Procrastinator? I think not...

I'm usually a procrastinator. The whole "I work better under pressure" statement is usually my motto. But for the first time in I don't know how long, I did not procrastinate and I finished early. I usually still somehow end up finishing barely on time when I don't procrastinate because I start early and then linger and take my time and then I'm practically late. Does the lingering count as procrastinating. Let's just say it doesn't this one time. Anywhoooo... so last week I was able to finish my final project for the elements of design class. I went to class last week even though it was optional mostly because my TA scared us with a sort of threatening email in regards to going if we were at all unsure about our project and how we would be spared on grading. Luckily only 7 of us took it seriously so we got out early. Anyway, it turns out I didn't need to go to class and my teacher looked at me like I was sort of dumb for coming since I didn't really need any help, at least not in comparison to others. I guess it was sort of true but I did get reassurance. Anyway, here it is! It's a hanging art mobile that evolved from my sculpture project. I'm sort of excited over it. I sort of thought it was lame but I really enjoyed making it and sort of got into the concept of abstract art and what not. I really like that it spins. I'm actually thinking of keeping it around after my class. Besides the enjoyment of making it, getting carpal tunnel from cutting it, and only bleeding twice. I was super excited that I finished it last Thursday and it's not even due until tomorrow night. Usually I'm really working up until that point. Let's just hope nothing happens to it between now and tomorrow night.

Next up on the finals list is my design communication portfolio. So I finished my last homework yesterday and even managed to start putting my portfolio together. That sort of meant going back and re-doing and adding any final touches to past homework. I actually pushed through (and by that i mean work until 3am) and got a lot done last night. Then I finished it up today and since I had minor changes to the last homework, I was able to finish tonight. I had even planned on working on it a bit tomorrow morning but now I don't even have to do that. So proud of myself =) Anyway, getting to previous projects that I haven't updated the blog over:
This is week 7, an orthographic projection and elevation of a bedroom.
Week 8: One point perspective of one side of a bedroom. I actually re-did this project because I made a bunch of mistakes but this was essentially the project. I'm too lazy to photograph the final for my portfolio but essentially I failed to make a few things 3D... oops.
Week 9 was actually some 2 point perspective exercises that weren't too exciting so I'm not posting them. This was week 10 though. It's a 2 point perspective interior. I know... a bit bland. But for my final I added a few extra things in it. So lets just say this was the basic version.
This was week 11: a 2 point exterior. I finished this over the weekend and it was a pretty good end to the course. The only thing I reworked was that tree to the right. I thought it would be ok per the professor's instruction but it was suggested I make to more interesting than just a cutout.

So that's it! Tomorrow I take my portfolio for design communication to get reprinted so I can drop it off before my final presentation for elements of design. Yay! And portfolios aren't even due until 6/28. But I'm actually getting back from Chicago that day and I don't really want to lug all this stuff to Chicago to work on it and then mail it in. So yay for not procrastinating and yay I'm done! That means tomorrow I can actually take some time to clean my room and pack and just relax before I leave.

My friends got married!!!!

And I got to witness their civil wedding! I couldn't be more excited for these two. Love you guys so much! Can't wait for this weekend's festivities.

Girl's Weekend

So my fabulous friend Ila is soon to be officially married. I say officially because I'm not sure how much will change since she and her fiance always seemed married to me. Anyway, this weekend we celebrated her last all-girl outing as an unmarried woman. It was perfectly classy, relaxing, and quite enjoyable to say the least. There was amazing food, fabulous conversation, and Ila did not get alcohol poisoning so I would call this weekend a success.

Update: Weeks 2-6 Elements of Design II Projects

So my elements of design class has been a huge struggle this quarter. It's really tested my creativity and pretty much confirmed I lack a lot of it. But luckily work can always be re-submitted so thankfully I won't be failing this class. Case in point, week 2's project below. So after planing with those folded notecards put together from week 1, we were to add a secondary material to our "sculpture." So I thought paperclips would be fun. Apparently not. I thought it looked okay at first but then class proved that I could have chosen something better. It just didn't go with the sculpture right.
So I went home after class about to cry and thought about it some more. Then I came up with jacks as a secondary material and it turned out soooo much better. I'm really excited because went I went to Target to find jacks, I thought I wouldn't be able to find them and then I was surely screwed but luckily I found some in the party section and they were perfect because they were all the same color.
So week 3 was to create a drawing of the sculpture with the secondary material. We could do it any way we wanted as long as it tied to our project. I knewww everyone in our class would go abstract (and I was practically correct) but I'm really not an abstract sort of person so I went with a literal translation and my teacher loved it. It's graphite pencil with gauche (paint) on bristol paper. So that made me happy.
For the week after our homework was to create a 3D cube and tetrahedron. Yeah, I was like wth is a tetrahedron as well. Well, a cube is a six sided square so then a tetrahedron is a four sided triangle (ohhhh). Then the week after we were to create two sculptures using one piece of paper and making cuts and folds to it but no pieces of paper were to be removed or added. So essentially I should be able to undo-it and it would go back to one piece of paper. So this is what I came up with.
My second sculpture was not good so I'm not posting it. It was ok but needed help. I think I'm abandoning it so I'll have to redo it sometime this week. But this is what I'll be using for my final project. Last week we turned in a few sketch ideas for our final and someone suggested what will be my final project but for now it'll be a secret. I'll be honest and say that I'm only sort of excited for it. It's not a chandelier, and as cool as that would be, a few other people are doing chandeliers and no one's doing what I'm doing (not to say no one ever has so don't get too excited). Oh I can probably say what the final is supposed to be, it's a model based off our sculpture. Most people turn it into a building or a sculpture for a park and make a model out of foam board but I'm doing something a little different. No foam board for me. Guess I should get excited for it (I sort of am but I have "it's almost summer even though I'll have summer school"-itis)

Update: Weeks 2-6 Design Communication Projects

I've been bad at updating on my projects and it's already Week 7, more than halfway through my classes! I've been so busy with them and traveling to Chicago that it's always hard for me to remember to update. It'd be easier if O'hare would just have free wifi since I'm always burning time there anyway but oh well. My last update was pretty much after my first week and nothing interesting was going on in regards to what the class was really about. It's essentially a drafting class "communicating" our "designs." How clever eh? Below are a few pictures of my work. I'll spare you the detail but I'm pretty proud of my work. It focuses more on quality than quantity in elaborate design. And with that thought, I've done really well in the class. Even when I thought OK well here was Week 2: Elevation. Meaning 2D, no perspective, no dimension, just flat. Not bad eh?Then came Week 3: Plan and Elevation. The plan is an overhead view, what you'd see when you want a "layout" of a room. That's actually my bathroom. I have a small bathroom.
Week 4 we killed some peppers. They were red. We had to use peppers to create an orthographic projection and well as explore light logic (shading in regards to light). An orthographic projection starts with the overhead view and then "projects" the side view straight down (See left page). The right page is an orthographic projection of a section of the pepper, both horizontal (top) and vertical (bottom).
Week 5 we started perspective drawing with some exercises not pictured because they're even more uninteresting than you already may find this but this is my blog and not yours. =) Week 6 (pictured below) we started gettin' interesting. It's a one perspective room so unlike elevation, it shows objects in 3D converging at one point in the center.
Decent right? Well this week will be a nice refresher as the next two weeks will be spent on one project with is essentially an accumulation of what we've learned to date using either a bathroom, kitchen, or bedroom. I'm going with the bedroom so hopefully in two weeks I won't have killed myself. It seems I get a bit tired by week 6 and at the same time it gets more difficult...

Next post: Weeks 2-6 of Elements of Design II

Reasons Boyfriend is Awesome

He gives me tips on how to give my number to guys at bars.

Me: If I actually give my number to a guy at a bar, I'd just give him my google voice number. And if the guy calls it right away, I can just say that my phone is a work phone and he has to call that number to get redirected to me so my work won't find out.

Boyfriend: Just make sure you don't tell him in the beginning that you don't have a job.

Glad boyfriend looks out for me.

SF/Sonoma Wedding Weekend (Part 2) - What I Ate

One of the best things about vacations, and just life in general, is eating. Sometimes I look at my pup who constantly wants to eat and I wonder how it is that she is always at my feet flashing those sad puppy dog eyes at me hoping I'll give in and share. And then I realize maybe she gets it from me since I feel like I'm always hungry or at least down to eat. Anyway, the morning after the amazing rehearsal dinner (wish I had gotten pictures), we decided to go to a cute little cafe in Santa Rosa that we had found on yelp, Dierk's Parkside Cafe. It definitely lived up to its four star rating. We got there around 10am and it was crowded but getting a table for six only took about ten minutes which was really great. We sat down and started with waters, coffees, and soju bloody mary's. Boyfriend got the smoked salmon egg tart pictured below with smoked salmon, mushrooms, tomatoes, and herbs in puff pastry shell. Totally delish and not as heavy as I thought it would be when I sampled a bit (this is why I stay in a relationship[jk babe!], the sharing of dishes).
I got the country benedict. I love a good eggs benedict and it's really hard for me to resist ordering it when I come across it on a menu. The benedict consisted of a warm crispy baguette covered with scrambled eggs, bacon, mushrooms, spinach, oven-dried tomatoes, hash browns and hollandaise sauce. Sooo good and a bit heavy but totally worth it. And the strawberry was huge and amazingly sweet.
After brunch we went wine tasting and then to downtown Healdsburg to wander about. We decided to get a bit of lunch before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. It was such a beautiful day we decided on Healdsburg Bar and Grill since it had a patio for us to enjoy the sun (hence the dark shadowy pictures). We weren't too hungry so Boyfriend said he'd share with me. We went with the "very adult" mac n’ cheese with fiscalini cheddar, parmigiano-reggiano, bacon, dijon and chives and mixed greens. Umm I think I almost died it was sooo good.
We also ordered a basket of fries with truffle oil and parmigiano-reggiano and a side of horseradish. I'm not too huge on horseradish but this was very mild. Everyone else thought they could go step it up on the horseradish but they're bigger fans of it than me. And well truffle oil goes amazing on everything. The fries themselves were perfectly crispy... mmMm...
I failed to get pictures of the rest of the Sonoma trip but back in SF my big sis and I decided to try some Burmese food since it was on 7X7's 100 things to eat before you die list. I was a little hesitant at first seeing as how I barely know where Burma (Myanmar?) even is. But how glad was I? Answer: really glad. We went for lunch as I hear it gets ridiculously busy for dinner. We had the server recommend a few things and tried their famous dish. To start we had the tea leaf salad. It was sooo delicious with amazing flavors. Definitely my favorite of the day.
Next up was the infamous Samusa soup. It's vegetarian but was still very hearty and yummy.
Finally, we went with the Nan Gyi Gok which was a mild coconut chicken curry noodle dish. Yummy but not as curry coconut-ty as I had hoped.