So much to do...

So little time! Sorry about the last blog entry... even I will admit it was a bit forced. But enough of that. It's a new school year, and that means (hopefully) there will be far more interesting things to blog about. Even if this is more of a journal type escapade for myself.
As I said, it's a new school year and I can definitely say it should be a good year. Granted I've only had one class and nearly missed my train this morning (would've been verrrrrry bad), but I also got to start my day with the first Pumpkin Spiced Latte of the season. Woot! Plus with this AMAZING weather we are experiencing here in Chicago. I tell ya, all you need to do is start on a sure foot. Not necessarily the right one, but a sure one.
So I'm kinda sad to see summer end (bye bye sleeping in), but at the same time the last few days leading up to it have been pretty good. On Friday I got the #36 parking spot at the train station - this is a big deal because a) it's close to the platform, and b) 36 is my favorite number. Don't ask me how that works, it just does. Sunday was the start of this amazing weather, Monday I had a Labor Day dinner with my dad, his girlfriend and her family (it's way nice to meet everyone finally), yesterday I found out that someone purchased a product from my Zazzle store (I love knowing that I can create something worth buying - makes me all warm and tingly), and today is the first day of my FINAL SEMESTER!!!! That's right ladies and gentle men, it has taken five years (1 year was spent figuring shit out, thankyouverymuch), but I am finally graduating from college. Holy Shit! I'm graduating! I need a big girl job and join the real world.... I'm doomed. Okay, maybe not doomed, but it will definitely be the start of the greatest adventure of my life. And trust me, I'm no stranger to adventure. It isn't a road trip with me until you get lost and have to figure out where to go at least once.
But as I said, I might not have to start on the right foot, but I need to start on a sure one; and at this moment I'm pretty sure of what I'm doing. Wish me luck!!

Long time no talk

8/18
I feel as though I'm out of the loop on many things, from this blog, to friends, to the state of the world and its affairs. I have a feeling it's because I'm about to start my final semester and still feel unprepared even though I've been busy all summer. Or maybe it's because I've been busy all summer that I feel unprepared - I haven't had time to breath and sort things out. Ah well, time to forge full steam ahead. As it is I need to finish my final semester of school (EVER!!!), find a job, and get ready to be a big girl with a big girl life. I always thought I'd be ready for it, scared - but ready. Now I'm not so sure. Technically I'm going to graduate with a degree that would allow me to manage a Walmart or an Escada store, but because the market is what it is, I'm worried that I won't be able to do anything.
8/21
So I had to go to work after I wrote that first part, but now I've got a few days off so I can write. By the way, you want a reason to kill yourself? Try leaving your keys at the train station and not realizing it till 2 AM and then realizing that the train station doesn't open till Monday. Yeah... I'm not excited.
However, it is my older sister's 26th birthday, and that is exciting. I'm also sitting on her couch and watching Independence Day and watching her get her hair done. All in all, not too bad. Now we're just waiting to go pick up the chines for dinner. YUM!!!

Hello World!!!

Haha... that's the first thing you are tought to produce in a java programming class. But programming is not my direction of study anymore. In fact, if I ever had any doubt, fashion is definitly my calling, what with getting straight A's this past semester. STRAIGHT A'S!!! It would seem that giving up my blog for nearly a month has paid off. Granted, finals was during the first week of my hiatus, but that was the beginning of the end of many things. The end of living in downtown CHicago (I now live in the burbs *tear*), the end of summer vication (I'm in summer school), and the end of free time (I have class, work and an internship downtown still - that's roughly a one hour comute each way). Now I understand how my parents could always tell me I didn't understand what tired and no time ment, and that I would have a rude awakening once I joined the real world. Today was my first day off in almost two weeks, and I gotta say... I'M EXHAUSTED! I'd like to believe it is well worth it, but until I actually make more money (crappy hours at work, a non-paid internship and paying for transportation) I won't declare it a fact.


And that was written on 6/6/11. It's been a while since then. I'm still making no money, and I'm still dog tired. Thankfully though I do occasionally make money at my internship, I'm getting more hours at work (they're still long, crappy and underpaid mind you), and my Wednesday morning classes are now complete. In two weeks I need to move out of my current house (my dad's really) and into my new one (aka my dad's new house). I still need to repack my room and get all my stuff together. This is quite alright with me though. Why? I GET A WALK-IN CLOSET!!! That's right, a big fancy closet with enough room to keep all my belongings (including the ones packed up in the basement) in my room and out of everyone's hair. People roll their eyes when I gush about it, but come on, what girl going into the fashion business doesn't want a closet that's the equivalent of half the size of her room?

Anyways, I'm sure you all want to know more about this internship, and if you didn't your gunna have to listen anyways cause I don't have a clue as to what you want me to talk about otherwise. So I intern at a furrier. Huh? It's a place where fur coats (and hats, and vest, etc.) are sold. In Fabbri Furs' case, it also happens to be where they're made. SO I'm not only learning the basic construction (in visuals and theory) of a fur coat, I'm also learning how to sell them and work with the clientele that wishes to buy them. I'm sorry if you are PETA fan, but I find my job fascinating and don't want to hear about animal cruelty. They've also go me helping to sketch and design the furs!

So yeah, let's hope I get some more time to work on my blog this summer, but I can't and won't promise anything. If anything I'll make sure to give you all an update come July. Ciao!!!

By the way, here's some fur designs that have inspired me lately:

Kind of fun right?

Why not?

A simple question, but not always an easy one to grasp and over come. You see, for one of my Fundamentals of Design projects we needed to design collections (3-4 pieces will be submitted) so we could learn the creative processes, the marketing process (who's your customer), how to choose fabrics, colors, etc. Now I decided I wanted to do something very wearable: wool pencil skirts, cable knit sweaters... very J. Crew/Ann Taylor/Ralph Lauren. But that was the problem... there was nothing new or spectacular about the pieces. I wanted them to be marketable; she wanted something "New". In fact she told me she just didn't like the designs. SAD PANDA!!! But by this time I've become attached to the designs, so revamping was a hard idea to wrap my mind around. There were a few pieces I wanted to keep, but how? So for a week I sat an stewed over new ideas, and decided on a Lolita concept. Showed my teacher some of the ideas, and she loved it. Great! But what do I do when I still have the other sketches on the brain?!?! So I went to Jerry (my Fashion Product Evaluation teacher, and the Owner/Head Designer of the XOXO brand) and freaked out on him, begging for advice. After explaining what I had done, and what I thought about doing I said "but I don't think I can do that" - in reference to the Lolita style - and he said "Why not?" I was so caught off guard. Of all the people I thought would look at me and say I was right to assume it was a bad idea, he did anything but. Instead he pulled out some older fashion forcast books and some historically themed paper dolls and said: "Here. Do research." To make a long story short I took a few books home (trains and large amounts of books don't compute ladies and gentlemen) and have since revamped everything, and it's 100 times better. Only stipulation: I show him the designs on Monday. I'm kind of excited.
Here are a few of the preliminary sketches...
These two were from the original batch, and the ones I loved most:

And these are some of my new ones:

No colors yet, but I'm getting there.

One of my major forms of inspiration for this venture was actually the Art Deco fashion designer Erte. Wait... Lolita and Art Deco?!?! What?!?! Believe it or not, what that man used to do with fastening, especially buttons, on his coats was AMAZING!

Here are some pics of the paper dolls I used:

Another inspiration was the designer Schiaparelli. What that woman did for suits...:

Bye, Bye y'all! Have a stylishly fantastic week!

I'm late...

What can I say, flipping out while wearing a waist coat and a watch is rather adequate description for my personality. That, and I love Alice in Wonderland.

So I didn't write yesterday because I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to finish my first major visual project. How is this one major? Easy, unlike all the other ones, this one gets a letter grade. What was it? I had to make an inspiration board of a Spring/Summer collection with pictures, color pallet and swatches of fabrics (no, they didn't have to be the real thing, but they needed to give the illusion). We did not get to choose our designers. I was actually ok with not being able to choose my designer since it allowed me to try something new. And new I got. How is it that I have never looked at Emilio Pucci before?!



Then I looked back at older lines and realized what a "Pucci print" was... not a big fan. Don't hate them, but not a fav.

Other than that, I was woken up this morning by my dog getting a head rub from my exposed foot. Good to know my dog thinks outside the box, right?

Time for something new...

So life has changed quite a bit for me in the past year. I've seen friends come and go. I've learned to deal with "special" co-workers. I've gone from a university, to a community college, and am now back at a new university. I have fulfilled one of my dreams (i.e. ran from Michigan screaming, and moved into a cute apartment in downtown Chicago). I also lost my mother, changed jobs, and am trying to keep my head afloat as I try to navigate the murky waters we call real life.

I can honestly say I believe in signs. Yes stop signs are among them, but what I'm talking about is those subtle signs that most refer to as "a message from GOD". Message from GOD...wouldn't it be great if he was on your phone plan and randomly texted you with inspiration? But I digress. I love music. Have it blasting in my ears at all hours. I started of my new school year with the title track from Cabaret (by accident mind you!). You know the tune:

What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.

It made me smile, cause guess what, I no longer have to sit in my room. I have places to go and things to do again! What ended up touching me the most though, it was completely by random to boot, as I stepped off the L to make my first trek to class a song from Gypsy came on. My mother used to sing Everything's Coming Up Roses to me and my siblings before something big happened. I couldn't help but smile because this is big, it's my first day at a new school, doing something I love, and in a sense I like to believe that my mom is there somewhere cheering me on in that theatrical way she had.

But enough of the tears!! This is the city where new experiences are expected around every corner!! Sadly the only new experiences I have is how to commute via L without too much hassle, and teacher who makes the idea of cash flow statements not seem like impending doom. But hey, it's the little things in life, right?!

Too all of you out there, whether you are in school, out of school, or sending your own diabolical offspring off to school: Have a wonderful school year!