So This is College...

One thing that I always thought I'd do in college was stay up all night and watch movies. Isn't that weird? Yes. Because I have never done that in my life. So...we did our best, but actually didn't last all night. Here we are, looking like pre-teen girls at a sleep over. Hilarious.

So This is College...

About a month ago my friends found out that I'd never been to Waffle House before and they said that that HAD to change before I left the South. So, I put it on the list of things to do before graduating, and here we are.

Mary Kathryn couldn't come because her little niece was just born today, but she told me I needed to make sure I got a hat. My head is enormous and the hat didn't fit very well. Next week, I'll be wearing another hat that won't fit very well. Crazy.
I know this isn't attractive, but it's a good example of how unfamiliar I am with Waffle House culture. I ordered a water with lemon. My friends make fun of me a good bit because my inflection is pretty distinct compared to their little southern twangs, so they were all over this. Oh well. The waitress got a good laugh out of it and they explained to her that I was "visiting from Colorado." Four year visit, huh? I've kind of overstayed my welcome.

Post waffle with Ashley. I got a chocolate chip waffle. It was pretty good. This place is really cheap. I must say that whenever we've driven by, it always looked really smoky. That's why I wore something that I didn't care if it smelled like smoke when I left. Not a single person was working on their lung cancer though...

Sweet little Joya in her adorable top. Need one of those. Thanks for treating, Joya! By the way, you can see we chose the best seat in the house...right by the bathroom. Pretty classy place.

Charleston

I visited Charleston this weekend for my first time. What an inspiring, breathtaking city. I literally had my eyes scouting around looking at all of the architecture the whole time. My mom kept getting onto me about filling up the whole camera with pictures of architecture instead of people. What can I say, I'm a designer. :) Here's a few pictures that inspired me:
I love modillions more than anyone else you know, I promise. So glad that people had such a dedication to the craft that they could do this without machinery! Usually in this style, you see white woodwork with red brick. I appreciated the fresh interpretation in Charleston of bold colors with stark white. Beautiful.

This picture doesn't do a great job, but this door was a bright, red-orange. I love the classicism of the architecture juxtaposed with such a vibrant colored door.

The iron work in Charleston was exquisite. I love it all. And, I loved the putty color of this gate.

Questions, Answered

I recently read in Real Simple magazine a list of ten questions that someone should ask her mom. I didn't know the answer to any of the ten questions, so while my mom was here, I decided I'd try to ask her all of them. I asked her one. Whoops.

Here's what I asked her: When did you realize you were no longer a child?

We were at a cute little cafe on Meeting Street in Charleston. As she answered, I was doodling on the table with a pink crayon...guess we know that I can't answer that one yet. But, for real...I still feel like a child.

Gallery Opening!

Our show opened tonight with a really fun reception! We had a great turn out and it was fun to see everyone's work, meet everyone's families, and finally say that it is over!!!!

My mom flew in this morning in time for the opening tonight. I really appreciate having her here, as this feels more important than graduation to me! We're looking forward to a fun weekend!

Several of my friends came out tonight to see my work. I loved having them there. Thanks for keeping me sane over the past four years and forcing me to take breaks! :) And, Lauren...thanks for breaking out the hot glue gun with me and sleeping with the lights on so I could finish projects.The interior design girls and Ms. Martin standing in front of Jena and Erin's hanging space. (Left to right: Marya, Me, Jena, Ms. Martin, Erin, and Tanya). These past four years of hard work would not have been the same (or nearly as fun!) without these girls! I'm going to miss them.

Ms. Martin and I in front of my wall.

Earlier today we had our senior reviews, where we give a 20 minute presentation to the art and interior design faculty and are critiqued for 10 minutes. It went really well and I think everybody did great. It was hilarious when Erin lost her train of thought and said "I'm sorry, I'm just having a brain, uh, a brain toot." It's like she cleaned it up for the jury. Hilarious. We gave her quite a bit of grief for that for the rest of the day. :) Scratch that. Rest of her life. I might post more pictures of this later.

Elise

Orion and Coda got to meet Elise this weekend. Orion didn't know what to do with himself, but Coda was fascinated by Elise. He kept talking about her and wanted to hold her and give her a bottle, but he never called her by name, he always called her "the baby." This picture captures his awe. Hilarious. I laughed out loud.
Look at her sweet face! I can't wait to meet her.

This is What Relief Looks Like

I know you don't believe it, but that took 7 hours to hang. Ridiculous.

Three Nails

In the past two or three weeks, God has been reminding me that any time I am tempted to sin, He ALWAYS provides a way out, and I must choose to take that way out to avoid sinning against Him. Needless to say for this stubborn girl, this has not been an easy lesson to apply and I have made very little progress in giving Him the glory He deserves with my life. Last week, I was struck by reading the story of Christ's death and resurrection. I just got a new Bible, and it amazes me how fresh His Word becomes when it doesn't have notes, highlighter, and dates written all over it from the past several years! As I read Luke 22:40-46, I was struck by Jesus' humanity and divinity coming to a very defining intersection. This was make it or break it--would He save us or not? It was this night many years ago, and he had just shared a meal with his friends. He loved them, had taught them, showed them how He was fullfilling God's covenant, but they still didn't get it. They still didn't love Him as much as He loved them. He withdrew from them and prayed to God, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from Me!" I finally got it. Jesus' humanity of being able to choose whether or not to die a gruesome death for us was facing Him. What if He had responded as I do when God gives me a way out of sin and sinned anyway? Oh, how this life would be so very, very different. Shattered and broken and absolutely hopeless for lack of a Redeemer! I hope you will join with me in praising the One who had a choice but still, He loves us!

And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfullness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin." Exodus 34:5-6b

Above all, fear the LORD and worship Him faithfully with all your heart, considering the great things He has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24 (emphasis mine)

Idea Noted

Tell me this is not adorable. Do-able? Not so sure I'd be up for riding one of these in a dress.

She's Here!

Betsy and Rocky had a beautiful baby girl tonight around 5:30pm! She has long eyelashes and lots of hair! Introducing, Elise Makayla, 6 pounds, 12 ounces:

Betsy looked quite a bit like this herself as a baby...lucky girl, good genes!

The new family!

I have never seen anyone look so radiant after having a baby!

Please Pray!

Betsy's in labor, just one day before her due date! I'm so excited to have a little niece and see how beautiful this little baby is! She called at 7am, so she said she should be calling again this afternoon to report. I'll post pictures as soon as they're sent to me. In the meantime, please pray for a complication-free delivery!

Small Victory

I'm in the process of cleaning things up for my senior show, which opens in a week and a half! When I'm under deadline on one of my interior design projects, things tend to get done, but not always to the quality that I want them to be done to. I've had the opportunity to revise things so that they can go up in the gallery. One of them has been this perspective of a studio apartment:

If you hate it, sorry. It looks kind of circus-ey to me, but it's one of those things where you just spec paint colors and you choose walls arbitrarily and then you draw it out and you think...I wish I would have ordered more neutral paint samples. :) Anywho, I like to think it would look good in real life. I designed the bed/bedside tables myself.

This thing represents a small victory because this is the only perspective that I have not cried over! This is not the area of interior design that I excel in. My sophomore year, I had to be enrolled in what was effectively 25 hours of design courses (design courses meet for double the number of hours you register for). It was awful. I literally slept less than 5 hours a night for the entire semester and I would lay in bed and mentally draw a set of construction drawings in my head because I could not sleep. So one weekend, I was going into crunch time on a project. I still needed to draw and render (color with depth and shadow) a perspective. For the life of me I could not get it to look right. I figured out I was maybe drawing it too small, so, after 7 hours of struggling with it, I went to the library to blow up my plan so I could draw it bigger. While I was in the library, it hit me...this project was not going to get done. There was no way. So, I wept my eyes out, right there in public. The librarian came up to me and hugged me. I still cannot look at her. :) Needless to say, that project did get done and now, I'm maybe even a little sad that the projects are over. Sigh.