My Weaving from Textile Design

I took a Textile Design class last fall and loved it. I'm even thinking of investing in my own loom, but they're very expensive. But it's definitely something I'm thinking of buying in the future.

Here's some of my Weaving from last semester.

Cooking Spree

Since I've been back to Boone, I've been trying to cook more. So far I've mastered Spaghetti and Meatballs, Pizza with mushrooms, pepperoni, and peppers, and last night I tried something a little more challenging, or at least more challenging to me. I breaded some chicken tenderloins and baked them in the oven, when they were almost done I put some Swiss cheese on them (which is something my Aunt and Mom have made before). I made some broccoli cheese rice and baked potatoes as well, by the way baked potatoes take a lot longer than expected. Next up I'm going to try to make Chilli and then Steak and Asparagus. I guess I'm getting in touch with my inner Julia Child, or perhaps this all stems from me watching Julie and Julia again while I was home in Charlotte.

Presto Change-O

So a couple of days ago I was in a wreck, I'm fine and the other drivers involved were fine as well. I don't really want to talk about it anymore so as my grandma said when she called me, we're going to just talk about positive things instead.

I saw this great tutorial on P.S. I made this on how to turn those old flower vases you accumulate into modern pieces that you can actually use to decorate with. So I thought I'd try it out myself. All it takes is a couple old vases, some puffy paint, and a little spray paint to finish the job.

Step 1: Find a few old vases, if you can find some that are different heights it works even better because there's a little more visual interest.

Step 2: Buy some puffy paint from your local Michael's or AC Moore, it's near the fabric paint and dye section and it's $1.69 for the small tube and about $4 for the large one. Next use the puffy paint to make designs on the vases, dots of puffy paint work better than trying to do long lines.

Step 3: Let the puffy paint dry for a while, I let it dry overnight. Once the paint is dry take some white spray paint (or if you got one of the colored puffy paint, get some spray paint that matches that) and spray the vase. It will probably take several thin coats, it took four coats for mine. Make sure to let it dry between coats and try not to spray the layers too thick or the paint will run.

Step 4: Let your vase dry and then sit back and admire your new modern looking table piece.

Another Project Down

I tried to make a few homemade Christmas gifts for my family, including some pretty neat dish towels. I also just finished a belated Christmas gift for my friend Michelle. I know she loves orange, we once coincidentally ordered the same orange and white Ikea duvet cover off eBay for our apartments which we thought was pretty awesome. So I made her an orange pillow which I printed on with one of my textile design stamps that was actually inspired by that same duvet. I think it turned out pretty good and I hope she loves it!

Add these to my wish list:

For some reason I've had quite the obsession with lights lately, it started out with lamps and now its a full blown love affair with light fixtures in general. Last summer, I had this thing with spray painting the bases of existing lamps that I had, I've kind of moved on from that now. Lately, I've been obsessed with fish basket lights (this is probably not the proper name) since I saw a restaurant/bar remodel on Design Sponge that had them and I finally found something comparable to them on etsy the other day, sadly it's a little out of my price range and in an effort to try to keep it from being sold, I'm not including the picture or link for it. Another thing I've been pretty fond of lately are mason jars doubling as light fixtures. I found the first one on Design Sponge and the other is for sale on Etsy. I'm not sure if its the clever idea of reusing a jar or the fact that Mason jars in general remind me of my grandmothers and their homemade jelly and canned vegetables, but I absolutely love these, especially the green hued one.

And so it begins

Yesterday, I finished freshening up my resume and contacted the professors that I wanted to use as references to make sure it was okay with them. So today, I started emailing places that I might want to intern for. Most of the emails I just saved as drafts, because I want to include a cover letter with my resume and I want the cover letter to sound really good. I don't have my list of Charlotte stores that I'd like to intern for at home, so I'm starting with the ones that are a little further away. I just want an internship at a place where I could learn a lot and where the internship could turn into a job when I'm done. I'd prefer something that focused on styling or on textiles, since those are two of my favorite aspects of the industry. I'm thinking that an internship at a trendy boutique in Charlotte would be perfect, I could learn about buying, practice styling, practice doing window displays and other forms of display and promotion, and I think I have a better chance of getting a job from that, even if the pay might not be the best. I really love Charlotte and I think it would be the perfect place for me to intern, especially since I most likely won't be getting paid-I could live with my parents and save a little $ that way.

Resolutions...

Resolutions...not an original idea, but overall a pretty great idea. I've had my fair share of both good and bad resolutions, I've seen a few accomplished and more than a few that didn't come to be. Still I think it's a good way to start off the year with some goals and personal challenges, that is coming from someone who swears by checklists and to-do lists. So I've been trying to narrow down what my goals for the year are and this is what I came up with, it's a mixture of life goals, personal goals, and some resolutions:

1. Be healthier and lose the last of the weight that I want to.
2. Find an internship.
3. Find a job after the internship.
4. Try to not be so judgmental.
5. Try at least 10 things that I've never tried before.
6. Don't over-analyze things, especially interactions with people.
7. Be more outgoing.
8. Be more accepting of people.
9. Be a better friend, daughter, niece, granddaughter, cousin, sister, and of course girlfriend.
10. Be out of my parent's house and doing well financially by this time next year.
11. Make things, lots of them, especially clothing/garments.
12. Make it to NYC and to Baltimore to see J.R.
13. Have a stronger spiritual connection to God.