric would be so crazy! Below is a "day dress".

yeah right! Not in my day. I probably couldn't even make it down the elevator and to the subway in that thing. I would want to, it's gorgeous, but would be sweaty and tired from all that heavy fabric (tripping factors aside.)

Then we have this dress by "Coco" Chanel. Amazing! I would totally wear that! She was always so fashion forward and so into luxury that is comfortable.

Everyone should know this.

This Hermes Kelly Bag really set off the whole handbag movement in 2000. Notice how most luxury design firms now have waiting lists for their top handbags and accessories are so "in" right now.

Anyway, I could go on and on but if you are in New York, go see this exhibit. If you aren't check out the website, it has some really great pieces.

Be careful you bike riders!

I forgot to document the horrific scene Dereck and I came upon on our way home from church on Sunday.

We were driving along in Brooklyn and as we were coming to a stop at the stop light, we saw a guy (probably 30's-40's) lying on the ground with his bike near his crumpled legs, and one shoe further out into the middle of the road. It was horrible. He was clearly convulsing and I saw blooding trickling either out of his mouth or out of his head. I immediately unbuckled my seatbelt and was about to jolt out there when I realized that I had nothing to offer this man. There was someone who was already calling 911 and a few more standing near by anxious to help.
I thought, why would I jump out, I have no skills! I learned CPR on a mannequin, but it's been so long I don't even know the current regulations. What could I possibly do besides get in the way. So instead of crowding around him and causing more of a traffic delay and distraction by blocking the street we realized that there were plenty of people there to help him and continued on.
Of course I started crying, but why?
I don't know this man.
I will probably never know if he is ok or not.
I know that thousands of people get in accidents all the time, but it was just a bad scene to stumble upon and my heart went out to him.
It was a beautiful Fall day and I am sure he just left his house not planning to get hit by a car and spend the rest of the day in the hospital.
Life is so precious. It seems that several people have expressed this lately, but when we are so busy running from work to school to internship to home to wherever we need to remember to at least enjoy the moments!
Remember why it is you are doing what you are doing and be grateful that we are able to do these things. I am sorry that it took this to take that moment to Remember.
Sir, where ever you are - I hope you are OK!

Updates

Where do the days go? I haven't been a great blogger lately, so for that I apologize. It has been a busy few weeks.
What have I been up to?

Well, for one, the next few weeks I have midterms...Already! I can't believe I am halfway through the semester.



Update on my Italian, not so stallion, professor.
He still continues to amaze me with his craziness. An example - our classroom has a few of the teacher's lockers at the back of it. He begins at 5:59 (class starts at 6). So every once in a while, one of the teachers will have to walk through the classroom to get something from their locker. He will stop whatever he is doing, give them the STARE and then proceed to tell us how in 27 years he was never late nor did he miss a class that he was teaching. Even one time he came straight from the airport on his way back from Hong Kong.

Get over yourself.

He often compares students work to a "day old bagel"....thanks a lot.

I am making progress on the jacket - I had to redo the pockets a few times. My favorite memory is when I showed him the work I had done, he looked at me, told me to undo it and come back. He grabbed the pocket and silently re-did the whole thing for me. Fortunately one pocket looks great, unfortunately, I had to do the other pocket without his help and endure the drama. Oh well, it was worth it kinda. The good thing is that I am not the only one that looks like a jack--- on a weekly basis.

The Internship
Still going well. I have visited several additional factories, sat in on a textile meeting - the representative brought gorgeous fabrics from India. Such great information and inspiration. Helped Donna Karan's DJ choose an outfit from Mara's fall collection to wear to Donna's birthday party that she was DJ'ing.
If you have the October 8th People magazine - I haven't seen it yet - check for her

(Top Chef host) she was the one who's stylist came to our studio for clothes for the People Magazine shoot.

That's about it for now, I will blog more later.

P.S.

I kept the iphone and I love it!